As we decided to reshoot, I had to contact the cast involved and agree a date with them. After throwing a couple of dates around, our cast members for Tim, Luke and Sheila agreed on Wednesday 20th March. This was a perfect date for Katie, Alex and I also, as well as our sound assistant, runner and make-up artist. While I was in contact with the actors, I also reminded them of their costumes on the day. Our cast member for Sheila asked if she had to be in the same costume due to re-shooting all of her scenes. I suggested that she wear the same clothes as she was wearing on the day incase we want to cut around and use some of the footage we recorded previously. The costumes for our characters are as below:
Tim - scrubs & hoodie (provided by us) & dark jeans, grey hoodie grey top, brown boots
Luke - grey hoodie (provided by us) & black jeans, green top, vans, green parka
Sheila - pink cardigan (provided by us) & purple blouse, velvet scarf, dark trousers
As we realised during the previous shoot day that Alex blood wasn't good enough to use in the shoot, we will not be using Beth's fake blood again, instead we will bring our own. This will be an extra cost on the budget but it will be worth it to get a good, fresh, red blood splatter. Another cost on the budget will be to get Alex and Tim insured on the Vet Van again. Even though this is re-shoot, I want to approach it as if it was the first time we were shooting there. This means insuring both of them on the van for safety, instead of thinking that we won't need the van for long so theres no need to bother. I didn't consider any additional van insurance on the budget so this will also be an extra cost, but it'll be worth it to add to the quality of the film. As we only need the van insured for Tim for the day, and for Alex for three days the cost shouldn't be as big as it was during the main shoot week.
Similarly to the first shoot day in Margate, I have set the call time for crew at 8am, and the call time for the cast at 9am. As we have already completed this shoot day, we hope it'll be a relatively easy shoot. We also know how to improve the shots, in relation to the blood splatter, which will be beneficial towards the timing of the day. The re-shoot shouldn't take as long because we have shot the scenes that are involved previously and essentially we are repeating what we did last time, with a few extra shots added on top of this.
As we are re-shooting I am confident that we will be going over the budget. In order to calculate how much extra Katie, Alex and I need to put into the budget, I estimated an amount by using the prices we have already found during the main shoot week. For the Margate shoot, as we are re-shooting in a location we have already been to, I can easily calculate the amount we would need for the cast's travel. Alex is bringing our sound assistant to the shoot and our make-up artist and runner said that they don't want paying as they both don't live far from the location. As a result of this, it is only the cast's travel we need to include in the new estimated budget amount. Below are my calculations of the price of the Margate shoot added with the voiceover day estimates, based on previous food and travel prices. With these, I have created a total and subtracted our current budget of £81.55, as although we haven't run out of money for the budget just yet, we wanted enough in the bank account to cover us for the rest of the shooting period, and our remaining budget of £81.55 wouldn't have covered the re-shoot alone.
Voiceover day:
Tim's travel - 25.60
Luke's travel - 39.55
Food (estimate) - 8.99
= £74.14
Margate shoot:
Tim's travel - 48.20
Luke's travel - 49.35
Sheila's travel - 20.00
Food (estimate) - 10.00
Van insurance for 2 people - 66.55
= £194.10
74.14 + 194.10 = £268.24
(£81.55 left in current budget)
232.69 - 81.55 = £186.69
/3 = £62.23 each
I have already thought about props and costume, as this estimate of budget is after purchasing more fake blood. This is the first thing we did when we decided to re-shoot as it will be a vital visual part of the film - we need enough of it. I have also washed the costumes which got fake blood on them to see whether we would need to buy more clothes. Luckily the blood came out really well which means we can put more towards the travel of the cast rather than their clothes. In order to cover any unexpected costs that may come up, during the re-shoot days I suggested putting in £100 each, instead of the odd £62.23. Katie and Alex were happy to do this and then we can split the final remaining money back out evenly after the re-shoot day and pick up shots.
Locations
Margate re-shoot:
We were happy with the previous location we used in Margate on St Mary's Road, apart from a couple of shots where we caught cars moving in the background, we were pleased with the quality of the shots and background that came with the location. As a result of this, we were all happy to conduct the re-shoot in the same location. Using the same location can benefit our film in case we want to use any of the initial footage. If we had changed location, we would have had to make sure everything was re-shot which may create more work for us that we need. Like I previously said, we were happy with some of the shots we got on the first shoot day, so we will be able to use initial footage in the edit if we want.
