The Shoot

The Shoot

We shot our film on the 22nd of December, from about 3 until 7. It was a very interesting, fun, and informative evening, and by the end we had all the shots needed for our opening. Our shoot went fairly smoothly, although we did face a few problems as we went along.

     Setting up

Crystal, Sam and I arrived at 3 o'clock, an hour before our actor was due to arrive and we were scheduled to start shooting. During this time, Sam set up the camera and lighting, Crystal got changed and prepared for her role, I created the symbol and all of us created the mess necessary for our opening.

     Shooting

Our actor, Oliver, arrived at 4, and we started shooting at around 4.30, half an hour behind schedule. We started shooting late because we took more time setting up than we expected, due to the fact that we had to unpack and prepare various things, then brief our actor on what to do. After a few practice runs and planning of the first shot, we were ready to start. We shot our first take of the first shot at about 5.

Around 40 minutes later, we had finished filming the continuous shot. We had a quick break to gain some energy and relax a bit. We then carried on filming, moving on to the fight scene between Crystal and Oliver. We carried on until about 7, when we finished filming our final shot of the day. We tidied up the flat and packed all the equipment away, and about 30 minutes later, we were out of the flat and gone.

     The continuous shot

We decided to film the first shot, the long continuous shot, first, partly because it made sense chronologically, and partly because it was getting colder and darker as we filmed. We had scheduled 2 hours to film this shot, as we thought coordinating it would be really difficult, and it seemed like a hard shot to execute well. However, the first shot actually only took us about an hour total. This is because coordinating it was actually relatively simple, and with good communication we successfully planned out the timings and orders. When filming this part, Crystal and Sam would stand inside the flat, and I stood outside with Oliver. Me and Crystal would call each other and count down from 3, after which I would signal Oliver to start walking whilst she told Sam to start filming. As a result of this good communication and teamwork, the shot only actually took 4 takes before we got a perfect take, which was really surprising. We moved on from the shot much faster than we had anticipated, meaning that we were well ahead of schedule.

     The fighting scene

The fighting scene balanced out our timing success in the first shot, as it took much longer than we expected. Our plans for this scene were much less specific than the ones for the continuous shot, plus we still had to choreograph the attack. This was one of the reasons why the scene took so long to film. As well as that, we also took much more takes, as we wanted to get the action from several different angles. This means that we filmed the fight and death many times, improving the choreography and building on the action as we went along. Eventually, however, we were finished, and started packing to go. We left at about 7.30, half an hour before we were officially due to finish.

     Problems

We faced a few problems when filming. The main problem we faced was that the fake knives kept on breaking, as they were quite cheap and not especially well made. However, we fixed them up with some tape and used them as much as we could. We also had a minor problem with the first scene in that the door to access the flat would lock automatically when closed. To get over this problem, I stood by the door out of sight, keeping it slightly open so that Oliver could get through and up the stairs. We also had the issue that the lights and mirror in the bathroom could potentially reveal Sam with the camera. To overcome this, we planned out the shot carefully, ensuring that he could not be seen in the light.

     Changes

We made a few changes when filming compared to our plan, and most of these were to do with props. Firstly, I decided that a poker would be inconvenient for travelling and difficult for Oliver to pick up quickly.Therefore I decided to bring a walking stick instead, as it was lighter and more convenient to carry, whilst still being quite threatening as a make-shift weapon. We also decided to ditch the top secret file, as there would be no use for the papers to be messy if they were all in a pile. Also, the assassin would have taken the top secret file with her if her aim was to gather information, which it was. Therefore, we left the file. We also decided not to use the fake blood, as it would make re-takes of the fight scene really difficult and be harder to work with continuity.

     Overall

Overall, I think that our shoot was quite successful. We got all of the shots that we needed, plus had extra time to film more shots, such as a B-roll of paper. We worked very well as a group, and Oliver was a fantastic actor for the scene. If we were to film again, I would have got permission to mess up the room more, pulling objects out of place and on to the floor rather than just scattering a few papers. I also wish that we had tried getting different reactions/facial expressions from Oliver so that we could play around with shot sequencing and meaning making in editing. However, I think that what we have is good, and that there will hopefully be no need to film any of it again.