Pre-light and final preparations for Studio Shoot!

Wednesday was our first day with just our group in the studio and in our set working on our pre-light and any other preparations we needed to make for our shoot the following two days. 

When I first arrived my main concern was to make the shoot schedule as I had been unable to do that till now due to the shot list changing the day before this and the lighting plan only being finalised the day before. Here is the shot list I was working from which also has lighting plans in it too. Both these things I had helped with and gone through with the teams yesterday. The numbers refer to different lighting set ups. 1 is natural lighting, 2 is blue lighting set up and 3 is red lighting set up.

BA(Hons) Digital Film & Screen Arts Y2

Professional Tool Kit - Studio Shoot and Digital Workflow                                 

Untitled (TBC)

“Experimental Psychological Abstract Drama.”

SHOT LIST                                          01-02/12/2016                                           STUDIO SHOOT

SCENE 1                                                        Intro
Prop: Phone
Shot	Type/ Movement	Detail	Gear	Notes	Lighting (ID)	Lighting (SE)
A	CU, tacking, boom up at the same time	Feet, walking in the corridor, side way, from feet to hand, Superego holding phone chloe is simply the best, better than all the rest, better than everyone.	Dolly	praticed, camera sideway on dolly	1	1
B	CU, Tracking	Superego’s face, distressed, breathes heavily	Shoulder Rig	Still walking in/ alternative shot/ profile shot	1	1
C	MCU, tilt down	Follow Superego’s hand as she slams phone on the desk	Tripod		1	1
D	CU, face, still	Id on the floor, open eyes	Tripod		1	1
E	MS, Tracking, high angle	The camera track the id crawling up to the chair then camera backs out to the other room to see both id and superego in shot.	Dolly	ends at middle wall, both on chair	1	1
F	LS, Tracking	Behind the Superego following her into the room.	Dolly	Alternative to shot A	1	1

SCENE 2                                                        Realisation
Sitting down sequence
Shot	Type/ Movement	Detail	Gear	Notes	Lighting (ID)	Lighting (SE)
A	CU, Over the shoulder	Over Id’s shoulder, looking towards Superego doing actions	Tripod		1	1
B	CU, Over the shoulder	Over Superego’s shoulder, looking towards, Id copying actions	Tripod		1	1
C	LS, Still then pull	Superego doing actions, Id copying actions. Both character reach arms out. Dolly pulls out to reveal more space. Superego stands up and slowly back away. Id crawls onto superego’s chair, then back to Id’s room. Superego looks around the room, run to the chair, grab the chair put it under the desk, Id copied.	Dolly	To reference the over the shoulder shots, and to have the realisation part	1	1
D	MS, still	Superego doing actions, Id copying actions.	Tripod		1	1
E	MS, tracking,	Superego stressed, drops down the floor. Dolly tracking her moving and backs out to reveal her drop	Dolly	If backing out doesn’t work, we tilt the camera down	2	1
F	LS, Still	Superego stressed, on floor	Tripod		2	1
G	LS, Still	Id copying superego, on floor	Tripod		2	2

SCENE 3                                                         Fight
Going in and out the two rooms
Shot	Type/ Movement	Detail	Gear	Notes	Lighting (ID)	Lighting (SE)
A	MS, Tracking	Actors interacting with each other	Slider	Might go in and out of rooms	2	2
B	MS, Tracking, Gib up	Follow the Id from Superego’s room back into her room. Then the dolly gibs up as Id stands up.	Dolly	Crawls back?	3	2
C	MCU, Tracking, Over the shoulder	Tracking the actors fighting with over the shoulder on superego looking at id, high angle	Shoulder Rig	status	3	3
D	MCU, Tracking, Over the shoulder	Tracking the actors fighting with over the shoulder on superego looking at id, low angle	Shoulder Rig	status	3	3
E	MCU, Tracking, Over the shoulder	Tracking the actors fighting with over the shoulder on id looking at superego, high angle	Shoulder Rig	status	3	3
F	MCU, Tracking, Over the shoulder	Tracking the actors fighting with over the shoulder on id looking at superego, low angle	Shoulder Rig	status	3	3
G	CU, Tracking, Over the shoulder	Tracking the actors fighting over the shoulder showing the facial experssions of the Id	Shoulder Rig		3	3
H	CU, Tracking, Over the shoulder	Tracking the actors fighting over the shoulder showing the facial experssions of the Superego	Shoulder Rig		3	3
I	LS, Tracking, actors profile shot	Show whole body movement of both actor, 50:50	Shoulder rig	Status	3	3

