https://vimeo.com/92206462

Last week, my group and I filmed our ‘Lenny’ script in an hour. It was a challenging experience but we learned a lot from the issues we had to face on the day.

Even though we had our pre-production completed before the shooting day, due to some miscommunication we hadn’t organised reliable actors for the day. In the half an hour before class, we all contacted our friends, and luckily enough we managed to secure one of my work friends and her friend who were at Melbourne Central on their school holidays. They are both quite shy so for them to participate for us was really nice of them, even though the acting wasn’t the best, we still really appreciated that they took time out of their day to be in the ‘Lenny’. If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t have been able to film on the day.

The weather also caused another issue. It was drizzling and raining on and off all day, and so for a time before the tute, Tom, Phuoc and I went around looking for some interior locations we could use. When Michael arrived at the tute, he suggested that we use the exterior location he suggested previously, as the rain was holding off at that time. No doubt, the location looked amazing, especially in contrast to the duller interior locations we thought we would be stuck with. As it did continue to drizzle during our shoot, we had to be wary of keeping our pre-production sheets and continuity shot list dry. We also had to cater for the actors who had to sit on a wet bench by finding things that they could sit on to prevent them from getting wet.

The short period of time that we had to shoot, meant that we had to cut shots out of our shooting schedule and ensure that we filmed the minimum amount of shots, with some variety, of each scene to ensure that we could have a complete ‘Lenny’ and not one with missing scenes.

On the day, Michael and Torika shared the role of director, and they both worked really well together. In the future, it would be best if they had more of a chance to discuss pre-production and the shots they want rather than communicating just on the day, but with saying that, they chose and prioritized really good shots on the day.

It was a bit frustrating for me on the day as I had organised the shooting schedule which was barely looked at. In hindsight, this is understandable as we didn’t have much time and had to make quick decisions, however at the time I did feel like I went to the trouble for nothing.

Phuoc’s camera work was remarkable as shown in post. Despite the language barriers, he communicated with all of us well to ensure that he got the shot that Michael and Torika wanted, while also at times directing the actors in their positions and ensuring the box was in shot. However, Phuoc didn’t tell me that the slate wasn’t always in shot when we were calling the shots, which is something that we realised towards the end of the shoot. We have both discussed this and will in future, make sure we communicate better.

As I was camera assistant, I also filled in the continuity shooting log. In the beginning, there was some confusion as to how to log the shots, with Torika and I thinking that it should be that the ‘shots’ shouldn’t restart back to 1; however we were out voted by the boys and did it in that way on the log and slate. In future, I will log the shots in the correct way for easier post-production.

Tom did a great job as sound recordist. I originally wanted to do the sound, however I had an ear infection the day before and on the day and so Tom and I swapped so I wouldn’t be in discomfort. He did well especially considering we had a large wedding party taking photos in our location at the same time. He and Torika also edited the ‘Lenny’ together, after Phuoc had uploaded the file to the server.

Filming the Lenny made me realise that I had slowly taken on two roles in my production group. While I am on the technical team, I ended up doing more producer-type roles in the pre-production, logging and keeping time on the day. I was disappointed that I didn’t have as much of an involvement in the technical aspect, and would next time ensure that I do.

It also confirmed to me that we need to communicate more efficiently before the shoot with each other to ensure a smooth shoot.

As Paul described the opening shot of our ‘Lenny’ as one of the best he has seen in the course, it confirmed that Torika and Michael’s vision with Phuoc’s camera work can create magnificent results. It definitely gave us a confidence boost going into our film shoot.

While our roles in our production group are still blurred and we would like to try out different roles, we all learned our strengths and weaknesses from making the ‘Lenny’ and are in a better position going forward for our film.