SCRIPT TO SCREEN - PRODUCTION DAYS

Shoot for 'Y4' 26/12/2018 - 27/12/18
My self and my Assistant Director Alix arrived at Maidstone studios at 8:30am on Monday 26th of December 2018, I never felt nervous about the day ahead but I had a feeling that I may have forgotten something or someone wouldn't show up.

The first thing we needed to do is get in the lecture room and create the set as a hospital day room before we got the camera and lights off of Ferg.

We had got some posters and leaflets from the Macmillan unit at Medway hospital so we had a few things to work with to create the set.

Set and props.


We used the furniture from the base room and set up the props.

In the corner we set up the games, everything in the set has a meaning and I wonder if anyone is going to spot it, because the film is about a cancer patient. I bought in the game 'Don't say it' because people are afraid to ask if someone is ill, the other game was 'Yes and No', this represents the choices that we make in our life's.
The Lilies on the table where half dead and Lilies are most common as funeral flowers, this is a set up of what things are to come, I like the grey colours as this is a representation of the grey area's that we also don't like to talk about.

I have learned that I should have researched a day room a little more and If I had a bigger budget I would have got a television, a water dispenser and maybe had some bigger posters to put up as I felt it looked more like a living room then a hospital day room.

In the script I had a stack of magazines however I was unable to collect any due to my schedule but i did get books instead and I think that it worked, there was one magazine that I had because my character Daniella had to throw one so that worked for me.

I also had the scrabble board set up so it stood out in the corner of the room, the board I picked was the green so that it would pop out visually with my dark colours.




Call sheet - Did it work?
The call sheet was effective but there was some confusion with one of my actresses, I sent out the call sheet which had no date on it and she turned up the next day after I finished shooting however the production schedule stated that she was in fact due in the next day, I failed to realise that the email I sent out didn't have the production schedule attached to it.
The mother of the the actress became confrontational but I defused the situation quickly, stating that we had crossed wires and I was happy to pay for the travel expenses and would have her child on my books as an actress, she was more then happy with that.

The lesson is to check my emails properly then check again so I do not have the same issues again in the future.

Costume and makeup.
In pre-production I had organised for my character 'Daniella' played by Katie, to wear her old school uniform if she still had it, being 19 she actually did still have it and it fitted well.



For Katie's make-up I wanted it to be as natural as possible and she made the creative choice to wear her hair down in which I thought was perfect for her part.

For Annie, I bought her pyjamas and slippers from Primark the total cost was £12, I said she could keep them after we have finished filming.
I brought a dressing gown and a head scarf from home but it worked well with the colours that I described in the script.

For her make-up I used a very light concealer all over her face to make her look pale and drawn.
I am not a make-up artist and was worried about continuity as we were filming for two days, so I didn't want to go over the top with it.







Susan, who played Annie helped me with the nurses outfit for the last scene as she has a selection of costumes from her acting days, this was an amazing touch to the project.

Camera set up.


I set up the camera on a wide shot to start with and marked the floor with tape as to were I wanted my camera to be on all my wide shots.

But then I found a problem, the media button didn't switch on, so I had to talk to Fergus about this...
He said that the button wasn't going to work so I couldn't review my footage, there was no other camera's available as they were all booked out on other shoots.
In my head I thought "as long as I have my shot list I will be okay" but in reality I had to take 3 takes of each shot just to make sure that I had the footage that I wanted, this took longer but it was an obstacle that I had to over come.

I then did my white balance and everything seemed to be darker then what I wanted, we closed the blinds and looked once again, I turned on the Zebra peak to give me a different feel for the shots and it worked nicely (when we saw the footage afterwards).

I had three main positions for the camera, I had a wide, an POV of Daniella and a POV of Annie, The mistake that I made is that I wasn't consistent of each scene that I was filming, but that is down to my shot list so I really need to think about this next time I shot.

Shots on the tripod.


Shots handheld.




I am getting comfortable with doing handheld shots but they can be shaky (as I came to see to post-production) but overall I got nice shots of the scenes with both methods.

The way I worked with continuity is taking pictures of the key things that will stand out the most, like the scrabble board.



The words on the board also represented feelings of my younger and older character, which I thought was a nice touch to the film.

Setting up the lighting.



