Production Process - Shoots 1&2

Today was a day of two halves, and two shoots. The morning and afternoon shot spanned from 9 in the morning through to 3 in the afternoon. The first task at 9 o'clock was to set up the mannequin room to shoot in. The original idea behind the concept was to create a room filled with all sorts of miscellaneous wires and prosthetic body parts to give the impression it was a twisted dark room. We designed and dressed the room to how I imagined it, creating a large circle of mannequins with spare arms and hands at their feet alongside the scattered wires. We dressed the set the best we could within two hours to hide all of the unwanted sights such as the washing machines and sink. The lighting through the window was also an issue. A large window was at the side of the room, and as we were shooting during the day the room was drowning in natural light. I wanted the exact opposite of this. As director I aimed to have complete creative control over my environment. I needed use of the red lighting to create the dark and sinister tone of the location, so we made time to cover up the window with two heavy black boards to block out any natural lighting. We finished up and we had time to get a few cutaway shots of the surrounding mannequins and props we had around the room. This acted as coverage for the final edit. 

The actor and actress became available between 2 and 3 o'clock where we shot their scenes very quickly and efficiently. We were fully aware that these actors are also students, and that they are essentially helping us out by acting in these videos. This means we have to consistently respect their needs to turn up to lectures etc. This gave me a reason to not mess around, get the shots, get the coverage we needed and keep moving on. We got around 15-20 shots we needed, with a few extra takes in there to take away from this mornings shoot. This was all done inside of an hour. I am extremely pleased with how my crew acted on set, despite being two crew members down. 

Below are a few images from the first shoot, showcasing the final effect of our lighting equipment and positioning. I personally adore the outcome of todays shoot in terms of the visuals. The colouring is exactly how I wanted it to be despite the problem with the natural lighting, and I believe that this lighting only adds to, and sustains, the effect and illusion of a sinister room of robot creation.  

The second shoot commenced between 5 o'clock through to 9 o'clock. This shoot required a change of location and a whole load of shipping equipment around from the Uni to the location down the road. Following our morning and afternoon shoot, the rest of my crew had a small break whilst I continued to work on preparation for our shoot on the next day, Thursday. I contacted our actors and made further plans with the shot-lists. The crew returned, as did the other crew from the second group who we had planned to shoot with. This shoot had acted as a double shoot. Two crews, one location, two cameras and two sets of equipment. All there for the same purpose, to get shots of the band playing. After all this was a music video for the band, we wanted to include them. We invited them to the studio, a small music venue just around the corner from the university. They agreed and the shoot went ahead from 5 o'clock. We arrived at the location following a tedious equipment haul. We set up the lighting, prepared the actors and worked out a shooting system between both crews. I believe this sort of preparation helped us when it came to shooting as we allowed ourselves to take turns with each camera. This system involved one crew getting the wide shots of the band playing on stage while they played their song for the music video. We then swapped, and the other crew got the wide shots for their video as the band played their song. We did this again for mid shots and close ups. At the end of the shoot as the band packed away, by 9 o'clock we had a lot of coverage of the band which will help us out again in the edit. Below are some images taken from tonights shoot in the studio venue. 

In conclusion today has been an extremely successful day. Two shoots down, we have a lot of useable footage and we've made great progress into our storyboards and shot-lists which we spent a lot of time preparing for. These shots came on the same day as we lost our Producer. I am glad this did not negatively impact us, as we went ahead with both shoots professionally and efficiently. We can now look forward to tomorrows shoot and eventually the final edit with great optimism.