2nd shoot

Fair to say, Media studies A level has surpassed my expectations. What I thought was a relatively simple course has turned out to be a military scale test of mental and physical resilience, as you will now hear. 

Yesterday, (Sunday 19th of March) Sophie and I scrambled up onto Ilkley Moor in order to film the second segment of our film opening. We had planned to enrol a volunteer to shoot the scenes involving us both, however with no one available to help, we persevered and deciding to focus on close-up shots involving just one character at a time. 

Having clambered 2 miles to set, the weather took a turn for the worse. Rain, wind, thunder, hail, the skies had opened up throwing an array of elements directly over our non waterproof equipment and costumes. The use of water soluble glue meant fur was now falling from my face and costume, the face paint smudged, and in the chaos, I slipped down a bank directly into a vat of bird poo.. fair to say conditions were not ideal. Still. We had dragged 40kg of kit up a mountain side, and we were going to film.

We shot point of view shots from Anidone’s perspective, these shots looked up and around and went in and out of focus to show confusion and a state of just waking up. We also got the shots of the branches we needed for the tittles to grow out from, however, it was extremely windy and rainy, the branches were moving and thus we had issues maintaining focus. 

After filming, we headed back down the hillside. The storm had taken its toll and we looked a sight; My face a wash of mud and smudged brown paint, few lumps of fur remained clinging to my face and arms, and patches of glue now resembled mysterious disease. Dripping wet, with wild hair, this pair of feral children dragged themselves into the rather prestigious, upper class town of Ilkley. Parents physically moved their children away from us and we were turned down from the public toilets. Despite our ordeal we managed to get some footage, and incredibly no cameras were harmed in the process.

The worst part? 10 minuets after returning to civilisation, the storm cleared and a brilliant sunshine lit the moor. ‘The golden hour’, optimum lighting, and we'd missed it.