PRODUCTION • Location Recce - Annie & Dean's House | Development

As part of my role, it was important that I complete a location recce before we film so that I was not only prepared but knew logistically where I could place all the equipment and how much space we had in the location. 

Equipment storage: 

As part of the recce, the producer and I agreed on a place in the location to store all of the equipment when we were not using it. This meant that everything was kept together and things were easy to find but also meant that it was kept away from our actors, reducing any risk of injury and anyone tripping over things left lying around. In this location, we also agreed on setting up a battery charging station where through the day we could charge up the camera and light batteries so that we were ready and prepared if we needed a replacement.

Power:

In each room of the location, I went around and located the plug sockets which were important for if any of our equipment or props needed to be plugged in at a mains point. This also helped with camera placement, whereby I could put the camera and lights close enough to a plug so that if needed we can utilise them. 

Safety:

It was important that the placement of any equipment does not block any fire exits or access points so that if there were to be an incident, we would be able to get everyone out safely. Working with the producer we made sure that we would not block any area was very important to ensure the safety of our cast and crew. 

Lighting:

Looking at the lighting options for this location was really helpful for me before shoot week as the director had requested we use as much natural lighting as possible in order to give the show and realistic look and feel. 

In each room we were filming, I assessed the lighting situation, in the morning and later in the afternoon to see what the natural lighting was like and what time of day was best for each room in the house. This also allowed me to judge how much artificial lighting I would need and then work out where the lights could go so that they enhanced the natural lighting rather than being obviously artificial. 

Due to the way the house is situated, the sun rising at the back of the house and setting at the front, certain rooms like the kitchen and living room were brighter in the morning as there was more direct sunlight at this time. When creating the schedule of what scene to film when during the day, ideally I would like to film the scenes taking place in those two locations during the morning so we can utilise as much natural lighting as possible. The same goes for scenes in the dining room which I would like to film in the afternoon as this is we'll have maximum natural light. For the Entryway which was in the centre of the house, we will need to use majority artificial lighting as this room is very dark.

Sound:

Listening to the sound of each room allowed me to identify issues we might come across while filming and possibly find solutions to these problems. For each room, I completed a sound test which allowed me to listen to the background noise of each room to see if there were any appliances in the rooms that could disturb our audio or be distracting in the background. This test also allowed me to hear if there was an echo in the room and then see if there was a way of fixing this. The hallway was the only room with a slight echo however we worked out that having the microphone recording from the floor and on a thick rug reduced the echo largely and made the sound quality much better.