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Week Nine
This week was the first official week of Production. I was driven to pick up my actors from Chelmsford, and then to each location that was assigned on the Production Schedule.
Action Plan Follow-Up
The target I set myself to complete for this week was to ensure I am implementing the techniques I have experimented with into my Production and importantly, showing the evidence of this. I have successfully done this as within Monday filming the Bedroom scenes I filmed the one-point lighting setup that we used within the scene that I had experimented with before hand, this was the same on Thursday within the Doctor Scene I showcased how I used the one-point lighting setup to create suspense through lowkey lighting in the wide shot.
Monday
On Monday, we filmed all the house scenes at Barn Mead (My Grandad’s House). Charlie Hooks picked me up and we went to the location. I also began to start a base grade on the scenes just to check if the colours worked as I was still waiting for my Colour Checker to arrive.
Feelings
Initially, especially the night before, I was feeling very stressed out. This was my first ever time working with external actors who aren’t my friends or family so I was worried it might be awkward, or they might get fed up if we took too much time to get a shot and stuff as I have only really spoken to them a few times. The journey to get them was very nerve-racking. However, quite quickly we connected with them well it was easy to start conversations and we got on super well, this lowered the tension and stress a lot making me a lot more chilled out before filming the first scene. To add onto this, my car had just broken down as well so scheduling my friends and family to help with travel especially back and forth to Chelsmford was an unnecessary addition of stress that I did not need. However, as we began filming I felt very confident about how the first day of Production was going, I saw the potential this film had to be a successful Cinematic piece.
Evaluation
The first about Production Day that stood out as successful to me was the usefulness of the Production Schedule. I stated within my Project Proposal about how throughout the last year of College I found scheduling everything beforehand was a massive help to the success of a project, and this has been very apparent. There was many different rooms in the house I had to film in and with the use of a Production Schedule I could ensure that I don’t miss any particular shots and have to revisit places I’ve already filmed in which in essence, would waste a lot more time.
Something else that went well about the first day of Production was how organised all my actors and crew were. Beforehand, I provided the actors with all the necessary planning documents to allow them to practice and be ready for what is happening on each day. I stated on my Project Proposal that Planning Schedules were something I have learnt the importance of over the last few years hence why I was very cautious and active with ensuring all my actors and crew are prepared, which in essence led to a very successful first production day.
A section that wasn’t overly successful with the first day of Production was how much time I could spend at the main location. As my Grandad was there, he wanted to make his dinner and sleep so we got a little pushed to finish up and rush. This way okay, but it meant the kitchen scene was filmed at a completely different location which wasn’t a deal breaker for me, but for people that like to notice small details they would most likely see this. To ensure this doesn’t happen again, I need to be more organised with dates and times from the people who own the facility that I’m using.
As a whole the day went really successful but the last part that definitely could have gone better was right at the beginning when picking up the actors and shooting the first scene. As this was the first time I had met and even properly spoke to external actors, it was a little awkward and I didn’t want to take a lot of time getting a scene to look perfect, so I didn’t. I wasn’t unhappy with the outcome, but looking back at it now there is a fair few things I would do differently.
Wednesday
On Wednesday, I filmed all the scenes at Finchingfield with the child actors as this was the only day they had available for the next few weeks. In the evening up until the late night of that day, I also filmed the Train Station sequence at Hatfield Peverel.
Feelings
As it got around to Wednesday, I was rather stressed. This day on the Weather app seemed to have stayed sunny for the last week. However, when I woke up I checked the forecast and it said clouds all day which really made me panic. The main part of today was flashbacks showcasing the happy memories between Matt Sarah and their late child, Sophie. But with the clouds, everywhere outside looked miserable even a place like Finchingfield. However, I built myself some confidence up as I remember filming on a cloudy day at Finchingfield for the Group Project, and with the power of Colour Grading I was able to take a moody day into a cheerful one within DaVinci Resolve. So reassuring myself of my good ability of Colour Grading, I put my mind to ease and at the same time, I knew there was nothing I could do to change the forecast. I was super pleased with how the Finchingfield and Train scenes were filmed, it was surprisingly not challenging to try to get the child actors to do what they were supposed to, they were good listeners and played along well to fit the emotional resonance of the film.
