Inheritance- Shoot Day 3

Perhaps the shortest of the shoot days so far and yet potentially the most complex of them, these were the two Dex scenes. In these scenes we had Allan and James as The Bodyguard and Dex respectively. As well as Sophie this was the first time any substantial dialogue had to be recorded and also I had to focus on three performances at once in parts.

We started by shooting the shots with Allan in as he had to leave first, these were mainly Sophie's approach to the stall where Dex sells his goods. We had some camera issues with the steady cam not being set up or used properly but these were resolved and dealt with so that eventually we got the desired shots of her approach. Allan himself got really into the character at points despite it being a very small role, he did a few things I liked while idle such as looking down the barrel of the shotgun to check for ammunition and also looking Sophie up and down as she walked past. These all added to a good performance from what is basically an extra role.

After this coverage we shot the dialogue of the scenes in a basic three shot coverage as well as some more artistic shots to add a bit of flair, these were the close ups and a wide for coverage then while we still had Allan I shot a version with him stood listening on the right hand third. With regards to my performance as director on this shoot I feel that James was a dream to work with and got into character with no trouble but I did at times struggle to get the performance I wanted from Karenza (Sophie) whether it was my perfectionist coming through or I wasn't communicating properly what I was looking for, this was certainly something I struggled with.

On the whole the shoot went well, once we got into the flow the actors began to play off of each other a little and in the later takes the performances improved and I feel we got some good shots too.

Alice- Shoot 6: Dark Room 2, End and Penshaw

By far the busiest day of shooting was the day when the crew did 5 scenes, I was present for 3 as I had other commitments and also didn't want to over crowd the bathroom scenes as it was a very small room and also as it was relatively sensitive to shoot so minimum people seemed necessary. 

The first scene we shot was the second dark room section which was nothing short of madness, we had 10 minutes to shoot it, luckily it was only a couple of shots that consisted of a wide and then a closer in shot of Alice frantically clearing out her dark room. This went really well despite the lack of time, it was a rush, there is no denying that, and perhaps we could have really nailed the shots given more time, however, without someone having prior knowledge, there is no way at all that the shots seem rushed or poorly planned. Although, if they did seem rushed then this would only add to the scene anyway as she is in a mad rush to clear the evidence so it would help more than hinder.

The second segment we shot on that day was the final scene, which I will not spoil for you but I will say that we used a road just down from Penshaw monument which was mostly abandoned, although when we did recce's it seemed like it would be completely isolated but when it came to the actual shoot, some men parked behind Alice's car and left to do whatever it is they were doing. This was annoying as it somewhat takes from the isolated feel and the idea of the road being abandoned. The scene still works and I am a big fan of it, I just think that perhaps it would have been better had the second car not been there. With regards to the shots themselves, they were following shots behind or in front of Alice as she walked down the road, they took multiple attempts as any shot of that nature would take, but on the whole they are by no means bad and towards the end we were making some great shots.

The final shoot that I was involved with was at the top of Penshaw monument (well, not the very top, but the top of the hill) where we got some amazing, beautiful shots of Alice' dream. The sky was completely perfect for this, a blue sky with just a spatter of clouds looks very idillic and dream like which is spectacular for the scene. There was also a degree of freedom given to Liam on camera to be fluid and this is really great when we look back as the fluid camera movements really contrast the rest of the film as it feels peaceful and we can really feel that she is in a safe dream where everything is calm and tranquil. I really think that we hit the nail on the head with these shots and we were incredibly lucky with the setting. With regards to the other shoots from what I can tell they also went extremely well and they look fantastic when looking back.

Alice- Shoot 5: Street

The 5th shoot for Alice was a small section that took a couple of hours whereby we shot some scenes in the car whereby the antagonists are discussing what they should do with Alice and how long it should take to deal with her. This was a relatively simple shoot as it predominately involved Andrew driving his car around with the actors and the camera and sound operators squashed in so that we could get coverage of all three characters as they were driving around, this was fairly simple as it was very basic shooting and there were few lines so it was essentially a case of just doing the basics for everyone involved, the only real issue perhaps was keeping the camera steady as the car drove around.

The other thing we did on this shoot was get a shot of the front of Andrew's car with the three men in as it was driving around, we did this by opening Liam's boot and filming out of the back of the car. This was not an easy task to do safely but as I was in charge of health and safety I ensured that the camera was secured in the car and that everything was conducted properly, this meant that once this was ensured we could get a very nicely done shot that really adds to the scene. Personally I feel the framing could have been tighter but this is a preference thing and realistically it isn't such a huge deal and the shot is completely fine as is.

