Filming Day One

We started our first day of filming on the 30th of December with the aim of shooting all the scenes with just Shaun in them and that were outside of school. We had this as our objective for the day because Tom Chapman, who is our actor who plays Shaun, was willing to spend the day getting all of these shots done so we wouldn't need to needlessly extend the time we need him. We had another friend who lived close by who was willing to be filmed as an extra holding a knife, whilst my Dad completed his role as Shaun's Dad as he was only needed for one shot.

Camera Operator: Sam Warren (myself)

We started off by filming the opening shots which I filmed. For the first shot I tried to get the camera at a position where you could clearly see Toms face as he got out of bed so we could see his facial expression. The blinds were also closed to create low key lighting which is a convention of British Drama. It also helps to set the mood as we see Shaun's room is a mess and dark reflecting his inner feelings about his current situation. There weren't any problems with shooting the two shots that we had in this location so we finished up quickly without much hassle. I also filmed the shot in thee same location where Shaun opens the blinds of his room.

Camera Operator: James Scott  Actor: Tom Chapman

We then filmed a scene where Shaun is taking cocaine which we used flour to simulate cocaine and an old met ticket to make a line. In order to make the shot appear slightly darker we closed the curtains of a nearby window to keep the overall mood the same. We had to retake this scene three times to get it right because it didn't look realistic at first and British Dramas are know for gritty realism. We also took a point of view shot off a picture from Shaun's perspective which would hint at the reason why Shaun is gloomy towards thee audience as we can see that his thumb covers his Dad's face whilst he is focussing on his mother. The shot finishes with a tilt towards the ceiling for a transition we plan on adding in during our editing. Both of these shots were filmed by James Scott.

Camera Operator: Chris George

The final shot that we filmed in the house location was the shot of Shaun walking past his dad who is drinking. We had to retake this shot a couple of times to get the right angle and expression captured on Shaun's face and for a couple of bloopers where Tom started laughing. This shot was taken by Chris George who then went to film the next shot in an out doors location. where we see the main character being followed by another teenager with a knife behind his back which only took one take and we used a friend who lived nearby as the extra actor because it was a nameless character in the trailer but not the overall narrative that we wrote.

To finish off the day of filming we decided to change the location of where the gym montage was going to take place to a park because we thought it would look more gritty and inspiring if Shaun was working out in the outdoors where he is more exposed to the elements and making do with bare-bones equipment in a sort of Rocky Balboa way as it shows he is willing to endure more pain to change his life around for the better. I filmed the three shots in this sequence to finish off the days filming.