Film 301 - Ghostly Past

Monday 6th November 2017         Research and Experimentation       Lecturers: Kaz, Dan, Andy

Ghostly Past

Over the past week I have been researching into the different kinds of Uniforms that fit my Great Coat that I bought whilst out at Davidstow Airfield, which portrays 2 and a half rings on the shoulders. I decided that I wanted to dress up and look the part for the test shots as I could get a flavour for the costume design and how the colour would show up on a wide angled camera.

Here is a screen grab of myself dressed up as a Squadron Leader

For the shoot on the moorland I visited the RAF Harrowbeer Archives, Michael the owner lent myself an Officer's Hat with a cloth peak as well as an RAF kit bag which I stuffed with Camo netting and bean bags. I discovered that the coat that I bought at Davidstow would have belonged to a Squadron Leader, enhanced by the badges.

Whilst on the moors, I used my Nikon D3300 with my sigma wide angled lens ranging between 15-20mm, I set the camera up on the tripod to film a 20 second clip where there would be no movement within the frame. Then I would let the camera roll for a second time as I walk across the screen, I would then layer both pieces of footage over each other in the edit and then I would change the opacity to make myself look like a ghost walking across the screen.

Here are a few screen grabs from my overlay experiment

I had the idea of stitching together footage I had filmed of a spitfire at the Harrowbeer Airfield event, I then filmed myself pretending that I was tracking the plane in the sky, changing the opacity again meant that I looked like a ghost from the past.

As well as the moorland shots, I experimented with the gravestones and graveyard, a panning shot which tracked across the gravestones of a crew who crashed, I took still images of the gravestones and then superimposed them onto the footage, creating freeze frames but adding consistency to the movement of the frames.

Here is a screen grab to show the experiment with the graveyard and gravestones

I have decided that for my Research and Experimentation module, that I want to create a short film to do with Rememberance Day. I shall create the character of a young soldier who once worked in the RAF force and was posted at RAF Harrowbeer. Another shot idea that I have come up with will involve footage of myself holding a poppy in my hand, clenching it tightly in my fist, but I will overlay this shot with another shot where I drop the Poppy onto the floor. 

After testing out different kind of shots I have been thinking about a way to connotate the idea of a film about a soldier who is being remembered while remembering others. For the final shot of the film I want to use a slider for two shots, the first shot will be static portraying myself saluting soldiers graves. This will be overlayed with a slider shot which will slide across the graves so the frame will transform from a static shot into a consistent movement.