Filming 'Angel on Fire' - Day Three Diary

Hilltop:

Today was probably the coldest day of our lives.
It was the day where all the scenes shot were located outside, in the evening where it's colder. We started off at Richmond park where we filmed the hilltop scene, and met early so that we could practice shots and set up equipment whilst waiting for the sun to set. Shots to practice in particular included the arc shot, as we had to make sure the position of the camera had to be in time with the music and the action in the shot.
Once this was done it was dark enough to actually start shooting, starting with a wide shot of Erika at the top of the hill. The actions here showed her sitting down in defeat, which a did with a wide shot and also a close up of her face to show her emotion. These I found were the easier shots, as there wasn't much movement required. We found out soon after filming that it was actually too dark for anything to be detected clearly on camera. This was soon resolved as we were already using Erika's phone for the music for her to lip sync to, so we just used the torch on her phone and I angled it for each shot to make sure it covered the vital parts of the scene.
The arc shot was an example of a difficult shot, as I obviously couldn't walk around Erika at the speed we wanted, but we realised that it was OK as in post-production the clip would be slowed down to match the music, meaning I had to walk quite fast to avoid the clip being too slow once edited.
Erika showed me her vision for the shot by us swapping places and her filming a test shot with me as Outlex, and then from there I had an idea of what to do. It took a few tries, meaning we got a few shots that we can use when it comes to the editing process, and I managed to get to a speed at which when the camera got round to facing Erika it was just in time as we hit the final chorus of the song. This for me was a hard shot as I was trying not to fall and roll down this steep hill, as a sidestepping all around in a not so accurate circle.
Next was a scene I think Erika would say she dreaded, I mean, she did have to lie down on the cold, damp ground and get leaves all in her hair. And this took a long time, as we had to get all sorts of props out. First: the lights, but not lit as we are showing the defeat that the character is feeling at this time (and also because I'm pretty sure there are no plug sockets at Richmond Park). This involved me standing over Erika so she looked directly up at the camera, a high angled shot to show that Outlex has lost all of her power because of this anxiety figure. I also then did a low angled shot from behind Erika as she held up the lights, which is such a nice shot as we see the row of city lights in the background at the bottom of the hill.
The lights as a prop were then done and put away, and it was time for the sticky notes. I lay them all around Erika in a pattern so then when it came to the full body shot I was doing of her lying down we can see all of the notes surrounding her. It was hard to get this angle as I had to hold up the camera quite high, and we realised it's better standing by Erika's head rather than feet as we could see more from this angle.
Next was a very tricky scene, which may have been better with an extra person, but we still did it. I had to drop the sticky notes over Erika, making her realise they are back and falling all around her. It was difficult because the notes kept sticking together and falling in clumps, and I didn't really have any free hands as I was holding the phone and camera, so some notes actually stuck to the phone as there were all in the same hand. I also couldn't move that much otherwise the spot of light we had would move around too, and so would the camera, making it very unsteady. This was done in the end though, after a few tries we got a shot where the sticky notes fell separately and gradually.
After this we did a few other small shots, such as an extreme close up of Erika's hand grabbing a note from beside her, and a shot of her reaction to reading it.
Then we were done, well for that location anyway. It was time for the next one: The Street Scene.

Street:

We filmed on Erika's street, and we were in luck when it came to lighting. It was very close to Christmas at this time, so people had put out lights on their trees in their front garden, which is a convention of electropop which we could conveniently utilise when filming Erika walking past them. We started off filming her walking with me tracking behind her, with these lights to the left of her lighting up half of the shot. I then also walked in the middle of the road to get the same shot of her walking, but as a wide shot and also side on.

We then got a few other shots tracking from the front with her lip syncing and her encountering a sticky note on her hand, where an over the shoulder shot was done with her holding up the note so both Outlex and the audience could read it.

Then it was time for a costume change, we were bringing Anxiety Alex into the street scene. At this location she would be shadowing Alex and leaving sticky notes around for her. We filmed similar shots that we did with Outlex, such as tracking her from the front walking towards the camera and lip syncing, as well as me back on the road again doing a wide shot of her walking down the road.
We also decide to shoot with the rose as a prop, in which Erika would walk around singing with it and posing with it.
Once this was done, that was it for the day! We managed to get verse 1 on the street done and the bridge on the hilltop done.
That was it for the day, and thanks to the typical British weather in Winter it wasn't late despite being dark
Our next steps are to finish the studio shots, incorporating the projector into our shots, and to film the outro of the song by the riverside.