We also shot the post-party section whereby Ryan and Nathan come out of the party, drunk and drive off followed by Alice, this section should have been easy as it was just two men walking across a road and getting into a car, however, due to various issue, predominately sound from the wind we had to do around 10 takes, however this isn't a criticism, it couldn't be avoided and better to be perfectionist than have a 'this will do' attitude so while it was a little frustrating that we couldn't get the shot straight away, it was worth it realistically. All in all this shoot was very small and while it was short it did take longer than expected, but this is by no means an issue, we shot some quality stuff and it was worth the time spent.

Inheritance- Shoot Day 2

This is a post for the second inheritance shoot and I must say this was definitely the better of the two, although it started in precisely the same way as the first, although this time it wasn't the slider head it was the stand. So once again the opening shot was put on hold, it will get done, even if it kills me. So failing this shot and feeling a little deflated as a result we came home and began scouting a location for the fishing flashback, we had two in mind it was a case of picking one, so first we went to flats lane country park to find the pond to be nothing more than a big stagnant puddle. We then decided on our second choice, Albert park, a beautiful idilic pond that really sells the peaceful pre apocalypse life I am trying to convey, so we got our actors here and shot the first flashback from multiple angles, all of which were great, the only issue we faced was the public getting in shot or on the audio. Next we went back to my house to get the sewing flashback, this was great, I manipulated the light from the window and the lamp behind the actors to creative a very nice set up that brought vibrancy and life to the scene without having to use any complex set ups or blocking, easy but effective and intentional none the less. This scene was great and well performed by both actors and we got some really good stuff for the film. Thirdly came the ending, we dragged everything up a hill for the films poignant conclusion to be shot and all we came away with was one shot of Sophie and Daniel sat at the top of the hill, not what I would call a success. This happened because the actress hot changed from costume and none of us realised and she hadn't thought to put the costume on before we set off to the location so it meant that we couldn't get her sat next to the grave. But it is also worth mentioning that it was too cloudy for a sunset anyway so the shot wouldn't have been as amazing as I was hoping for and as such this may be a blessing in disguise, frustrating none the less. The final scene of a 14 hour day was the campfire nighttime scene, and wow, I have never shot a scene that looked as good as this did, the mix of the fire and the blue backlight come together to make a beautiful lit scene that really captures the emotion and emptiness of Sophie's loss (I feel anyway) if I take nothing from this film but this scene for my showreel it would still seem worth it, I am absolutely in love with the look of this scene, but this could be just he buzz I am having from the shoot and it's success, maybe I will be pulled back down to earth when I see it back although I doubt this. On the whole a successful shoot day but once again the beginning and end have evaded us which is somewhat frustrating but I am not beaten by this, just slowed down.
(unfortunately no one seemed to get production stills, if some turn up I will update this post with some)

Inheritance- Shoot Day 1

So here it is, the first shoot day for inheritance, and what a day it has been, we have covered a lot of footage and I must say for the most part it is good stuff, I can only hope that I'm not just on that post shoot buzz and when it comes around to editing or watching it back it hasn't turned out to be terrible, only time will tell. The day got off to a pretty poor start as we pulled up to Ralph's cross and began to set up the jib only to find that we hadn't got the slider head and as such couldn't get the jib shot. This meant that the first thing we intended to shoot had to be axed for the day (we will shoot it later) then we moved onto the fishing scene.

This went really well and we shot it at several different spots around the lake because we had time and I was indecisive about what I wanted the back drop to be. The only issue with this was that we obviously had no fish to pull from the lake, as a response to this I decided to make it so that the first shot after the fishing flashback was her wrapping up a "fish" to put in her bag as she leaves, thus implying she has caught a few and has packed them up, ready to be traded in the next scene to Dex.

On the way back from shooting the fishing segment we were stopped by a local man who told us not to film on the other side of the road we met him on, this meant we weren't able to shoot the ending scene as I had intended, however, this may prove to be a blessing in disguise as I am not completely satisfied with that location choice anyway. Then we set up a camp and decided to shoot the scenes which had Sophie on her own in the campsite, these are when she sews up her dads sleeping bag with him in, when she makes a sled and cross to transport and bury him and then her leaving said campsite to bury him.

