REFLECTIONS & REFINEMENTS: PHOTOSHOOT

Photoshoot: 12th March 2021

On the 12th of  March, we carried out a photoshoot from the stalker's perspective of our antagonist, Sarah, with a high quality, professional camera. This was so that for our table-top sequence in our dark room scene we could use the photos as a prop, to infer that our stalker had taken and developed photo's to fuel their obsession with Sarah.

We experimented with varying angles and concealed locations that the stalker would have used to capture the photos. We wanted to place emphasis on the fact that the stalker has access to all elements of her personal life, increasing the threat and tension, so we positioned Sarah in typical locations, such as on a bench or walking out of work.

To add to the sense of realism, we used long shots, and created shadows by hiding behind the trees - allowing the audience to infer that the photographer was unnoticed by Sarah.

Filming:

To make it clear it was sinister that she was having pictures taken of her, we also filmed over the shoulder shots from the stalker's perspective, with the intent of editing together the shots and revealing the photo's taken.

However, there were some challenges with this - on our day of filming the sun was shining, so therefore we had to test out different angles to ensure that the sun didn't shine on the camera screen, revealing the stalker's identity in the reflections. We ran into another challenge when shooting Sarah through a window in her 'office'. As it was a long shot and therefore slightly unclear, we had to make sure there was no other barriers between camera and Sarah. This meant that we had to open the window, however it did not fully open and, combined with the glare of the sun, we were unable to see her through the glass. We overcame this by adjusting Sarah's positioning and by using a lower angle in order to have a clearer shot.

To use the photographs in our table-top sequence, we uploaded and edited the shots on an iMac, using a greyscale to make them look more authentic and to increase the sinister visual codes. We then printed and laminated them, allowing the 'stalker' to later 'develop' them through placing them in solution, the lamination preventing them from being damaged.