MAPS AND NETWORKS EVALUATION

In this blogpost I will evaluate the whole process from start to finish of Danielle and I's film.

PRE PRODUCTION

Danielle and myself decided to pair up again, as we had worked so well in the first year on our experimental film together. The process of that film was easy and seamless so it seemed silly not to do the process again together. We started talking about ideas and what inspired us, which lead on to feminism and women's rights. So we decided to research into feminist women, artists, and articles talking about female empowerment and repression. This got us into thinking how we feel women are represented in the media, through male gaze and such conformist ways. We discussed where we would want to film as our idea started to fill out and got our pre production done easily and quickly, eager for sign off from Rosie.

SHOOTING

We arranged a day in the reading week to film, we found a willing actress very quickly and used all of our own equipment for the shoot. As we were filming in my house I spent the morning cleaning and ensuring all areas were tidy as I knew there would be a lot of equipment around and bags and things. I re printed out the shooting script and schedule so we could remind ourselves if we ever went off track. We took into consideration our actress and her being cold in minimal clothing and made sure she was covered warmly when shooting wasn't on and took regular breaks as we had LED lights on. As me and Danielle were well organised for the shoot day there was no delays in anything and we worked very well and closely together.
The hardest task of the day was getting the footage we wanted in the bath tub, we were dead set on filming in the bath, we just had to try and figure out how this was achievable. We put on the rain cover the 305 had in case of any splashing, then I had to get in the bath with the actress to ensure we got the over the head shots we wanted. This was a major risk in case I slipped, we tired the actress out, it got too cold for her, or water damage but we ensured that our risk assessment was thorough so that we could respond quickly if any of those situations came up. We found a secure camera strap that went around my neck so the camera was secure as well as in my hands. We looked back at our schedule to ensure we could make this bath scene as quick and smooth as possible so our actress wasn't cold.
We were happy with all the footage from the day, and as we had started filming early this meant we had hours of footage to play with for each screen. With all our filming out the way it meant we could focus on studio shoot and then edit this piece after.

EDITING

To edit we used Premier Pro and made titles to fit in between some of our clips, we colour corrected and recorded a voice over to fit the length of the piece. This went smoothly, despite some audio issues we exported in the correct formats as single screens ready for After Effects to make it a twin screen. We had again some issues with After Effects, but only minor as they were very easy to adjust and we could continue with exporting. Overall I feel this process went really well, with great communication skills, scheduling was well planned as we started exporting each screen at midday so we left ourselves with a lot of time for any things we needed to fix.

PRESENTATION

With the piece all done and dusted we have thought long and hard about what sort of space was suitable for our twin screen. We felt this piece could become an installation in the right environment, so we requested the box in the quad that often has interactive pieces in. We feel this would be an incredible space to hang our two screens in the back, paint the box an erotic red, with plush fluffy throws on the floor, to make it feel intimate, sexual and womb like to bring our piece together and create the environment that suits our film. Having the box would be an added bonus as our film displays nudity, and if our piece was in the corridor it would have to be covered on open days, so if it was in the box in the quad it could just be locked up and tucked out the way. Even though I think nudity shouldn't be sexualised but instead celebrated.

I hope you enjoy. Thank you

STUDIO SHOOT DAY 1

With it being our first day shooting we had to come in early to set up all the equipment, get the actors into hair, makeup and costume and ensure all the set was in place and the lights worked. We had a brief meeting in the morning where we went over the call sheet and the plan for the day to ensure everyone was up to date. We started at 8:30 am and had an approximate time of finishing at 6:00 pm. We were given an hour until 9:30 am to set up all the lights and cameras so we were ready to shoot. The first hour or two went very successfully and we got all the footage we wanted and needed, and ensured we had a few takes of everything so we had a lot to chose from. We then broke for an hour so I could change the lighting and the camera team could set up a rig or slider if they needed to. We rejoined after an hours break and kept shooting with the adjusted lighting and it all went very well and we were on track on the schedule. I felt calm for most of the day even though there were some tough and tense moments, where the camera wasn't picking up enough light from the darkly lit scenes but we made it work with a few adjustments. As it was coming towards the end of the day, we started to wrap up for the day as the actors were tired and we had been working for a long time. Our next shoot day is tomorrow where we continue where we left off today.

