House Shoot

Today was an early start, 5am wake up. This was so that we could get the set all sorted. Even though it was dressed we still had all the equipment to put up. The lighting was the most difficult because we had to get it right. As all the previous days me and Becki took pictures to document the day. We also helped out in any way that we were needed.

This was the first shoot that I was apart of where we got a real actor in. It was nerve wracking at first when we met Brian because we didn't know him and we didn't know what his reaction would be to us even though we told him that we were students.

The day went really great and we got all the footage that we needed.

Phone Box Shoot

Today we had the phone box shoot. It was freezing. We didn't know what the weather would be like because it wasn't snowing in Blackburn and their was no snow on the ground. However on the way the weather kept changing from snow on the ground to nothing. When we arrived at the location there was snow on the ground but it wasn't snowing. Whilst we were setting up the scene it started to snow. This was a good thing because it was what we wanted. We had a few problems because farmers kept driving by and their was also a shooting party in the distance so we could hear the shots. This meant the shoot was longer than planned because we would have to wait for a a break in the shooting so that we could film and get clear audio.It also took longer because Aaron wanted the best out of our actress, this meant working with her a little so that we could get the emotion that we wanted. On set there isn't much that me and Becki can do a producers. We took pictures to document the day and we made sure that everyone was as warm as could be by providing hot water bottles to people.

Test Shoot

Today (yes a Sunday) we went to the house again to do a test shoot, as we will be going out to film at the phone box tomorrow. When we first got there we thought that a good cup of tea (Hot Chocolate) was in order. Whilst having our drinks Aaron was in the other room doing work. I told him that he should come and sit down and we can talk about tomorrows shoot. Apparently I'm the sensible on in the crew as Aaron gets carried away and I can just say that we need to get this out the way first then we have all day to do something else. Throughout the day Me and Becki documented the day through pictures. We did a kind of storyboard through pictures so that we know what kind of shots that we all want, even though Aaron is the camera operator. Today we also decided that we would have a look at the lighting. Lighting can take a while to get right so we decided that we would spend the day finishing the dressing of the set, looking at different camera shots and getting the lighting right.

Production Meeting

Yesterday Becki, Aaron, Josh and James went location scouting to find the perfect location for the phone box scene. We had to scout for another location because the one that me, Becki, Sammie and Chelsea found was unusable because of the weather. (The pictures are on the previous post).

When we found out this news we weren't too happy because of all the hours spent looking for a location, but there was nothing that we could do. We needed a telephone box that was open so that we could film inside it. There was also good news. the group that went scouting for locations after discovering we couldn't use the one that us girls found, actually found the perfect location. It was in the middle of nowhere, with no traffic and had the perfect background.

We all loved the location and thought that it would look brilliant. However there was a downside as this location didn't have a telephone box. However we did found out that Aaron had been doing some research. He had found a website that had all the telephone box's in Britain on. He looked for telephone box's in the area that we wanted to film in and as luck would have it, he found one. Even better news was that it was red which is what we wanted in the first place. We thought that we would struggle with using a red telephone box because of the panels on it, they would make it more difficult to film in. There were still some questions that needed to be answered as it was said that we needed an open telephone box because of filming issues. It soon became clear to people that the phone box would look amazing against the snow. The contrast between the white and the red. I said we couldn't just turn up on the day and everything would be fine. We needed to go to the location to see if we could use it. Becki and Aaron decided that they would go and recce the telephone box sometimes over the weekend ready for us to film on Monday 21st. We really hope that we can use this location as we all agree that it will look amazing, however it was agreed that if we couldn't we would have to go with our backup plan of having our actress on her mobile phone in the middle of nowhere.

After this we had an advanced camera workshop with Graham. I wanted to be involved in this workshop because I hadn't really done much to do with lighting. He quickly went three point lighting with us, just as a refresher. 

• The key light is the main source of light. This goes to the left of right of the subject.
• The back light goes behind the subject, this adds highlights to the subject. It is also referred to as the hair light.
• The fill light goes on the opposite side of the key light. This light fills in shadows.

We showed Graham the floor plan and some still shots from the recce. Graham suggested how we could light it, but he also said that when we take the lighting to try and work it out that we would end up changing things. He suggested that we should put a light in the back of the living room, this should make it look like daytime. For this we would need to cover the windows so that the lighting would be consistent. He suggested that we experiment with CTB Gels and diffusion paper.

After all this I had a Tanzania meeting with Graham and the rest of the film making students that are going to Tanzania. We showed him the ideas that we had got down, he thought that there were some good documentary ideas but he wants us to be more specific with the ideas. He wants us to make treatments for the final ideas. He would like us to do some more research. I told him that I would like to use the Tanzania footage for my FMP, he said if I wanted to do this then I should make my own treatment for what I would like to do.

Child Action Filming

Yesterday me and Sammie agreed to come into college and film at King George's hall, so that the rest of this months drama group could go to the telephone box on Mitton road to do a recce and possibly and test shoot. When me and Sammie arrived in college we were asked by our tutor to run the Television studio and subsequently do the interviews for Child Action. I was producing all ten of the short films for Child Action before Christmas, but because of certain events it was decided that we would no longer do these short films. Instead this day was booked and all the interview would be done on this day. They would then be edited and handed to Child Action and HE. I was not going to be apart of the filming for today, but after being asked to run the interviews I agreed to do it. Also working with me and Sammie was Chelsea who wanted to be apart of the filming so thorughout the day she was the Floor manager as well as a guy called Lee, who our tutor asked us to show him how to be a floor manager and let him have a go.