SCENE 4                                                         Breaking up
Background: Superego room only
Shot	Type/ Movement	Detail	Gear	Notes	Lighting (ID)	Lighting (SE)
A	LS, Pull	Superego pushes Id back into the Id room, then run to get the sheet to cover the mirror	Dolly		3	3
B	CU, Still	Close up of the Super egos face with sheets in the background. She is breathing heavily.	Tripod		3	3
C	CU, Still	Back to close up of the Superego’s face as she turns to grab the sheets and runs off to the right of the frame.	Tripod		3	3
D	MCU, Still	Actor covering up the mirror (Camera)	Tripod		3	3

SCENE 5                                             Ending - the Swap
Background: Superego room and id room
Shot	Type/ Movement	Detail	Gear	Notes	Lighting (ID)	Lighting (SE)
A	MCU, Still	The superego will walk from the left side of the frame up to the mirror and pull the sheet down.	Tripod		1	1
B	MCU, Tracking	The camera will follow the superego into the Id’s room as she gets pulled in untill you see the Id standing in the doorway.	Shoulder Rig		3	1
C	CU, Tracking	There will be a close up of the Id’s face until she starts walking through the mirror where the camera will Track backwards back into the Superegos room.	Dolly		3	1
D	LS, Tracking	The tracking continues into a wide shot of the Id walking away in the SE’s room. As she walks away it then shows the super ego on the floor in Id room and crawls back to the mirror.	Shoulder Rig/ Tripod		1	1
E	MS, still	Superego on the floor of Id room.	tripod		1	1
F	CU, still	Superego on the floor of Id room.	tripod		1	1

Whilst working from this I also had a copy of the finalised script as well which Logan (Director) had been instructed to change/edit the day before hand to match the new action of the actors we made in rehearsals and to also match up with the new finalised shot list and lighting plan as he failed to do this before these were changed. I also wrote a lot of points down for him which needed to be added in to help make it easier to understand for the camera team etc. Here is our finalised script:

Self Image Reflection Studio Shoot (Working Title)

Written By

Logan Gourlay

1.

FADE IN.

INT. BEDROOM - EVENING

ACTOR 1 walks in,clearly distressed after having broken up with her boyfriend. Holding a broken phone, wearing casual clothes. Room has random personal items lying around.

Actor 1:

(Walks in, breathes heavily)

Actor 1 then walks to the other side of the room, slams both hands on table. ACTOR 2 sits up on other side, alarmed by the noise, walks to the back of the chair and peaks through.

ACTOR 1:

(Slams both hands on table, frustrated)

Actor 2:

(Sits up alarmed)

Actor 2:

Peaks through the chair)

Actor 1 looks over her shoulder at the mirror, sees movement on the other side and approaches. Actor 2 slowly rises from peaking behind the chair.

Actor 1:

(Looks over to mirror, approaches uncertain)

Actor 2:

(Rises from behind chair)

Both Actor 1 and Actor 2 sit on the chair in unison, facing each other. Actor 1 starts to test her reflection, First she leans in, noticing there is a delay with her reflection. Actor 2 leans in too far, mockingly.

ACTOR 1:

(Leans in, calmly but suspiciously)

ACTOR 2:

(Reluctantly, leans in too far)  

Actor 1 pulls back quickly, gripping chair tight. Shocked by the apparent error of her reflection. Actor 2 is sitting there staring, Actor 1 closes eyes to reassure herself and keeps testing.

