Transitions: Shoot Day 2
Todays shoot was very interesting and a great learning curve for us all I believe. Because we came across so many problems today, we had very little time to overcome them. This is very common in production and something we need to get use to in industry, but the purpose of university is to learn. I feel after the events of today I can deal with most things, and its always good to be prepared for something to go wrong.
The day started out when our main actor playing Stevens dropped out. I was concerned that I hadn't had a response to one of my latest emails so I decided to phone him to confirm everything just in case and he had booked himself in for another job role, and therefore can no longer do our shoot. This was very stressful to hear, but in trying to behave as professionally as I could I told him not to worry, and that I would phone him back should I not be able to find a replacement today and consider rescheduling to another shoot day. Rescheduling really wasn't something I wanted to have to do as we were lucky enough to be able to use the studios carpark at this time (when they have shows coming in we are more restricted and unable to film there). On top of this the other actors have booked today free, so cancelling would alter their arrangements and its difficult matching up another shoot day where they are all free again, especially as Andy has a show coming up soon.
Me and Jack searched all over and looked online to try and find a replacement actor at the last minute. After really keeping our noses to the ground we found someone who seemed perfect for the role as Stevens. Alex Donald responded to a post Jack put out and reached out to us. He looked really well suited to the part. The only issue was he was very well spoken and Steves is supposed to be cockney. However, we felt this didn't matter too much given this was our own take and bad guys are often cast as being well spoken British people. Take Tom Hiddleston for example. We went ahead and sent Alex the details of the production, script, call sheets and a clip from the original scene we would be re-filming so he would know his character.
So that was one thing sorted but another problem we began to encounter was the rain. This was something we had already planned for in advance as the weather this time of year (April), the weather varies so much. In planning this, Jack got hold of some umbrellas. We really didn't want the weather to affect our shoot continuity or aesthetic. Slight drizzle could be atmospheric but if it was heavy rain we would have to consider a backup plan. Our backup was to film it as though they are in a car between a henchmen. This was a last resort but luckily in the end we didn't have to do it.
Another issue we encountered was timing. Because out replacement actor was traveling from South West London, his last train from Maidstone was 10:00. It didn't get dark until about 9:00 and it would take at least 10 minutes to get to the station. As director it was my job to turn and initially planned three hour shoot into just 50minutes. This was a lot of pressure to take on and not something either of us could have planned for. It was literally one shot after the other. Although Farren Blackburn said he feels shot lists can restrict creativity, I feel on this occasion I would've really struggled without one. I needed to quickly jump from shot to show, and I was thinking creativity when planning the shot list. However, in the end we managed it, and we had a classic Only Fools moment when Jacks car battery died as a result of us using his headlights to shoot (we wanted realistic atmosphere lighting). We had to push the car for him to drive the actors to the station. This heightened my stress even more but they got to the station on time and safely.
The shoot didn't go as well asI had hoped which was mainly due to the time limit we had. Ideally I would've spent more time perfecting the shots and actors dialogue but they were all really good actors, especially Alex our replacement actor, who did an even better job than what I think out original actor could've done.
The day started out when our main actor playing Stevens dropped out. I was concerned that I hadn't had a response to one of my latest emails so I decided to phone him to confirm everything just in case and he had booked himself in for another job role, and therefore can no longer do our shoot. This was very stressful to hear, but in trying to behave as professionally as I could I told him not to worry, and that I would phone him back should I not be able to find a replacement today and consider rescheduling to another shoot day. Rescheduling really wasn't something I wanted to have to do as we were lucky enough to be able to use the studios carpark at this time (when they have shows coming in we are more restricted and unable to film there). On top of this the other actors have booked today free, so cancelling would alter their arrangements and its difficult matching up another shoot day where they are all free again, especially as Andy has a show coming up soon.
Me and Jack searched all over and looked online to try and find a replacement actor at the last minute. After really keeping our noses to the ground we found someone who seemed perfect for the role as Stevens. Alex Donald responded to a post Jack put out and reached out to us. He looked really well suited to the part. The only issue was he was very well spoken and Steves is supposed to be cockney. However, we felt this didn't matter too much given this was our own take and bad guys are often cast as being well spoken British people. Take Tom Hiddleston for example. We went ahead and sent Alex the details of the production, script, call sheets and a clip from the original scene we would be re-filming so he would know his character.So that was one thing sorted but another problem we began to encounter was the rain. This was something we had already planned for in advance as the weather this time of year (April), the weather varies so much. In planning this, Jack got hold of some umbrellas. We really didn't want the weather to affect our shoot continuity or aesthetic. Slight drizzle could be atmospheric but if it was heavy rain we would have to consider a backup plan. Our backup was to film it as though they are in a car between a henchmen. This was a last resort but luckily in the end we didn't have to do it.
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| Menacing- Alex did a fantastic job, especially at such short notice |
The shoot didn't go as well asI had hoped which was mainly due to the time limit we had. Ideally I would've spent more time perfecting the shots and actors dialogue but they were all really good actors, especially Alex our replacement actor, who did an even better job than what I think out original actor could've done.
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