Fiction Adaption: Shoot Day 1 Reflection

Today we filmed the 1st lot of scenes for The Death Bed. We had quite a few problems but i do think ultimately we managed to get some great shots and i was really pleased with how the team worked in general. After picking up danny from rochester, louis arrived at my house just before 10am and we began by filming his waking up scenes as the light wasn't too harsh. looking back on these shots now i feel they were a little rushed but there also isn't a lot going on but one of the shots i did i was really pleased with as its really cool. I think in future i would send slightly more time getting the right shot as i found it difficult to get just the right amount of light when he opened the curtains as it was either too dark in the room but clear outside the window or completely bleached out light outside but inside it was visible. This is the issue with camera's but i think I've found a way to work around it when i reshoot that one scene tomorrow.

Fran, Josh and john arrived at 11 and we then moved onto filming the woods scenes. After a short walk to the location i explained to everyone the order of scenes, fran doubled up as make up artist for this shoot and was able to create a really effective look and with the right colour correction and camera angles it will look good. In the end we used fake blood and eyebrow tint and eyeshadow. I explained to the actors that I wanted the gang to say things that came naturally to them rather than stick to the script in terms of dialogue, as it would appear more realistic. We first filmed the day time woods scene and found that it flowed really well. After a few takes of each scene we moved onto the day for night.

This was one of the things I was most proud of as after following all the things I had researched and learnt how to create the effect but it came out so much better than I expected. Even the actors were really impressed with it especially danny as we are both not as confident with camera’s as chris who usally takes up this role in our team. After filming what was needed we moved on to the next location.

At the garage’s we had a small problem where my housemate needed me to go and help her so I had to get Louis to drive to chatham while the other actors had a lunch break. Once back Louis had his lunch and I decided to film only the flashback/gang scenes today as were running short of time and light. We filmed the park scenes first and then the garage scenes. Both of these scenes needed a little choreography to get the right sort of vibe and flow for the scene but I feel this is where my direction was really needed and I managed to bring the best out of my actor whilst keeping the realistic nature of the scene.

Finally we shot the night time sequence at a different location than I had originally thought. Fran had somewhere in mind along Rochester espionage that she felt would suit the film a lot better and so I trusted her judgment and we went to her location. It was perfect. It even had a white street light just above us to help with lighting. We first filmed the gang walking along the riverbank as danny had to leave and then moved onto the death scenes. Not many members of the public walked along the path while we were filming but I had already received permission to film on both sides of the river after speaking to the Kent film office.  Although it was very cold and wet Louis was a trooper and really managed to give a solid performance. I was really pleased with how john filmed the lights sequence as it really turned out exactly like the image in my head so im thrilled.

Overall I feel the day was really successful. In future I will try and be a little bit more organized in terms of prepping my actors so that we do not waste valuable shooting time arranging scenes. If I was to do anything differently I would make sure I have plenty of full charged batteries for the canon as at the end of the day both batteries were flashing red and so we could have almost ran out of battery.

Stay safe,

Helen