Myself and Alix took part in a lighting workshop with the third years and was very confident that we could get a nice lighting set up.

We decided that the room lighting was to much exposure for the look that we wanted for the set, so we set up two lights.
We had to eliminate harsh shadows and on day one we executed this well, the second day (as I found out in the edit) it didn't work so much, the lights where never moved but the camera had a different aperture setting so the final shots had two different looks.
Next time I will take notes of what the camera settings are so I can have good continuity over a few days of shooting.

Rehearsals.
Before we started to shoot myself and the actors had a read through with the script, we and before each scene we walked it through and marked the spots with tape where the actors was going to stand and walk in, I also had talks with both my actors about their characters and how they was going to portray they characters and performance.





Doing a rehearsal made me bond with my actors and get the camera on in the places that I wanted them to be positioned, I will use this method in my next projects as it also gave the actors to ask questions about there performance and suggestions of what they could do to enhance there performance such as Annies dialogue, she suggested that she change a few words to fit her character, I was open to suggestions and it worked better for the scene.

Sound.
For sound we used clip mics on the first day of shoot then we added in the camera mic the next day.
We experienced many sound problems on set as there were noises coming from next door to us, we later found out that there was a kitchen for staff next door and the only thing that separated us was a door.
We had to stop filming a number of times but we caught up well with the schedule thanks to Alix.
Susan's mic also get getting muffled as it was inside the dressing gown and she was moving constantly.

I didn't like working with clip mics on my film, I think they would be more beneficial on a documentary or news productions because my actors were restricted of movement in fear that the mics would fall out, I will opt for a boom mic when I film another short film as they can pick up the sound directly in front of the actors without them feeling that the mic is exposed..

Shot list - Did it work?
Without a shot list I wouldn't have got the majority of the shots that I wanted, however if I set up the room prior to filming and did a rehearsal day then I would have been better prepared for the the day because when it came to edit I had some vital shots that would made my extract 10 times better, so next time I would want to arrange that.

Crew.
My crew on the day consisted of 3 of us:
Alix Mottershead - Assistant Director/Lighting technician/Sound technician.
Kelsey Parker - Production Assistant and Photographer.
Myself - Camera operator/Director and Writer.

Working with this crew was a blessing as I have built up a close bound with them throughout the term.
Alix for-filled her role's and took the project very seriously, she kept me in check with time keeping and the shots that needed to take priority over the other shots, this was due to the deadline that I had set myself. Alix has a very creative mind and at times we would have creative differences but I listened to her opinions. She never overpowered my project and did the jobs that she was hired to do and did them to her best ability. Without Alix I don't feel (for my first project) that I would of been able to take control of the shoot because I put myself into 3 roles on the day, I didn't realise until Ferg told me on the day, that it was better to get a Director of photography on the crew so they can over see the images and take the pressure of the director. I see how that could work because doing multiple jobs can get confusing and time consuming on the day.

Kelsey also fulfilled her role as Production Assistant and Photographer.
When my actors arrived Kelsey took care of the needs, she took them to get breakfast, lunch and got the refreshments when they needed them, she was consistent with the photos and is responsible for the photo's that I have uploaded so far from my shoot.

Working with a deadline - Did it work?
I knew that one of my actors had commitments the second day of the shoot and had to leave by 3pm, I also knew that I could only have the room till 5:30pm as I had outside actors in the studio's and with a member of the UCA staff in the building they weren't allowed to be there after that time.

Panic did set in, but this is why it was so important to have Alix keep me on track of my shot list and my production schedule. On the first day we was meant to start filming at 10:30, however when myself and Alix arrived on set it took from 9am to 11:30am to set up so I was behind schedule, this was critical for me to get caught up and get my priority shots complete.
Overall it was good practice because for the future because in every working day there are deadlines that need to be met, but pressure can get to anyone emotionally because when someone is passionate about something they will work all hours to get the job done but with restrictions it can take it's toll on the individual. I became a little snappy towards the end of the second day of shoot as I was getting shots that I didn't need and that was breaking the rules because I needed that footage.
I sat back after and reflected on my behaviour and realised the only reason I was snappy is because of the passion I have for my art and I fell in love with filming even more.

Cost of my production.
Costume - £12
Food - £40.50
Fuel - £20
Props - £6.50
Total = £79