As Media studies blog- Jess Travers
The film diary
Friday 4th December- My parnter and I give in our letter to 'Cafe on the Square'. With an explanation of what we would like to achieve and asking for the rights to film on location. We detailed some key equipment we might need to borrow, such as tables and chairs. Hopefully they will reply via email with confirmation.
Thursday 10th December- Having received no reply from the ‘Café on the Square’ I contact my partner and we had a discussion about the practicality of using this particular café. Filming in public leaves our project open to many possible problems (inconveniently we have only just realised this), there are so many variables that we cannot control. A few examples include; a member of public doing something inappropriate in the background of a shot, winter daylight and re-takes. During our conversation, my partner and I came to the conclusion that there was a major flaw in our plan; we were completely dependent on the café saying yes (letting us use their location for filming). As they hadn’t replied or acknowledged our letter, we were thrown into a slight state of panic as we tried to think of new places to use as our film location. We recorded a number of different cafes’ numbers and decided on a few last resorts. As soon as possible we will constructing a new plan and contact these various locations. Although it seems unlikely that they will allow us to film, it is worth trying.
If we do change the location type, for example using a pub instead of a café, we will have to re-do our camera shots, script and storyboard- which is exactly what we don’t want to be doing with rough cut due so soon (Beginning of January).
Friday 11th December- During a study period last lesson, my partner contacted a number of different cafes. In this list of possible candidates for a new location, Mark Bennet’s came up. With a bakery in Sandbanks and Penn Hill we were looking more intently at his simplistic style for our emergency new set. After calling the company, my partner got assured that we would probably be able to use their shop as a back drop, but a letter would be needed to be sent to Mark himself. A letter was promptly written and sent by my partner; all while I studied ‘The Cell Cycle’ in my AS Biology class.
Monday 14th December: I receive emails from both Mark Bennett and Arran Thomas (manager of ‘Café on the Square’. They both agree for us to use their cafes. This puts my partner and I in a difficult situation as both cafes have good and bad qualities. While on a lengthy, loud speaker conversation we weighed up the pros and cons on each café. Please see my page on locations in the research section of my blog for our analysis.
Tuesday 15th December: Taking advantage of one of my study periods, I collected extra equipment from my technology teacher. This involved 2 microphones and a boom pole. One microphone, the audio-technica ATR25 stereo microphone, is unidirectional; the other, a small clip-on microphone is limited in sound capacity. This means that we do not have access to a microphone that can directly record diegetic sound and the minimal speech in our 2 minute opening. To concur this problem, I put forward the idea of adding another camera; purely for sound use. This camera will be positioned in the middle of the tables and will record the chatter of the café- we can later use this in post-production, if we need to.
I also replied to Mark Bennett and Arran Thomas about using their cafes. My partner and I have officially chosen to use Mark Bennett’s instead of ‘Café on the Square’. I quickly outlined what we intended to do during our filming day to Mr. Bennett and sent his email; while thanking Mr. Thomas for his help in replying.
Monday 21st December: I recieved an email from Mark Bennett repsonding to the email I sent him. He confirms that we can pick up a key directly from him and open up the cafe.
Filming!!!!
Monday 21st December: Our date for filming all alley and river scenes in Wimborne. Collecting Imogen from the train station, we drove to the little town and were dropped off with all our equipment. Straight away we received a setback: it was torrential rain. However, we had planned for this with umbrellas and waterproof coats so were able to protect the (school borrowed) camera from damage. With the help of our well designed shot list we were able to tick off all the shots within a 3 hour period (this includes a small coffee break at Costa). But due to the horrific weather we encountered a lot of problems that not only effected our general morale, but the filming we were able to do:
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The bank we planned to use in Wimborne, for our phone smashing scene, was flooded and dangerous to walk on. Long shots would not have been possible to shoot due to the raised river.
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The new location for these scenes, while near the river was a completely different setting for us to film in. This meant that we had to improvise the shots and lighting we had available.
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Lighting was limited throughout the day due to the heavily clouded sky.
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Katerina did not have the well-kept, finished look we intended for her to take on.
While all of these are negative impacts, they were accompanied with some positives produced by our changing of location and new look for our main character.
I was put in charge of protecting all the equipment, carrying the shot-list and keeping the general morale up as much as possible. As director, my partner Katie filmed every shot and then asked for my opinion and allowed me to criticize what was captured. Imogen also offered her knowledge on how she should be acting and giving us slightly new ideas on how the character should appear in certain scenes. Katie and I made sure we shot from the same angle at least twice so we would have back up shots if anything were to happen to the first; we also tried filming each shot with a slight change each time. An example of this would be a mid-shot of Katerina walking past the camera:
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Take One: She walks past looking forward.
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Take two: She walks past glancing around cautiously.
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Take three: She walks past looking down.
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Take four: She walks past looking behind her occasionally.
After double checking that we had all the shots, we drove home and warmed up with a shower; after setting out all the equipment that needed to dry in an airing space. We transferred all the memory from the camera to my laptop, Katie’s laptop and my memory stick just to be sure.
Tuesday 29th December: This was THE day for filming. I considered the Wimborne filming a warm up in comparison to the plan for the 29th.
8:30- We collected the shop keys and a shop apron from Mark Bennett’s second shop in Sandbanks; greeted by the lovely manager of the Penn Hill branch, we collected these objects and travelled to Penn Hill.
9:00- 10:00- During this time we prepared the café to look as realistic as possible.
10:00-10:30- I had organised for all the extras and Imogen to arrive at Penn Hill between 10:00 and 10:30. After they had all huddled together, we talked through the plan for the day and what their roles involved. All the extras were placed into their filming positions and Imogen got changed into her waitress costume.
10:30- 14:00- We filmed during these hours with occasional breaks for the extras and actors.
14:00- 14:30- The extras and Mark Johnson left the set and went home. We had asked a lot of them and we did not require them for the rest of the shots we planned on filming.
14:30-15:30- Katie filmed the rest of the individual shots for Katerina while I packed away the café and placed everything how we had first found it.
By 16:00- We were picked up and taken home, this concluded our filming day. While a little on the cold side, the weather was fantastic for our filming; it was a successful day.