How we organised our props and costumes (Joe Fisher)

Props

We organised our props and costumes a week prior to the date of filming. This included:

-What we wanted to be at the setting.

   - Boxes

   - Desk

   - Weapons

   - Folders and files

   - Paper

   - Case file design

   - Screen for the TV (e.g. the public service announcement screen, please stand by, etc.)

   - The fake cigarettes

   - The alcohol at the side of the desk

   - The lamp

It was important to have all of these props as well as the desk available on the day of filming, because this set design would give many hints as to the genre, the story, and the plot line that takes place before the opening scene.

Costume:

We had constant contact with our actor, and we made it clear what we needed him to wear when he arrives on our set and we start filming. We knew our actor was trustworthy, and didn't disappoint on the day. We spoke to our actor about this a week prior to filming, just as we sorted our props. We couldn't expect our actor to bring everything regarding costumes though, so one of our group members provided the coat that he would wear, and another provided the hat the the actor would put on towards the end of the opening sequence

Lighting

In terms of setting, we decided that we would sort that out on the day of filming, because we didn't want to be set with one lighting method, instead, we would rather improvise and experiment with multiple lighting methods on the day. This experimentation with the lighting led to an array of different outcomes, which was very good for the editing process as it gave us a variety of scenes to work with, and evaluate what one looked best on screen.

We used different lighting methods within the scenes that we filmed, such as:

- Phone lights

- Soft box lighting

- Lighting provided from the lamp that sat on the desk and nothing else

- No light at all

Some of these lighting methods worked well with some scenes, other scenes, not so much, so having the variety available to us turned out to be good in the end when we experimented with the scenes we filmed to make the rough cuts

The set that would not appear on screen

The camera was provided by one of our group members on the day as well, but fine tuning to the quality was done a day beforehand, so we could make sure the quality of our shots was the outcome that we wanted. This required making enough space on the disk, making sure every group member knew how the camera worked so nothing that needed to stay the same got changed.

Improvisation

On some fields, we had to improvise on the day as to what would be visible on screen. We realised our case file did not have a picture, so we asked a friend if we could use a picture of him in our filming, and he agreed with this.

We also decided that we needed some design on the wall where the camera pans over to the desk, otherwise the lack of design on the wall wouldn't fit with the rest of the scene.

We also "created a mess" on the desk in the day, so that the mess didn't look "too artificial" and "too planned", otherwise it would get rid of the immersiveness and feel within the scene where the desk is featured

The rest of the pictures from the day of filming

Conclusion

Reflecting back on how we organised our props and set, and everything that came with it, I'd say that we organised everything up to our day of filming very well taking in to consideration as to how we could have done it, as we could have done it a lot worse. We could have done with next to no improvisation at all, but i feel without t, our film would look "too" planned, and creating a "planned mess" doesn't really work, so i think without the improvisation, it wouldn't look good.