Fiction Adaptation: Shooting the Doll House

Shooting the doll house took a lot of patience and time. I began setting up for filming at 9am and finished shooting at 6pm. There were many challenges to shooting this. One of the main issues I had was the cramped conditions of the dollhouse. I was unable to get good close up shots because the lens couldn't focus well on the subject as it was too close to the figures. I couldn't move the camera further away because of the walls of the dollhouse and I couldn't move the figures further away as it would have messed with the continuity of the piece as it was all filmed with Stop Motion. 

I used what I call a 'Pixar Lamp' which is a lamp that has a bendy neck, to light my dollhouse. I chose to use this style of lamp rather than an ARRI lamp or LED lamp because the bendy neck meant I could light the whole house however I wanted due to its flexibility. The only trouble I found was that it is a very orange light giving it a non naturalistic feel. There was also a lot of grain in some places as the light wasn't strong enough to reach the back of the house causing the grain effect. This has however worked in my favour as it makes the time of the piece look older. By making this effect, I am able to convey the idea that this sequence is a memory through lighting and also the dolls' costumes. They are not modern costumes so I have stuck with the theme of the 70s/80s which would be when this character would have been growing up. The actress I have got is late 40s which works well with this time period. 

I had planned out exactly what I wanted my characters to do which I realised during the shoot was incredibly important. This is because if you are on a wide shot and you are focused on one characters movements, the other characters in the background won't necessarily be frozen. Therefore it was important to plan what every character would be doing in this scene to make it look as active and realistic as possible. I had the grandmother boiling a kettle in the kitchen while the little girl was coming down the stairs to see her. The Grandad and little boy were watching and old war movie on the television which helped to transition the poem into the 'real world' by introducing the sounds first. Finally, I had the Father upstairs asleep until later on in the poem where it mentions Eastenders. This was to add a comedic element to the poem so that it didn't feel as heavy as the underlying meanings are. 


In order to transition from the dollhouse to the television programme, I green screened the little tele that was on the wall so that in post, I can transfer the programme into the dollhouse making it authentic and realistic. It was really important to ensure that I gave my characters personality, which was really difficult to achieve as they are dolls that have unmoving facial expressions and their heads and bodies don't move. I had to think creatively about how to get across their personalities through physical action so that the audience would understand the story being told. After playing back the videos I had recorded I decided that I had achieved the right actions to make the personalities shine through however I think that the sound design will play a massive part in enhancing these personalities much more and make the whole piece a lot more convincing.