The Long Take

We arrived early in the morning on a day with good light after planning a long moving take out together. The plan was to have the protagonist arrive from out of shot and then I would move back with the camera keeping pace with the protagonist. Then the protagonist would overtake me as the first antagonist that is following her arrives and I would have a longer shot of this person following for a few seconds. I then had to time my overtake of the protagonist again so that I could get a close up of them turning around just too late to catch the following person ducking into a doorway to hide. Then I manouvered myself away from the protagonist at a ninety degree angle to show them hiding in an alleyway until the following person goes past. Then I move in close to the protagonist and track her moving into the alleyway, crouching down and opening up her bag, which then causes a strong glow on her face as if it is something magical, I then pan out enough to get everything in shot and hold this shot as still as I can do that the protagonist can walk out of shot and we can use this to create a portaling effect. We have also decided to have the portal change the appearance of the actress each time it happens like the film: The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus as this ads another quirky magical touch to the film and goes with the theme of making Grindleford seem wierd and magical. I tried to get a closer shot of the Protagonist as this is the opening shot and we needed to establish them early as being the main character and as we saw in the extracts from "Film directing shot by shot - Starem D. Katz" getting closer and more involved shots with a character makes the connection immediate with the audience and makes it easier for the viewer to identify the protagonist. (Usually the one with the most screentime or the most presence in shots/the way in which they are framed)