Major Project: Shoot day 2

Shoot Day 2: 

 Hackney House and Nearby street

What the day consisted of; 
This shoot day was a very demanding one to say the least. There were so many scenes to get through and they were all really important so they all needed great deal of attention and precision. This shoot day had 2 locations which were very close to each other. I first shot the scenes of Isaiah and his friends (a cast of 3), before shooting all the scenes that occur within Isaiah's house (cast of 3) with a crew of 3 including myself.


What didn't go so well
Issue 1:
This shoot day was probably the biggest disaster out of all of them for so many reasons. First of all, since I lived really close to the extras I was using (Isaiah's friends) I thought it would save time and money by getting a lift with one of them who drives. BIG MISTAKE. Making this decision actually made me an hour late to my own shoot simply because both of them did not have good time keeping, he told me that he was just around the corner but he actually took 30 minutes to arrive, by then it would take too long to organise a cab. We then had to pick up the second extra who said he was ready (which he should have been because it was now 30 minutes before we were meant to shoot) but he actually delayed us again. Not only this, there were meant to be 3 extras but one didn't turn up. So, we arrive at the first location and whilst being late to my own shoot, the actual shooting took longer than expected because I now had to re position the lines in the script and split it between two instead of 3. They had not learnt the lines either. I also had some of the same issues as before. People kept walking in the shot, purposely making lots of noise and just general noise disturbance due to the fact we were right by a street. It also took longer because you can really tell the difference between actors and non actors. I had to keep doing new takes because I simply wasn't happy with the delivery of the sentences by one of the actors. This made me appreciate the work of acting more.

What I learnt:
Well, it's safe to say that I will no longer rely on certain people for transport, had I known they would be so unreliable, I wouldn't have relied on them to help me. You can really tell who takes your project seriously. Real actors being used for roles was a good idea and became apparent during this shoot because they take it much more seriously with the lines and punctuality. Its funny to think that before this project went ahead, I actually thought it would be a good idea to use non actors who suit the role thinking it would be better because maybe they would be able to bring a sense of reality to it. But now I see that isn't always a good idea. That sort of thing can only really work if the script would allow a certain type of fluidity and improvisation but my story does not so they had to follow along the lines closely due to the amount of takes we would have to do. I did allow some improvisation at the start but I made it known that they would have to say the same thing over again.

 

Issue 2: 
Since I was more than an hour over schedule, the actress who plays Isaiah's mother arrived a little early and therefore had to wait around for me before I was finished with the outside scenes. I was totally embarrassed and felt super bad that she had to wait because what would've been a few hour shoot ended up as one long, long process. I became flustered for the whole day and my shoot went over by nearly 2 hours (if not more). All because of the extras who were not prepared.


What I learnt:
TIME MANAGEMENT. There are some things you don't have control over but next time I will only rely on myself to get to the shoot venue. Everything is much difficult since I don't drive, I need to account for this even more for next time and allow more time to get to places.



What went well

• The performance from the actors was really good and I was really happy with the performance of the mum. it was really natural unlike my dad's performance. 
• My small team was really supportive and helpful throughout the whole day so it made the day as smooth as it could be despite all the mishaps
• Inside the house, the lighting and locations worked so well. I loved the look it gave and it made me realise how important it is to have a well lit space if thats the look you're going for. I felt very fortunate to be able to use the space I had.

Overall experience

The use of non actors to play roles is something I will seriously have to reconsider. I figured that because they weren't the main character I could get away with it but I actually think it really makes a big difference in the final outcome. Because now I want to cut around their dialogue to hide the fact the delivery wasn't the best. So in the future I will consider using actual actors for roles no matter how "small" the roles are.