The first film of the level 5 course- Pointless Materialism is a re-write of the Shoes script. We decided to keep the script simple, remaining with the same premise. At first, reading through David's script I did think it was very short. Further to this, the decision to shoot without a completed shot-list made my job as cameraman difficult- I felt out of the loop on the day and less efficient.
Heading into the weekend, the producer [and team] hadn't finalised a schedule and there hadn't been any formal script meetings or rehearsals: Actor's appeared 'wooden', with no chemistry and an ill-understanding of what the character's that they were playing were like. Taking this in mind, as the weekend of the shoot progressed, we were faced with various problems (with the amount of time that scenes were taking to film) which may have been intercepted with a greater commitment to organising script meetings, casting, and rehearsals. Considering the poor organisational aspects of the weekend and the weeks leading up to it, the team did well in coming together and fighting off the horrendous weather conditions.
Matty’s Café was the first location on the rainy, Saturday morning. Although the café were very obliging, in hindsight, this location didn't fit in with the type of coffee shop that the character would visit or work in. I don’t think it was believable for Claire to work in a ‘greasy spoon’ café as the actor played her in a way that made her seem like a bit of a ‘spoilt brat,’ but we made great use of what we had- an open space to film. Matt Dearden, the producer, did incredibly well in fighting for the Co-operative supermarket as a location though. This location was a great time saver as it didn’t just provide us with a checkout to film on, but also a ‘manager’s office’- and a great outtake as well. Be aware though that applying to film in a supermarket takes a lot of admin, risk assessments and a persuasive demeanour- be prepared to be accused of spying from other competition.
All in all, the casting of the movie worked out fairly well considering no casting calls were sent. The placing of the mature actor as the shop manager was a great achievement and so too was the casting of Claire. It is a shame that the casted Mother of Claire wasn’t as believable, which couldn’t be helped as that role was assigned on the day of filming. Furthermore, the casting of ‘the posh woman’ could have been of an older woman instead of a fellow student.
Considering this was the first film of the year, it went relatively well. But most importantly, this opportunity has provided me with a list of what not to do when I produce my next film in the spring of 2010.
A few simple reminders:
•Organise casting way in advance
•Gel the team together along with the actors by calling script meetings and rehearsals
•Finalise locations way before the shooting weekend
•Thrive for eye pleasing locations
Teach yourself the basics of how to operate a Sony HDV Z1
This video is really useful, it talks about shot transitions:
The second video illustrates how best to use the advance controls:
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