Trailer Shoot

Yesterday we filmed the trailer. The day began at 7am, we drove over to actor Ross' house to drop off some equipment for him to take in his car, as Abi's car wasn't coping well with the weight of the equipment that we had to bring. 

The above is a photo of the equipment we took with us. It included:

• Pro tripod
• 800w lighting kit
• Jib/Dolly/Track
• Marantz
• Light reflector
• Basic tripod
• Nikon D7000
• Filters/Gels

The day went very well in terms of keeping to schedule. We achieved everything by the time Abi predicted. In terms of directing I felt that I was professional. I outlined each scene with the actors beforehand, and encouraged them to do a script based run through, and an improvised one, as I hoped that this would add a greater realism to the scene. 

However, I feel that I perhaps should have initially given the actors an improvisation exercise, based around the scenes in the script (like I did in the audition), and then got them to create the scene themselves. I think that giving the actors the scripted scenes straight away affected their improvisation abilities, as they tended to just reword the dialogue, and it still felt somewhat forced and stilted in parts. Hopefully this is something we can tackle in the future.

When one of the actor's said something in a way which I felt wasn't particularly right, I would encourage them in the next take to say it in a different style, and reminded them of the character's feelings and emotions at the time of the dialogue. I still think that this is a good method of directing, however I should have perhaps given the actors more detailed character bio's, in order for them to create three dimensional protagonists. 

In the future I think that I should also be more assertive and straightforward with my directions. For example, in the script we'd decided that the Male character should start off wearing only his boxers for comedic effect, as well as that in reality, following a one night stand, he would likely be in his underwear; yet during the auditions our actor did not seem too enthused by this idea. On the shoot, I danced around the subject of what he would be wearing in the scene, and it took the support of Abi and Dan, to be able to suggest that he wake up in his boxers, and then put his trousers on when he gets out of bed. 

For the improvised montage sequences I created a list of possible general scenario's. They included such things as:

• Man and Woman sit in bath tub in various different awkward positions.
• Man stands in shower and replicates the Herbal Essences advert, shouting "Yes, YES!"
• Woman pretends to shower. Man walks into bathroom setting and sits on the toilet to read a newspaper/magazine. Woman is shocked and pretends to cover up her body.
• Woman and Man study their reflections in the mirror. Woman simply wipes makeup smudge off face, whilst Man preens himself extensively.
• Man and Woman dual with toilet brushes.
• Man and Woman play with rubber ducks.

The actors also devised some improvisation sequences and worked really well together.

In terms of filming, I suggested some visual idea's that I'd had for shots, to Dan, and we both seemed to be on the same page about things. We both liked the use of rack shift/varying depth of field shots, and discussed blocking shots in terms of movements and camera distance. For example, in the shots when the Male character discovers he is trapped, we decided that he should walk towards the camera, thus revealing the showroom setting behind him. I also suggested using the "hitchcock shot" or "Vertigo Effect" to display the man's terror when he realises he is trapped. 

I was in charge of stating the scene, the take and action. We did this in every shot, in order to be able to coordinate them for editing, and match them with sound effectively.

We began by moving Abi's bed into her living room, which was to serve as the "bedroom department" in the showroom, as Abi's fathers showroom does not have any bedroom settings. Abi's parents managed to get some promotional material from another showroom, to use as set dressings; making the setting look fairly believable. Luckily, Abi's living room was quite showroom-esque. We plan to link the bedroom/bathroom settings together by portraying the Male character walking off camera (i.e. exiting the bedroom) and then walking in through another doorway in the showroom.

In the bedroom setting we dressed the bed, cleared furniture out of the way, and began to set up the lighting. We used blue filters, to try to make the lighting appear quite harsh and "showroom esque", and at some points I held up the light reflector to ensure that both actors were well lit.

 At 10.30, a little later than planned, the actors arrived and I began running through scenes with them. We tried a range of shots in this location, and ran through scenes a number of times, until 2pm, as we did not plan to arrive at the showroom location until half past 2. 

We shot a scene from a high-angle as Abi's house had a mezzanine level overlooking the living room. In the end we didn't much like the outcome, but it is good to have for editing purposes, and to establish the scene.

Setting Up

We all worked together to discuss which scene should be filmed and when. Abi reminded us of timing and we set ourselves time targets for each scene/improvisation.

Filming

Abi, Dan and myself are planning to edit the footage we shot in the coming week, as Abi is going away at the end of the week.