Brush Stroke- Film Shoot #8

 This is a blog post for the 8th film shoot for Brush Stroke, and holy shit was this shoot a nightmare, before we even get to the real problems on this shoot it felt like the temperature is in the misuses and it one point it started snowing during a take.

Doing a take, Richard very cleverly blocked the wind to a degree with a post.

However, the big issue with this shoot was that the actor for the scene that was supposed to play the Fisherman came and then left because Andrew got lost driving us to the location three times and we ended up being an hour late, I have no issue with the fact that he left like he did, we were very unprofessional and couldn't have expected him to wait as long as he did. What made it worse however, is that he must have gone to the wrong car park because Shaun walked around the car park with his film hoodie on looking for him, but theres no use in crying over spilt milk.

Liam showing me how we can use this part of the front to make it look like we are filming from in the Lake.

At this point we couldn't afford to not shoot this scene so me and Liam quickly planned a new scene from what we had available to us, I am not happy about this because within the narrative, this scene doesn't have much need, however, we adapted very well and this scene was nicely done given the problem we had. So concludes the account of my nightmare film shoot, although to be fair we still shot what will probably turn out to be a good scene.

Brush Stroke- Film Shoot #7

This was the shoot for the two cafe scenes, these had to be shot in two separate shoots during that day because the cafe we were filming in was open over dinner time but not in the morning or after dinner so we could film then. However, this worked out nicely because the two scenes were set at the time of day that we were shooting them in.

Liam and Richard during a take.

This was another stress free shoot as both actors were really nice to work with and were very receptive to suggestions I had on the performance they were giving. The only issue we did have was the time, as we were working to a non-negotiable timeline of the cafe, it meant that we had to quickly do everything so they could open on time. We also had a small problem with sound appearing to be mono instead of stereo but it turned out to be just the headphones.

Liam spent a while getting this shot to be perfect for Carl's single.

There was an issue with space at this point as we couldn't fit into the gap to get the shot as we wanted, to counter this Liam spent a good amount of time balancing and raising the camera on top of a pile of books, only to have Richard pick up the camera, thus meaning he had to reframe and rebalance the shot.  Annoying but I guess the cables had to be plugged in.

Directing from below.

This shoot went fairly well and apart from the time issue was completely stress free. So yeah, thats all for shoot 7.

Brush Stroke- Film Shoot #6

This was the exterior of the restaurant scenes with Carl and Stephan, aka Michael and Cipriano. We were back at a full crew for this shoot and we were filming both scenes that featured the two of these characters (we intended to shoot the office scene with the two of them but decided the location wasn't good enough and thus decided to reschedule that).

Me directing Carl on the path he should take to get where I wanted to frame him.

This was another relatively easy shoot because both actors got into their characters well and were easy enough to work with. I had a bit of trouble at times getting one actor into place and making them stay there. Also one actor kept suggesting how we shoot the film, to be honest while I am not a complete dictator, I don't appreciate actors who over step the mark, for example I have no problem with actors suggesting things but when they tell me that their idea will look better, they're overstepping the mark so I politely asked him to stop, there was no issue from this point on so no hard feelings and we could continue from there.

This is the afternoon shoot when we got the wise shot of Michael arriving. (a rare sight of our producer on set)

The second half of the shoot went down without a problem, except the public were out a lot more and the wind picked up so sound became an issue, this meant that we just had to wait between takes, this wasn't really an issue, it just felt as though we were wasting time. 

Brush Stroke- Film Shoot #5 (actually 4)

This Blog post is for what should be the fifth film shoot for Brush Stroke but actually it was the forth and I had just forgotten to put it in, my bad. This was for the Lettings agency scene with Michael, the Landlord and the Lettings agent. This was a new experience for me as it was my first time working with semi professional actors, as opposed to people who just do it as more of a hobby.

Roger and Carl in place between takes.

This was a bit of a learning  curve for me as I knew I would have to be more professional than my usual self on set, however they are really nice people to work with and they didn't seem to be unhappy in any way with how I was directing them. Although they may have been too professional to say even if they were unhappy.

Me directing with a pint of water in hand, (no thats not Richard, Allan stepped in on sound)

One issue we had was that through no ones fault (although perhaps Richard could have planned his travel better) Richard couldn't be on set as he couldn't get travel to be there, luckily my friend Allan was on hand to help out and he took over on sound for this shoot, luckily it was interior so relatively easy to get sound, although having checked the clips there were no issues with sound so I suppose I no one will know we had an inexperienced sound op.

A relatively simple shoot but fun for me to work with a high quality of actor and get good results from the shoot. It is worth noting that on this shoot I was quite ill and had been sick that morning and had to change, hence why I am dressed relatively scruffily, I regret this but was almost unavoidable.

