Shoot day reflection

 Our day of filming our opening title sequence was Friday 7th May. After writing up our roles on set which included how I planned and prepared before the shooting day. In the morning, we all met early at 8:50 and gathered together the camera equipment such as the camera and charger and lens box, the tripod, the microphone, as well as the costumes and makeup which we had previously ordered off amazon and brought in the week before. We handed the costumes over to the actors before getting the car which we had planned to use and parked it in a good position outside the main school building. Originally, we had planned for the location to be outside Ewhurst boarding house, however it was easier and more practical to park the porche outside Hurtwood main House. We then set up the camera, lens and tripod and checked it was working and also connected the microphone. 

The first scenes we shot was not in order of the sequence as some of the teachers which were acting were not available at some of the times. In this case, we then positioned the camera at the drivers window to begin shooting with Mike Niland. We would first get the basic wide, mid and close up shots which have had planned to on our shot list, before experimenting with new positions, angles and compositions in order to get the best shots possible. Here are evidence photos taken on the day, as you can see the set up of our set on location. To film the first few shots in which we introduce the character, the bodyguard. our actor is in his costume, however we did not end up using the fake tattoos as we all agreed it looked tacky. This was a last minuet change however it didn't effect the outcome. We shot scenes of the bodyguard in his seat, looking through his mirror, adjusting it to his eyes and then we see the character of Jason walking towards the car in the side mirror. It took us a while to re shoot this as we kept changing which side the actor Dave entered from. In the end we changed it and he entered from the main building up to the back door of the car. In order to take the shots of Dave walking out from the building, it took many attempts. At first our cameraman Fred tried steadily walking, doing a hand held shot which we had no planned, however it was too shaky, so then our teacher Matt suggested that Fred sits in the boot, with a low hand held shot of dave walking, as the car moved forward in-front of dave, we got a very good shot. To get a good diegetic sound of Dave walking, we took another take of just the microphone recording his footsteps on the gravel to put over the clip. We took shots from inside the car during the action scene with Mike and Dave, this was very fun to film and our fake blood came in handy. We took the shooting scenes a few times from inside the car, and outside so that the audience can witness the bodyguard getting out of the car, walking round and finishing Jason off. The simple dialog used in this sequence was the bodyguard dialling the number of the Mafia Boss and saying 'it's done'. At this shot the audience can see the gun and the brick phone, implying that this man is double sided and scary. 

The second location was inside of Hurtwood House, in the headmasters office. We kept the actor, James, anonymous to the audience. This scene was quick to shoot, it concluded of a long shot of the back of the mafia boss's body on the sofa in his office, answering the phone and receiving the information from the bodyguard. This shot had to be a quick, sooth pan from the phone being answered, to it being held up to his ear. 

I thought overall what went well was our cameraman’s creative ways of taking interesting shots and not just sticking to the basic shot list. This worked well as it will keep the audience enaged and also keeps the action interesting. However, next time I would like to try out the cameraman role on set as  it looked fun and interesting. 

I learnt new technical skills such as a using a Polaroid lens to deflect the reflection and give a darker, less saturated tint to the camera lens. We used this when we were filming the outside of the car, as well as the close up hand held shots of the details of the car which I tried shooting to include in our title sequence. When I filmed these stills I did a focus pull which was new to me and made the scene look cinematic and professional. Another piece of equipment we used in order to get the right natural lighting from the sun to hit the actors faces throughout the day of filming was a light shield reflector, this was advised by Mike and Matt to keep a consistent lighting on our set outside.

From attending the camera skill workshops, I had learnt how to set up the cameras with the battery, lens and tripod, as well as the right language to use when handling the cameras, such as the ‘yours’ and ‘mine’ technique. This allowed us as a group to all handle the camera carefully. 

My favourite part of our filming day was filming the main action scene where Mike swerves around and shoots Dave in the back before walking round to check he is dead before phoning his boss. This allowed us to be creative as a group and add the fake blood for effect.

I am looking forward to take the role as editor in my group which I will begin editing our scenes this week in the editing suit on Adobe Premiere. I am excited to watch the end result once I have put together all of the best footage and added cool effects when we are editing it in post production.

As I have only had two workshops in the edit suit, the software is all still new to me so I think it will be a challenge at first but after adapting to using it and learning how to use the editing tools then it should be manageable. 

When I looked back at the footage on the folder on the computer, it was not in order as we had to film different scenes at different timings but from what I could see we managed to get all the shots.

After this first experience of filming I have learnt for next time to volunteer for a better role on the set and also to plan in advance around the timings in which the actors are free in.