MAJOR PROJECT: Developing the Marketing for VET-MAN

During my tutorial after the pre-production unit, I was advised to develop the marketing for VET-MAN, it wasn't creative enough and the post-production stage will be a good opportunity to market the film, ready for the release date. I explained that I did struggle with this part of producing and I was advised to contact a couple of people to ask for their opinions. 

I tried to contact our own adverting and marketing students at UCA via the official Facebook page, unfortunately my post didn't get authorised. I wasn't sure on another way to contact people from the campus as we aren't based there. I also asked around people on my course to see if they knew any of the advertising and marketing students and no one did. As a result of this, I had to start looking further afield which is when I was inspired to talk to Emily. I studied A-level art with Emily at school. She is currently studying Fashion Communication and Promotion at Norwich University of the Arts. Unfortunately she also didn't know any marketing or advertising students who specifically studied in that field but she had her own ideas. As she studies fashion communication and promotion, she also has to market her work herself, and over her time at University she has learnt different methods of how to promote her own work. I felt that she was more an adequate to get advice from. She asked what I was trying to market. I explained about VET-MAN and the marketing research I had conducted already which wasn't quite creative enough. She continued with the following:

"You would want to research into your customer and who they are. So if you're targeting a specific audience you would market in a specific way. E.g if you wanted to target the millennial then you want to use ethical and emotive campaign strategies spread out across social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and go more creative like somehow creating art installations like projecting into a wall at night in a busy London street near a location your customer goes to. But if it were an older customer like Generation X or a Baby Boomer (40/65+ years old) then they have a completely different marketing approach. Like they like to consume in different ways so you would appeal through Facebook but aimed more at practicability and use of a product rather than its materials and ethical sourcing. Obviously this might not be helpful for your film."

I explained that that was helpful to know. I next asked what approach she would take first if she was given something to market.

"I would research your target audience and how to reach them and in what approach. Use marketing tools like AIDA and SWOT analysis. The 7 Ps of promotion etc. They help you break down the customer. Then once you've analysed your customer you can market to them in the appropriate way. The future is experience over buying though so create an experimental marketing technique for your film. A pop up room in the middle of a London Street with your film projected onto sensory walls or screen images printed on to coffee cups and fed to local bars. That would appeal to Millennials."

I said that due to our target audience being 16-30, I feel as if social media is the main and will be the most successful way to market the film.

"I would market in different ways that aren't predictable. Think outside the box of social media. Think in store event. Hiring a coffee shop and projecting into walls. A one off old school movie theatre. A trailer in your local independent cinema. Printing screen grabs or cinematography cuts onto coffee cups and movie posters painted onto walls. Stickers of your movie branded into a name or a sketch of your key character made into a sticker and stuck to a lamp post throughout your town. Use a key hashtag to link it all that will lead to a social media page."

After talking to Emily about marketing and promotion, I asked if she would like to create some illustrations for our film. As I know Emily, I follow her social media pages and she is regularly posting fashion illustrations that she is working on. She agreed to create illustrations for VET-MAN which I can use for marketing and promotional purposes. She seemed really keen and she was very helpful so I believe that she will create good content for me to distribute.

Now I have established that Emily is going to create illustrations for me, I felt that I needed more advice from someone who works in the marketing field. They may bring up different ideas which may lead onto more inspiration. As well as trying to post on the UCA Facebook page, I tried to contact marketing and advertising students from UCA but I was unsuccessful. I had to continue thinking of different ways in which to get advice on marketing. As I am currently working on my LinkedIn profile for job opportunities, I felt that this would be the next best way to contact people who are experienced in this field. I simply searched marketing and a couple of names came up - in particular Oscar. Oscar is a film researcher, who works within marketing and distribution. He also studied at the University of Kent which is local to me. 

I started with the same information I discussed with Emily. I explained that I needed to market my film for University and asked if he had any advice for me.

"You need to figure out what the "story" of your film is - is there a really interesting behind-the-scenes narrative about how the story was developed? is it based on a true story? was there something really special about how it was made, or who made it? Your film is just another film among millions - why should I spend time watching your film?"

"For a production of this scale, social media is going to be pretty much the only worthwhile way to market. You should focus your efforts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Reddit - the latter is a seriously overlooked marketing platform. I suggest collecting as much material as possible before you begin posting (poster, trailer, BTS photos, promotional stills etc.) writing up a document with a proper schedule of what you will be posting and when."

"On Facebook make sure you have an eye-catching profile picture and cover photo, invite all your friends and get the cast and crew to do the same. So you'll hopefully have a solid base of likes to start off. Only post once a day, in line with the algorithm - anything more than that and you're less likely to show up on people's feeds. On Twitter the best way to gain followers is to follow as many relevant people from your account as possible e.g. if your film is a horror film, follow journalists from horror websites, horror directors and actors from the last 40 years etc. Instagram is the same - identify 1-2 hashtags and use them frequently e.g. on your last movie it would have been #vetman and say, #studentfilm."

You previously mentioned Reddit. Could you explain a bit more about this platform as I've never heard of it before?

"Reddit works completely differently. It's essentially a host for millions of different "subreddits" - communities / message boards for any weirdly specific thing you can think of. Identify the subreddits most likely to respond to your movie (e.g. horror movies if it's a horror, filmmaking etc.) Start posting in a few of them so you're part of these "communities" before asking them to watch your film. If they know you're there to promote stuff they're not likely to respond well. Reddit is a platform where stuff can go viral, so it's well worth learning more about how it works. If you have any money in your budget for marketing, put it into advertising on Facebook and Twitter. Twitter's advertising isn't as favourable but it can be effective, it just doesn't let you target as specifically as Facebook."

"Facebook is far more cost-effective and you can target who you want to see certain posts. For example, you can pay for your trailer to reach female fans of football, lasagne and Odeon cinemas within a 25 mile radius of Nottingham, aged 28-43. The more specific you get the most likely you are to reach people who will watch your movie."

What do you recommend doing first in order to market a film well?

"Most importantly, as you'll be promoting on these platforms, figure out the "voice" of the movie. Is it a comedy, where posts should be kept light-hearted? Or a mystery so posts are written in a compelling way? Or a horror and the posts can be a warning? Figure out the USP (unique selling point) of your project and push that - is someone well-known involved? Is it a crazy genre like an LGBT sci-fi western romantic anthology? is it a concept no one's ever seen before? Find social media accounts for shorts and features that are similar to yours, and see how they've done it and crucially, if they have big followings online. Spend some time building up to the release of things like the poster and trailer - a 5-day countdown, with a striking image once a day for 5 days usually builds anticipation. This can apply to all platforms (maybe not on Reddit though)."

