Production Journal 2013
'Wasted'
Sam Sherwood
Day 1:
Scene 1 - The first day of our film shoot, consisted of filming Scenes One, Three and a very brief shot of Oliver Harrow's House. Our set had been set up prior to day one, therefore that allowed us to prepare for the whole day without rushing first thing in the morning. From 9 til 11 we did not film anything apart from tests for sound and footage. At 11 we planned to take the crane to a large house to film the exterior. We reached our destination, however we had left the bottom half our our crane at our original set for 1 and 3. This caused delay in our schedule as we had to return to collect the other piece. In this delayed time we did however get the camera set up and ready to go, so as soon as the equipment arrived we could film. After taking many shots of the exterior of the house, we made it back to school in relatively good time. Although having to make our actor wait longer than we originally intended, our set was ready to film back at school. We took a large variety of shots from many different angles to we had a lot to work with in the editing stage, just incase we lost one of our clips that we wished to use, we had back ups!
We managed to film all of Scene 1 by one o'clock, giving us time for a quick lunch and straight back ready for Scene 3.
Scene 3 - Scene three was quite similar to scene one. There was no speaking roles in these scenes, so we managed to get it all done in very good time. Allowing us to begin recording the voiceovers for certain scenes. Again we filmed the scene from more than one angle, giving us variety and safety shots. These shots allowed us to do match on action edits throughout the film, making it more interesting and keeping the audience drawn in.
Day 2
Scene 2
Day two was extremely busy, Livvy and I managed to film extra scenes that were planned for day 3! We first traveled to Chestfield, to film Young Olly and Young Andy's argument and the car crash!
Our two young actors arrived enthusiastic and ready to go! However when we got to our set, it did take a while to express to them exactly what we wanted to do, but we achieved this eventually! The car crash scene was quite hard to film in my opinion. At times it did get confusing and we had to be extremely careful for the safety of our actors, ourselves, and the equipment. We managed to get a shot that did look good, and with some tight editing I was sure I could make it look somewhat close to a car crash!
Scene 5 was the award ceremony for Oliver Harrow, this scene did not take very long to film, however we did have a problem with the camera settings, however that was corrected quickly, I set up the lighting just to reveal the actress and the award, and then Oliver harrow, I liked how this looked on the camera and it gives a very interesting contrast to the film.
Scene 6 - Scene six was the final scene of the film. This consisted of filming the exterior and interior of Waterstones book store, and then we filmed mostly in the library. We had to round up many extras to get their book singed by Oliver Harrow. This did not take too much time, however due to the fact many people were in the library at the time, it was hard getting everyone to be silent as we filmed. Then, at 4:15, five minutes before the end of the day, with one shot left to film, our camera died! So we had to run back to our storage room, get another battery, and get the shot done. Luckily we managed to accomplish this! With a great amount of stress and running around.
Day 3
Home Videos - This may have been one of the hardest scenes to film, plainly because there were young (hyper) boys from around the age of six to ten, running around playing games, kicking balls, etc. They were extremely hard to control, which slightly delayed us, however we did manage to get all our montage and home videos filmed. One problem we did suffer was transportation of the crane, (again!)
Due to the fact it did not fully fit in our car, we had to leave the boot slightly open. There was a steep hill en route to our destination, leaving us limited choices to keep the boot shut! However one extremely uncomfortable position for myself allowed us to reach the set with all the contents from the boot!
Scene 4 - Scene four was the Television Interview for middle aged Olly. We set up a simple television set, using white backgrounds, and placing unused cameras around the set. We only used two shots in this scene, which maybe should have been increased as the scene does seem to go on for slightly longer than I first thought it would. However the is a match on action straight away. I have struggled matching sound with this scene, due to the fact we re shot it many times from one angle, and used a separate voice recorder.
Overall I believe Livvy and I accomplished a great deal of footage throughout the three days. We realised the stress and hard work that has to be put in to keep everything flowing, and that there should always be a back up plan if one thing is not possible to complete at that moment in time!
We both had a great amount of fun filming, and I think we both have now experienced all the different aspects of film making and it has inspired myself to consider becoming involved in film making in the future!