I had to keep in mind all the same pros and cons of using that location as I did before the main shoot week. To do this, I referred back to the church timetable to make sure the Wednesday 20th March I have currently suggested was as good as that first Monday (18th Feb). Looking at the church timetable I found that on Wednesday also had a period of time where they had more than one activity on at one time. This is similar to the Monday we previously filmed on and we coped fine with the amount of people around. However, Wednesday is a day when there are two periods during the day in which they have more than one activity on at the church. Looking at the times in which these activities start, they are a good length of time away from each other which would give us a good amount of time to film in. The first two activities start at 10am and one finishes at 11:30am. This gives us a good hour and a half to shoot the first scene or so until lunch. Between 9am and 10am, we can brief the cast and go through a few parts in the scenes which are changing or that are developing. The next activity starts at 2pm, when we would have had lunch and we will be prepared to continue filming once everyone has entered the church. The two activities finish at 3pm and 3:30pm when we would have hopefully wrapped by then or be close to wrapping. To sum up, we should be able to work film around these times quite well as they land on good timing, either in the morning or at lunch time. As a result of this, I have decided that I will make the Wednesday 20th March a definite date. I already know the cast and crew can make it which is very helpful instead of having to re-arrange.
To prep for the re-shoot I contacted the Kent Film Office as I did for the first shoot week. Along with this, I sent round another set of letters for the residents of St. Mary's Avenue to keep them informed. I imagine that I won't get any emails about the filming as I didn't during the main shoot week. I explained in the email that we needed to re-shoot and everything is the same as the first time, just more up-to-date. For example, there was a new risk assessment created and the local authorities have been informed again.
GV locations:
In terms of the locations for the GV's of the van, I asked Alex what sort of area he wanted the van to drive through. He said he wanted a rural area, similarly to a countryside but as those lanes are small and bendy, they would be quite dangerous to film on. Most countryside roads also lack pavements, meaning there wouldn't be a safe area for the crew to stand on. As I had ruled out the countryside, it came down to using roads which are more rural than residential, giving a countryside-look to the GV's. Margate and the majority of Thanet is quite residential. At least all the roads I know are and I wouldn't class Thanet as a rural area. As a result of this, I felt it was best to look further afield. Alex suggested New Ash Green, where we shot Scene 1 and 2 of VET-MAN. He knows the area well and said that the town is quite rural. I must admit whenever I drive through the area, I always need to use rural roads to get around. In order to narrow down the roads in New Ash Green, I thought about the safety of the crew on each of the roads. The two which seemed safest were Chapel Wood Road and North Ash Road. This is because they both have places in which we can stop the van and get the equipment out. These safe places could also be a good base for the location, as Jennifer Westin suggested in my previous research. Alex will need to stop the van each time he drives passed the camera. Chapel Wood Road has a pub on one side of the road which has a free car park next door. North Ash Road has free street parking where we would also be safe to pull over the van. In both locations, there are paths up and down the road and the car park and street parking are not far from where we want Katie to stand. This is beneficial for us as Alex can stop nearby to talk to the crew, rather than driving too far to find somewhere to pull over safely.
I visited the two roads to understand myself how we could shoot the Vet Van, and to see if these roads in person look as if they would work, rather than just taking Alex's word for it or just looking at photos online. North Ash Road (shown in the photos below) is quite rural and is surrounded by trees. Looking at the first photo below, it may look good visually for the van to drive from North Ash Road and turn into Lambardes and then we could watch it drive through the trees. I think that we won't want too many shots of the van driving straight, especially as Luke says in the voiceover that the Owl Academy is "just up here on the left", we would need a turning in there somewhere. If we just included shots of the van driving along straight roads it may not look like the van is actually going anywhere, and we want it to look as believable as it can that they're looking for the academy. Putting in a few shots of the van turning corners may also make the shots look more interesting, rather than just driving along straight roads. Nevertheless, we still want a few shots on straight roads to mix it up slightly.
The white dotted line shows the possible direction the van could travel.
The photo below is of another corner on North Ash Road. This one is leading into Manor Forstal instead. This corner would be used for the same reason as the previous corner on Lambardes, however, we may be able to get a closer shot of the van turning this corner. The only thing is that it might not be as visually pleasing as driving through the trees might look. This is the sort of thing we can test while driving along both Chapel Wood Road and North Ash Road, but I agree that this is a wide rural looking road, which has good potential for a few GV's in the film. Unfortunately, I didn't pick up any photos of Chapel Wood road when I was there, but it again was a wide, rural road. Chapel Wood Road was more of a straight road as it had less corners. The corners also didn't look as good as the ones shown in the photos on North Ash Road. As a result of this, after visiting the locations I have decided that it may be best to get a couple of shots of the van driving on straight roads down Chapel Wood Road, and to get a couple of turns along North Ash Road.
After visiting both roads in New Ash Green, I was happy to have these as the GV locations. Once I had agreed the date (Monday 20th March) with everyone, I had to create a new risk assessment for St Mary's Avenue in Margate, the two main roads in New Ash Green and a risk assessment for the shot of the dog. As as were re-shooting the majority of the scenes in Margate, I was able to base my new risk assessment on the previous version I made on the main shoot week and add more if it needed it. We will only require cast on the re-shoot in Margate, on the other three locations we will only need a few members of crew.
