REFLECTION 10 – GOING MAD

So during our third project brief we had to complete a few practical exercises, one of which was to essentially replicate a shot dramatic scene. It didn’t need to be perfect, we were allowed to change up dialogue and setting a bit, but the shots, framing and editing needed to at least resemble the original cut.

The main thing I took away from our shoot was our lack of pre-production planning. Our group didn’t really put a lot of emphasis on where we would shoot the scene, and in the end had to find a location on the fly that would suit our hallway needs, but have enough space to actually fit a camera, three actors and a whole crew to hide. We found a suitable location that visually matched our needs, but it was a busy location, located near classrooms and automated doors. There was constant foot traffic, and since I was on audio I constantly picked up footsteps, doors slamming and the constant echo of things sliding closed. It was frustrating in general to have to stop every 3 minutes to let people through the hallway, and each time we had to re-set our actors again and again.

Being on audio, I found the experience super stressful, because I wasn’t particularly happy with the quality of sound I was getting. The hallway was too spacious and we ended up with a few takes having too much echo.

By the 1 hour point though we had committed to the space and stuck through with it. The only solution we could think of on the spot was to shoot each shot and line specifically and as quickly as possible. While people were walking through we made sure we knew which specific line the actors needed to say, and ended up shooting in a very unconventional way. We didn’t do any leading lines, but since we were already basing it off a scene where we knew where to edit, it was easy to just replicate only the lines we needed for one specific shot.

The editing process ended up going very smoothly, but with the way we filmed the shots, the conversation didn’t end up natural at all. It was choppy and continuity was all over the place. My edit is passable, but it’s nothing compared to the original Mad Men scene, where the dialogue came across so naturally and effortlessly. I guess we all were on edge that day, being constantly interrupted, but it has taught me a valuable lesson now to always go location scouting, and to make sure the place we end up in has less traffic, whether it be vehicle or human.