Scene Three Shooting - 13/02/13

Today I completed the shooting of the third and final scene of my thriller opening 'Duality'. The majority of things went to plan as I had hoped however I did encounter a number of minor problems. One problem that I encountered was the stabbing shot towards the end of the scene. In this shot, I had planned to show the killer stab the tramp from a wide shot, as I could not take a real knife on to set for both safety and legal reasons, I realised that I would have to make the audience believe that this tramp has been stabbed without showing an actual knife. I feel I have dealt with this problem after a number of takes as I attempted to show the killer stabbing the tramp without a knife being visible. I feel that I have done this well and shows I have overcame problems I had not expected as the first couple of takes of this shot clearly presented the killer without a knife.

One problem which I had anticipated early on but could not control was the weather. The day of shooting had started cloudy but the ground was completely dry for some of the early shots. However the weather rapidly changed and both rain and snow fell making the alleyway progressively damper throughout the course of the day. I fear that this will raise continuity issues when it comes to the editing stage of the process however many of the later shots do not show much of the ground as they focus on the murder of the tramp, only the wide shot of the murder and the killer picking up the wallet will clearly show the wet pavement. Another problem that I encountered was the use of theatrical blood as I was unable to use any of Tordar's clothes, however through using a tracking shot of his leg with the theatrical blood dribbling down the side of the alleyway underneath, the audience will have a clear understanding that he has been murdered and will be supported by diegetic sounds of both the stabbing and the tramp's pain after he's been struck.


After looking back through today's shots, I feel that the audience will feel too distant from the scene and everything that is going on. This is due to the use of wide shots and I do not believe I have used enough close up shots of the scene to make the audience feel uncomfortable close to the murder. This is an issue that can only be resolved through re-filming certain shots in the scene. There are some shots that I plan to keep from today's filming such as original wide shot of the killer entering the scene and the pan up of the killer's legs from the perspective of the tramp. However I will post an extensive shot list featuring the shots which I intended to re-shoot to ensure that my third and final scene follows the typical codes and conventions of the technical structure of the thriller genre.