PLANNING A TEST SHOOT

Planning a Test Shoot.

Today, we planned the execution of our test shoot to ensure ease during tomorrow's filming process. This included organising who is bringing what props, what equipment, and the different jobs. We also sketched an overall idea of our wide shot on my iPad so we had a brief concept as to what the wide shot would be, establishing the characters of the sequence and the narrative. 

After discussion, we decided to allocate roles:

Me

• Bring my Canon EOS M50 DSLR, vinyl, ribbon/rope (substitute for handcuffs), a kitchen roll tube (substitute for funnel), tape, tweezers, pestle and mortar, medical gloves (as a day house student, I have easy access to props)
• Will edit and act 

Lila

• Will direct and film (as Matthew and I are acting)

Matthew

• Will act and take behind the scenes pictures 

As a possible shooting location, we thought of using the Hurtwood House lounge, and if that is not an option, we could use our media classroom as the only key pieces of furniture needed are a chair and a workspace. 

This process will be carried out in order for us to gain practical experience, and learn the solutions to the issues that we will naturally encounter with our first experience filming.

26.01.22

Post test shoot.

We started with shooting our wide shot of Matthew pouring the poison into my mouth to gain an understanding of the space that we were working in (we used the classroom as the Hurtwood lounge is girls-only) so that our 180 degree line rule was not crossed - I explained the concept to Lila before we started filming as she had missed the camera workshops that we had done the previous week. I also showed her how to put subjects into focus, and the different lighting settings. Following this, we filmed the close-ups of my wrists and legs, then shot Matthew preparing the poison, each step in order and done from a different angle. Unfortunately, later on in the day, I realised that we had completely forgotten to film establishing shots for the first few shots of the sequence, so I used my phone (my camera had frustratingly run out of charge and I had brought the wrong adapter - my plug was Thai from back when I bought the device) and filmed outside of the main Hurtwood building as the view looks over Surrey, and has a few plants around.

Though our test shoot went relatively smooth, we did encounter a few issues. We managed to film within the 45 minute time limit we were given, shooting the key scenes to our sequence that added structure to the narrative. There was good communication between us, Lila taking a lead role in directing Matthew and I in regard to our positioning, pace etc. as she was viewing us through the camera; this was because it was clearly established before our shoot day that she would be taking this role. However, I personally found that our order of shooting things could have definitely been improved to maximise our time. We had not planned well enough as to what shots we wanted, so a lot of time was spent experimenting with what we found interesting. As a result of this, we didn't have enough takes of the different shots, leaving me with little footage to edit with (some of which had to be rid of due to continuity errors and sound).

This could have also been avoided if we had followed the proper protocols (stand by, standing, roll camera etc.) as after going through the footage, I noticed that the camera wasn't left rolling at times when it should have been, or it started recording too late and the scene had already started, causing us to lose a number of possible shots.