Filming Process Reflection

Day 1. On the first day of filming we needed to achieve a nighttime shoot, we wanted to film the last scene of the film on this day because it needed to be dark in the setting. The issues surrounding this were that it was a very windy and rainy day which meant it was harder to film. Added to this sound quality wasn't as good. The way we worked around this however was by using our time wisely. When there was a spot when the weather calmed down we were very efficient in getting what we needed in a small space of time. The lighting was also a problem but we planned ahead for this and made sure that we had more than enough lights to make the subject visible. But when you have to much artificial light in a location it can result in over exposure and it also doesn't look very good so we made sure that we found a spot where there was some light already and the light we added was just background. The set up of our shot can be scene in the picture below...

Day 2. On the second day we had to film an interior scene, this was in a public restaurant so for this we had to make sure the people in the background were managed correctly and knew they could be in the shot. So during the set up we put up signs notifying costumers that they could be on film so it would be great if they could bare this in mind for the filming process. Recording sound was easier for this shoot but it resulted in a lot of background noise, but lucky the actors voices are clear enough to be heard. If we were to shot this again I'd have preferred to do it when the pub is closed so we didn't have this extra element to work with.

Day 3. The final day of shooting was tough, we had to get up at 4 AM to film in the South Bank in the early morning on a Sunday to make sure we wouldn't disturb people who were in the location. When we got there the lighting was still a bit dark so we waited for an hour or so and the lighting was perfect. There was also no one around so it was easy to film. As the cinematographer shooting in that location was a particular high light as it is a favorite spot of mine because it manages to blend the bleakness of the landscape with interesting architecture. When I have connection with the location we are working on I feel it is much easier to create more interesting and dynamic shots. Some of my favorite shots from that day are shown below...

Day 3 Continued: Later on in day three, we wanted to shoot and evening scene, for this the sun had to be setting so we could demonstrate how the protagonist is at one with his landscape and enjoys living on the streets. But we were faced with a major issue, as it is the winter it the sun sets earlier in the day than we anticipated. Added to this some members of the group we held up by traffic which meant by the time we actually got to shoot it looked light night on film. This changed our idea of what the scene would be like as we couldn't do any wide shots because the landscape was not visible on film. This has affected the whole film as a lot of our shots are quite closed in which creates a quite confined look to the shots. If we were to shoot this again I think this would be totally changed and it would make the overriding theme of the film more visible.