Location was initially a problem – none of our parents wanted to give up so much space in their houses over such an extended period of time, with no guarantee that we wouldn’t have to do continuous re-shoots. Ella’s Dad finally agreed to let us use his flat, in Gordon Hill. This was ideal because of it’s location nearby to most of us and the stairs leading up to the flat door.
We went to her house before our actual shoot and did a walk-through, from the path into the hallway, up the stairs and to the flat door so that we could see exactly what it would look like, and took photographs.
I learnt that a location reccie was incredibly vital to our project – without going to test out the location first we would have spent hours on the day of the actual shoot sorting out problems we encountered, for example the timer switches on the lights, and the fact that there were lots of steps leading up to the flat, which we worried about as we had planned to use only one set of stairs. With the location reccie though, we sorted through these problems in advance.
Storyboarding
Storyboarding was so much more useful then I at first thought it would be. In fact I was pretty sceptical at first, thinking that it was a waste of time, as we would probably deviate from the storyboard on the shoot anyway. However, when it came to do the shoot, it was so helpful in focusing us, keeping us on track and giving us something to work towards, even if we didn’t shoot everything exactly as we had planned.
Gaining permission
We gained permission from our media teachers almost straight away, but it took longer to persuade Ella’s dad into allowing us to use the location – we had to all agree to treat the flat with respect, and agree on certain days and times that were ok with him.
PROCESS OF RUNNING A SHOOT
- I learnt that good acting is vital in an opening sequence such as this.
- It was important to to make sure actors sign a contract, so that they cannot back out if re-shoots are (and they were) necessary.
- Important to make sure actors were happy, well-fed, warm, content, etc. so that they were in a good mood for the shoot.
-Coming prepared with props and food meant that the shoots ran smoothly.
-Good time-keeping was necessary
-Keeping a shot-list made everything far easier when it came to editing.
-When we were unsure about a shot, the rule became ALWAYS SHOOT AGAIN. In our first shoot we spent far too much time critiscising shots we had failed to shoot twice, three, or more times to make sure they were just as we wanted them.
-Shooting every detail was necessary. For instance: her going up to the door, her opening the door, her hand on the door as it opened, her coming through the door on the other side, the door shutting behind her on the other side. Everything had to be taken into account to ensure continuity.
THE EDITING PROCESS
- We soon learnt to capture everything, even shots we werent sure we could use. We found ourselves saying 'oh, we should have captured that one..' too many times.
- Using multiple timelines was extremley helpful. It meant if we were happy with something but wanted to try playing around with it, we could still do this without ruining the order.
-Getting the music right was vital. It did so much to affect the mood of our piece.
WORKING AS A TEAM
-listening to each other was so important; when we talked over each other and refused to co-operate nothing got done.
-sharing tasks was similarly important, as it was unfair to leave more work to one person than another.
-talking about any problems we each had meant that they got sorted out a lot faster.
listening to each others suggestions was always helpful. If a particular suggestion didn't go according to plan, it was never too late to go back and change it.
No comments:
Post a Comment