Before Filming

In preparation for the A2 horror trailer project we have been asked to film a chase sequence in order to gain experience in using the video camera and manipulate it's functions. Moreover, the preliminary task introduced us to the basic concepts of using Imovie to edit our footage and add special effects including music and captions. We desiced to work in groups because we all thought that this would give us important team skills.

Prior to filming we shared our ideas about the storyline and location of our chase sequence. We created a storyboard consisting of each shot and dialogue, sound and change of location. We were determined to stick strictly to our storyboard when filming the video because we were aware of how important prior planning was.It was agreed that the idea of a young girl going though the woods on her way home, whilst all the time being stalked, was a very interesting and realistic story.

Before going on to the practical task I spent quite a lot of time researching the concept of chase in different media files and films. I looked at a number of episodes of lost, when the smoke animal chases some of the characters in the woods. I found the concept of not showing the face of the "aggressor" extremely effective and shared this idea with the members of my group. We decided to use tension features such as heartbeat, lots of point of view shots and breathing in order to built up tension and suggest stalkers' intentions.

Moreover, I looked at a number of videos produced by Media students. I found the video shown below a very effective piece of media text as it consists of multiple shots and camera angles and uses lighting to suggest mystery and tension. However, the video could be criticized for it's poor selection of location. I think that filming in the woods is far more effective as the woods are often associated with vulnerability and fear.

We decided not to use an actor as we thought that the person would not respond to the task personally which would create further complications and time issues. Therefore, I volunteer to be the actress. This worked quite well as we were all aware of what our aim was and we equally contributed when filming the footage.

Once we started filming we used the storyboard to guide us through the different stages of camera shots/angles/movements to make sure we have all the footage.We faces a number of problems when filming the chase sequence such as having to film during the day because the camera was not fitted with night vision. Filming during night would have been more effective as the woods look much creepier at nighttime. However, we overcame this problem by choosing a not so sunny day when filming. We also tried to film in more shadowy locations in order for the footage to look darker and scarier. Another difficulty whilst filming was when we tried to create the effect of the camera being thrown onto the ground. We used a pillow to ensure we did not damage the camera, however every time we dropped it the camera did not film because the movement was too quick. After trying many different techniques, we decided to manually drop it moving our hand fast. This worked a lot better and looked quite good as we put some dry leaves on the pillow in order to make the scene more realistic.

In order to create a good chase sequence we had to carefully combine our different shots into a consecutive sequence.