Shoot Day Reflection

Shoot Day Reflection 

The shoot day truly began on Tuesday (night before shoot) where I was packing the costume for the 'man' and various props needed to set the tone of the environment. I think I honestly checked the bag about five times before I was fully confident that I had packed everything needed but something very important to think about is its definitely better to be safe than sorry. 

Then the day of the shoot arrived, finally the time came to shoot our opening sequence. Our production group had to meet inside our media classroom at bright and early at 8.30am so we could check we had every single prop and costume item that we needed. Then our head of production (Luke) came to us to then discuss a few of our ideas and also double check what time the actors would be joining us for the shoot; after this was discussed we
then went to the studio where we collected various pieces of camera equipment including a tripod, Black Magic 4K camera, power extensions, props, costumes etc. Once we loaded up the mini bus we then travelled to our location, Beatrice Webb’s ‘Garden house’ which was relatively quick and only took about fifteen minutes.

After our swift travels we then carried all the equipment into Beatrice Webb and inside a room directly next to the Garden House which turned into a designated props and costume/Cast relax room. Then to our surprise found a huge quantity of suitcases in the garden house’s storage room which we need to use for the poisoning of the woman shots so we cleared out all of the suitcases that could have possibly been seen in a shot, this was definitely a challenge but with plenty of teamwork this issue was easily solved when we moved the suitcases to a main hallway.

 We then set up the props on the desk of the murderous ‘man’, and made it look incredibly creepy and off-putting which perfectly matched the vibe of the man. Using props such as a doll comparable to the doll from the film ‘Annabel’ and a half-working record player! We all took turns in sharing our ideas of how the desk should look but eventually came to a perfect agreement of how we wanted it to look. Shortly after we then set ‘the man’s’ poison experiment table which contained various beakers, conical flasks, a pestle and mortar, the poisonous berries (actually red currents), water and a mystery white powder (actually baking soda).

Next, we set up the camera and our opening shot, of a record player with then an upwards tilt to the man’s workstation of poison preparation with the focus being pulled in and out and various points ending with the berries in focus. It also was a closeup shot on the record player but then the camera angle was transformed to a mid-shot when the berries were put into focus. This was the most important shot to set the feel of the opening sequence. As this was an incredibly important shot to perform (also a complicated one) we all had to be focused and perform our tasks on exactly the right point for the shot to work; I was on focus pull, Meadow
as Camera Operator and Lila as the Director. We all had to make various signals in order to let each other know when each person should perform their designated job. Funnily enough before this very shot, I didn’t know what focus pulling was or even if it existed but Luke (head of production) told me how to perform it effectively and then let me perform the focus pulling throughout the entire shoot. The advantage of focus pulling is that it can add some much-needed dynamism to a shot this is done by turning the focus wheel at certain points to make the image in or out of focus and different times.

 

As soon as we finished the complex opening shot, we all brought the camera, tripod and sound equipment to near the berry workstation where we did our next group of shots. We started with an extreme closeup of the poisonous berries in the beaker still stuck to their stem. This shot was actually really surprising because in the camera viewfinder this shot made the berries look nothing like redcurrants and more like the original Daphne Mezzereon poisonous berries that are in the world of the film. Another key shot in this section of filming was when Ezra (our actor playing the part of ‘the man’) grinded up the berries to a slushy juice mixture using a pestle and mortar, the shot of him doing this worked great because of how convincing his perforce was, he really put effort and power into grinding up the berries which looks exactly like something ‘the man’ would do.

 After a productive and successful morning of shooting we then drove back to school for lunch.  We had a lovely time eating with each other and discussing what went well as well as what are we can work on to improve for the rest of the day. We were all very pleased with the shots we had taken so far, particularly the opening shot which we thought was going to look absolutely stunning. We also noted that our speed at setting up each shot could improve as well as making it clearer to our cast of what exactly we would like them to do so there would be no confusion.

 

Once we got back onto our filming set, we then completed a few more shots we then moved on to a really difficult key shot of the man purring the white powder (baking soda) in to the mixture of water and berry juice and then him turning around and opening in the door, walking into the side room which also reveals the woman with the funnel in her mouth. This also included a focus pull of focusing on the beaker which the man held to the camera to then focusing on the woman with the funnel in her mouth looking terrified. We had to film the shot about four or five times to get it exactly how we wanted it to look. Even the last shot could have been ever so slightly better because we tilted it slightly to far down so the top of the screen was cut off a little bit but then we contacted our head of production who told us that it was possible to fix this slight error in post-production. This was also challenging due to the amount of things that needed to  go right in order for the shot to work including the syringe picking up the berry juice and depositing it int the beaker, putting water in the beaker, adding the right amount of baking soda to ensure there is an impressive reaction but that also will not spill over the beaker, Lila performing the tilt correctly, myself focus pulling at the right time and Ezra opening the door and standing at a spot where we can also see the woman with the funnel in her mouth.

 We swiftly then moved on to shoot the scenes of the woman being killed and struggling in the small side room where we cleared the suitcases out from. The first of these shots we filmed was when the man poured the poisonous potion into the woman’s mouth via the funnel, we achieved this by Ezra pouring the mixture into a separate beaker whilst only filming him pouring and his face so you wouldn’t see that trick that he wasn’t actually pouring it into her mouth.

During this shot I held the empty beaker that the mixture was being poured into as well as signalling with Ezra what to do and when whilst meadow was operating the camera. We also filmed various closeups of the tied-up woman struggling, dying and choking which Suzanne handled incredibly well and was so professional throughout the whole process which leads me on to say and that one big thing I actually learnt throughout the filming process was professionalism which was taught really well by Suzanne  in her whole attitude throughout the filming, she would never complain and did everything that was asked of her and more, even if she was in an uncomfortable she remained professional and hardworking; it’s not easy having a funnel stuck to your mouth for hours. In addition. To this I learned some more details about lighting, when in the small side room I often held a sector of white cardboard in order to direct the light onto the woman’s face to make it easier for the camera to focus on her; the importance of lighting is huge when filming, it can make or break a scene.

 After this last group of shots, we pretty much filmed all the footage we required, we were about to film one last shot that we didn’t need but would have been nice to have; it was the reaction of the poison in the woman’s funnel, but the camera batteries died to this unfortunately was disappointing but maybe bringing spare batteries in the future would solve this issue from ever happening again. We all then packed up the props, tidied up the room and headed off back to school in time for dinner where we all enjoyed a relaxing supper after fun and intense day of shooting our opening sequence.

 I am very excited to edit the footage and turn it into something really special, also as designated editor I will certainly be on the ball when our time comes to edit so we can create the best sequence possible. One challenge I feel in editing will be exactly at what points to know when to cut shots and add new ones as this can be quite subjective depending on the person.

 Overall, I thought the shoot day went really well as we got all the shots that we needed and although it definitely would have been nice to have more, the ones we did get were incredible and are very happy with.  When setting up the shots we could have been faster which meant we could have done more shots but that may have sacrificed some of the quality in favour of quantity.