For assessment 4, I will be working with Áine, Darcey, Louise and Quinlin to shoot a short scene, where two characters walk out from a building, into a car and have a short conversion. We plan to shoot this scene twice, once at night and once in the day time, to explore different ways to light street scenes and car interiors. We are also interested in looking at camera coverage in small spaces such as cars, as well as how we can achieve a shallow depth of field within these conditions that we have set for ourselves.

We have already identified a number of different obstacles we will most likely face during out shoots. These include the foot traffic outside the venue where we will be filming, maintaining continuity between shots if we choose to film the car in a different location, and powering our equipment while we are shooting outside in a public place.

Our first shooting location will be the Magic Mountain Saloon on Little Collins St. We are really interested in experimenting with these red neon signs on the outside of the building as a motivated light source to light our exterior shots of the characters leaving the building and walking to their car. This will also provide us with an interesting challenge if we choose to show the characters inside the building before they walk out, as the lighting will change as they exit the building. We have already been given permission by the owners to film, and will shoot at times when the restaurant is likely to be quiet, as not only will this be better for them but it will also make it easier for us to film.

For the car interior section of our scene, we’ve been looking at films like Drive (2011) and Pulp Fiction (1994) for inspiration. While we like these scenes for the way they use bold neon lights, we as a group have decided against trying to completely replicate this kind of highly stylised look and have instead chosen to attempt a more realistic aesthetic.

Darcey has already started brainstorming a number of different shots we might want to try out when we are shooting inside the car, which will be useful to have a fairly good idea about which ones we want to use before we start filming seeing how difficult it will be to shoot in such a confined space.

I think our group is in a really good position right now. We have a clear idea of what our project will be and what we want to achieve. I’ve really enjoyed working with everyone so far and I’m excited to get on set and start shooting.