Shoot Night #1 (3rd December '13):

Using green screen technology on set was entirely new to me but it was very exciting. Located as Cafe Nero in Newcastle-Under-Lyme it was a 2 day shoot for me as Camera Operator and Director of Photography (DOP), starting at 5pm ending at midnight/1am. I won't lie, it seemed organised with the paper work but was unorganised for scheduling. We had no idea of where we were starting, what shots, what equipment being used for it.

After me and the 1st Assistant Director (AD), Amy Styran, came to a conclusion that we needed it organised we sat down with Peter and arranged blocks of shots to be done from each position for time management issues more than anything. Straight off he told us that we weren't going to use the available lighting from the store as it was all on one switch and was admimant he didn't want them on. Instantly I got my 2nd year lighting team together to help and they did an amazing job! We were using a selection of 300W, 600W and a 2,000W light, as well as a few LED's. It looked lovely and even did a run-through with Peter as a stand-in for the actress while we waited for her to survive and rehearse my panning and tracking with the Track-and-Dolly shots. Peter watched it back and then suddenly decided he didn't like it and wanted the green screen in shot which meant we had to re-arrange all the lighting and I had to give the bad news to the crew. As DOP I took charge and put the main lights on in the Cafe and assissted my lighting team in using some lights for fill and rim lighting. After I showed Peter he had agreed and after wasting 45mins of set-up we all had a break before his actress arrived late.

 

Do not get me wrong, I am not here to slate people but plainly just to tell you of my experiences on set. The actress was understandly shy at first not having met any of us in person and unaware of the volume of crew there on set, which ended up totalling to about 12 people I believe, and being in front of the camera with all of us stood behind. Saying that she wasn't helping her case by being a diva when she informed Peter the next day that she wouldn't be back due to the direction and story of the film, as well as saying she had been lied to about the crew and them not all being 3rd Years students.

It was a stressful night of long set-ups, no shot organisation and slow acting that in the 6.5hours of being there since set-up and we only got 4 shots down. All in all I am glad it happened as a working curve for a lot of the younger students and Peter to learn from in terms of organising and scheduling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shoot Night #2 (4th December '13):

The following day we were back on set with a new actor, Amit, who was an absolute gem by coming on set witin a handful of hours notice. The set-up was much quicker with knowledge of lighting and camera shots from the night before. Again there was still little organisation with shot order and positioning so me and Amy took it in to our own hands and played Good-Cop, Bad-Cop. As the visual team was all up to me I decided to talk to Peter alone away from the cast and crew and inform him that a selectio of shots will not be done due to reasons of them not needed. A few shots were there with jibs and track-and-dolly equipment that was required, just because it looked good but could be done in plenty of alternatives. Don't get me wrong, I love complex shots with more equipment as it is more of a challenge and if it looks pretty then that's a win but we needed to shed down a huge chunk of shots and time.

 

Once we got on a roll the lighting was set up with due time, we then had issues with sound but soon enough got it sorted by running it straight through the camera instead of a seperate mixer due to it's want to not work. The shoot went a lot better but still with 6hrs of filming under our belts we only managed 14-16 shots, if that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all it was stressful and one of the most unorganised shoots I've been on but also one of the most hectic with time management and size of crew, most of which I had never even met let alone worked with before. At the end of it I sure enough learnt the have everything scheduled to the minute and get a kick-ass assistant director to keep things on track, which in fact Amy Styran did for my own film! I now know a selection of crew members that worked their bottoms off on Peter's set and were very willing to help any where and any way. Most definitely helped the fact that I made a sociable atmosphere around the set to ensure an enjoyable set and connections, but also a friendly working atmosphere of helping each other out because we wanted to and not because we had to.