Margate risk assessment - written:
Margate risk assessment - visual:
We are re-shooting the same scenes as we did in the main shoot week and I aim to act as professionally as I did the first time. As a result of this, I have created additional visual risk assessments but they hold the cast and crew in the same positions as before. The visual assessment below is from when Tim and Luke have just hit the dog and are standing over it looking at it on the ground. Similarly to last time, the crew and cast will be positioned on the safety of the grass throughout the time they are on the road. The runner will be positioned opposite watching the traffic from both ends of the road, and the side road.
The visual assessment below is during the surgery scene when Tim is operating on the dog. Like last time, the runner will be positioned in the same place so they can see both roads. Luke will be stood at the back of the van during some points, however, he will be protected by the van doors. He will only stand in the road behind the van when we are filming the shot before the surgery when he is getting the screwdrivers and stethoscope out of the bag. All other cast and crew will be on the grass throughout the duration of the scene.
The visual assessment below shows the shot when Sheila walks over after noticing Tim and Luke. Similarly to last time, I will position a runner by the side road with a view of the cul de sac and side road. The runner will be there to ensure Sheila walks across the side road safely and with no problems. If a vehicle does start moving either in the church car park or on the main road, the runner will inform us and we will pause filming until the vehicle has stopped or left the road.
The visual assessment below shows scene 6 when Luke runs back to the van after leaving the dead dog at Sheila's doorstep. As he runs across the side road, I have positioned the runner in a similar place to before, but just on the opposite side to be out of the camera shot. However, the runner will still have full view of the cul de sac road and side road / car park.
Dog and GV's shoot
Due to the additional shots we were recommended to get of the dead dog, and GV's of the van driving around, I had to create new risk assessments. The first risk assessment I created was for the dog. Katie, Alex and I decided that the dog shots can be done in any location due to the idea of zooming in on the shot so we cannot see the background. We felt this was the most appropriate way of shooting the dog instead of bringing a dog to Margate. I don't know any obedient dogs in that area, whereas, Katie and Alex do in their area. As we experienced in our previous Transitions Unit, working with animals can be difficult, and the pressure would be greater if we had to bring a dog from the Gravesend / Longfield area to Margate.
Dog risk assessment - written:
The house in which we will be filming the dog outside is in a residential area. Next to each road in the area is a pavement making it safe to walk through the area. This builds on the safety of our shoot as there are many safe areas for the crew to walk around on. As we are filming the dog separately, there will be no cast members present at this location.
Dog risk assessment - visual:
For the majority of the time, crew members will be stood on the path and grass next to the road, apart from when the dog is being filmed in the road. While this happens, Katie may need to stand in the road to get the coverage we need. There is no other reason as to why Alex, the owner of the dog and myself should be standing in the road so we will stay on the path.
As we are working with an animal which, we discovered in our previous Transitions Unit, can be difficult, the owner will be with us at all times. We have been informed that the dog is very obedient and we want him to feel as comfortable as possible around the crew and camera equipment. I believe that the dog will feel most comfortable if the owner is present at all times, which is why I have arranged it like this.
Due to only needing to get coverage of a dog in the road and in the side of the van, we have decided against using a sound assistant for this shot. In terms of sound effects, we want to get a sound of a dog yelp from a royalty free sound website. As we want the dog to yelp in pain, we obviously don't want to actually hurt a real dog just for the sound. As a result of this, royalty free sound will work in this scenario and there is no need for atmos as we have this from the shoot in Margate.
GV risk assessment 1 - written:
GV risk assessment 1 - visual:
This location is purely to gather coverage of the Vet Van driving around. In the story, this will come in after they have hit the dog and they have driven off in search for the Owl Academy. We plan to record the voiceover which will be placed on top of the GV shots of the van. Similarly to the dog risk assessment, there will be no cast at this location. As Alex is already insured on the van, it makes sense to get him to drive it around. As we are using a voiceover rather than seeing Tim and Luke talk, it doesn't matter who drives the van. In terms of directing, Alex will brief Katie on what he wants her to achieve before he gets into the van for the shot.
Opposite the part of the road where we want to film the GV's there is a pub which has a free car park that we can use. As we are filming in the morning, the pub shouldn't be too busy which means we can guarantee a space for the van to park in. I felt that we should have an additional person with us as we will be walking around with equipment. As a result of this, I brought a runner on board, Aidan. We will be using the microphone on the top of the camera to capture atmos while capturing the van driving around. Due to this, we didn't need a sound assistant with us.
GV risk assessment 2 - written:
GV's risk assessment 2 - visual:
I felt the need to have two rural locations so it would be clear in the film that we had filmed a couple of places to show the journey of the van from Sheila's house to the Owl Academy. As these roads are quite long, we may use different parts of the road to get more coverage, however we won't want to sit on the van shots for long as these will get boring. In the end we may only use two shots of the different locations, but we may as well get as much coverage from other parts of the same roads to look like different areas the van has driven through to get to the Owl Academy.
