Reflective Journal
Harley's film - Under the Veil
This shoot helped me develop my cinematography, camera and general production skills.
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This was one of the first shots i did for this film which i am quite happy with. At first it was a struggle to sort out the camera ISO with such low level lighting and so i had to adjust it to the right level to give it a dark and mysterious tone for the films atmosphere but also light enough to where you can see what the character is doing, the streetlamp helped a lot here and i made sure to use it to my advantage for my shots as much as i could.
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When we first arrived on location for this first scene i immediately noticed the reflection of graffiti from the wall in the puddle, because of this i wanted to try a wide shot to really show off that effect. It ended up not looking as good in this shot as it looked at the time, this was mainly due to lack of light to see the reflection clearer. Given that this film was only shot with 2 people we weren't able to bring along better lighting equipment other than a torch and so that added some challenge to filming some shots.
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This shot was to give the impression that someone/thing is watching this person from afar and sets up the uneasy tone for the rest of the film. At first we tried this shot from the opposite side of the underpass but the only trees i could hide behind for the shot were too far from the actor to be able to see his character so we ended up with this shot from the other side which looked exactly how i wanted it too, the streetlamp also helped a lot again.
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This is a shot idea i had involving the fence gate that our main character walks up to and opens, I had placed the camera on top of the fence and held it steady whilst the actor opens the gate and shuts it. I ended up really liking this shot as it felt unique and fresh compared to the other shots we were using. (Quality worsened in GIF format)
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For this shot i decided to mess with the focus a bit towards the end to create a feeling of disillusion, I also had to make sure the torch light was in shot.
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In this shot i decided to try and give a looming presence feel by having the tree out of focus on the side. It was also quite fortunate that a light in the background turned off during this shot which added to the mystery in my opinion.
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The good, the terrible and the hideous
Shooting this film helped me to improve upon my acting, camera and sound abilities among other things.
Issues with transport
One of the biggest issues that happened during shooting this film happened after i drove home from a shoot one day and the clutch in my car had snapped, i had to stop at a car park nearby and move all of the props, costumes and equipment from out of my car and into my parents car. This was a major impact for both projects as this happened during a time where we were right in the middle of filming so it was a very unfortunate and unexpected outcome. I got in to contact with Harley to inform him about the situation and we discussed the best options to take from there on. Despite the unfortunate set backs that this caused from travelling between locations with all of our equipment, costumes and props and also with me being able to get back home from Weston after the shoots. I was fortunate enough that my mum had offered to drive me to Harley's flat with everything, from here i was able to get the train to his flat. Some scenes for this film were only a 5 minute walk away but the other 2 main scenes were at uphill church and in Weston woods. We were able to get a lift to Weston woods for that shoot day and we then took an uber back to his flat later on with the equipment. For the uphill shoot we used a taxi service to get there and back to the flat. All in all i am happy with how we've managed to push past the setbacks and still give it our all.
The Beach scene
During this shoot day we had some very unfortunate weather and so came a lot of
issues regarding equipment, filming and costumes. The biggest problem at the time
that we had was that the equipment was getting soaked by the rain which was not
predicated to happen on the weather forecast that we had checked, we had mana-
ged to find a wall to take cover from the wind at least and we were able to protect
all of the equipment from there to an extent. Fortunately there were at least some
dry periods which we took advantage of as much as possible to ensure we would
protect as much equipment as we could. Despite our efforts we still ended up faci-
ng lots of issues this day with one of them being the filming itself, the beach was
a little busy that day but since a lot of the shots were quite wide we often had a lot
of people walking in to frame which slowed things down a lot. The biggest issue
with the filming itself though was the sand and water that would get on the lens,
not only would this damage the equipment but it ruins the shots for the film. A lot
of props and costumes did end up with lots of sand everywhere even into the prop
revolver's barrel, the costumes were more recoverable at least but were a pain to
get all of the sand out.
Weston Woods shoot
On this shoot day we were also not expecting there to be rain due to the forecast being clear but we when wakling to the location we wanted to film at i noticed it began to rain quite light at first and was quite on and off, at the time this felt not too bad as we're in a woods anyway so we're pretty covered and the rain was only light for the time being. When arriving at our shoot location we managed to find a tree to put some of our things under to protect from the rain and a bench to protect all of our valuable equipment and props, we managed to find a sheet of material to put underneath the bench which we put all of the valuables on to and used the table part of the bench as a shelter from the rain. This worked well except for some of the gaps in the table that needed covering which wasn't a huge issue. The other big problem that came with the rain was that when filming we were getting water on the lens which caused damage to the equipment as well as it ruined some of the shots too, luckily i had brought a plastic bag with me for all the costumes and since we were wearing everything that was in that bag i was able to use it as rain cover for the camera and avoid potential problems with the rain.
We also used a waterproof coat when we could to protect the tripod and camera -->
For one of the scenes it involved a shot placed on an unsteady rock where the character runs in to shot, smokes a cigarette and then runs out again. This shot proved a challenge for me as i had to keep the camera as steady as i could for about 30 - 40 seconds. Sometimes the actor would fail to light his cigarette and so would try play it off with his character and try again, because of this it meant i sometimes had to hold the shot even longer than normal.
Uphill Church Shoot
When arriving on location this day it was already a challenge getting up the hill with all of the equipment, props and costumes because of how steep the hill was. The church was fortunately not very busy that day although had occasional people walking by which caused some issues with the shots and sound at points but nothing major. For the first half of the day i was mostly just helping out on sound or keeping an eye on the equipment, although i was on camera for a few shots that proved to be quite challenging. One shot that proved to be a challenge was a moving head on close up shot that involved me walking backwards for a few steps on unstable ground, we had made sure to take as much safety precautions we could and i made sure to memorize the path i was going to make in order not to trip on anything. This shot ended up going well and only took about 2-3 takes, unfortunately this film isn't released yet so i can't provide the shot to show. Later on this day i had a few scenes that i had to act in, the first one involving my character stepping out from the church to take a sneaky smoke break. I didn't have too many issues here with lighting as there were lots of different shots to intercut with and so i didn't have to do the entire motion of getting the matchsticks out, getting the cigarette out and then also lighting it first try, this helped massively and meant we were able to move on from this shot very quickly.
Unfortunately the equipment management had only given us one battery for this day and told us there were 2 in the camera bag, this meant that we were expecting another battery after the first one got low which ended up not being there. We decided it would be best for us to try and wrap up the final scene and end the film with a more of a loose ending. It was a real shame that because of that issue it meant that this film wasn't able to get the ending it needed especially for issues out of our control but we had to just push through and see what we could get with the remaining 5% battery.
Professional Development Plan
PDP Summary
To summarize my professional development plan i will start by highlighting the learning outcomes i have achieved:
Improved driving skills and confidence I have achieved this through pushing myself to drive further out into areas i was unfamiliar with before and better familiarized myself with Bristol in general
Prepared for job applications I have built up my CV with a more up to date style and with more focus on the industry as a whole
Better organisation skills I have built up a more detailed schedule for my week to help me feel more organised