These went fairly well, although it was harder to make the set I had in mind and as such some shots needed to be adapted to suit but realistically these shots went well and I don't think I will have any major issues when it comes to watching the footage back. Due to the hiccup with the landowner and not being able to shoot the final scene this meant that we were done for the day, and while I am left somewhat annoyed that we didn't get more, it's very much a relief to finally have shot something and get the ball rolling.

Alice- Shoot 4: Car Park

This scene was in two halves, the interior car park and the exterior car park. The first of these was Alice's vantage point for taking photos for her job and the second was the section which she is taking photos of.

The first of these was done really well and thoroughly but it did seem to be a bit rushed as first we were waiting for enough dark so that the two sections matched up and then we were short on time because of when the carpark was closing, which was beyond our control. That being said like I said it was done thoroughly, the only thing was that it was not as thought out on set, which isn't necessarily a  bad thing as it meant that we had to rely on gut feeling and had very little time to potentially overthink shots or to experiment, it was refined and concise but still yielded solid results.

The second half of this shoot went much easier in the sense that we had literally all night to shoot it, we had one time constraint and that was sunlight which meant in theory we could have kept shooting up to around 6 am, luckily we didn't have to do that. There was no sound in this scene which was extremely useful because it meant that we could use the generator and set up a red head to light the three men for there close-ups. However, we didn't use this straight away so it meant we did shoot everything twice both with and without the light but this isn't a big issue as I am a big believer in over shooting to a degree for coverage. Another successful film shoot despite being pushed for time, we got everything done and to a high standard. This really is shaping up to be a very special film.

Inheritance Fire test

As one of the scenes in Inheritance is at night time and in front of a campfire me and Ryan went to my back garden and made a fire to test the lighting that this gave off. This was for the death scene in the film where Sophie returns to her camp to find her father on his death bed before he eventually dies and she is left alone to grieve. When doing this test I was very limited by space and fuel, if we decide to shoot this in my garden (which I very much believe we will) then we will dig up a patch of turf in the main bit of the garden to put the fire on so we have more space to build the campsite and the fire.

We shot this with the 35mm Lens on the camera and I am over the moon with the results, though I do feel the facial lighting is a little bit full on, I quite like this because we can focus on the raw emotion that the characters are feeling. In addition to fire however, we have discussed adding a blue backlight to act as moonlight in the scene, I am not 100% sure on this and unfortunately due to the cost and time of doing this shoot we wont be able to do a practise, however, what we can do is try it on set and we will know instantly whether it makes a difference or not se we will therefore know straight away whether the light is needed or not. I do wish that we could have done a practise of all the shots using this lighting but there simply wasn't enough space to manoeuvre the camera where I would have needed it. In summary, I think the fire is a perfect lighting source and does not need to be replicated, but there may need to be another source to serve as a back light.

Inheritance Lens Research

Due to the fact that Inheritance will be shot on my own DSLr (Cannon 750D) I have the luxury of interchangeable lenses and as such I have acquired a few which I can use in the film to give different looks and feels to my shots, obviously however, I wouldn't want to be just blindly using lenses without knowing what there capabilities are.

The first lens available to me is the one which the camera came with: 18-55mm lens. This lens is completely fine, although it will never be anything more than fine. It offers nothing special and as such should really only be used if a lens that does something that you specifically want isn't available. It's kind of like a Swiss army knife lens, it does okay at a number of things but realistically if I have multiple lenses (which I do) then there is no need for this lens.

The next lens available to me is the Cannon 50mm f.1.8, this is the lens I intend to use most as it can produce a very nice and shallow depth of field due to the low fstop of 1.8. This means that I can get some nice focus pulls as well as add some much needed depth to what I am shooting. It also means I can comfortably shoot at a higher frame rate to reduce motion blur due to the low fstop. In addition to this it is also fantastic in low lighting again due to that amazing f.1.8 which will make it ideal for the night shoots whereby there wont be an awful lot of light to work with so this lens will make the absolute most of what there is.

The third lens available to me is the sigma 70-300mm lens with macro feature. Firstly a macro feature means this is perfect for extreme close-ups as this will focus very sharply on close things when it is zoomed into 200-300mm meaning that I can zoom right in to (for example) a needle head and then focus right in so it is pin sharp on the focus. Apart from this it has a good zoom range that means I can film things far away if needs be and I can also do forced perspective via telephoto if I needed it. One other thing worth mentioning about this lens is the Fstop pull down. This means that when fully zoomed out the fstop is 4 but when you zoom in it goes to a minimum of F5.6 to compensate for the zoom, this means I will require more light if I am using the zoom on this lens.

