Aim: To film first narrative
Planning is the key to success, especially when it comes to a group of three overly anxious people. We began filming day by meeting at UTS to debrief with the tutors, gather our equipment and of course compulsively steam all our garments. Despite being rather organised, we did approach the day still needing to solve the dilemma of not having a dolly, in other words, we needed to find a way to smoothly film a tracking shot.
On our way to the studio in Newtown, Gina had a marvellous idea of taking a trolley from the IGA, to create a home made 'trolley dolly'. Unfortunately we had underestimated the security at the IGA, and were interrupted by the wheel stoppers that had flung into action after Gina ran out of the store. Pale faced and embarrassed we continued our journey to the warehouse.
At the warehouse, before becoming too excited and getting ahead of ourselves, we sat down and went through what needed to be done first.
- Decide what wall we would use for the main shooting, clear that wall
- Gina would do Campbell's hair while I would do Sarah's
- While Gina was doing Campbell's makeup, Sarah and myself would set up and experiment with flood lights that we brought with us
- I would film all Campbell's shots
- Gina would apply Sarah's makeup
- Gina and myself would film all of Sarah's shots
- We would then film all of the shots together
Commencing the initial experimentation within the space with the lighting and camera positioning, we did encounter several difficulties. Firstly, the flood lights were not strong enough to eliminate the shadows and create sufficient depth. Secondly, without a dolly, smooth camera panning would be impossible. To overcome these problems, we found that by sacrificing our warmth and comfort and by opening the door, we were able to allow enough light in to really improve the quality of the frame. In regards to the foregoing trolley dilema, Gina took to the streets of Newtown in attempt to steal an escapee. To our delight, she was successful.
To develop our DIY dolly, we used duct tape to secure the iphone to the tripod, then placed the legs of the tripod in the boxes our useless flood lights had come in. This ensured that the legs of the tripod would not fall through the gaps in the trolley.
After finally having all our equipment, we began to film. In terms of filming, there were several technical aspects that we had not considered. For example, our film required cut editing between opposing frames in order to build suspense. For this to be effective, the frame composition would have to be the same, that means the ground would have to be aligned in each shot. The easiest way to do this would be to keep the camera in the same place, film all necessary shots then move on. Although, because we had completed filming all Campbell's shots first, we had to be really careful when filming Sarah's complementing shots. To really make sure that the floor was aligned correctly in all the frames, we place duct tape on the screen of the iphone to create a grid. This grid allowed us, as accurately as it could, to align all the shots.
After watching ridiculous quantities of fashion films, we thought it was important that our film really showcased the clothes, therefore we were super pedantic about presentation. This meant that we made sure hair was continually retouched, collars sat correctly and lapels were symmetrical.
As it was my task to film, I personally found it really difficult to direct and communicate my 'vision' with the models. But I did feel more comfortable as the day progressed.
I think regardless of planning, it's really important to be able to solve problems quickly, as see opportunities as they arise and take advantage of them and experiment. When we arrived at the studio we saw that there was a wildly powerful fan available, and so we decided to use it despite not having planned to. After a long day of filming, we organised to meet on Friday in the DAB labs to begin editing.
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