Shoot Day Two
Today was the second day of my shoot. This was focused around filming the scenes featuring James.
Call sheet:
I again was the only crew for my shoot as I only needed to film the visuals. Filming with Ellie gave me a clearer idea of which exact shots I needed to film of James which made the shoot day very smooth. Having filmed with Ellie I also knew how best to plan which location we went to first so that we could visit them in a logical order to make the most of the time we had.
The first location we went to was the entrance of the country lane to film the scenes where James discovers the car accident. This was very straight forward as a lot of the impact of this shot will be added in post production.
The second location was the wooded area. This was very quick to film as all I needed was a medium shot tracking James walking towards the camera through the wood.
We then went back to the country lane to film various different scenes at different points of the lane. Near the middle of the lane we filmed the end of the film where James is following Ellie and then loses her before they reunite and walk down the lane together. Further down the lane we filmed the beginning of the sequence where James follows Ellie. This involved tracking James from behind and then getting some medium / close up shots of his face as he realises Ellie is the one dropping flowers.
After the country lane, we filmed in the open field. Like the wooded area, this was very straight forward as all I needed was the medium tracking shot following James walking towards the camera through this location.
Once all of the outside scenes were filmed, we filmed in the house. This involved filming James looking at the clock and also the montage sequences. I also filmed James looking at pictures of Ellie and also opening the door to find the trail of flowers.
Overall the shoot was very successful - I stuck very closely to my shot list and only gained a couple of extra shots such as James’ feet walking (however, I am unsure whether these will be used). I still need to film the audio aspects for James’ scenes but this should be very straight forward and will be done when I have the rough cut together.
What went well:
- The scheduling for this day worked well. Due to the sun setting earlier, we had less light to film in and therefore less time. As my pre production preparation was good, I managed to film everything in the short amount of time I had.
- James was very easy to direct - he followed instructions well and was inquisitive about the shots which made me put deeper thought into them e.g. I hadn’t expressed how I wanted James to look in the shots - together we decided that he would have a dazed look - confused but curious. We kept asking ourselves “how would you react if you thought you were following your dead girlfriend?” Although we did think you would be quite horrified by seeing your dead partner, we decided he would curious / dazed instead.
- The exposure on the footage was exactly how I wanted it. In a couple of the shots I filmed with Ellie, I realised some of them were slightly overexposed. Because of this I wanted to ensure James’ shots were all exposed correctly to create the dark / overcast atmosphere.
- All of the shots are in focus (with the exception of the shot circling around James as I wanted this shot to look as if James is very dazed / confused / overwhelmed / may even pass out).
What could be improved:
- The handheld nature of the shots did mean that some appeared quite shaky / unstable. I did want to have a slightly handheld look about it to convey the unsteadiness of the character as he is dazed / confused, however, I feel some shots just look shaky instead of having the intended look. I will attempt to stabilise this in post production, however, in future I will consider taking out equipment like the fig rig or the steadicam.
- I was not able to get my actors together on the same day so I had to step in at the end for the long shot where they link arms whilst I left the camera on the tripod. Although it is barely noticeable that it isn’t the same actress, it would have been better to have the actors together so I could be behind the camera ensuring the exposure remained correct and the shot was in focus.
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