Actor 1:

(Pulls back, shocked)

Actor 1:

(Raises both hands)

Actor 2:

(Mirrors, reluctantly)

Actor 1 moves raised hands closer to the mirror, Actor 2 reflects this and tries to grab onto Actor 1 hands. Actor 1 turns away in shock, again closing eyes to reassure herself. Actor 2 also turns but slowly, mockingly.

Actor 1:

(Raises hands)

Actor 2:

(Mirrors, tries to grab Actor 1 hands)

Actor 1:

(Turns to the side, in shock)

At this point, Actor 2 has got visibly more childlike and distressed and is doing random movements occasionally. Actor 1 puts foot out to see if reflection will copy, Actor 2 reflects but stomps her foot out and in.

Actor 1:

(gracefully puts foot out infront)

Actor 2:

(Stomps foot out and in, childlike)

Actor 1 then starts tying her hair up, Actor 2 doesn't tie hair up but starts messing her hair up even more and grabbing it.

Actor 1:

(Ties hair up, frantically)

Actor 2:

(Messes hair up even more, frantically)

Actor 1 and two then turn to face each other through “mirror”. Actor 1 is still doing hair and examining her face, Actor 2 is pulling childlike faces and making noises, mockingly.

Both Actors:

(Turn and face each other)

Actor 1:

(Still doing hair, examining face)

Actor 2:

(Childlike, pulling faces and making noises)

Actor 1 then starts breathing heavily, clutching chair. Actor 2 breathes heavily but as if joking. Actor 1 is leaning back, Actor 2 slowly leans forwards, staring at Actor 1.

Actor 1:

(leans back, breathing heavily)

Actor 2:

(Leans forwards, staring)

Actor 1 then raises both hands one more time, Actor 2 copies but grabs hold of Actor 1 hands. Actor 1 jumps out chair, startled. Actor 2 stays sitting.

Actor 1:

(Raises hands)

Actor 2:

(Copies, but grabs hold)

Actor 1:

(Jumps up, startled)

At this point Actor 1 has realised this is not her reflection. She backs away from the mirror. Actor 2 gets out of her chair and straddles Actor 1 chair.

Actor 1:

(Backs away from mirror, slowly)

Actor 2:

Climbs through mirror, straddles Actor 1 chair)

Actor 1 then falls to the floor in shock, looking at the mirror. Actor 2 copies but falls mockingly. Actor 1 is sitting there staring and breathing heavily, Actor 2 is lying on the other side of the mirror, playing with her hair.

Actor 1:

(Falls to floor in shock, breathing heavily)

Actor 2:

(Copies, but is lying down playing with hair)

Actor 2 slowly crawls towards the mirror and into superego side, where Actor 1 is sat with her back turned to the mirror.

Actor 2:

(Crawls towards Superego side)

Actor 1 turns around and both actors face each other on hands and knees, squaring of to each other and still in superego side.  

Actor 1 then grabs the top of Actor 2 head and pushes them back through the mirror.

Actor 1:

(Turns around, quickly)

Both Actors:

(Face each other, on hands and knees)

Actor 1:

(Grabs top of Actor 2 head, pushes)

After the push, Actor 2 goes backwards through the mirror, to the ID side, and and lies on floor. Actor 1 rolls away.

Actor 2:

(Goes back through mirror, lies on back)

Actor 1:

(Rolls away, still on hands and knees)

Actor 1 puts hand through mirror to touch the hand of Actor 2 lying on back looking up. Actor 2 grabs hold of Actor 1 hand and pulls her through the mirror to the ID side, Actor 1 lies on the floor and Actor 2 sits up.

