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.