I suggested driving around a couple of corners as well along this main road. Having a mixture of shots which are stationary, panning and of the van driving round corners will give a variety of shots for coverage, which will be helpful to choose from in the edit. The runner will be positioned near us just for more protection around the filming equipment. Along North Ash Road there is street parking, allowing room for Alex to pull the van over safely and talk to us about the shots.
There is a road called Lambardes which I visited during my location recce at the beginning of the blog post. Lambardes is shown in one of the photographs. When I visited North Ash Road, I felt that it would be nice to see the van drive through the trees. It will definitely make it more interesting turning corners than watching the van drive on straight roads. We will be positioned as shown below, keeping away from the main roads to minimise the risk of any accidents.
Voice over & ADR day
To prepare for the voice over and ADR day I first agreed a date in which both Ed and Dan could come in to the studios for the day. After suggesting a couple of dates, we agreed on Wednesday 13th March. My next task as the producer was to book out Production Room 2 which contains the sound equipment we will be needing for this day to be successful.
The ADR portion of the day is purely to record some audio for scenes 7 and 9. The original audio for these scenes is not as good as it could be due to the windy weather on the shoot day. Therefore, we want to try and re-record the audio so it matches the action on screen. Most of our problems that I discovered during the rough cut were to do with audio which, fortunately, is easier to gain / replace than more footage. The first piece of affected sound was in scenes 7 & 9 when Tim and Luke arrive at the Owl Academy. The wind was quite bad on this shoot day and we were surrounded by trees which meant that the background noise of the trees is also quite bad. In addition to this, we were situated in front of a river, which we didn't realise was there when we visited the Owl Academy for our test shoots. The dialogue between Tim and Luke is still very clear and understandable, but the amount of background noise in this scene is so different to the rest of the film, it stands out a lot and brings the quality of the film down.
In addition to this, while I was creating the rough cut I realised that I didn't have the same amount of audio as footage from scene 11 at the Owl Academy (owl punch scene). As a result of this, Alex suggested conducting an ADR day, where our Ed and Dan will come into the studios and speak their lines in time with the footage, creating clearer audio that we can use in the edit. This will also give us a good opportunity to use our new sound room, which can ultimately add to our experience within post-production. Initially, I was unsure what ADR was so I conducted some research before the day so I knew what to expect.
ADR stands for 'automatic/automated dialogue replacement'. It is used when dialog "cannot be salvaged from production tracks" (FilmSound.org, n/d) and it must be re-recorded. This process can be called either lopping or ADR. Lopping originally involved recording an actor who spoke lines in sync to 'loops' of the image which were played over and over along with matching lengths of recording tape. ADR is faster than the looping process, however, it still take a lot of work to create.
I will ask our actors to watch back the footage from scenes 7, 9 and 11 and attempt to perform each line to match the wording and lip movements of themselves from the footage. During my research, I was reminded that obviously actors vary in their ability to "achieve sync and to recapture the emotional tone of their performance" (FilmSound.org, n/d). Our actors may never have been involved with ADR before, and if this is the case it will be a new experience for all of us.
On the other hand, there are also some disadvantages to using ADR. American sound designer, Randy Thom, believes that the way ADR is "treated and approached is symptomatic of how little respect sound gets in the movies" (Thom, n/d). The system means that the actors get put into a room and they aren't usually given much time to get into character or rehearse. They are expected to just start performing a few minutes after they walk into the room. Randy highlights that the emphasis is almost always on getting the dialogue in sync instead of getting the right performance. As a result of this, the majority of the actor's mind is then occupied with whether his lips are moving at the exact same rate as they were on the day that the footage was shot. Randy explains that this is why he believes that most ADR is not very good, in the end directors almost always prefer the production sound, even if it's noise and distorted.
In amongst Randy's criticism of the technique, he also gave some advice. He explains that to make ADR sound more like production sound is to "pitch it up" (Thom, n/d). ADR is almost always delivered at a lower pitch because the actor doesn't have the energy they had on set. In the excitement of the shooting set the actor tends to talk louder and higher. In an ADR session, the "director typically has to push the actor to get them anywhere near the level of vocal performance that came from the set" (Thom, n/d). As producer of the project, it will be my job to ensure that Alex, as director, pushes our two cast members to perform as they did on location. Only once they have settled back into their characters. I understand it'll take time for them to do this. Both Ed and Dan have exceptionally good acting skills, especially our main character for Tim, to the point that even the way he walks adds to his character. As a result of this, I believe that he will be successful in getting into character while not on location. The auditions and script read through were also a good opportunity to see how the actors performed in a room, rather than on a location and in costume. Ed and Dan performed very well in character in both the auditions and read through even though these were set in office-type rooms, this was the reason why Alex and I chose them to be a part of VET-MAN. If they could play the part in a closed room, then they would only be better on location and in costume. As a result of this, I believe that they will perform in the sound room as best as they can. I will also find out if either of our actors have worked with ADR before, as this will make our experience easier if they have.