Actor 1:

(puts hand through mirror)

Actor 2:

(Touches hand, looking up at Actor 2)

Actor 2:

(Grabs hold of hand)

Actor 1:

(Gets pulled through mirror)

Actor 1:

(Lies on floor, ID side)

Actor 2:

(Sits up)

Still holding hands, Actor 2 turns body around and lies down next to Actor 1. Actor 2 then looks at Actor 1, and the other way round. Both turn away when they look at each other though.

Actor 2:

(Turns body round and lies down next to Actor 1)

Actor 2:

(Looks at Actor 1, turn away quickly)

Actor 1:

(Looks at Actor 2, turn away quickly)

Actor 2 then gets on top of Actor 1 and they embrace, Actor 2 putting their head to the side of Actor 1 head. Actor 1 then strokes Actor 2 head and Actor 2 rolls off onto front, looking at actor 1, who gets onto hands and knees, looking shocked.

Actor 2:

(Rolls over, gets on actor 1)

Actor 1:

(Embraces Actor 2)

Actor 2:

(Rolls off Actor 1)

Actor 1 then wraps arms and legs around Actor 2 lying down. Actor 2 shakes Actor 1 off, who rolls over and lies on back.

Actor 1:

(Wraps arms and legs around 2)

Actor 2:

(Shakes Actor 2 off)

Both lying on their side in fetal positions, facing away from each other. Actor 1 Gets up and walks back into Superego side, heading towards the window, with her back to the mirror. Actor 2 runs after and jumps on actor 1 back. Shakes Actor 2 off.

Actor 1:

(Gets up and walks to Superego side)

Actor 2:

(Runs after, jumping on back)

Actor 1:

(Shakes Actor 2 off)

Actor 2 then grabs hold of Actor 1 by the arm and swings her around, into ID space. They then both grab both of each others hands and start trying to wrestle to the floor.

Actor 2:

(Grabs hold of Actor 1 hands and swings around)

Actor 1:

(Grabs Actor 2 hands)

Both Actors:

(Try to wrestle to the floor)

Actor 1 wins, pushing Actor 2 away and running into Superego side. Actor 1 puts a sheet over mirror to be alone, then turns around themselves and faces away, head in hands, clearly distressed again.

Actor 1:

(Pushes Actor 2 away)

Actor 1:

(Runs into Superego space)

Actor 1:

(Throws sheet over mirror)

After a while Actor 1 has calmed down and takes the sheet off mirror.

Actor 1:

(Calmly, takes sheet off mirror)

Actor 2:

(Lunges out of mirror)

As the sheet is lifted, Actor 2 becomes aware, slowly opens eyes as it turns and lunges at Actor 1, dragging Actor 1 through the mirror. Soundscape and lighting flair up one more time for dramatic effect.

After a few seconds, Actor 2 comes out of the mirror, grinning while Actor 1 is clearly visible in the mirror, banging fists on it. Music and lighting is normal.

Actor 2 is seen standing in the room, still grinning.

FADE OUT.

THE END

I used all these bits of information and paperwork to work out the best way for shooting. I decided because our piece is based so heavily on lighting and their is so many lighting change it made sense to have all types of red and blue lighting on one day and then all natural lighting on another. I was going to have day 1 as natural and then day 2 as blue and red set ups but due to our Gaffa Ollie unable to attend the first hour of our 2nd day shoot it made sense for me to have the natural lighting on this second day because then we wouldn't need him their changing it as often so I changed the order of the days round and had all the blue and red on day one when he was there all day with his assistant Gaffa Umor. I also then took into consideration the camera teams plan to have a lot of Dolly shots and thought it would make sense to have these all shot together at the beginning of each day. The same with having all the slider shots together, all the shoulder rig shots together and then most the tripod shots together. Here is the schedule I made for this:

