I'd be interested to try a different genre to horror because I feel as though horror lends itself to stylised lighting, sound and camera work whereas I think that I would personally find it more challenging to make something more natural, because I love doing the more stylised work so much.

As my background is in photography, there are elements of filmmaking which I am still getting used to, particularly in editing: I am much more limited in terms of masking and there are other effects such as retouching and removing details and small errors which I can do in photography but I don't yet have the skillset to achieve in film. This means that on the filming day I need to be very attentive and observant, fixing small details in person not in post-production. My photography background also lends itself to being responsible for lighting or camera work, which I love, but I'd equally be interested to take on another role this time to broaden my skillset and experiences!

I feel as though taking the responsibility of sound would be the most challenging to me as I have no experience of dealing with audio files except in post-production of the last module, whereas I feel as though I have at least a little previous experience of something that each of the other roles involve!

In my last production module, I felt that I could have cut shots at different points in some places, and I also felt as though I could have used different durations of audio to visual elements. I've found that overlapping the audio file with a cut from one shot to another makes the scene appear more natural and smoother (in my opinion). I look forward to applying techniques like this to this project. I also think that I could have better considered the direction/angle of backlighting and fill lighting in some areas, so if I take on the responsibility of lighting again for this project, I would love to take more time considering where each light is coming from - should it be coming from above or below the subject? Where does it cast shadows? Does that appear unnatural on camera?

I'm excited to discuss inspiration with my group (e.g. my last project was influenced by Film Noir) and to establish our collective aims and visions for this project!

A major breakthrough was deciding that Emily (love interest of main character) is an actor sent into Sam's life from the people behind the programme. This connected the romance storyline and the programme concept, creating a clearer narrative and dictating the direction our storyline eventually went in. We began by bullet pointing our story and then compacted it into a logline and expanded it into a synopsis. I believe that there are elements of our story that could be cut down if necessary and I believe that our concept gives us a lot of creative freedom, which I love.

We also put a lot of thought into costuming and the appearance of our characters, which developed them further and made it easier to consider how we can visually portray the story so as not to need as much dialogue. I feel as though I can visualise our film better now and I have a clearer idea of the narrative and the characters.

We also looked at the format of a script today and discussed how a script can be written and used. I found this really interesting because I have never learnt about that before this module! We learnt about the software Fade In and how to use it to create a script.

Attached is the document from today's session with notes from our meeting and our work in class.

Attached are my notes from the chapter.

As we wrote the script, we discussed what was and wasn't necessary, in terms of dialogue and action. This helped us to keep the script the correct length for our project. The final draft was 4 pages long, which gives us leeway to make our edits slightly longer or shorter than the script suggests.

Also as we wrote the script, we discussed how we envisioned the visual aspects of each scene, discussing shot types, location, set dressing and movement of the actors. I created a bullet-pointed rough shot list so that we can remember our ideas in future.

In lesson today we learnt about the responsibilities of the director and producer, which I found really helpful as I initially didn't fully understand what each role involved. I now feel that I am in a better position to discuss my preference of role with my group.

We received feedback on our script at the end of lesson, and we will consider this feedback in our future work. We need to work to ensure the ending is satisfactory and we need to introduce Emily's true personality sooner.

Attached is our first draft of the script.

In class I learnt about sound design and editing. I now have a better understanding of sound design, reinforced by my reading of Chapter 8: Sound Design in Sound for Film and Television. I feel more confident in my knowledge of types of sound and how each type of sound can be utilised to maximum effect within a scene. I can imagine the sound ideas for Insight much better than before now. I am also now more confident in identifying different types of cuts and when and why each cut should be used. I found this really interesting and I believe that I can use this to my advantage when editing Insight, giving myself more control over the pacing of the film. Attached is the amended notes including our statement of intent (in bullet point and paragraph form).

Reference for the reading: Holman, T. (2014). Sound for film and television. Elsevier Science & Technology.

As we are filming in my flat, I created a floor plan of my kitchen/living area and found a floor plan of my bedroom online so that the lighting/camera/sound can mark their plans onto the space.

