My Shoot Day Reflection

 Shoot Day Reflection

 

The two days before our shoot we decided to get all of the costumes and props ready with blood and rips/tears on them to make them look well used and in need of being replaced ‘just what we needed’. For the battle axe we could only do one side a day as the extra blood needed time to dry on one side first before we did the other side. So, the day before the shoot all we had to do was to splatter and cover the battle axe in areas that needed it, and we were prepared for shoot day.

 

To start our shoot day, the three of us in our group, Me, Joy and Gi all arrived at 8:10am at school for some breakfast and then walked up to our media classroom for 8:30am, as all of our props and costumes were kept inside there. We waited a couple of minutes before a member of staff came and unlocked the room so we could grab our items and made our way down to the minibus car park. As we waited for our main actress Meadow to get changed into her costume, we got sandwiches and drinks ready and started to load up the minibus.

 

After some little issue with taking a minibus, we finally got on the move in minibus 13. Gi started doing some make up on meadow about 20 minutes into our 45 min journey to Tulleys Farm. Around 5 minutes away from the farm the clutch broke on the minibus, so we got stranded under a bridge beside the road. We had to wait for someone to bring a new minibus from school and a mechanic that would hopefully fix the broken-down bus. It took just over an hour for the people to arrive so we could get on the move again but thankfully we could actually get to the farm and start shooting.

 

When we arrived at Tulleys Farm A staff member by the name of Ian welcomed us as he pulled up in his Kubota golf cart. We loaded all of our camera equipment and props into the back of the cart, and we all hopped in. And We got driven to our first location ‘the junkyard’ set. We unloaded everything from the cart and scouted out where we should put the spare car parts and what camera angle, we are going to shoot first. Due to the fact that none of the cars in the set we could actually get inside within safety reasons, we had to make changes from the girl hot-wiring a car, to searching for car parts. This is also because none of the cars look in working condition and either are on top of another or underneath each other. So, a girl trying to hot wire a rusty car way out of working order just wouldn’t be realistic.

 

When we had finished all of the scouting for the junkyard location we decided to start filming in chronological order, starting with some establishing shots. We shot some footage of the surrounding area including the cars and woods. Some of the cars had bullet holes in them so we got some footage of them due to that adding to the whole post-apocalyptic theme. We then moved onto shooting the first shot of our main actress ‘Meadow’, walking in between cars. We took a wide, mid and close up for this shot at loads of different angles to make sure we had what we needed due us not being able to come back and film stuff we didn’t get on another day. We then moved onto shooting the next shot of Meadow, her scavenging around for engine/car parts. After we had finished this we moved onto shooting the girl discovering her slash down her leg, which we had to add a lot more blood to as it had been rubbed off from being under the trousers.

 

Then when we had completed filming that scene we shot some extra establishing shots just to make sure we had the ones we wanted, making editing easier when we comes to it.

 

We then got picked up in the golf cart and moved onto our next location. Instead of shooting chronologically in this section, we decided to get the most important shots out of the way first just in case we had an issue for time. So we moved onto our next location ‘The Rusty Garage Shack’. We started with a little look around and thinking where exactly the best place would be to film first in that set. We decided to start with a handheld running sequence where the girl is running towards and into the shack. We filmed from the other side of some cars to her to catch her through the car windows and going into the shack. All three of us had a go at trying to get this shot as it was a very difficult one to pull off. We had the sun coming in very strong at the start of the shot and it being in the shade at the end, whilst being on the move in handheld, this made it extremely hard to see the actress for the second half of the shot as it went under exposed.

 

When we had finished that we moved onto shooting the girl open the garage door, hide inside the car and our killer to walk in and circle the car. We decided the best shot idea for this was to circle around the car and watch the whole scene unfold. This scene really tested our skills on the camera and used all aspects that we learnt in the camera workshops, for example, the right exposure, focus and zoom used to make sure everything is clear and nicely exposed. One new thing we learnt was what the shutter angle was. As I do a lot of photography in my spare time, I know my way around a camera, but not a film camera. So I knew what shutter speed is but not shutter angle, and the fact that the larger the shutter angle the lower the shutter speed defiantly confused me a bit, but I slowly got used to it.

 

We then shot our killer striking the girl towards the camera which we all had a go at filming to make sure we had the right shot that we wanted, as all of us would shoot in our own style.

 

Finally, because we had some spare time we went to another location to shoot a bit of footage that will fit in between the ‘junkyard’ scene and the ‘rusty garage’ scene. This also helps with the 180 degrees rule as the girl leaves the ‘junkyard’ heading to the right but comes into the ‘rusty shack from the right, so we needed a shot where she entered from the left and exited to the left as well so that it will look smooth in the final edit.

 

We then stroked the kit and drove back to school.

 

Overall, I absolutely loved the whole day and experience we all had shooting in such a professional environment and am really happy with the footage we got. My favourite part of the day was when we were filming the indoor scene inside the shack. It felt very professional and fun at the same time with a very satisfying outcome of having to film through the windows of the car whilst circling around the car. When it comes to editing, I am most excited about seeing how it all comes together and what the footage looks like when we review back through it.