The Presentation

The presentation today went well. Geraldine and Olle were positive about our work so far and Elle and I are excited to continue with this project. We need to go out and get more footage but we are generally feeling good and hope our final cut will be successful. I am also looking forward to the screen event for The Cut and have been appointed part of the events management team!

The test shoot

The day begin with Nat and I dring to uni to pick up the camera. I almost had a heartattack when I arrived at the camera office to discover that they were closed for lunch. I was running around grabbing random people asking them if they knew where the 'camera people' were and all I got were a few shrugs and funny looks. Just when I was about to slope back to the car in a state of misery to consider my options the camera office opened and after a lot of begging and pleading to a not very happy camera man I got the camera! Thank sweet Jesus.
So Nat and I set off on our way to London. We somehow managed to get the whole way to Elle's house in Richmond without getting lost (much) and we headed to Elle's friends house to get ready.
Last week Elle and I had gone shopping to buy clothes for Freddie’s young girl character. We knew wat kind of thing we were looking for and we decided on a plain white nightdress from bhs which we sewed lace around the collar and sleeves to give it that vintage, old fashioned look. We found some amazing black lace up boots from a charity shop for £5 which we loved and thought they were very puritan in style. We decided again tights as we wanted the girl to appear as if she had just gotten out of bed. Below is the outfit:

We had some problems making the ‘hooded-lurker freak’ costume, the girl who said she’s help us was called Charlotte and we chose her for her height and slim body type. On the following page is an image of us experimenting with the costume:


We all headed to sheen common to begin our shooting. To get that dreamy effect we used manual mode on the camera but also experimented using autofocus but this just looked too crisp.


We really loved the image of Freddie above. We thought the lighting was very atmospheric and the tree in the background was eery and interesting. Whilst we didn’t get any shots of the tree upclose, we intend to when we go back for our final shoot.

We experimented with candles and hanging ribbons from trees. Whilst we thought the swirled footage of the candles we weren’t keen on the ribbons.




Overall the shoot day went very well and looking back at the footage we learnt a lot and got lots of shots we are able to use in the final cut.

Going to get a camera...

Elle and I are filming tomorrow so with Elle having gone home to prepare for the shoot, I have stayed in Maidstone to book a camera out because we know how impossible it is. I turned up at uni at a ridiculous hour to collect a camera and the que was huge! I waited for what seemed like years and finally as I came to the front of the que I had a moment of panic and was convinced I wouldn't secure a camera. THANKFULLY I got the very last hd camera! I have to go back to uni tomorrow morning before I travel to London to shoot which is rather annoying but atleast we have a camera!

Organising the test shoot

Here is a facebook message organising the shoot day. Due to Elle going home to london over the weekend, and me being at our student house in maidstone, this was the easiest way to get hold of everyone and make sure people knew where they were meant to be:

Between Natalie Anne Bruno, Rebecca Evans, Sian Holmes-Moorhouse, Anna Elektra Koukis, Charlotte Louise Long, Frederica Hawthorn and You
Elena Koukis March 8 at 1:27pm
okay, I know theres some confusion as to where we're all meeting and what times etc, so thought we should set some proper plans, if anybody has problems with this arrangement please say asap!

2.30pm. Nat and Becky arrive at Richmond. ( Park down Sheen Common Drive.) We're going to head straight to sian's to finish costumes, go over scene plans, etc.

4.30. Meet Freddie at the corner (by the garage, opposite the black horse) Bring her to Sians to put her in her costume and do hair and makeup.

5.00. Aim to be at Sheen common to start filming. Anna and her friends will waiting at the gate raring to go.
Whilsy assistants Sian and Nat make sure clothes look okay, Becky and I will arrange the set (ribbons, candles etc)

Okay, just a few more bit, could Charlotte,Anna and Ellie : we will 100% need you three again, as we havent finished your costumes. Anna its unlikely we'll need to film you this time, we've got two costumes and as the other two have booked it off work i say its fair we use them. Could you two please make sure your wearing all black, leggings and a long sleeved top would be ideal.
Freddie, dont worry at all about what your wearing as we have a complete costume for you, make sure you have socks and a big hoodie as it'll probs be cold and in between shots we will want to keep you warm.

Hopefully we'll be able to get the whole thing done by 7ish, before its dark. But we will need you all to help us again, to do a final shoot, duting this one we'll do as much filming as we can but we're sure they'll be other bits we need your help with! Thankyou all for doing this for us! see you tomorrow :) xx

Casting: Young girl

We decided to use Freddie Hawthorne as our young girl character. She is naturally very pretty, has beautiful long wavy hair,is small and slight- the look we are going for. She has that innocent feel to her and she lives near the shoot location which is extremely handy.

Location: Sheen Common

Elle and I knew had a very clear idea of the location we wanted from the beginning. We needed an overgrown, quiet wood which lead on to a large open field. It had to be fairly diserted loaction so members of the general public would not appear in the shoots.We were going to scout maidstone for this location when Elle suggested Sheen Common which is right next to her house. Luckily she was going home within the next few days so it was decided that she would take some pictures and videos on her digital camera so I could get a better feel for the location and see if i agreed. Here are some videos below:

Untitled from elena koukis on Vimeo.

Untitled from elena koukis on Vimeo.

I immediatley loved the location and think it will be perfect for our film. I also noticed that in the picture below of the location a church can be seen in the background. I really liked this and thought that at dusk, filming the church in the distance could add to the disturbing atmosphere.

Workshop: Styling for our shoot

Elle and I were excited to start creating our costumes and see what advice Kim Howells couldgive us. We popped to hobbycraft that morning to finish buying things for our 'cloaked figure' costumes, be bought:

3m of black material

1m of shiny black material

3m of gold chain

Black ribbon

Safety

Black netting

Other items from our wardrove which we thought could work

I was the lucky one that could to dress up in this fetching ensemble. We attached my scarf to the black of the cloak to create a make-shift train and the effect was nice on film when I walked. Kim Howells was very helpful, and seemed positive about our creation. She liked the idea of using a seperate piece of material to create the hood, giving the cloak a more layered and interesting look. We also discussed shoulder pads with her and sewing fringing on to them, which is a technique Gemma Slack uses. Kim said to think about the shape of the shoulder- round would look more 'nun-like' whereas square shoulders would look more high fashion. Elle and I decided to go with the high fashion look because we still wanted to create something stylish that does Gemma Slacks work justice.

I found this workshop very useful and it helped me realise what works and what doesn't. I was helped to discuss my ideas with another person and see how successful and realistic they thing it is.