I marked up my script, using the bullet pointed shot list we created when writing the film, and thought through my plans for each shot. I also added in several extra shots including master shots and a couple of different angles so that we had extra footage should anything not work out in the way we hope. On the script, I marked where each shot started & ended, the type of shot it is and labelled each shot (1A, 1B, 2A, etc.). I also colour coded each shot by the type of shot so I can quickly differentiate.

I then created a shot list table where I had a column for: shot label; type of shot; location of shot; what's happening in the shot; any additional notes.

The final 2 columns let me expand upon the information I could fit onto the marked up script. The sections describing what's happening in each shot was really helpful both for visualising each shot and for planning how I will need to direct the actor. It also made me consider whether there will be any potential continuity errors to be aware of, or marks that will need to be hit (specifically in the park scene). The additional notes column let me refine and communicate my artistic and technical ideas/requirements for each shot such as how I imagined the lighting, whether there would be any camera movement and if so what, compositional factors to be aware of. It also let me note where the CCTV shots are, which will need careful planning in terms of the order we film the scenes: the CCTV shot in the kitchen returns throughout the film but should be at an identical angle each time.

I added a few ideas to my mood board along with some location pictures of my flat and the restaurant we are filming in.

Attached is the detailed shot list and in the comments I have attached some photos of my marked up script & the floor plans.

We also went into the park so that we could see the space we were working with and so that I could talk through the camera movement and composition that I wanted for some of the shots there. In future, on the shooting days I would love for the aperture to be lowered so that the background is more blurred and romantic for the park scene - as both characters are only focussed on the other rather than on anything else. However, it began to rain so we had to take the equipment inside earlier than intended. I have passed this idea onto the camera person though, so I am hoping that on the day of the shoot we can try the shots a little differently to today. I am also aware that the park shots may take more time on the day than others because of continuity, both from the perspective of it being a public area with other people and from the perspective of switches between camera shots and so that the couple's movements make sense / match up in the edit.

We worked out the spacing of the camera and the actors for the corridor shot where Sam first meets Emily. Initially, Evie took up very little of the frame compared to Charlie (it was a shot over Charlie's shoulder). I believe this was both because she's shorter than Charlie and she was much further away from the camera. To rectify this, I suggested we move the camera back further away from Charlie and zoom in to create the same shot but with a different depth of field. This made Evie appear larger in frame, and we agreed that this looked more balanced composition. We also experimented with this concept for the corridor CCTV shot at the end. However, we felt that it resembled CCTV further being more zoomed out and showing more of the surroundings.

I have attached photos from today below.

Initially, I arranged the rehearsal from 10-12 but I realised I needed an additional hour so in future I would make the rehearsal schedule before arranging the rehearsal times so that I don't have to change the rehearsal times at short notice. I arranged the rehearsal plan so that we worked on scenes mainly in chronological order, so that the actors had a better idea of how their character changes and develops throughout the film even with limited rehearsal time.

The rehearsal plan was as follows:

10-10:15: discuss character descriptions, table read of script, answer any questions regarding characters.

10:15-10:30: scenes 1 & 2 (should be quick as we did this on the test shots day, reinforce any previous work)

10:30-10:55: scene 3 (work on relationship dynamics, awkwardness, continuity as multiple shots of same section)

11-11:10: break

11:10-11:40: scene 4 (hitting marks, coming up with cues, make sure everyone is really clear on the order of actions, continuity, discuss camera angles)

11:40-11:50: scene 5 (focus primarily on uno shot, reactions, other shots should be quick)

11:50-12: break

12-12:20: scene 7 (relationship dynamics, eye contact, Emily's inner thoughts, continuity, when Emily moves & where to)

12:20-12:35: scene 8 (continuity, hitting marks, order of actions, discuss thought patterns of each character, how they perceive the situation, timing of entrances & exits)

12:35-12:45: scene 6 (move to room with booth/table to rehearse with, hitting marks, discuss each character's perception of scene, what Emily does and doesn't believe)

12:45-1: run everything chronologically & nitpick, make notes for on shoot day, make sure everyone's happy/secure

I think that the rehearsal was really beneficial both for myself and the actors. I am confident that they now know what they're doing on the shooting days, so these days can be as productive as possible and I am also better aware of the action within the film.

