Filming Diary

Day 1

We started our filming on the Friday 25^th March. Our first task in the morning was to get the required equipment for filming which was the camera, tape and the tripod. Jack Norton and I went over to the location earlier to give us a more vivid idea of where the camera would be placed and certain camera shots that could be used. In the meantime Jack Bone was gathering all the actors that we had recruited on previous days. When everyone made their way over to the location, we were very pleased with the turnout that we had. We had 10 characters that would be part of the gang. At first this was a good thing, then we realised how hard the continuity would be filming this many people.

First of all, we gave everyone a run down on what was going to happen in the film and what sort of feel that we wanted to get out of it. This way everyone would know upfront what we wanted from them. We also made it clear how serious this task was so everyone had to take it seriously or they could just go back to school. Not everyone was in exactly the right cloths that we asked but as the film would be in black and white once we had edited it, it didn’t matter that much. We thought to stop everyone from getting bored, we would be best of filming all the scenes with the gang first so that everyone wouldn’t be hanging around bored, getting in the way.

I filmed a lot of the film as I was not one of the main roles. Also Jack Bone was not in a lot of the gang scenes so he was able to help me film a lot of the film. This made it easier as we could get two opinions. We filmed every shot 5-6 seconds longer then it needed to be so that we could edit out what we didn’t need at the end. We also filmed each shot from 3-4 different angles this enabled us to get a wide variety of shots which could be used in the final film. We were able to get on top of a container and film from a high angle for one of the shots to give a different shot. For the fight scene at the end, we decided that it would be very hard to film from a surrounding camera position. Therefore we decided that a handheld camera would be a much better alternative, so we decided to use this idea. Throughout the filming we found it increasingly hard to film with good continuity due to the large amount of people in the shot. This is something we looked at after filming and made us decide on an extra day of filming to build the story line further so that we would not have to use as much of this footage as intended.

Once all of the gang scenes were finished, we let everyone else go back to school leaving us three and Nathan Joyner who stayed to help with the camera work. We filmed two separate watched ticking until they reached 12 o’clock next. This is so that we could use a close up shot and then edit them in later. Next we filmed the meeting of me and Jack Bone, as I was the one bringing Jack Bone to the ‘Affiliation’ ceremony. We needed to capture the idea straight away so the viewer would know what was happening. Therefore this was a key scene. It was extremely hard to film due to it being on a main road so we had to film the when there was no cars which would ruin the continuity of the film. We had to be extremely patient to wait for the right moment. It meant that we had to film all of these scenes a lot of times. We also filmed me and Jack walking up to the rest of the gang from 2 different angles so that we could get a better picture of what was happening.

Once this was done, we went over the road to a quieter road to film Jack getting ready to come and meet me. Both of us looked at our watches in the shot so that we could then cut in a shot of the time ticking in the final film which will create an ominous feel. Now all the filming was done, we decided that we still didn’t have enough footage and we didn’t show all of the required shots. We had a brainstorm about how we could change our original idea to make the final film better. The idea which Jack Norton come up with, which we decided to go with, was the idea that Jack Bone would be having a nightmare and we show him waking up. Then it would show him looking out the window where he would see the gang waiting for him.

Day 2

This was filmed on Monday 28^th March, we wanted to film over the weekend but due to over commitments such as work and football we were unable to get enough time to film which meant that we had to film on the Monday morning. This filming would take place and Jack Norton’s house. Due to Jack Bone being the main character and not turning up, the two of us had to completely change the initial idea which we had. After a while of brainstorming, we both come up with the idea of filming from the other point of view, which is from Jack Norton the gang leader.

We filmed Jack getting out of his car and walking into his front door from a few different angles. This was for the editing again. We then filmed a match on action shot of Jack walking into the house; this was fairly hard as it was hard to fit the whole door in the camera and then fitting all of Jack in the camera when he walks through to the kitchen. We got around this by filming again from a few different angles. I then filmed a match on action shot of Jack walking into the kitchen where he walked over to the sink to wash the blood off of his hands. This part was hard to film, as we were not sure what would look good on camera as blood. Then we realised that it would be in black and white so it would not matter too much so we decided to use jam. The close up shot of Jack washing his hands was hard to film as I could not video this myself so I had to put the camera on record and then rest it on something so that it was in the correct position. We were made to film it again as we noticed that the tripod was in the shot first time around.

After we had filmed all this, I then filmed Jack leaving the kitchen and entering the lounge. This is when we were stuck as we did not know what would make a suitable ending. I used another match on action which meant that the camera was now in the lounge. We decided to film a number of different scenarios so that we could review them with the other Jack and see what would look best. First of all, we filmed Jack coming in and looking past the camera and seeing and saying ‘what the f*** are you doing here?’ and reaching in his pocket at the same time, with the connotation of him pulling a gun out. This came with the idea that we would then finish shot with a black screen where ‘Affiliation’ comes up in big bold letters. There is then a gunshot sound so it leaves the viewer in suspense that had been shot. The next idea was harder to film due to their only being two of us so I had to rest the camera on the top of the chair by lower the tripod. We then had me standing in the side of the shot with a knife and then Jack would enter the lounge, falling against the door and the running away. Another idea was Jack coming in looking past the camera, then falling against the door and running away.

Overall I believe that the second day filming and the second part of the film were better than the first due to the fact that it was so much easier to film and change the plan if need be with less people in the film. We took for granted massively how hard it would be to film with a large number of people in the film. The continuity is something that would need to monitored a lot in the editing room as there no more we could film, we had done all we could with the resources available.


As it was just Jack Norton and I on this day of filming and we were really pushed for time, we did not get enough time to get some pictures of us filming.