Scene's that we completed on shoot day two were -
(Shoot week schedule)
What want well and what didn't go so well is summarised in this vlog video I captured during the shooting week. I felt by doing these video's it would help me summarise easier what I felt worked and didn't work throughout the day and what could of went better. I've tried to assess my own work and speak about others in the team that I felt worked well/didn't work so well.
(Vlog post-shoot day 2)
Scene - 9, 10, 11, and 12. - Dining room scenes.
WHAT -
We had already done scene 8 on shoot day one, however Will and I had noticed that you couldn't really make out what was on the table, so we decided to reshoot the master shot from scene 8 so that we'd have no issues with continuity within the edit. This did mean though however that I'd already set up the lighting equipment and camera/tripod for this the day before, so in that sense I was pretty fortunate and there wasn't much to move around/play with regarding the lights. After fixing the position of the master shot we carried on with filming all of these dining room scenes. As it was quite heavy with dialogue, I knew we had to follow the shot-list and make sure we had a variety of different shots to get so that once it came to the edit Aimee had a lot to edit with, to make these scenes less lethargic but more energetic. As all of these scenes are based in the same location the positioning of lights and the camera only really changed when we were capturing different angles, so I filmed all of these sequences from the master shot first, literally going from scene 9 all the way to scene 12 with the master. Then once we retrieved all this footage from the desired shot, myself and Will told the actors that we'll go from the top of scene 9 again, just from different angles. We started with all the singles of the actors, then got some two shots, then close ups and extreme close ups of the actors. I made sure that i'd get some action shots of the actors doing things, i.e pressing buttons on the laptop etc. As we were doing this sequence, I thought it'd be a nice idea to replace the laptop with the camera, to give it the feel that we the audience are the laptop, and the characters are staying into us. This wasn't on the shotlist, but I thought it'd add a bit more depth to our piece and felt it suited the kind of aesthetic were going for. I made sure all the settings were the same from the prior filming day, did this by having everything set up before the actors came in the morning, and turning on all the lights and camera, leaving me ready to jump into action straight away.
We had a slight issue that arisen on the day, Andrew had left the boom pole leant against the wall, it then slid down the wall and whacked the wire connected to the lamp on the table (which was a key light for the characters faces), and smashed it on the floor! So we had to think of a way around this smash as the light had been on in every scene up until number 11? We found a solution by adding in a small piece of dialogue, which Ralph and Sam ridicule Danny for smashing the lamp accidentally. I feel as if you wouldn't really be able to tell that it was a thrown together piece literally there and then. From then on I made sure that the LED light to the right of me was at a much brighter strength than it was previously.
Half way through the day, when it came to about lunch time I'd make sure myself and Andrew would give Aimee our footage from both the camera and tascam for her to digitalise. This will continue throughout the whole shoot week as it's extremely efficient in the way we keep on top of our footage and maintaining a good work flow. I made sure that at lunch time i'd put all the batteries on charge from the camera and lighting kit. This was also the first day where we started using a monitor screen for everyone in our crew to see how it visually looked on a bigger screen.
LIGHTING/FRAMING/MOVEMENT/SETTING DECISIONS
I made sure that the lighting within these scenes was consistent with how it was the previous day, even though they're different locations I wanted a steady and neat finish to the aesthetic. I had two LED lights, one to the left and right of me, the one on the left was pointed upwards to the ceiling, whereas the one to the right was faced towards the characters as this was to now fill in the gap that was left due to the destroyed light. I also thought it'd be a good idea to have a back light behind the wall in the kitchen, obviously unable to be seen, but i've positioned it to make it look as if it's natural light coming in from the kitchen window. I felt this was a significant addition to the lighting set up because it filled the room with more light, which because i'm filming in log-format, will give me more depth amongst the highlights and the shadows, hopefully resulting in a much richer colour grade. Throughout the shoot days I had the colour grade in mind, so I was keeping an eye on the colour histogram, making sure all the colour popping through were equal so that when it did come to the colour grading stage, there wouldn't be a dominant colour shining through.
As we'd done scene 8 the day prior to this, framing wise I knew how the day would start off. Additionally as we knew the filming for scene 8 needed doing again, I organised the camera appropriately. The only scene that would require setting adjustments would be scene 11 where we meet the drug dealer outside the front door. For this I just slammed down the ISO, slightly closed the iris so restrict some of the light coming in and set up camera in a position that would best portray him as a drug dealer. We wanted this scene short and snappy, so I got two point of view shots from the perspective of the drug dealer and Ralph, for the money shot, we did record a shot where the camera acted as the drug dealer and the money was thrown into the lens, acting as his face. I'm not sure if this will make the cut but I felt it could work. Peaking, colour histogram and the zebra came in handy for this specific scene as it was outside and I couldn't really see much of the actual footage on the LCD screen because of the brightness. I was able to maintain enough control on the image because of these tools which ultimately saved the footage from being unusable.
ISO - 400
Shutter Speed - 1/60
White Balance - 5000K
UNGRADED
Handheld
ISO - 400
Shutter Speed - 1/60
White Balance - 5000K
UNGRADED
Static
ISO - 400
Shutter Speed - 1/60
White Balance - 5000K
UNGRADED
Handheld
ISO - 60
Shutter Speed - 1/60
White Balance - 5000K
UNGRADED
Static
ISO - 60
Shutter Speed - 1/60
White Balance - 5000K
UNGRADED
Handheld
WHAT I LEARNT & EVALUATION
- This day finished quite quickly and we were able to look back at all of the footage we recorded and conclude on whether or not we needed to do any reshoots.
- I felt as if when we did the drug dealer scene, it may of been overexposed, but that's my fault with using the log format and not realising.
- Another day with the actors made me realise how great they were at their lines and delivery.
- Tension was beginning to build amongst the crew, we were getting ratty on set and not being particularly professional.
- From the first day I knew that this was going to need concentration and patience, where as I felt other people in the team didn't have that mindset.
- Overall the day panned out pretty well and went smoothly. I know that we had the whole day to shoot these four scenes so it's about taking your time, and reshooting the scene from the top if need be, to get the right shot.
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