Getting ready for pickups through teamwork

For pickups there was a lot to prepare for. It was important to make sure we had everything sorted with what we needed to film as it was our last chance. We wanted to make sure that we wasted the least amount of time possible in figuring things out while at location. 

Our director oversaw the planning for pickups day. our editor did a rough draft of everything we had filmed, told us what worked, what didn't and things that felt like it was missing. The cinematographer looked into our pre-production shot list to see the shots that we still needed. The director and I took time to look through clips, to see if there were any clips that were unusable or could be used by doing some editing. 

In the end, the combined effort of our group created this list in the notes app which our director shared with everyone. 

The making of this list brought in all the teamwork that we had been building up since the start of our project. 

Production day 2

The weather again

The 2nd day was a very eventful day and very productive. As we feared the weather was cloudy, the complete opposite to the first day. It even rained, which caused pause on filming, but in the end we decided to go back out when the rain calmed down. We moved forward with our shots, and with the thought of that if the shots didn't match in the rough edit, it would be something we fix with pick ups.

 

 
Efficiency

For today, we had to move forward as we were very aware that we were running against the clock. We realized that shots we planned specifically for the chessboard weren’t efficient enough and too clunky to set up for the time we had. We decided that to be able to complete everything, we did a bunch of shots from a selection of camera positions which fulfilled multiple needs. 

 

 

The time we saved from setting up specific individual shots was used to set up less varied but better-looking shots. Like the extreme close-up shots of the chess pieces with a shallow focus which were just tiny movements of the camera closer to the chess pieces, but it still had the same set up. These shots were used for chess moves we wanted to put emphasis on like this one.

 

 

We got the idea of using a sequence of arial shots to show the less dramatic chess moves so it could take less time in the movie. We were having a problem figuring out how to set the camera without the tripod being in the way. Until our teacher showed a unique way to set up the tripod for it. We would have never thought about putting the tripod on an angle. This kind of made us think of other possibilities. 

We were way more productive this day and more confident about what we were doing. We took more shots overall, and we were happy with them. We weren’t able to finish all the shots, even with us trying to go as fast as we could. The most simplest shot took longer. I really underestimated the time they would, something I will keep in mind for next production.

Production day 1

Dealing with the weather

It was the first time filming a movie and it was a learning experience. The day started with a very nice sunny weather.  It was very surprising to have such a bright day, because compare to the weather of the other days did not match. This caused a big worry for everybody in the group as our first conversation was about what would happen if today is an outlier and the next day we film, it goes back to cloudy weather. We decided to take advantage of the weather by filming the more calm shots that suited the sunny weather. We also had to change our location to a bench near by. The original location had one side in which was too dark compared to the rest.

 

The original location with the normal weather we expected while we were location scouting

 

The day of filming with the new location and the sunny lighting

 Changing the plan

 

This was the first of many deviations of the plan, which was something I wasn’t very happy about. In paper our shots made sense and they worked well together but in practice things weren't working. We had to change some shots because of the new location or the sun getting in the way.

 

For example this shot didn’t look right, with the camera being too shaky and it was hard to follow, so we changed it to be a over the shoulder shot instead of a pov.

 

Little details

A lot of us didn’t know how to play chess but as our story relies on a character noticeably knowing about chess and one who didn’t, we tried to set it up the best way we could, this took a bit of time to familiarize with the chess moves we wanted the characters to made. The other thing that took up a chunk of the time was the lack of confidence and knowledge of the equipment and that it was the first time the actors had acted in something.

 

We knew about this beforehand and the actors were still very good. But In hindsight there were some extreme faces and actions that were needed but caused trouble for the actors as it took time for them be comfortable doing them.

In general this day was all about getting comfortable with what we were doing and adapting, A lot of thing didn't go as planned, it was slow to figure things out and it wasn't as productive as I would have liked. But what we did do today were important necessary things that will help us go faster the 2nd day.