Shoot Day: Filming

As a group, I felt we all worked very well and balanced each role with no problems and everything was done fairly. I appreciated learning new things on the day and being in control at parts.

Throughout the editing lessons, between my group and I, we balanced the roles out evenly, so there was no confusion and every task was being set fairly. This also allowed us to be more organised, practice everything and this also prevented us from wasting time. For example, I mainly helped cut each clip, helping us to organise and tidy our sequence but also to allow a successful transition and cross cut into the next rush. So we all took turns in witching roles from the director, sound director, camera operator and screen holder. Primarily, I started out being the camera operator, which I thoroughly enjoyed, however I mostly enjoyed being the director as I felt I had control and most understanding when I was this role. We constantly kept changing so it was fair.

After every shot, I took control and wrote it down by drawing an image and detailed the shot we did, so we wouldn’t forget and we had it documented.

Before the shoot started, we prepared ourselves by going through the shot list and scene outline a number of times to reinforce ideas and we also talk our actor Charlie through the scene outline so he had an understanding of what to do. This included talking him through which key he takes, what he says etc.

Before we started shooting, we asked Charlie to do the sequence for a rehearsal and this allowed us to see if we needed to change anything. However, he seemed to of have a successful understanding of what we aimed for, so my group and I felt quite confident without our actor choice and didn’t need to change anything. We started our shoot with a long shot of the room to allow some safe rushes. When the whole group was happy we moved onto more technical shots, such as mid long shots, close ups and extreme close ups. We also tried slow motion shoots, zooms, pans and POV shots as well. If someone was not happy with the footage, we re did the shot for safety and reassurance. After each shot, we had to staple the keys back up onto the ceiling in exactly the same place for our continuity to be successful, although this took some time it was worth it.  Was made a mark on the ceiling so no problems abrupt.

Our timing went well and we didn’t run out of time although we used our time and wisely and successfully and kept filming until we had to stop as we were prepared to work hard and wanted to get the best possible outcome. For example, Charlie had warned us that half way through the day he had to go to a theatre lesson, therefore we used our time wisely and shot all the opening title shots when he was gone. During each title shot of the keys, we purposely made these shots 30 seconds each so we weren’t short of footage and we had safe shots for editing.

Overall throughout the day, my favourite part was learning and trying the shot of the focus pull. I found this shot very trying, as it was a challenge to get the focus exactly where you wished; however, I liked the challenge. I drew the focus pull when Charlie finds the main key, which is a crucial element in our sequence, so I felt I had power at this point. Everyone in my group tried this shot and everyone successfully completed after some shots.