Shoot Day Evaluation

We started our shoot day on Wednesday in the studio with our band, where three four by four white flats had been constructed to make a white box/room for our band to play in. We began by painting the pink hearts on the boards that needed finishing. Once that was done, we made sure all our band was in costume and were confident with their words. We then organised the set, putting instruments in place and such, in order to start filming.
Once we had filmed all the necessary shots of the band, we got in the minivan and went on location to Millie’s house; where we would be shooting the kitchen and bedroom scenes. Upon arrival we set up the kitchen for the breakfast making scenes, with most of this being shot using stop-motion framing, the filming itself took longer than normal frames would have, but we knew this was what we wanted and needed, so we worked as quickly as possible trying to get as many shots as we could. All of the kitchen scenes took the best part of the afternoon and so the bedroom scene was cut down drastically, however, I am confident that we used the location to our advantage as much as we had the time for.
Some of the most successful elements of the shoot, I think were those that were not planned. For example, the stop motion shots of the egg going into the pan whilst the rest of the eggs in the carton turn to watch its journey are wonderful, and were totally spontaneous. I also found that our group of actors was on the whole very easy to work with. They all did what they were told for the most part and though they were quite nervous, especially when put on the spot, they were still eager to please which was very helpful for us. Overall I felt that the shoot went very well with only minor hiccups if any.
During the shoot there were many changes made to our pre-production planning. From the studio shots of the band in the morning to the final scene with breakfast in bed; our final shots were very different to our original ideas. In fact, as I mentioned above, almost none of our original ideas were used in their true form. Of course the structure stayed the same and the general narrative through line was unchanged but each shot within itself was not originally on our storyboard. The reasons for all of these changes were, however, logical. For example, we had to shoot all of Jack’s movements in the kitchen from right to left so as not to break the 180 degree rule, and we had to fry the egg and then cut it into a heart shape because the cutter we had needed to be kept pressed down over the egg whilst it cooked. There were a few other logistical ones like that. But then there was the idea of the eggs having faces, which was simply comedic. We thought we ought to use as many animation aspects as possible throughout our stop-motion frames, so we did.
The only thing I found to be especially wrong with our shoot was the lack of time, I think had I the opportunity of re-shooting, I would like to have two days rather than one so that time wouldn’t be such a constraint. Other than this, for me, our shoot day went a lot better than I expected it to and I wouldn’t change a thing. I am confident that we came away with all the shots we needed plus some shots as backups. 