Major Project Production Unit - Shoot Day: Bradbourne House

Bradbourne House was the first location that we filmed at. I had ensured that the call sheet for this location had been sent out to all the crew and cast a few days before to make sure everyone knew what time they needed to arrive and give an overall breakdown of the day. Once I had done this everyone confirmed they would be attending the shoot and understood what was happening on the day. I next sent an email to Bradbourne House to ensure the confirmation of the location making sure everything producer wise was all ready for the shoot. I also ensured costume for the scenes we were shooting was laid out and ready as well as other props. The evening before we picked up our hired equipment and took this as well as some of the equipment from the University to a barn of someone I know as we will be using this as our base. The barn is located 5 minutes down the road from Bradbourne House so this I felt would be easier to use being near by. We put everything on charge and made sure everything was ready to go the next day.

On the morning of the shoot myself and Andreya got to the barn early to ensure everything was ready and in order. I picked up the actress and brought her there making sure we all had plenty of time. The Hair and Makeup Artist was due to arrive at the barn early to start her job but after 45 minutes of waiting she failed to show. This set us back some time and I had to quickly think on my feet as she was not responding to any of my texts and calls. Claudia expressed that she would be able to do her own hair and make up and I decided to go with this to ensure that the character would look on some level the way I wanted her to look. Claudia kept coming to me asking if what she was doing was ok and I kept giving her direction of little bits I wanted changing as I took inspiration from previous research about how I wanted her makeup to look. Overall Claudia did a fantastic job on her makeup and I was really pleased she could get it to the level that I wanted it to be.

Once Hair and Makeup was done, we were ready to set off to the location. We arrived there a little early at 8:50 and the other crew we hired were there too to help us carry the equipment in. I met with the person from the property who was going to be helping us with anything for the day and I expressed to her what we will be doing and at what times we will need certain rooms. Once this was done we put all of the equipment in the green room and set up the equipment for the exterior shots whilst the actress got changed for the scene after.

I decided to start outside as I knew the weather was going to be nice and I wanted this to add to the shots for the beginning of the film being bright, sunny and beautiful.

All of these shots I wanted to be done on a gimble that we hired to give fluid movement like the test shoot we had carried out earlier. We done several shots to establish the house to give it a grand luxurious look helping to establish the characters supposed wealth and elegance. I wanted to draw towards the house from a low angle making it look big and tall as well as getting bigger as the camera draws closer to it. This took a bit of time trying to get the movement right but we succeeded and I am really happy with house these shots went. 

Once we had done this, we moved onto the shots inside starting with the blue room. I feel this room is big and elegant showing space with tall ceilings and paintings on the wall. All of this really adds to the film and portrays the character exactly how I want her to be. On this scene I wanted the actress to walk from the hallway through the corridor into the blue room and ending in the brown piano room. I decided I would get this all on one shot from several different angles allowing us to cut between them. This took a few goes as it was difficult moving from several different rooms all in one take but we eventually got everything we needed. I wanted to do it all in one take for a couple of reasons. The first was to lock down a master shot making it easier to cut in the edit. The second was through inspiration by the previous films I had looked into like The Shinning and Hereditary that use these long shots which really add a cinematic artistic look to the film. I thought I was going to find this difficult myself but I kept calm, directed Andrea to how I wanted the shot to look, directed the actress in terms of blocking, pace and facial expressions to ensure everything came together how I wanted it to. I was very pleased with how these shots came out and feel this will look great when put in the edit. 

Next we moved onto the brown piano room getting some more coverage in there. I felt the black piano reflected the character really well and I wanted to get some shots of her leaning on it and standing by it amongst the brown wood panelled walls. We got a lot of wides as well as close ups on the tripod and also the gimble as well to produce some shots moving from a mid shot to a close up. I kept referring to my shot list to ensure I was getting everything I needed as well as referring to the script to make sure everything was being done exactly how I wanted it to be. We also had to be conscious of the reflection in her glasses so I made sure she wasn't looking in our direction where the camera would pick this up. 

After this scene we had some lunch and set up for the next scene which was in the drawing room. Claudia changed her costume and we headed in there. We got some cut aways of the chandelier and a shot moving through a corridor and then moved into the actual room. This room had great Symmetry and light reflection that really added to the scene. I wanted to do a slow moving shot towards the actress as she stairs out the window. I feel we did this really well and were able to do this in just a couple of takes which worked out well for time. 

During this scene the other actress Karen arrived and the runners greeted her whilst I was still filming. I then ran through her costume and went through the scene with her. We used a suitcase that I had and I wanted her to look business like and give the sense of a power woman. I relayed to her this to make sure she gives the right performance. We then shot this scene and it went really well getting a lot of different angles, movement and general coverage. 

Once we did this scene we moved onto the stair case. This was fairly straight forward as I wanted two shots, one of Claudia sitting and then walking up the stairs and then Karen walking up the stairs to tie in with a later scene. Both shots were static at the bottom of the stairs and there were no issues with this. Once this was finished the shoot was complete. I am really happy with the shots and the way I directed on this location. I payed attention to time, the props, the way everything looks, the actresses performance and to make sure they were in the right costumes. Overall this has been a really successful day and Im pleased with the way I handled everything.