The fourth and final lens is the Samyang 35mm F1.4, this is a great lens and is comfortably the most expensive of the lot but it is almost certainly the best quality of the lot. This does essentially the same job as the 50mm but does it better, excellent sharpness and colour as well as really easy depth creation and an even lower Fstop than the 50mm it is an amazing lens that I will be sure to utilise when shooting Inheritance due to it almost certain aiding me in achieving the look I want for the film, particularly in the night scenes.

Alice- Shoot 3: Party

Here it is people, the crown jewel of Alice, and that is precisely what it turned out to be, a fantastic experience for so many reasons and I genuinely believe we pulled off a scene/shot that will be celebrated at our university for a long time to come.

First came the prep which started at one, we set up all of the lights and moved the furniture to optimise the space and to make it look like a party. Then we actors started to arrive we did practise run throughs to ensure the actors could be comfortable with where they would be going and there timings etc so that the scene could be fluid and natural so that the camera felt like it was a natural part of the scene, otherwise regardless of the camera work the scene wouldn't work.

 Then at around 6 we started to shoot some takes of the scene, though it was not yet dark outside it was starting to get that way and we felt that it would be too big of a waste of time to not start shooting and on top of this, Beth could probably make it look like night time with a colour grade so it made sense to start shooting. The first few takes to me felt a little wooden and didn't seem to flow, but this could be expected with such a complex scene as it would take some practise and repetition to get into the groove of the scene.

When we eventually did start getting into the groove and flow of shooting the scene, boy did it work. The reason for the success of this scene I feel is because it was organic, this was essentially a controlled party and as such this felt real on camera. For me there was more to this than the performances of the actors (though they were important and fantastic) the scene is great because the extra work feels genuine and the performances aren't really performances at all, even when we did silent takes it still felt as though people were at a genuine party which I can only assume we achieved by giving it a good atmosphere that people enjoyed being a part of. I could really talk for hours about this shoot but at the end of the day its ambition and execution speak for themselves.

Alice- Shoot 2: Dark Room 1

This was the second scene for Alice where she is developing some of the photos she has done for the job she is doing, Mark walks in and the two have a confrontation as he finds one she was trying to hide. As this takes place in a literal dark room lighting the scene proved to be difficult and the camera operator decided to shoot off of an ISO 800 which I believe to be too high and when we have watched the footage back it has a degree of grain to it which may prove hard to get rid of but I admit I have no knowledge of how that would be done.

The above image quality issues are mainly due to youtube as this is a screenshot, I can assure you the actual footage looks much better. This was very similar to the first shoot in that we had time to get a lot of coverage, however, this time it was in the form of many different shots instead of many different takes, this meant we had a lot of coverage to work with which would no doubt be massively helpful come the edit time. My main issue with this shoot was that I lament the fact we never did a lighting test, only a location recce, this undoubtedly lead to the lighting issues we experienced.

One thing that may prove to be an issue was that Gary didn't seem from where I was to follow any set path as he was playing a drunken character it seemed that his path and movements would vary from take to take, this may not be true but if it is then it may cause some continuity errors in the edit, however we do have some shots that don't have him in that we could easily cut to to mask this. Other than this I felt the performance from both was great and I really felt as though they flowed naturally and had a bit of genuine tension between them from being in there characters. All in all another quality film shoot that yielded good results.

Inheritance- Recce/ Practise shoot: Moors

We went as a crew up to rosedale abbey and found some great locations which we can cover the majority of the film and aren't just to make do but are perfect fits for what I am wanting from the film.

The first was the chimneys that we shot this practice of the bandit scene at. the location is perfect as it offers plausible places for the bandits to emerge from as well as being a nice location for her to walk past in the scene. The scene itself also works very well, the shot choices work in my opinion and the effect of the shotgun which Andrew has been working on also looks great. The other thing that came from this test is that the framing is a little off on some shots and also we could do with a shot coming past the corpse to Sophie (me in this) as she stands up.

This is the second location we found literally a stones throw from the chimneys, this is for the campsite and to demonstrate this we shot a practise of the death scene when Daniel dies. Though this isn't of that much use as the scene itself will be at night time, it was still a valid opportunity to test the shots and see if we could create emotion in the scene. While I think on the whole the scene works, it needs tweaking slightly to create emotion and to make the viewer feel the pain of Sophie's loss.

