The Incident: Working Log/Diary

Tuesday 15th March

Today was the day that we finally started work on the filming I was directing, although It was written by Matty Dickens I was directing and there for treated the film like it was my own. Tonight we had a lot of work to do and a lot of scenes to get, I was both mentally and physically drained by the end of the evening. Our first shoot of the film and by far the most difficult; The party scene. The crew was Myself as Director, Matty Dickens as Camera Operator, Jess Bramfitt as Sound Operator, Danniella Cooper as Production manager and Harvey Lines as my Assistant Director. 

In the film Nathan takes his less popular friend Joe to his first ever party, Joe drinks to much and ends up fighting his best friend before and accident occurs in which Nathan is implied to have been killed.

This meant we were tasked with recreating a realistic looking party scene firstly to do this we needed lots of people to be at this 'fake party' so I asked for as many extras as possible, I asked the acting students that weren't already staring in the film, friends and friends of friends. Thankfully lots of people showed up. With the 6 Actors in the film and the 20 odd extras directing everyone was going to be very challenging. Secondly we needed props to help create a party atmosphere, this meant we needed; beer, cider, vodka, wine any bottles we could get really to help the audiences see that alcohol was present at the party as the concept of under-age drinking is important in the films message. Obviously we couldn't have any branding on the bottles so I spent all morning before the shoot peeling and scrapping away at different bottles, that I had been saving, in order to remove the branding.

The main 6 members of the cast and the crew met at base for 5pm, I had booked a mini bus half past meaning that we would arrive at Mattys house where filming of the party scene was taking place around 6pm. However because I wasn't stressed enough the taxi decided to be around 30 minutes late setting us back from the get go! (THANKS ROYAL CABS.) After this we arrived at Mattys house and began to set up, the three make up girls began work on applying the base make up for the 6 main actors while I briefed the extras who I informed to show up at 6 so they weren't just waiting around whilst things like make up were getting done. However that was the case due to us arriving on set later than planned. As well as this one of the actors was late setting us back even more but after he had make up done we could start. Whilst make up was getting done I played music to try and get the party extras into the party vibe, I tried to get them to dance but I felt like some of them didn't want to. At around half 6 (I think, its all one big stressful blur to be right now) we were ready to start filming.

The first shots were outside as the two main characters walk to the party and because of our delays it was darker than I would have liked it to be, obviously it needed to be dark as no one has a party mid day but it had gotten to dark and the lighting became and issue. As well as this the weather decided it would try and stop us by spitting just a little bit but we used and umbrella to protect the camera and powered through.

Next the hard part began, the party scenes. I had to direct our 6 actors and the 20 plus extras. I found this challenging but rewarding. The most difficult part was creating the right atmosphere, obviously music couldn't be played and must be applied in post so I had to get the extras to pretend like music was playing not all of them seemed up for dancing however. Also we had to make sure that the extras were talking so that the party had some background noise, looking back i feel like i should have just had everyone who didn't have lines silent and applied background chatter in post but I will not know until I come to edit. We had a lot to do and became very tight for time running over due to our delays. I feel like I gave direction to the actors well on how I wanted them to deliver their lines and act, I hope I did a good job. Overall it was very stressful but I think I enjoyed it.

Toward the end of the night the camera was dying and it was getting late, we had to end the shoot before we could do the scenes with the special effects such as blood and sugar glass. As the scenes with the fake blood and sugar glass were only close ups of a single character (Nathan) it wasn't to much of an issue as we could do it in pick up week and not have to call any of the extras back so it would just be the crew, make up girls and Reece (Nathan.) Despite not getting these shots we got loads of footage, more than enough I should hope. I felt like directing tonight was the Hardest thing I've done on the course so far, I hope its worth it when it comes to the quality of the film.

I think this image perfectly describes the word stress

Wednesday 16th March

Today was a much easier and much more laid back day, we would be getting the scenes of Joe alone in his room crying meaning that we just needed the crew and Dylan who was playing Joe. We met at college and got a mini bus back to my house where we could shoot the scenes of Joe crying on his bed. It was a straight forward shoot and we were done quickly. Our production manager couldn't make it to the shoot that day so it was just the four of us and Dylan. As we weren't tight for time this aloud me and Matty to experiment with the lighting!

