Filming Day: Part 2

As the main part of our opening sequence is the 'Science Boys' walking down school corridors we needed to have a way of filming them by following them with a smooth camera action. So, me and Kirsty made our own way of doing a dolly-shot. We used a wheely chair and Kirsty sat on it holding the camera while I pulled the chair backwards so we were in front of the actors as they walked towards us. We had a to practise a few times and it was very tricky to keep at the right speed so the camera wasn't too far away or too close. This did mean we took about 35 shots of the boys walking down the longest corridor in A-block so we could get it right. However, it did result in a smooth camera movement and let us follow our actors. We will post some footage of us perfecting this amateur dolly-shot soon. Hopefully, these two pictures will help you see what we did:

This shows Kirsty sat on the chair with the camera while and I was the one pulling the chair backwards while she filmed. When we were actually filming, Kirsty kept her arms pulled in to keep the camera steady and pointed the viewing screen up so I could see if I was the right distance away from the actors. Luckily, because we are using a voice-over and music, Kirsty was able to tell me to go faster or slower so we could get the shot right. It was very tricky and took some time for us to get the perfect shot, but the results we got are pretty impressive for the tools we had.

Hopefully from this photograph you can see how the boys were stood in relation to Kirsty on the chair. This was the beginning of the long corridor sequence; where the boys are in the photo is where they began, they then walked forward and turned down to the long corridor which lead to the science door.This meant me and Kirsty had to turn around the corner with them. This sequence is approximately 45 seconds long (depending on the pace of the actors) so was difficult to get in one smooth take which was what we wanted to achieve. We also had to find a way of propping 8 heavy fire doors open so the corridor didn't require doors to be opened. We used door stops and heavy science clamps to hold them open meaning we couldn't get the boys feet in the shot (luckily, a medium show was what we had planned and looked for effective.)