Major Project: Shoot Day 4



Shoot Day 4: Rochester

What the day consisted of; 

 Shoot day 4 was originally meant to be my final shoot day but because we couldn't finish on day 1, I knew it wasn't the end so I kept that in mind during the day. The plan for the day was to use Rosie's house for the bath tub scene and after that, head down to the university campus in Rochester to shoot the art class/ art corridor scene. This day was meant to be the shortest day and I thought if we have time, maybe we could head back to maidstone and finish off the shots that we didn't get to finish from day 1. Sadly we were not able to to do that because scenes inside took a lot longer than usual. Another thing to note about this shoot was the fact I had to draw images on the art boards on the day because I ended up losing the art canvas that was used during day 2.


What went well

  • During this shoot I was confident in the shot styles we got. I loved how my vision really came to life during this process. The location that I chose also worked really well with my vision so I was super confident with the believability of that. I specifically chose the orange coloured props to go with my main character's orange jumper. I thought it would be a nice visual to have and I was correct. 
  • The actors really knew their lines so this really helped the efficiency of the day. I think you can really tell the difference when you are paying actors, they seem to make a little bit more effort.
What didn't go so well

  • Similarly to day 1, a logistically simple scene took SO long to shoot simply because of the noise disturbances in the hallway. People would continuously walk through our shots even though I had Rosie standing in the hall with her High Vis on. It was study week so there shouldn't have been that many people walking through but there was. I did cater to this on the schedule though but again, my actress said she could only stay until a certain time which left me no choice but to rush through the shots.
  • The sound op told me about the air conditioning that you could hear in the background whilst they were talking so he said it would be a good idea to radio mic them as well. Whilst doing so, he then tells me that he doesn't have any batteries and he only has enough power for maybe 2 more takes. This now added more pressure because I was already up against time. We managed to do two more takes and then my actress had to go. After she left, the sound op tells me that he didn't get the last take..... so at this point I was extremely annoyed because I didn't want to have to come back and re shoot with the actress as her costs are much more than using Moses. There was now even more added pressure to the edit because what if that last take was the best take? Thats how I realised how important it is to have a sound recordist who actually knows what they are doing because it can really jeopardise the final project.


Overall experience

This shoot day was quite annoying in a way because you're relying on so many people to do their allocated jobs and even then, things can just go wrong. very disappointed in the fact a sound op did not carry any batteries. Thats like a camera man not actually bringing a lens. It really opened my eyes that sometimes some people just don't know how to be efficient and these are the things that can really drag out shoot times. Aside from all the negatives. The performance from the actors and actresses were really worth while. I never had to really direct the how to say the lines because they just knew. So I was really happy about that
Next Steps

  • plan the next re shoot day to film pick ups
  • look through the footage and sound to make sure it is okay
  • start putting together a rough cut


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