Filming Review (26th-28th December)

My second lot of filming didn’t go quite as smoothly as the first however I was able to overcome most of the problems I faced and I think I managed to film some good shots. My first problem was when I had planned to film at a pub I knew well while visiting my mum in Royston however when we arrived at the pub there was a big sign on the door – over the Christmas period it had been sold to new owners and will not be open again for a while. This was extremely frustrating as I only really had that day to film and the female actor of the day had to leave.

After doing a quick Google search of other restaurants and pubs in the area I went around Royston and scoped some of them out. Only one was really appropriate and after asking if I could do a little bit of filming in entryway I managed to film most of what I had needed to. Unfortunately I was not able to film the scenes with one of the girls. If I get the time I will try and rearrange the dates and get all my actors together on the same day, however it is unlikely to be possible.

What I have therefore planned to do is to possibly add a few more ‘getting ready’ shots to make up the time. Instead of just playing with his hair in the mirror I made Mark clean his teeth, then use mouthwash, and then look in the mirror. I will edit this together and cut it down so that it doesn’t get boring. The filming in the mirror was actually a lot easier than I predicted it would be – I thought it would be difficult to get the right angle so that you could see all of Mark but none of me or the camera, but it was actually quite simple. I also filmed a shot of Mark trying out a bow tie but then he decides against it and throws it away – I thought this was funny and added to his geeky image.

For most of the filming at the pubs / park I didn’t have to worry too much about lighting as most of the places were quite well lit on their own, but for filming at my house for the ‘vlogging’ and ‘getting ready‘ shots I had to think about it a lot more. To light up my rather dark room I used the same technique as I did for the preliminary task – get a lot of lights from around the house and experiment with what looks good. For this shot:

I used my main light and two little lamps either side of Mark – anymore and it began to look very cold and strange. For these shots I had to do quite a bit at once: As well as using my camera to record Mark speaking I also used my phone which has a very good voice recorder. I thought this might improve the clarity of Mark’s speech and perhaps be easier to use as the voiceover parts. I also wrote out Mark some cue cards as the actor (my brother) wasn’t very skilled at learning his lines so while filming I help up bit sheets of paper with the lines on them – we filmed this sequence in short bursts so that he didn’t have to read as much at a time. This means that as well as holding the light where I wanted it I had to operate the camera and my phone, and also hold up the cue cards. Luckily I was using a tripod for these shots.

For the various getting ready sequences I did the same sort of thing. I turned on the main light of the room and then positioned my bedside lamp in a way that lighted Mark the way I wanted.

Filming Review (22nd-24th December)

I think that my first few days of filming went really well. I experimented with different ideas and had to overcome a few problems that occurred.

My first minor issue was that I had to reschedule some of the filmings because two of my actors were no longer able to make the times we had set – the filming at the Plough that would have taken place on Monday was moved to Tuesday and the filming at McDonald’s had to be moved later. Despite the change we were able to reschedule the dates and I was able to film what I needed to.

Another issue was the weather. Unfortunately Britain experienced a mighty amount of wind and rain around Christmas time which was my only chance to film. Traveling around was a little difficult seeing as most of my cast had to walk to the filming destinations which meant that when they got to the shooting location they looked a little disheveled. However the main issue was filming outside in the park on Monday 23rd. In order to make sure that my camera was safe from the elements I brought three umbrellas with me and made a ‘bubble’ around the camera with the help of a friend so that I could film this shot:

I also brought a plastic sheet which ‘Mark’ is sitting on because the bench was also soaked. For the tracking shot I could not keep this ‘bubble’ around the camera so instead just held one umbrella as I moved. Despite the weather I still managed to film and my camera still works so I’d say it was a success.

I said that I experimented with different ideas. For the tracking shot I had two ideas about how I could try and make it as smooth as possible – either just walk with the camera pressed against my shoulder and try and keep as straight as possible or I thought that I would try using my bike. I put a book on the seat and the some blue-tac on the book and then the camera on that and tried pushing it along and tracking behind ‘Mark’s’ head. Comparing both techniques the plain old walking shot actually looks better in my opinion so I will probably use that one however, I’m still happy that I was able to experiment with my ideas.

For the filming at the Black Horse Pub I bought the main prop of my opening sequence – a bunch of roses – from Sainsburys for Mark to hold while he’s waiting for his date to arrive as I thought this would make the audience feel a little more sympathy for him, and it is a conventional prop of the romantic comedy genre. I had originally planned to have two different coloured bunches of flowers for another of the dates however they were a little expensive and died rather quickly so I couldn’t.