​MEDIA

Before we met up on Ashley Road I made sure I had all of the equipment I was bringing with me. I packed the sleeping bag inside the black backpack that Matt would use in our film, as well as the two beanies that Matt and Ethan would wear and back up items. Costume was my main priority which is extremely important as in order to make the film realistic the characters have to look the part.

The group met up outside the Cooperative with all the equipment and props at 12pm. This was one of the only things that was the same as originally planned. When we arrived we didn't realise that so many people would be on Ashley Road and in a quick decision we decided to find somewhere else to film to avoid the possibility of strangers being uncomfortable with us filming in public. We then took all the equipment and walked for 10 minutes to Branksome Rec where we filmed the first scene. We didn't do the night overlay shot due to the movement in location for the night scene and so we added in a couple of shots and a whole new section in a new location. These additions can be found on the "Additions" page. Even due to these sudden changes, the filming at Branksome Rec went very well in my opinion, I personally liked the incorporation of the shot of Ethan watching from afar, I even took part as an extra in the production itself, putting change into Matt's hat when walking along, this took away problems such as finding willing members of the public to participate. I also ensured the props were in the right order, such as arranging the backpack to have the sleeping bag partially hanging out for the viewer to see Matt's belongings.

After the successful filming at Branksome Rec we decided to go to Poole Town Centre, travelling via bus.

When we arrived in Poole it was too bright to shoot the night time sequence so we decided to look at Joe's backup location which we were pleased with as it had the right brightness that we believed would look good on camera due to the minimal amount of street lights. After seeing the location we went for a coffee to discuss how we would lay out the props when it came to filming the night time scene and what characters were using each prop and so on. We also wrote down all of the things we had changed so far throughout the day to keep track of what we had added. 

We travelled to Poole Park and decided to incorporate a new scene into our short, we decided to shoot another scene of Matt busking on a sidewalk. Faye and I came up with an idea of filming two extra location shots of Matt walking to his sleeping spot to show the progression of time and the long journeys he has to make, we filmed these at Poole Park and at the back of the bus station.

Before filming the night scenes we discovered old cardboard that we believed could be useful in our production, as stereotypically, homeless people often sleep on cardboard, adding a sense of realism to our film. When we reached our final location we thought the lighting was pefect, wasting no time to get the final scenes finished in time. Our script and pitching was a problem which we tried to immediately overcome, allowing actors short amount of time to learn their lines as well as allowing them to improvise if needed, we practiced them pitching their voice so that it removed the possibility of lack of volume when editing our film. Another stressful problem we faced was the amount of cars regularly driving past where we were filming, creating problems with our sound, we often had to wait for them to pass.

This year on the filming day I was more involved with the costume and props, ensuring they were available for the actors and ensuring they were visible on camera, as well as cutting out any possibilities for continuity errors. I was also offering new ideas for our short film such as new shots and locations. Overall this was a new experience for me, as the previous year I largely adopted the director role.