First Person View

The last thing that I left on the blog was the camera tests with my digital in my room. Since then I rented out a camera from uni, for higher quality, but because it was more bulky the angle did not appear to be like first person view. This resulted in using my housemates camera, which worked really well, surprisingly good quality for such a small toy.

I then storyboarded more carefully and made a list of things that I would like to have in the piece for clues. The setting is an old man's affluent study/library. I used one day to scout various locations around nottingham. I went to a many different nice pubs, like the Orange tree, Pitcher and Piano, Malt Cross, walked all over the lace market, and even found myself inside the Galleries of Justice. This was a strange turn of events and freaked me out, and for the rest of the day I was really jumpy.

Anywhoo, thought that I would have to do a mashup of different locations and play with the video color. After a tutorial on thursday with Jon he gave me some good ideas for filming, which included a bookshop on mansfield, persian carpet stoor, orange tree for sitting down portion. Also on thursday I was talking about my project with someone who suggested Wollaton Hall, which made a little lightbulb come on over my head, to the amazement of people around me. I planned to go on Saturday.

Friday night I thought some props would really make it, such as a tea cup, because then the audience could see both of my hands moving, which looked sweet in my practice tests. I also needed a book that I could glue my pages in. Saturday morning in getting dressed I wanted to make it as believable as possible so I (*sigh*) cut my nails really short, and looked everywhere for my red sweater. Lester wears a red sweater in the film, and I wanted this to be one of the clues. I realised that I had brought it back home because I never wear it, so I settled ona yellow sweater that looked slightly grandfather-like.

I then went down and made tea to put in a bottle to guerrilla pour into a tea cup. Melted the first bottle, so figured it was better to leave it outside for a bit before putting it into the next bottle. Got it, and a tea spoon and set out.

I went down Mansfield, stopping in a charity sho to look for a tea cup and saucer, and low and behold there was a red sweater for the bargain price of a pound, so I was happy like a little camper.

I continued down mansfield, thinking I would get the book after, because I wanted to film in there. I figured I would get the tea cup and saucer at John Lewis, not bothering to look into Daphne's handbag or any of the other vintage shops. I went to John Lewis and thought I could do better with the prices, and set back up Mansfield (long) to look for the tea cup and saucer and book. I looked into each other shops that I had passed looking for the perfect one, but they were not what I wanted to spend, nor the right style. Soooooooo I continued up to the book store, picked out the perfect book, that looked old, was not xpensive, and had the page size closest to a4 to get the best view of in the movie. Found it, and did not have the tea cup, so couldnt film there then. I asked if I could film another day...blahblah blah they said yes.

I went BACK to John Lewis and picked one that looked delicate, like it would belong to the house in my head. Got it, and continued out to the bus stop.

Got to Wallaton Hall (which I had never been to before) and to my surprise found every family in Nottingham had decided to go there as well. I found the best room for the piece, and faffed for about 20 minutes, building up the courage to take out my tea cup and tea, attach a camera to my neck, and walk around as if I was an old man, alone in my study. I did a couple of practice runs and tired the book and motion in different places, trying to avoid people that would walk in the room, to get the shots.

Here is the first tests that I did, sans tea cup:




Here are some other tests, the best of the day , trying different locations and movements. I am uploading the best ones that I got.