This was the third and final location we found on this recce, this was a small pond which we will use for the fishing scene at the beginning of the film. I love this location on a day like this it will look amazing on camera and it will add to the visuals so well and this scene if done correctly will look stunning. I also feel the shots on this segment work really well for a quick scene that is to set the idea of survival and isolation into the viewers head.

That concludes the recess and practise shoots on the moors, I plan to use all three locations and also feel that mostly my shot choices work well aside from a few that need tweaking or adding in.

Alice- Shoot 1: Opening Scene

This was the first shoot for Alice and quite fittingly it is also the scene that starts the film off. In this as I have explained in previous posts, the scene shows Alice setting up her job with Mark but the only  sight we get of Mark is him walking past the camera which we can tell nothing about him from. In this scene we needed to make it feel authentic by having a bar man and a waitress, so I suited up and became the barman, I quite enjoyed the role although in hindsight perhaps not the best idea because it meant I was forever stopping the between takes to ask how the take was to write in my production logs but this wasn't a huge issue it just felt as though at times people were getting a little annoyed at me for asking all the time or taking longer than they would have liked but realistically it needed doing so they would just have to deal with it.

During this shoot we had a relatively simple set up that gave astounding results, the lighting and aesthetic were beautiful and this basic set up meant that we could shoot many takes of the same thing in relatively small amounts of time which meant we could make sure we really nailed the scene, and nail it is exactly what we did, having watched back the footage, Charlotte gives an excellent performance and everything is timed perfectly and looks fantastic. 

We filmed around 20-30 takes of this scene from 4 'angles' there are the two images that represent two angles then we did each of these two from two different tables to see which gave the most attractive background, this gave us the four angles. The beauty of this scene is that only one performance really matters, Charlotte's, as long as Gary got it right at least once we could use his audio and the same goes for Sarah as the waitress, although the scene will work better if they can use the audio that matches the take because that way it will feel more natural but I have the upmost confidence that Beth would be able to make it feel natural anyway as she is a fantastic editor.

Inheritance- Colour Profile

For the shooting of Inheritance and to a smaller degree for Alice, I downloaded some colour profiles to test out that may add to the visual appeal of the film, these are called Cinetech, CineLook and CineStyle.

Though the footage its self isn't that great for these shots I do believe there is a clear difference between the colour profiles used although in my stupidity I didn't think to include the original footage that the camera would give. However, by downloading these I had already decided that I wasn't going to use the camera's raw settings so in actual fact this wouldn't make a huge difference to my decision.

The first conclusion I can draw is that I do not want to use CineStyle, the colours in this are way too washed out and the saturation seems to be too low, this may be good for making something seem gritty or devoid of joy (which to be fair Inheritance is in parts) but this is not a constant look I am looking for and I would much rather accentuate colour to bring more visual appeal to the film.

This then leaves the discussion of CineTech or CineLook, simply the answer is I am not sure, it may come to be a case of different horses for different courses and the filter changes as the shot requires it to but I am leaning towards CineLook as this has deeper blacks and higher contrast which really makes the colours pop, my only issue is that perhaps it does this too much and is too stylised, CineTech, however, just does this slightly not enough and therefore doesn't fit perfectly either. 

As the above comparison shows me I think that generally the colour is better on Look but the skin looks better on Tech, of course this is a preference thing, but on the whole I think that my preference is Look and I believe I will shoot with this setting on.

Inheritance- Jib test 4

Another short post to highlight the jib test progress. This was different from the others as we added in the next two shots to make a sequence as I believe we are in a position where the shot is almost perfected and we have to think about what comes next. To compensate for the sway from side to side, in this test we used a device which Andrew made to hold the jib in place and keep it on a straight vertical path, this meant that the jib had nowhere to go and as such couldn't go anywhere but straight down. This meant that the only things to worry about was the steadiness of the tilt and the uniform speed that the jib comes down at.

As you can see the following shots need a little work but the principle works and will be much more clear on the real thing as the actress will have a task to perform which means we can cut into the movement of her actions and have a seemingly seamless cut.

Alice- Art Cafe test

This was a test shoot for the opening scene of Alice which is one shot of the protagonist (Alice) setting up the deal to photograph the antagonists for money. This shot is in a bar and just shows her during a conversation while she is talking to Mark who isn't shown in the scene.

