The Real Shoot
Saturday was a very productive as well as eventful day for our group! We applied a lot of what we leant from the test shoot to the real shoot and we also learnt a lot of knew things (like don’t forget the house keys or you will get locked outside in the wet and cold). I was very pleased with it as it seemed to all come together since the test shoot with the final actors and props and looked much more promising as a whole. We were better organised with our shooting script and finalised storyboard and knew exactly what we were doing and when. We even planned our breaks, and breaks for actors whilst we set up other things. Overall, I thought it was a great success although we were faced by quite a few problems. Here is a summary:

Things that went well

-Perfect actors-brilliant acting and co-operation
- Park shots look good
-Laura’s make-up (beautiful and scary) and costume
-Mis-en-scene- in kitchen and bedroom looked really good.
-nice photo-frame with realistic looking picture
-better continuity shots
-Laura managed to light the candle perfectly
-the ‘red curtains’ covered up dark sky outside
-We recorded nice shower and tick-ticking sound for sound bridging.
-managed to get a phone with chord.
-OTS of Laura looking at the photo worked well
-Laura’s evil smile at the end
-Barney’s walk with rose (thanks to Mel)
-The phone conversation came to both actors very naturally


Problems Faced
-The weather was definitely a great problem as it was not raining in the fist few park shots but began to rain during the street shots, which may affect continuity. We could not however go back and re-shoot park shots because the park had closed and the lighting outside had also changed quite obviously.
-It also got dark quickly and street lamps switched on which also became a problem, as we had to try to keep them out of shot.
-Sound was a problem as the raining sound on the umbrella protecting the camera equipment could be heard quite loudly.
- The street was also very busy so cars were constantly driving past creating noise and coming in the way of our shots.
-There was also building work going on in the background so a constant drilling sound was present.
-When quality-checking one shot we noticed that an umbrella could be seen in the corner so we had to go out and re-shoot it.

We tried to overcome problems of sound by recording atmosphere of the outside street once the rain had stopped and recording Laura’s footsteps again as the chair we used to track made a lot of noise as well. We were able to solve or get passed most of our problem and i felt the group and actors remained extremely patient and possiive.
throughout the day =)

Overall, apart from the problems faced, I think this shoot went much better than our first and we all had fun together although it was one very long day. Our group worked extremely well together and as there are three of us, we were constantly rotating between the roles of Director, PA and Sound technician so we all got a chance at everything gaining much experience. I am definitely looking forward to capturing the shots tomorrow and I hope it goes well!