Construction Post 7: My personal contributions to the Shoot Sessions

For the school corridor shoot, I was in charge of managing the large group of actors and making sure they were in costume in time for filming. I was also acting in the corridor tracking shot, and organised the order of shots with the shoot-board. To make sure that our iconography and representations were clear, I set up the props in the classroom prior to the shoot.

Reflections: our group worked well as a team, as we were each delegated different responsibilities according to if we were acting in it or not, so that filming would be more efficient. Amber, Gift and I were able to view the footage after each take to make sure we all approved of the shot. We were able to discuss our thoughts on each take and agree on whether the framing or camera movements were effective. (The camera was too close-up in some of the earlier shots). Working as a team was difficult at times as both Gift and I were acting in the sequence, but the process was much easier when we each had to be responsible for different aspects of filming. Each of us had an equal input on aspects of the shooting that we wanted to change, and we communicated well throughout the shoot session. However, we had to remind our actors to be conscious of other events in school at the same time, and appreciate their patience during the shoot.

For the shoot inside the house, I was responsible for setting up the filming location to include representations of our genre, and I also filmed some of the final shots (Arthur getting out of bed, picking up keys, walking through hallway).

Amber and I directing the first scene:

Reflections: This shoot was much more time-consuming because we had to film several shots, but we were more prepared as we only had one actor to manage. Each of us took turns at filming and reviewed the takes to find any errors in framing/lighting/continuity. I noticed that some of the shots for the split-screen were too close-up, which we corrected in the next shots. As none of our group were acting for this shoot, we were able to assess whether the shots were match on action or not, while they were being filmed. This made filming much quicker, as we did not need to repeat takes several times. As a group, we supported each other in delegating responsibilities and making decisions that would give us better footage.

Our group setting up camera equipment

Behind the scenes footage of setting up equipment and dressing the set (I included clothes, a backpack and a basketball to the set design to show representations of character)