Major Project: Reshoot day 2/ Issues with scheduling

Due to actors availability, the reshoot was originally booked a month in advance, which was roughly about three weeks before the deadline. I was confident that I would still be able to make the deadline because in my mind, the reshoot wasn't a lot of shots. Especially since I already had half of the shots that I wanted to use, the re shoot would've been a really short day of just pick ups and re-doing just a few shots. So, after creating a schedule and sending it to all the appropriate people, I received a message from my main actor telling me that he has double booked a job, and the job last minute change the time and date of the shoot which now clash with my shoot day . This was probably one of the worst things he could've told me, because I finally got everyone on board and I managed to get everyone's availability to match up for this one day. The task of organising a re shoot is already difficult because there are so many things to consider, for example the house that I wanted to use is pretty much only available on weekends. The reshoot day was scheduled for Saturday , And now he tells me that he can't do it that left me with either  Sunday or the next weekend which then leaves me just over two weeks to hand in. 

So, since the reshoot was pretty much based on having the mum, I messaged her to see if she was available on Sunday or to see what other days should be available. She then gave me the worst news possible that she wasn't available any more and how she didn't want to give my production any more time, she was too busy to do it. Now I began to panic because time was seriously running out and I can't afford to not shoot that week, it was so frustrating because I literally had a whole month of not doing anything because the whole reshoot was set for that day and now it won't be happening all because another director wasn't organised and had to change dates. I partly blamed moses because It seems as though he chose a brand new student production over mine. Something he was involved in since last year did not take priority over a job he got 2 days before my shoot.. so, it was a little bit of a shock. It's also my fault because I did not make him sign a contract for the re shoot because we had built a rapport where I thought he was very trustworthy and reliable. Now I understand that words aren't really something you can count on when there's business involved, you HAVE to get people to sign a contract. I feel as though if I was a bigger company, this wouldn't have happened so it was a shame. Long story short, I now had to find someone immediately, I posted things on every social media account I had, in the end it was moses who told me about the woman he was on the shoot with, she ended up becoming the new mum for my production. This was a challenge because I didn't know what she looked like or if she could act but I was desperate and needed someone. I filled her in with all the pre production ect and we were now set to shoot on the following Saturday. Shooting on that Saturday meant that I had just under 2 days until I would show my edit to Simon and Andrea. The pressure was on. 

The schedule:

The shoot itself;

The shoot went well, for once I was super early and I arrived before everyone else. I noticed the difference in being really prepared and being on time. My actor Moses arrived really early as well because he was already at a house that was nearby. I had high hopes for the shoot because everyone seem to be punctual so far. It was important that everyone was early because I scheduled more time to set up in order to make sure the ronin would be as smooth as it could possibly be. Sam was on time but the sound operator was not, he had the ronin as well so that caused a slight delay. The ronin took a little bit longer to set up and I was slightly running behind schedule.

We started shooting the stabilised shots first, I had to assist Sam when holding the Ronin because it became very heavy which meant you'd see the camera shake.

What went well

• The new actress arrived, her name was Amey and at first she wasn't quite what I expected. She had a very loud and peculiar voice, one that really carried through the room as if she did theatre. I thought it would be a challenge to direct her on the delivery of the dialogue especially since it's her first time fully going through the script. But I was grateful nonetheless because I wouldn't actually be able to film without her. Surprisingly, Amey did take direction well and I never really had to tell her to do something more than once so that was great. 

• The rest of the shoot day went well, and I managed to add all the extra shots that I wanted. I was confident that it would enhance my story as a whole. 

• Another thing I liked about the shoot is I managed to change around the interior and make the dinner scene look much more ascetically pleasing. Before, one of the issues I had was I didn't like the blind wall and the blank table, I felt as though it looked very clinical and did not have an element of home to it. And so, this time I repositioned the dinner table, brought a blanket from home and rearrange some more items I'm is in the background to give it some life. 

As you can see, The shots when compared to each other look much more aesthetically pleasing and so I am really happy with my choice of reshooting. I still shot the dinner scene but I scrapped the actual prayer as I felt it was too long and not needed. When watching back the old footage, I felt like it was a little bit fake and not quite realistic in some ways. I felt as though if I was going for the religious theme, I should've made it more prominent throughout the script and not just with one scene. So on the re shoot day, I made an active decision to minimise the dinner scene and have the actors improvise a little bit instead. There was something not quite right with this dinner scene, something felt a little bit staged and I think its because I'm not sure how relatable the parents are. I think I should've gone with a more "rough around the edges" instead of a really "proper" family. I fear that this would have a slight disconnect but I'm unsure. My reason for having a family that is seemingly "perfect" was to to take away from them being the sole reason as to why Isaiah would be upset, even though that still is the case, I'm unsure about my decision to make the family this way. I have a feeling in the edit that I might actually get rid of that in the scene as a whole and just keep a Time-lapse because it's pretty much the same moment that we get, only that the timeline gets there quicker.

ADR

After shooting all the visuals, I now needed to record Isaiah's individual thoughts, as well as the missing audio from there already edited scenes. I had my actor watch back the clips and say them the exact way. He did an amazing job at this and it was almost seamless in his response. The only issue is that Sigourney's version probably won't match because the acoustics in which she recorded was not the same. However, I will try my best to fix this in post production as she isn't available to record separately. 

Criticisms

• Im still not quite happy with how the stabiliser wasn't as smooth as it could've been. Next time I won't use this device unless the person really knows how to get it working the best they can.

Overall:

• Really happy with how the day went as I was now totally finished shooting. 
• Everyone worked really well as a team

Next steps

• Edit everything within 2 days and show Simon and Andrea for the final time before the group viewing.