- Discovering that the river behind our location of the car park had a river has made me realise how important location recce's are. In hindsight, I should have looked around more thoroughly during my recce or even on the test shoots, in order to find every limitation which could have affected our footage and audio.
- I realised auditions and the script read through have additional benefits to the usual getting to know the cast before shooting and getting them to know each other. In our case, I am confident that Ed and Dan will be able to perform well in an area which is not the same location in the film for our ADR session. As I said previously, they both performed well in the audition room so hopefully after settling in they'll be able to perform just as well in the sound room.
- Visiting the GV locations prior to filming was beneficial for me to get some ideas of the area and possible shots we could get and possible directions the van could drive in for the best looking shots. I was also able to note down the safe places, if there were any, at the location where the crew would stand. I knew we were going to be filming on the side of the road for all the GV shots, so as a result of this, it would be necessary to find a safe place to stand. I was able to visit the pavements on the roads, the car park and parking spaces to see how safe they actually were.
- I have learnt from my ADR research a variety of different things, such as pitching up to sound more like production sound. I have also taken Thom's advice on board. I will be sure to try my best to relax the actors to help get them into their characters.
(£81.55 left in current budget)
232.69 - 81.55 = £186.69
/3 = £62.23 each
I have already thought about props and costume, as this estimate of budget is after purchasing more fake blood. This is the first thing we did when we decided to re-shoot as it will be a vital visual part of the film - we need enough of it. I have also washed the costumes which got fake blood on them to see whether we would need to buy more clothes. Luckily the blood came out really well which means we can put more towards the travel of the cast rather than their clothes. In order to cover any unexpected costs that may come up, during the re-shoot days I suggested putting in £100 each, instead of the odd £62.23. Katie and Alex were happy to do this and then we can split the final remaining money back out evenly after the re-shoot day and pick up shots.
Locations
Margate re-shoot:
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| Church timetable according to website |
We were happy with the previous location we used in Margate on St Mary's Road, apart from a couple of shots where we caught cars moving in the background, we were pleased with the quality of the shots and background that came with the location. As a result of this, we were all happy to conduct the re-shoot in the same location. Using the same location can benefit our film in case we want to use any of the initial footage. If we had changed location, we would have had to make sure everything was re-shot which may create more work for us that we need. Like I previously said, we were happy with some of the shots we got on the first shoot day, so we will be able to use initial footage in the edit if we want.
I had to keep in mind all the same pros and cons of using that location as I did before the main shoot week. To do this, I referred back to the church timetable to make sure the Wednesday 20th March I have currently suggested was as good as that first Monday (18th Feb). Looking at the church timetable I found that on Wednesday also had a period of time where they had more than one activity on at one time. This is similar to the Monday we previously filmed on and we coped fine with the amount of people around. However, Wednesday is a day when there are two periods during the day in which they have more than one activity on at the church. Looking at the times in which these activities start, they are a good length of time away from each other which would give us a good amount of time to film in. The first two activities start at 10am and one finishes at 11:30am. This gives us a good hour and a half to shoot the first scene or so until lunch. Between 9am and 10am, we can brief the cast and go through a few parts in the scenes which are changing or that are developing. The next activity starts at 2pm, when we would have had lunch and we will be prepared to continue filming once everyone has entered the church. The two activities finish at 3pm and 3:30pm when we would have hopefully wrapped by then or be close to wrapping. To sum up, we should be able to work film around these times quite well as they land on good timing, either in the morning or at lunch time. As a result of this, I have decided that I will make the Wednesday 20th March a definite date. I already know the cast and crew can make it which is very helpful instead of having to re-arrange.
To prep for the re-shoot I contacted the Kent Film Office as I did for the first shoot week. Along with this, I sent round another set of letters for the residents of St. Mary's Avenue to keep them informed. I imagine that I won't get any emails about the filming as I didn't during the main shoot week. I explained in the email that we needed to re-shoot and everything is the same as the first time, just more up-to-date. For example, there was a new risk assessment created and the local authorities have been informed again.
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| Residents re-shoot letter |
GV locations:
In terms of the locations for the GV's of the van, I asked Alex what sort of area he wanted the van to drive through. He said he wanted a rural area, similarly to a countryside but as those lanes are small and bendy, they would be quite dangerous to film on. Most countryside roads also lack pavements, meaning there wouldn't be a safe area for the crew to stand on. As I had ruled out the countryside, it came down to using roads which are more rural than residential, giving a countryside-look to the GV's. Margate and the majority of Thanet is quite residential. At least all the roads I know are and I wouldn't class Thanet as a rural area. As a result of this, I felt it was best to look further afield. Alex suggested New Ash Green, where we shot Scene 1 and 2 of VET-MAN. He knows the area well and said that the town is quite rural. I must admit whenever I drive through the area, I always need to use rural roads to get around. In order to narrow down the roads in New Ash Green, I thought about the safety of the crew on each of the roads. The two which seemed safest were Chapel Wood Road and North Ash Road. This is because they both have places in which we can stop the van and get the equipment out. These safe places could also be a good base for the location, as Jennifer Westin suggested in my previous research. Alex will need to stop the van each time he drives passed the camera. Chapel Wood Road has a pub on one side of the road which has a free car park next door. North Ash Road has free street parking where we would also be safe to pull over the van. In both locations, there are paths up and down the road and the car park and street parking are not far from where we want Katie to stand. This is beneficial for us as Alex can stop nearby to talk to the crew, rather than driving too far to find somewhere to pull over safely.