Brush Stroke- Film Shoot #4

The fourth film shoot for Brush Stroke was in the Hartlepool Marina, and was scheduled for 6.30 pm, in actual fact we had split into two groups as my producer and sound op went to pick up the main actor and me and the camera op went to get the equipment, this would have been no problem but as my group walked, we over estimated the amount of time it took and we were late, this wasn't a huge issue but it did mean we wrapped later than expected.

This was what the lighting was like at the marina about half way through the shoot.

One issue we did have was that it got dark quickly so there is a very clear difference in the beginning of the shoot and the end meaning we needed something to mask this change and show time passing, luckily whilst I was directing Liam was going around and getting cutaways and he got a nice shot of the moon that can be used to show time passing without it being a huge issue. 

Sometimes you just have to grab the camera yourself, this is me getting a shot that Liam was worried about getting due to the water.

The picture above as you can see shows me getting a shot of Michael wetting his face from the sea, the reason I got this shot was because it was very close to the water's edge and no one seemed willing to get close so I got my camera operator (Liam) to set up the exposure and settings so that all I had to do was go down and hit record and shout action. That way I wasn't taking his job from him but still got the shot I wanted. This is one of the most fun shoots I have been on and I really enjoyed every second, one of those days when I'm happy to make films, thats all for now, until next time.

Brush Stroke- Film Shoot #3

This is a blog post to document the events and quality of the third film shoot, this was the one we did for the forest scene, this took place at Penshaw monument and was in general a good shoot. The weather was a minor issue at times but generally there was no huge problems with this shoot.

This is Carl standing staring at the picture on the tree before the character of Michael is transported out of the forest via the picture.

The first things we shot were Michael walking through the forest as he is transported into a picture for the first time. These were easy shots we just found nice bends in the path and gaps in trees for Carl to walk towards and pass to simulate a long walk. The only issue with this is another way we are trying to show time passing is by tilting to the sky and fading to a new sky then tilting down again. However, we will not know if this worked until we come to the edit.

Over the shoulder set up for the shot on the previous production still.

Then we came to a clearing where I put the photo up for Carl to look at as a reference. There weren't many issues at this point except some things we saw in hindsight when we looked back at the footage, for example we got a shot that pulls in on Michael's face as he stares at the picture, however the bag on the tree in the background wasn't moved and somehow we missed it so it ruined the shot.

Me directing from under my coat to compensate for the rain.

As I said, the main issue was the rain, although this wasn't an issue during takes it was during transportation between spots when people were slipping and almost falling with the equipment, luckily nobody did fall and the equipment was unscathed. The only other issue with the rain was Carl slipping during takes but this only happened twice and was pretty funny so we just laughed and reshot.

Brush Stroke- Film Shoot #2

This was the second shoot of the film when we shot the garage scenes, not all of them but we made a good chunk into them. Sadly there is no production shots on this one as we were at the bare minimum of a crew, there was just me (directing and on camera) and then Richard on camera. Had I known the trouble this would have been, the chances are I wouldn't have done this shoot and would have waited until the whole crew was free.

The crew itself worked well, but on the whole, I felt that it caused more problems than it was worth. Mainly these were continuity issues that I missed because I had too many factors to think about. I have no problem in holding my hands up and saying this was fault if what we shot needs re-shooting but we did get some good shots in and amongst so it wasn't a wasted trip.

Due to the fact I eventually wrapped the shoot before we had shot everything as I didn't feel comfortable without a full crew we do have to return but this isn't a problem.

This was only a short post due to the lack production shots but all the same there was a rundown on the second shoot.

Brush Stroke- Film shoot #1

These are some thoughts and some images from the first shoot of Brush Stroke, in this shoot we filmed the sequences where Michael is in his home. These are very short sequences to shoot so we could be more perfectionist as we knew we had time to spare.

Me directing Carl (playing Michael, whilst checking the framing)

A lot of these segments were close ups and extreme close ups so it was a relatively simple shoot and the only complications came when we went to film the exterior of the house we were filming in.

This is an over the shoulder shot of Carl reading the letters.

Carl is a really easy to work with actor, he was patient while we set up the shots and gave exactly what we asked for when the camera started to roll.

These two photos show me and Liam setting up a hallway shot and checking the lighting.

Liam was particularly good on this set as he is very good director of photography, this made my job easier as I trusted him to get my artistic vision into the shots, which he did without fail.

This was the production set up for the second shot we filmed.

As I said this was a very easy shoot as everyone pulled their weight and we all worked efficiently, there is not much for me to say other than that, one more thing I can say about this is that there were issues with sound and the public when we went outside. The public kept deliberately ruining shots and the wind kept ringing the sound.

That's all for now guys, bye.