My focus this week has predominantly been revolving around preparation of my shoot next week. I have organised my actor, crew, location and shooting style for both scenes. I have had a bit of a fall back with my location agreement. I posted off my location permit application forms to the ‘City of Darebin’. They contacted me quite promptly to inform me that the location where I am hoping to shoot is within the ‘City of Yarra’. One step backwards! I have emailed new location permit applications to the ‘City of Yarra’, along with the updated insurance forms and I’m waiting for their response.

I have completed my pre production booklet. This booklet incorporates my annotated research, call sheets, release forms (some are pending) and a shooting schedule. This is a visual representation of my preparation for shooting. It has helped me to organise my thoughts, ambitions and purpose. I researched the film ‘Gothika’ in order to study the aesthetics and use of shots. This films expresses a lot of moving camera. I am going to shoot my thriller genre themed scene different to this. I will shoot my scene the old fashioned way; with quick cuts and still shots. I will juxtapose images, cutting them together appropriately.

I also researched a number of films that I believe are aesthetically beautiful from a production design point of view and from a cinematographer point of view. I watched ’12 Years a Slave’, parts of ‘The Great Gatsby’ and ‘A Beautiful Mind’. I have included in my booklet screen shots of scenes that resonated with me.

Another task that I have been working on this week is filming the Australian Directors Guild Awards. This ceremony is tonight (Friday). We have been practising with the cameras this week. We will be shooting Vox Pop interviews with the nominees as well as the ceremony. Any experience with a camera is preparing me for my shoot next week. The faster and more confident I am, I will execute my ideas more effectively.

In our class today we were given the opportunity to create our own exercise. I wanted to experiment with a shot that I am going to shoot next week – The camera points to the sky through an overhanging tree. Leaves fall from the tree. The camera moves clockwise 360 degrees. I envisage this camera movement as a window into a surreal world. It will represent a true Autumn’s day.

We found a tree relatively quickly. The shot wasn’t quite as I had pictured. I think the actual tree that I will film will be more obtrusive and will fill the shot composition more effectively. This tree was more staggered and sparse. Another conflicting factor is the tripod. We were able to manipulate our tripod to point the camera up into the sky. The tripod that I will be using won’t have this flexibility. I will experiment with this shot on location before the actors arrive on set.

Another factor was the falling of the leaves. This shot has the potential to take a significant amount of time on set, in order to pull it off effectively. I will have to make a 1st AD decision on set, as to how much time is allocated to this shot. I may have to shoot what I can, move on and determine whether I use it or not in post production. This exercise was very valuable. It allowed me to practice a technique that I am not very confident executing. Angus and I were the only ones who had an exercise idea that we wanted to explore. Everyone was enthusiastic in involving themselves in both of our ideas. I think this was beneficial not only for me, but for the entire group. It allowed us to use trial and error and to problem solve until we were happy with our result.

An issue that arose with my exercise was the lighting. The exposure changed constantly as the sun hid behind clouds. This moving shot also lends itself to an aperture pull. One angle was over exposed and as the camera moved away from the direction of the sun, it became under exposed. We used a ND filter to compare the ‘look’ of the image. The view finder and zebra pattern were detrimental with the set up of this shot. The harsh light hitting the monitor effected our individual perception of the image.

I am excited to shoot my scenes next Wednesday, although I am worried about time. I may have to reschedule to shoot one again if I run out of daylight. If I am prepared and set, the shoot should run smoothly. There are many contributing factors that could impact on the shoot; the weather, if it rains; the public, if there are a lot of people around; losing daylight or the light changing significantly between shots. As I am shooting so late in the afternoon the lighting is going to change quite dramatically and quite quickly. I will have to adapt very quickly to these conditions.