I visited the two roads to understand myself how we could shoot the Vet Van, and to see if these roads in person look as if they would work, rather than just taking Alex's word for it or just looking at photos online. North Ash Road (shown in the photos below) is quite rural and is surrounded by trees. Looking at the first photo below, it may look good visually for the van to drive from North Ash Road and turn into Lambardes and then we could watch it drive through the trees. I think that we won't want too many shots of the van driving straight, especially as Luke says in the voiceover that the Owl Academy is "just up here on the left", we would need a turning in there somewhere. If we just included shots of the van driving along straight roads it may not look like the van is actually going anywhere, and we want it to look as believable as it can that they're looking for the academy. Putting in a few shots of the van turning corners may also make the shots look more interesting, rather than just driving along straight roads. Nevertheless, we still want a few shots on straight roads to mix it up slightly.
The white dotted line shows the possible direction the van could travel.
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| North Ash Road |
The photo below is of another corner on North Ash Road. This one is leading into Manor Forstal instead. This corner would be used for the same reason as the previous corner on Lambardes, however, we may be able to get a closer shot of the van turning this corner. The only thing is that it might not be as visually pleasing as driving through the trees might look. This is the sort of thing we can test while driving along both Chapel Wood Road and North Ash Road, but I agree that this is a wide rural looking road, which has good potential for a few GV's in the film. Unfortunately, I didn't pick up any photos of Chapel Wood road when I was there, but it again was a wide, rural road. Chapel Wood Road was more of a straight road as it had less corners. The corners also didn't look as good as the ones shown in the photos on North Ash Road. As a result of this, after visiting the locations I have decided that it may be best to get a couple of shots of the van driving on straight roads down Chapel Wood Road, and to get a couple of turns along North Ash Road.
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| North Ash Road |
After visiting both roads in New Ash Green, I was happy to have these as the GV locations. Once I had agreed the date (Monday 20th March) with everyone, I had to create a new risk assessment for St Mary's Avenue in Margate, the two main roads in New Ash Green and a risk assessment for the shot of the dog. As as were re-shooting the majority of the scenes in Margate, I was able to base my new risk assessment on the previous version I made on the main shoot week and add more if it needed it. We will only require cast on the re-shoot in Margate, on the other three locations we will only need a few members of crew.
Margate risk assessment - written:
Margate risk assessment - visual:
We are re-shooting the same scenes as we did in the main shoot week and I aim to act as professionally as I did the first time. As a result of this, I have created additional visual risk assessments but they hold the cast and crew in the same positions as before. The visual assessment below is from when Tim and Luke have just hit the dog and are standing over it looking at it on the ground. Similarly to last time, the crew and cast will be positioned on the safety of the grass throughout the time they are on the road. The runner will be positioned opposite watching the traffic from both ends of the road, and the side road.
The visual assessment below is during the surgery scene when Tim is operating on the dog. Like last time, the runner will be positioned in the same place so they can see both roads. Luke will be stood at the back of the van during some points, however, he will be protected by the van doors. He will only stand in the road behind the van when we are filming the shot before the surgery when he is getting the screwdrivers and stethoscope out of the bag. All other cast and crew will be on the grass throughout the duration of the scene.
Due to the additional shots we were recommended to get of the dead dog, and GV's of the van driving around, I had to create new risk assessments. The first risk assessment I created was for the dog. Katie, Alex and I decided that the dog shots can be done in any location due to the idea of zooming in on the shot so we cannot see the background. We felt this was the most appropriate way of shooting the dog instead of bringing a dog to Margate. I don't know any obedient dogs in that area, whereas, Katie and Alex do in their area. As we experienced in our previous Transitions Unit, working with animals can be difficult, and the pressure would be greater if we had to bring a dog from the Gravesend / Longfield area to Margate.
Dog risk assessment - written:
The house in which we will be filming the dog outside is in a residential area. Next to each road in the area is a pavement making it safe to walk through the area. This builds on the safety of our shoot as there are many safe areas for the crew to walk around on. As we are filming the dog separately, there will be no cast members present at this location.
Dog risk assessment - visual:
For the majority of the time, crew members will be stood on the path and grass next to the road, apart from when the dog is being filmed in the road. While this happens, Katie may need to stand in the road to get the coverage we need. There is no other reason as to why Alex, the owner of the dog and myself should be standing in the road so we will stay on the path.
