We initially planned for three days of shooting, but instead opted to shoot over two days, as we decided to shoot the studio segment in the same place that we were shooting the pre-recorded package. Melissa made a basic shot list, based on the script to help us plan out roughly what shots we needed to capture on the shoot days:
Day 1
Today we planned to shoot the live segment, which involved interviewing John at Broadditch Farm, and capturing some GVs and establishing shots. This day went incredibly well:
- At around 10 AM, myself, Katie and Melissa met at Broadditch Farm and ran through the interview and exactly what we needed to film.
- We then met with John and discussed what we wanted from him in his office, and he very kindly offered to show us around the place and turn on all the attractions for us to film.
- We spent about an hour exploring the farm and all the attractions on offer, as well as talking to John about how the Halloween events started and how far they have come in the sixteen years they have been running them.
- John was a very helpful and willing contributor, which really helped make the shoot run as smoothly as it possibly could have.
- After that, we set up the equipment to shoot, and Katie altered a few of the questions with hindsight of what we had discussed with John, and we rehearsed through the script a few times. Katie was presenting, I was on the camera, and Melissa did the sound and counted Katie in for the interview so we did not run over time.
- I feel we could have found a better place to shoot the interview, but due to the lighting situation (we were filming on the same day that this happened and so the colour on the footage was a little strange), this was the best we could have done, and I am glad we were able to include both farm and Halloween motifs in the background of the shot.
- I made the decision to keep the shot handheld to keep with the upbeat and fun brand we were going for, and also because it was more practical in a live scenario.
- Katie did a phenomenal job with the interview, despite being a foot shorter than John (which made camerawork a little tricky). I feel that she spoke very well and kept the conversation with John flowing nicely.
- Afterwards, John left us to our own devices so we could walk through each of the attractions again and record what we wanted to, so we ended up with a lot of useful footage.
- We wrapped shortly after midday.
This shoot went very well for a number of reasons: our contributor and level of access was fantastic, Katie presented the segment very well, and we kept good timing. I feel it may have been better to have interviewed John at night, but due to time constraints and potential permissions, and health and safety issues, this was not possible. Despite this, I think we did exactly what we needed to do.
Day 2
This shoot was a lot more ambitious than the previous one, as we were filming a lot more of the film. Even though there was not the pressure of being live as there had been previously, there was now more pressure to get more done than we already had. On this day, we shot the entire pre-recorded package and all of the studio footage, including the 30 second promotional package.
- We were shooting in two locations today: my house and my sister's house, as she has a bar in her outbuilding.
- We were running late from the start, as Jason's train was delayed and we did not have all the props we needed available, so Katie, Jason and Melissa had to go to a shop. Therefore the shoot began around an hour and a half later than we had intended.
- The first thing we shot proved to be the most difficult, as it involved a level of blocking that we had not anticipated: we needed to explain the science of the hangover using shot glasses with M&Ms. Therefore we spent a good amount of time setting up the shot and rehearsing what Jason would be doing on camera.
- We all shared the roles equally:
- I took the director's chair for most of the day, but also worked the camera and sound, and presented of course
- Jason also presented, but worked the camera for the studio segment and shot some GVs
- Katie mostly filmed all the shots with her DSLR and also recorded the sound for the package - she also made some of the posters for the studio segment
- Melissa made and attached the posters to the wall for the studio, and took the camera and sound as well for the package
- This part of the shoot took the most time, despite only lasting around 10-15 seconds in the actual package, but I feel it will be paramount in the informativeness of the package, alongside the humour in the piece.
- Afterwards we shot as many GVs as we could of Aidan drinking and beer in the glasses to use for the package, before we shot the studio segments.
- We were pushed for time when shooting the studio package, but we managed to shoot everything we needed in time.
- There were a few shots where the microphone was not connected properly, but luckily we noticed it fairly soon; this did waste some time though.
- I did not have an autoprompt to read from filming, so it took several takes to remember my lines fluently - I think next time, I would try to ensure we had an autoprompt system to work from.
- We also shot the promo at this point, and we decided that we wanted to rely heavily on the editing for the humour to come through. Therefore, I improvised all my lines so that we could edit together what we wanted - this worked well, and I think added to the humourous nature of the brand.
- This was loosely based on Viper's View, that I had looked at in my research.
- We wrapped shooting at my sister's house and headed to my house to shoot the rest of the package.
- We began with shooting the fry-up scene first, as this would require some preparation, but we were more efficient with this scene that the M&Ms scene earlier in the day.
- The rest of the shoot ran fairly smoothly, capturing the rest of the package, although we did have some issues with lighting. The shoot had lasted into the evening, and so we could not rely on any natural light, only Katie's softboxes. In some shots, there was not enough lighting, and magnolia colours were emphasised, which did not look very good looking back on it.
- We wrapped up the shoot around 8:30 PM
This shoot did not go as well as the previous one for several reasons: time management, issues with sound and lighting, and planning. In future, we must remember to ensure the shoot is planned out well, and that we check the equipment is all working as it should. We should also spend longer ensuring the lighting in each shot is to standard and that we block sequences to avoid a kerfuffle on shoot days.
Melissa worked on this the most, with input from myself, Katie and Jason. She used wix.com for the template, and added appropriate colour palettes and layouts to make the website work for the tone and feel of our brand.
Today we planned to shoot the live segment, which involved interviewing John at Broadditch Farm, and capturing some GVs and establishing shots. This day went incredibly well:
I started with creating an illusion of 3D on the text using a bevel effect on the text. This made the text stand out as if it had edges and worked effectively to give the illusion of 3D. We also looked at using the 4-camera angle view, so we could see the composition from all angles to make animation easier.
I then set about creating an animation so that the text moved across the screen. This was fairly straightforward: I added keyframes to the timeline and played around with the scale and position, as well as the opacity so the text appeared to fade away into the distance as it moved further from the camera.
We began with looking at Keylight to key the news anchor footage onto a newsroom background. This involved picking the green colour on the screen from the green screen - the software then removes everything that colour from the clip. I toyed around with the different levels to see which worked best, and found that even when the background appears to be a solid colour, it is still easy for shadows and alterations in light to come through.
We then looked at luma keying, which differs from chroma key, as it makes the video transparent based on brightness rather than colour. This is more useful with graphics, so we played around with editing text onto a background.
