SETTING UP THE LOCATION BEFORE THE SHOOT

 Setting Up The Location Before The Shoot.

On the 28th of February, Luke kindly drove Lila and I to the location in order to help us set up beforehand to save time on our shoot day, as our idea was quite complicated in regard to the preparation it needed. 

Over the course of 4 days, I brought in boxes packaged with the props we needed for our shoot (luckily I had to be in school over the weekend and Mike happened to be on duty both Saturday and Sunday evening to kindly unlock his classroom for me so I could leave them for our trip on Monday). This was because I didn't want to carry 6 different boxes all at once! There were a list of props that I knew I would leave for the shoot day, and I listed them on my notes app on my phone alongside with a list of the items (snacks, props, makeup, tools etc.) in each numbered box so that in case of emergency we could quickly find the thing we needed:

The first thing we did was clear the space, and place all the boxes and furniture in the area (the red room located in the room next door) that we wouldn't be using. This was to allow us to have a clear sense of the space that we would be working in, and physically provided more room for the props that I had brought in.

Then, Lila and I began to unbox all the props and set them up on the desk, working out practicalities such as where we would plug in Lila's record player and my lamp. We also ended up moving the desk so that it faced the door as it allowed for us to have a clearer 180 degree line, providing more shot opportunities and distinguishing between the two characters in the two separate rooms. We used my picture of the set I had practiced making on my desk at home to provide a foundation for us to replicate.

Whilst this went on, Lila and I alternated in helping Luke board the windows outside with the cardboard and pins that I had brought in, using my Stanley Knife to cut out holes to allow light to enter the room in a shadowed effect. We could not do this alone as we were not tall enough and bringing a chair out would have been a safety hazard as the majority of the walls were lined with dead bushes. We needed more cardboard but Luke said that he would bring in some for us on the shoot day as we had none left.

After that, we walked to the theatre shed as we had not yet heard back from the department and needed to source a wooden chair, smaller desk and something to block out the rest of the boxes that we had not been able to move in the back of the room. Luke made some phone calls to other members of staff to find out how to unlock the rooms/shipping containers and then we went in and looked around for some things. 

We luckily found the perfect chair, a smaller wooden desk, and a divider from the shed, greenhouse and shipping containers, and carried them back to the garden house. We put them roughly where we believed they would be and returned to Hurtwood as Lila had a lesson to get to.

Overall, I was extremely happy with our progress as it saved us roughly 2 and a half hours on the shoot day (not accounting for loading the props into the van) and we had been productive, solving any issues with our set early.