Reviewing out Shoot Day

Our Shooting day was on the 21st of January. We shot our Thriller Production called "MIND". We met with our group(Storm-Director, Amy-Producer, Tom-Editor) and our actors (Berika + Alabama) in front of the Studio. Berika, our main male protagonist was already there, but we were missing Alabama Jackson who was supposed to play our little girl. We chose Berika because he looked really scary and is a good actor and we used Alabama becuase she is an innocent blonde little girl-excactly the way we wnated her to be. We were aware of the fact that it is difficult to work with little children because they are difficutl to focus, but Alabama did a really great job. With her we weren’t sure if she’d be able to come and we had to wait for a call from her father Ted Jackson. After 10 minutes of waiting, and us already trying to organise who else we could use (we were thinking of Hermione Cameron) Ted finally called us and we were happy that Alabama was able to come. Another problem was that even though we brought all the tools we needed, like knifes, bed linen and candles we forgot to create the mask and didn’t have a needle. However Storm and me quickly went up into my room and took whatever we needed and Storm started to make a mask that fit to Alabama’s face. When we were in the Studio Amy and Storm went off to put make-up on Alabama’s face, while Tom and me started designing the studio. At the beginning there was only a table, a chair and nothing else so we wanted to create a better feeling and asked Simon and Luke to help us with some changes. We put broken Carpet in the Studio, put holes into the window to let moonlight shine through, put the tools onto the table and designed them with blood and mud. We took the bed linen outside and put leaves on it and then we started to burn off candles which we got to stand on the table with the help of a lot of wax. One candle was given to Berika.For the lighting we used blue moonlight coming through the broken window, a light bulb hanging from the top of the room and the candle light. In some sequences we used extra light, for example to put Alabama into the foreground or to put the focus on different points in the room.Alabama was supposed to be sitting in the corner and a circle of candles should be around her which wasn’t really possible because of the carpet. Therefore we took a wood, put 5 nails in it that stock out and then put this under the carpet with only the nails looking through and then we put the candles on them. When this was finished I started telling Berika what he was supposed to do and our group practised with him how to rip the bed linen and how to stitch the mask.
One problem with the candles we had was that they burned off quickly and we needed to make sure that they still have the same length on the tape, because we shot for a whole day but the clip is only going to be about 2 minutes, however we managed to get around this by using new candles and blowing them out again quickly after each shot. After all this we explained our storyboard to Luke and Simon and did the last changes to it. Some of these changes were for example differences is lighting Alabama at the end because we wanted a candle to go up to her face, but she was sitting on the floor, therefore we had the idea with the candles around her that were lit. And instead of her wearing the mask right from the beginning, we made Berika get it and then put it over her face. Then we finally started shooting. Tom was doing the camera, a PD170 (same task we used in our Preliminary) which was standing on a Tripod and when we had to do a tracking shot it was standing on rubber tracks. The problem in using rubber tracks in our case was that they are created to go round, but we needed them to shoot a straight line and we had difficulties getting them straight. However - it worked ;). Storm was helping Tom and giving advises to the actors as the Director. Amy was doing the lighting, looked for the health of the actors and checked the extra monitor where what we were shooting was shown. I wrote down all the shots we got and the ones we still needed and helped the actors. At Lunch Time we were basically good in time and only had a few more shots left to do, however we could only take a break of 45 minutes. After this we came back together and finished shooting in the Studio. According to technical devices and lighting we had no problem in the studio because we had enough energy supply and the 180 degree rule didn’t make any problems to us. The only difficulty was with the candles because even if Amy and me could see on the monitor what was going on, it was pitch dark on the camera so Tom sometimes could see where he was focusing to. However we then just switched on the lights, helped Tom to focus and switched them back off. Shortly before finishing in the Studio something really bad happened. Before tidying up Luke decided to take out the candles from the wood so the nails came still out and Alabama Jackson jumped into them by mistake and hurt her. However, Ben Hurley was around and helped carrying her into the hospital area and she felt better soon.
After finishing in the Studio we packed our stuff together and went off to Hurtwood. We took the lights with us and the camera as well as the Tripod. Arrived in Hurtwood we figured out that the cable of the light wasn’t long enough because it had to be carried all the way down the trap door and the stairs, so I quickly run back to the Studio to get a longer cable.
One issue that was really worrying was that in the cellar we could use the candle for too long because there was gas in the air that could easily burn, therefore we had to be very careful. Another problem was that this is a corridor that is used a lot by students and we had to make sure that not too many crossed this corridor while we were shooting, to prevent noises.
We finished in Hurtwood at about quarter to five which was already really late, but we decided that we still wanted to go to Leith Hill to get our Exterior shot. We found a driver, Fiona, who drove us, the whole crew and the equipment to Leith Hill. When we arrived there the door was looked, but Luke and I used the backdoor to get in because outside it was way too dark to see anything and therefore we needed to get energy from inside the house to light the front door. We found an energy supply and a huge window where we could put the light out to the grass and quickly took some Exterior shots before we needed to go back to Hurtwood House.
When we arrived back there at about ten to six we took the equipment and brought it back to the studio. At six we could go to dinner.
I feel it was successful in achieving its goals because the candles and the little girl Alabama was really effective and I feel we have achieved our goal because we wanted to have a supernatural and scary Thriller.
This task differed a lot from our Preliminary task because it was much more advanced and we had to make sure that everybody knew what was going on as well as organising the set and everything else. I learned that there is much more to do with doing a movie that just setting up a camera and filming some sequences but it was very exiting and I really enjoyed working with the whole crew.