This week’s task was probably the closest to the industrial model compared to the previous shoots we had been on. It’s been an interesting transition so far, to begin with the highly constrained task of the single shot in the first week, to this week having really only a time restriction. We had the freedom of shooting as many or as little shots as we wanted and had around a whole hour to shoot.

My group was group A, which meant that we were to shoot the scene in the traditional shoot to edit style. During our pre-production, we initially discussed the executive roles (director, DOP, and 3 actors), however no-one felt strongly about directing, so we initially decided we would share it around on the day. We marked up the script and felt confident we had enough coverage to shoot in the traditional shoot to edit style. However, we didn’t go down to the location as a group prior to the shoot and create a floor plan, which in hindsight may have assisted us on the day if we had.

On the day of filming, we initially shot Group B’s coverage of the scene. It was interesting to observe how they chose to cover the scene considering they were able to shoot in a way that was less like the industrial model. This meant that they were able to use interesting and creative shots. It was also interesting to see how everyone communicated with one another to make it a great scene. It was also interesting to see that they used a few hand-held shots. I almost questioned them (as in some previous shoots we weren’t allowed to use hand-held) but then remembered there were hardly any constraints on this particular shoot. It was interesting to see how they composed their frames, considering they didn’t have to cover their scene in a more traditional manner. There was a lot more movement in their shots than ours, and more lateral thinking about how to frame the shots. In particular, the shot in which X emerges from the door, was probably their best shot of the day. It was so beautifully composed and framed and they utilized both background and foreground space. Even though I wasn’t behind the camera, I think everyone in the room got the feeling that the shot being framed was something quite special. They used the space really well and created something really inspiring and interesting.

For Group B’s scene, I asked Simone (who was directing) if she wanted me to be the 1st AD for them. which she agreed to. Their pre-production consisted of mostly a storyboard, compared to our marked up script. In my role of being the 1st AD, I talked to the crew mostly while Simone talked to the actors about the shot. I tried to make sure that the DOP and sound crew were all ready and knew what was expected for the particular shot, as well as trying to ensure that the group moved along quickly enough to give them enough time to finish. Simone was really good at communicating, however I found it difficult to follow the storyboard and found myself asking continuously about what was happening in the shot. Personally, I prefer to work off a marked up script or shot list to understand what will be covered in the particular shot.

In our initial pre-production meeting, our group thought that we should swap the roles around and allow everyone to be able to direct, seeing as none of us felt strongly that they really wanted to/didn’t want to direct. However, on the day of filming, once we saw how the group before us ran out of time and missed out on filming one shot in particular, we decided that rather than spend time rotating the roles, one person could direct. We quickly nominated Chris, who appeared to be the most confident with directing. Everyone was happy with that decision, seeing as we had previously discussed the coverage of the scene anyway during pre-production.

As our group was given the brief of covering the scene in a more traditional, industrial, shoot to edit style, we had a few shot-reverse-shots. We also had a few wide shots to allow the action to take place in the area, and using both background and foreground spaces. All of our shots were stationary, except for an experimental hand-held shot we decided to add right at the end of the shoot as we had extra time. As we were in quite a restricted space, that called for more static shots, as any pans would’ve been quite short and awkward.

I was quite surprised at how well everyone worked together, and I think this is mainly due to having more pre-production time. Having this time allowed us to agree on the way in which we would cover the scene, therefore on the day of filming, everyone was working together to achieve the shot list we had come up with. Chris was a great director and natural leader of the group, and communicated really well with everyone. Filming our scene was actually quite relaxing and we felt at ease with what we were doing, which was a nice surprise.  We even ended up finishing before the time was up, so we decided to try and experiment with some more shots, giving us more coverage to work with for post-production.

I think that if my group had gone to the location together before the day of filming, we could have adapted our original thoughts on the coverage to create more interesting or unique shots, while still shooting to edit. Knowing your location extremely well, and even going there with a camera to see how it looks in the viewfinder is really important, as I’ve discovered from this exercise.