Production | Shoot Day 6 (Scene 2 and Promo Photos)

Carrying the weathered old doctor's bag, Tim walks down the alleyway and smiles as he comes across a small white van with a logo on the on the side with an inscription...

Cast / Crew:

• Director - Alex Hargood
• Director of Photography - Katie Joslin
• Producer - Melissa Moore
• Sound Recordist - Aidan Robinson-Jones
• Cast
• 'Tim Stewart' - Ed Allenby
• 'Luke Lucas' - Daniel Hemsley

The agenda:

• Shoot scene 2:
• This scene involved driving the van, so we had to take extra precaution to ensure we were being safe, as we have done in previous shoots. The key with this scene was ensuring that we reveal the slogan on the side of the van effectively.

• Then shoot promo photos:
• Once we had wrapped shooting, we will need to capture some photographs to be used for any promotional material, such as the poster and social media accounts.

What went well:

• Today ran very smoothly, we got all the coverage we needed to, we bounced a lot of ideas back and forth with the cast, and the overall mood was positive and jovial. This morale helped to ensure the day flowed well and we ended up finishing earlier than planned. It was nice that the atmosphere on our final shoot day with the cast (not including potential reshoots) was so nice and it made eased the stress of having to complete everything on time.
• Katie captured some very nice photos from the shoot. I asked them to do a variety of different poses in slightly different outfits against a white background. I had an idea in my head for how I wanted the poster to look, and so I we were able to capture exactly what poses we wanted and experiment with different ideas. They looked very professional and I look forward to seeing how we can use them for the poster.
• The sound we captured sounded clear and consistent.
• The props - the drugs - that we had prepared were effective and realistic, and played well into the comedy of the scene. This boosts the production value of the film, along with the van and animals we have used.

What didn't go well:

• The lighting became a minor issue as the sun changed positions as the day went on. Thankfully Katie had prepared for this when working out the lighting for the scene, nevertheless it was a bit of a hindrance as we had to move the van to account for the the light coming from a different direction. It may have helped if we had some more diffusion to aid with the lighting of the scene but I feel we made the best of what we had available.
• We struggled a little with making sure we did not cross the line - Katie and I had already planned this through the shot list, but when it came to shooting with the van in the way, this became difficult. We were able to overcome this, however, and we will be able to choose what works best in the edit.

What did I learn:

• I found that the most successful factor that made today run so smoothly was the rapport we had developed with the cast. This is important for any production, but I feel that since we were making a comedy, it was important for the cast and crew to be in a jovial mood to make them more comfortable to provide the performances we needed them to.