Shoot Day reflection

The night before we started shooting for the opening us as a group had a team discussion to make sure we had everything in place for the day and how it was all going to go down from start to finish. We made sure we had all the props we needed to show in the sequence, I also sent Mike a quick email just to remind him to bring in the radio player to use for the scene. After this we all felt ready to go the next morning so I put all my props in my bag and went to bed. 

The day started at 8 for me when i arrived at school, I went to the classroom where I had stored some of my props, and gathered them all together, I asked sophie if she could arrive a bit earlier before the others so that we could sort out the costumes for the actors in the shoot. With the white shirt that we had for adam we put some fake blood over the shirt and smudged it all in with tissue, to then make the shirt look dirty and ragged i put some dirt into the shit then ripped some holes into it. 

Once we had sorted out the costumes and the group had all arrived, we went up to the studio just to have another brief rundown at how the day is planned out and how it was all going to go. Where then our cast came up to the studio, where we gave them their costumes to get ready and alice could start doing their makeup. to make their characters look more convincing in the film. For example Adam was made to look very beaten and bruised up for the shoot. 

So that the rest off the group were not wasting time and sitting around we headed down to the containers, to start emptying them out and set the set up ready to go once Alice had finished with the make up. Luckily for us, cleaning out the container didn't take as long as we would have thought, and took around 20 to 30 minutes, Which allowed us a bit more time to think through out to set up the scene, Whilst clearing out the container there were a few props we found within that we thought would work well with the ascetic we were going for.

Once we finished the we covered some of the the weapons like the baseball bat and the pickaxe in blood with the pliers and a saw, to make it look more scary to the audience and that the villain has clearly done this in the past and the victim should be scared. Once this was all dealt with and we had a good understanding of how it should be looking we moved onto the lighting. 

As a group we understood from the start that lighting the container was always going to come across as a pain, but we always knew that if we got it right it would look incredible, We used 6 fluorescent green light bars that we placed symmetrically at the end of the container, then a few behind the frame where the camera wouldn't see it just so it would give the right amount of lighting without showing all of them, which this idea worked incredibly well, came across very nicely on camera. Once the lighting was finished we set up the camera and waited for our actors to join us.

When the actors arrived to the set I gave them a rundown of what is in the sequence and how we want each character to act within the shoot, to let them get into the right mindframe for it we walked through it once with the camera rolling so i could direct them through it to help them out, so when it came to shooting the first real take they could do it with as little direction as possible. After this we felt ready to get started with the official shoot for the day. 

I feel like mostly everything for our shoot went very well especially as we were all very organised throughout the whole shoot of the day, and there was no point throughout when one of the cast weren't doing anything. With the result of our organisation we were able to film the whole shoot and pack down by 1 in the afternoon. This was ultimately because we did not over complicate our sequence, as we kept it all in one location, and had just 2 actors. The set design also worked very well in our favour as it wasn't a massive issue to set up, and it was very simple but clearly had a dark meaning behind it. On camera I think the lights came out better than expected and really went well for the scene as it made the scene seem fun and takes away from the dark theme behind it.

A few issues that did arise within the making of our opening sequence that including with the pictures on the wall of the container with the pins and string, After sticking up the pictures of people we realised that we may have stuck them to close together in order for the string and pins to work, also we realised that the pins we had would not of been able to into the wall of the container. To fix this issue that we had, we used a red marker and drew arrows from the top down to the mirror and crossed out some peoples eyes to give the idea that they have been killed. Another issue that did arise was the Bucket we wanted to use, we realised that it had a link, so that it didn't interfere with the scene we made the decision to cut it and work around the scene without using it which we managed to do quite easily. 

There were a few things I think as a group we could have done differently on the day, Including the design of the set. yes the set i think did work incredibly well for the scene and wasn't too distracting for the camera. Other than this our set looked nice and we didn't have many other things we should have done differently as the day all went smoothly. We didn't have to change much of our opening idea, as everything that we had imagined in the past complimented each other and flowed.

