F.L - Reflection on Shoot #3

Shoot Reflection

Shoot #3 - The Pantiles (AL3)

• On this shoot I took a shared directorial role with Kurtis, distributing the camera work between us. I filmed half the shots on the shot list, mainly filming Harry and Kurtis' shots as well as some of Harry and Eleanor. I directed the actors that I was filming, by focusing on their facial expressions, movement and other techniques such as character blocking. I primarily used the shoulder rig, experimenting between static and movement shots, as well as various angles and heights. I took a range of close up and extreme close ups, as well as mid and long shots.
• We wanted to place a lot of emphasis on our surroundings, ensuring we used different locations for each 'bite'. We made sure that we didn't get any cars or people in non-period clothing in our shots. Although this meant we had to pause filming momentarily to wait for people to pass/cars to move, it does overall enhance the finished production. The overall location was very appropriate and allowed us to achieve the tranquil setting that we were aiming for. The location seemed appropriate because a lot of the house and buildings were quite period style, which added to the aesthetic.
• Fake blood was required in some of the scenes, although this got quite messy and problematic at times, it did secure our concept and develop the mysterious nature of Eleanor and the vampire narrative. In one shot we avoided the need for more fake blood but making Harry simply hold one of the bloody tissues to his neck.
• We also used dollar notes for the payment that Eleanor used to give to her victims. However, we only had four notes, which made it hard to look like her amounts of notes were decreasing (which would've suggested that she was biting lots of people), so this wasn't as effective as we had initially planned.
• Due to the fact that we were filming in a town it meant that we didn't have electricity, so we had to rely solely on natural lighting. We ensured that we started filming early enough so that it didn't start getting dark. This worked well and all of our shots had efficient lighting.
• Although initially we were planning on having our lead, Eleanor, as well as two other vampires in this shoot, we changed our idea late last week deciding that having just Eleanor would be more appropriate. This meant that we could easily direct the shots and we used ourselves for the necessary extras.
• I feel this shoot went well because we stuck closely to our call sheet, which ensured we had enough footage to fill the time codes as well as having some spare to chose between. We were pleased with the outcome of footage, and think that the fake blood and costumes also came across well. We got a large amount of movement shots, which we had previously stated that we wanted to get a larger quantity of.