Friday 18th March

Today was the last day of shooting for the Incident (other than pick ups.) Today we filmed the scenes of Joe and Nathan at college, our shoot was delayed as we were also shooting for Jess's film on the morning which ran over slightly and we were using some of the same cast. As well as this we were tight for time as the acting students had a mandatory class just an hour after we started filming, which they never told me about when I asked them if they were free for the shooting times. So that was a nice surprise. Despite this we still got everything done, as we didn't have that much to shoot. The footage looked nice too, one issue we did have though was continuity as we were filming in a car park and cars kept driving into shot, this meant it took a while to get the right shot without a car ruining it but we got there in the end.

26th March

Today we did the pick ups for The Incident, these were the shots from the first shoot day that we couldn't get. The team couldn't make it so me and Matty (DOP) did it our self's, all we needed was Reece and the make up girls as we would be getting close up shots of Nathan after he had fallen on the glass. The fake blood and the sugar glass looked great, and the shots were fantastic, it took awhile for the make up girls to get the glass stuck in his neck right but once we did that we finished quickly. After this we were done, our film was finished. That's a Wrap!

Luggage in Limbo: Working Log/Diary

Monday 14th of March

Today we started work on Jess's short film 'Luggage in Limbo' a story about Irish teens trapped in an airport. Amazingly some how Jess had managed to convince Durham Tees Valley to let us use there airport as our location. Anyway we met at college early on with the 6 actors to get the inevitably late mini bus (thanks royal cabs) to the airport. My Role for this film was sound operator, this meant I would be manning the boom mic all day which was something that I didn't really like the sound of at first because I thought my arms would get tired from holding the boom after a while however this wasn't the case and I actually quite enjoyed being the boom operator. As the boom operator I had to ensure that me nor the boom was visible in shot and make sure that the audio was okay.

The room that the airport people had given us was really cool, it was a training room for aviation students and had a working desk and baggage conveyor belt. this helped us create a really good and realistic setting for the film. It was actually really cool to film there and I think we all gathered great experience. The room had rows of waiting room seats which we could move and play around with to create the perfect set, Jess had a good idea in her head of how she wanted everyone to be sat and how the set should be set up.

 This was the first of only two shoot days for 'Luggage in Limbo' and I think everyone did there jobs well today and the actors were great, they took direction really well from Jess who was good at giving it. She was a good director and I though her motivational speech for the last shot of the day was a nice touch. 

Shout out Andy B for the awesome on set photo's!

Friday 18th March 

Today we completed the final scenes for 'Luggage in Limbo.' and after this would move on to start shooting some scenes for the film I was directing so today was a pretty hectic and busy day. Despite this I thought that we worked well and efficiently. Today we filmed in the fake Air plane that the aviation students train in at the college. Again I was on sound but at one point had to become and extra sat at the back of the plane with Matty Dickens. The shoot went pretty smoothly and we got all of the shots that we needed to. And that was it, we had finished our 2nd film in two weeks! I really enjoyed working with the cast and crew they were all professional.

That's a wrap!

The Spider and the Fly: Working Log/Diary

Monday the 7th of March

Today our group (small screen productions) started production on our first film! Titled:The Spider and The Fly, written and Directed by Danniella Cooper. I was happy to finally be done with paperwork and the pre production stages and get onto the exciting part of film making! We were scheduled to start a 11 and finish at 2, heading to Glebe in Norton via mini bus with the cast and crew from base were we collected the equipment. It was a short shoot that day we only needed to complete 4 scenes and we worked efficiently getting back to base just before 2.

On this film my Job Role was D.O.P (Director of Photography) this meant my job was to operate the camera and create shot lists, which I brought to set to help us get an idea of what shots we needed to get. Fortunately the weather was pleasant allowing us to get the required scenes done. Me and Harvey (Sound Operator) had to work very closely, some of the shots that I was required to get where challenging, specifically the over the shoulder shots of the charterers talking in the car, as there was no room in there at all. I felt that our first shoot day went well, the team worked really well together and I a enjoyed the experience.