I continued by sending over my Advertising and Marketing blog post from to Oscar so he could see what I researched into and wrote about in the pre-production unit. By doing this, he could tell me where I went wrong and what is missing to create a successful marketing plan: 

"Nothing immediately leaps out to me as having a USP so I guess you create a poster and trailer being very confident in the kind of tone it is trying to strike. I would very much advise Reddit for a start. Not enough people utilise it as a marketing tool. Perhaps create fictional accounts for your lead character or a veterinary practice? Maybe create a fictional advert for veterinary college or clinic that's quite gruesome, like what your lead character does? I think your next step should be to research the marketing campaign and online presence of films that are similar to yours... and really understand the tone of your film."

As Oscar was so passionate about me looking into Reddit, I decided to research further into it. I found that it is an American social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website. I also created an account under VET-MAN, however, I realised that I think I would use this more of a revision tool to communicate with people surrounding marketing, rather than be able to market the film on there. This will still beneficial because I may be able to see how other pages market their products and gain some inspiration for myself. I found the idea that Oscar suggested of creating a marketing schedule interesting as it will help me establish whether I am marketing regularly or not, and whether I am giving enough for each stage in production. For example, I may have only shared a couple of posts during the pre-production stage, but have over-shared in production. By making a schedule I can keep a record of the balance in my marketing.

I took on some more of the advice from Oscar by looking at other short comedy films to see how they market their films. Initially, I took to the VET-MAN Instagram page and started searching for tags which are relevant to our film. I used the tags that I have been using on the social media at the moment such as #shortfilm, #studentfilm, #filmmaking, #shortcomedy etc. I found this would be the best way to find other pages that are creating the same sort of film that we are. Using the tags will then lead me to find names of other films as I wouldn't know any to search for before this process. Once I have names of similar films I can research further into their marketing techniques by searching for their Facebook and Twitter pages.

Finding similar Instagram accounts

I was searching #shortfilm and #studentfilm to find similar accounts, however I wasn't inspired by any to follow their marketing techniques. While I was looking I thought back to a student I went to Canterbury UCA with who also went to University to take on a film degree. Him and his friends were creating a dark comedy called A Christmas Cracker. This immediately caught my attention and I went straight onto their Instagram account to see their style and technique. I really liked the type of posts they were sharing, they were posting regularly and keeping their followers up to date. This is a bigger production than ours, and they have been in production for longer than ours which explains the amount of content and followers they have. 

Looking at their posts gave me inspiration for a few marketing techniques, such as cast and crew introductions. Instead of heading straight for the photos including the crew, they have taken their time to introduce each crew member, as it can be seen in the screenshot below. The boxes outlined in red are each of their crew introductions. Unfortunately, I have already posted on the social media pages about our test shoots in the previous unit, however, I can adapt these so they introduce the crew in a similar way to A Christmas Cracker. I like the style and aesthetics of the crew introductions where they are all in Christmas clothes and have Christmas decoration around them. The photos I got during the test shoots feature us working - Alex is writing the script, Katie is filming the owls and I am sorting out risk assessments. Although we aren't posed in the same way similarly to A Christmas Cracker, we are all doing our job role which is still a good marketing technique where our followers can see us in action. If I had conducted this research in the pre-production unit, I could have got photos of us holding an owl at the academy one at a time, and then there would be the same look to each of the crew introductions. I would have also got photos of Alix and Katthaylia so I could feature their own crew introduction. Nevertheless, I have featured posts about us three crew members, which is a similar idea that A Christmas Cracker have done for their account. I will plan to adapt the posts I have already shared to explain more of what we are about individually. 

A Christmas Cracker Instagram

Countdown marketing technique

Another feature of A Christmas Crackers' Instagram page is the countdown they include when they are about to announce something new to their followers. The countdown shown in the photo on the right is when they counted down until their crowd funder went live. I thought the countdown was a good idea, however I wasn't sure if it was necessary for the crowd funder. When I started our own GoFundMe I wanted to get it posted immediately to get the most time out of it. I didn't consider doing a countdown. Nevertheless, this is definitely something I would think about in future marketing roles. The countdown idea was also mentioned by Oscar, he suggested to 'spend time building up to the release of things like the poster or trailer - a 5-day countdown, with a striking image once a day usually builds anticipation'. As I have seen this marketing technique twice throughout my research, I will definitely use it for VET-MAN. We aren't doing a trailer, but I could do a countdown for the poster. If not, I will definitely schedule a countdown for the release of the film. As we would have completed the unit before we can release the film, I will plan what I want to release and set it up ready to go on Buffer. Buffer is the social media scheduling tool I discovered in the pre-production package. During the previous unit, I couldn't see myself using it much. However, it is a good tool to use to help the posts share at the same time each day.

To further research into A Christmas Cracker, I searched for their Facebook page and liked it. By doing this, I will be able to see updates as they post which may inspire me for different marketing techniques that I could use. As Oscar also advised, their profile picture and header are interesting and stand out. Their branding and style is clear and this matches throughout their social media accounts. I looked further into their Facebook account and noticed that the posts are the same as the Instagram. This is one of the reasons I found their other social media pages to see whether they post different content or keep it the same. I found that it is the same on both social media pages, but I understand that they would reach a different type of audience posting on Facebook than they would on Instagram. Relating back to what Emily said depending on our target age range. Millennials would be best targeted through all the different social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, however, the older generation are more likely to only have Facebook accounts, but they like to 'consume in different ways'. Emily's example was for the older generation Facebook will be easier to target, but the posts would be aimed more at practicability and the use of a product rather than it's materials and ethical sourcing. As she said this doesn't really apply to our film, but it was a good example to show me how to look at the ways in which I can appeal to different audiences over the social media platforms. 

A Christmas Cracker Facebook page

As we are targeting 16-30 year olds, I believe that I should continue posting on our Facebook and Instagram. The younger side to that age range will be most interested in the Instagram, whereas the older side to our age range may be likely to look at Facebook. Similarly to A Christmas Cracker, I would like to continue posting the same content on both platforms to appeal to both the younger side to our age range and the older side. 

To extend my research, I looked into more than one other account. The second one I first discovered on Twitter and then I found their Instagram account to have a look into their marketing techniques. The name of the Instagram is the company, the Laughing Mirror Theatre and they are currently creating a play called Detective Inspector. They create new plays quite regularly and they market them all on this one Instagram account. Although they create plays and not films, the plays they create are usually comedies which is similar to VET-MAN. Looking at at their Instagram page, their photos are more raw and less staged than A Christmas Cracker. These type of photos are more like our own. Ours aren't posed or edited and they mainly made up of action shots and BTS from test shoots and shoot days. Although, A Christmas Cracker's Instagram is extremely organised and their style matches throughout I felt that our photos match The laughing Mirror Theatre companies more so. As a result of this, I felt that I could use our photos in the same way as theirs. 

