Up until the Sunday before our Monday shoot, all looked fine. We were as prepared as we thought necessary, we had our actress ready, our storyboard finished, our props almost covered and a hopeful outlook on our shoot.
However, when double-checking with our actress on the Saturday evening that she knew when and where she was supposed to be, she informed me that she was both sick and due for an 8hour art exam that day! Speaking to the rest of our group and to the two back ups we had in mind we found that there was no one able to do the shoot at such short notice and that it would have to be me who played the role (being the one with the closest look to the one we were looking for).
Therefore on Monday morning i was the one standing in the spotlight whilst the remainder of my group set up cameras and lights and learnt all the extra information. Things were fine for the first hour and we were almost ready to begin filming when 'disaster' struck; having not eaten a full breakfast and then standing perfectly still for an hour on my feet, i fainted.
This took away more of our time and worried the teachers enough to disallow me to play the role any longer. So, as disappointed as i was to have let the group down, i allowed myself to be led off set and to give Sarah (another member of our group) the dress that would make her the actress. She did very well and it turned out to be a very easy shoot after all of that drama, as she was very easy to work with and had exactly the same objectives as we did because of course it was her shoot too.
In terms of equipment, we used one camera and a tripod for all our shots, alternating between levels and angles, other than that we had two stationary spotlights on the ceiling and two more movable lights on the ground that we could open up to give more light and close to give more shadow.
I had done the storyboards and a shot list for the shoot and i had a clear image in my mind of the lighting i wanted, luckily the two other members of my group had the same ideas and we were able to move smoothly through the day. However, that is not to say that there were no changes made throughout the day, the bathroom scene for instance, was changed on the day. We had assumed that the camera would be able to fit easily into the room and that the lighting provided from the ceiling would be enough. This idea changed upon arrival when we realised that we couldn't fit into the bathroom and therefore had to set the tripod up in the doorway! The lighting in the room turned out to be too bright as well so a blue stand-light was brought in to create the moonlight effect.
Having 50 red bricks and the hope of building a wall on set without mortar and without seeing hands was something i was a little worried about prior to the shoot, but on the day the bricks ended up being the easiest part of the day! We simply increased the shutter speed so that with each press of the button 5 takes were taken and now in editing we can either slow it down or increase the speed without seeing the hands, which is great!
Looking back on the day, it was a little longer than some of the other shoots and had we started earlier in the morning it might have been less stressful to finish. But over all i think it went very well and i'm not sure anything could have gone beter! :)
On my next shoot i will definately make 100% sure that my actor/acress(s) will be THERE on the day and i will try and make sure we start on time to make the day easier, but other than that i'm not sure there's much more i would have done differently.