 Just a few of today's behind the scenes pictures: (Credit to who ever took them)

Tuesday the 8th of March

Today was our second shoot day for our first film: 'The Spider and the Fly.' It was a really long day we had 9 scenes to shoot in just one day, all taking place at the same location of Danniella's House which was easy to get to as it is relatively close to base, despite this one of the actors was still late setting us back a little but it wasn't to much of an issue. The scene's took place in the character Isabel's bedroom staring her self and her parents. Once again as DOP I found my self in lots of tight cramped situations as there was very little room for the 5 of us crew and the 3 cast members to move in the bedroom especially once we had the lights, tripod and boom mic set up. There was a scene in which the protagonist Isabel was receiving text messages from Josh, in this scene Danniella actually sent Taisha (Isabel) the texts her character would be receiving from Josh from her phone so that Taisha could react to the messages better, she also used this method to give Taisha stage directions. I thought this was a really good and creative way to give the actors direction. Well done Cooper. 

It was a very long day we all worked really hard to finish on time, if I learnt anything today it would be stay well fed as my stomach rudely interrupted a few shots with its cries for food. How awkward.

Here's some BTS photo's of the day: (Credit to who ever took them)

Wednesday the 9th of March

Today we had a late start (which I appreciated because sleeping in is nice.) We filmed the scenes which Involved Danniella's boyfriend Joey, who would be playing Josh aka (spoiler alert) Mr Benson! We travelled down to his apartment to begin filming and didn't wrap up until 8 o'clock however I felt we made good time. Once again however I managed to find myself in cramped situations with myself and the camera, especially in the shaving and bedroom scenes. At this point I am 100% confident that awkward situations just attracted themselves to me and there is nothing I can do to avoid this. For the second day in a row I found my self sprawled across someone else's bed with a camera in my hand. But it had to be done to get the required shot. Hopefully it was worth it and the shots looked decent. Today Jess (The production manager) couldn't make it to set so Matthew helped with her role, however Jess did facetime us so she could get involved which I thought showed dedication. So well done Bramfitt. 

Again I enjoyed the experience and the team all worked well. At this point I'd show the BTS photo's for the day but I don't think we took any as we were tight for time.

Thursday the 10th of March

Another day another dollar, this was our 4 straight day of filming and another early start. Today, like yesterday, we would get the remaining scenes which only stared Joey (Josh.) The whole team met at Castlegate shopping centre in the Stockton on the morning, originally we planned to film in a car park using Joey's car however the rain forced us to use the shopping centres multi story car park which was sheltered from the rain. This meant as DOP I now had to ensure that no sings or branding for the shopping centre were in shot and be extra vigilant for branding. I also made Harvey (Sound Operator) aware that the sound was pretty bad due to the traffic outside however we had no alternative location so we agreed that it would be okay and if we needed to we could 'fix it in post' a sentence I'd like to adopt as my new catch phrase. 

As well as filming in the Multi story car park we also needed to get the sots of Josh leaving his apartment so after we got the shots in the car park Danniella Joey Harvey and I headed back to Danniella's apartment in Joey's car, we had to leave Jess and Matthew behind as there was no room for them and time was to tight to walk to the next location. This meant Jess and Matthew had to walk back to college and start setting up the green room for a shot for Jess's film 'luggage in limbo'.   

Fortunately we had a break Friday, I used this opportunity to recharge my batteries as the previous 4 days had taken there toll. Again we don't really have any photos from Thursdays shoot so just imagine them.

Saturday the 12th of March

Today was the final shoot day of the first week but not the final shoot day of 'The Spider and the Fly' as we would be using pick up week to shoot the final scenes that were set in the college. We headed to Glebe in Norton again via mini bus with the cast and crew. We started by getting the shots of Isabel and her friend in Glebe had a quick lunch break and then walked to the next location, Norton green. This is where we would get the shots for the final scene of the film, it was very busy and we had to stop quite a lot for passers by and cars but eventually we got the job done. Also at one point the boom broke but Harvey managed to fix it. Well done Harvey. 

During filming for one of the scenes a group of chavs were in the way, me being the hero that I am I went over to disperse them, clearly intimidated by my presences they politely moved out of the way. Good job Me. 

Thursday the 24th of March

Today we finally wrapped filming for 'The Spider and The fly.' We got the last scenes for the film completed which were shot inside college we used SRC 2 and a class room to film the scenes were Isabel was receiving her  GCSE results. As there was no Harvey today due to a work experience thing Matthew helped with the boom mic. Well done Matthew. As well as this Matthew was an extra this meant at some points I had to operate camera and the boom mic which was an interesting experience but a rewarding one. Kane helped out today too by being an extra. It felt good to finally get Danniella's filmed wrapped up we all worked very hard on it. I enjoyed working with the team. They were sound.

Wrap photo! minus Harvey and Jess.