Victor Inc.: Unit 3 - P4 - production materials

As I'm working independently in my project, I will be doing almost every aspect of the production process. I'll be the director, camera operator, editor, etc. however the only roles that i won't be doing are the mic holder because my hands will be busy with filming, and the lighting technician because I can't really change the quality of light in my setting. I will however be accompanied by friends who may help with some directing instructions to the actresses and they're also likely to have a small role in the film as the waiter(s).

Production Log

3rd April 2018 - Filming day 1
I chose to film during the holidays because it was the time when I and the actresses were most free to film. On the first day of filming, I had a friend come over to the venue to help me film because I couldn't film and hold the microphone because of a faulty leg on the tripod, and he played the role of the waiter. We filmed a few scenes and the actresses started to get used to the flow of filming and grew to understand their characters more. The biggest issue that I realised early on when I arrived at the bar was that 3 of the lightbulbs were either not working or the electricity to the connection wasn't working, so I had to make the decision to film on a different table than the one I planned to use, which didn't help with the low lighting problem. The biggest problem that arose was the lighting in the main setting - in the basement - was not well enough lit to properly film each Ruqaiya's character Sam, so we used a phone torch to try and compensate for the lack of light and although it didn't good, it did the job. Another issue was that the radio was playing in the background of the first few scenes we shot on the day, so its's going to be an issue going forward when editing because of the continuity and sound quality problems it can cause. Unfortunately we didn't film the first couple of scenes because the weather was not good enough. We had a task of filming a certain amount of shots and we accomplished our goal so it was a pretty good day of filming, despite the lighting and sound issues.
The next task for filming now will be to continue shooting the scenes and to try and irradiate the issue of the hight of the camera constantly changing.
Day 1 completed scenes: 1-4K
Next step: To continue filming the next collection of scenes.

5th April 2018 - Filming day 2
I had another friend come down and help me film on the second day of filming. The aim for this day was to complete all the outdoor opening scenes and all the two-shots. It quickly became apparent that filming in a busy bus was not going to be a possibility because of various issues including continuity errors, sound quality, footage quality, getting permission to film on it as well as passengers constantly coming into the shot. Therefore we decided to forget that plan and went forward with our backup plan of filming on a public city bench in a quiet area.

Reflecting on my reflection

I felt like this was the right day to film the outdoor scenes because it was the first time the sun was out and it would look good on film. However, what I didn't expect was for the sun to come out with full force, meaning that a lot of the videos that we initially took were over exposed even with a low ISO and a change in White balance, so we ended up trying to film every time the sun was covered by the clouds. This worked really well as I think we got some really good shots from the day, even if they are a little over-exposed. I eventually realised that I had to change the angle I was shooting from because I could be seen on film in the reflection of the shop we were filming in front of (above inset).

Two-shot not incandescent

On reflection I think the sound quality of the outdoor scenes were great and the "daylight mode" on the white balance really helped with the footage quality of the outdoor scenes, however it didn't help when I forgot to switch it to "incandescent" mode when we got back inside meaning that all the two-shot scenes I filmed until I realised are all orange, don't look good compared to the other scenes and may cause a couple problems when editing (right inset). I filmed almost all the two-shots in one go to ensure that the distance and angle between the camera and the actresses remained the same throughout the movie rather than the distance constantly changing and causing problems and confusion when watching it back, however i couldn't film every scene because of the time limitations concerning the activities in the bar and also the availability of the actresses. The rest of the shots we took however, I am very satisfied with. The next step I think is to shoot all of the over-the-shoulder shots of Diana's character Laura.
Day 2 completed scenes: most of the two-shots and all the scenes filmed outside.

10th April 2018 - Filming day 3
On the third day of filming I finished filming all the two-shots first before going on and filming all of Laura's over the shoulder shots, again to ensure that every time the film changed to an over the shoulder shot it was consistent and always the same. However, I did consider changing the height of the camera in different scenes to add a sense of superiority and to show who's in control and has the higher ground in that moment. After a lot of thought I decided not to do this because the whole point of the film is to put both perspectives on a level playing field and to allow the viewer to make their own decisions on who is right and develop their own opinions, so having any input on their views and perspectives on them would be wrong. Even though I had a third different person to help with filming on the day, it was still really easy to film because everyone knew what their role was for filming - my friend was holding the microphone - and the actresses were so sure and had built and good level of confidence with themselves and the characters they were portraying that it was easy to manage and they had almost nailed the attitudes for the characters. We also got the help of a random customer in the bar. He assisted me and the actresses on what they needed to do to make the scene we were doing more realistic, this could be seen as a distraction and a problem for us when filming but it was a welcomed break for everyone and helped us get back into focus of what we wanted to achieve.
Day 3: completed scenes: all the two-shots and Laura's over-the-shoulder shots for the whole film.

11th April 2018 - Filming day 4
The final scheduled day of shooting was more relaxed as we finished off filming the scenes that we had left to do as well as recording all the voiceovers that Ruqaiya had to do for the beginning and the ending of the film. We did have to rush it a little bit because one of the actors had to leave the shoot early for an appointment.

14th may - 22nd June - Couldn't film because of the girls' a-levels
Between the 14th of May and the 22nd of June both my actresses were doing their A-Level exams so we couldn't film any footage for the film. This also limits our chance to do all the re-shoots we wanted to do since one of the actresses goes on holiday on the 24th June and I'm not available to shoot on the 23rd.

22nd June 2018 - Failed re-shoot day because of redesign of venue
We planned to re-shoot some scenes the same day as the actresses had finished their exams, but when i got to the venue to prepare for the re-shoots, I noticed that during the times we weren't there, the business had completely redecorated the venue. This includes, colour of the walls, layout, theme and furniture. Unfortunately because of these vast changes we couldn't film the scenes needed because of continuity problems. This causes a bigger problem because I found out that there's a scene we didn't shoot and now there's no way to shoot that scene.