Filming: 17th March 2011- Me, Hannah and Zoe

Some editing screengrabs

 In contrast to our other filming session on Tuesday, today exceeded all of our expectations as we really experimented in a creative way, allowing our imaginations to think up ideas which are completely surrealistic in the sense that we really went beyond our comfort zones. However there was one small setback as i seem to have misplaced part of my costume , so if I'm not able to locate it by tomorrow then we should think about re filming everything, despite the brief period which we have to complete our work in. In terms of location today we used the school field which was used previously, but a differential segment then before, in fact it was almost as if we saw it through new eyes which will be evidenced later on in the blog. Firstly we moved to the edge of the field which luckily has a rundown ditch ( i must remember to screen shot this and then talk about in detail) with little trickles of muddy water interspersed with fallen leaves, rough slabs and thorny brambles which is excellent for the disposition of Zoe's character. We began by experimenting different techniques (before allowing the cameras to roll), with our desired primary shot being Zoe leaping over the ditch on to the hilly ground ( almost as though she was a cat) , once landed raising her head , before pulling her hood over her head and then lowering her head again, almost as though she is shying away from the dominance of her role ( though this of course is just an act to fool the audience). In terms of Mise-en-scene aspects we dictated facial expressions which Zoe should intimidate, fundamentally moody with an evil twist, by increasing the intensity of her gaze to make the watchers uncomfortable. Taking these factors into account we tried it out ( not with the camera) and i put myself in an eyeline match by crouching down to her level , to allow the best viewing. It was definitely a good idea and Zoe played her part well but we had to ensure that there was a fine line between exaggeration and naturalisation as we didn't want to overplay her role.We then tried a canted angle ( still in terms of experimentation) which looked superb and was definitely an angle which really captured the evil intensity of her gaze as though she is warning me that she is coming after me, as she looks directly at the camera. Once she lands in the grass i thought it would be a good idea if she rips the grass and throws it in the air to show the animalistic personality that she has. I then looked at the ditch and noticed that there where dirty white stone slabs next to throns which was asthetically terrifying in a sense as i had the perfect idea to accompany it. Zoe is hunched down on the slabs looking down at the ditch to display ambiguity ( eyeline match) and as i clap ( after 3 seconds) she abruptly looks up with me in the background is if she has sensed that im her. Perhaps if we use fast paced editing e.g. This shot quickly transcends into a captured shot which evokes innocence and me oblivious to what is going on.. We filmed this several times so that at least we have several shots to choose from ( all completely variating to the others). The first was a close-up, centered shot which looked fairly pleaseable althoug i prefered Hannah's second shot which was a canted angle capturing the blank look of zoes expression , but again really making Zoes eyes stand out against the pale pallor of her face( she had false eyelashes on and eyeliner so it really gave extreme definition as well as pale pink lips). We then returned back to the ditch shot ( Zoe jumping over) using a wide shot to incoperate backgound as well as Zoe ,to give the audience an idea of the surroundings. She leapt over the ditch slinkily, paused for a moment , put her hood up, before facing the camera  and crawling through the grass, gripping hard to show the level of her anger, inferring to the audience that something isnt quite right here. The best thing to do in this shot is to really enhance the sound of her gripping the grass as well , though the camera we used( and tripod) was excellent as it captured background sound which made a faint buzzing which actually works quite well. I then looked over where there was a depression in the field and asked Zoe to stand in it where she noticed a bushy clump of leaves and suggested that we could have a shot of her opening it out as if facinated in what she sees. Hannah played around with the camera and decided to have a closeup which just capture her face and not her body.I think Hannah did a brillant job of this and i felt that this was one of the best shots in the film in terms of really capturing something that is so naturalsitic yet abstract at the same time. Next to this was a long brambly hedge, which if you looked closely was a tiny clearing behind it. So i asked Zoe if she could go behind the hedge and then peer out of the hedge clearing. I wasnt sure how it would turn out but it actually looked very effective as Hannah focused the camera into the hedge by using a closeup. Perhaps here the music could subside slightly to a lower audio level to suggest that everything will be just fine. Zoe then tried a shot whuich entailed an extreme closeup of her mouth  bared in a snarl/grimace both in sunny region and a shadowy area. It turned out that the sunny one looked better and you could physically hear the cruch of her teeth as she clamps them together. Even so artificially enhanced sound may be useful on here. Walking around the hedge we noticed a clump of branches bare of leaves so i suggested that we should have a mid thigh shot of Zoe stamping on the branch. So Hannah said that we should have an empty scene first ( as in Zoe walks in and then clamps her foot on the branch). This was tried several times as it was actually a quite hard shot to get right despite the simplicity of the frame. The first few times looked a bit stiff and just a bit random so i thought that Zoe could walk up to the branch, lift her foot up and pause before stamping on the branch furiously so it snaps slightly ( with Hannah zooming in). I then looked around and saw freshly cut grass in a budle and that perhaps Zoe could be scrabbling in the grass frantically before throwing it in the air. We tried this using a high angle shot and it looked very effective as it's almost as though she is looking for something but we dont know what. We could perhaps try tweaking the soundtrack at this point by mixing it faster and more high pitched. Zoe then suggested we go to the front of the school as there was a segment closed off by a fence which had a ring of daffidols around a tree. Firstly we had tilted shot with alignment upwards towards Zoe hanging in the tree poking her head and looking out to the floor, hunched up uncomfortably. We tried this several ways which included:

1. Zoe peeking out with her head slightly at an angle ( tilted to the left)
2. hung upside down (  though this got the building in the shot)
3. Camera looking up at Zoe ( with her legs swinging freely) as she fluidly grabs at the camera and then slowly clenches her fist( preferred shot)

Our final shot i thought of was zoe with the daffidiol clamped in her mouth with ends hanging out the sides , biting down on it before using her fingers to rip it into two seperate parts. This was done using an extreme close-up.