TRANSITION: Filming the Mockumentary

We shot the mockumentary over two days (5th-6th May). We had a full cast and crew, but I had to leave half way through on the first filming day due to work commitments. As I am the editor of this project, similarly to the test shoots, I didn't have much to do during filming. I helped decorate the setting and was mainly just a helping hand. 

I started by putting chairs out in the waiting room as this is essential for any waiting room. To decorate it more I pinned up a few posters of animals that Katie found up on the walls, just to add to the aesthetics of the vets. 

Waiting room posters

We placed the doctors table against a wall with notice boards so we were able to pin up more posters and leaflets. As this corner will be our consultation room we needed to decorate it to make people believe we were in a vets. Additionally, we added the laptop, a note pad and pen and a couple of toy cows to add to the humour. 

Doctors consultation desk

Consultation desk posters / leaflets

The cameras and lights were set up, we closed the blinds slightly and added the soft boxes to give a natural but clinical look, and this lighting gave an even light across the whole shot.

We had all cast members and Coco from the beginning of the day so as soon as we had finished decorating, we were able to start filming. 

The consultation between Dr. Stewart and Sheila was the first bit we filmed as we knew it would be the trickiest. There was a lot of dialogue in this scene, and we needed to work with Coco as this scene includes her examination. We knew it would be difficult to work with a dog so this is why this scene was first to be shot. We needed a shot of the doctor looking at cows on his laptop when Sheila walks in, for this Katie set up the two DSLR's behind Aidan with one at a wide shot to capture Sheila walking in and the other on a close up on the laptop so the audience can see what he's looking at.

The cameras for the rest of this scene were set with one facing the doctor and another facing Sheila. This way we were able to get the conversation on both cameras on both people. In the edit, I will be able to sync the audio recorded here and then the dialogue will flow well with whoever we are looking at, at the time. Katie made sure the white balance was correct and she had a clear picture to make the edit easier. It'll be easier to colour correct footage which has a decent colour to it at the start. 

I was watching to ensure they had enough coverage for me to edit with. 

After I left, they filmed the waiting room scene, and the opening of the mockumentary where Sheila walks into the vets. From their feedback, I found these scenes went really well and they got a lot of good footage and coverage for me to work with. 

The surgery scene was next and we all knew this would be a difficult one. They used the opposite corner from the consultation scene to be the surgery room, they didn't want to use the same corner so it looked as if we were in different rooms. Using this corner also meant we were away from the door and had clear walls behind us. They covered the floor with newspapers and covered the table with a plain sheet to prevent any mess staining the furniture. Similarly to the test shoot, they used the two smaller LED lamps, one above Aidan on a strong setting, with another underneath on a lower setting. This scene will need to be colour corrected to give a more prominent clinical look but the lighting set up will help the shots look good before I even edit it. They missed a few blood splatters because the camera was on the tripod when it should have been handheld, and they were rushed because they thought they were running out of time in the room, however, they got enough coverage of Aidan, the blood, and cutaways of the equipment for me to work with.

They also filmed the post-surgery interview with Aidan as he still had the non-toxic fake blood on his face and scrubs, they used the soft boxes for this giving a clear shot. Again, this will be corrected in the edit anyway but it was helpful to have a decent shot in the first place. Throughout the surgery scene, they made sure they didn't spill any of the blood on any surfaces, and they were prepared with towels, cleaning products, and had a sheet over the table to prevent this from happening. 

As we didn't get it all filmed on the 5th, Alex and Katie finished the filming & recorded the voiceover the following day. They need to film the covering shots of Sheila and Coco, luckily it was another nice day outside giving a good look to the shots. They wouldn't have been able to use artificial lighting in a field so we were lucky to film on a nice day. Katie got many shots of them both playing in the park, giving me a lot of coverage to work with.

The interview with Sheila also went well. Katie set up both cameras, one at a wide and one at a close up so I had coverage to cut between. Using two different cameras had it's disadvantages as the shots looked very different, but this was a problem for me to fix during the edit. I will sit down with Katie (as Director of Photography) towards the end of the edit to colour correct the mockumentary.