The laughing Mirror Theatre Instagram account

Once I had established the look of The Laughing Mirror Theatre companies Instagram I looked at each individual post to see how they shared them to their followers. Oscar suggests finding the 'voice' of the film and marketing the posts in that way. For example, if it's a comedy the posts can be kept light-hearted, or if it's a horror the posts can come across as a warning to the viewer. VET-MAN is a comedy so I agree that the posts can be light-hearted to link with the tone of the film. As The Laughing Mirror Theatre company have similar styled photos as us, I wanted to see how they captioned their posts. I noticed that they try to relate to the audience when sharing on their social media pages. For example, the screenshot on the right of the girl looking shocked and concerned is captioned - 'Don't end up looking as concerned as .... does here, book in advance for Midsummer Herders' - this was their current play at the time of this photo being posted. I would like to incorporate our followers by doing the same thing. During the shoot week we shot a many BTS photos and stills where the characters had different facial expressions. For example, Tess' expressions were usually from rolling her eyes or sighing after hearing about another silly story from Tim. A screenshot of her expression could be used on a photo captioned - 'Don't look so fed up like Tess here, only two more weeks until VET-MAN release date!'.

(This blog post is focused on my research into different marketing techniques. All of our own marketing techniques will be shown and explained in blog post - Marketing VET-MAN).

Reflection 
- It was beneficial to follow Oscar's advice to look for other short films similar to VET-MAN in terms of their tone and styling. I was able to take inspiration from both A Christmas Cracker and the Laughing Mirror Theatre company, such as cast and crew introductions and relating the posts to the followers, which I am eager to bring into my own marketing for VET-MAN. 

- Contacting Emily and Oscar was beneficial to get other opinions on what I could do to market creatively. I am currently waiting back from Emily for the illustrations that I can use to promote VET-MAN on the social media sites. I also want to market the film in the street rather than just online by using her example of printing the illustrations onto adhesive paper and sticking them on lamp posts and coffee cups in a local cafe. I researched into the actual millennial age and found that it is between 22-37 which is a section of our target audience which is good as the majority of my marketing on social media and on the street will be aimed at that age group. The group before this, 16-22 will be easier to target on social media platforms which I have been consistently doing throughout pre-production and production. 

MAJOR PROJECT: Shoot Day 5 & 6

SHOOT DAY 5 - Tess's house

SCENE 1

Cast

Tim Stewart - Ed Allenby
Tess Connolly - Skevy Stylia

Crew

Producer - Melissa 
Director - Alex
DoP - Katie
Runner - Aidan Robinson-Jones
Sound assistant - Alix Mottershead
On-set dresser - Harriet Gadd

Props

- Photos of Skevy
- Frames
- Printer
- Diploma
- UBS stick
- Macbook
- Doctors bag

We decided to have some photos of Skevy for Tim to pick up as if he was thinking about his successful older sister. We needed to get the photos from Skevy so she sent them over to us before the shoot day and we put them in frames, ready for Harriet to place them in the living room of the house wherever Alex wants them. In the script read through I asked Skevy if she had any impressive photos and gave the example of being on top of a mountain. Funnily enough, Skevy actually had a photo on top of a mountain from when she was abroad, and fortunately enough for us she allowed us to use it in the film, along with a graduation photo and another one in another country. Once the shoot day was complete we gave her the photos as we wouldn't use them again, and because they're of her it make sense to return them. 

We need a printer for Tim to print his fake diploma off, the printer doesn't have to work as we will add in sound effects for the believability of the scene. Alex had a wireless printer so he brought it with him and we sat the laptop on top of it. The fake diploma was an idea from the beginning of the project, then it got faded out before Alex brought it back again in the most recent script. I had created the fake diploma at the beginning and fortunately kept it so we were able to use the same one. I just had to change some features on it which have developed over the course of the project (blog post Props and Costume Shopping List). The diploma looked really effective as it was a good copy of a real one, apart from the big spelling mistake - VETT. I had one of these printed ready for the shoot day.

Costume

This shoot date consisted of us filming the first scene of the story, which means it will be the first time the audience see the characters and their costumes. Tim is wearing the scrubs and hoodie as he hasn't got any blood stains on them yet, this comes later in the story. Tess is wearing her smart clothing as she is getting ready ready for work. This includes the same clothes she was wearing at the pub, but without the coat as we were filming inside. We were fortunate enough to have all normal costumes for the characters as I'm sure they appreciated that in the cold weather.

Location

Initially in the pre-production unit, we weren't sure if we able to use this house due to an ongoing extension. In the photos in our pre-production package, the room is full of boxes and not suitable for filming. However, I was confident that the room we wanted to use would be empty by the time we came to the production period, and I was correct. This meant that I didn't have to find an alternative location as this house was ideal for our film. In previous script drafts, the idea was for Tim to look as if he had just jumped through the window, which is why we wanted a living room with a large window like this one. However, on the shoot day he just crept through the living room doors on the right side of the photo below. This was easier to film, but it did mean that waiting for this house to be ready wasn't essential. Nevertheless, it is well-kept and tidy which fits with Tess' character, as I explained in the pre-production package. 

Similarly to the house in Margate, it was ideal to film and eat at the same place. Cooking food for the cast and crew meant that we didn't have to spend more money on the budget, and it was just as good as eating out. 

Creative control

Similarly to the previous shoot days, I had a copy of the simplified shot list to tick off each shot. By doing this I was able to make sure we stayed on track with the shot list that Katie had created prior to filming. I did this to make sure the original vision for the film was carried through, and on top of this we managed to capture some more coverage as well. I initially found this out in previous research into the creative role of producer on set, and I believe it has helped me fulfil the requirement of my job role well. We had a successful shoot day for scene 1 which was down to me putting my research into practice.

Shot list for scene 1

Production schedule for shoot day 5

In terms of checking we were on schedule, we only had the one scene to shoot. This was the first day throughout production that we only had just the one scene. This made it easier to control and keep track of, because instead of making sure we shot all the scenes scheduled for the day, I just had to make sure we wrapped on time at 16:00. This seemed achievable with just the one scene, however, we may have taken our time knowing we only had the one scene and then overrun. As a result of this, monitoring the day and time was still necessary, even if checking the specific scenes wasn't.

What went well
- This was the shoot where we needed to break the vase. As detailed in the risk assessment we broke one vase separately and safely for individual pieces of china to be placed on the floor. This went well and we managed to get big fragments of china which will be easier to see on the camera, rather than small parts. This was also safer as bigger fragments were seen easier by the cast and crew when we shot the broken china.

- To shoot the actual vase falling off the table, we softened the blow by placing cushions underneath it. This way Tim was actually able to knock the vase off the table like it was explained in the script, rather than try to capture loads of shots from different angles to make it look like it was knocked off.

- We only had the one scene to shoot so it would have been difficult to not be on schedule, however, we started and finished on time, so in that sense we were on schedule throughout the day.

- At the beginning of the scene, Tim is in the dark while going through Tess' living room drawers, before she enters the room and puts the light on. At one point during another take, we accidentally left the light on when we were starting the scene from the beginning. Alix pointed this out and if it wasn't for her we might not have realised until Tess came in and tried to switch the light on, and then we would have wasted a take and time. Another point Alix picked up on was the way the flowers were positions in the vase each time we picked the vase up from the floor and repeated the take. Again, if she wasn't there we may not have noticed this until the edit, compromising the quality of the scene. 

What didn't go so well
- We hadn't practised breaking the vase prior to this shoot day, or how we were going to shoot it. This means that we spent a little bit of time deciding how to knock the vase off, where it's going to land and softening the blow. If I had considered this beforehand, we could have practised different methods in which to safely knock the vase off, saving time on the shoot day.

- Prior to the shoot day, I only printed out one diploma. When we were in the middle of doing all the takes and getting our coverage, I realised how creased the diploma was getting from the amount of times Tim was taking it out of the printer, and then Tess was snatching it from him. I hadn't considered the amount of takes we were obviously going to do at the time of printing the diploma out. Reflecting on the day has made me realise that I should have printed more than one, and then we could have rehearsed with one and then got a new one for the real takes, and Harriet could have then changed over to a new diploma every now and then.

- In order to soften the blow of the vase falling off the table, we put cushions down on the floor for the vase to land on. This worked really well, however after this we realised that the cushions were in the previous shots and we had just moved them out of place for the vase. To work around this, we had to look back at the takes to see which order the cushions were originally placed. Although this was solved in the end, it was a hinderance and took some more time away from us to film. 

What did I learn

- I have learnt to consider the amount of takes we will be capturing in case I need more than one item. I will now need to play around with this in the edit to show the diploma less often to make the creases less visible. An idea that comes to mind is cutting down the shot of Tim retrieving the diploma from the printer so we only see him snatch it out, rather than watch the creased diploma sat in the printer. The quicker I can make the scene the better, and in addition to this, both Tim and Tess are being quite rough with the paper anyway, as Tim snatches it from the printer and Tess snatches it from Tim's hands. As a result of this, you would expect to see a couple of creases on it. It would be a bigger problem if they were being extremely careful with the paper, and then when the audience saw it is was really creased. I will play around with this in the edit. 

- As mentioned previously, Alix brought up a couple of ideas which improved the continuity of the scene. Apart from the obvious reason that crew are there to help create a film, I learnt that they are also a good way of bringing ideas into the production. Apart from Katie, Alex and myself, the other members of crew were new to our project and they brought a fresh mind into the production. We were concentrating on getting the shots filmed and if we didn't have Alix there we may not have noticed the light switch or positioning of the flowers.

SHOOT DAY 6 - Road & drive

SCENE 2

Scene 2 consists of Tim meeting Luke and the van for the first time. This was a relatively easy shoot, being just the one scene we needed to film that day. However as we were on the road, I followed my risk assessment carefully and we had a runner watching for traffic.

Cast 
Tim Stewart - Ed Allenby
Luke Lucas - Daniel Hemsley

Crew
Producer - Melissa 
Director - Alex
DoP - Katie
Runner - Aidan Robinson-Jones
Sound assistant - Alix Mottershead
On-set dresser - Harriet Gadd
Photographer - Gina Riley

Props 

- Vet Van & keys
- Fake drugs for glove compartment (paracetamol, oregano)

The van is a very important part of the production period as it is featured in the majority of the scenes. Alex will be driving it to the shoot day so there is no risk of not having it with us. In the script, Tim finds drugs in the glove compartment which leads onto an ongoing joke about Luke's uncle, Pete. To create these, we brought paracetamol and used washing powder for the white substance, and used oregano for the fake green substances. I previously researched into different herbs to see which one would give the most believable look, and oregano was the one that matched the most.

Costume

As we are filming the second scene, we are still at the beginning of the story of VET-MAN. Therefore, the costume is the same as shoot day 5. Scrubs and hoodie for Tim, and grey hoodie, green top and jeans for Luke. 

Location

The location that I picked in the pre-production package was ideal, purely because of the open drive that we could park the car on. We also had full access to the drive for the day up until the actual shoot day. The owners informed us of a maintenance man arriving at some point to fix their back gate. This was located behind the van parked on the drive. Initially, this seemed like an inconvenience, however, we soon realised that the owners and the maintenance man would be quite flexible and they were still happy with us to use the drive. When the maintenance main arrived, we were almost finished with the take we were currently shooting, and he was happy to wait for us to finish. Unfortunately, he needed the drive to get closer to the broken gate. This was a good opportunity for us to have our lunch break and then when we returned we hoped he was finished. 

He wasn't finished when we returned, however, fortunately we had finished shooting the shots that were set outside the van and we only had the inside shots left to do. This required a similar background behind the characters, due to this we received permission to park the van on another drive which had a similar surrounding to the first drive. 

The runner stood on the opposite side of the road, as shown in my risk assessment, giving himself the best view of the whole road. Similarly to the previous shoot days, he informed us when a vehicle was moving down the road, and we paused filming. We reconvened when the vehicle had stopped or left the road.

Creative control

Once again, I prepared myself with a copy of the shot list to ensure we captured all the shots we needed, along with a copy of the production schedule to make sure we didn't overrun. I made sure that the original vision for the project was properly realised, and that we had a smooth production throughout the day, as suggested by Levinson in my previous research. I was successful within my role of checking off shots as we had a successful shoot day with more than enough coverage for me to work with in the edit.

Throughout all shoot days including this one, I have essentially taken on the "role of ringleader, seeing to it that all the elements come together as planned (Martin, 2013). As we managed to capture all shots needed throughout the filming period, I believe I have followed this research through in my creative producing on each day.

Shot list for scene 2

Production schedule for shoot day 6

Similarly to shoot day 5, we only had the one scene to shoot on this day - scene 2. Again, it was relatively easy to stay on schedule with only shooting the one scene. If we finished earlier than 16:00 (which was likely as scene 2 is quite short) we wanted to return to the house we met at to take photos for the poster. However, if we were running later or even on time I would have needed to re-schedule a day solely for the photos as I wouldn't want to make the cast stay later than they expected. This has its advantages and disadvantages. Advantages would include having a whole day scheduled for poster photos so we could take our time and get the exact photos we wanted. However, disadvantages would include having to spend more money on the budget getting the cast back to the Maidstone area.

Fortunately, on the shoot day we finished earlier than scheduled and had enough time to take the photos for the poster. We wrapped early enough to take our time with the photos which was unexpected and idea. I think this was caused by going for a lunch break earlier due to the maintenance man arriving, and when we returned we only had the inside van shots to get.

What went well
-  We finished this shoot day earlier than scheduled, after this we returned to the house we met at and took some photos for the poster. As explained previously, this was an ideal time to do this as we had the two main characters who we wanted on the poster and because we finished filming early we also didn't overrun on the schedule. 

- The shoot went well in general, the weather stayed bright and sunny for us as I predicted in blog post Preparation for Shoot Week (18th-22nd). Although we had a few members of public around while filming, they didn't interrupt us which I was thankful for as would have added to the reason as to why we finished earlier than scheduled and were able to take the poster photos.

- All in all, the shoot was relatively quick and simple which was a good way to wrap up filming for VET-MAN.

- I believe I kept to the risk assessment well and kept crew and cast safe at all times.

What didn't go so well
- When we changed the positioning of the van to the second drive, we had a few lighting issues as we were in a different path of the sun. Nevertheless, we reviewed the footage from the first drive and found that the sunlight didn't look too different which meant it was an ideal location to finish our filming.

- As we were filming outside we had the odd car drive past us, however this is inevitable when filming in a public place. 

What did I learn

- Although we weren't informed about the maintenance man until the day, the owners would have known about the gate being fixed a couple of days before the shoot day at least. As a result of this, I have learnt that it may be worth contacting the locations the day before we are due to film to cover for scenarios like this one. The only locations I had to contact for this project was The Kent Owl Academy, The Bell Inn and the homeowners to this drive. The other locations came from myself and Katie, or were public spaces. I had contacted all three locations prior to filming, however, this wasn't the day before, only a couple of days before. This has taught me that next time it may be beneficial to contact the locations the day before. If I had done this, ideally the homeowners would have known about the gate and could have warned me. Subsequently, I then could have tweaked the filming day slightly so we started filming earlier or later to work around the time in which the maintenance man was due. I will keep this in mind for any time in the future when I may have to contact locations.

MAJOR PROJECT: BTS Photos for Shoot Day's 3 & 4

As we had our photographer on board on these shoot days, she got a selection of behind the scenes photos for us.

A selection of behind the scenes:

MAJOR PROJECT: Shoot Day 3 & 4

SHOOT DAY 3 - Sheila's house (Scenes in order 5, 4, 3, 6)

Cast

Tim Stewart - Ed Allenby
Luke Lucas - Daniel Hemsley
Sheila Hodges - Susan Baskerville 

Due to this shoot being in my home town, I was able to prepare the morning for shooting rather than travelling to a further afield location. Similar to the previous two shoot days, we had a full cast, however a few days prior to the shoot day one of our characters said that she had to leave early due to a short notice appointment. I was grateful that she was willing to come to Margate for a few hours and then leave shortly after, so we agreed to get all her shots done first and then concentrate on the other shots after lunch. 

Crew

Producer - Melissa 
Director - Alex
DoP - Katie
Runner - Aidan Robinson-Jones
Sound assistant - Alix Mottershead
Make-up artist - Bethany Ashby
On-set dresser - Harriet Gadd
Photographer - Gina Riley

We had a full crew on this shoot day, including our make-up artist. This was the first shoot she had attended for us, but I met up with her previously to practice the red / black eye and blood splatter and so she would have one friendly face with her on the shoot day.

SCENE 5

Props for this scene: 
- Bin bag and carpet

Scene 5 was the first scene we shot on this shoot day. It consisted of Luke arriving at Sheila's house with the dog in the bin bag. This was shot in the house in Margate. The house I picked for Sheila's house was ideal and worked really well. The drive in front of the house was empty which gave us plenty of room for the crew to be based. The road was also quite as we only had a handful of cars drive past while we were filming. Having access to the house was also beneficial because Ed wasn't needed for this scene so he was able to make himself comfortable until we needed him. Teas and coffees and drinks in general were also easy to make for the cast and crew. When it came to lunch time, again being in a house was very helpful. Everyone sat round the table and I gave them two choices of food - beef lasagne or jacket potato. This was a good warmth break as well, because although it was sunny, it was quite a cold day.

Scene 5

As shown in my risk assessment diagram in the previous blog post, all crew are on the empty drive throughout the duration of scene 5. There is the one establishing shot where Katie is across the other side of the road, however she is wearing a high-vis jacket and is stood with a runner watching the traffic. Once she gets the establishing shot, the rest of the scene is shot from the drive and inside the house. We had enough crew on the day, allowing me to concentrate purely on producing and checking off the shot list as we went through the different shots. This scene was straightforward and didn't take long to capture. 

SCENE 4

Props for this scene:
- Doctors bag
- Fake blood
- Vet Van
- Screwdrivers
- Stethoscope
- Gloves
- Syringe and scalpel

Scene 4 was next on the production schedule and this was a more complex scene including the surgery scene and blood splatter. The main prop for this scene was the blood as it's such a big part of the film. Alex brought his fake blood that we used for the Transitions unit, however, this had gone off slightly and wasn't the colour red anymore. I did check with Alex, prior to the shoot day, that he definitely had the blood prepared in case I had to buy another one, however, Alex hadn't noticed the colour change so we had to use Beth's fake blood which she was fine with. As this was our problem and not hers, I reimbursed her the price of the blood so she could buy another bottle for her own work.

Scene 4

We ended up having two fake cats to decide from as the first one which was the most ideal, was late being delivered and it ended up arriving the date before the shoot day. I didn't want a repeat of the doctors bag so I ordered another one which had next day delivery available on it. Fortunately, fake cats are more common than second hand briefcases so I was able to find another one online. As I discussed in Shoot Day 1 & 2 blog post, this was not possible for the doctors bag, as there weren't any others suitable enough. Due to this, I had to hold out on the one we had ordered in advance which didn't arrive in the end. The second cat I had ordered had a hard texture to it, whereas, the first one was soft and fluffy. As explained in my research in the pre-production unit, ideally I wanted a fluffy cat for it to look more believable as a real cat as we are planning on zooming in on the cat. If we used the hard textured one, it may have looked like a garden ornament rather than a real fluffy cat. As a result of this, the first cat I had ordered was ideal and the second one was a back up. Fortunately, the first cat arrived just in time, I asked Alex which one he'd prefer, and he also said the fluffy one. This looked more authentic on camera when we zoomed in on the cat after Tim had driven off.

Similarly to the previous scene, the runner stood on the other side of the road and watched out for traffic. To follow my risk assessment, he informed us of any vehicles entering the cul-de-sac and we paused filming. Once the vehicle had left the road or had pulled over, we continued with filming. Along with checking off shots and checking the production schedule, I looked out for traffic as well. This was beneficial with the side road leading to the church that I described in the risk assessment blog post.

Costume / make-up

Ed and Dan brought the correct costumes for the shoot day. As each scene (3, 4, 5 & 6) is before the owl academy visit Ed wore the scrubs and hoodie, and dan wore his black jeans, green top and grey hoodie. Due to arranging the majority of the scenes before the owl academy meant that we didn't need any costume changes on this day. Sue was free to wear anything as her costume didn't require anything in particular. I just explained that we would be buying her a long cardigan for the blood hand print so she could wear something that suited a cardigan on top. 

Prior to this shoot day, I liaised with Alex about the make-up trial run and in particular, the results of the different spray bottles. I explained how we found the spray lid and the spray bottle and the different results they gave. Alex explained that he wanted a splatter similar to our previous VET-MAN project, as the actor became covered in blood and it was visually quite gory, which fitted with the tone of the film. As a result of this, we agreed to use the water gun as we did in the previous project for the initial splatter once he stabs the dog, and then our make-up artist can cover the face more with the spray afterwards. During the edit, I should be able to make the transition from water gun to spray bottle look realistic.

Due to a large part of this scene being based on the visual aspect of blood when Tim attempts to operate on the dog, I made sure I had our make-up artist on board for the whole day. The blood is an important part of the film, and we wanted it to look impressive, and our make-up artist was ideal to be in charge of this while we were left to work on our own job roles. She had different types of blood that we could use, a liquid blood or a more solid type of fake blood. For the blood on Tim's gloves he was able to pick out a bit of the solid blood and rub it in his hands, whereas on his face we used the liquid blood. Once we had the initial splatter from the water gun, we had Beth cover his face a bit more with the spray bottle, she also finished off the blood on his gloves with the spray bottle to keep it wet. Our make-up artist was a great asset to the group as we could leave her to be in charge of topping up the blood, which meant that was one less thing I had to worry about.

Beth sat in her car until she was needed, therefore, she didn't wear a high-vis jacket. She constantly worked on the pavement and wasn't needed in the road while filming.

Ed and our make-up artist

The location worked well for us. Relating back to my research into the church timetable, we weren't interrupted too many times, only around the times I had expected due to the activities that were happening on the day. As we filmed on a cul-de-sac I expected cars to enter and turn around at the bottom and leave the road again, however, this wasn't very often which was beneficial for us. I had no emails from the residents down the road so they must have been fine with us filming there, and we had no interrupts along these lines either which led us to have a smooth shoot day.

There was only really one possible disadvantage to where we shot the scenes which was the fact that we were near to a bus stop, so every now and then a bus would drive past and they are louder than the average car. However, this wasn't too distracting as we only had to wait a few minutes and the bus would had driven off again.

SCENE 3

Props for this scene:
- Phone for maps

Scene 3 consisted of the action of actually 'hitting the dog'. We had planned to film this with the van stationary, due to the fact there are no back seats in the van. The idea after this was to put an effect on the clip which changes the light movement across the screen, this will make them look like they're driving along the road.

Although we have worked out the logistics of the dog hit, I brought the bin bag and carpet anyway, in case we decided against the emergency stop manoeuvre that we practiced previously. As we found in the test shoot, the carpet is so soft that the bump won't damage the van, but it was also thick enough to establish the idea of them running over something. The van's weight would bring the carpet down because it's soft, but there was enough carpet there to still make an impact. In the end, we continued with the idea of Tim braking hard in the van and both characters leaning forward and then falling backwards after the impact of 'hitting the dog'. This added with a yelp from the dog (royalty free sound effects website) should look quite effective in the edit. To film them moving in the van we captured it when the van was stationary and then we will add a moving effect on the shot, which will change the light across their faces as if they are actually moving. This will be added in during the fine cut.

This was a relatively easy scene, similarly to scene 5. We shot the van a few times from the outside with Tim actually driving it. He then performed a few emergency stops to make it look like he had just hit something. When he did these, myself and the runner were stood on the opposite side of the road watching the traffic. Again, if vehicle entered the road the runner would inform us and we would pause filming until the vehicle had left or pulled over. This scene was more dangerous in terms of getting in the way of other cars, as we were driving the van and performing emergency stops, we were in the middle of our side of the road. Whereas, in scene 4 we had the van pulled up on the other side and we were just filming around it. Fortunately this was a short scene and it was completed quickly. 

SCENE 6

Props for the scene:

- Fake cat

Scene 6 consisted of Luke running back from Sheila's house and telling Tim to drive off quickly. Where we were positioned, Luke had to run across the side road leading to the church car park. As he was concentrating on performing, I stood on the other side of the road so I had full view of the cul-de-sac and Aidan stood on the side road on the corner of where the church is. Standing here, he had a good view of cars coming out of the church car park. Having both of us positioned where we were meant that we had full view of the whole road, and side road minimising the risk of a car driving towards Luke's path. 

When they both got in the van, Tim quickly turned the engine, took the handbrake off and drove off as fast as he could. Again, the runner and I stood on the other side of the road, giving us full view of the front and back of the van. Tim was able to see for himself out of the front of the van anyway, but if a vehicle started moving behind him, we were able to inform Alex and he would cut filming.

Creative control

Similarly to the owl academy shoot days, I had a copy of Katie's shot list. Having this meant I was able to cross out the shots we captured keeping on top of the shots we still needed to shoot before the end of the day. The shot lists below are in the order in which we filmed them. We started with scene 5, then 4, 6 and 3, as I had scheduled in the production schedule. By being responsible for checking that we had the correct shots, I was able to have a creative control over production. Like the previous shoot days, my priority was to make sure the original vision of the film was realised. I was able to do this by revising the shot list and knowing the story of VET-MAN well. Any additional shots or coverage was ideal, but as long as we had the original shots that we planned, which we did by the end of the day, then I knew I had done my job correctly as producer. As I attended the shoot day, I was available to help Alex with any suggestions I may have had. I was also there to inform him whether we had missed shots / scenes. This didn't happen but if I wasn't there then it could have so instead of taking that chance, it was my priority to attend the shoot days and make sure I was on hand for help and checking we had captured everything we needed.

Shot list for scene 3

Shot list for scene 4

Shot list for scene 5

Shot list for scene 6

Production schedule for shoot day 3

As part of my creative role of producing, I had to ensure we had everything we needed by the end of the day. To check we were on schedule and to make sure we got all the scenes completed each day, I also took a copy of the production schedule. Again, I was able to cross of the scenes as we went through the shoot days so I could keep track of how we were doing compared with the production schedule. 

On shoot day 3, we started with scene 5 at Sheila's house as we met everyone here at the beginning of the day. This was quite a simple scene, where Luke walks up to Sheila's front door and knocks. Sheila answers the door and Luke breaks the news about the dog, Sheila then starts crying in Luke's arms and explains how Sooty was "such a good cat ". Due to this being a short scene, I had only scheduled the hour for this, and true to time we completed it in the hour. We quickly travelled round the corner to St. Mary's Avenue to continue with the other scenes. 

Scene 4 was the most complex scene of the day as this included the surgery scene on the dog. As a result of this, it required the longest amount of time spent on it. To fit in all four scenes I had to schedule 1 hour for scenes 5, 6 and 3 and as I said previously, scene 4 got the longest time for the most complex scene at 2 hours. I could have scheduled even less time for the shorter scenes at 30 - 45 minutes, however, I felt that an hour was a good amount of time to capture the scene and any extra shots / coverage that we need.

Scene 3 was when the van actually hit the dog. As we had worked out how to shoot the dog hit previously (blog post Working out the Logistics), we knew how we wanted the scene shot, as a result of this it shouldn't have taken too long, which is why I only scheduled the hour for this section. Fortunately, I was correct and it didn't take long at all. 

What went well
- I knew looking at the church timetable would prove beneficial, however, I didn't realise how helpful it actually was until the shoot day. We were expecting public to be around on the times I stated from the timetable, so these were expected interruptions. Although, we expected the public around at these times, most of the time they weren't actually interrupting us. Some members of the public noticed we were filming and were quiet, and others would walk past talking but only for a few minutes and then we were able to continue. Dealing with members of the public is something that is inevitable whenever we film in a shared area because people are interested in what we are doing. In terms of how busy and loud it could have been, I believe we were very lucky in the sense of not being interrupted many times. 

- I believe minimising the risks / following the risk assessment went well. I constantly had my mind on the road and making sure Aidan was in the correct places to give him the best view of the road. I always waited for him to say it was clear before telling Alex to go ahead with filming, and if a vehicle entered the road we paused until it had left or stopped. 

What didn't go so well
- The blood splatter was one of the most vital parts of scene. However, due to the out-of-date blood, we only had a small amount from the make-up artist as that was all she had with her. This meant that there wasn't a lot of blood in the spray bottle, which subsequently meant that that initial splatter wasn't great. Nevertheless, we got a spray of blood on camera  which went onto Tim's face. The blood that Beth put on Tim's hands looked good, and it left a successful hand print on both Sheila and Luke.

- Unfortunately, we only had Sue for the morning due to a change in plans a couple of days before the shoot day. I was reluctant to rearrange the shoot day as all the cast and crew were available. As a result of this, Sue came for the morning and we shot both her scenes first. Due to this, we felt rushed on the shoot day. I was keeping an eye on the time so she could get back for a last minute appointment, and I think all the crew were trying to get through the scene so we could let Sue go. We managed to get Sue's takes complete on the day which was the main thing, but we could only get one take of each angle for her. For example, one close up, one mid shot etc. As we got the basic shots, I am confident that the sequence will look good in the edit, however, we might find that we lack slightly in coverage because we simply didn't have a good amount of time with her that morning. There is always the opportunity to re-shoot which is why I scheduled the main shoot week for the middle of February. We'll have time to review the footage in the edit, and we'll have time for a re-shoot if we feel that it's necessary.

What did I learn
- Sue having to leave early was only known a couple days before the shoot day so unfortunately, on my part I believe that this is not a case of learning to rearrange sooner as I physically didn't have the time to arrange another date. The other members of cast and crew were all set to come to Margate, some crew members had booked it off work and wouldn't have been able to book more time off so soon for a re-scheduled shoot day. On the other hand, this experience was a learning curve as I found out how quickly a change can have a knock-on effect to other aspects of production. For example, if the crew weren't free due to their own work commitments then we may have had to film quite a while later, which would mean booking out equipment again when everyone else is doing their filming.

SHOOT DAY 4 - Inside and outside The Bell Inn (scenes 12 &13)

Cast
Tim Stewart - Ed Allenby
Luke Lucas - Daniel Hemsley
Tess Connolly - Skevy Stylia 
Sheila Hodges - Susan Baskerville
Mark Hodges - Alan Sawyer

Extras:

Anthony James

Yvonne James

Alice James

Jim Hargood

Sam Hargood

Today's shoot day consisted of the largest group of cast, and therefore, my biggest challenge so far. As the producer, I am responsible for the cast, crew and contributors and their comfort on set. Throughout the shoot week I have been checking on each cast member, and checking each crew member is happy in their role. We also had extras on this location to occupy the pub setting. Again, I ensured each extra was happy with their role in the scene. The extras were made up of Alex's family so they were happy to be there to watch us in action. I set up a tab for the bar so people could get teas and coffees while they waited and during filming. I understand that this would be an added cost, but I wanted to make sure I kept my cast and extras happy for the duration of filming. We have also under spent so far on the lunches in the restaurants so I am hoping I have overestimated the price for todays food as well, meaning that extra money can go on the teas and coffees.

Crew

Producer - Melissa 

Director - Alex

DoP - Katie

Lighting assistant / runner - Katthaliya Cahalane 

Sound assistant - Alix Mottershead

Make-up artist - Bethany Ashby

On-set dresser - Harriet Gadd

Photographer - Gina Riley

Once Katie, and Alex and myself arrived, we started setting up. I was responsible for picking up Ed and Dan from the train station while Katie and Alex continued setting up. While I picked them up I also stopped into the studios to pick up our lighting equipment. By the time I had returned our extras and Skevy, Sue and Al had arrived and we were ready to start. The first thing to be completed was the black eye make-up on Ed. While we were finishing up the last of the set-up, I asked Beth to do the black eye that we did during the trial run. I had previously liaised with Alex about the black and red eye that we practised the other day. He was very happy with the make-up so I knew to tell Beth to create the same black eye as she did before. 

Alix was on hand again as sound assistant and Katthaliya was our lighting assistant / runner. This location was the only one where we required artificial lighting as we proved in a test shoot during the pre-production unit. Due to this, we have only needed runners on the previous shoot days. However, today was different with the need for lights. I stepped in to be a runner if Alex or Katie needed anything, while Katthaliya was responsible for the lighting.

Costume

As this pub scene was set at the end of the film, this happens after the visit to the owl academy which therefore, meant that Ed and Dan wore their second costumes - the blue hoodie, blue top and dark green trousers for Tim's character, and red hoodie, white top and light blue jeans for Luke's character. Skevy wore her smart clothing to give off her successful estate agent job, she wore a coat on top to keep her warm, and again, Sue and Al were free to wear whatever they wanted. We recommended Sue to wear something different to the previous shoot day in Margate to help represent a new day in the story. Alex wanted Al to be intimidating for Tim. As a result of this, we asked him to wear a leather jacket. Sometimes we can associate leather jackets with bikers, who can seem intimidating when in large groups. We thought this would be the easiest way to help show the reason for the intimidation. Similarly to Sue, the extras were also able to wear whatever they liked as they only need to wear everyday clothes. 

SCENE 12

Props for this scene:
- Pint glasses & drink
- Black eye make-up

In order to save some of the budget, I thought ahead and brought two non-alcoholic drinks - a can of beer and a bottle of fruity cider - as their drinks were described in the script. I knew the land-lord would be around on the shoot day, however, I didn't want to bug him about using his drinks and we would have had to pay for them. Due to the amount of takes that were required according to the shot list, I knew that we would need to fill up the glasses a number of different times. In addition to this, in the script it explains that Tim only has a small amount of beer in his glass which he gulps at the end, and Luke only has a couple of sips of his cider. As a result of these, I felt that it would be cheaper to buy a can of beer and a bottle of fruity cider and get Harriet to be on hand to fill up the glasses to the required height in order to keep the continuity. 

When I first started talking to our make-up artist I asked what make-up to buy for the black eyes, but she insisted that we could use hers. As we had permission to use Beth's make-up I wasn't expected to reimburse the cost of it like I did on the shoot day in Margate.

The pub was a perfect setting for the end of our film. Fortunately, we were able to film before the pub opened so we had free rein of the area. This was ideal because along with all our cast, crew and extras we also had many equipment bags and peoples personal bags which were placed on tables around the pub. I don't think we would have had a successful shoot day if we had filmed when the pub was open to the public, so we were very fortunate for the opportunity from the landlord. Although I brought a couple of glasses and a couple of drinks, I didn't think of everyone - I only brought enough for Tim and Luke's takes, forgetting that Sheila and Mark would be sat on the opposite side. As a result of this, we had to ask the landlord for a couple of glasses with a tipple in them. Fortunately, the landlord was completely fine with this. Although we had extras in to make it sound busier than what it was, they were quite quiet. This was ideal though as we had no problems with recording the dialogue from the characters, and we will be able to put pub atmos in the background during the edit. It was understandable that the extras weren't very talkative because they wouldn't want to talk too loud around our sound assistant anyway. They looked effective in the background to join with the pub atmos that will be imported into the edit.


SCENE 13

Props for this scene:
- Bloody tissues
- Doctors bag
- Van

The car park was also ideal to film in. As we filmed in the morning / middle of the day, it was quiet. This was one of the benefits from filming at this time of day that I discussed when picking the location and scheduling the filming times during the pre-production unit. Fortunately for us, I was correct in thinking that filming during this time of day would be quiet which led to a smooth shoot day. We had the odd car driving in and out of the car park, but compared to what the car park could be like in the evening, a car every now and then was fine with us. 

When we were filming outside the pub in their car park, the LEDs were not needed so I set Katthaliya to watch for any cars entering and leaving the car park. She would then let us know and we would pause filming until the car had left or was stationary. When it came to filming the final shot with the van driving through the car park and to the exit, Katthaliya and I went further down the car park by the gate that leads to the pub informing anyone exiting that we were filming a moving van through the cars. This worked well as we did come across a couple of people walking through the gate. 

The make-up that Beth and I practiced prior to the shoot day looked good in the day light, however I won't be able to see it on the camera properly until it comes to the edit. I had faith in Katie to tell me whether the make-up looked realistic or not on the camera, but she didn't mention it so I believe that it looked believable on screen. When Beth had completed the make-up I checked with Alex if it looked believable and he was happy with it, so we kept this for the scene. Again, Beth was on hand to top up the blood coming from Tim's nose. This left Katie, Alex and myself free to concentrate on our own jobs. 

Creative control

Similarly to the previous shoot days, I had a copy of the shot list which I crossed off when we completed each shot. I did this to make sure we had captured the original vision for the film. Additional shots were ideal but as long as we had all the shots that we had planned, which we did, I knew I did my job correctly. I was also at the shoot day for support for Alex, if he had any problems or needed any advice then I was available to help. Fortunately, we had a successful shoot with no problems, we felt slightly rushed leaving the pub inside as the public were arriving for lunch, but I ensured we had every shot listed and on top of this we did capture some additional shots and coverage which I will be grateful for when it comes to the edit. Once outside and in the car park, we captured all the shots again that were listed so altogether we had a successful shoot day. 

Shot list for scene 12

Shot list for scene 13

Production schedule for shoot day 4

I scheduled for everyone to meet at the normal time of 08:00 for crew, and 09:00 for cast. Fortunately, the landlord said we could come into the pub from 09:00 which was beneficial so we didn't waste any time waiting to go in. Everyone was also on time which allowed us to start the filming as scheduled at 10:00. 

The shoot inside the pub took slightly longer than the outside shoot, as I imagined. We had more cast members involved in scene 12 so it look longer to talk to each person, explain the scene and what Alex wants from it. We finished the inside shoot not long after the pub opened for the public, which means we were ahead of schedule slightly. We invited everyone for lunch at the pub, before prepping the car park for scene 13. Due to finishing earlier in the inside shoot, we ate earlier, however, as we were on time we took longer for lunch and started filming scene 13 at 13:00.

Similarly to the previous shoot days, I was able to cross off the scenes as we went along, ensuring everything scheduled was captured and recorded. The shoot day would have been a waste if we did the whole day and forgot one or two shots or takes that we had written down so it was very beneficial for me to cross them off as we went along. I helped ensure a successful shoot day, which ultimately went well under control of the director. 

What went well
- We managed to get all the coverage we needed in a shortish period of time inside the pub. Towards the end we could tell that the landlord wanted us to finished filming for his punters. Fortunately, we got all the shots that were listed. 

- As I said previously, we were fortunate enough to film before the pub opened, as we wouldn't have been so successful if we couldn't film until the pub had the public inside. Due to this, I am very thankful towards the landlord for allowing us to film early.

- We started ahead of schedule after finishing scene 12 before 13:00, however, we still ended up finishing on time at 16:00. This was beneficial for the cast and crew to leave when I said they would. The extras were free to leave after lunch so they were out earlier than expected as well. 

- Similarly to the previous shoot day, I believe that I dealt with the health and safety aspect of production well. When we were in the car park, I made sure Katthaliya knew to inform us when a car entered the car park so we could pause filming. We would wait until the vehicle stopped or left the car park before carrying on. All equipment and personal bags were kept in the crew cars during filming so it wasn't in the way of traffic. We also followed the van and stood at the other side of the car park informing customers leaving the pub to get into their cars.

What didn't go so well
- The sun kept going in and out of clouds therefore we struggled with the continuity of the shots. To work around this, we tried to shoot scene 13 once when the clouds were out and covering the sun, and we tried to shoot it again when the sun was shining in front of the clouds. This seemed like a good idea at the time, but I was crossing off the shots only the once, and not twice. Reflecting on the day now, I should have made a note on the list of what shots we had captured with and without the sun so we knew which ones we still needed. As I am taking on the rough cut, I will try my best to work round the sun and light differences in the shots. Like I said about shoot day 3, I purposefully scheduled the shoot week early (3 months before the deadline) to give time for re-shoots if they're needed. My next task surrounding this will be to start the edit with a fresh mind next week, and see what I can do about the light changes in the scene.

What did I learn

- To be more patient when filming. We knew we had the problem with the sun shining through the clouds but we had nearly competed the scene when we realised the change in light. As a result of this, I feel that we rushed the second group of shots trying to get two full sequences. The quality of the film is more important than getting the shots completed quickly, so I have learnt from this.