Major Project: Shoot Day 3

Shoot Day 3: The Summer house - London

What the day consisted of:
Well, this shoot day was by far one of the most mentally strenuous days due to the intricacy of the required shots. This was the shoot day where I needed to capture all the art montage shots as well as  so I had to make sure my shot list was correct multiple times before I shot anything. This day also had the most outfit changes and it was important for me to make sure I don't clash outfits with the other scenes that I will be shooting/have already shot. This also meant that I had to have all the correct props for the shoot as there would be cross overs from other scenes. This really highlighted the importance of knowing your film and knowing exactly what is needed for every scene to avoid any continuity issues. I arrived early to set up the summer house as I realised during the test shoot how long it would actually take. This made the day go a little quicker and was more efficient.

The table set up:
Sadly I forgot to take a picture of the whole set up but this was the starting set up of the table. We rearranged the whole room as there were lots of boxes and other miscellaneous items which we removed.

So, I was confident with my shot list and story board so we begun setting up the equipment. The plan was to start with the outside scenes of Lily and Isaiah but my actor was running super late (again...) and I therefore had to re arrange the shooting schedule and start shooting her individual parts. So I guess no time was really wasted. 

After my actor arrived, we begun shooting the outside scenes where Isaiah first enters the summer house. Similarly to shoot day 1, outside noise disturbance really slowed down this process. In my head I knew we only needed 4 basic main shots. Wide, MCU Single reverse and a separate wide exiting shot as they walk towards the summer house.



for what seemed like every two seconds, there would be a motorcycle, loud car and the neighbours two doors down would start playing music mid takes. It was the most infuriating thing because it seemed like a never ending issue. However, we got there in the end and then it was time to move onto the next scenes.










So, due to the actor's lateness as well as the noise disturbances, I was now pushing for time. Especially as my actress told me that she couldn't stay any later than 6, I now had added pressure because even though I knew the shots I wanted would be quite simple, the intricacy would take a lot more time so this day become a lot more stressful.






What went well

• Similarly to every other day, the team work between me, Rosie and Sam was really the driving force throughout the day.
• I got most of the shots I wanted, well it definitely seemed like I got them all but I eventually realise in the edit stage that this was not the case.
• The actors really performed well and really brought the characters to life. I was super happy with how everything turned out because it was just how I imagined it.

What didn't go so well

• It is clear that my sound op wasn't really bringing much of a tactical and efficient approach to the day because me and sam had to constantly keep checking if we got the sound. For one of the major scenes which was shot on the ronin, he later told me that we didn't get sound for one of the takes. He told me this AFTER we had already packed away the ronin stabiliser and we were already set up for the next scene. I was so pushed for time I did not get to go back and re shoot the scene. We were already losing day light as well. This was super frustrating for me because I was no longer confident in what I was shooting and I knew I would now have to work even harder in the edit.
• My actress broke one of the statues in the summer house and it wasn't mine, nor was it something that could be replaced. I stressed how important it was to avoid breaking anything as it was not my house. This brought the mood down a little bit. it made me think about how things like this could be preventable in the future? but there are just some things you can't really stop from happening
• We did actually run out of time in the end and this was when I had to shoot the montage parts where Moses and Sigourney would paint on the canvases. I wanted this to be believable So, what I had to do was use Rosie's hands instead of the Actress's hands which still worked out in the end. but again, this made me think about how important time management is on a shoot. 

Overall experience

I had mixed opinions about this shoot because it was one of the really important days but I felt like it was let down by my sound operator. However I left with a much more positive outlook because regardless of the let downs by everyone else, when I look at all the effort I put into the details of these scenes shot today I can only be proud. From doing such a detailed shot list and making sure I fulfilled this wishes, making sure the actors had all their change of clothes, making sure I had all the props which included all the paintings, the finished ones, the blank ones and the mid-way ones which would be used to show the progress of the work, Im proud of myself for even taking on a challenge like this because it really isn't easy trying to be organised on your own with having all of these things to think about constantly.