I was really nervous because I had never run the Television studio before, without Tutor supervision. My tutor told me that I would be fine. He set up the lighting for us as we didn't have much time, me and Sammie where the subjects so that the lighting would be good and wouldn't have to be changed.

Throughout the day we were really working by ear. We didn't know who was coming in and what they were going to talk about. We were originally told that the filming would only last the morning, but it soon became clear that it was a whole day shoot. To begin with we didn't know who would be interviewing people, but it turned out that Harriet who is a manager at Child Action would be interviewing them. Originally we were going to do a two shot, but Harriet didn't want to be in shot so we changed it to a one shot (over the shoulder) When the second person came in to be interviewed, it turned out that it was a couple. I panicked a bit because I didn't expect this, we asked Brian to come in and help us because we didn't know what to do. We simply changed the chairs so that both interviewees would have the lighting on them. At the beginning of this interview I thought we had a problem because the woman's mic wasn't working, I realised that we had turned it off before the interviews started because we didn't need both mics as Harriet didn't want to be in shot. Because of this the beginning of the interview isn't usable unless we can do something with the audio in editing. Also in the middle of the interview the woman dislodged the mic wire, this meant throughout the interview the mic is visible. I didn't realise this till nearly the end of the interview. I don't know whether Sammie noticed this or not. Another interview that could be a problem was one where the man was very fidgety. We asked him to sit still but throughout the interview he kept moving. Because the cameras where locked this meant that no one was on the camera. I'm not sure whether we should have stopped the interview and manned the camera or not. However if we would have done that then the camera would have been moving back and forwards constantly. The only things wrong with the interview is that the looking view is sometimes on the wrong side because the interviewee kept moving.

I had a few jobs throughout the day. I looked after the guest and made sure they had everything they wanted, although Sammie and Chelsea seemed to want to leave and get the orders. I was also the one getting the Camera shots. Throughout the day I would go into the TV studio and get the camera shot when the interviewee is seated then go back to the gallery. I would also clip the mic onto the interviewee. I'm not sure whether there was a director today, but I would say that I also did this role as I made sure that the camera was right, people had what they wanted and that all the interviews were done on time.

Drama A Month
Most of the production crew for the 'Drama A Month' went to the location on Mitton Road today, however they said that we couldn't use this location as the telephone box was all frosted. Even when they used the d-icer they still couldn't get a clear image. Because of this they traveled 130 miles to try and find a new location. They found what they have termed Narnia. I have seen the pictures but it was agreed that we would talk about it tomorrow as it would be easier that talking about it on Facebook chat.

This was the original location that we wanted to use, but as
you can see from the photo's it us unusable due to the
weather.

This is Narnia

House Dressing

Today the crew went to the house. The crew includes; Me, Aaron Dunleavy, Sammie Scott, Becki Gill, James Hibbert, Chelsea Martin and Anthony Preston. Today's purpose was really just to dress the house and determine some possible shots. Me and Becki documented the day by taking photo's.
This is one of the spaces that we have to work with;

Even though the space is quite small we still have quite a lot of space to work with as we don't want to overdo the decorations. We think that the couple would have quite a low key Christmas  so just a Christmas tree and a few decorations. We don't want the house to look bare though. We have the use of the kitchen/dinning room and the living room, but it appears that we only need to use about a third of this space. 

Once we all knew the location we all looked through the decorations and decided which ones we could use. We want decorations that look older. So any that appear new we just packed straight back up. 

We didn't want to go over the top with decorations. We tried a few things out that didn't work, but I felt that the most important part of the decorations is the Christmas tree. The motto of the day was 'Less is more'. This came from Aaron's 1-1 with Douglas Hart after he came in to do a guest lecture as part of the guest lecture series. Whilst on set we also looked at Douglas Harts short film 'Long Distance Information' to get some inspiration. Douglas Harts short is the main inspiration behind this short drama. It is what really got the idea going. 

Long Distance Information from Richard Simpson Film on Vimeo.

At this point we were checking the attic
to see if there were any old decoration
in there that we could use (there were
none)

At this point we wanted to add the mirror to give the room some
depth. It did the job.

We won't be using these lights round the doo, we wanted to
see what they would look like and whether they would go
with the set. We all decided that it was too much.

Once we set the room up we got Chelsea and James to be stand in actors so that me, Becki and Aaron could get some possible shots. This was so that we would have a better idea on the test shoot day. Some of the shots I got I think are good whilst others aren't

By the end of the day we realised that we would have a problem with the natural light. Aaron said that we would just see on the day. My opinion was that we should just block out the window so that we have full control over the lighting. It was decided that this is what we would do as we need to have full control.

Overall today has been a very productive day. We have some idea of the shots that we want to get. We have foreseen some of the problems that we could face and come up with plans to prevent these problems from happening. The set is pretty much finished, on the day of the test shoot we might decided that we want to make some changes. A day like today shows that we have a good crew. We got a lot done today and have a plan for some of the other days. I believe that so far I am fulfilling my role as Assistant Producer.