This is the room we used, although we moved the table and chairs out, as well as the CCAD advertising, this was so we were essentially left with a blank canvas of a room which just really looks like a community space whereby one might hold a meeting of alcoholic anonymous or similar, which is exactly what we needed from it. We then brought in some chairs and she extras to make the room fit the purpose better, we then positioned these people in a circle and positioned Liam in the middle to act as the person running the meeting, this I thought would cause a slight issue as Liam may look too young for the role but in actual fact when I've since seen the footage, he is in it so briefly that I don't think it presents much of an issue. I thought maybe we would have the same issue with the other extras but again I don't think this is a problem. The scenes themselves in this shoot were that of the beginning and the end. Seeming as though the bulk of the film is shot to be a recap of the events leading up to the beginning it meant that the two scenes actually follow directly from each other chronologically which was ideal in terms of shooting them both at once. The premise of the scenes is that John is at a meeting to try and sort his magic addiction (that is his addiction to magic, not an addiction that is in some way magical). So the first thing to shoot was the beginning of this when John stands up his testimonial. This we shot from a static that moved as he did but in a deliberately crude manner so that it feels live and like a real fly on the wall shoot. Ethan did an excellent job of filming this in all honesty, whether it was deliberate or whether he was just struggling with new equipment I don't know but that is not at all what matters, what does matter is that we got the shot we needed of John at the meeting. For this scene we then got some cutaways of reaction shots of the leader and some of the extras as they listen to the testimonial from John, then in the same shot Ethan moved the camera down to the extras to see them looking bored and not laughing at John's joke which I think was excellent.
We then shot a close-up on Liam as he listens to John which we can add at any point in the edit but it was shot with the intent on putting it in when he makes a joke. The next bit was to shoot the ending which starts on Liam at a close-up as he asks John to be more serious, the shot then moves and adjusts to John who then delivers the final line of the film when he gives his confession that he is a magician, which in terms of this film is the same as him admitting to be an addict. The line delivery from John I feel was spot on, it feel authentic and like it comes from someone who is struggling with an issue and has now just found the strength to admit it. I also feel that Liam, though he only had one line, did a good job and really captured the somber feeling in the scene. I really feel that the way we shot this and the way that the characters behaved goes a long way to giving a tone and emotion to the scene. I am unsure if this was the original intent for the scene as I always felt the final line was supposed to give a big final laugh. However, I feel this mood is much more effective as, if the rest of the film works, then we will at this point care for John and actually we are done laughing at him and we now see his pain and we want him to get better and of course the meeting has that goal within the world of the film. On the whole, I feel this shoot went quite well and if the rest of the film can set it up well enough, the finale can definitely have a lasting impression. On one final note it is worth mentioning that this will be my last shoot on this film as the rest are unfortunately while I am in Sweden so I wont be blogging about these because it would feel too much like lying as I wont be there, but it is worth saying that I feel the ones I have been on have gone well and will make a good film if the quality keeps up.
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