The Shoot - the stress, the problems, the victories

Before me stand the two most important days of this entire project - the shoot. I have a lot of expectations for these days, as well as some worries, and a whole lot of responsibility.

So what do I expect, what do l look forward to, and where do I think we'll have trouble?

I expect it to be stressful, at least the first day. We're all new to this, we've never had this much independence when it comes to a film, but as the same time we've never had the same amount of responsibility. We all know that the entire group is expecting us to do our part. So yeah, that is a lot of pressure, but I'm personally excited to see how I work under this kind of pressure. Will I be able to keep my head cool, and make important decisions when needed? Will my storyboard look as good in real life as it did in my head? I'll finally learn the answer to all those questions and doubts! 

So Monday comes around, and we're all on set. The first scene goes swimmingly, and the actors are doing amazing jobs. But then we encounter our first problem - the dolly won't fit on set and we can't make room for it because of the continuity of the shot. Because of this the camera scrambles a bit as it tries to build the shoulder rig and fin a solution to the problem, but this costs us a lot of time. For the rest of the first day we tried our best to make that time back, but because of all the dolly shots we have to change, and a generally bad work flow among the crew, we have to go overtime. We do manage to finish all the scenes we wanted to finish on the first day, but in the industry you could get fired if the production goes overtime, so after talking to Preston, I took note of how the work flow could be improved for the second day of the shoot. 

This is one of many many impromptu meetings Preston and I had during our two day shoot.
This seems to be a calmer one, with less panicked stress

That being said, I think the camera department managed to compensate for the lack of our missing equipment very well. I think any department would have a bit of trouble keeping time with that kind of obstacle, and although the communication between Preston, Natalie, and myself could have been better, I feel like the camera department was able to get the shots we needed efficiently so that we could finish everything for the day. Umor also did really well, and we worked well together to make the light changes as swiftly as possible. 

The second day went very well I think. The work flow was better, and the the whole crew worked well together. I was able to more thoroughly instruct Arturs in how I wanted the frame and the shot to move, and also I communicated better with Natalie so that we more easily and faster could get to an agreement on how we wanted the shot to look. 

I definitely felt like Arturs and I worked better on the second day,
and that our work flow was really good.

We did have some differences were we both had a vision for a shot, and thought it was the best fit, but ultimately we had to do whatever we had time for. I did notice during the shoot that I missed a lot of the shot that had to be cut, as I feel like they gave the film that little extra, but I understand that when we're limited to 3-5 minutes, we only have room for the highly necessary. We did have a slight difference of vision when it came to the centered shots, which as I described earlier was a conscious stylistic choice on my part as I feel like it would give the film a constant that tells a story of its own. In my mind if you took out all the establishing centered shots in the film, and cut them into a montage of stills, they would still tell the story. But, during the shoot I discussed it with Natalie, and she made it clear that it didn't fit her vision of the film. That was of course okay, she is the director, and I adjusted the shots so that they still made sense -like putting them at slight angles and a couple of over the shoulder shots. I think they still work well with the film, and that her vision makes a beautiful film. 

I've enjoyed working with Natalie as director a great deal, and I think she has a great eye for this.
I also feel like our styles complimented each other very well.

Another challenge we faced on the second day of shooting is that we had to polish the lighting plan for the morning scene. We decided to do a drastic change by adding a door on the fourth wall that would creative a slit of golden morning light on the back wall. I feel like it was the right creative decision to make, as it add some difference to the scene, and makes it more apparent that its a different part of the day. We created it by putting two large pieces of poly on c-stands and holding them up against a studio light with orange and nd gels on it. I think the final product looks amazing! 

We finished on time, and I think we were all pleased with the result!

-TJ

Writing down the equipment is easy, knowing everything you need is not

The Equipment List - Conscious Decisions 

The equipment I was responsible for getting out

As head of the camera and light department it was my responsibility that Mary (Producer) knew exactly what camera and light equipment she had to book out for the shoot. So if we needed anything extra we would have to take our chances that they still had what we needed when we needed it. So by giving Mary this list I was able to make sure that we would have all the equipment we needed. It was simple enough, as we were given a list from Anne over all the equipment she felt like we needed, all I had to do was add to the list with whatever specialised equipment I felt like would add to the film - much like I wrote in my research post that Tod Campbell chose a more rounded lens because the actors had big eyes. 

