Production / Shoot Diary

DAY 1: 20/10/18 – SATURDAY

Our first day of pre-production was mainly focused on finalising the script for our short film. The most important lesson I took from it is the ability to compromise. When working in a team, people often have different opinions. As a team, there were disputes surrounding the tone of our film and what type of comedy we actually wanted to present, however, we were united by our shared goal of wanting to create a successful film we were all proud of. Therefore, we were able to come together and compromise on our ideas so we could move forwards.

Finalised script: Eight Minutes

DAY 2: 21/10/18 – SUNDAY

In our second day of pre-production, myself, the scriptwriter and editor met up to begin to discuss our cinematic style for the piece. As Director of Photography, I held a certain vision for the visual style of the piece, but was open to ideas from others. We managed to come up with various notes for our directors and other crew members to read. This particularly improved my ability to listen to others and be open to criticism, two essential parts of working with a film crew.

Notes taken: Camera in ‘8 Minutes_

DAY 3: 22/10/18 – MONDAY

In our third day of pre-production, the entire team came together to discuss practicalities of the upcoming shoot, for example, our locations and schedule. This allowed to be prepared and confident for the upcoming shoot.

My camera team then broke away from the group to begin practicing with green screens and lighting. We wanted to prepare ourselves and foresee any technical issues regarding green screen editing as we had limited experience using it. Other several experiments of lighting set ups, we managed to find the best solution (see set up below). After practicing editing this footage on Premiere, we decided to become more familiar with putting up the Blackmagic mini camera so we could assemble it quickly the shoot day. By doing this amount of prep, I improved my confidence in my ability for the upcoming shoot.

 

(Photo 1: The camera crew reviewing green screen footage, photo 2: green screen practice)

DAY 4: 23/10/18 – TUESDAY

As DoP, my role in the final stages of pre-production were creating the shot list with the director. This was essential to staying organised during the shoot the following day. Furthermore, I was given the role of ensuring that all the equipment was charged and ready to be packed up the next day. I decided to make an exhaustive list of everything we needed and took photos of all the equipment so I knew were it would be put back at the end.

Due to us finishing the essential parts of pre-production earlier than expected, myself and the rest of the camera team decided to get ahead with filming and film our green screened adverts within our learning space. This was beneficial as we were easily able to reshoot footage after watching it as we already had the lighting set up. This means we were already able to start editing the advert footage in advance of the actual shoot.

At the end of the day, we came together to discuss the following day  in order to feel prepare and confident for the upcoming shoot.

(Photo: Myself and the director working on the shot list)

Finalised shot list: Shot list for ‘8 Minutes’ – Sheet1-1

Production schedule: Production Schedule

Props: Production Props

DAY 5: 24/10/18 – WEDNESDAY

On Wednesday morning, our team met at our first filming location to film scenes 1/3/16. We had a strict schedule of 9-12, as we had to change locations for the afternoon. Therefore, everyone aimed to work as quickly and efficiently as possible. When I arrived on set, my primary focus was setting up the camera as quickly as possible while the actors rehearsed with the directors.

We encountered our first problem during the second take of the third scene when our memory card only had 5 minutes left, despite being formated recently. We discovered we had been shooting in RAW rather than HD, so had to delete this footage and reshoot. However, as it was so early on in the day, it was easily recoverable.

We worked through our scenes quickly, taking around 3-4 takes of each with slight adjustments, fortunately void of any further technical issues. However, if I was to improve my performance during the morning of the shoot, I would have kept a coin handy in order to easily transfer the camera from the tripod to the shoulder rig. I wasted time by having to run through the location asking others for a coin. For the rest of the production days, I always ensured I had a coin or a screwdriver for ease.

 

In the afternoon, we changed location to a residential house to film scenes 5/12/17. Similarly to the morning, we had a strict schedule as we only had our actors for a limited time. However, the shoot was successful mainly due to the static nature of the shot we had to achieve.