Below I have attached rehearsal photos.

A few days prior to this, I had also met Evie and discussed costuming with her, working with clothes she already owned and what we thought would look best for each scene. I also messaged Charlie about this and arranged what he would be wearing in each scene. I sent both actors a list of what we had decided on after, so they had it to refer back to on the day of the shoot. Costuming was a key element of this film in order to show the passing of time and the progression of their relationship. I also had particular symbolism I wanted to get across in certain parts: for example in scene 7 where Evie walks out I had her dressed in red (love, danger) and black (mystery, sense of unknown, hiding something) whilst I had Charlie dressed in white (innocence, purity, naivety, honesty). I also wanted their costuming to reflect the change in the characters throughout the narrative, for example Emily starts very smart and business minded, so her clothes reflect that, but become more and more casual as she starts to relax around Sam and as she starts to forget about the business aspect of the scenario. Sam starts very messy and unorganised, reflecting his mental state at the start of the narrative, but becomes smarter as he improves his life with Emily, becoming more organised, happier and less messy. In a way their ending costumes reflect an element of the other characters' original costume - Sam gains some of the smartness Emily had whilst Emily gains the casual aspect that Sam had. I also used matching shirts in scene 5 (about halfway through the piece) to show/represent their character's becoming more similar to one another. I wrote these costumes onto my rehearsal script: a script that I used to make rough notes on during rehearsals.

See above evidence of communication regarding costume.

We struggled with the focus in one shot - where Sam is watching a notification come through from Emily. I made an instagram account under the name Emily to ensure we can see who is messaging him and sent the message each take but we couldn't manage to get the shot in perfect focus. To battle this issue to the best of our abilities, we made the notification size on his phone large so the text was bigger and easier to read. We also had him hold down the notification so it was on screen for longer.

We struggled with lighting in a couple of shots set in the evening because the wide shots left us no room to position lights without them being in shot and we also struggled to work out how intense each light should be. I also would have liked the lighting to be warmer for certain scenes but we were limited by the capabilities of the LED GO light so I have suggested we use Rayzr lights when we reshoot a couple of scenes in order to capture the warmth I wanted. I would have also liked some eye light in certain shots as I think it would draw the eye to the actors more and make their performance more captivating and emotive from the camera's perspective.

I think that my work with the actors during the rehearsal paid off - they knew exactly what they were expected to do in each scene, their blocking (to an extent, sometimes this was altered to look better in frame) and the context. I also had the rehearsal notes on hand to help pick up on small details we missed/needed to check during the shoot. 

Find attached images from the day of the shoot.

In the restaurant I looked at the options for where we filmed and we settled on a place without a window directly behind them during the master shot. Ideally the scene takes place on an evening but there was no setup where you didn't see the daylight outside the window in one of the shots. This isn't detrimental to the plot so it was fine, but I still want the warm, soft lighting I had in mind. Compositionally it was very similar to what I had in mind, and on both shooting days I kept my moodboard to hand as well as the shooting script, shot breakdown and rehearsal script.

The moodboard proved very helpful for communicating my ideas to others and I'm glad I had it with me.

We struggled with lighting, working out what was too dark and too bright and we also struggled with sound due to the background noise of being in a working restaurant. However, we got all of the shots there done in the allotted timeframe and I am overall happy with what we achieved. Having reviewed the footage, I know that the lighting was way too dark, so when we reshoot the scene I am going to keep this in mind. I am also going to ensure that Evie is better lit as she was almost in complete darkness so we couldn't see a lot of her reactions.

For continuity reasons I'm really glad that we'd rehearsed this scene and the park scene during our rehearsal day, as both scenes have lots of shots from different angles that are being pieced together in post-production and I want to reduce any chance of continuity errors. We watched back each shot before going for another take to see what we could improve.

