My job on the day apart from Production Managing was to shoot B-Roll, collect equipment and provide some of the props. As for B-Roll footage, despite collecting some great stills and video footage of our talent, Willy Dynamo and background shots, it couldn’t be used.
This was because I had a shot it at a smaller ratio/format than what Luka was shooting at. If we used my B-Roll footage, it would’ve pixelated. We should’ve checked before, although that might not have made any difference: my camera couldn’t go up to the same ratio.
Luka proved his mettle by shooting some amazing footage of Willy and his brother, one shot of which was slightly influenced by one of my B-Roll shots – a slow pan from the stairwell to Willy in the car park smoking (small mercies!). Luka also came into his own in the editing suite and really took command over such an unwieldy footage. Sean and I gave our editing suggestions and often we agreed on what to add/cut or a motif to consider.
There were some very minor issues. Willy didn’t want to go along with parts of the narrative arch we had written. There was to be no fight scene and no accepting of the medallion from the homeless person. This was a shame because Willy accepting a gift was to indicate his gratitude and compassion. What we have instead, is Willy picking up the medallion and marching off triumphant.
Losing those scene sped up the shooting time and we’ll see how it all pans out. Best not to get too attached to things you can’t always control.
Another, issue was we lost one of our crew members who seemed to have not read the call sheet and ended up in the wrong location. Despite this, in the end, their absence did not hamper our shoot.
The thing that shoot did teach me was also to be adaptive. For example, after struggling for some time to achieve the impossible task of fixing an LED lighting board suitcase, tripod and reflector on the back of my bicycle, I finally succeeded, wobbling and all, to get to the Fitzroy location. I set it up, put the batteries in and waited with glee.
‘We don’t need it after all,’ said Sean, as he flitted from the top of the car park to downstairs.
‘Oh…’
This was cool. I didn’t mind, particularly as this was remedied by Sean taking the gear back in his car. It was the least I could do. Sean had to pick up Willy, organise the shots and have a vision of the shoot.
Overall, it was a fun shoot and we all got along famously.