Filming

The idea of having different stories taking place on each floor was scrapped and we decided to just go with the story of an awkward guy trying to meet a girl in a lift and asking her out which would play on the One shot idea.

We all decided on a day and time to start filming, however most of my group forgot and i was left with booking and collecting the kit as well as finding someone to play the girl in the lift being chatted up by William. The girl that we found the day before decided on the day that she did not want to be in it. So we were going to be left with a lot of equipment, a set and nothing to do. We were thinking about just using one of the guys in our group with a wig at one point because according to William "all the guys in our group are socially inept hermits". I phoned my neighbour and she was up for acting and was free all day which was perfect.

After looking around different buildings in Nottingham we decided to shoot the film in a lift in trinity in one of the back cores of the building as it wouldn't be so busy. Will came up with most of the script which made it more comfortable to act. After all reading the script, we added and took things away. I was behind the camera for most of the scene and therefore was trying to find a good camera angle before we could shoot. I decided on having the camera high up as if it was a security camera... we also liked the idea of the camera being at an unusual angle rather than looking straight at the actors. We also tried to use the mirror in the film, at first we tried to avoid it but once I found a good camera angle, I was able to move the camera to the side and get the mirror in the shot which gave us more than one angle to work with.

When getting the kit for the film, we were unable to get lights for the shot. Before filming we realised how much of a disadvantage this would be as the lighting in the lift was terrible. To overcome this, we had to improvise. We did this by moving the camera out the lift and using the light from the hall way, we would then have to show the lift doors opening with some very good acting as well as sound effects which would be done in editing. We still did not have good lighting in the lift, so we used a desktop lamp with white paper taped in front of it at a distance.

We had a problem with people calling the lift every 2 minutes which made the lift door close, sending the actors up and down to each floor. This was a problem as we could not cut and wait for them to come back to the floor we were filming on. It took a few takes for us to get it but we got it finally and it lasted for around three and a half minutes.

We plan to use voice overs in the film to show what the boy is doing in the lift e.g. "I've been waiting for this girl for 15 minutes, hope she finds this romantic". As well as using sound effects to make it sound as though the lift is actually closing. I like the idea of having cheesy lift music in the background as the film is a bit cheesy at the end of the day.

One shot

I met up with my group to discuss ideas for the one shot short film. We took it in turns to throw out ideas which could be worked on.

One idea was to make a reality documentary staring a wacky character that was a leader of some sort in an office. This film would have been difficult to make with the time we had as well as the restrictions that we faced (Camera had to be on a tripod the whole time). Therefore this idea would not have been possible but we decided to keep the character that William had come up with.

The idea that stuck was the idea of the camera being placed in a lift and filming actors getting into the lift with a voice over of there thoughts in the lift. We also discussed the idea of having multiple stories that could take place in the lift. This would enable us to run the film for longer than just having a one short story take place. We also wanted to play on the idea of 'One Shot'. I had the idea of a boy flirting with a girl and having one shot of asking her out on a date however he blows it by taking too long and the girl getting to her floor and getting out the lift.

However there are many problems with the lift idea, the timing would have to be perfect as we only have one shot. There is also a lot of other factors that could affect the filiming, e.g. non-actors coming into the lift, not getting everyone in shot as there is limited space.

We finished the meeting by deciding on thinking of short stories that could take place in the lift. This way we could all contribute to the story as well as having other seperate jobs in the group.