For the park scene, we used twigs as marks as they blend into the scenery in the wide shots but the actors awareness of them really helped with continuity in the other shots. Again, it was a scene which we had discussed and rehearsed thoroughly during rehearsal and took a lot of time to get looking natural.

The weather was overcast but dry which was good because the clouds diffused the light really nicely, creating soft, even light. Although it wasn't the lighting I imagined (I intended originally for the shot to be done during golden hour, with warm sunlight), I am happy with how it turned out and in post-production I plan to increase the warmth anyway.

This scene had a few shots where I would have liked some eye lights (e.g. in the POV shots to make their eyes stand out) especially because the lighting was quite even. Overall I was happy with how it turned out though. We had tried some of these shots during the test shoots and I re-explained each shot before we did it to ensure that all of the crew knew what we were doing and which shot it was.

See attached photos from the day

This should be fairly quick because in most cases (for example scene 7) the only issue was the lighting intensity. This means that when we reshoot we know exactly where every light is going and the camera angles so we can do the exact same setup again but with the lights on higher intensity. I am really happy with how the light hit the faces of our actors in this scene, it created a good amount of depth and felt natural, acknowledging the light from the TV and other light sources. It also matched how I imagined it in my head & how I conveyed through my moodboard.

The other shots that we have to reshoot are out of focus.

We booked out Rayzr lights instead of the LedGos this time so we could achieve warmer lighting for the restaurant scene. Last time it felt a bit cold but the lights were as warm as they could go and we didn't have access to gels.

See attached a shot from scene 7 of the original shoots that I increased exposure in Lightroom in order to check the lighting angles before reshooting.

We then went back to the flat to reshoot scene 7. We set up the same as last time however the crew weren't all happy with the lighting in certain shots so we ended up changing it (both in shot A, where we removed a cooler toned light to light the shadows on the back of their heads, and in shots B-F, where the group didn't feel it looked as thought they were watching TV and we ended up moving the light from the 45 degree angle from their faces we had it at originally and moved it to directly in front of the actors).

In future, I wouldn't light the actors from the front because I feel as though it made the image as a whole look flat in comparison to how we lit it previously and took away the dimensionality we had before. Having discussed these concerns with the group, in the end we went with what the group was happy with even though I personally preferred how we lit the scene originally.

I think that visually the first way we lit the scene had a more naturalistic, human element to it that is missing in the final scene, and I feel that it matched the change of mood in the scene more, accommodating the more negative mood during the second half of the scene. However, I like the orange colour we achieved through the use of the Rayzr lights in place of the LedGos.

See attached photos from the reshoots.

During the editing process, I've learnt how to stylise a shot to make it look like a CCTV shot. To do this I applied several presets to make the footage black and white, then to increase noise/grain, and to add a timecode to the frame. I also added an adjustment layer over each of these shots and decreased the tint to make the image more green. I had to use an adjustment layer for this because I had applied the black and white preset onto the original clip. This created a nice colour palette where the scene was void of any colour except the green, which was evenly applied.

I also used adjustment layers of several shots where there were continuity issues with the lighting, or if light in certain areas of the screen were too bright and drawing the viewer's eye away from the subjects. To sort this, I created an adjustment layer covering the whole screen, which I lowered the exposure of, and then I applied a linear or radial gradient to the area that I wanted this effect to apply to and feathered it. I think that this made the scenes work better compositionally.

I've also learnt to use basic graphics in Premiere Pro and I used keyframes to alter the opacity of each graphic to create an effect where the words fade in. This created an ominous mood and was less jarring than if the words suddenly appeared. It also allowed me to match the visuals to the audio, making the design more cohesive.

I used a reoccurring motif within the sound design, both by using a static sound effect each time the CCTV shots are shown and by using the same piece of piano music multiple times to represent Sam and Emily's relationship. I also cut sections of this music together to match the development of their relationship: for example strings begin to accompany the piano when the couple start to tidy the house in the montage and the relationship develops further: the music develops further with it. I used a high frequency sound at the end of the final scene to increase tension and I layer crackling over the top of this sound for the credits to make it seem as if Sam's broken the camera.