So what I added was three lenses. After talking to Arturs (Camera Operator) we decided that it would benefit us if we had a macro and a micro lens for certain scene. Particularly the hospital scene as we have to film that on the back of the set were there's limited space - our kit lens might be too big. For that we got the Nikon 105mm f/2.8 lens, as we knew that it comes with good image stabilisation, which is critical at close ranges. We also got a Nikon 17-35mm f/2.8 for the wide angle establishing shots, as well as a Nikon 50mm f/1.8 to have a lens with a set focal length as well. During the shoot we ultimately didn't use any of these lenses, but I still stand by the decision to hire them just in case a shot could have been improved by it. 

-TJ

Lighting - a lot of new ground to cover

As head of the camera department and the visual look of the film it was very important that I got lighting right. Lighting can make or break a film, and can be the difference between a shoddy "student film" and a professional film. So once the storyboard was finished Umor (Gaffer) and I spent a lot of time on set imagining how we wanted to light the film. This posed a lot of challenges as it was the first time either of us had properly done lighting (outside of lighting workshops and minor personal projects.) And as this is our biggest film to date we wanted to do do it justice. 

We had to create five different moods; morning, day, early night and dark night; for scene six, as we wanted scene seven to be even darker, and ultimately we had to create the hospital lighting. At first we tried reasoning ourselves to a solution with the knowledge we both had of studio lighting, but we didn't really get anywhere until we asked Anne for help. She told us that it was important that we have enough light on our actors faces, as to give the shots a nice look. We took this piece of advice and created a very basic lighting plan. 

It had two studio light which we would use for modeling the actors faces, and one light shining through the window to act as daylight, moonlight/street lamp. We later realised that this would not be enough as there were a number of things we had not taken into consideration. Firstly we had a talk with Preston and Arturs, they had some ideas and concerns which we had to address. Mainly that the light shining through the window would not be enough to light up the room at all point during the shoot, as it would have to move, because the sun also moves in real life. We did some changes, but decided that we were still not done. We then had a talk with Chris, who is the studio supervisor, and he had some ideas that ended up using - primarily a large piece of poly roughly at the fourth wall, that would act as a fill for the entire scene. This gave us a set that was dimly illuminated, and easier to work with. After this we could start working out what our key light was (usually the one behind the window) and what gels we could use to create the different times of the day. 

We ended up using this design: 

The daytime scene

So we could not aim two 2ks at the poly to create a fill (we could alternate this for the other scenes as to create different effects, and add gels for the night and morning.) We had the 5k behind the window shining daylight through the blinds that we put over the window. This created a pattern on the wall that further created the illusion of daylight. And lastly we had the house lamp and the desk lamp on set to create an even more realistic feel. 

On the second day of shooting we made slight changes to the morning lighting plan as we felt it need to be a little bit different from the rest. We had used the light through the blinds on the day and night scenes, and it wouldn't make sense for the sun to be shining through the same window during the morning too. Therefore we created a door on the fourth wall that would let a slit of golden light into the room. This worked really well. 

Thoughts:

All in all I am really happy with the way we met the challenges and solved them. Umor was a great Gaffer to have, and him and Ollie (who helped us out) were an amazing help during the shoot. We definitely learned a lot, at least I did. I realise now how important it is that the DoP knows his lighting and how he wants the film to be lit, because if not you end up with a lot of back and forth without anyone actually knowing where this is headed. I don't think I did a bad job with the lighting, but it had to be a collaborative effort with multiple people on the crew because I was working it out. Towards the end of pre production, the set building, and the shoot, I felt like I had better control, and was able to properly instruct how I wanted the lighting to look. 

-TJ

Our brief and first couple of meetings - what worked , what didn't

Thus begins pre-production. We are to make a 3-5 minute short film, using only 5 words of dialouge, and a photograph for inspiration. The photograph will be our inspiration for the film and should spark some sort of narrative. These are the photgraphs we were given:

Blind Twins (1980) by Jane Evelyn Atwood, King and Queen (1970) by Diane Arbus, Untitled 1997 by Hannah Starkey, and Untitled 1962 by Ralph Eugene Meatyard. 

Sadly I was ill in bed on the day of the brief, but I kept in contact with my group over text, where we discussed possible ideas and narratives to explore. As a group we decided that we preferred "King and Queen", and "Untitled 1997", and these were the images we wanted to use as inspiration. 

"King and Queen" by Diane Arbus

"Untitled 1997" by Hannah Starkey

As I was ill the day of the brief, I sadly lost out on a lot of the discussion around the different ideas and so on, but when the idea did reach me, the group had arrived at a dystopian narrative where food and essentials are limited and scarce. I found this to be a really interesting concept, that can birth numerous narratives, and I was looking forward to our first meeting the day after. 

