For my first ‘proper shoot’, after having done some rough experimenting, I filmed one scene from my ‘David Bowie/Johnny Depp dream concept’, in which I’m in my car looking for drugs, find some sandwiches, and see Johnny Depp outside the car. This seemed like a simple enough scene, but it did prove to take quite a while, though it was thankfully never overly stressful or tight for time.
One of the first issues I had to overcome was the lite panel I borrowed being broken. I did this by borrowing my dad’s work light, which I hoped would do the job. This was a very hard light, without any dimming options, with no stand, and it obviously was prone to getting very hot. Ultimately we dealt with these issues, and the light worked well. A big reason for this was that I was often going for a more unrealistic and stylistic lighting scheme, meaning the hardness, and the shadows caused by it worked in my favour.
Other things I learnt from this shoot was the high importance of a good AD and camera operator, particularly because I was in front of the camera for much of the filming. This meant I relied heavily on my AD/camera operator – the champion, Kiralee – to know what I wanted, which I’m sure wasn’t an easy task. Thankfully, due to Kiralee being very competent on a camera and us also having a lot of time to discuss the project – throughout the semester – I felt comfortable giving her such a responsibility, and I think I was right to feel that way.