I think with having our real shoot we did learn a few new skills which included ways we wanted to smash the feet of our actor, to do this and make it look realistic without actually hitting adam, we took his shoe off, and put a crowbar inside of the shoe to react when we had the mallet hit the shoe as hard as possible. When it comes to editing we will edit a scream over it, after the shoe was hit we would raise the crowbar making look like the shoe was reacting to the hit of the mallet. We did learn a few techniques along the way like how to film through a mirror without getting the camera in shot, which involved us moving the camera to certain positions where is would perfectly capture the actors and the action going on.

A Lot of our knowledge from our previous camera workshops helped us prepare and perform well on the day. It allowed us to set the camera up quickly before filming the first shot, so we could get the right white balance, exposure, focus, so our shots could look crisp and clean. the previous workshops also helped when setting the shot to the right level with moving the tripod up and down and making sure the bubble was in the centre of the circle so that it was level. Throughout our shoot we had to change the type of lens a few times to meet the shot we were trying to take. So when taking off the lens from the camera, we were extra careful and making sure when putting a new lens on that we made the red dot on the lens meet the red dot in the camera, then to twist it clockwise to lock it in.

The Camera which we used in our opening sequence was the Black Magic 4K mini URSA camera, with a Vinten vision 8AS tripod system, and a variety of different lengths of lens to help with some shots to level the camera if we put it on the floor we used a pair of scissors to level it. also we had to use the crowbar to keep the shoes in place when we were hitting them. For lighting in our sequence we used long standing LED green lights and spread them over the set. 

It's hard to pinpoint my favourite part of the shoot as I enjoyed every second of it, But the best part would have probably been after we finished setting up the set and having our actors in there, because i finally got to see our creation come to life and it looked better than expected on just in real life but on camera it looked amazing. The green lighting really did add a whole new aspect to the openiening which i have never seen before in a film. another favourite part of the day was getting to have my dream role of being director and making quick decisions on set to help the scene look better than it already was.

I am very happy with the footage that we filmed on the day, even though we are not allowed to view the footage yet, from a director's point of view i feel like we have everything that we needed to film maybe even more. My favourite shot of the shoot which i think will look amazing in the final cut, was the shot i came up with on set when we aimed the camera at the mirror where you could see our actor tied up in the chair but also could still see the villain in the foreground. I thought this was a very creative shot, and done in the right way will look awesome.

I think personally I have learnt a few more techniques that I can take forward with me when it comes to filming my next project. This includes how to film in a confined space with not alot of room to move around. at the start of the shoot it was quite hard to get used to but after an hour or 2 it was quite easy to maneuver around. I now feel though that if i film in a space like this again I will find it alot easier. I also Learned how to Light a set more from behind the camera giving the screen more lighting without placing the lights on camera. I also learnt to use props around us on set that could help us to quickly film a shot if it was necessary. 

If we had to do anything differently if we had to do it again there wouldn't be a lot I would think to change but that's not to say there was room for improvement. I think if we had too I would like to maybe add a few more props into the set to make it look more scary to the camera, also I would really want to use a track as I always imagined having a few tracking shots in the sequence but it would take to long to set up, But i think it would look really nice and add to the aesthetic of the scene.

When it comes to the editing part of our sequence I most look forward just to see the footage for the first time so that all the ideas come rushing into my head on how we can edit the sequence. It will be really nice to finally see our sequence take form and start to look like a real film. And with all the editing techniques we have learnt I look forward to embed them into the footage.

I think personally for me I won't face many challenges when it comes to editing as I have done this for a while and have a real passion for it, But I think the hardest part will be getting out the starting block and figuring out how and where to start, but once I have a good first few shots that work nicely it will all start flowing and will face minimal issues, off course there may be an issue like the continuity clearly doesn't
 work here, so i will have to look through other footage to find a way around that issue.