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.

STUDIO SHOOT DAY 2

With the first day of shooting over and done with, it was on to the second day to make sure we got all the rushes we needed and wrap up for the shoot. We picked up where we left off and got the scenes, equipment and actors ready. Then we wasted no time getting straight into shooting. This was going really well and we got some really beautiful rushes, however Yasmin had to leave for a hand in half way through the day. But fortunately Yasmin let us know ahead of time so we planned into our call sheet some solo scenes with just TJ and B roll footage. This was a huge success and we got a lot of really good footage. The B roll was also looking beautiful and this would help play a big part in the people who are editing the studio shoot. This allowed a little break in the day whilst this was going on for everyone to set up and prepare for when Yasmin came back. Yasmin returned and we picked up where we left off and continued to shoot. About an hour later we had to go for a lighting changed so everyone took a break and the camera team set up for the next scenes as I changed the lights. Once this was done, we got back to work straight away and got into the rhythm of the day and collected a lot of really good footage.

As we were wrapping up for the day and shooting the final scenes the camera team came across a problem. All of the footage hadn't recorded on to the Ninja that we were using. The whole point of us using the Ninja was so we could record in an Avid codec and the footage be 10bit instead of 8bit. So this caused a lot of stress within the group. However we still had all our footage which was good, so all we needed to do was just trans code it all, which would take a while, but sadly the Ninja just didn't record for us. Once that situation was resolved we packed down all the equipment that we had used, all of the props back in boxes and given back to the people who had brought them in, and put back the furniture that we had borrowed from the studio and from other people. It was sad to pack up as it had been a really exciting few days working in a studio environment. But I am eager to edit these rushes.

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.

STUDIO SHOOT EVALUATION

For the studio shoot I was Gaffer. I was fortunate enough to be given the role that I asked for. Ever since first year when we took part in a two day lighting workshop with Anne, I fell in love with lighting and how much it can impact a scene, weather it is: time of day, period, mood, or genre. I felt this was a big role to undertake but I was ready for a challenge. 

 The first day we were together as a crew was pre light, I was nervous as this was a day that I had to get all my lights up and finalise the lighting plans. This was quite a stressful day, luckily I had a lot of help from Chris and Junaid. Thankfully I had my lighting set up drawings on the board so I could have a look back at them if I was ever unsure as to what lights I wanted to use and where.

When day one of shooting began I had to ensure that all the lights were set, so the camera team could work as efficiently as possible, and we decided to order the shot list so we shot all of the same lighting in chunks, as there were three lighting changes. This helped remove any continuity issues. I feel this made the whole process a lot smoother and I was able to work efficiently to be on time with the schedule and have time for any changes the director wanted. 

I feel doing this and working closely with the camera team allowed the whole process to be a lot smoother, and there wasn't any wasted time as we were working on schedule and being efficient in our time. The levels of stress did rise sometimes when we were having to adjust a few things, but I tried to keep calm and focus on the task ahead.

I worked closely with Nina the Director and Jacob the D.O.P to ensure we were creating Nina's vision. Nina would assist Jacob and myself in what she wanted, and then we would set about working together to adapt the camera and also the lighting until it was correct. 

