Martika Dupigny-Williams

Film Persons Journal

As the cinematographer I was in charge of recording footage for the opening sequence
of our horror film using a variety of shots and angles. As well as this, I had to make sure
that we stuck to the 180 degree rule and this wasnt broken thus breaking the
verisimilitude of our film.
During the production of our opening sequence I felt that there was a good
communication between myself the cinematographer, and Tishani, the director.
Communication between the editor and I wasnt very close. I worked closely with the
director and as we both had similar ideas we were able to give input where needed and
understand each others perspectives when discussing what shots we could use when
she was making the shot list and shooting script.
The camera I had used when filming is the Canon 700D. It was beneficial as both the
director and I had some experience with using this camera. My experience was from
using this type in other lessons such as art photography; therefore I had some
understanding prior to filming. In order to prepare for the shoot we stayed in close
contact via apps such as Whatsapp and Skype. By using Skype this benefitted us as we
were able to discuss anything that could occur during the days when we were filming to
minimise any faults.
Although what we had produced overall was of a decent quality this took a long time as
we filmed over four consecutive weeks. During the first week of filming although I
charged both of the batteries we had; they both died in under an hour of being at the
chosen location. Ad we were filming in Hainault forest there was no place for us to
charge them resulting in more or less no footage. As our actress wasnt available the
next day we had to reshoot the following week.
Due to the faults with the batteries it was recommended to our group to shoot with the
Sony Z1 instead, which is the camera we used when filming our preliminary task. As I
hadnt used this camera in months I came back after school to get a basic knowledge of
things such as, how to put in the tape and batteries, as well as how to change the mic
from the inbuilt one to the external one.
When filming with this camera it was successful in terms of collecting footage as I
recorded more this week than the last week, and the batteries life was six hours on
each one ensuring that the battery life wouldnt be a problem this week. What hindered

Martika Dupigny-Williams

us this week was the daylight as we started later in the day and it gets dark very quickly
during the winter months meaning we would have to refilm during a third week.
The third week of filming wasnt successful as the actor and actress werent very
focussed meaning there were many shots of her laughing while we were filming
resulting in unusable footage. As we lost daylight quick this resulted in eight minutes of
footage where only 1-2 minutes were usable. Quickly closing in on our deadline we
were told to refilm everything using the camera we originally used which was the Canon
700D.
To ensure we filmed everything we needed we met at 9:00am to arrive at the forest for
9:30am. I as well as the director managed to film everything by 2:00pm. When doing
parts such as when Ella, our main actress turns around to see The Whistler, she felt
more comfortable around the director therefore some parts were filmed on a 1-1 basis
depending on the nature of the shot. On the Sunday I filmed establishing shots such as
the water ripple to ensure we had extra footage just in case.
Overall, our film went well as we completed the task, but if I were to do this again I
would film earlier in the year to ensure we had as much time possible to film and werent
restricted. As well as this, chosen an idea that wouldnt hinder us as we could only film
on weekends as if we went after school it would be dark by the time we got there.