16/07/06 - FIRST DAY OF SHOOTING

Yesterday was the first day of shooting. What a great, great day! It was a perfect days work and fun and I will remember it for many years as how things in film making ought to be.
One thing I must stress as important is an early start. May not be your ideal thing on a nice Saturday when you have been doing the 9 to 5 all week, but you should never underestimate how long things can take. Well, to put another way, I knew upfront on this project that in order to give it the look I wanted and be a more thought out shoot, much time would be needed to set up for shots. Now fortunately for the cast and crew I had done so much work before hand on shot choice and overall vision that I was able to quickly get in position and set the camera up. And those long hours of practicing all manual apsects of the camera paid off too. I knew they would!
One point for any readers looking into gear, I used the Sony Z1 in woodland environment with NO external lighting at all, 100% natural lighting (which was thankfully on a glorious summers day) and it performed amazingly well. The shots are stunning. Well done Sony!
The thing I was very concious of on the day was keeping people waiting, so my mind was buzzing with remembering 6 million functions to hand on the camera so I was drawing a balance between taking my time to remember the functions, check shots, keeping everything in good spirits (on set vibe being the thing I feel will save or sink your days shoot)...and oh...a small matter of...directing!
The cast were amazing, contributing to the characters and taking the job seriously while also having fun with it. Crew people were superb too, and I think I was more demanding on them than the cast (not barking orders but certainly being less, ...well, less nurturing). I must work on this on the next shoot as one must remember taht they are again there for free, are friends, and don't have the excitement of being on camera! But everyone was on hand and enthusiastic despite being dragged through the woods on an early Saturday morning.
ONE MAJOR POINT: Even though the cast and crew are working for free and you are having fun as well as making a movie...you should NEVER settle on a shot if you did not feel it was right. The average number of takes per shot today was about 4 or 5. Don't be an over indulgent Kubrik style egotist though, getting more shots for sake of it. But DO have the honesty to get another take if it was not right.
HOWEVER, you should do this in a well mannered and thougthful way. My approach was to be totally honest and positive by saying "one more take", but explaining exactly WHY we needed another one, AND telling them what DID work on the last one, and giving further direction.
Lee and Ruth both commented later that they noticed my approach was both professional and thoughtful and in no way took away from the fun side of the work.
Another element that I feel will be KEY later for both entertainment and fondness was the inclusion of a camcorder on set to shoot various "making of" material. We watched some back later and it will be really cool to add for both gag reels and a making of show. So if you have access to a second smaller camera, and someone free to shoot with it, do it. If nothing else it will serve to help you relive a great day!
Adaptability came into play once again (did I mention this one or two times already?).
A couple of occassions where a cast member was not comforatble with a script element, or where a planned shot would not work due to lighting or reflections etc meant quick script revisions or improvised shot changes. be prepared to do this rather than get a sub standard shot or piss off your awesome cast for a minor issue taht the script CAN bend to.
The day was topped off by an amzing vegetable chilli and rice that the welcoming cast made for us all and we all sat and watched back the footage, raw and unedited.
This was really interesting, enteraining and fun for all involved. They actually get to see what you were seeing behind the camera. Even in this format it got massive laughs.
I felt so proud of my work and everyone else's at the same time. There were some obvious errors that need addressing later (like boom mics in shot or reflections or mic shadwos) but my philosophy as always is to see what happens in the edit. I am a magician in the editing area and am super positive I can either digitally fix things (another skill you should learn...you should learn ALL aspects if you ask me) or better still use the good footage to maximum advantage. That starts today...watch me go! this is where I feel the magic happens. in the editing which I will go into in detail another time....till then, I leave you with the beautiful face of Gaylon Peglegg: Exorcist (as created by Lee Civico-Cambell)............................