After being able to film the scene I discussed in my previous blog post, I have gathered some more thoughts on the filming and collaboration process.

Although we started off with some technical difficulties when setting up, the filming process actually went reasonably smoothly. It was my first time working with people who were acting in my scene, but were not a part of the class, so this shed a new light onto working with people who may not really be aware of or understand what your aim is.

It was good to still be working with a couple of people from the class, however, because as I have mentioned previously, they were able to give tips and advice that did not adhere to my initial plan, but ended up being helpful in the post production process. An example of this was when I realised I had not planned how I would shoot the reactions of the three girls after they had been caught. By this point, our fourth actor had already left, so a wide shot with all four characters was no longer possible. A solution for this, however, was found when one of the actors suggested we film the reactions as point of view shots from the perspective of the fourth character. I was initially hesitant as to how this would turn out, but as our only option left to get the moment covered, I decided to take the advice. I think this ended up turning out really well in the final cuts of the scene, and It added a few more different angles, to make a relatively boring conversation quite diverse. I definitely wouldn’t have thought of shooting in this style myself, so being able to have other like minded individuals to make suggestions was extremely helpful in this scenario.

I chose the location for my shoot because it was a relatively similar setting to the Mad Men scene I was inspired by, in that it was a closed off hallway with distinguishing features behind each character, which would hopefully help the viewer to understand that everyone was still in their same places when I crossed the line. A downfall of this set, however, was that it was relatively cramped and prevented me from getting some shots exactly how I had intended. Despite this issue, I think we were able to get a fair mix of different shots. It may be better to allow for some extra space next time though.

Overall, I found this week’s shoot very successful and the collaboration process went smoothly and positively.