Evaluation
A huge part of the day I was not expecting to go as smoothly as it did was the child actors. I thought they were going to be hard to control, but I was wrong. They listened so well and I think their acting was spot on. I could not fault it at all. The impact this had on my film was great, I was worried about the emotional aspect was going to be ruined if they weren’t the best, but this was something I did not need to worry about now. Another aspect of the day that went really successful was how prepared the actors came. When it got to filming, they already knew the scene and lines so well it astonished me. Normally in my productions, I have to sit there with the actors as they didn’t overly know any of the lines, but with Dan and Lois it was different and became an apparent help with the productiveness on set.
Something that could have gone a lot better with the day was planning out the Train sequence beforehand. I hadn’t visited Hatfield Peverel Station before so I was essentially going blind into shooting it. This became apparent as I had to spend a lot of time looking around the place for potential filming shots, which in essence wasted a lot of time resulting in us filming till times as late as 1am. I wasn’t very happy with this, but it did prove to me the importance of planning.
Thursday
On Thursday, I filmed the whole Church Sequence at Bocking Church and then in the evening as we were looking around the facilities right next to the church that I had access too, we found a room that was perfect for the Doctor and Work scene, so I filmed those in the evening too.
Feelings
Initially, I was quite nervous going into Thursday. The Church Scene was a pivotal part imy film where I had to direct around 15 people, a lot more than the typical 1-3 I have on scene, so the nerves and stress were very high. However after arriving there and greeting everyone, the nerves slowly started to fade away and by the time I was filming, they were gone. I was super pleased with how the shots came out in the church, we initially filmed the monologue at 6pm, but I decided to have patience and re-shoot it the moment the sun started settings to create a glow on the subject's face, which came out beautifully. In the evening, I had a lot of fun filming the doctor and work scenes, sharing many laughs with the actors Dan and Lois, and my mate Charlie.
Evaluation
What went really well about this week was how I implemented the Reflector Technique that I researched into throughout my Contextual Research Report and then further experimented with throughout my Experimentation stage. I actually came to the conclusion within my Experimentation that I weren’t going to use it inside of my Production however, I saw an opportunity inside to reflect the sunlight on my subject’s face and it was executed perfectly keeping the scene natural compared to how the reflector looked inside of my Experimentation. This just goes to show how different techniques can really depend on the conditions of that day, I got unlucky within my Experimentation and the day was rather blue. However, the sunlight already created a warm glow so I knew the Reflector would only enhance this more.
Another element of the day that went so well, and quite frankly astonished me, was the acting within the church monologue. Watching it in real time alone without music, the grade and the b-roll got me in the feels, it was so great. Lois put herself into this character and explored the emotion perfectly, I could not fault this at all.
Something that could have gone better was the shot planning. I obviously went into the day knowing the sort of shots I wanted. However, I did not spend much time thinking about specifics, I could have resolved this with spending more time scouting out the church but I didn’t want to intrude for too long before hand. This led to the extras becoming rather frustrated with me taking long to get certain shots which resulted in me not gathering every single shot I wanted as they had to leave by a certain time. This was okay, I got enough just looking back at it there are certain different shots I would have liked to get.
Friday
On Friday, I filmed the introduction part where my protagonist was running along the road and the therapist part.
Feelings
Initially, I was so happy with how the day was going the shots I got whilst I laying in the boot of my mate’s car holding my gimbal toward the subject came out so well and stable. I was partially worried that we were going to get caught by the police, but I also knew it was a very minor backroad where barely anyone went down so this eased my mind in the process. However, by the end of the night, I was annoyed. I thought that whilst filming the therapist section, the ending of my film, that it looked so good. I was happy initially with the acting and framing however, after dropping my actors home and playing it back on my MacBook, I hated how it looked. The pacing, the light, the framing and especially the sound was dreadful. It was 4 minutes long and I got bored within the first 30 seconds. This stressed me out so much as I knew I was going to have to take out another day to film this part and not just that, I needed to rewrite the whole scene before. I have never had to re-write a whole scene before and I am still worried it is not going to meet up to the standards of the rest of the film.