I feel I worked well in my role and as a crew member for group a. I ensured that I did a lot of planning and research into different lights and lighting styles to get exactly what Nina wanted, and even then, looked at colour pallets and gels to get the look and aesthetic we wanted. I made sure that I was communicating effectively with the director and camera team, so we were all on the same page and understanding level. Having good communication meant that we were on schedule and finished up on the second day of shooting with some spare time for some B roll footage. I think working under pressure taught me a lot about my work flow, and encouraged me to be more engaged in a team and bring my focus to the task. I feel that because my communication was good that I got the lighting exactly how Nina wanted and allowed enough light, even for the camera team to capture the action. Personally I think that this role helped me a lot to improve my skills working in a team, my attention to detail, my colour palett and stylw. It has also taught me a lot about different lights and what they do and how they shed light and effect the scene. I feel that this was a really enjoyable experience and that I learned a lot from my role as a gaffer. 

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.

STUDIO SHOOT: PRE LIGHT

After all the building it was time for our pre light! I was a little nervous for today as I knew it was going to be super busy with dressing the set and sorting out my lights. I spoke with Anne about my lighting sketches, we then referred back to the picture and talked about the placement of my lights etc. Luckily Junaid is able to help me for pre light and the shooting days so we got to work creating the lighting we wanted. I firstly set up the lighting that would happen throughout most of the film. This took me an hour or so, as I was working with Junaid and Chris at this point so we were seeing what looked best and what I wanted.

We decided to have a light from behind the blinds to create a street light effect to show time of day was early evening. We used an orange gel on this too. We then set up the big light to create our fill for the set, this also had a very slight orange gel to it so it was more tungsten and had an orange glow. We included a light on top of the set with ND on the front to soften the light as this was acting as the light from the lamp on set.

 I was very happy with this set up so we moved on to the second set up which was a dramatic spotlight. This was quite straight forward as the director wanted it very theatrical, so we decided to turn all the other lights off and just have one rigged light on. We pulled the light down and adjusted the barn doors so there wasn't any spill over the back of the sofa or the coffee table which took a little once to get it perfect. But we got it and it looked really good, I was very pleased and it looked really theatrical and intense through the screen on the camera.

The next lighting set up was the red scene. The director wanted me to highlight the left corner in red where the character would get backed in to. I was unsure how to light the rest of the scene as it was meant to be surreal but I didn't want normal lighting to ruin the feeling. So Junaid, Chris and myself discussed different ways we could do this. We set the spotlight up first using a primary red gel and adjusted the barn doors so not much spill was on the rest of the walls. We were super happy with the spotlight and so was the director, so we moved on to the fill light for the set. We decided to use the fill that we had for our normal lighting set up and just put a scarlet red gel over the top of it, and had all the bars of light on to create enough light in the room for the camera to pick up. We felt it looked perfect, the director and I were happy so we settle for that lighting. Unfortunately I didn't manage to take many pictures of the red set up but I have a few.  

I hope you enjoy. Thank you

STUDIO SHOOT: SET BUILD

After all our hard work in pre production, it was time to build. We had all been inducted into the dry workshop so we were allowed to use the drills and screwdrivers. We were fortunate enough that a set had already been left up for us in an E shape so we just took out the middle wall and added a new panel to make it five by four. Having the set already built helped speed up the process a lot, as we could get on with stripping paint and wallpaper. Once this was all done we mixed all the paint that Ben had provided for us kindly, and started to paint and pollyfill the walls. This probably took the longest amount of time as we had to do a few coats and let it dry in between. We got the floor crazy messy so we cleaned it up with white spirit that worked so so well. Meanwhile Group B were cutting their fabric ready to be hung later that day, Once all the magnolia paint was dry we then brushed it over with a nice red paint to help enhance the mood in our film. This was so much fun as we got to flick the paintbrushes and make it really messy. Once this was all dry, Group B hung their curtains. Below are some pictures from the day.

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.

STUDIO SHOOT: LIGHTING MOOD BOARDS

With our studio shoot there will be a usage of red gels throughout some of the last scenes. So I decided to do a sort of mood board of films I had seen that had great lighting, red gels or just the warm colours we want in our production. In a previous post I attached more inspiration into the warm colour work that I was inspired by. So this Mood board is mainly for red gel works.

