Our plan for the film was to shoot in a dark parking lot to establish that creepy aura right at the start. It was a good idea because we did not have to worry about the sun changing places throughout filming but it created a new problem of how to shoot in the dark. As a cinematographer, I had to prepare the possible ways to work around shooting in the dark without having a flashlight on the actress. While searching for potential solutions, the common answers were to shoot at a wide aperture, use pools of light, avoid auto-focus or use reflectors/white cards. I was overwhelmed with all these options and instead of taking the internet's word, I went and asked my film teacher his opinion. He told me that instead of messing with all that extra stuff, we could just adjust the exposure on the camera. I played around with how the different exposure settings and was excited to film.
When we arrived at the Winn-Dixie parking lot, it was not what I was expecting. We thought that the parking lot would've been darker but it was surprisingly well-lit. But thanks to learning how to manipulate the exposure settings, I was able to darken the parking lot to create an eerie vibe for Watching Her Every Move.
While this picture does not show the exposure level, it is at -0.7. If we left it 0.0, the film would look a lot brighter than what is on the camera.
After filming the parking lot scenes, we transitioned into the interior car scenes (which were supposed to have the failed mirror shot). While the parking lot was well-lit, the car was not. I had to change the -0.7 exposure level to +0.3 level, which would help brighten the shot.
After filming the previously mentioned scenes, we moved on to Sarah's house to film the exterior and interior scenes. But there were many problems that came to lighting that if I had done a negative or positive exposure level change, I would've ruined the shots in one way or another. So, I had to settle for filming Sarah's house scenes in +/-0.0.
