The last day of shooting 'Paralysis OF Fear'

Production
On the 13th of November, I completed shooting my drama 'Paralysis of Fear'. I got there at about 1:20 that afternoon and started setting up as soon as I got there. This time, I used a different camera, which is a XM2. I really enjoyed using it because there were parts that were more simple than the A1E's.

During that time, the actress told me that she's changing her hair style, so I felt this had to be the last shoot. Also, she was up to her neck on her own uni assignments.

The first part of filming went brilliantly well. The angles looked really good, the actress did a fantastic job and the lighting was exactly how I wanted it to look like. It was sunny and the light shon through her closed curtains. This gave the very dim effect. Here's what it looked like:

But as the day drew on, it started to get darker. So I used a portable lighting device that I borrowed from my drama lecturer. To use this, I asked for assistance from the actress's younger sister (who also had a tiny part in the film). To give the same effect from earlier, I asked for her to put the lighting behind the curtain to make this happen. This did work beforehand, but then it got dark quicker. This was very challenging. I knew this had to be the last shoot, so I chose as a last resort to make the lighting very obvious and I thouht that I can fix it on Post Production. The rest of the shoot went really well. Here's is the example of what I meant on how the light is obvious: The first picture is the lighting gear and the second is how obvious I wanted it to be for a last resort decision.

After the shoot, I had to get some quick shots of interior of the hallway inside the house. This was for an establishing shot for the second scene of the film. I also had to get an exterior of outside the house for the same scene. This I couldn't get because the lighteing wasn't good enough. I then wanted an extra shot of the main character by a lightpost for the beginning scene. This was also unsuccessful because the light was broken. So, I decided to leave that shot out.

When I got home, I decided to walk around my street like I did before for establishing shots for the beginning of the film. This time, I wanted to take a shot of someone's house from the outside on the front for the establishing shot of the main character's house. I walked around and took a few shots of different houses. I thouhght then, through out post production, I could choose the best looking house for the film. This went very successfully. But, I didn't ask permission to do this. I just quickly took the shots and left. In the future, I will ask for permission to this.

Post Production

Through out editing, I tried to fix the obvious lighting. This I really struggled with. I even tried to use it in AfterEffects. I'm not really familiar with AfterEffects, so I tried to use Lynda.com but I forgot my password for the programme. I then used the method of resetting my password, so this was going to take time. I thought then, I was completely stuck. So, I left it that evening and tried to think of alternative solution.

The next day, I had a brainwave. I thouhght that I could change the ending. I asked my family of what they thought of the idea I had and they agreed. So I then edited the footage that I had and changed it to match the idea I had. One challenging moment was with one of the clips, the timing was a off with my voice over. So I then went back to the previous takes and chose one that I thought worked well. I then added my voice over for it and it worked really well. But then I realized that I needed to add one more line. So I used the camera and boom mic and spoke into the mik. Here's what it looked like:

 

To make the voice effective, I used a different tone for myself. On Premier, I added an effect on the voice called Reverb. This gives out an echoe effect. This is what it looks like:

 

This looks really good and its a great success. The only I've got to add now is the second half of the music that one of my group memebers are going to create for the film.

Here are some more images of the shoot: The first image is of me preparing for the shot of the dark silouhette that I play.
The second is of me preparing the shot.

 

What I've learned

 

Through out making this film, I have learned that never have in mind that I'm going to finish the project done in one day, no matter how much I've got to do. I have also learned that I should plan ahead of there are any issues. I should come up with a backup plan.