Monday 24th October
Today was our last planning day before the week of shooting commenced.
We mostly arrived at 10:00 and went into a separate room to the others to
finish off the planning. As producer, I started on the Call Sheet for the first
day of filming on Tuesday. From doing this I was learning how to organise
people as they would in the real word of the film industry. Whilst I was doing
this, Iris and Armand re-drafted the screenplay, Thomas was finishing up on the
shot list and Nathaniel and Callum were going through each fantasy section that
would appear in the film. Armand thought that we had one dream sequence too
many so as a group we were all working out how to cut it down the 3 instead of
4.
By the time lunch arrived, we ate and then started to get the
equipment ready in order to go out and do some test shoots for Tuesday. We had
Alex teach us how to use the clapper board that Callum brought in and this is
where she assigned me assistant director. She taught the professional way to
film, for example, I had to say "quiet on set, going for a take, turnover,
sounds... Camera...." And they would reply with "rolling, set"
then Iris or Armand would say "slate 1 scene 1" and clap the clapper
board. The director would then say "action" and then "cut."
We rehearsed this quite a few times before we went out to do some test shots where
we threw paper in the air in front of the camera. We also went down an alley
where there was a purple light lighting up the alley, but no other light,
moreover, in order to gain more light we used the torch on our phones which
worked.
At 3:00, Callum and I left the group to meet the actress back at
the BFI. We had a chat and asked her about her acting career and so on. We then
introduced her to the rest of the group when they came back from test shooting
and managed to get a picture taken of Molly, our actress and Nathaniel who will
be playing her brother in the film. Thanks to Benugo staff we were able to
retrieve the image in their secret lounge area behind a bookcase in order to
look like the photo would have been taken in their house.
After this, we told our actress to go home and get some rest
before the first shooting day on Tuesday. I told her I would send her the call
sheet for the next days also.
We then went back to the meeting room with the others in the
group and his is where Callum and I got a chance to watch the footage back from
the test shoots they did when we were with Molly. I thought they turned out
quite well and thought they could be used possibly for our actual film.
I finished off the call sheet and sent it to everyone, we discussed
what we needed to bring for Tuesday and then we went home.
A lot happened on this day and I learnt a lot about being a
producer as well as the camera and equipment. I knew that by Tuesday we would
all understand how everything works within the filming for out shorts and I
couldn't wait to start the actual piece the next day and the rest of the week.
Tuesday 26th October
We started off our day at 9:45 due to the fact that we needed to
set up the room in LS1 to make it look like an office. We got all of the white
tables with wheels on to make them look like booths for each worker in the
office. When our actress arrived, there was a bit of waiting around to do as we
were still trying to set up and get used to the camera. We put props on the actress's
desk such as a cactus, a photo frame of her and her brother, pens, paper and an
old computer. We put paper and pens on the other tables too, however it took
some time to decide whether they too should have old computers or the normal
macs that were in LS1. We finally decided to put normal modern macs on their
desks as we didn't have enough old computers and it worked better due to the
concept that very civilian is he same and Molly is yet to change to fall into
the norm of having no identity within the world.
We started shooting Molly sitting at her desk and doing everyday
office work. We told her to have no emotion as we wanted to portray that work
is slowly killing her inside, furthermore, her identity. We did multiple
different takes of different shots so that we would have a large amount of
choice in post when we would put the film together. As we hadn't had the
opportunity to cast a boss, Alex volunteered to do it, therefore we shot her
walking round with paper to put on Molly's desk in order to show the workload
piling up. I handed her the paper so that she could take it quickly when she
ran round the back of the camera. It ended up becoming quite funny due to the
repetitiveness but we got the birds eye view/high angle shot done anyway.
After shooting more of Molly, we got the extras in and we placed
them in certain positions within "the office." After a lot of
discussing how to do the next tracking shot, we set up 2 of the brown tables
from LS2 and put gafa tape on the parts which separated each table in order to
gain a smoother track. We tested the shot and I called a rehearsal,
nevertheless as soon as we finished the test shot, we realised that the camera
jolted where the gafa tape appeared and we came to a conclusion that some of
the crew needed to push the tables up from below in order to make them the same
level, we also decided that we needed to lift the rig where the table is split
so that it would contribute to a smoother track and by doing both of these
ideas, the shot managed to work, finally, even though it wasn't perfect, it was
as good as we could get it with our creative technique towards filming the
tracking shot of the extras in the office and Molly.
The extras left after that tracking shot as well as appearing in
other shots of the office and we were then left with Molly where we shot her
having a tantrum and messing up her office. In order for the shot to feel
angered, some of us shook the desks around Molly that acted as her booth and I
'made it rain' with paper as I threw bits of paper in front of the camera and
Molly herself. The shot worked well when we watched it on playback, however we
did a few takes for safety so we had to reset multiple times. Furthermore, we
got a lot of shots that we would be able to choose from in post.
After we told Molly to go home we then found that all the footage
we recorded came out with grid lines on the screen. This therefore meant that
we had to reshoot all the footage that we had done that day. We planned to film
some office scenes with just Molly on
Wednesday, however due to the fact that the extras couldn't make it he next
say, we have planned to film the rest on Friday in the space of 2 hours, as
Molly has to leave at 12 for an appointment.
Wednesday 27th October
We got in early on this day and started setting up one booth for
Molly to act in and we quickly reshot all the close up scenes of Molly at her
desk. There were 6 of these shots altogether and we also added new ideas for
each shot. As we were sharing LS1 with the other groups on this day, we decided
that we wouldn't use sound from this shoot but from the last one and also to
use foley to add effect.
We finished these shots and more in two hours as our test shoot
from Tuesday allowed us to become more organised with the equipment as well as
what we were doing.
Then we shot Mollyand Alex, as the boss in the meeting room and
we decided to do a parallax shot in order to create more rendition as this
would be the part in which Molly gets fired. We got Nathaniel's jacket again
and put the rig and camera on top of it so that it would be easier to slide.
We had lunch, which is when I did the call sheet for the next
day.
After this, some of the group went to film the photocopying scene
while the others stayed put due to the fact that the copying room is too small
to fit us all inside. We then set up the Bolex for the next day just in time
before the talk about the residential course occurred.
Thursday 28th October
Day 3 of the shoot. We got there earlier than normal and told
Molly to also come in earlier so we could crack on and shoot the scenes in the
park. So we went to the park and shot scenes with Nathaniel and Molly as
brother and sister with the Bolex. Due to the fact that we wanted the camera to
be moving around the actors instead of just static shots. We all had to run
behind Tom whenever he turned with the camera just so we weren't in the frame.
His was quite amusing for both ourselves and the actors which therefore helped
them to act in a happier way.
After we finished the brother scenes. We placed all the office
stuff on the floor while Molly sat sat her the chair in the middle. This shows
the hubris within her character downfall.
After we did this and changed the reels in the Bolex, we had to
leave due to the fact we were there too long and security didn't like it so we
had lunch and I did the call sheet for the final day.
I also messaged the extra so that he would come in time for he
smoking scene in the alleyway
