Fiction Adaptation | Production

Day 1: Woodland/Warzone Scene

We were up against the clock on this shoot, as I had to rush to collect the equipment and get to the location, which meant that we started shooting over an hour later than I had intended.  There were three of us on the shoot.  My girlfriend Sophie was helping with the kit and taking photographs of the shoot, as well as helping me adjust the picture settings on the camera, as I am colour blind and often struggle with getting the picture right.  Imran was there acting, of course, and I was on camera and sound, as well as directing.

I asked Imran to wear a mis-matching tracksuit as I feel this fit the aesthetic of a refugee and he was happy to roll around in the dirt to get his clothes dirty to add to the idea that he had been on the run for a long time - I did not ask him to, he offered.

We were using the Panasonic DVX200 with a Rode mic; I mainly shot handheld to capture the sense of displacement felt by Abdullah as a refugee.  I had booked out the track and dolly to shoot something similar to my experimental film, but unfortunately it was unavailable, so I tried something similar - I pulled the focus away from Imran rather than tracking back on the dolly.

As we had such little time to shoot, I decided to only shoot this scene today and delay the house scene for next week, so we could shoot it at the same time as the office scene, which I have also decided to go with the 'home visit' idea to save the time and hassle of travelling to a different location.

Despite the issues with timing, I feel this was a successful shoot day.  I was pleasantly surprised with how well each of the shots turned out, and I was happy that Imran was able to deliver a good performance.

Day 2: Mother and Child Scene

This was a very straightforward shoot, as I only needed to film the mother and child walking past a window.  I set up the camera at home before I went to Lauren's house - she had kindly offered to let me use her house for this scene since I needed a window looking onto a street (my house has a hedge in the way).  Setting up the camera beforehand meant I could simply arrive, shoot what I needed, then leave.  The shoot only took around 15 minutes, with no issues.


Day 3: Home and Town Centre Scenes

Today was a busy day but I am happy that we managed to shoot everything that I needed to.

We began by shooting the interview scene which would have been in an office, which I had instead decided to shoot in my kitchen, as if the support officer was visiting Abdullah's home, as I did not want to risk shooting in too many places with so little time.  Whilst the lighting in this location was not ideal and I did not have any lights to assist with shooting, this actually turned out quite well.  All the light from the scene comes from the window and the ceiling lights, which was dark enough to convey a sombre mood, but light enough to distinguish my actors.  We did about six takes of the interview itself from various angles and I also shot some close up shots of various objects of significance in the scene - such as the Union flag mug which helps to establish the transition from Abdullah's home country to Britain.  I am very happy with the footage and their performances.

Afterwards, we recorded some audio pickups for the praying scene we shot last week, then filmed the rest of the mother and child scene from Abdullah's perspective.  We encountered an issue here as we could see the reflection of the hedge in the window, which does not follow the other shots with the mother and child walking past.  Therefore I will have to work around this in the edit.

At around 11AM, I received a call from the Kent Film Office to which they said I had permission to film in Gravesend Town Centre.  I was making plans to shoot elsewhere, but even though their response was so late, I decided to go ahead and shoot in town.  As I was going to be in one scene briefly, I asked Katie to help for this part of the shoot.  She also helped to spot for me whilst I walked backwards with the camera.

With Christmas only a few weeks away, it was very busy and we got a lot of strange looks whilst filming, but we were finished within about an hour and I am pleased with the footage we shot.


I have learned a lot through the production period:

• It is essential to prepare for contributors and locations to drop out up to the last minute.  This is something I had to prepare for with the documentary and TV news unit, and with such a fast turnaround for this project, this was even more of an issue.  Therefore, I am glad that I had scouted several different locations to film my scenes that I could fall back on if necessary.
• This shoot also required me to plan for fairly short shoots compared to what I am used to.  This meant that I had to work a lot faster than usual and I feel that I adapted well to this as I was able to shoot everything I needed to.
• This shoot also marks the first time I have filmed in a busy public place, so I had to liaise with the Kent Film Office and town authorities to get permission to do so.  I have done this before, but not for something that may involve members of the public, so whilst it was a little daunting, this is a new skill I have learned during this shoot.