VHS Final Review

Our third location was shot once again in Central London, however, this time we shot during the evening to give the feel of a romantic evening stroll alongside the river Thames- with iconic locations such as the shard and Tower Bridge in the background. Overall, these shots were successfully achieved, in the sense that we are now able to clearly reflect the artists British image, with the locations clearly obvious throughout the shots.

However, one problem that we encountered was a lack of lighting at the locations- we already knew that the camera was not great at picking up light, however, were surprised at the lack of street lighting in such a busy area. Despite this, we shot at various angles to try to avoid any lack of clarity, and when watching the shots back it is clear that the characters are starting to lose the initial connection they had- reflected through the focus on their facial expressions.

After completing the initial breakdown shots, we then planned and executed our final location shoot at a friends house- representing the female's home, in order to present the end of the relationship. In order to make it clear that I was breaking up with Gina, we focused on her angry expressions and reaction, rather than my emotionless face, We also used a shot of Gina throwing the clothes which I wore throughout the other shoot days at me, hing to achieve the feeling that she is throwing me out of her home in anger.

We encountered issues with shooting in the small space of the home, meaning that it was necessary to shoot handheld in order to successfully track the action of the break up.  In reflection, some of the shots were too shaky to use, and others felt too forced- we decided to keep the scene to a minimum to avoid slowing down the narrative. The acting was satisfyingly believable when we played it back in succession, however, we felt that it lacked a clear ending.

In order to create a more dramatic ending, we decided to shoot me slamming the door of Gina's 'house', however, as this was an exterior location, we used a friend's front door closer to school to recreate the scene. These new shots fitted in with the old ones, however, due to shooting at a different time of day, and accidentally selecting a higher exposure camera mode, the lighting was different. We saw this as a minor issue though, as it was clear from the narrative that it was because I had left the interior location of the home, and can easily be fixed during the grading process.