Opening two minutes - Filming (ongoing)

We planned to start filming our opening two minutes around 2 weeks ago, but were delayed by a large downpour of snow. A lot of other groups still managed to get filming done during that week, but the location we have settled for (the alley way at the top of Kingscroft Road) was agreed to be too dangerous to carry out any filming, as the fallen snow melted, but froze over night. As our opening two minutes consists of a chase, the ice made it much to hazardous to film scenes that included a lot of running because there was a large risk of injury.

13/2/13 -

We finally managed to get our filming underway today. Myself, Mo, and Aran took our 5th lesson (being Media studies) out of the classroom to get some filming done. We went to the location listed in a previous post which was the bridge over the M25. Here we filmed Aran receiving a phone call, using shot types such as middle shots to film Aran before he received the the phone call, Extreme close ups of the phone when the call was coming in, and of Aran's face when he was taking the call. We also used a wide shot as the scene ended which looked out from the bridge across both lanes of the motorway (like the photograph to the right shows). Aran wore a casual hoodie and Chinos because he hasn't been assigned the job yet in the scene, so he has no reason to be dressed in anything except for normal clothing. 

25/2/13 -

As you can see there is a large gap of time between when we started filming and when we next resumed filming, this was because we had the half term break and some members of the group had different commitments over that week (such as myself working in Horsham every day) meaning it was difficult to get the whole group together and get the filming done. We arranged for the evening of the February the 25th and met around 5:30 as this part of the opening two minutes had to be filmed in the dark. Unfortunately Nadib couldn't make the filming that evening as he had other commitments and at the time of the day it was difficult for him to reach the filming location, meaning I (who hates acting) had to step up to the plate and fill in for his role in order for the filming to go ahead.

The location we eventually chose to film the main part of our opening two minutes was the walkway underneath the block of apartments in Waterfields, Leatherhead, we chose this one over the other possible locations because it has the most light and as it was being filmed at night, it makes filming some more detailed parts easier.


When we first arrived at the location, Mo showed us the props he had prepared for this part of the filming, as the first part of the filming we shot over the M25 didn't actually require any props. We had to change the storyline ever so slightly as we were hoping to borrow a pretend Gun from another group to use as our weapon, but this became unavailable, so we changed out weapon from a gun to a knife, which at the end of the day worked in our favour. Mo as well as bringing a large kitchen knife with a yellow handle, had  brought a tube of red food colouring, and some plastic capsules. The original plan was for me to have a capsule filled with food colouring in my mouth and when Aran threw the punch at me, I was to bite the capsule releasing the colouring into my mouth to give the effect of blood, the only trouble then was I had to act with the remains of the capsule in my mouth. We eventually settled for just taking some food colouring from a syringe.

Mo had also brought his Laptop with him, as he has been editing the first part that we filmed over the M25 from home, so showed us what he had done so far, and played us the soundtrack we are going to put along with our opening two minutes.

For the costumes, I simply wore Jeans and a hoodie, as I was playing the victim at short notice there wasn't much time to get together a costume, but at the end of the day a victim of a crime doesn't exactly dress up for the occasion as they generally don't know it's going to happen, so we agreed that casual clothing was suitable. Aran on the other hand who was playing the criminal wore dark baggy canvas trousers, black Nike trainers, a Black winter coat, beanie hate, and Black scarf which he wore half across his face at some points in the opening two minutes.

We then began our filming and it started with me running/limping round into the alley way shown in the photograph above. We used a point of view shot, and tried to give the idea of me running away from someone. We then used a variety of shots to film the part where me and Aran tussle before he floors me with a punch. I then fall against the wall of the walkway when trying to get up after the punch.

The wall of the walkway as you can see from the photograph is white, it was here that we used the red food colouring came into use, when I'm struggling against the wall after being punched I spit the blood (food colouring) in my mouth from the punch down the wall. Aran then walks over to me at pace and throws me to the floor. We used some high/low angle shots to establish who is more powerful in the scene, being Aran as he is the criminal.

 It's at this point Aran pulls the knife, as I'm trying to get back up from being thrown on the floor, he uses the dialogue "stay on your knees" as he draws the weapon from his coat. We used some ECU shots to show the signification of the weapon,. Aran then takes a phone call and says "job done" and the final shot was an ECU of the knife again but this time with red food colouring on the blade, again to act as blood and hint to the audience that the crime has been committed.