Day One Shoot Schedule

Shot	Lighting Set up	Start time	Shoot / Set Up time	End Time
Scene 2 E – MS Tracking with Dolly as SE drops to floor	2 (BLUE) – ID 1 (NATURAL) - SE		30 min (20 set up, 10 shoot)
Scene 3 B – MS Tracking with Dolly as ID crawls back into her room	3 (RED) – ID 2 (BLUE) - SE		10 min
Scene 4 A – LS tracking with Dolly as SE pushes ID back and covers mirror with sheet	3 (RED) - ALL		10 min
Scene 5 C – CU tracking with Dolly as ID enters SE room for last time	3 (RED) – ID 1 (NATURAL) - SE		10 min
Scene 2 F – LS tripod superego sitting stressed on floor	2 (BLUE) – ID 1 (NATURAL) - SE		10 min
Scene 2 G – LS tripod ID copying SE on floor	2 (BLUE) - ALL		10 min
Scene 3 A – MS tracking with Slider actors interacting with each other	2 (BLUE) - ALL		20 min (15 set up, 5 shoot)
Scene 3 I – LS shoulder rig whole fight scene	3 (RED) - ALL		5 min
Scene 3 C – MCU tracking shoulder rig fight over the shoulder of the SE looking down on ID	3 (RED) – ALL CU KEY LIGHT		5 min
Scene 3 D – MCU tracking shoulder rig fight over SE shoulder looking up at ID	3 (RED) – ALL CU KEY LIGHT		5 min
Scene 3 E – MCU tracking shoulder rig fight over ID’s shoulder Looking down at SE	3 (RED) – ALL CU KEY LIGHT		5 min
Scene 3 F – MCU tracking shoulder rig fight over ID’s shoulder looking up at SE	3 (RED) – ALL CU KEY LIGHT		5 min
Scene 3 G – CU tracking shoulder rig fight showing ID facial expressions	3 (RED) – ALL CU KEY LIGHT		5 min
Scene 3 H – CU tracking shoulder rig fight showing SE facial expressions	3 (RED) – ALL CU KEY LIGHT		5 min
Scene 4 B – CU tripod SE facial expression and heavy breathing before she makes a run for the sheet	3 (RED) – ALL CU KEY LIGHT		10 min
Scene 4 C – CU tripod SE’s facial expression as she turns to run for the sheet	3 (RED) – ALL CU KEY LIGHT		10 min
Scene 4 D – MCU tripod SE throws sheet over camera	3 (RED) – ALL CU KEY LIGHT		10 min
Scene 5 B – MCU tracking shoulder rig as SE gets pulled by ID into ID space after pulling sheet down	3 (RED) – ID 1 (NATURAL) - SE CU KEY LIGHT		5 min

Day Two Shoot Schedule

Shot	Lighting Set Up	Start Time	Set Up Time	End Time
Scene 1 A – CU Dolly Tracking SE feet walking into room	1 (NATURAL) – ALL		20 min
Scene 1 E – MS tracking with Dolly as ID wakes and crawls to chair then both characters in shot	1 (NATURAL) - ALL		10 min
Scene 1 F – LS tracking with Dolly following SE into the room (alternative to shot A)	1 (NATURAL) - ALL		10 min
Scene 2 C – LS pull and track with Dolly as ID reflects SE then crawls into her space	1 (NATURAL) – ALL		10 min
Scene 1 B – CU shoulder Rig tracking SE’s distressed face before she slams phone down	1 (NATURAL) – ALL CU KEY LIGHT		5 min
Scene 1 C – MCU tripod following SE hand as she slams phone down	1 (NATURAL) – ALL CU KEY LIGHT		10 min
Scene 1 D – CU tripod still of ID facial expression as she opens eyes	1 (NATURAL) – ALL CU KEY LIGHT		10 min
Scene 2 A – CU tripod over ID’s shoulder looking at SE doing actions	1 (NATURAL) – ALL CU KEY LIGHT		10 min
Scene 2 B – CU Tripod Over Super Ego’s shoulder looking at ID copying her	1 (NATURAL) – ALL CU KEY LIGHT		10 min
Scene 5 A – MCU tripod still of SE walking to mirror and pulling sheet down	1 (NATURAL) – ALL CU KEY LIGHT		10 min
Scene 5 F – CU tripod still of SE on floor in ID space	1 (NATURAL) – ALL CU KEY LIGHT		10 min
Scene 2 D – MS tripod of ID copying SE actions on chair	1 (NATURAL) - ALL		10 min
Scene 5 D – LS tracking with shoulder rig showing ID walk away into SE space once she’s won and SE left alone in ID space	1 (NATURAL) - ALL		5 min
Scene 5 E – MS tripod still of Superego alone left in ID space	1 (NATURAL) - ALL		10 min