Evaluation
What went well about Friday firstly was how stable I was able to get a fast dolly-in shot. Stabilisation is something I have been very keen on ensuring it is done well ever since I first started on Film and TV, I have spent hundreds of pounds on buying my gimbal stabiliser to ensure I can have smooth shots. However, one thing I was never able to achieve was a fast paced moving shot. With the help of my friend driving, I laid in the back of his car whilst I held my Gimbal out the boot. This worked perfectly and helped me to acquire that smooth dolly in shot which I loved.
Something that very obviously could have gone better was the therapy section as a whole. A particular element of the therapy section that I need to improve on the most is the pacing. In the script, the section seemed good. But as this script got transferred into a film the pacing feels too boring and I genuinely don’t want to keep watching it after 30 seconds so I can imagine the audience would feel the exact same way too. I sent the section over to my friends to ask what they feel could be improved on the most here and they all agreed with me about the pacing, they all mentioned that it was boring and long winded.
Conclusion
To conclude the first week of Production, I was so happy with how it went as a whole. Working with experienced actors was frightening at ths start, but I learnt to cope with this and used it as motivation to really push my film to the best of my ability which I believe I have done. Everything went so smooth up until the last day, more specifically the therapist section.
Action Plan
A target I am setting myself for next week is to rewrite the whole therapist bit and instead of rushing it down onto paper, I’m going to seek for advice and ask for people’s opinions to ensure that it does not get to Production and we have the exact same disappointing result. Whilst evaluating my weeks, a key area for improvement has been rushing. I rushed into production with some of the shots not being planned out, locations weren’t properly scouted or even properly agreed on a time. So another target I am setting myself is not to rush, plan everything thoroughly as it will make all the difference when it comes to Production. As it will most likely be Post-Production or reshoots next week, I would like to ensure going into Post-Production that I keep my files neat and organised so I don't get in a mess with the various days of clips I have to edit. Lastly, I want to ensure that I am using all the information that I have Researched and techniques I have experimented with to produce the best looking Grade that I possibly can.
Problem Solving
The first issue I had when it came to filming car problems. After the first day of filming, my car started to break down preventing me from driving any long distances. This stressed me out, but luckily to overcome this issue being 18 a lot of my friends drove as well so I contacted them all to see if they could pick up my actors from Chelsmford and drop them back.
I scheduled Charlie Hooks to pick them up and drop them back Monday and Wednesday, Carl Craig on Thursday and Alfie Blayney on Friday. To ensure this issue does not occur again, my car hasn’t been having regular services or even a service at all since I have purchased it. So, I will take my car to the mechanic more often so they can potentially scout possible issues before it gets to an important time such as filming.
Within the Church Scene, the protagonist had a long, emotional monologue to read out. This meant we needed to use the RODE NTG-1 Microphone however, we had the microphone but no boom pole. At first this puzzled us because there was no way my sound operator could get a strong angle pointing towards my actors mouth without himself being in the shot. We took a while to solve this but I saw a few loose chairs at the back of church so I brought one over for my sound operator to stand on to get a higher angle to point it in the right direction.
There were still issues with him slightly being in the shot, so I decided to change the angle to a much tighter close-up of the protagonist to prevent the sound operator from accidentally weaving into the shot. To ensure this issue does not occur again, I will create a checklist of the equipment I’m taking out from the college to make sure I do not forget a vital part of the kit such as the boom pole again.
After my protagonist agrees to have some food, he sits at the dining table in the middle alone. Originally my idea was to have the other character, timelapse around him with heavy motion blur and trails. However on set, I tried to quickly edit this together to see if it would work but it came out really messy with the characters overlapping each other. To overcome this issue, my protagonist suggest that he sits to the side of the door, so he doesn't overlap with my character. This technically fixed the issue, but I didn't liked how the framing look so I suggested that we remove this scene completely and replace it with something that has the same emotional impact. This worked really well and was executed much better.
To ensure I don’t spend ages figuring out why a shot like doesn’t work and what to do instead, I should’ve experimented more with masks beforehand its a topic I haven’t looked into since my first ever project, Three Days. I also need to look into Planning and Experimenting with my shots more, it got to Production Day when I just figured out this didn't work, so with some more extensive Planning beforehand, I can ensure that I don't waste as much time as I have done figuring out what to replace this with instead.
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