PRODUCTION • Shoot Day 6

Collection Equipment:

The start of my day for this shoot was to collect all the equipment that had been booked out. This was a huge amount of stuff and took some time getting it all down to the studio, luckily I had the rest of the crew to help transport it. Whilst I was doing this and setting up the cameras and tripods, the director and producer were putting into position the props that were needed for the scene.

Setting up:

Once the cameras were on the tripods, each camera operator had previously been given the shoot pack for the day which contained the settings for the camera to make sure they matched. Whilst they were working on this, I began setting up the lights on the stands and placing them in the previously decided on positions. The test shoot that we did for this scene was immensely helpful as it made the set up so much quicker as we knew where everything needed to go. Once these were all plugged in, had the orange gels on them and the cameras we on, we began working out if the placement of the props were working and if they needed to be moved. We did adjust the position of our centre camera on the track slighting further to the right so that the television was in the centre of the shot and the drinks table with all the glass bottles on was moved forward so that more of it could be seen in the shot.

Some of the lights needed repositioning as we were using more of the studio than we had previously tested and there were some sections of the background where there was no light, making the shot look very flat. This results in us propping up another light behind the drinks table so it couldn’t be seen on camera, and directing it at the empty section of the background.

Framing:

Once the actors and extras were down into the studio, I could begin setting up framing of some of the shots and working out the positions that they needed to stand in. Once a run through had been completed, I went around and marked on the floor with tape where the actors should stand and where they should move to for each section of the scene. This helped the camera operators to know where they needed to move to in order to the follow the cast and could make sure that their framing and focus was right as they didn’t have to worry about the cast going and standing in the wrong position.

Take1/2/3:

It took quite a few takes for me to get comfortable with the shots and positioning however by having 3 different cameras, we had lots of coverage of the scene which in the edit should provide us with lots of options of shots to use. We filmed the whole scene with all three cameras and once it was decided that we had a good take from all three angles, we did a camera reset and changed the framing of each camera so we had everything from a different shot size. We also did some extra close up shots of certain characters and of the cork in a drinks glass.

Green Screen:

For the television, the original plan was to have a moving PowerPoint on the screen which would play in the background of the scene. Due to this, I decided that having a green screen on the television would be better as it reduced the chance of a continuity error. The green screen image that was put up had tracking on it so that when editing the clips from the camera on the track, I could do this is after effects using track motion so that whatever was put onto the television would move with the shot.

WWW:

• Despite this shoot being the biggest one of all, I think it was a very successful day. We kept to schedule, got all of our shots done and managed to set up all the equipment and pack up everything within our allocated time. 
• The communication between myself and the camera crew was a key aspect of the day as the majority of the shoot was done multi-cam which required all of us to be listening to each other, taking on board what someone is saying and working together in order to get the project completed to the best standard possible. I think we achieved this really well and between myself, Josh Jones and Troy, we worked together and a great team to get everything done. 

EBI:

• There were some shots that Laura suggests we get just as extra coverage, however, the director said this wasn’t necessary. In one of our feedback sessions, it was suggested that we needed this missing shot which we didn’t get. Leaning from this, I think it’s important, even if at the time it is suggested that we don’t need something, we should get the shot anyway because there might be a time, like in this project, where the shot was needed.