Filmmaking- Think! shoot

The first of the level 5's shoots to take place is Drew Brockbank's Think! shoot. This is the advert that me, Drew and John came up with and presented to the class to see if it was worthy of been in production. I wrote the script for this advert and I am also the editor for the shoot so I made sure I was on the shoot and didn't miss anything that would come back and haunt me. I also helped out as a runner on the shoot by driving the actors, crew and equipment to the location and played the role of the robber in the advert as well. The shoot on paper is quite a busy production and on set it showed, with the amount of crew and extras/actors involved in the commercial. John who was the producer did a good job at keeping everyone organised and getting everything to run smoothly, the only thing that was out of his hand which could disrupt the shoot was the only thing that went wrong. The weather on the day of the shoot started raining about 1/4 through. John had already canceled a previous day of shooting before as the weather forecast rain. Fortunately Drew managed to get some of the important and busiest shots down first, which included swordsman having sword fight in the shot. We tried to film through it but the rain just kept getting worse and we were forced to abandon the shoot and leave with what we had.

John quickly rescheduled another day for shooting and made sure everyone was available, the shots of the swordsman was already complete the so the first day was far from a failure and it meant we'd have more time to focus on other shots on the new day. As editor my only and main concern with this was how noticeable the weather change will be on camera if the weather is drastically different on the new day. Drew and John were aware of this problem but understood they hadn't the time to reschedule again and start from the beginning and that I was to do as much colour correcting in the edit as possible to help ease the blend of the two weathers. When it came to the second day of shooting the weather was sunshine and very much noticeable from the rain we had on the first day. Time management on the shoot was done and kept very well and once we were all on set the shooting ran smoothly and we were able to get multiple takes and keep rolling on to the next shot. Spirits and morale was higher with the weather been nicer and all the costumes and props looked crazy and out of place just like they were supposed to. I knew because the majority of the filming was taking place on the day with the sunshine, that there would only be a few scenes with rain in it and that it would be best to try and make the rainy shots fit in with the sun other than vice versa. The only complication we had during the shoot was a complaint from a man who lived in the area and near the estate who wasn't happy about the shoot taking place and the usage of prop firearms in our advert. John had gone through the proper procedure of noticing the authorities and the council and gaining permission for the shot to take place her. We understood his complaints but we needed to get the shooting done to stay on track with the schedule and he was starting to become harassment. Eventually we were able to get him to leave and continue on with the production.

Overall the shoot ran smoothly and Drew was able to achieve all the shots he wanted and then some, the crew performed well together and had a great synergy going on to get the work done. Jamie who was on sound had complications been able to record sound due to the heavy winds but will be able to make up for it in foley. Simon was nervous at first but with the help and guidance of the crew he gained more and more confident with using the film camera and managed to achieve the shots Drew wanted. Im optimistic for the editing knowing how smooth the shot went and how the footage should look when it comes back. I know there will be work on colour correcting the edit to do and there is also the placement of a logo on a wall I need to include in the advert which can be done in After Effects. It was one of the most enjoyable and productive shoots I've been on in a while.