Amelie 2001

The Neon Demon 2016

Moonlight 2017

In the Mood for Love 2000

In the Mood for Love 2000

The Royal Tenenbaums 2001

The Grand Budapest Hotel 2014

The Grand Budapest Hotel 2014

In these images I find something inspiring or intriguing about the element of light and gel use. I want to be able to create believable lighting effectively, to ensure the set looks believable for a home environment. Also I would like to be able to do theatrical lighting, spot lights and work on my use of gels. Which I have the pleasure to be working the gels on the studio shoot. I have been watching all of these films and trying to take notes on what sort of lighting they are using in frame, and what lighting I reckon is outside the frame. 

I hope you enjoy. Thank you. 

STUDIO SHOOT: RESEARCH

Gregory Crewdson: Basement (2014)

After roles were arranged and everyone was into their groups, we were presented with five different images which we could choose to base our piece off, we were only allowed to use five words in the whole piece. So our group had a meeting, to discuss the five images and what we could draw from them. We all agreed on the Crewdson image Basement. We discussed the set, characters, lighting and potential sound. We then went onto discuss character motives, were they related? what were they watching? are they at home? what time of day is it? and slowly pieced together a rough idea of what we wanted. We wanted to base the film around the five stages of grief, and the stages be directly related to the girl on the sofa, when acceptance played on the screen she would be gone. 

So with the rough outline of the story, I sat and talked with the director and the D.O.P about possible lighting set ups, and influences or inspiration they wanted me to look at. And any inspiration I had myself that I could bring to the table. The D.O.P suggested I look into renaissance paintings with the harsh shadows, and the triangle of light on their cheek, they wanted me to look into any colour gelled work I could find, even better if it was the colour red, and any films I felt had a good "homely" feel to the lighting.

So I began looking into the renaissance paintings, I wanted to see what I was being asked to aim for in close ups, and potentially get some reference pictures for me to practice. 

Rembrandt 

Caravaggio

After looking at images of renaissance work, with artists such as Rembrandt and Caravaggio I began to see what the crew wanted from me. I already had an idea in my head but this confirmed so we are all on the same page. In order to create these harsh shadows and light pools on their faces in close ups, I may have to acquire a snoot. The D.O.P informed me on what a snoot is, a cone like structure that directs light more than barn doors can. I feel this can help me in creating the lighting the camera team want for the shots. Also, I discussed potentially having some cine lights to work with, as if we are having close ups with the harsh lighting, then I may need to be able to move the lights wherever. The rigged lights will be used to create the atmosphere and "homely" feel but the stand alone cine lights I feel we need to create these intensely lit close ups. 

I then decided to call upon all the films I have watched and my film collection to see if there were any I thought would be good research in terms of lighting. I thought about more indie films as a genre for low light lighting as they are often in home environments and lower budget than the big blockbusters. I thought Scott Pilgrim Vs the World would be a good reference, even though the story isn't anything like the one we want to pursue, it has a lot of low lighting and is often set indoors.

Pictured here are some still images from the film, as you can see the scene is still quite well lit, however it does have an authentic home feel to the lighting, keeping it dim, but still ensuring the characters are able to be seen. I feel that with the lighting for this film, they used overhead lighting on a low dim setting and then attached spun to the front of the light to soften the brightness on the set. 

I then looked into a few more indie films, one of my favourites and that visually I feel the lighting matches what the crew want me to produce is The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Again, similar to Scott Pilgrim, there is a lot of low lighting, where the characters are well lit but often the background is dark to draw attention to the characters. I feel I will take that on board when going forward with this shoot.

I also found that Juno was a good lighting reference, there is often a lot of use of internal lighting, meaning lamps, real light bulbs etc, this already dresses the set into a more homely feel and makes the lighting warm and natural for a home set up, as supposed to big white studio lights that wash everything out. 

I hope you enjoy. Thank you. 

