The day before this day our group had a meeting just to discuss the plans and check we had everything available for the next day. I made sure we had the equipment ready to go and confirmed the timings were good with everyone. This is a time lapse of us loading the mini bus. It was freezing cold and raining but lucky the weather didn't end up effecting the shots we were aiming to get.
In the morning of the shoot day I felt slightly nervous because I wasn't too sure how the day was going to turn out. I wrapped up as warm as I could because I knew we were going to be freezing in the garage and outside all day. We were very prepared as we had all the things we needed ready and easily accessible just to take with us to the location. We began with making sure the cast involved were in school and then we began packing with all the props we need in the shoot e.g. the musical instruments, the drum kit, the microphone, wires, etc. We had one major problem- Charlotte had an injury the day before so we didn't have her with us. Therefore, we just had to manage the day with just the three of us. I think we handed having less of us pretty well consider.
 |
| Storage for our equipment |
 |
| Loading Mini-bus |
 |
| Squad |
When we arrived at the location, Peaslake boarding house, we weren't on time schedule but this didn't really matter. We opened up the garage door and decided how we were going to empty what was already in the garage so that we had enough space and were able to create the grungy look we were going for. We had to put plenty of beer cans, cigarettes and random bottle opens around so that the setting was realistic and it looked like the band were generally practising as grandly, rocky boys. I thought it was the perfect location for what we were needing for this type of 'band rehearsal'.
 |
| House to garage |
 |
| House to garage |
 |
| Inside Garage |
This was the camera we used. It was a Sony NX5 therefore a good quality camera to get a quality sequence. It also allowed us to be a lot more free with it as it wasn't too heavy or hard to manoeuvre around. This meant we could create a lot of handheld shots which were effective for the part they were practising with the song. Equally, we were able to put it on a tripod just to get standard establish shots and shots from different angles around the musicians.
 |
| Sony NX5 |
 |
| Ben setting drum kit |
 |
| Callum |
 |
| Max on our homemade sofa |
We decided the roles equally on the day so that we could play to our strengths and then swap around. At first, I controlled the music as It was my brothers song therefore I had it. This meant I needed to set up the playback and the speaker system so that the band were able to play along to the song and keep in time with each other. Ben was on camera to start off with as he was getting creative with the shots and coming up with good ideas, and Rashad decided to hold the microphone as this enabled him to help Ben out and give extra ideas as well as recording the sound. We shot the establishing shots in the morning and the shots of the individual band members. This included close-ups, shots from above and below the different instruments and also effective shots that highlight different parts of the opening. An example of this would be the beer cans and cigarettes, just to create more of a feel to the garage styled setting. The most effective shot of the morning, for me, was the shot over Max's shoulder, looking at the text he received from a strange number. We captured this well as you can clearly see what the text says and we see it from the point of view of the antagonist.We were slightly rushed for time as we had a separate Drama trip we had to leave for so we needed to plan our time wisely without wasting too much of it.
When we came back from lunch we were ready to start with the outside section of our opening when Max gets a text, walks out the garage and then gets beaten up. I wanted to take the role of the camera man as I wanted to try and push myself with different shots. I would say I enjoyed this role the most as I was able to try unusual things and capture effective shots. Everything we tried in this outside section worked effectively and we managed to get long duration shot that flowed so well, from max coming out of the door and then shooting over Adams shoulder (the hitman). However, due to the time being cut short we were not able to finish the ending we hoped for. Therefore we decided on another shoot day where we were all free and able to finish the ending. We still have that to complete and we will need to consider the time of day and the weather as it needs to have continuity other wise it will look unrealistic. We could probably use some of the shots we captured outside and then just pretend the road leads on onto the new location. In a way, this worked out well as I was not 100% satisfied with where we started shooting as it wasn't the road like atmosphere I had imagined, it was more of a private road look and just didn't seem as effective as a road could be so adding two locations would be good because I did like the way the garage was situated.
The part in which I think was most successful was the separate shots of the musicians as they all performed extremely well and there acting was really effective therefore we were able to get interesting shots. So I would say the team work, including the actors, worked really well on the day and we all worked hard together, accepting and trying each others ideas and also learning from each other. Although we did get cool shots, I do wish we had more time to get more shots so that when we come to editing we can cut loads of shots into it to make it fast pace (the music bit) however I am hoping there were a sufficient amount of so we can chop and change different parts into the opening. This all came to the amount of time we had therefore I wish we had more time on the day.
When it comes to the edit, I am looking forward to seeing how the musicians look when playing their practise song as I thought they looked really good together and all matched each others looks extremely well. Also I am interested to see whether it not their lip syncing and playing looks realistic along with the track. I'm sure it will be fine as they were all playing really well along with the track but if it isn't in time then it doesn't create the same effect. We can sort this out by just creating quicker shots from one instrument to the other, which is probably what we want to do anyway.
From our shoot day I learned to always be considerate of others' ideas as it creates really effective team work and it means you can trust other people and create something that comes from everyone and everyones input. That's why I think our group works so well because of how we worked on the day. I also learnt that when shooting you need to be constantly thinking about the 180 degree rule as this is how create continuity. I had to keep considering this when filming the outside section. Finally, time management would be a huge lesson as this effects what kind of shots you get and the extent in which you can take the shots; you start off with the basic establishing shots and then you can get creative with handhelds etc. Overall our shoot went really well and I am really excited to start editing!