A challenge I experienced as DoP was lighting the actors in a realistic, flattering way. This involved having to experiment with bounce the light off walls as we lacked diffusion paper or bounces. Therefore, I had to try different light temperatures and set ups to gain a good balance. This was very informative as in the future, I would of practiced or researched this set ups before hand to save time.

Call sheet: CALL SHEET DAY 1

DAY 6: 25/10/19 – THURSDAY

We set ourselves the task of filming 4 different scenes in one day. However, as many occurred around Southbank, we were able to move equipment around quickly and effectively.

For our first scene of the day, we used the BFI’s offices to film a worker at her desk. As this was a genuine office space, we had to ensure we kept noise levels to a minimum and work quickly. However, it was easier than the previous day as we only had to coordinate with one actor.

(Image: Myself on camera)

Later than morning, we changed locations to outside the National Theatre. We decided to only bring our essential crew as it was a public area and didn’t want to draw any unnecessary attention to ourselves. We managed to gain a wide variety of shots and I was able to play with techniques such as switch focus and manual zooming. This expanded my knowledge of the sheer variety of cinematic techniques one can use to boost a story.

(Image: Our location and set up)

In the afternoon, we shot a fairly quick scene. As it was only needed from one angle with one actor, we were able to achieve our desired result in 4 takes. I found this scene easier to light as I had now had experience from the previous day.

For the final scene of the day, we filmed a short advert piece for an intersection in our film. This was a more difficult shoot because it was mainly handheld camera that involved movement and focus pulling simultaneously. However, as myself and my camera assistant had practiced a similar movement in our swede, we felt able to take on the challenge. The scene overall was fairly quick to shoot as there wasn’t any dialogue or professional actors. We wrapped the day with a total of 4 scenes with various different locations and actors.

CALL SHEET DAY 2

DAY 7: 26/10/19 – FRIDAY

In the morning, we filmed a more complex scene of an exchange between a worker and their boss. We experimented with various lighting set ups as the room had mirrors on the ceiling which we chose to utilise as bounces. The whole scene had a lovely film noir vibe to it through some harsh shadows but subtle colours. This took us around 2 hours to film due to the number of different angles we wanted to shoot and the length of the dialogue.

For our final scene of the final day, we shot a news presenter broadcast to cut into between our scenes. We had an option of using a large TV screen or a green screen, but we felt more confident lighting a TV screen than a green screen of such large scale. It was an ideal space to film as it was quiet and easily adaptable in terms of props and set design. As DoP, I remained a one static shots for the entirety of the scene. Our actor was extremely professional and many scenes only required 2 takes to get right. In the end, we managed to finish earlier than scheduled and were able to have our equipment packed up by our deadline. The editors and directors were then able to start to review rushes for that day and begin the whole editing process.

Call sheet: CALL SHEET 3 updated

Overall

How prepared did you feel for the shoot?

I felt well prepared for the shoot because our team had met up on multiple occasions outside of the BFI scheduled sessions to ensure we all felt comfortable and confident in what we would be doing during production.

Did you receive any advice / feedback from tutors on set?

On set one of my tutors, Alex Shipman, helped me a lot in the technical side of the camera. As I hadn’t worked with this particular camera before, she helped me ensure we were shooting in the right format. However, my other tutor also commented on how calm and composed I was on set and was able to complete my role in a stress-free way.

Who did you work with on set?

I mainly worked with the other people on the camera team as we switched between operating, focusing and directing the camera. However, I was also in regular contact with the director to ensure I was achieving their vision.

How do you feel you worked with others on set?

I worked well with others on set as we established a strong working relationship early on so our rapport allowed us to communicate effectively on set. As I genuinely connected and liked my team members, we were able to work well together in a shared vision for our film.

What did you learn about how a film crew work together on a shoot?

I learnt to let people get on with their specialist area. When the crew respect and allow everyone to get on with their role rather than overpowering or trying to correct other peoples role the team works most effectively.

How you followed good working practices for filmmaking? (Time management, health and safety, being reliable and coping with on set demands.)

I believe I followed the good working practices of filmmaking as I was always on time to set, aware of the risk assessment and remained calm and in control during filming and completed my role effectively.