The last two days before the shoot have been all about practice.
I've never been fortunate enough to have people put time aside to get all the minor issues out of the way before the shoot to save time for the actual shoot.
In the end, this will save a lot of time. Yesterday Mike, Adelle, Caitlin, Tom and I all went to Caitlin's house to run through all the shots needed in Will's bedroom and Audrey's house.
Mike and I would discuss the shots while Adelle wrote down the shots we finalized. Tom would be a stand in with Caitlin and also get an idea of lighting for the shoot. Caitlin made sure we marked down all shots and got the schedule ready for the shoot.
The whole trial was just what we needed. As the director, it was nice to be more involved in the camera and shots unlike Just Squeeze. Mike and I could take time to see what would cut well together and any other issues we could work out.
Then having Adelle break down the script and make the shot lists on the spot saves me hours of having to think in detail every shot. Where as it's all written down and makes sense quickly.
I was also glad to see how different Adelle and Caitlin's jobs are when they started working together. I was worried at first that one of them would feel obsolete on production but each one knows specifically what to do throughout the shoot. Caitlin also solved the problem of how she can be used to her best potential on production days and she'll accommodate actors off screen and prepare schedules for the following days.
Today Mike, Adelle, Caitlin and I went to the field to see what's possible for the snow scene. This will be the trickiest day of shooting. We basically have to figure out how to make a small square (50 ft. area?) look like a blizzard filling the whole field. Mike, as usual, came up with great ideas that should help things along. He thought that a lot of it could be burnt out if we film towards the sun. That way, the grass will look bleached white but also gives a dream feel to the scene. Also, if we put netting down, that it can catch the snow used in the foreground but also have flour in it. Also Will's pajamas might need to be brown instead. If there is a flash of green, then we can remove the color green, so if we change the pajamas then it won't take the color out of Will's attire.
The whole day is a gamble to be honest. If the weather is cloudy, that'd be perfect (besides a surprise snow storm, obviously) because depending on the sun, we have to film around how it moves throughout the day. Same with the shots, we can't plan until the day when runners are setting up otherwise it'll all change due to weather. So besides the 19th, every day is looking more planned than anything I've ever shot.
TOMORROW SHOOTING AHH!
Sunday 13 March 2011
Thursday 10 March 2011
Getting There
Today was another shopping day to get all the minor props. A lot of the focus was on the warehouse scene. Caitlin thought it'd be a good idea to have open boxes of sweets to show more of the factory.
Later that day we went to the tv studio where we are going to film the sweets factory and Tom lit spotlights on boxes to give the scene more depth of field.
Thankfully earlier in the day Tom, Caitlin and I went to the scrap store to get the final pieces for the conveyor belt and the rest of the scenes.
The other step was getting hair dye for "D Day", when three of the five actors get their hair dyed.
Conner, who plays Will may dye his hair darker to bring a darker edge to his character, while Kate as Audrey will take her hair a shade darker to contrast her bright red clothing. Then, my personal favorite, Danann as Cary will dye his hair a Jim-Carrey-as-the-Riddler Orange. So excited to see it done! He's taking the biggest step by bleaching his hair first then dying it orange to bring out the brightest color possible.
Later that day we went to the tv studio where we are going to film the sweets factory and Tom lit spotlights on boxes to give the scene more depth of field.
Thankfully earlier in the day Tom, Caitlin and I went to the scrap store to get the final pieces for the conveyor belt and the rest of the scenes.
The other step was getting hair dye for "D Day", when three of the five actors get their hair dyed.
Conner, who plays Will may dye his hair darker to bring a darker edge to his character, while Kate as Audrey will take her hair a shade darker to contrast her bright red clothing. Then, my personal favorite, Danann as Cary will dye his hair a Jim-Carrey-as-the-Riddler Orange. So excited to see it done! He's taking the biggest step by bleaching his hair first then dying it orange to bring out the brightest color possible.
Tuesday 8 March 2011
Sunday 6 March 2011
Friday 4 March 2011
No more Warehouse
Mike, Tom, Dan, Caitlin and I went back to the warehouse to grasp how to light the area.
Things after off rough when we saw that there was no way to cover the lights, the place was full of windows that were way off the ground. This would cause the background to consistently change.
The entrance where we wanted to film would be used all day, so we had to change the location to a raised section of the warehouse. Workers would be laminating (causing a lot of noise) throughout the day.
Then we found out we'd only have the location on some random date for four hours. This just wouldn't work. Nothing was in our favor to film at this location. Although we found some great equipment on the top half of the warehouse, I made the decision to have the interesting warehouse gear sent to the tv studio instead of taking the conveyor belt to the warehouse to film.
This worked out perfectly, as Caitlin had already booked the tv studio for two days for our green screen stuff. Now we have as much access as we want in the tv studio, Tom can build the conveyor belt behind the studio and lift it right onto set, and we can control everything.
Plus, the van that we were going to pay 30 pounds for to ship the warehouse equipment said it would be an additional 200 pounds, which is obviously ridiculous. So we ended up saving a bunch of money on a moving van as well.
As time gets closer to the film dates, it's obvious that more cuts like this will be made to make everything easier and so I'm glad we came to this decision two weeks before filming instead of two days.
Things after off rough when we saw that there was no way to cover the lights, the place was full of windows that were way off the ground. This would cause the background to consistently change.
The entrance where we wanted to film would be used all day, so we had to change the location to a raised section of the warehouse. Workers would be laminating (causing a lot of noise) throughout the day.
Then we found out we'd only have the location on some random date for four hours. This just wouldn't work. Nothing was in our favor to film at this location. Although we found some great equipment on the top half of the warehouse, I made the decision to have the interesting warehouse gear sent to the tv studio instead of taking the conveyor belt to the warehouse to film.
This worked out perfectly, as Caitlin had already booked the tv studio for two days for our green screen stuff. Now we have as much access as we want in the tv studio, Tom can build the conveyor belt behind the studio and lift it right onto set, and we can control everything.
Plus, the van that we were going to pay 30 pounds for to ship the warehouse equipment said it would be an additional 200 pounds, which is obviously ridiculous. So we ended up saving a bunch of money on a moving van as well.
As time gets closer to the film dates, it's obvious that more cuts like this will be made to make everything easier and so I'm glad we came to this decision two weeks before filming instead of two days.
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