Filming the Second Flashback

This was the most difficult flashback to film and is the scene I am most concerned about. I wanted the light in this shot to be very dark and had Lucy wearing dark clothes to exaggerate the change in mood from the first flashback. We shot this in my living room which has long 'redish' curtains which could connote love but, partnered with the dimmer light, connote more danger and death. I also wanted to make sure to capture the pictures on the wall, the first one being immediately when she walks in and the second one in the background when she's watching the TV. This is because it helps achieve a higher level of verisimilitude as it gives the appearance of a personalised, lived-in home and the pictures also have a base colour of red helping to create an inescapable darker atmosphere connoting current love yet foreshadowing upcoming tragedy. This links to the news report which Emma is watching about another death near her home and darkens the mood of the opening, connoting a sinister storyline.

This, like my other flashbacks, is filmed handheld to make the flashbacks more personal. It also made it easier to film as the camera had to follow Lucy through a doorway and round to face a TV screen.

It was difficult to try and control the focus as well as following Lucy's movements and trying to keep the camera relatively steady. As well as this we had to try and coordinate the video of the news I had filmed earlier in the week with Lucy coming into the room at the correct time. This proved difficult as we needed to hear the newsreader's dialogue to give the audience an idea of the plot but it also needed to be playing before she entered the room to make the scene naturalistic. This, again, took a few attempts but, in the end, we got the shot I was after.

I am a little concerned about the lack of light in this scene and if it'll make the picture grainy. I have yet to see the image on a bigger screen but I'm hoping the light won't be too low to get a clear image.

I had to adjust the white balance using a blank piece of paper so the colouring of the image should be natural and not too orange or blue.

I wanted to watch the news over Emma's shoulder to put us in her position, again allowing the audience to sympathise more with her character. It took a while to get the positioning of the camera right from behind Lucy following her in to slightly to the right of her in order to see the image in the TV screen. However, I then wanted us to see her reaction and how scared she was for her and her family's safety, so I had her turn to walk out of the room, pausing a little in front of the camera to give us a side profile of her face. After she'd gone the camera remained resting on the TV screen to hear the rest of the news story. The news reader named the victim, humanising the murders and making the story more real and upsetting. I needed to then focus the camera on the TV so the audience could see the news reader clearly.
I will need to cut the end of the scene because the video ends very abruptly so the cut back to the hospital scene will have to be very swift. This is not a problem though because the transitions needed to be harsh to make the opening scene uncomfortable to watch.