Production Shoot: 21/11/12

During the school week  Tom employed the help of his friend, Curtis, to play the role of our main antagonist - the Enclave government leader. He fit the sophisticated yet menacing role we were going for, especially when we fitted him with a suit, which he kindly provided himself. On the day of filming, we used our free hour to film enough shots to convey Curtis' character being the antagonist, though with some enigma surrounding him.

We started by going to our deputy head's office, as the chosen location, and he gave us some privacy to film. We positioned objects in the setting, such as chairs and computers, to make the setting appear like a workstation doubled up as a meeting room, though also containing elements that connote warfare and action. This included us introducing some of our own props for this, including toy gun replicas (for which we asked permission from the school to use out of public, which was granted) and maps sprawled over a table in the centre of the shot. In addition to this we added the composite of homely features, like the Union Jack pillow, to give the room unusual character and comfort which, making a contrast in juxtaposition to the malicious intent of the antagonist and neglect of the country, we thought would make a good effect.

The actual filming ran smoothly as the room was easily accessible and accommodated our equipment nicely, allowing us to make full use of angles in the room. Then we tweaked the settings of the camera to make the picture darker, giving that 'underground gloom' as if the facility is located underground, secluded from the hazardous wastes above. It also made the shots appear sincere and further boded the possibility of the character in the shot being shady, similar to the setting. We had to look for features that would create the connotations, and denotations, needed for us to introduce a character's archetype in a tiny frame of time.

I was not in the scenes themselves for a change, I was mostly behind the camera trying to manipulate the angles in such a way to frame Curtis effectively and connote that he is a powerful, foreboding leader.

Once the filming had been done, we went to our Media lesson and edited the footage in Pinnacle.