Directors Unit - Directing My Shoot

Yesterday was the day I directed my short film project. Although there was some stress at times I am very pleased with the way things went. 

Since the schedules were sent out the night before, I liased with the actors to pick them up from the nearby train station around 10:30 am. This worked well and the actors were at the location and ready to shoot by 11. Due to the lighting and the times of when the scenes are set we decided to do the bathroom scenes first with Alessandra. I had gone to the location the night before and set up the lighting to how I wanted it so this was all ready for us to shoot. I gave good direction and got some great footage with this scene. 

We then moved onto the landing and hallway scenes which were a little bit more difficult. The stairs fit tight to the edge of the walls and are narrow when trying to film with equipment. There were only two real options, The top of the stairs and the bottom. I did manage to get a shot on the stairs but it was very impractical so I decided to do the main shots from the other 2 places. 

With the living room this was the one scene I wanted to get right out of all of them. Being a very sensitive and key part to the film I wanted it to be done properly and tastefully. Making sure my actress was comfortable with what we were doing, even tho she had a lot of preparation before hand, we squirted the fake blood mix I made onto the legs and the dress. After a few attempts the blood worked really well and with the shots I took it was done to a standard that worked well and did not look cheap. 

We then moved in the garden doing the running and distress scenes with Oliver. This worked really well but it needed to have more atmosphere. I made the call to use a smoke machine to give a foggy look. This was difficult as the slightest bit of wind would blow the smoke in the wrong direction and we had to do several takes to make sure the full sequence had the surrounding smoke but once it was done I was very pleased with the result.

The final scene we shot was the arguement scene. This was extremely dificult to film mainly due to the tight space we had to work with. After a while we were all losing focus in terms of the continuity and our fustrations were raising. Although I was stressed I made sure I did not show it on the outside and kept calm and collected in order to kept the shoot together and running smoothly. This worked great as everyone pushed through to deliever the results we were looking for. If i could do it differently I would have filmed that scene the next day but I only had a one day window to shoot in terms of cost and avaliability.

Overall it was a great shoot that with time and preparation really came together. I will now edit my footage together and im looking forward to making it into a finished product.

Directions Unit - Scheduling

Below is my schedule I created for the cast and crew. I used the template from my last shoot as it worked really well before so I have changed the dates and edited the equipment list but most of it is the same. 

The main obvious difference is the times in the last section. It consists of starting 10:45am and finishing at 17:45pm. Although this is 7 hours long and I don't think it will take that amount of time to film, I have allowed for contingency time so that if we are running behind or some scenes take longer then we will not over run by much. 

I believe this is a good and effective schedule and I will make sure all cast and crew have a copy of this before we start the shoot tomorrow. 

Directions Unit - Casting Call Pro Update

I have managed to cast two actors for the lead roles of my production. After several people replying to my advert I went through the process of elimination looking at show reels and asking people to send me a clip of them doing a part of the script.


With a lot of deliberation I decided to cast my female role with the actress I used in my previous project. She was very keen to work on another production with me again and expressed her love of the character. After a few phone calls I thought she would be perfect for the part.


With the male role I had a lot more trouble. The few that had applied were not suitable for the role and I didn't want my friends, family or people from the course to act this complex character. I decided to do a search on the Casting Call Pro website and started to contact actors directly. I heard nothing for a while then 4 people came back to me at once expressing their interest for the role. After several phone calls with each of them and negotiating travel costs I have secured a male actor for the production.

Directions Unit - Shot List

I decided to compile a shotlist in order to make sure my shoot goes the way its meant to. It can be viewed from the images below.

I wanted to do a shot list so that I could follow it on my shoot and make sure that I have a structure of what I am filming. The production consists of 5 scenes, The Dining Room, Bathroom, Landing and Hallway, Living Room and The Garden. I put the scene number on the left followed by the location name. I followed this with the type of shot so I know what I am aiming for and then a comments box to give a brief description of what I am filming. 

With this shot list I know it will help my shoot to flow and be a lot more organsied. 

Contextual Studies - Contexts & Culture

Today I learnt about the theory and critical contexts behind the issues of representation and identity of race in television and film. Race is defined not just by skin colour but also culture identity, history and experience.

The critical contexts are ideology, hegemony, pluralism, mediation and reception theory which are ued to look at how people are represented and the stereotypes they may carry. An ideology is the set of opinions, values, beliefs and assumptions constructed and presented by the media. Hegemony is also linked to this but predominantly focusing on the dominant ideology within society for example in a sitcom it usually reflects the nuclear family as its main focus.

Mediation i looking at what we see being the filmmakers version of reality rather than the reality or truth. Its the decision - making process of what the filmmakers choose to show on screen and how things like gender, race and class are presented to the audience. Although this is important, its also key from the audiences side in how they read the programme they are watching and understanding whats being shown and this ties into the reception theory.

The first sitcom I watched was Love Thy Neighbour (1972 - 1976). It reflecrs the manifestationss of the other and Freud' narcissism of minor differences. Although the show focuses on cultural differences and racism it also looks at xenophobia showing the fear the husband has from the people next door coming from another culture. The sitcom uses humour and gags in order to represent the issue.

The other sitcom I watched was called Black.ish. This is a more modern US programme that deals with race  medialtion (comedy) 

Directions Unit - TV Drama Research - Broadchurch

I decided to watch the first series of broadchurch as one of my tv dramas as I think I can take a lot from the show. The program is a British crime drama originally aired on ITV back in March 2003 and stars David Tennant and Olivia Coleman. The drama focuses on the murder of 11 year old Danny Lattimer and how the family and small town deal with the grief and media frenzy that surround the core question of who killed him. With many suspects and rising motives the audience are left to hedge their guesses all the way through till the very end.

Here below is an entire round up of the first series (spoilers):

I picked this as I love the way the director has taken an interesting yet impactful approach to the aid of suspense. Whilst we dont know who killed the boy till the last moments of the 8 episode drama, all the way through we kept on our toes and wanting more and more. The series does this through reavling little pieces to the viewers and this is something I have analysed when watching it as my film has a very big revel moment. The thing I noticed was it always catches you off guard. You are fed information by what you are seeing on screen and the director cleverly tricks the audience into thinking one thing and then revealing that this is not the case at all. In my film I want the audience to feel tricked into believing that everything if fine and then slowly shock the audience by showing everything is not how it seems with the blood. With these scenes and the right music put into place I believe I can acheive this effectivly.

Broadchurch has a certain style in terms of the cinematography used. There are always beautiful backdrops that establish the program in terms of setting a mood. Shadows are used alot against them to show the darkness of people surrounded by something so beautiful. I like this idea and I want to show something similar in my work.

Camera movements are often very dreamy and slow moving when the characters aren't in shadow and its accompanied by beautiful lighting. There are scences that do use hand held cameras in the intense rows and arguements between the family of the boy but these scenes are mixed up with a lot of visionary shots paired with non diegetic audio to give an emotional effect with the viewers. This is also something I would like to encorporate into my film.

Overall the series has a very stylised and artistic approach to the way its been filmed. Everything has been done for a purpose and thats what I want to carry through to my production.