Seriously, I got eaten alive by mosquitos. I have 17 bites on my legs alone, all because I decided the perfect location to film would be in my neighbours backyard, right next to their dam, on the first really warm night of the year.

First shooting for my project was on Saturday, and I learnt a LOT of things about organising a film shoot, as well as night time shooting specifically. I had everyone arrive at 6 because sunset was at 6.30, and then we had to wait around for three quarters of an hour because I forgot about twilight. When we finally got the perfect dusky lighting I decided that was perfect, but by the time we were actually ready to shoot it was pitch black. Lesson number one.

Lesson number two: PACK MOSQUITO REPELLENT. Im so sorry Jamie and Aidan, there were a lot of things I failed to consider until we were actually out there filming, but that is the one thing I regret the most.

It was interesting comparing what our lighting looked like compared to other night time scenes I’ve seen. I only had the one lighting panel, due to wanting minimal lighting and also being constrained by how much equipment I could fit in the car. This gave my shots a much higher contrast and less light than I originally envisioned, but I loved the result!

Another interesting thing that came up when we were playing with lighting is that we used an unrealistically blue gel, then did a white balance, and then when Gen our actress used her phone in the scene it lit up her face with very yellow light. It was unexpected but again, I loved the effect, it made it even eerier and I could help but draw Parallax parallels 😛

This development made me wonder about how you could change the appearance of lights with just white balances and gels. Specifically I started wondering what colour gel I would need to use to get a flame to appear different colours, maybe blue or green? I don’t know if thats possible, but it would be seriously cool.

This shoot has shown me the importance of getting out there and filming, because all your thinking and planning can never make up for the lessons you learn from practical experience.

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