Things I could improve on / struggled with in the edit:

During the edit I struggled to balance the sound levels throughout - especially in the restaurant scene there was a lot of background noise and I used keyframes to vary the sound levels at various points. I also used keyframes to lower the volume of Sam's final line because it originally peaked and was way too loud in comparison to the rest of the scene. Although I think this worked well in several places, I think it could be improved to sound more seamless and natural.

It took me more time than I anticipated to sync the audio and video however this was because we had no sound from the camera (so we had to do it all manually) and in certain shots the clapperboard wasn't fully in frame when used. In future I will be aware of this on the shooting days and adjust it to make the editing process more efficient.

During the editing process I discovered that certain shots weren't in focus so I removed several shots that I had planned to include. Because I had planned in advance with my shooting script, I had enough extra footage from other shots to maintain most of the important elements of the narrative. In future, I would take more time reviewing the footage to ensure that I notice little details such as this.

Notably I think that in hindsight the way we lit the restaurant scene caused issues with the white balance. This is because we lit the actors with a really warm light, but when we brought that warmth down more than expected in the edit it meant that everything not lit became unnaturally blue. You can see this in the stills of Evie in the restaurant. In future, I would shoot with a more neutral temperature light and then increase the warmth in the edit to achieve the warmer lighting effect. Even if we lit our actors warmly, we should have ensured the temperature of the light hitting them wasn't too different from the light surrounding them. I think the imbalance was especially obvious because the background was lit by natural light coming in through the windows, which is automatically more cool toned than warm. I don't think it would be as evident had there not been so much daylight - as the shots where the windows aren't in view seem more balanced than the shots with the windows. I really like the final shot from the restaurant scene, where they are sat across from each other and we have a side-on view. I think that compositionally it's very pleasing, with the leading lines of the tree framing Emily and balancing against the lamps in the background behind Sam. I think it guides the viewers eye around the scene really well whilst it being obvious that the main focus of the shot is Emily and Sam. It is very similar to the ideas I communicated on my moodboard. I also like the level of light in the background - enough to not look unnatural but also dark enough to maintain a sense of depth and 3-dimensionality. I added a vignette to this shot and cropped it in slightly in the edit to help to draw the eye and to make the composition more balanced.

I also think that the shot of both actors watching the TV (2nd still from this scene) could be cropped in from the top, making the head room smaller compositionally. However in the context of the film I don't think this is a major issue and is just due to personal preference. I also like the contrast of this shot to the closer shots following, which are more intimate. I feel that if all of the shots were cropped very close then the contrast to the later shots would be lost and the transition to the more intimate conversation would be less obvious and less effective. I like the switch between less intimate to more intimate shots in my edit.

On the hand holding shots from the park I made the tint slightly more pink and the temperature slightly more warm to create more romantic lighting because the lighting on the day was very white (albeit even and soft) whereas my initial plan for the scene was to shoot it at golden hour or late afternoon so the sun would hit them from an angle and provide warmer, more dynamic lighting. I was happy with how soft the lighting was though.

I could have also potentially pulled the exposure up on the scene where they first meet but again I don't feel it's a major problem, just something to be aware of in future projects. I also don't mind it being a little darker due to the more mysterious aspect to the character. I kept the temperature and tint of that scene as neutral as possible in order to keep the character of Emily ambiguous and intriguing - Sam has no real feelings towards her yet and therefore neither do the audience.

Overall I think that I had a fairly cohesive editing style throughout, both visually and in terms of audio, cuts and other elements when the final video is taken into account. Most elements which I would change in hindsight to make it look more similar to my moodboard are a result of choices on the day of the shoot, but the film is still understandable and has a sense of cohesion.

Supporting documents I created:

• Statement of intent

• Moodboard

• Marked up script

• Shot list

• Floor plans (for scenes shot in the flat, not including the park and restaurant scene, and with annotations of camera & lighting, not sound)