As we are working with an animal which, we discovered in our previous Transitions Unit, can be difficult, the owner will be with us at all times. We have been informed that the dog is very obedient and we want him to feel as comfortable as possible around the crew and camera equipment. I believe that the dog will feel most comfortable if the owner is present at all times, which is why I have arranged it like this.
Due to only needing to get coverage of a dog in the road and in the side of the van, we have decided against using a sound assistant for this shot. In terms of sound effects, we want to get a sound of a dog yelp from a royalty free sound website. As we want the dog to yelp in pain, we obviously don't want to actually hurt a real dog just for the sound. As a result of this, royalty free sound will work in this scenario and there is no need for atmos as we have this from the shoot in Margate.
As we won't be needing a sound assistant, this brings our crew numbers to 4 (including dog owner). As we are only filming the one shot, I felt that a runner wouldn't be needed but as we are filming in the road we still need someone to keep an eye on the traffic. I will position myself as the runner on the opposite side of the road so I have full view of the cul de sac on one side and the junction on the other end of the road. As I have already explained, we only need the one shot of the dog laying down, due to this, I will liaise with Alex and Katie beforehand and we can discuss the details of the shot, such as the type of shot they want to get and for how long they will be aiming to get it for. Once I am informed of the shot, I can stand on the opposite side of the road and watch for traffic. In this time, Katie will have hopefully captured the shot. Positioning myself as shown in the diagram above means that I will have full view of the road and any cars that may enter the road. Similarly to the runners on the shoot days, I will inform the crew of any cars coming in and the owner can move the dog out of the road until the car has left or stopped.
GV risk assessment 1 - written:
GV risk assessment 1 - visual:
Opposite the part of the road where we want to film the GV's there is a pub which has a free car park that we can use. As we are filming in the morning, the pub shouldn't be too busy which means we can guarantee a space for the van to park in. I felt that we should have an additional person with us as we will be walking around with equipment. As a result of this, I brought a runner on board, Aidan. We will be using the microphone on the top of the camera to capture atmos while capturing the van driving around. Due to this, we didn't need a sound assistant with us.
GV risk assessment 2 - written:
GV's risk assessment 2 - visual:
I felt the need to have two rural locations so it would be clear in the film that we had filmed a couple of places to show the journey of the van from Sheila's house to the Owl Academy. As these roads are quite long, we may use different parts of the road to get more coverage, however we won't want to sit on the van shots for long as these will get boring. In the end we may only use two shots of the different locations, but we may as well get as much coverage from other parts of the same roads to look like different areas the van has driven through to get to the Owl Academy.
I suggested driving around a couple of corners as well along this main road. Having a mixture of shots which are stationary, panning and of the van driving round corners will give a variety of shots for coverage, which will be helpful to choose from in the edit. The runner will be positioned near us just for more protection around the filming equipment. Along North Ash Road there is street parking, allowing room for Alex to pull the van over safely and talk to us about the shots.
There is a road called Lambardes which I visited during my location recce at the beginning of the blog post. Lambardes is shown in one of the photographs. When I visited North Ash Road, I felt that it would be nice to see the van drive through the trees. It will definitely make it more interesting turning corners than watching the van drive on straight roads. We will be positioned as shown below, keeping away from the main roads to minimise the risk of any accidents.
Voice over & ADR day
To prepare for the voice over and ADR day I first agreed a date in which both Ed and Dan could come in to the studios for the day. After suggesting a couple of dates, we agreed on Wednesday 13th March. My next task as the producer was to book out Production Room 2 which contains the sound equipment we will be needing for this day to be successful.
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| Room booking form for Wednesday 13th |
The ADR portion of the day is purely to record some audio for scenes 7 and 9. The original audio for these scenes is not as good as it could be due to the windy weather on the shoot day. Therefore, we want to try and re-record the audio so it matches the action on screen. Most of our problems that I discovered during the rough cut were to do with audio which, fortunately, is easier to gain / replace than more footage. The first piece of affected sound was in scenes 7 & 9 when Tim and Luke arrive at the Owl Academy. The wind was quite bad on this shoot day and we were surrounded by trees which meant that the background noise of the trees is also quite bad. In addition to this, we were situated in front of a river, which we didn't realise was there when we visited the Owl Academy for our test shoots. The dialogue between Tim and Luke is still very clear and understandable, but the amount of background noise in this scene is so different to the rest of the film, it stands out a lot and brings the quality of the film down.
In addition to this, while I was creating the rough cut I realised that I didn't have the same amount of audio as footage from scene 11 at the Owl Academy (owl punch scene). As a result of this, Alex suggested conducting an ADR day, where our Ed and Dan will come into the studios and speak their lines in time with the footage, creating clearer audio that we can use in the edit. This will also give us a good opportunity to use our new sound room, which can ultimately add to our experience within post-production. Initially, I was unsure what ADR was so I conducted some research before the day so I knew what to expect.
