Day of Filming

For the day of filming, I had to schedule a day off from work. Unpaid days off hurt my paycheck, but I figured it would be necessary. My client was only willing to work on a weekday and I had no more paid days off of vacation.

Early Wednesday morning, we loaded up the equipment and set out for the film site. I didn't like that the client was waiting when I arrived. My preference would have been to had plenty of time to preview the set and take light readings. That wasn't going to happen. A quick dime tour and we all sat down to hash out a game plan. We reviewed the script for some time and I received very little from the review. I was able to communicate some simple but important to me concepts. I tried to emphasize a word choice theme. "We are going to do this", instead of "I will show you"

It was decided that "Ted" would be the narrator of the process and would have a few on screen parts. "Gary" would give an intro to the video and intro Ted. "Greg" would be the actual person applying the product on screen.

Gary had it in his mind that he could do his entire intro in one shot. I really wanted to do multiple angles to give Gary a way to break up his lines into one or two sentences. I was easily vetoed. I really didn't push the issue because I didn't have a script in hand to try and stick to. I had to catch what I could on camera. Technical problems including a natural light vs. fluorescant issue arose. Audio was tough because of the warehouse acoustics and a running truck. Also, I'm very unhappy with the blurry focus that was completely undetectable on the view finder of the camera. Eight or more takes to get a good take with Gary and we were done. QUIET on set was a rather big issue. People got excited and started talking over the shot. Wasted shots. Eventually, cue cards were made up. It left the talent looking a little stiff. Again, I will do multi-takes to cover that next time. Lastly with the intro take, the blocking was evolving on set. Future directing means; Stand here, say this, move here, hold for 5 count and CUT! I shouldn't leave anything for them to "figure out". If they don't like it, they will say so and we go with that. I'll decide everything to move it all forward efficiently.

A word on camera height. I'm a tall man. 6'4" on a good day. When I set a camera at my eye level, most of the shot will be tilted down. It's a horrible way to set the camera angle, it disorients and causes a strange sensation subconsciously to the viewer. Very amatuer.

I had Ted walk through quickly the process. He often confused me asking about the process with directing him to do something. Ultimately, I was trying to have his face in the shot as little as possible. It's not about Ted, it was about the process. Also, I had a hard time keeping the talent cognizant of their own positions with relation to the camera. Several shots were ruined because of an actors back covering 90% of the shot. I had to return and reshoot some scenes and I had to pose as the technician.

A lesson learned... When Ted was facing the camera and speaking directly to it, he bumbled his lines horribly. I could have helped this with multi-takes, but I think the proximity of the camera to his person threw him a little bit. He also moved around a lot. I just let him keep on, I figured he'd tire of moving, but he didn't. I totally dropped that scene and opted for a voice over title sequence.

On the day of filming, I felt okay about it. When I got home, uploaded the footage, and reviewed, I quickly realized the necessity for more footage for continuity and flow.