Uni!

Click here for the link to see my post about crewing for 3rd years, without having to scroll through all my posts. 

Click here for the link to see my 2nd year Outside the box work

CREWING REVIEWS (3rd year semester 1):

Crewing for:

  • George Smith
  • Rebecca Hilton
  • Caitlin Donaldson
  • Kali Byrne
  • Peter Nicholls
George Smith's shoot - 14/11/13 & 18/11/13
Both of these shoots went incredibly smooth - the location shoot (14th) was relaxed yet fun, and the shoot in the studio (18th) allowed the crew to experiment with visuals, meaning we could be as creative as needs be. I was DOP on both shoots working with Caitlin, who was Gaffer/Cam assist. We worked together to do specific dolly shots and two camera set ups as well as helping each other with the cameras, lenses and transferring footage. 

On the first shoot, we made oatcakes with the owner - Terry - who judged our terrible attempts. I drew with George! He then showed everyone his giant ring stencil to make a giant oatcake which was double (if not triple) the size of a normal oatcake! 



The second day was based at the shoot studio in the Media Centre. We spent from 9am till 5pm conducting several cinematic shots including a tracking shot of a dining table, macro shots of water and a beautiful shot of flour being sieved into a bowl. Everything looks brilliant - I'm really happy with the results and the post production aspect of it has gone really well... well done to George for making such an entertaining film! 

Rebecca Hilton's shoot: 20/11/13 & 21/11/13
For Rebecca's shoot, we spent it at the Number 26 shop in Hanley, Staffordshire. The staff were extremely welcoming, nice and relaxed and we were allowed to film them doing day-to-day activities such as restocking, creating jewellery and doing photo shoots. 
As DOP, I spent all of my day running around two floors of vintage shops to get footage of anything interesting I see. Because the shop is so visually interesting, I found that finding photographic elements was easy. 

Being without a 1st AD proved difficult: we had no one to keep an eye on the time and no one to keep everything in check. Luckily, George took the role as first AD and after that, the shoot ran much more smoothly. We had lunch at a nearby cafe and returned to conduct interviews with the shop owners.
All of the interviews had really good content - you could see that the owners worked incredibly hard to get where they are. Becky's film is about dedication, hard work and earning your money, so the interviews definitely had relevant and useful information in them. Here are a selection of stills from the footage I did: 





Caitlin Donaldson's shoot: 25/11/13

For Caitlin's shoot, I was 1st AD. I felt much more comfortable being an assistant director as myself and Caitlin had several meetings and discussions beforehand about her idea and the logistics, so I knew exactly what was going to happen. 
We had a good sized crew and lovely cast - including the guy from the 'girl from the platform smile' advert as the main character! Also, the location was absolutely beautiful and was perfect for her film (except there was no signal for any networks, so we were without contact for a whole day!). 
Because of the quality of the crew, even though we had a lot to do we still managed to do it successfully without losing quality. A few shots were cut out as we ran closer to the end, but we still managed to get most of the desired shots done. 
One of the downfalls was the time we had in the location: because it was a cottage and the owner had someone arriving at 6pm, we had to leave by then. This meant that we had to constantly keep checking the time (more than usual) and push people to do things as quickly as possible. However, we still managed to get everything done and ever part of the cast and crew worked exceptionally hard to complete the shoot in time! 

Overall, it was a great shoot and I enjoyed pushing myself and the crew to get their jobs done. As AD, I felt like I kept Caitlin calm when time was running out and kept everyone organised and happy. The post production process seems to be going well and I'm excited to see the results! 





Kali Byrne's shoot: 27/11/13 & 28/11/13

Kali's shoot is one of the shoots that I am most proud for in terms of cinematography. She gave me a lot of freedom and input in the pro production process, so I was able to make decisions with the cinematography and suggest lighting ideas. We used a smoke machine to give the film an eerie look, which worked amazingly. I'm extremely proud of the footage! 
The set back was the lack of 1st AD on set, because (like Becky's), we had no one to keep an eye on time or make sure everything was done. It meant that I had to work the camera and help with the schedule as well as making sure all the shots were done, which was a bit overwhelming for me. We also had a malfunction with a cable from the C100 kit, meaning we had to go back to the Media Centre and get it replaced. Luckily, we were filming at my house which is extremely close to the Media Centre, so it only took a matter of minutes. Certain little setbacks such as that meant that we ran over slightly with our timings, however, we still got everything done and to a high standard. 

Overall, I believe that the result of this shoot will be high, however it is another example of how valuable having a 1st AD on set is. I've seen the finished product and it's definitely worth a watch! Here are a few stills below:







Peter Nicholls' shoot: 1/12/13 & 2/12/13

As 1st AD, I found this shoot particularly stressful. Working in a location filled with people, a humongous crew (with only myself, Caitlin, Ben and Peter as 3rd years) and a missing actress meant that the shoot was set back hours: were supposed start at 6-7pm, but didn't start till nearly 10pm. Only 3 shots out of 54 were completed - I called the shoot to finish at midnight as the manager of Cafe Nero (the location) was tired, we were all exhausted and stressed and we all had to be up again at 7:30 in the morning, only for another night of shooting. I felt like as first AD it was my responsibility to keep the crews health in mind, so even though we didn't have a lot done, it wasn't the crews fault and therefore it shouldn't impact on them as much as it did. We were all incredibly stressed due to the lack of work actually completed, so we called it a night and met up again the next day.
However, through the night the actress pulled out because there were too many 1st and 2nd years on a 3rd year shoot, and she felt like she didn't have a clue what was going on. Peter found a replacement actor, but that meant everything we filmed the night before was unusable and wasted. 
The 2nd day was equally as stressful because all of the crew were tense from the day before. Thankfully, this actor was much more laid back and because Caitlin had a word with Peter, we managed to get an understanding of the shot list and we could quickly set up. We got around 7 shots done (out of 52) before midnight. 

Considering that we only had 4 3rd years (including Peter), the crew was quite strong. We had a great group of second years and some eager 1st years. However, the sheer confusion, stress and tension on the shoot meant that we just simply could not get anything completed, which made everything worse. I hope that the film comes out okay because I know Peter worked hard on it. 





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