On Monday the 30th September, I was set to film the bulk of my footage for screen project two. The script contains no dialogue (sans the backing audio, which was to be recorded separately), and focuses on cinematography, so it wouldn’t take an awfully long time to film.

But, we wanted to make it on time for class – so we aimed to start at 8:00.

I also wanted to set everything up as much as possible before my crew (a small one of three) got there. Believe it or not, finding my desired location (two plain white walls with dark (preferably blue) carpet) was unbelievingly hard. I went through multiple airbnbs in numerous locations in Melbourne (knowing that this meant I wouldn’t be able to start filming until 10:00) and struggled to find one. The RUSU employee who was meant to show me a room at RMIT didn’t show up, and I knew I was getting a bit trapped.

My own home has it’s issues – top of a hill with windows so it’s over lit and difficult to make dark, in a rural area and pet birds which make a lot of noise – but I was getting to the point I couldn’t be fussy. The only place in my house that’s big enough to fit equipment and has two plain walls is in my mum’s room – so we moved everything out.

However, one wall of hers is floor-to-ceiling windows, which makes it hard to block out light. Finding the heaviest and darkest blankets I could, I shoved them into the blinds and blocked out the last of the light with folded socks. At the bottom, I found whatever I could that would further block light (paintings, a mattress etc.) and by some miracle, it actually worked.

Then, I made sure that all the equipment was working so we could get straight into it.

My crew then arrived on time, and we were able to start filming pretty quickly. I had also assigned myself the challenge of being both director and acting (something I will definatly think carefully about doing again – as this film contained no dialogue, and Ramsay is also a mastermind DOP, it was quite simple – but it won’t always be. Plus, if I’m directing someone else it then becomes harder to act as well as be responcible for another’s performance). The hardest part about that was the inability to see what I was doing, and how it looked on camera. As the lighting was so stark, and my face was tilted down, some shots really lost my eyeline, so more angles needed to be added. Luckily, my crew was able to fill any gaps that I left.

The greatest thing about the day was that I barely had to push for results – we were working so well together that it didn’t take long at all to get the scenes (keeping in mind it’s also pretty basic) and we were able to knock almost all of it out within four hours. Then, I had time to record my crew doing a few of the voice-over lines (more options the better) before we went out for lunch.