During this meeting we didn't get very far. A lot of people had a lot of ideas, and a lot of people felt very strongly that their idea was superior, this lead to a lot of discussion without anything actually being decided. We did agree that we liked the slightly dystopian setting with scarce essentials, but we had a lot of different ideas about how to show this. We discussed everything from mannequins, tadpole soup, shots of water, and insanity, but ultimately we had to scrap most of it because of our limited budget. We finished our meeting with a lot of half baked ideas and no set sketches, as our set designer was ill. This in turn made it very difficult for me to start designing visuals, as I had no idea what our restrictions and limitations were. In the end Preston (Assistant Director) and Natalie (Director) sat down and created a narrative that was practical and creative. Natalie wrote a rough draft of the script which she shared with the group, and after minor changes we decided to make this our film. 

A world were words are a money, and when you run out of words you die. One of our main characters would have an illness that would force them to almost run out of credits (as we could only use 5 words), and the film being centered around their relationship and their final days together. 

After this we could finally start designing the set, and working on our storyboard. I had some creative input into the creation of the set, and where our light sources would be, but other than that I focused on creating the feel for the film in cooperation with Natalie and Preston. 

-TJ

Director of Photography, Cinematographer - doesn't matter what it's called, it's still my first time doing it

At the beginning of this year we researched film crew roles (see my post on Continuity supervision), and one role that really struck a cord with me was the role of DoP - the shot creator and head of the camera department. I would be responsible for making technical and artistic decisions for the image, or "look", of the film. This is of course a massive responsibility, and I want to tackle it with all my attention and innovation - but, it is also my first time doing it, so I assume I will make mistakes. To avoid making a horrific number of mistakes, I am doing this research to best prepare me for what is to come. 

My first step was to look at films and series that I know have an aesthetic look, as to see if this is the work of any cinematographers I can take inspiration from. Like most film students I really like Wes Andersons films, so that was my first stop. 

"Moonrise Kingdom" 2012

I quickly realised that Robert Yeoman has been the cinematographer for all of Wes Andersons films, probably because they have similar creative visions. and work well together. I know that its not uncommon to keep working with people you know you work well with in film, so this makes sense. Their shared style is very symmetrical, and linear, as you can see in the picture above, and below. As well as most shots being centered, most of the camera movement is very simple. They use fast pans that usually go in straight lines, which adds a very clear structure and style to the films. I quite like this style as it tells you what you need to know in every frame, and then quickly moves on to the next frame without too much "filler." I think I want to use the centered style when I design my shots as I quite like the aesthetic of it, and I also feel like it tells the story without having to add unnecessary filler shots.  

Another example of Anderson and Yeomans style.
Pictured from left to right: "Moonrise Kingdom", "Fantastic Mr. Fox", and "The Royal Tenenbaums"

Furthermore I looked into a recent favourite of mine, "Mr. Robot". The look and feel of this tv series is quite unique and unconventional, and I that is something I figured was worth looking into. Created in 2015 by Sam Esmail, this series has a dark, moody, and gritty feel to it, not afraid to use a lot of shadows, and unusual colour in their shots. Tod Campbell is the DoP for the series. (He was also the DoP for two of the episodes for the massive hit series Stranger Things.) Not a lot of information is available about Campbell, but what I could find was quite interesting. 

"Mr. Robot" 2015

In an interview for vulture.com, Campbell explains the different choices he made in his visual approach and why he did what he did. He says that a lot of the characters have quite big, bulbous eyes, and that because of this he used a Cooke S5s lens, because it is a bit rounder than most lenses, and therefore frames the face, makes lines softer, which thus brings more focus to oblong shapes - like eyes. I need to think about decisions like this for our shoot - which lenses to use to better compliment the visuals of the shot. 

Furthermore Campbell explains that he had long talks with creator Sam Esmail about the feel of the film, and what he wanted. As you can see it the still above, the shot is framed unusually. The characters are pushed down in the left corner, almost out of frame. This is very different to, for an example, Wes Andersons style that we discussed earlier in this post. But Campbell explains this visual choice by explaining that because the series relies heavily on narration and multiple characters isolation he wanted to show that through his look. Thus he created a frame where you can clearly see the huge amount of "nothingness" that weighs on the characters. I think this is a very interesting approach, and although its not something everyone would immediately think of, it makes sense, and gives the series a feel that puts it ahead of its competition. 

Through my research I have learned a lot of things that I did not previously know or even think about, and I think this will help me when I start working on the feel of our film. 

