Today was
our last day to make sure everything was in order, mainly focusing on props and
lighting. We all met at college first so that we all arrived at the location together;
also we had to gather the lighting equipment and the “slider”. A “slider” is a
device which is propped with two tripods, you can attach a camera onto the
slider and gives the cameraman a way to slowly and smoothly pan across.
As I have
noted on “Day 3 with Margo” that I thought it would be best and have more
benefit to her if she joined us on location, this allowed her to have a better
understanding of her surroundings and direction; also it allowed Aaron to have an
input on her performance. But she would have to wait to later on in the day as
Aaron’s main concern of the day was ensuring that the lighting was perfect so
that we wouldn’t be wasting time on shoot day deciding where the light
equipment should be positioned.
We did have
natural lighting coming in through the window but due to the time of year we
have be assigned this assignment lighting is a major issue as it doesn’t last
as long and is kind of bleak. So we started off by using a range of filters and
gels on the lighting to see which one had a better effect, we wanted to make the
lighting seem as natural as possible so we used a blue CTB gel filter, a CTB
gel converts tungsten light to appear more like natural daylight. To make the
lighting softer we bounced it off the ceiling down towards the area which will
be recorded. Once we ensured the positions of the
lighting, it was all taped down so that nobody would trip over it as this is
was our main concern for health and safety.
During the
week we had a brief production meeting discussing how we needed to get someone
that has some skill with make-up as we want the bruise’s to seem real enough to
convince the audience. At first I suggested we get someone from the art
department seeing as it shows that we are ranging ourselves out towards other
departments, but after asking a couple of people we realised that everyone was
busy or just wouldn’t be able to make it. Christi mentioned how she had
previously worked on make-up design for a short she worked on at “Dolphinholme”;
we looked at some of the pictures she took of her progress. They were not too
bad but the make-up she used was shinny and destroyed the illusion of it being
real. we decided for Christi to be in
charge of make-up design as long as we worked on it before the shoot day, which
turned out be more beneficial for us
considering Christi was already going to be at the shoot location and she did
really well. I offered for her to practise the designing on me seeing as I
didn’t want Margo to get covered in make-up when she wasn’t really performing,
Christi started off with the arm which was brilliant then she worked on the
wrist area but she had some difficulty with that. But the more she practised
with me the better she got.
We took a short break and
had some lunch during which we discussed on what we are going to do for the
rest of the day, I felt a bit tight making Margo come out to the location to
practise and we hadn’t even started with her yet so I suggested to Aaron we
should work on that for the rest of the afternoon. I started off by working with Margo on my own
but some areas felt wrong or were a struggle to achieve what I thought Aaron
wanted so I asked him to join us to work through it from the beginning. During
this time we changed some of dialogue and positioning so that it would work
along the lighting and scenery, one of the things I thought was an issue was
the lighting equipment that was positioned on the windowsill.
The light was directly in
my eye and it was very difficult to miss it but Aaron explained that when this
piece of lighting equipment wouldn’t be used when the actors are in that area
so it wasn’t that much of a problem. We
didn’t get all the way through working on the performance for two reasons; one
being we didn’t have a young protagonist to perform with Margo and the second
being Aaron insisted I played the role of Mick and at the point when he lashes
out at her, he should head butt the wall/ picture and it really hurt so I
thought this would be a good time to stop.
We finished off by going
over the last necessities we needed for the shoot day, first we shared out the
prop list amongst ourselves so no one was buying too much. I had to gather the
cigarettes and beer but I thought I would bring other essentials not for the
shoot itself just for everyone else like a kettle, cups etc.
Our main issue was our
young protagonist, we all had discussed looking for someone that would be available, we looked and talked to many
people but they either were not the
right fit for the character or just decided to not do it last minute. We asked
or tutor, Jamie, if his daughter would consider helping us out, he had
recommended her previously but we at the time aimed to use a young boy so it
can reflect between the characters. Seeing as Ruby is now involved we have to
edit the script slightly just to fit the scene better. Apart from that, today was
a great success and a delight working with everyone.
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