As you can see I left the start and end times blank because I was unable to do this due to not knowing what call time and set up time we would have each morning as the Producer Katherine was organising this. I gave the schedule like this and she then went through and worked out times and changed it as needed due to how she was planning to have the day run with breaks etc. I also gave her the call sheets me and Assistant Producer Nicole had worked on the day before for her to finish up as we needed to add in the times on these as well.

I then moved on to helping finish up the set decorating etc as we wanted this done ASAP so that Ollie  our Gaffa could test out the light with everything in the space as it would be so that we could judge if it looked good or not. This meant I was putting the remaining props out in the space with a group of other people including the set designer. Here is an image I have of how the set looked once we were done with it. (Due to it being so larger I couldn't get it all in a Photo!)

I was very happy with how it looked because we had as planned managed to get it to match to make it seem like a reflection but with the ID side reflecting the messy child like personality and the Superego side reflecting the anal organised over the top personality. 

Then we began our pre-light which was mainly focused on getting the basic natural lighting set up done first and then it was just a case of trying the coloured gels on the lights to see if this worked as well. The first set up took a lot of time because it was a case of setting it up how Ollie had planned but then we kept tweaking it slightly to try and get the best effect we could. During this preflight we had two members of our team sat in the space and also moving around the space to see how the lighting would hit the actors on the shoot day and work out if this was right. We also had the camera team set up with their equipment to see how the lighting looked on camera from the different angles and shots they were planning. Mine and Logan's main role during this process was to judge how the lighting looked in all the scenarios and direct Ollie and Umor on how to change it and tweak it to get the best effect we could. We went for 2 main studio lights above each room. One shinning in the room and the other shinning through the mirror gap in the middle wall to light the actors faces well. We then had a fill light in the Superego room as we needed this to be brighter which we created by having a studio light shining on a large piece of reflective Poly therefore bouncing a soft light into the room. We also had a space light on in the Superego room to make it much brighter than the Id side. However we then realised we couldn't see a lot of the detail on the Id's side so we also added a really soft fill light on this side just to make more of the detail visible. We then realised the corner where our actress begins on the ID side was far too dark to see her face so we turned the prop lamp on. This was far too bright and no in the right place but we liked the effect this created so the Gaffa's put some trace over the top of this to dull it down but so we could still have it on to add to the effect. Then they added a small soft spotlight on the corner where the ID actor begins just so we would be able to see her facial features on camera. A lot of time was spent on this lighting set up but I feel like it was very worth it. We then needed to move on to look at making it red and blue when needed and how we would do this. The Gaffa's found the right gels we needed for the light and put them up. We decided to only have the gels on the 4 main studio lights above the rooms but leave the fill lights normal as if we cover the fill lights with gel too it got very dark. We liked the effect it created and therefore we locked these lighting set ups in place. The camera team also had a lot of time to practice with he camera and equipment today like the Dolly so they were as prepared as possible for tomorrow. I was very happy with how successful today was as we finally got everything we needed to done and finalised which would make our following two shoot days flow a lot better. I also to help us stayed organised made sure there was an equipment table for camera equipment and another for sound equipment so that these two teams could keep a track of where everything should be.

Before we left today we then had a brainstorm on what we should officially name this piece. We named it Entity after a suggestion Ollie made because it is a shortened term of Identity but with the ID which works with what our piece's subject is on so many levels. I feel very confident in our piece and our shoot days coming up.