What do I expect from this unit: 

I realise that being the Director of Photography is going to be one of the biggest challenges I have ever taken on, and that it will consume a lot of my time to get right, but at the same time I feel invigorated after my research. I feel ready to start the project and to create something that I can be proud to put my name on. I understand the importance of working as a team, and after my research I understand it even better. If Sam Esmail and Tod Campbell didn't talk properly then maybe Campbell wouldn't have thought of that specific way to frame his shots. But its not just important that the Director and DoP talk often and throughly, but also that I am clear about the shots that I have designed. I am not a very confrontational person, and usually prefer to compromise rather than start conflict, or even debate. I think that is something I need to work on for this unit, so that I will be able to politely, but firmly ask my Camera Assistant to set up the tripod at a certain place, and also properly explain to my Operator how I want it framed, without backing off completely if someone has a different vision. I think its a good thing to talk about the visuals with your team, and let them have input, but ultimately, if it goes against my preferred visual, I'll have to clear about what I want. Its going to be a challenge, but I am ready to face it. 

- TJ 

".. cause you're on your own from here, 

so are you happy?" 

- Bo Burnham, "Make Happy"

MAPS AND NETWORKS 

I'm not gonna be little liar - it took me ages to come up with my idea for this project. Call it what you want; struggles getting started again; summer brain syndrome; lack of talent - the list goes on. But my brain just couldn't come up with anything from the trigger words "maps" and "networks". I mean, sure, I saw plenty of connections to what the two words could mean, and possible uses within art, but nothing struck me as "Holy molasses! I've found my idea!" I honestly didn't know what to do. 

It got to a point where it was physically affecting me in a negative way. I think all artists have those periods of self doubt. 

"How can I be cut out for this course, or this profession, 

if I can't come up with a single idea?"

I was desperately looking for someone to tell me what to do next. To tell me what artists to look at to get inspiration. Just someone to help me on my way. But that wasn't happening. I'm 20 years old now, and for every year that passes I've got more responsibility, without a manual for how to deal with it. I'm moving into uncharted territory. I'm in control of my own life. Sure, I'm still in uni. I know what I'm doing tomorrow, and I know what I'm doing next week because I have a timetable. But in two years - what am I doing then? Honestly, your guess is as good as mine. The future is literally a blank piece of paper that I somehow have to make sense of. Stressful thought eh? Yeah, I feel. 

"In a way my project isn't about maps, 

but rather a lack thereof."

So, how do I portray this in an art installation? This feeling of insecurity, and "on your own-ness". What I decided was actually pretty coincidental. I recently watched Marvels new series, Luke Cage. And there is this thing that all those series (Daredevil, Jessica Jones) do so so well, and that is colour themes. Daredevil has a reoccurring red tint, while Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage have purple and yellow respectively. Because this fascinated me so, I've played around with this in my personal photography a lot recently. This is why I want to portray my project through colours. How is the question. 

This lovely assortment of colour is a still from Simon Payne's work "Colour Bars". Rosie referred me to him after our tutorial, and I found his work quite inspiring. The minimalistic idea of colour and human emotions was something we both agreed would make an interesting installation, so seeing Payne's work, and how simple but impactful it is gave me some ideas for how I could do my own. 

I've decided I want to do primary colours. There are multiple reasons for this. 

• Colours are often linked to emotions. Red - anger and passion. Blue - sadness and tranquility. Yellow - happiness. All emotions we go through every day. "But how does this relate to your project about insecurity in your twenties?" I'm glad you asked! Not only are your twenties the years when you need to figure stuff out, but also "the best years of your life." So make sure you enjoy them! Right? We have so much to think about, worry about, enjoy, relax, party, experiment - is it too much? 
• They are primary colours. If you look at the colour wheel with creative eyes, it starts to look like your life. You start out simple - three colours. But then you mix them, and you have nine! And so on. It gets more complicated. This project is a requiem to leaving those first colours behind. Even if it is scary. 
• With multiple colours I can tell three stories. A sad one, a happy one, and a passionate one.

But how are you gonna tell these stories? 

I want to use morse code. I want to have each colour tell a poem or haiku that relates to that emotion through morse code. Three stories that together tell a story of growing up.

Thank you for reading.

TJ 

"omg in this shot he takes his clock off, but in a shot a minute later the clock is back on his wrist??"

Essentially the continuity supervisor, also known as the script supervisor, is the person on set who makes sure that each shot follows the same time line. If something changes in a scene, and that scene needs to be reshot or shot from a different angle, the continuity supervisor makes sure that anything that was changed during the shoot has been reset.

The continuity supervisor is in a way every departments back up, and has to make sure that at the end of the day the film can be cut together, and that it makes sense. He has to work closely with the director and the DOP, because it's important that these three roles agree on what the scene should look like.

Actually the continuity supervisor has to work very closely with every department, as its important that everyone is on the same page, so that the film is coherent. He'll also have a look at the script before shoots starts and make comments to all the different departments. These comments are used to by the departments to create the most advantageous and efficient shoot order.

TJ