We Have Our Actors!

The audition set up - credited to Katherine Whetton

We finished two days of auditions and two wonderful actors are gonna be in our film! Excited!

I have been to auditions before as a participant but I had never been a part of the host. This time I have the opportunity to film the whole process and it was fun. I was doing close-ups and Ethan was doing full body shots. That way we have the important informations about the actors in terms of facial expression and body movements. This is the first time that I filmed actors doing performance as well and I think it's amazing how they tell emotions using their face. The tricky part was when they move around the space that I have to keep changing the focus while moving the camera. I think I did well and the focus was changed in time to follow them. Good practise for me as I will be operating the camera in the studio shoot.

Pre-production being pre-production, it is a stressful stage but once we have done as much preparation as we can, the filming will flow well. I have to admit that I have been a little bit stressed out about the film in the pre-production period but now I am more relieved. It is also because we had a pre-production session with Anne to sort out the planning for the two groups. It didn't go well at first because the two groups have different demands about the set. Before this pre-production session, both groups agreed on having two rooms, we use two rooms and they use one room. In that way, we can dress one room that they are not using and the other room one day before the shoot. However, some issue still happened in the session that our group is not happy with. Luckily, Anne is very helpful being the middle woman that we finally made more agreements. By the end of this week we should have a formal sign agreement between the groups. It was a huge relieve that we reached a certain degree of compromises that we can finally agree on something to work on it. It was a real life lesson right there in the pre-production session.

So far, we have done some very effective group meetings alongside good communications on Facebook page and in group chat. That is the base to a good pre-production. I am glad to have organised producer and 1st AD to be in the group as well as other group mates who gives creative inputs to the shoot. As for the camera team, we have done some small meetings and we have a Whatsapp group chat to communicate about the shot list. The shot list is a shared Google document so that all three of us can put anything in it at anytime. The format is taken from Rachel Bramley when she made it for My Daughter. Right now we have a draft overall shot list and I am changing/adding shots everyday according to a change of information. A change of information meaning anything from set design to knowledge that we learn in lesson. For example, I would talk to Jay about the prop in set and he told me there will be a water bottle in the Super Ego side and alcohol bottle in the Id side. He told me what he think the shot will be, so a shot is added:

Shot

Type/ Movement

Detail

Gear

Notes

J

CU, Still, change in focus

Focus on foreground then to backgroud. Foreground: Water bottle on table; Background: alcohol bottles

Tripod/ Slider

atmosphere

Another example, we learnt in the Directing Workshop about the Status between the characters. So we have a series of shots showing the status flow of the two characters, this is one of them: 

B

MCU, Tracking, Over the shoulder

Tracking the actors fighting with over the shoulder on superego looking at id, high angle

Shoulder Rig

status

The shot list at this moment (16th November) is visualised based on the modified first script. The modified part is from "turning the mirror" to "covering the mirror".

The next big change on the shot list will be tomorrow after the group meeting as Logan said he will give out a finalised script. Then I am looking to modify the shot list on Friday after the Gripping workshop as we learn more about camera movements with more gears. After that it will be on Monday/Tuesday when we rehearsed with the actors with the camera. Hopefully by then we will have a proper shot list for the shoot. 


P.s. Camera Equipment List
Samurai Blade Kit
Sony EX3 Kit
Slider
Shoulder Rig
Moviola
Tripod
Ronford 4 head
Clapper Board
Light Meter