Principal Photography
Note: I have loads of behind-the-scenes photos which I have put in a separate section, Behind the Scenes and Marketing, to make it easier to navigate.
These photos are my amazing cast and crew, taken on Day 2. The blankets show how cold it was.
(Note that although we are not socially distancing here it is because we are all in the same bubble and did negative Covid tests.)
I had 2 good days filming, except for the weather (rain and hail the first day, and freezing cold), very noisy small planes and a stunt plane frequently flying overhead, and quite a lot of interested people coming to talk with us – but many of them had gorgeous dogs, and 90% Bloopers love dogs.
Day 1 – Saturday 1st May
I started by loading up my Mum’s car with all the equipment that I didn’t need for filming the Opening Credits shots. I arranged that once I had completed these I would phone my Mum and she would meet us at the 2nd access to the wood.
I was just about to ring my mum when it started raining. It really wasn’t supposed to be raining until (possibly) later. I had double checked the forecast again that morning. It also started hailing. That wasn’t mentioned anywhere on the forecast. The problem was that I had made a decision that, due to not want to carry too much equipment with us by hand (Risk Assessment etc) I would load the tent and umbrellas in the car. That was a bad idea regarding the umbrellas. But to be honest, it only rained at the very end of this section of filming, and we were very near the filming base.
I went into problem solving mode. First, we all used our coats and jackets to protect the equipment, especially the camera. Then I phoned my Mum and asked her to come immediately. I divided my crew up, with some of us staying by the equipment to protect it from the rain (one person would have obviously stayed even if it hadn’t been raining), and the others went to get the umbrellas and tent from the car. First thing was to get the umbrellas to the others to provide extra protection for the equipment, then to get the tent up before unloading any more equipment. I designated Adam and I to put the tent up, since we are both Explorer Scouts and so are used to putting up tents quickly in the rain. Once the tent was up, it stopped raining of course.
Then we got all the rest of the equipment unloaded and into the tent. I asked Leo to wait by the tent until my Mum got there after taking the car back home (you can’t leave the car where we unpacked it), while the rest of us got set up ready for filming.
We have filmed together so often now (although still not as often as we would have liked due to Covid) that we all know what we are doing. I can understand why, in the Film/TV Industry, Directors and Department Heads like to have crew who they have experience of working with before and know are reliable. It really smooths things over and saves time, both of which are very important on set. When I was a Runner for Damian Power (TOWIE and Made in Chelsea) in January this year, on a feature film that he is making, he was very happy with both me and Sam and has said that he will call us again for other projects. I look forward to this in the future and it is a huge boost to my career.
Me, Damian Power and Sam (the other Runner, from Amersham/Pinewood Level 4 course)
So, we got set up and started filming. I originally went in order of the narrative, in the hope that this would make the various changes in sun and clouds appear more natural [Update: it didn’t as I saw when I looked at the footage that night. The sun and clouds were changing frequently even within shots]
I hadn’t anticipated all the noise from the stunt plane practising and the other small planes and helicopters flying around. It was not that noisy for my test filming days, and my Dad and I walk in this wood often and we can’t remember it being this noisy. We had no option but to try to be ready to film in the gaps between plane noise.
Originally, I had hoped that I could get all my filming done in one day. However, I also know, that in the best tradition of the director Stanley Kubrick, I am known in our group for saying “Yep, that was great. Just one more take though”. So, when I was working out my timings, I had already decided that I would be best to ask everyone to be available for Sunday too. Given the noise of the planes this turned out to be a good plan., and I was pleased that I had built this contingency into my plan, rather than waiting and then having to try to get everyone together. I knew that Adam possibly couldn’t make Day 2, and I had either Leo or my Dad as contingency Sound Recordist. In the end, Adam was able to make it, and wanted to, which was great.
Filming was slower than I would have liked mainly due the planes, but we kept going.
One of the features of the Panasonic Lumix S1H camera that I had experimented with during my Test Filming was the Focus Assist which displays red lines on screen to show where your focus is correct. Focus is an area that I have had issues with, in the past with my own camera, and I very much wanted to get it right for my Year 2 FMP. I found this feature very helpful for filming my actual film, and when watching an edit of my film later, Adam commented on hoe in focus it was, so that was great.
I was also using the exposure feature, zebra, to help get the exposure better. Attila (tutor) has given me feedback about the exposure on my test footage, so I very much wanted to get this right. I found the zebra feature very helpful.
At one point in the afternoon, there was a Football match at nearby Adam’s Park Football Stadium. I hadn’t been worried about this since I often walk in this wood and I know you can’t here the noise from the Football Stadium. However, I hadn’t anticipated a Wycombe Wanderer’s supporter coming along with a huge drum, which he was intending to beat from the hill above the Football Stadium, throughout the whole match. This was rather more worrying, since there was more chance of hearing that. I tried to consider my options to solve this problem if I could hear the drum. The best solution I could think of was to get all the shots with no dialogue in, during the drum beating, which is what I would have done if we had heard the drum.
I don’t know if he did beat the drum, but thankfully we didn’t hear it and we kept filming. Sometimes
you have to think quickly on your feet, whether student or professionals. So it is all good practise for my future career.
