Re shooting break up scene

As you may be aware, the last two scenes in our film weren't quite as good as the other ones. Because of this, we've filmed one scene again and will be reshooting the other soon. Until then, here is the first cut of the scene we have re-shot.

To make this better than the old scene we used better camera angles (based from my sweet storyboard) and a better suited location. Though the location doesn't make the character of Alex look as obsessed with "the figure" as the previous one did, there was more room to shoot in and the lighting was better. A lot better.

Sometimes we all have to choose between our loved ones
and our potentially psychopathic obsessions which may
or may not be real...

The mise-en-scene of the shot is better, I think. It shows that Alex is struggling with the balance of his girlfriend and his obsession with "the figure". To show this, we put the laptop (representing his girlfriend through the Skype-call) on one side of the table and his work on the other. It's kind of like a set of off-balance scales. The lighting was dark, but the scene was still visible, unlike last time. This makes the the atmosphere more gloomy, while allowing the audience to still see things clearly.

Incoming Skype call display. I made
it based on the actual Skype display.
It's blurred in the actual film, but I just
wanted my efforts to be appreciated...

We fixed the Skype call. It looks way better than the last one. Instead of filming an actual Skype call, we filmed the parts with me talking to a blank laptop and then filmed Rachel talking directly to the camera, as though it was Alex, and then I edited in Adobe After Effects. Putting it simply, I stuck the footage of Rachel onto the laptop screen, made it look like a Skype call and added some Skype sound FX. I also added some glint to the footage of Rachel, this way it still looks like a screen. From a technical point of view, this is definitely one of the more complicated shots from an editing standpoint.

Rachel's footage, edited onto the laptop.

Rachel's footage edited onto the
laptop from a different angel. I blurred
it to match the camera's focus.

The audio needs to be fixed, as there's some background noise. I might go Foley and dub it over, using non-diagetic sound. Hopefully it'll sound nicer. Though, I do like the ambiance which the background noise adds, in a way.

-BW

Ben did some great work editing this scene of the film. It really needed redoing because of the quality being really bad on the first shoot of this scene we did. I personally didnt want to get rid of the idea that the relationship ends over skype as it emphasises the fact he doesnt have any time for her. Therefore my idea was to re film the skype part. Editing this in was looking too difficult although it worked out well in the end with Bens fabulous editing skills. This was also much cleaner with a variety of different shoots (essepcially reaction shoots).

 

-RM