STUDIO SHOT ROLE: GAFFER

With studio shoot in the early stages of production, we were allowed to select our first and section choice on roles in a google doc. Previously in first year, I attended a two day lighting workshop run by Anne that was really inspiring, and made me realise how much of an effect lighting can have on, mood, tone, time of day, and period in history. So with the chance to pick roles I decided I would give it a go, get some experience to see if it was what I wanted to do. Luckily I got my first choice! So with my role confirmed I decided to do some research into my role, so I can know what is expected of me during the process.

I first decided to search what the role of the gaffer does, this was the result:

"A Gaffer in the motion picture industry and on a television crew is the head electrician, responsible for the execution (and sometimes the design) of the lighting plan for a production. The key grip is the head grip, in charge of the labour and non-electrical equipment used to support and modify the lighting"

This to me made my role clear and easy to understand, I would be in charge of the lighting plan, working closely with the D.O.P to discuss what they would want for each shot. I am excited for it. However, this wasn't enough research, I wanted to know more. So I searched for famous Gaffers, I came across a Gaffer called John Higgins, who was Gaffer for Children of Men, Skyfall and over 50 other films. There was an article where we was interviewed about his role, and he talks about working closely with D.O.P and the importance of being innovative when it comes to hurdles around lighting. He talks about trying to light Waterloo Station, and as they weren't allowed any trailing cables, they had to get shopping trolleys and fill them with special wireless lights that they could push into place! Also the word Gaffer used in the film industry has been around since the 1930's. I feel the role of a Gaffer might have to be imaginative in ways to get around boom shadows, or no trailing cables, and I feel I am up to the challenge.

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.

MAPS AND NETWORKS SHOOT

After we had had the green light for all of our pre production pack, we decided to start shooting as early as possible. Just so when studio shoot comes around the corner we will be able to focus on that.

We arranged with our actress that we would like to shoot at 10am on the 31st of October. This was during study week, so if we needed to re shoot we had enough time without it being an issue. The actress had a lot of her own equipment that we were able to borrow. So the shoot started at 10am at my house. We had a 305, tripod, two LED lights, waterproof case for the 305 and a DSLR for taking pictures behind the scenes of the shoot. Me and Danielle discussed that we wanted to shoot the sofa screen first. We wanted shots of her sitting and lying on the sofa in suggestive ways, and all shots framed very tightly. So we briefed the actress about what we wanted from her, she had read over the shot list and script previously but we wanted to give her context physically. Then we started shooting. We filmed for about 3 hours and then took a lunch break, we reviewed the footage which cast and crew were happy with, then we got back into filming. We polished up a few scenes on the sofa and then started preparing for the bath shoot.

For the bath shoot, we again briefed the actress on what we wanted, and how we would execute it. We wanted to have a blood red colour to resemble blood and have connotations of periods, lust, romance and anger which we felt women were shamed for feeling these emotions or frowned appon for having a period. We then started filling up the bath tub as we got actress and equipment ready. For the bath we knew we wanted a red colour, so previously myself and Danielle went to Lush to select some bathbombs that would really give us the blood red colour we were looking for. Fortunately they had some in the colours we wanted, so we selected two and mixed them together in the bath. This gave us such a great red colour that was perfect for the shoot. As we were working around water, we had to be careful and relate back to our risk assessment, so we ensured that camera was far away from the water and zoomed in, and that the lights were also away from water.

I feel the bath shoot was a success and the crew and cast were happy when we reviewed the footage. We stuck to our schedule which was good as it meant we still had time to redo some shots if needed. Overall I felt the day was a success, we got the footage we wanted, the actress was happy with it too, and we were safe and so was the equipment. Attached below are some images from the shoot.

Two bathbombs mixed together

Cutting up bathbombs to get the blend of colour we wanted

Bathbombs we used 

On set 

Sneak peak 

Lots of red 

Deep in thought 

Me doing the thing

Actress

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.