Shoot Day - Evaluation

In the days leading up to the day of our shoot, I completed various tasks in order to prepare the group as well as possible. Being the only Drama student in the group and having assumed the responsibility of our cast and their performance, I gathered our four actors together for a short workshop in which we ran over the fight scene which is undoubtedly the crescendo of our opening sequence. This gave them a clearer idea of what we wanted and allowed us a chance to actually choreograph the fight in order to ensure that it would be safe for all involved. This also gifted us with more time on the shoot day to focus on shots knowing that it had been sorted prior to the shoot. As well as this, I also personally contacted the schools theatre department and arranged a list of costumes that we would require meaning I could then pick them up the evening before. Myself and Brandon also visited Cranleigh in order to scout for a definite location of the shoot. We took pictures helping us to devise possible shots.

On the morning of the shoot there was of course an element of nerves as the day had been anticipated considerably. However, I was confident in the planning actions we had taken and believed we had conceived a good idea making me excited to get going. Before shooting, myself and Brandon arrived at the schools editing suite to have our final production meeting. This gave us the opportunity to iron out a confirmed plan of the day and discuss any potential issues. It was here that we made a late change of direction and decided that the actual fight scene would be shot in an alleyway in the school's campus. The reason for this was that the alleyway was perfectly suitable for what we needed and it would save precious time in terms of the entire day. Another key factor in the decision was that being in school allowed the cast to give less self conscious performances without the awkwardness of pedestrians surrounding them possibly affecting their conviction. This may seem trivial but we knew that them being embarrassed would be heavily impactful on the drama of the scene. We would still be making a trip to Cranleigh but this would be relatively quicker as we only planned to shoot our walking shots there.


When arriving on location we were delighted with what we found. The location thankfully looked identical to when we visited it a couple of days before. We were also happy with how in the shots we were able to make the quite rural village look much more industrial in order to conform with the films urban plot. It was not raining at the time which eliminated any weather related problems and the puddles left on the ground actually gifted us with what was one of my favourite shots of the day, in which we see Ethan walking down the round but only through the reflection made in the water. This was great as it made what was essentially an uneventful shot so much more visually interesting.

A major problem the group encountered was that only two weeks before the shoot day our group of three was cut down to two with Arabella unfortunately leaving the school putting the impetus on myself and Brandon. Despite some doubt from our teacher initially, we were determined to continue as a group of two and felt confident we could still compete the task effectively. On the shoot day we divided the camera work evenly with me and Brandon taking it in turns to shoot. However, for the fight scene I had a very clear vision of the way in which we needed to shoot it. It was intended to be shaky and noisy in order to give an element of distress. It is an unconventional way of shooting but I believed it would be effective to the audience. For this reason I shot the entirety of the fight scene with Brandon focussing on sound as this was our only scene that included dialogue. Being the more confident speaker in the group, we also agreed that I would communicate any direction to the cast in terms of performance and staging. I believe I did well shooting the fight scene and working with the cast. From what we have seen thus far, both of us are delighted with the what the scene looks like and it is this section of the sequence we look forward to editing most. I also think I managed to create a good mixture of hard work and enjoyment amongst the cast and I could visibly see that they felt comfortable and were willing to continually go for more takes which was fantastic.

The fight scene may appear to be the obvious answer for what went best during the day. It is true that this is what I enjoyed the most. However, I was actually most satisfied with the walking scene. I was originally quite nervous about this series of shots as I felt they would be boring to watch and would just seem as though they were there to pass the time. However, I think we managed to shoot various shots in quite an innovative way that made it visually interesting as well as establishing the setting and mood of the film. The part of the shoot I felt could have gone better was the classroom scene. Prior to the classroom scene we spent a long period of time setting up the tracking shot outside of the classroom. Setting up this kit removed a large period of shooting time and meant that when it came to shooting within the classroom we were loosing light and for that reason had to rush in some cases being forced into getting shots in only one take. This removed the element of security in shooting.


In conclusion, I was delighted and even surprised with what we managed to come away with from the shoot day. I felt myself and Brandon worked excellently as a team in the way that we were completely comfortable with each other allowing for honest contributions during the shoot which are important. If I were to do the shoot again the only thing I would alter would be slightly better time management in order to avoid the issues we encountered in the classroom scene.