There were a number of things I needed to do in order to
ensure everything went smoothly when it came to shooting, scouting for
locations to film, which I would then need to consult the Kent Film Office as
to whether I would be allowed to film there.
From the start of the script-writing process, I had a very clear image
in my head of where I wanted to film: near where the initial incident that
inspired me to write the opening scene took place, which is on a road near my
secondary school. I took some photos in
the dark, which would allow me to visualise where I could place my actors and
how I can set the scene for my film. I
noticed there was virtually no lighting on where I wanted to shoot, which meant
I would need to use some extra lighting equipment when shooting, but must be
careful not to use too much lighting otherwise it would not feel very
realistic, which is something I saw as vital when writing the screenplay. Luckily, the space I was filming was fairly
open, with two pathways, meaning we could film on one pathway without blocking
the way for any pedestrians (although that did not stop one man from walking
his dog through our shoot).
After writing to the Kent Film Office, I had the go ahead to
film on the location I wanted to. I also
asked for permission to film on another road, in case we had time to shoot any
additional scenes (we actually ran out of time to shoot the scenes I had
planned for, but it was good to have this just in case). They advised that I inform local residents of
the filming, so I wrote a short letter and delivered them to any houses that
would be within viewing distance of the shoot, as well as the local school and
rugby club. Nobody voiced any concerns
for the filming, and so I had no trouble with filming where and when we did.
Now I had to plan out exactly what I was going to shoot, in
what order, and where the camera would be positioned. The shot list was extremely useful on the day
of shooting, as I could simply go down the list and see whether I had a
particular shot, and gradually fill in the blanks. However, as I learned later on, whilst his
was a useful tool to have, I did not plan the shoot in the most efficient
manner, and rather than shooting the most important and costly shots first, I
shot the film chronologically, and so I effectively wasted time shooting the
establishing shots, when the talent was standing in the cold – it would have
been better if I filmed their parts first, and ended the shoot by filming shots
that did not require them to be involved.
I also used a story board to map out some of the more complicated shots
but only if I wanted them filmed in a particular way.
Before I could take out the equipment, I had to complete a
risk assessment. This involved going to
the filming locations and through the script for potential risks that could
occur during filming, as a precaution before I used any of the filming
equipment. This involved briefly
describing what I wanted to shoot, where I wanted to shoot it, how the shoot
will affect the area around me, listing any hazards, who might be harmed by
these hazards, and what measures I would put into place to reduce the risks as
much as possible. This was by far the
least interesting part of the entire project, but that did not mean it was not
important. As I would be shooting in a
public place at night, there were several factors that could be potential
hazards that could hypothetically put people at risk – the main hazards I found
were the muddy ground, which could be slippery, the raised footpath, which
people could trip over, and the poor visibility which meant it was more likely
for people to walk into things they could not see, potentially causing damage. This was relatively straightforward, however,
so no problems occurred when writing the risk assessment – this served as good
practice, as I will need to get into the habit of considering the risks and
hazards that could arise when filming.
I now had to ensure I had a large enough, crew and enough
actors to shoot everything I could.
Unfortunately, I could only get one other person from the course to be a
part of my film crew, which meant I would have to juggle between operating the
sound equipment, the camera and acting, as I played the homeless man, Derek. Therefore, when I was not on screen, I was
operating the boom, and for a few shots, I was holding the camera, but when I
was on screen, the microphone had to be mounted on the camera, as nobody else
at the shoot was insured to use it. This
did not hinder us too much though, although when it came to editing, it became
clear that a boom operator would have been incredibly useful. This taught me that it is very important to
have enough people behind the camera, or else the quality of the footage and
audio may suffer, and can disrupt the production as a whole. I also cast my friend, Aidan as 'Nick', as I feel he fit into the role well, and my sisters and girlfriend as the group of youths, as they had a good chemistry, which I felt would translate well on screen. My mother also fit into the role of Angela, which did not require a huge amount of acting, but she could pull off the middle-class mother vibe. |
| Myself dressed as 'Derek' |
I acquired several props to help with the filming: a rag
which Derek gives to Nick (which we did not end up using as the film had
already ran over the 2 minute mark), Derek’s outfit, which consisted of my old
coat, a beanie, scarf and some ragged gloves, Nick and Angela’s phones which I
created a wallpaper for using photoshop which saved some time, and many empty
wine bottles (which we all had a lot of fun emptying). So that I could achieve a realistic
homeless-look, I also applied some makeup to my face to create the illusion of
dirt, as Derek has been on the streets for a long time. Particularly as I was collecting the wine
bottles, I realised that props can be quite expensive, but they are also vital
to create the sense of realism I wanted in the film. Therefore, I learned that budget for a film
must be distributed wisely – luckily for this project, I already had the
equipment available, and my cast consisted of my friends and family, and so I
did not need to cover other costs to keep the production rolling.
I also learned that it is important to keep the actors in
high spirits, or else the mood on set can become quite stale (although luckily,
my cast consisted of my best friend, girlfriend, mother, sisters and myself, so
they have hopefully forgiven me). One
factor that came into play here was the weather, as it quickly became very cold
to shoot outside in the middle of November; by the time we had finished
shooting, some of the actors had gone home, and some were sitting in my car
with the heating on.
Another factor was
failing to give a full brief of how the shoot was going to play out before we
got to the location and began filming.
One of my actors (my sister), was not aware that we would be outside in
the cold for over four hours, and that some shots would take multiple takes to
get right, which led to some arguments, and meant I rushed to complete a
particular shot and missed out on filming several other shots which I later
learned would be vital to the film. This
made me realise that I need to prioritise which shots I should film first, so I
wasted as little of my actors’ time as possible, and also that I should
properly explain my shoot before heading into the deep end. That being said, I did have a lot of fun
directing my lead actor for the first few shots of the film, as I had full
creative control and could see the script I had spent so long on coming to life
before my eyes.
No comments:
Post a Comment