Wednesday 14th Mar | Shoot Day #5

Laura's schedule:

What happened on the day:

On this day we were shooting scene 1, with the characters Annie, Dean, Marie & Extras.

• The day started off with all three of us coming together with the props needed, and starting to gather together the equipment. Nisserin got all the equipment out and a group of us, including some of our other crew members, took all of the equipment down onto the studio floor. We had a lot of equipment booked on this day, so it took a few trips to get everything into our location, but eventually we had everything. 
• There were a few props we definitely needed on the studio floor, like the TV and the tables for the wine bottles. We made sure we had these taken down carefully and once they were on the floor myself and Laura set them up, while Nisserin and the other crew members set up the cameras and other equipment. 
• All crew members helped set the cameras up, along with making sure the lights are put in the right position with the right gels. It took a while for the scene to look the desired way as we had to adjust the positioning of the tables with the bottles on it. This is due to how big we wanted the WS to be and where we wanted the cameras to be based on the background that we didn't want to see. 
• When the actors arrived, Laura went out to see them and bought them up to the base room. It was there that they had a drink, their lunch and got ready for the shooting of the scene. While they were upstairs we were still preparing the set, and making sure everything looked the way I wanted.
• As the cameras were being synced to one another in terms of lighting and colouring, I was asked by Laura to go upstairs, once the actors had, had their lunch and say hi to them before bringing them down onto the studio floor.
• I decided not to rush the actors as I knew they had only just eaten and they were still getting ready. This also gave me a chance to talk to the actors and bond with them, whilst also talking to them about this scene. I gave them pointers in terms of how they should be feeling, and I also mentioned that this was the first scene so it needed to be realistic and believable. 
• Once the actors were ready, and bought into the studio, I started to block the scene out with them. We went through where each character would start off and then where they would end, and all of the other parts of action in between. I also answered any questions that they might've had, and I let them know which camera would be getting which actor just so they were aware.
• Whilst they were doing some run-through with just the three of them, which also gave the cameras a perfect opportunity to test their shots, I was called into the green room by Laura to greet the extras and bring them into the studio.
• We decided it would be a lot more effective and less chaotic if I took the extras into the studios in groups, either of two or three or four. This meant I could focus on each group and tell them specifically what the scene is about, what the story is in the scene, and what they need to do as extras. 
• I made sure to tell them to act professional due to them being a part of a high end company, and I mentioned that they need to act confused and slightly concerned every so often during the scene, and aim that at the action with Marie and her parents. This was especially important when Marie shouts "Security", and I made sure all of the extras were aware of this.
• Once all of the extras were on the studio floor, I asked the cameras if they were ready to start shooting, and if the actors had done enough run-throughs, and eventually we were all ready to start shooting the scene. 
• Before shooting I told the actors & extras to fake speak as I didn't want the boom to pic up any unnecessary audio, and we would get an extra recording of them speaking afterwards. This can be added into the scene during post.
• We shot this scene with the multi-cam set up, so we had three shots being shot at the same time - a single of Dean which turned into a single of Marie, a WS of the whole scene, and a 2-S of Annie & Dean when they are talking to Marie. I wanted to make sure this scene was as good as it could be, so we did quite a few takes all the way through. I didn't want us to go into editing and realise we didn't have enough footage, so I made sure to get as much coverage with those three shots as possible. 
• Once I was happy with the coverage from those shots, we started to shoot some GV's. While we were doing camera resets we had the actors take a break in the green room. The camera resets didn't take as long as we thought as we only planned on using one camera at least, however it did give myself, Laura and Nisserin the chance to talk and discuss if there are any other shots we should get. 
• There was one shot Laura thought might be useful to get, which was a reverse shot of Marie looking towards Annie & saying "mum". She suggested either getting Marie to turn towards the camera before looking at Marie, but I wasn't so sure this would look natural and I thought it would look forced. In terms of the shot list, we hadn't planned on showing Marie's face when saying that line so I decided against getting this shot.
• The GV's we got were: a MS of the TV without anyone in front of it, a CU of the corkscrew splashing into the wine glass, along with a 2-S of the same shot just with the boss & Marie in shot.
• Once the GV's were done, I decided to shoot the shots of Annie talking to the boss asking him for a sweet. We did this with two cameras, so one camera started on Annie and changed to a single of the boss before he turns around, and the other camera was on a single of Annie talking to the boss and once he has turned around you can see him clearly as well. 
• After shooting these shots, someone came up with the idea that the boss should throw the corkscrew out of his cup and walk away after standing next to Marie. I liked this idea, so we reframed for this shot and we did it, getting the extra bit of action.
• I think this shot will add a little bit of extra comedy to the show, and it will give us more coverage to work with during the edit.
• Once all of these shots were done, and I was happy with all of the coverage we had for this scene, we wrapped for the day.

Notes:

Looking back, I think I probably should've asked for a reverse shot of Marie saying "mum" as it's extra coverage that could be used within the edit. This was a mistake on my part, and I do think with that shot the scene could work a lot better, but I don't think it makes the scene look bad either. Even though it's not a massive problem, I still think this was a mistake that I made and I would improve this if I were to shoot this scene again.
This scene was very complicated to shoot, and there were a lot of people to coordinate and direct, so it was slightly stressful. However, I think the coverage we have looks really good, and I think the scene works well just as we hoped it would. Hopefully, when this scene is edited together it will look realistic and resemble a party/conference type scene. Overall, I'm really happy with how this shoot day went, and I think we were all very professional but also happy in front of the actors and the extras.