The crew who came to this were:
Myself - Directing & Talent (Somewhat?)
Sugini - DOP
Ethan - Camera Operator
Umor - Camera Assistant
Dan - Runner and Photographer
Tash - Runner
Every one of them had seen the schedule prior and on the day they got a copy of the schedule/call sheet to follow and a copy of Sugini's shot list to follow. Here are the main things that we found during the shoot...
- This was the first time we had to set up the room and the first time the camera crew had to set up the URSA and other equipment alone. This meant that the set up time took longer than planned however we wanted to make sure we had everything set up correctly and to the best of our ability so this did mean playing around with lighting and camera settings.
- I loved the lighting we ended up with on the infinity table because the table was bright and boldly lit however the objects on the table were still able to cast shadows and have contrast and drama to them which I wanted so that it didn't seem too flat.
- We then started shooting at 10:30am following the schedule but also making up time where we could as we were now slightly behind. We actually managed to do this as we found that spending time with the setup at the beginning then made everything else flow smoothly from then onwards.
- The main tedious tasks between shots was remembering to change the frame rate accordingly (camera crew did reals well at this!) and the randomness of a lot of the things we were filming so therefore having to keep repeating. We ended up doing a lot of shots because we had to keep simply trying things till we managed to get it rite such as trying to roll an apple into shot or having a balloon deflate/fly through the frame!
- We took lunch 15 minutes early at 12:15pm as we had made up that much time in the morning because shot changes were able to be so quick. I went for my lunch and then returned to the room early with Sugini so that she could back up the footage we had filmed so far and I could clean and set up the fish tank ready for the next lot of shots.
- We did then face a large issue when Sugini was trying to back up the footage on my hard rive. My hard rive had enough storage space on it (as I was sure to check this before the shoot). However it would not let me transfer the files from the camera card onto my hard drive. When the rest of the camera crew returned Ethan said that my hard drive may not be formatted correctly. I now know for next time I must make sure to do this. Ethan kindly ran home to grab his Hard drive which he knew would work and returned with it and backed everything up on there for me. This delayed us back again by 30 minutes but we had made sure to complete full set up ready for all the shots to follow while e were waiting for the back up to be done meaning we could start straight away and get a good flow again.
- We actually got back on track again during this second half of the day after spending time setting ourselves up properly, it meant that it could again flow smoothly and time between shots was minimal. The main issues we had with this second lot of shooting was that we had to be very careful with the tank as having it with water in was obviously a risk however we handled this well and had no accidents. I was also concerned about the table holding the weight of the water so we didn't fully fill the tank as high as we might of liked but this did also help because it meant that splash was minimal when we were dropping items into it. I really loved experimenting with the water as it has so many possibilities and interesting things we could do with it.
- We managed to experiment with all the planned shots etc on the schedule and this flowed so well that we finished everything we had planned 30 minutes early. Since we had some extra time and we had kept discussing the possibility of using the larger white backdrop space for some of the shots we decided to quickly set up this backdrop space (once safely disposing of the water from the tank/studio). We were limited on time so we did rush this set up slightly meaning the shots on this background didn't actually work too successfully however it allowed me to realise that the infinity table is defiantly the way to go for this symbolism as it is much more dramatic and effective. However the white backdrop will need to be further explored when filming the movement and macro body shots.
- We then completed the pack up within half an hour and were able to return equipment successfully. All the footage had been backed up on Ethan's hard drive again at the end of filming. Through out the day we had to back up three times as this is how many times the card filed up due to filming a lot of slow motion and in Ultra HD where possible. I wanted to have this footage backed up in at least two places though so we stayed slightly later and I borrowed a hard drive off one of the runners (Tash) who had it formatted successfully so that this was possible. However like I said the footage was so large that to transfer and back up from his hard drive to mine took at least half hour. These are things which I am happy to have discovered now because it means I can sort out storage and hard drive issues before final shooting.
- Overall I was really happy with how the shoot went because we all communicated well and worked together successfully to move through the experiments at a good pace but also in a detailed way. Now I know which shots work and which don't and also the best ways to film a lot of the elements. I really enjoyed this shoot too and it was a very different Directing experience than what I had done prior but it was good to do. The main thing I felt was that next time I defiantly need more runners on set so that I can spend more time behind the camera and therefore being able to evaluate shots as they happen. However apart from that I feel we have the set and the process figured out.
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