ADR stands for 'automatic/automated dialogue replacement'. It is used when dialog "cannot be salvaged from production tracks" (FilmSound.org, n/d) and it must be re-recorded. This process can be called either lopping or ADR. Lopping originally involved recording an actor who spoke lines in sync to 'loops' of the image which were played over and over along with matching lengths of recording tape. ADR is faster than the looping process, however, it still take a lot of work to create.
I will ask our actors to watch back the footage from scenes 7, 9 and 11 and attempt to perform each line to match the wording and lip movements of themselves from the footage. During my research, I was reminded that obviously actors vary in their ability to "achieve sync and to recapture the emotional tone of their performance" (FilmSound.org, n/d). Our actors may never have been involved with ADR before, and if this is the case it will be a new experience for all of us.
On the other hand, there are also some disadvantages to using ADR. American sound designer, Randy Thom, believes that the way ADR is "treated and approached is symptomatic of how little respect sound gets in the movies" (Thom, n/d). The system means that the actors get put into a room and they aren't usually given much time to get into character or rehearse. They are expected to just start performing a few minutes after they walk into the room. Randy highlights that the emphasis is almost always on getting the dialogue in sync instead of getting the right performance. As a result of this, the majority of the actor's mind is then occupied with whether his lips are moving at the exact same rate as they were on the day that the footage was shot. Randy explains that this is why he believes that most ADR is not very good, in the end directors almost always prefer the production sound, even if it's noise and distorted.
In amongst Randy's criticism of the technique, he also gave some advice. He explains that to make ADR sound more like production sound is to "pitch it up" (Thom, n/d). ADR is almost always delivered at a lower pitch because the actor doesn't have the energy they had on set. In the excitement of the shooting set the actor tends to talk louder and higher. In an ADR session, the "director typically has to push the actor to get them anywhere near the level of vocal performance that came from the set" (Thom, n/d). As producer of the project, it will be my job to ensure that Alex, as director, pushes our two cast members to perform as they did on location. Only once they have settled back into their characters. I understand it'll take time for them to do this. Both Ed and Dan have exceptionally good acting skills, especially our main character for Tim, to the point that even the way he walks adds to his character. As a result of this, I believe that he will be successful in getting into character while not on location. The auditions and script read through were also a good opportunity to see how the actors performed in a room, rather than on a location and in costume. Ed and Dan performed very well in character in both the auditions and read through even though these were set in office-type rooms, this was the reason why Alex and I chose them to be a part of VET-MAN. If they could play the part in a closed room, then they would only be better on location and in costume. As a result of this, I believe that they will perform in the sound room as best as they can. I will also find out if either of our actors have worked with ADR before, as this will make our experience easier if they have.
Randy continues by saying if the recording of ADR were "treated more like shooting the movie it would almost certainly be better" (Thom, n/d). Recording it in more authentic environments (instead of studios) tends to help the actors' performance enormously. Environmental noise is a problem whenever you record outside of a studio, but it is well worth the trade-off in his opinion. I considered re-shooting the scenes in order to keep the atmosphere we had in the initial footage, however, due to the location of the car park of the Owl Academy and other car parks on site being under trees, we would have had the same problem. Even a small amount of wind would create noise around the trees and windy weather is inevitable during the winter months. After considering this, ADR seemed to be the only option. Nevertheless, this will be experience for me as I haven't used this technique before.
Reflection- Discovering that the river behind our location of the car park had a river has made me realise how important location recce's are. In hindsight, I should have looked around more thoroughly during my recce or even on the test shoots, in order to find every limitation which could have affected our footage and audio.
- I realised auditions and the script read through have additional benefits to the usual getting to know the cast before shooting and getting them to know each other. In our case, I am confident that Ed and Dan will be able to perform well in an area which is not the same location in the film for our ADR session. As I said previously, they both performed well in the audition room so hopefully after settling in they'll be able to perform just as well in the sound room.
- Visiting the GV locations prior to filming was beneficial for me to get some ideas of the area and possible shots we could get and possible directions the van could drive in for the best looking shots. I was also able to note down the safe places, if there were any, at the location where the crew would stand. I knew we were going to be filming on the side of the road for all the GV shots, so as a result of this, it would be necessary to find a safe place to stand. I was able to visit the pavements on the roads, the car park and parking spaces to see how safe they actually were.
- I have learnt from my ADR research a variety of different things, such as pitching up to sound more like production sound. I have also taken Thom's advice on board. I will be sure to try my best to relax the actors to help get them into their characters.
References:
- FilmSound.org. (n/d). ADR. Available: http://filmsound.org/terminology/adr.htm. Last accessed 9th March 2019.
- Thom, R. (n/d). ADR. Available: http://filmsound.org/terminology/adr.htm. Last accessed 9th March 2019.
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