What I learned from the Foundation Portfolio - Keira

• Night time shooting can be difficult due to the lack of natural light available. The artificial light used needs to be subtle enough to look realistic, but bright enough to show up the action on camera. This can be done most successfully with a large torch (rather than redhead, due to lack of mains electricity) covered with an uncoloured filter. In my foundation portfolio, we had problems with the torch in that we didn't ensure it was fully charged before using it (meaning it ran out and we had no light so had to re-film). From this I have learned the precautions that need to be taken having chosen to shoot at night.
• It is very important to have an extremely detailed and clear storyboard before any filming is done, as this acts as a guide and gives you a specific starting and ending point. Any shots that you decide to add during filming are then a bonus, as making it up as you go along is time-consuming and makes the shots look rushed.
• Interesting angles and inventive shots can make a film more aesthetically pleasing, so experimenting with what may seem like strange places to film from can pay off. My favourite shots from our foundation portfolio are the ones that are unusual. (For example, <-- that shot was a low angle from in the bath, with a soap dispenser obstructing part of the shot. This stuck to thriller conventions by giving a sense of being watched. Here --> you can see us framing the shot.)
• Using tripods and dollies to steady the camera is an important part of filming. We made the mistake of trying to do some of the shooting with a handheld camera (in parts where we didn't want it to look shaky) because we felt attaching the tripod would take too much time. However, we found the shots were not useable because they looked highly unproffessional and had to refilm.
  Filming as many takes of one shot as possible is always adviseable as it gives you alot more choice and means you're never stuck with one or have to refilm certain ones (which can be very difficult in terms of continuity!) We filmed on about 5 or 6 different occassions, and each time we decided to do more takes of each shot as we'd learned from editing in between that it's always better not to be lazy and have more.
  It's bad to sit and edit for too long at a time, as it's not only unhealthy but can also make you miss things mistakes in the work. Breaks are very useful, as is getting a 3rd party (e.g. another student or teacher) to watch what you've done and give another perspective.
• It's important to be prepared to let go of your ideas for the benefit of the film, sometimes its difficult but if the majority of the group vote on something there's a reason for it. At the same time, everyone should be prepared to listen to each other and try out different things that may seem odd at first but often work out well.
• We found that taking dialogue out of our film althogether proved useful for sound editing and also to make the acting easier. However, if it is well-written and acted, dialogue is definately benefitial to telling the story. We found (from our class review) that some people found it difficult to understand where the story was going because of the lack of talking.
• Although it's sometimes useful to have subtle credits so as not to detract from the action, there's a danger of making them unnoticeable, as happened in our foundation portfolio. People told me they hadn't noticed the credits appearing, which meant they didn't know who's film it was.
• <-- If you look carefully, it can just be seen in the top right hand corner of the screen.
• In the advanced portfolio, therefore, I'll make sure to not rush the titles and credits and put more thought into their design and placement.

By Keira Smalley