THE WEEKEND SHOOT

The time had FINALLY come to film our short films and to describe it only using two words: FREAK-ING AWE-SOME!!

Firstly, may I introduce you to the wonderful RACHEL CROWTHER, who we had for the whole day and like a professional, starred in every production. She was so well-prepped; she had multiple outfits to change in and was PERFECT each time. Currently, she is finishing her MA course in Acting for Screen at CSSD (the Central School of Speech and Drama) and before that, she studied Media.

If I ever have the opportunity to do anything like this again I will most certainly be casting her for the second time as she was BRILLIANT to work with.

Now, the equipment (in which I thought I broke a light at the end when we were rapping up, thankfully I didn’t) was A-MAZ-ING. It was proper INDUSTRY STANDARD equipment as we used a Sony X1 camera to film HD quality pictures on tape. I was the CAMERA OPERATOR during the first production and it was quite tricky to get used to. It didn’t help as well as I wasn’t available to attend Saturday’s shoot so I was unfamiliar with all the equipment. The DIRECTOR, Sean helped me out with the camera work as that’s what he is most interested in and after a while I got used to it.

Our Male actor was unavailable to make it so that didn’t help, however like a pro, Kieran stepped in and did very well. We LIT each scene with proper LIGHTING and a MONITOR was available to us so we could see what it would look like on screen, rather relying on the small monitor the camera provides.

Then it was my turn to be DIRECTOR. As I was thinking of the room we use for the lectures, the room we used turned out to be completely different – typical, just typical. Some elements of the script were either cut or had to be modified for it to work.  There were some really LOVELY shots in particular the reflection shot and the shot were my creepy Stalker, in which Val stepped in to do, is behind Rachel. All you can see is his outline as he is in shade – quite creepy. I can’t wait to get my hands on it to EDIT.

After lunch, it was Kieran’s turn to direct and I was on SOUND as SOUNDMAN. We used proper BOOMS and they are bloody heavy! His script was very comical and it was hard to keep a straight face, it also didn’t help that I had to place the BOOM extremely high, nearly hitting the ceiling due to its shadow casted on the whiteboard. The first take was nearly five minutes and I’m not very tall, so I have this eight foot BOOM, held over my head, as far as I can stretch and I was shaking like a weakling. On the second take, I stood on a chair which was much more comfortable.

Val was the last one to DIRECT and I would have stood in for the male role however Val managed to get a friend in to do it, as being the last one to shoot. His was also funny as it included a photocopy of an “ass” and ends with Rachel at the photocopier.

Overall, the whole day was fantastic and helped me gain a better understanding of production as even though I don’t like to film out of continuity, it does make sense to film it out of continuity if you can use the same shot for multiple scenes. All you have to do is give yourself enough COVERAGE and PAUSE after the take is done so you can then EDIT seamlessly.