I kept filming and I was pleased with the shots I was getting, although I was concerned that I still had a lot of shots to get the next day.
Back at home
I went through all the shots and audio and made a list of pick-ups and reshoots needed. It wasn’t too long. I found out too that the Zoom recorder had been doing weird things, like resetting the date and time stamp, when we changed the battery. There was some audio that I couldn’t find, I wasn’t sure if it hadn’t been recorded or if it was linked to the Zoom playing up. College was closed so I had no other alternative but to keep going with the Zoom. I decided to be extra careful to be sure we were recording the audio, and I would do ADR (Automated dialogue replacement) if necessary, afterwards, by recording the dialogue separately. I had already planned to film some ambient noise in the wood so that would be the backdrop.
[Update: I did actually eventually find the original audio files. Because the Zoom recorder was being very unhelpful every time we changed the batteries in it, re-setting lots of things like the time and date stamp, files ended up in odd folders. I thought I had looked everywhere but I hadn’t. The good news was that I ended up with more choice for those shots. Bad news is that it took time out of Day 2 by me re-filming those parts]
Day 2 proved not quite a problematic as Day 1 in that the weather was better. Incredibly cold, but no rain. Or hail, thankfully. But the planes were still a big problem. In quite a lot of my footage that I didn’t use, you can suddenly hear the roar of a plane. We had tried to hold the mic as close as possible to the actors on Day 1, but in reviewing the footage in between Day 1 and Day 2 it was obvious that wasn’t enough. So we just had to wait until in between the planes.
I had quite a few tricky shots to get this day, including ones for when I had 2 Sam’s on screen at the same time, often called “twin” shots. I had to ensure that the camera didn’t move between the shots of Sam on one side of the screen and the other.
Except, of course, for the shots that I was filming 2 Sam’s on screen at the same time WITH camera movement. If I had had a motor for my slider then I could set the same speed for both shots when I use the slider. But motors are very expensive so I had to use my judgement, and film many versions to be able to have ones that fitted together [Update: It worked]
One moving “twin” shot was a particularly tricky one. I had successfully filmed and edited it during my first Test Filming day, using my own Canon EOS 60D camera. It involves putting my slider track on single tripod, then the camera goes on the slider. I have to have an assistant (usually Ellie) to enable the camera to be moved along the slider track at the same time as rotating the slider track on the tripod AND changing the focus while all this is going on. And this all has to be done once for Sam in one position, then again for Sam in the second position, with everything happening at the same speed as the first time. Very tricky.
I was delighted with the result from my first Test Filming Day,
I had then tried it during my second test filming day, with the heavier Panasonic Lumix S1H. A problem I had had was that my tripod wasn’t heavy duty enough to support the extra weight without bucking a bit depending on where the camera was on the slider. So I had decided to fix this problem by borrowing heavy duty tripods from College.
But there was a problem. I had borrowed 2 College heavy duty tripods, but when the Panasonic camera and slider were put on one, the shoe kept popping out. Both tripods dd the same, and this meant that I did not feel the Panasonic was secure and I did not want to risk the camera. We all tried to come up with ideas to fox this, but again it took time.
In the end, I managed to come up with an alternative way to get a very similar shot, and actually I was fairly pleased with the result. I used 2 tripods (rather than just one) and rotated the camera rather than rotating the slider. [Update: despite all this, this shot didn’t make it into my film in the end, since it would have slowed the pacing down too much. Luckily, I realised this before I had spent an age editing it together, since it is tricky to edit too. I am sad because I put a lot of work into this shot, both in testing and on the day, but I have learnt on this course that you can’ too attached to shots. You have to be prepared to let them go if they do not fit in the film, and if it is better off without them. I was still sad though.]
Here is the edited version from my first Test Filming Day.
Another interesting shot that I filmed on Day 2 is the Edgar Wright style Whip Pan at the end between the hat being dropped and Sam’s reaction. I have test edit footage using my Canon EOS 60D camera, with Ellie standing in for Sam. One thing that I found when using the Panasonic is that I was not able to move it quite as quickly due to its extra weight. I prefer the quicker shot using Ellie. [Update: I did speed up the transition between the two shots in editing, but I still prefer my test edit one. However, the feedback I have had from people shows that if they haven’t seen the “Ellie version” then they think it is fine.
Throughout both filming days I had lot of challenging shots to get. Many of them involved low down angles or movement. There were also some involving a focus change, like the final shot before the End Credits where I have the hat in close-up on the “floor” – it was actually on a low tripod, and Sam P sitting behind it on the bench looking down at it. I start focused on Sam P then I change the focus during the shot to the hat, which is where the focus stays for the start of the End Credits music. I was very pleased with how filming that shot went.
At the end of Day 2 there were shots that were more rushed than I would like them to have been, still due mostly to the planes. But I ended up with everything I needed. There were a couple of shots that I had to be a bit creative with my editing off, but I think that is always the case. And it was a good 2 days’ filming.
And just a reminder that I have loads of behind-the-scenes photos which I have put in a separate section, Behind the Scenes and Marketing, to make it easier to navigate.