Firstly we set up the zoom lens to compress the background this meant that we got a really blurred background with a pin sharp foreground so that the subject was in focus in front of a nicely lit of background that gave the illusion of a working bar. We will add extras of a waitress and bar man into the final scene so that this also adds to the feel of it being a shady deal in a bar. Next we added some lights to the scene and to the background so that we could light the subject and to add some flair to the background so the shot just looked nicer.

The lanterns and fairy lights in this scene really add to the aesthetic, however I do feel for the real shoot we should wait for it to be darker and we should compress that background further so that it is even more blurred as there is a little too much definition in my opinion. The lighting on the face however is quite nice and I think it highlights Brad quite well. I also think that the iso could be pulled down to 100 to darken it a bit as to me this doesn't feel like night time in a bar.
On the whole though this will be a nice shot and I am glad we are putting in this practise now to nail the shot and make these pleasing visuals now before the real shoot.

Inheritance- Jib Test 2

Having done the first test with the jib, which admittedly was more of a putting up practise than an actual test, we took the jib and my camera to a location, specifically, Ralph's cross. The location itself was very windy as it is up atop the moors where there is no cover from wind and where it is very cold. First lesson of the day learned, wrap up warm, we were somewhat underdressed for the location and as such we were all somewhat cold during, but that didn't stop me, we didn't drive all the way there to turn around at a bit of British weather. So we got there, set up the Jib and did some practise shots for the opening shot of the film whereby I want to pan down the large stone cross.

As you can see there was improvement towards the end of the day as the shoot progressed but none of the shots where particularly great in terms of whether or not they could be used in a final production. However, for sake of evaluation I can take them apart and say what the issues where so that when it comes to the second practise, in theory I know what to look out for.

Take 1: Shaky, and jolty at the beginning. Also the cross doesn't stay on the original framing, also the camera doesn't start level with the top it is low angled. A positive however is that the end was like a pan should look but the beginning is way too disjointed.

Take 2: Really nice framing and background at the beginning but the same issues as take 1, also it is too fast, it needed to slow down.

Take 3: Ended too low down and cut of the top of Ryan's head, the cross stayed more where it should but still not perfect, the colour also looks good on this.

Take 4:  Same shaky issues and such but we fixed the jerky start by starting from higher up so we got more into the groover by the time that we see the cross.

Take 5: Not a lot to say about this, largely the same as 4 but faster which made it too fast.

Take 6: Colour and sky look amazing, however the pan itself is poor, this I know is because it was rushed because I saw the sky as it was and knew we needed to shoot it while the chance was there.

Take 7: Sky looks beautiful but the ground and subject are way too dark and cannot be seen, the pan suffers from the same issues as before which the wind caused us.

Take 8: Aesthetically good but again the pan is jerky and not steady, not much more I can say, we showed progress but not yet what I wanted and not yet anything that could be used in a final production.

Take 9: Went too low down and jerked and sped up near the end, having said that this was the best one up to now as it started well and was smooth from the beginning and the sway from side to side was the lowest it had been.

Take 10: This was the final and best take of the session, at this point the remaining issues were the sway, although it was the lowest it has been, the tilt (as in the fact it isn't level its titled up) and there is a little jerk towards the end of the shot.

In conclusion of this test, come the next test there are some things to consider:

• It doesn't particularly look like a pan it just looks like a tilt, therefore the camera needs to be higher se we get it level.
• The pan needs to be smoother, there are some jerks among the sweeping movement.
• And the biggest issue of them all was that the jib didn't stay still and was swaying from side to side which meant the framing didn't stay the same.

However, I feel I have been too negative and as such here are some positives to be taken from this:

• This was also a recce and the location is fantastic
• We now know that the shot can be done, it just requires practise and care.
• The visuals at times were absolutely stunning and will look fantastic come the real thing.

Inheritance- Jib Test 3

This will be a very short post I would imagine as it is to simply highlight the latest Jib tests we performed and how it went. This time instead of going up to the moors we did it just outside of university using a lamppost and the substitute for the cross as this is much more convenient and if we can do the shot then we can do the shot, the location is irrelevant.

As you can see there were many many takes, some better than others but none without issue, this isms a problem though because we have showed progress which is good, however we aren't there yet, but we have eliminated some issues, the sway from side to side is substantially smaller and the shake has reduced drastically, the tilt is also the smoothest it has ever been, we just need to hone these together into one excellent take on the day and we will have a great shot to open the film.

