Construction Post 1: Week 1 Production

During the first week of production our group focused on preparing and carrying out our first location shoot. This consisted of two days, one night time shoot for lip-syncs and filler shots and a day shoot for lip-syncs, promo shots and a practice of our narrative shoot in preparation for the next week.

Below is the first page of our Saturday night shoot-board. The main focus of this shoot was to film some of our location lip-sync shots.

First page of our Saturday location shoot-board

On this day I was responsible for directing the shots and making sure that Laith knew what actions to do and what shots we were filming. I used the clapperboard and was responsible for making sure we didn't miss out any shots.

Me directing Laith between takes

We filmed on two locations. The first was a cut-through with a row of lamp posts. As some of our shots were hand-held, I was responsible for making sure Sian knew when people were about to walk behind her (as she was filming) so that we didn't get in the way. In addition to this, we did many takes so that we had a lot of options when editing in case the light of the passing cars was clearly visible on Laith in any of the shots.

Lamp post location

The second location was the road on which Sian lives. The road was particularly difficult to film in as there wasn't a lot of light and cars were driving up and down. We had to be very careful and aware when filming in order to stay safe and to stay out of the way of the public.

Street location

In addition to this, we managed to get some creative filler shots using the lighting from the street lights. An example of this can be seen below.

Back lighting from the lamp post

Our second location shoot took place on the Sunday. This was used to film the rest of the location lip-sync shots which took place around my house. Below is a sample page of the shootboard from Sunday.

First page of Sunday's shoot board

We started with the outdoor shots, some of which I filmed and the rest I directed. As a group we worked really well to encourage and motivate each other as it was very cold when we were filming and we tried our best to keep the group spirits up. The rest of the lip-sync shots took place indoors, on the stairs and also in the attic.

Me filming the outdoor lip-sync

Once we filmed all of the shots from our shoot-board we decided to practice some of the narrative shots for next weekend so that we would be productive and efficient the next week. We practiced the exact framing of the living room shots as well as the positions and actions that Laith and Sian would need to do. Additionally, we scripted the argument that would be filmed the following weekend so that both Laith and Sian could learn their lines for the shoot.

Script for the argument scene

Overall I feel that we had a successful first shoot and that we worked extremely well together to get it done. Next week will be the main studio shoot and the narrative shoot and I hope that it runs as smoothly as this weekend and also that it will be just as enjoyable.