In our first shooting, we will be shooting the car crash scenes. Because we are going to move around a lot with huge lighting kits, we decided not to use film camera for this project and just use the DSLR cameras. The first shooting was a little rough, we spent a long time to get familiar with the actor, the garage we were shooting in and also the lighting setup. But I think it is understandable, since doing a project like this is new to everyone. I have analyzed a few problems we had after we finish the shooting.
- Creating a car crash
Since we don’t have enough budget and equipment and skills to make an actual car crash, we have to use scenes to give our audience an idea of a car crash. Our idea was shooting in the dark garage so the surroundings will be all black and I will stand in front of the car with a very strong light to imitate a car’s head light, Samantha will be sitting in the back seat shooting. So Samantha will record all the previous parts and when she gives me the signal I will quickly brighten up the light and raise it. In this scene we used the Dedo Halongen Spots lights, they are very helpful and easy to carry. We also filmed this scene on the front passenger seat so we can combine them together when we edit.
The hardest part of this is to make everything look real. The angle needs to be precise so audience won’t be able to see the number on the dash board is 0km/h, and the exposure needs to be right so I won’t be seen on camera and the light will look real enough. It took us so time to get everything right.
- Lighting
Lighting is this scene is very complicated. Because of Kay’s absence, we don’t have enough people to hand hold the lights. So when I am in front of the car holding a big light, there is no lighting on the actor. Therefore when Samantha is shooting inside the car, it’s too dark and audience will not be able to see our main character. Luckily the car has a sunroof, so I used the flashlight on my phone and put it right above our actor’s head to make the interior look a little brighter.
It was not the best way but due to the circumstances this was our only way. The effect was pretty good, so we decided to stick with this lighting and finished the scenes.
- Technical difficulties
After we finished, we went home and started checking all the shots, and a lot of them were off focus. This problem happened is because Samantha usually uses her Canon 80D to shoot, which has a Live tracking auto focus feature, but she used my 5D Mark III this time that doesn’t have the feature and caused this problem. So we will have to shoot the scene again. Though exhausting, this have taught us a lesson, always check the settings before shooting.
Overall, this shooting is a failure since we need to shoot everything again….. But we are more familiar with everything so we will be more prepared for the next shooting.
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