Shoot day reflection

The morning of the shoot, my task was to prepare the actors in costume and makeup. Whilst I was doing this, my production group cleared out all the items in the shipping container to use our time efficiently. We met at 08:10 am in the classroom and layed out all our props needed where some needed to be altered such as putting fake blood on the white t-shirt and cutting some holes in it to make it look more ragged. I then gave the costumes to our actors with Adam (the victim) wearing a white t-shirt, black jeans and black shoes and Ali wearing a black hoodie, black jeans and black shoes. I then met with Adam and started to do

his special fx makeup while Sophie, Elias and Raff cleared out the shipping container. We tried to do this on the Friday during the day however this was not possible as it was needed for other shoots. Although we thought time would be an issue because of this, it made us work a lot more efficiently and it was not a problem. After clearing out the shipping container and I had completed Adam's makeup, we began to put all our props and anything we needed for set design inside the container. Raff and I set up the mugshot photos by sticking them on the wall of the shipping container whilst Sophie and Elias set up the fake money in the duffle bag. We placed all the weapons on hooks in the shipping container which I had covered in fake blood before the shoot. We placed the chair in the middle, the radio on the side and the mirror on the table along with the bottles which were supposed to be alcohol bottles but got taken by the school cleaners however this was not an issue as it wasn't a major part of our narrative. The last thing we did involving set design was light the titan tubes which was the final step as we wanted to see how it would look on camera and where they would need to be placed. 

Elias then set up the camera as he was the camera operator and I did any final touches on Adam's makeup which were mainly applying fake blood and bruising makeup all over his arms. We then began filming. We swapped roles throughout this however Elias was the camera operator for the majority of it and Raff was the director, therefore, I did not get a chance to use the camera myself. I was okay with this as I did miss the first camera workshop because I was unwell therefore I did not feel as confident as the rest of my production team. Overall, I believe the shoot went very well and we were the first production group out of all of our teacher's classes to finish as quickly as we did. We didn't start filming until around 10:20 am which I thought was going to make the process very stressful but this was not the case because we had spent the first two hours preparing everything so by 10:20 we were ready to go. I believe our shoot day went as smoothly as it did due to the simplicity of our opening sequence. We wanted to make it effective so we only used two actors and one location allowing us to focus more on the characters' acting, the camera shots and other elements of the opening sequence without having to stress about time management. We experimented with a range of shots however two which were more challenging was filming Adam in the mirror as sometimes you could see Elias's hand or even the camera therefore this was a shot that we spent more time doing. Another shot that was more challenging due to practical purposes was filming Adam exiting the shipping container. This was because there are ramps that would get knocked over by the duffle bag and create an unintentional loud bang. We sorted this problem simply by Adam angling the duffle bag differently so nothing would get knocked over. I learnt a lot in our shoot day as I missed the first camera workshop so I now feel a lot more confident when shooting. I feel like this will also help me in the future for any acting I would like to do myself as I now know how a shoot works which will benefit me when acting in other production groups opening sequences. When filming we experimented with many different ways of performing the more violent shots which will come together well when editing. For example, when Ali (our villain) hits Adam (our victim) on the foot with a hammer, we filmed shots of Adam's reaction and Ali hitting the floor as obviously we weren't doing it. We also filmed a shot of Adam's shoe with his foot not in it but instead a stick looking object. As Ali hit the floor, Adam lifted his part of the shoe where the toes are to portray him being hurt by the hammer. We had to film all of the violent scenes very carefully to make them look realistic. In some shots, we placed all of our jackets on the floor of the shipping container for Ali to fall on as we did them numerous times so he would have a comfortable landing. We used skills we had learnt in the camera workshop in our opening sequence such as saying 'standby, roll camera, camera rolling, action and cut" which was beneficial to make sure everyone was prepared to begin and end filming the scene needed. The 180-degree rule was especially beneficial when shooting as we were filming in such a confined space, it was very necessary to use to capture the right shots which when edited together will hopefully flow seamlessly. 

My favourite part of the day was preparing Adam to begin filming. I enjoyed doing the makeup and this was the first time I had done it in a more under pressure situation as time was something I was most worried about. I loved working with the props and set design therefore my job as art director worked out very well. My least favourite part was probably using the fake blood which got all over my hands as I has to touch up Adam's makeup multiple times therefore I felt worried about touching any equipment as I did not want to damage anything. I also did not want to leave to wash my hands as I would miss out on shooting. I am very happy with the footage we shot on camera the green lighting created by the titan tubes looked amazing on camera and created an aesthetic image. If we were to do it again, I would like to have some experience using a camera beforehand so I would feel confident to shoot myself however I did enjoy my role as the art director. When it comes to editing, I am most excited about linking the action scenes together as we filmed the reactions in one shot and violence in another so when we edit it the overall opening sequence will come together. In the edit suite, I feel like I will most struggle with using sound as we learnt how to unlink it to remove any unwanted sound to create a seamless effect. This is not difficult to do however it will be quite a time consuming as we filmed many different shots, especially for the action scenes. Overall I feel like the shoot went very well and I am excited to edit it to see how it will all come together for our opening sequence. This is my behind the scenes video I made of the shoot day.