Glide Cam test 3 With lighting

This is a blog post about the third glide cam test again in my flat, this time however, we knew that the camera work was fine, this time it was simply about making sure that the lighting looked good and we could light it to be stylised but to also look like a party. We did this with 4 lights lights (3 red heads and 1 cool lamp). We had two red heads in my room, one facing the corridor and one pointing out of the window to light the path outside, then we had a redhead in the bathroom to further light the corridor and we had a cool light in the living room to light up that space.

As this is a big shoot we enlisted some extra help in the form of Andrew, Beth and Ethan, the other two had gone home at this point but Andrew was in this picture holding me. As you can see the green filter on the cool light gave a nice glow to the scene which when we fill it with people and potentially get some party lights it will really bring out the scene and give it a party aesthetic that we want from it.

The cool light itself was a bit of a pain to put a gel on as it is very wide and the gels are A4 sized, as a result we had to add two next to each other, luckily we had two greens which were the same. We originally tried blue on this but felt that it made the scene too cold and didn't light it very strongly whereas green was much more effective.

Of the lights this one was my favourite, it gave a really strong colour and a kind of UV effect which very much strongly emphasises our party vibe but it also is very neon which I for one love, especially within the context of this film as it is very neon and vibrant and this light is perfect for that look.

 

The other internal light was the red that lit the hallway and blended into the blue from the bathroom light very nicely and created a soft purple middle ground which I think looked fantastic, although there are no photos it can be seen on the video of the footage we took. There were a few issues with this lighting set up but on the whole it lit the scene fantastically and created a very vibrant neon party atmosphere and that is all before the acting and the music is added, this to me shows we are off to a flying start.

Alice- Recce, Dark Room

Today we went on a recce into the university dark room which the photography students use, we found that they aren't really using this room for their current module and as such we should be free to shoot in there when we need to provided we give them prior notice. This therefore makes this location ideal for me as producer because I can easily organise the shoot and also it will be easy to get permission for what is essentially a prime location for what we need.

Firstly the visuals are fantastic, this isn't something I should worry too much about as producer but I can safely say that by delivering this location to Brad I am fulfilling my role well because I am giving him a location which fits his directorial vision and as such the film will benefit hugely from this.

There is a slight issue that the location is a little too dark, not hugely as we want it to be quite dark and brooding, but there is some need for us to bring in lighting, this too is no problem though because there are plugs situated in ideal locations around the room which will serve us well in doing this. This does however mean that we will need to return to do lighting tests and such to make sure that the visuals are maintained but we up the practicality of shooting. One way that was suggested was using a cool light as this can adjust the intensity level so will give us a lot of control.

From a producers point of view, the main issues with this room are working in low lighting conditions people could have trouble moving safely without tripping or other such issues. Another issue is the chemicals in use in this room, though we aren't using them ourselves, being in proximity to them is still a risk which needs to be addressed, but I will cover all of this in the risk assessments.

On the whole I am happy with this location there are only a few minor issues, such as we need to shoot to make it look smaller than it is as it is quite a big space. Also there is the issue that it very much looks professional and that multiple people use it at once when we are trying to create an air of amateurishness, although she is a professional Alice does everything from her home and as such we want it to look like a home set up but neither of these issues are unsolvable and we have a greta location in this.

Photo credits: Liam Robson

Glide Cam test 2

This a post highlighting the follow up glide cam test we conducted this time on location in my flat, this is where the actual scene will be filmed. For this test we didn't take any lighting or sound and went during the day whereas the actual shoot will be at night or late evening. This test was purely for logistics of the shoot, to navigate the spaces and get a vague idea of how it would look and from here we can develop the finer details of the shoot.

The first tests we did were with the monopod, this is a really easy piece of equipment to set up, it is simply a case of attaching the camera to a stick which you then move the camera with, however, this produced somewhat shaky shots and as such we knew that we could reduce this by using the glide cam, as this gives a much steadier shot, not completely stable but definitely good enough for what we are wanting.

We did a few tests with the monopod but none seemed to be at the level we wanted so we moved on to using the glide cam and saw instant results, then once the camera was nailed down technique wise me, Brad and Liam were able to discuss some of the subtle movements we could do in the scene, such as a quick side pan to the man which Alice throws off of her. Then by the final test we had something that very much looked like it was becoming a polished shot which when lit and filled with extras will be a really strong shot.
For reference purposes here is the footage which we took on that practise shoot: