Cast
Tim Stewart - Ed Allenby
Luke Lucas - Daniel Hemsley
Mollie Jackson - Becky Black
Throughout the Major Project unit, I have been continuously in contact with the cast members making sure we had a full cast for today's shoot. This helped us make the most of the day. Ideally, having a full cast will also help to prevent re-shoots. I kept Ed, Dan and Becky updated on everything leading up until the shoot including costume, schedule and itinerary so they were fully briefed and prepared for the day.
The call time for the crew was 8am and the call time for the cast was 9am. I arranged to pick Tim and Luke up from the train station at 8:45 and we were back at the Owl Academy at 9am ready to conduct a couple of rehearsals. We performed rehearsals during the call back however as we weren't at the real locations we were not able fully see how the scene may look. Due to this, we had to carry out a couple of rehearsals with the real surroundings. By the time I got back to the Academy with the crew, Becky had already arrived and Katie and Alex were set up and prepared for the shoot. This led us to be able to film at around 9:30, which was earlier than I initially scheduled (10am).
Each cast member instantly knew their lines which is what I had hoped for. If they didn't then this may have delayed filming so I was very grateful for this. Throughout the day, the cast were really helpful, which helped us to get the shots we needed. They even gave advice and ideas on what to say and do, this was also helpful coming from the people actually playing our characters.
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| Scene 11 rehearsal |
Crew
Producer - Melissa
Director - Alex
Director of Photography - Katie
Sound assistant - George Wing
Runner - Jack Whiteley
Photographer - Aidan Robinson-Jones
On-set dresser - Harriet Gadd
Due to sickness we weren't able to have a full crew for this first shoot so at the last minute we had to change the crew and we were lucky that Jack and George were free to help by taking on the role of the runner and sound assistant. Nevertheless, I am expecting a full crew for the week of filming from Monday 18th February - Friday 22nd February.
Props
- Doctors bag
- owl food
- leaflets
- fake owl
- gauntlet
- needle / syringe
- feathers
As the producer, I made sure I had all the props ready, such as the feathers, fake owl and leaflets. I had also ordered the exact same doctors bag I had described in the pre-production package, and I ordered this about 2 weeks before the first shoot day. The delivery time only said between 4-5 days so I had plenty of time for it to come if it was a bit late. However, it never arrived. I contacted the courier and kept checking the location of the bag, yet it didn't turn up. This was the most suited prop for the late fathers bag, and all the others I saw on eBay and Amazon at the time weren't suitable. As I needed the bag to look worn and old, I had to look at second-hand items people were selling rather than looking at new items. As a result of this, at the time I was looking (the weeks leading up to production), there was a lack of people selling second-hand doctors bags. The fact that I had to be so specific also prevented me from buying just any type of bag.
As the courier told me the bag was on it's way I held off as long as I could for it to arrive, but while I was waiting I was shopping around for another one. Unfortunately, there just wasn't anything as appropriate and the doctors bag had to look the part (old, used) to gain the sentimental feel towards it. The night before this first shoot day and the bag still hadn't arrived. As a result of this, Katie had the bag on the right in the photo below. This has the same suitcase-look to the initial bag, however, it was slightly smaller in size. As it was an old bag which she didn't use anymore, we scratched it up and tried to rust up the buckle in order to make it look old and used. Due to the circumstances, comparing it with the doctors bad I actually ordered (left photo) I think we did a relatively good job and that the bag did look old and used. It was the closest we were going to get as there simply wasn't any other bag which was appropriate. On the shoot day when we first introduced Ed and Dan to the doctors bag and they thought it looked good. I explained that we originally had a different bag on order which never turned up, but Dan explained that he thought it looked better for the genre of VET-MAN, and the size difference from what you'd expect a doctors suitcase to look like to the bag we scuffed up actually added to the comedy.
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| Bag I ordered (left), replacement bag we made (right) |
Harriet was on location with us for the whole day. She was in charge of making sure the props were in the correct places for the cast to use during the takes. This meant that Katie, Alex and myself were able to concentrate on our own roles instead of sorting the props. The roles surrounding props included making sure the gauntlet was back on the table after we had filmed a take when Tim takes it off the table to put it on. She also made sure the syringe was in the bag and that Luke had the bag in hand at the start of each take at the beginning of the day. In addition to this, Harriet also held and scattered the feathers above the camera for the shot after the owl punch.
Costume
The costume for each character stayed roughly the same for what I planned and budgeted for during the previous unit. I planned for our main character, Tim, to wear slighting darker clothing than Luke. Alex wanted this to prove the idea of innocence through Luke's character, and I found that Luke wearing lighter clothing than Tim was the best way to do this. I specifically asked Dan to bring light blue jeans, and Ed to bring darker clothing which they did appropriately.
Both Dan and Ed also brought additional jeans and jumpers in different shades so we had a selection of clothing to pick from, to which ever suited their characters the most. This first shoot day consisted of filming over two different days within the story, therefore, both Dan and Ed had to change in order make it look like the previous day. Due to this, bringing the additional clothing worked really well and I am very glad that I thought of this and informed them to bring extra clothes.
Becky's costume was relatively straight forward. I took note of what the employees at the Owl Academy wore each time we visited during the Pre-Production unit. By doing this, I found that they usually wore dark and old clothing, due to the nature of the job. They are bound to get dirty while working with animals, therefore, dark clothing suits this. During the call back I spoke to Becky about her costume for the film, she was happy to wear her own jeans as long as they don't get cut but she was happy to get them dirty for us. I felt that her jeans being dirty would have added more to her character as it would have seemed odd for her to work in that environment with clean clothes. I didn't want to get her clothes dirty as this is the reason we have the budget, to buy clothes and props. As a result of this, we agreed on me buying a pair of jeans and if they fitted well she would wear these on the shoot day and we can get them dirty. However, when Becky arrived at the shoot she was wearing black jeans which were slightly dirty due to walking her dog in them the previous day. These looked perfect, meaning I was able to return the jeans to save a little bit of money for the budget. She also had her black Doc Martins which are sturdy boots and are appropriate for this type of job.
I also sourced her a fleece from the Owl Academy, which meant she looked the part and as if she actually worked there.
Location
The location was everything we expected. Mollie, the owner of the Kent Owl Academy said previously during test shoot visits that we would have full run of the site and we could get access to any animal we wanted. During the shoot, we also had help from both Mollie and another employee which was a bonus as we were able to get through shots quicker with the animals by having them around. Due to their busy schedule, I wasn't sure if we were going to be able to have them around as much as we did, but they were which was beneficial for us.
As we agreed in the test shoots, we had the area behind the enclosures during the shoot day. Everything that Mollie said we could use prior to the shoot day continued into filming, for example, using one of their gauntlets and one of their fleeces for Becky. We were also able to use the area behind the enclosures for as long as we wanted and we weren't pressured into rushing or having to leave early. The continued agreement of everything we were able to have at the academy allowed us to have a smooth shoot day, having to change plans would have been more chaotic and may have prevented us from filming some scenes. As a result of this, I am grateful for the staff at the academy for their support during the shoot day to allow us to have a successful day of filming.
The weather was good throughout the whole day. It was cold but that was inevitable in February, however, we were able to overcome this by taking each cast and crew member for a warm meal in the nearby restaurant. Having good weather, on top of the access we were able to have at the academy, led to a successful shoot day.
Food
It is inevitable for the weather to be bad and cold during February, therefore, I had to plan out warm meals and drinks throughout the shoots. Due to the first two shoots being predominantly outside, the only option was to eat at a restaurant / pub. The Kent Owl Academy did not cater for us to cook something hot, which was understandable. Luckily for us, there was a Beefeater pub next door to the academy. Taking our cast and crew members for a meal out was practical as long as it fit in with our budget. We wouldn't want to spend loads of money on a meal for each person if we could have fed them on a cheaper budget, however, due to the facilities at the academy the only option we had was to take them for a meal out. I budgeted for this, and once I paid for the meal I realised that we had actually saved money on it.
Creative control
As I am taking on the creative side of producing as well as the organisational role, I needed to make sure we have all the shots and coverage we need for the specific shoot days. As director of photography, Katie will be making sure she is getting all the shots and angles that her and Alex have planned. However, I will be there to ensure everything is complete before we wrap at the end of each day. Relating back to my research by Blaine Deutsch, to be successful on the film set, I need to know the shot list inside out. As I explained in my research, I have been revising the shot list leading up until filming. I will have the shot list accompanying me on the shoot days so I have it on hand as well. By knowing the shots needed, I will be able to ensure all the shots that are listed are captured and complete. This will hopefully prevent any reshoots needed. In addition to this, I am checking off the shots to ensure that the original vision for the project is properly realised. Katie and Alex initially planned these shots and I am there to make sure we see them through. I understand we may get additional shots and coverage which will be helpful when it comes to the edit, however, my priority is to make sure our initial plans are being captured in the shoot days.
We started with scene 11 as this is the owl punch scene and is more complex than the other scene I had scheduled to film on the first shoot day. When we completed a shot, I scrubbed out the list one by one, making it clear to see which shots we had recorded and which we hadn't. I only put one line through each shot in case I needed to look back at them again for any reason, this way they were separated from the shots we hadn't recorded but I could still see the writing behind the crossing out.
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| Shot list for scene 11 |
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| Shot list for scene 8 |
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| Shoot day 1 schedule |
As well as checking off all the shots listed, I took advice from Erik Paulsson in my previous research by being on hand as a 'second director'. I made sure I wasn't in Alex's way, but I offered suggestions and gave advice towards the production. The method of having the shot list and making sure all shots were captured was one way of helping Alex so he could concentrate on directing and I made sure we captured everything. For example, there were times on the shoot day that I was able to inform Alex of what shots we still needed due to having the shot list with me.
In addition to checking off the shots on the shot list, I also had a copy of the production schedule I had updated in January. By looking over this, I was able to see whether we were on schedule in terms of shooting the specific scenes. This meant that I could understand if we were going to run out of time or if we happened to be getting through the scenes quicker than normal. As stated on the production schedule, we want to wrap by 16:00 as we will start to lose the natural light around then, due to sunset being only 58 minutes after that. Due to this, and the fact that the cast and crew are expected to finish at 16:00 I didn't want to overrun and make them stay later. This could put us behind scheduled and cause a re-shoot if we didn't have time to finish shooting the scheduled scenes.
I plan to follow this creative method throughout all the shoot days, to ensure every shot is completed. Due to me checking over the shots and ensuring that everything is filmed at the end, lead to us realise that we didn't need Becky on the second shoot day (7th Feb) like I scheduled. We reviewed the footage that night and agreed that she played the part of Mollie really well, we were all happy with her scenes and we felt that there was no need to reshoot them.
I also looked at the scenes in terms of editing as I will be co-editing for VET-MAN. I was mainly looking out for continuity issues, some of which when I pointed them out I was the only one to notice them. I was also trying to look at each shot as if it was on the editing timeline to see whether we needed any extra shots to help the continuity and general flow of the film. I believe that we captured all the shots we needed, and each shot should flow nicely together in the edit.
What went well
- I received gratification and feedback of the day at the end of the first shoot. The cast and crew members were very grateful for being taken for a meal out and they explained that it is unlikely that they get to go out, and they usually have a sandwich meal deal. After this, knowing how appreciative the cast were to get a hot meal on a cold shoot day, I felt that taking everyone for a meal for lunch was definitely the best choice. Sitting with everyone at lunch also gave us the opportunity to get to know Ed, Dan and Becky better, hopefully making them feel more comfortable around us. Getting to know the cast can help prevent any ideas of them dropping out of our film. If the cast weren't happy with the shoot day then they easily could have decided they didn't want to be a part of it anymore. As a result of this, I was very grateful for the positive feedback on the day. For me, having a happy cast and crew, means that I am taking on the role of producer well. I plan to continue in this way throughout each shoot day, in order to ensure our cast and crew are happy and comfortable.
- By completing the pre-production unit previously, I was able to know what parts of the shoot day were down to me. As I did in the previous unit, I focused on the cast and crew, the food and making sure the costumes and props were correct for Harriet to work with. As a result of completing the pre-production package, I knew that parts of production such as the look of the shots and the blocking, weren't down to me. I just had to ensure we got all the shots we needed by referring back to Katie's shot list a number of times throughout the day.
- We saved money on the budget for food, this can allow the money to go on unexpected costs on other shoot days.
- We followed the production schedule well and managed to run on time. We wrapped just before 16:00 which was beneficial for all of us. We also had enough time to shoot both scenes scheduled for the first shoot day, without feeling the need to rush. I felt it was beneficial to have both the shot list and production schedule with me so I could keep a track of how we were doing. If we were running out of time, at least I would be able to let everyone know in advance that we might have to stay slightly later or schedule a re-shoot, rather than finding this out at 16:00 when someone needed to leave, for example.
What didn't go so well
- As I said in the description of the day above, we didn't have a full crew as I explained in the pre-production package. Nevertheless, we were able to get Jack and George on board and as they knew how to work the sound equipment, we still had the same quality of audio that we would have got if we were able to have Alix with us.
- The doctors bag wasn't the original bag we wanted, however, I believe that we were able to make it work in the film, and like Dan said, it adds to the comedy slightly as the audience won't be expecting a smaller, feminine looking bag.
What did I learn
- Throughout pre-production, I didn't realise how important it would be to have someone in charge of the props and making sure they're in the correct places because if a prop wasn't in place then the take would be useless. Seeing Harriet work in this way with us made me realise how important it is to have someone in charge of something as little as the props. When I conducted my research in deciding what sort of person we wanted for our art department, I knew we needed someone after my tutorial with Simon, however, I still hadn't realised how important an on-set dresser would be, not until I saw Harriet in action on the shoot day. The same goes for the photographer. We wouldn't have been able to get the photos we did on that day without someone on camera. Before we knew it the day was complete so I imagine the range of photos would be really small if we had to take them ourselves.
SHOOT DAY 2 - The Kent Owl Academy (Scenes 7, 9 & 10)
Cast
Tim Stewart - Ed Allenby
Luke Lucas - Daniel Hemsley
We were due to have Becky on this day as well, however, we reviewed the footage the night before and decided that we were very happy with Becky's shots and as a result of this, we said thank you and told her she wouldn't be needed for the second shoot day. This was also helped by myself making sure we had all the shots that were detailed on the shot list. This decision was made with me thinking purely of the quality of the film and how happy we were with her shots, however, I realised after that this would also benefit our budget.
Crew
Producer - Melissa
Director - Alex
Director of Photography - Katie
Runner / support - Aidan Robinson-Jones
Sound assistant - Alex Baldwin
On-set dresser - Harriet Gadd
Photographer - Gina Riley
Location
As described in the risk assessments, the car park we filmed in was very long and had the potential to be busy from school trips and visitors to the academy. We were fortunate enough to have a large area away from the visitors cars. It wasn't raining but it was quite a dull day which may have been the reason as to why it wasn't very busy. This worked in our favour on the day. However, the weather wasn't perfect for us as it was quite windy and there were not as many buildings around like there were on the first shoot day to prevent the strong wind. Nevertheless, our sound assistant was confident that he could hear the actors voices clearly which was most important. If there is a lot of background noise then we should be able to remove this in the edit. On top of the wind there was a river behind the car park which I didn't notice on the test shoots. I may have noticed this because the wind wasn't as strong when we arrived for the test shoots, however, as it was stronger today it was more noticeable.
I was watchful of the time during the day as it was colder and windier in the car park than it was on the previous day behind the enclosures. The only place to sit as well as in the cars which wasn't very comfortable. I didn't want the two cast members to become bored of standing around while Alex and Katie blocked through the shots, so I pushed the filming on slightly. Each time they came to a stop in their thinking or were taking a while to decide on things, such as new shots / coverage, aspects that they didn't think of in the plan, I reminded them that we can't keep the cast stood around. In the end we got through the scenes quite quickly and the only thing we had left was the night scene. As a result of this, we went for a long lunch in the local restaurant. Although this day wasn't as busy as the first, we were able to sit in a warm environment for the middle part of the day when we weren't very busy.
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| Promo shot |
There were very little props needed for this shoot day, apart from the obvious ones of the Vet Van and the keys, we only needed the bag and a packet of fake drugs for the day shoot, and the dark clothing and the drugs again for the night shoot. Again, I ensured we had these prepared before the shoot day. Harriet was on hand again to make sure Tim had the small packet of drugs on him, and that the bag was in the correct places at the start of each take. Again, this left Katie, Alex and myself to continue with our own jobs.
Costume
The costume changed throughout the day. The day shoot required the two cast members to wear their second outfit of choice as we were shooting the two different days in which VET-MAN is set over the days we were at the academy, and on the second day we were shooting the first outfit from the story, whereas on the first shoot day we were shooting with the second outfit in the story.
The night shoot required them to wear back. For the night shoot we want to give off the impression of a cool and calm mission impossible feel to the scene. For this, I asked them to wear anything they had which was warm and black in order to get through the night shoot comfortably. As we only wanted black clothing it could have been anything they wanted, a jumper or a hoodie, we just wanted them in black. Ed said that he had a balaclava which seemed perfect for this scene. As we only had the one, it made sense for Luke to wear it as he was the one going down to the enclosures to drug the bird. Ed simply wore a black woolly hat.
Food
We ate at the local restaurant for this shoot day as well. Although we had already eaten out the day before, as we are shooting outside again our cast and crew deserve to have a hot meal for lunch. As I said previously, we also had a bigger gap in the middle of the day scene and the night scene, so we needed somewhere warm to rest before going outside again. Due to eating out for two of the shoot days so far and as we have one more coming up, I have planned for healthier meals for the shoots taking place at the houses.
Creative control
Similarly to the previous shoot day, I had a copy of Katie's shot list and crossed off each shot we captured. I did this to make sure the original vision for the film was realised. We successfully shot each take that we needed to give us enough coverage to work with in the edit. This shoot day included the night shoot. Unfortunately, I had to leave early from the night scene due to work commitments, however, I left the shot list with Katie and Alex to make sure we captured everything. I checked up on them that night as well and they reviewed the footage and were happy with the shots and coverage. Fortunately, this scene wasn't very long or complex so there weren't as many shots required than the day before so I felt comfortable in having to leave early.
I noticed one continuity error of Ed wearing a different coloured top underneath his grey t-shirt which was part of his costume. However, the different coloured top was only seen some of the time at the top of his grey t-shirt so it was barely noticeable. As a result of how minor it is I didn't think it was a problem and shouldn't affect the edit.
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| Shot list for scene 7 |
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| Shot list for scene 9 |
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| Shot list for scene 10 |
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| Production schedule for shoot day 2 |
I had scheduled the second shoot day to finish at 19:00 as we wanted to capture the night scene. We asked the cast and crew to start slightly later on this day as we knew we only had one small scene in the morning and then it would be a case of waiting around until it's dark. To act as professionally as possible, we didn't want to leave the cast waiting around for too long as they may have become uninterested. As a result of this, the crew met at the owl academy at 9:00 instead of 8:00, and the cast joined us at 10:00 instead. On top of this, Dan's train was delayed so he was slightly later, however, we had spare time to start filming slightly later as we only had the short scene in the morning so this didn't have a big impact on the schedule.
We started filming the morning scene at about 11:00 which essentially is behind schedule. However, we only decided to change the call time the day before and I was confident that we were going to finish earlier than scheduled anyway. I was correct and we had finished filming just before lunch time at 13:00. As I said previously, there were times when we were standing around while Alex was blocking and talking through shots. As it was windier and colder than the previous day, I was eager to get the filming going and to get the cast up and performing rather than standing around. Although I would rather be early or on time rather than running late, we were finished a bit too early as we then just had to wait for the sun to go down. We sat in the restaurant to eat and to warm up until the sun started to disappear and then we went back to the academy to prep for the night scene. As we were earlier than scheduled, we started the night scene as soon as it got dark in order to stay on schedule. I didn't want us to be early all day, to then end up being behind schedule by the end of the day. We ended up having a problem with a sensor light that we didn't expect to happen, as a result of working around the light and then having to work it into the story, we finished slightly later at about 20:00 which unfortunately made us behind schedule.
The break we had in the middle would have been ideal if we had needed to re-shoot sections of scenes from yesterday, however as we were on schedule at that time and captured everything that we needed, we didn't have anything to catch up on during the second shoot day. Being on schedule was more beneficial than not being on schedule as circumstances may have changed on the second shoot day and we might not have had the break in the middle, so because of this it was helpful to have no re-shoots hanging over us.
In this break, before the night scene, we managed to get a few promo shots of Ed and Dan with the owls. As we had the time and access to the owls, it was ideal to use some of this time wisely.
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| Promo shots |
What went well
- During the shoot day the owner and some employees took one of the owls to a Harry Potter event so there was an empty enclosure. As we didn't want to enter any of the cages during the night scene to prevent scaring the owls or getting attacked by the owls, this opened up the opportunity to actually enter one of the enclosures in the dark. Thinking in terms of the edit, I think this will add more value and believability to the scene that Luke was actually able to enter the enclosure after running down the path. As a result of this, I was very pleased with this particular shot in the night scene.
- We were on schedule if not earlier than the schedule for the majority of the day. This was beneficial in terms of that fact that we didn't have to rush and we had time to get extra coverage if we thought of additional shots, however, this did led to a longer break in the middle which if it was possible I would have avoided. I was wary of the cast getting bored and uninterested, but fortunately, they stuck with us and both said they enjoyed the shoot day.
What didn't go so well
- During the night scene, there was a sensor light facing the path leading down past the enclosures. As we have only visited in the day time, I didn't realise there was a light on our filming route. This light wouldn't have been a problem if it stayed on or we were able to turn it off briefly while we filmed. However, as it was a sensor it turned on when Luke ran down by the side of the enclosures for Scene 10 and then shortly after it turned off. This created a problem within filming as we needed a reaction to the light if Luke was trying to be discrete. In the end, we used the light in the scene by getting him to become distracted from his walk down to the enclosures. Playing the light into the scene, from the editors perspective, will allow me to cut back to Tim's reaction of egging him to go further down towards the enclosure. Originally, we were going to have Luke look back at Tim, however, by having the light turning on I feel as if there's now more of a reason for Luke to get scared and look back at Tim for comfort / support. As a result of this, something which was unexpected actually turned out to work out quite well.
- Although we ended up behind schedule, we had to wait until it was dark before we could film the night scene so unfortunately, we couldn't have filmed earlier to avoid this. However, everyone understood the reasoning behind finishing later due to the sensor light.
What did I learn
- From the sensor light experience during the night scene, I have learnt to visit locations at night if we are planning on shooting there at night. Reflecting back on the night shoot now, it seems silly that I didn't think of visiting the location when it was dark, only during the day. This also makes me think that there may have been different risks associated with shooting in the location in the dark which I may not have considered before. As a result of this experience, I have learnt to ultimately think of everything during pre-production. I thought I did well throughout the previous unit, however, aspects of production that I didn't take into consideration are now being highlighted as we get into the production stage.
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