After Arcadia Production

We started the day on schedule by meeting this morning at 10am along with Alex as our guide to the filming location; once we got off the bus we made a quick 10-minute walk down to the quarry. Because we hadn't done a recce shot, we were very reliant on Alex’s knowledge of the location. I spent some time with Bob and Joe scanning the surrounding area for the best way to shoot the footage using Bob’s storyboards as a reference point. Also whilst surveying the area I kept a keen eye out for specific shots that would suit a montage scene to build up an atmosphere and environment that our character would be travelling across and in tone with the overall genre of the piece. The main problem that we realized was the limitations of how we could shoot some scenes, we really weren't able to shoot any extremely long shots of the character because of the quarry walls would be in shot, so we weren't able to portray to well the idea of our character being in a huge open landscape. Also I wasn't really able to capture the sky because of numerous houses would have been captured in shot, which would have ruined our vision of a post-apocalyptic world.

Before we started the shoot, I said that whilst the establishing shoot was being set up I would create 3 different User Preferences in camera; which only took about 15 minutes for me to create 3 contrasting set-ups, once I had finalised the 3 set ups I showed each of them to Joe and together we agreed on the User Preference that best captures the vision of the style for the film.

User 1: Picture Style Neutral, Sharpness 3, Contrast -4, Saturation +4, Colour Tone -4

I thought that by doing this it might be useful for when the film went into post-production, but though the idea of having the Saturation and Colour Tone settings this way, in theory might work, I really didn’t like how the image was looking in camera, it just looked too full of life.

User 2: Picture Style Neutral, Sharpness 3, Contrast -2, Saturation -2, Colour Tone +4.

I really liked the visual style of this set up; the contrast was only slightly reduced down and the life seems to be drained from the colours with the saturation and colour tone settings.

User 3: Picture Style Standard, Sharpness 2, Contrast -3, Saturation +2, Colour Tone -2

I actually quite liked this set up as well; despite the image in camera still having vibrant colours, I thought that this could be reduced in post-production with colour correction.

I showed all 3 of these set ups to Joe and we both decided that User 2 was definitely the best option as the image in camera was really close to the what we had imagined before the shoot. Though after a brief talk we had agreed that we probably weren’t going to be able to achieve the post apocalyptic world look, as the location didn’t give us much to work with and the costume that we had for the actor didn’t look anywhere near dirty enough, included the actor himself.

We started the shoot by working along side the shooting schedule that I had compiled earlier in the week, whilst using Bob’s illustrated storyboards as a great visual reference point. Unfortunately straight away we experienced technical problems on set with the recording of sound; the Marantz that we booked out was faulty (Phone Jack and Battery Compartment) so we had to make do with the on board sound from the Canon 550D.

The shoot itself went really well and between each shot I kept good communication between myself and Joe on how each shot was going to be set up and framed and also how each shot looked after each take and whether or not I felt that it was a success or not. We had known beforehand that the chance of rain was pretty high and right on cue after shooting a key scene of our character eating a woodlouse, heavens opening and the rain came pouring down, luckily we had brought a tent to keep the equipment in and had a large umbrella to keep the camera and lenses dry; we knew that this would cause a big continuity error with regards to the weather, but because this was our only available shoot day we decided to carry on regardless.

The umbrella became a big help to me on set as there was always someone there on set to hold the umbrella over me as I set up each shot in the dry without having to worry about getting too much water on my camera and the lens itself.

After we had completed the filming of the opening scene we decided to go ahead with my idea of shooting a montage scene; this gave me a Bob a great opportunity to have a much more creative input to the shoot day, we had already scouted out some really promising areas that we could exploit to convey an atmosphere that reflected the story as a whole. One area in specific was this small and dirty pond like area that look like something out of post apocalyptic world. We also noticed on our way into the quarry that there was an old abandoned building that had seen better days, and we thought that it would be a great place to shoot our closing shot for the montage with our character finding a baby’s toy (which Bob had brought along with him to the shoot) in this building. In fact it turned out that both these shots were something that had already been included within Bob’s storyboards where the character was collecting water and finding a toy.

Being on set as the D.O.P and the Camera Operator, I decided that it was essential to keep my own shot list throughout the day, and it proved to be very helpful as I was able to keep track of what we had shot in regards to the original plan in the shooting schedule and also will be a massive help for when we get the footage into post-production tomorrow in the edit suite as I’ve got each shot listed with all the technical settings and more importantly which shots were successful; this should save us a huge amount of time in the edit.

Though I don’t believe that during our test shoot we have be able to capture a believable post apocalyptic world, I do feel that the visual style that I made in the camera really does suit the genre of the piece, as the footage itself looks like the colour has had the life drained out of it, just like the world in the story has been drained of life. And I hope to amplify these feeling with colour correction in the post-production of the film, which we beginning the edit tomorrow.

Confirmed Shooting Schedule – After Arcadia

Crew to meet outside of the college for 10am

Catch the bus out to The Broadway for 10.30am

Get to the filming location for 11am

Ready to start filming by 11.30am

1. Set up User Pref 1 – 18mm - Tripod
2. Set up User Pref 2 – 18mm - Tripod
3. Set up User Pref 3 – 18mm - Tripod
4. Establishing shot – 18mm – Tripod
5. Shot #3 – 50mm - Tripod
6. Shot #2 – 50mm
7. Shot #4 – 50mm - Tripod
8. Shot #5 – 50mm
9. Shot #7 – 50mm
10. Shot #8 – 50mm - Tripod
11. Shot #3.2 – 50mm - Tripod
12. Shot #9 – 50mm
13. Shot #8.2 – 50mm - Tripod
14. TBC – Montage scenes onwards

Finish filming by 5pm

Production – Music Video

The shoot today went really smoothly; though we did have some noise complaints that sent us back on our schedule. The reason for today’s shoot going so well I thought was because of our pre-planning before hand, from the Lighting Workshop last month and our Test Shoot previously we had enough time to gel together as a crew with everyone communicating really well with each other. We also shoot from using some storyboards as reference.

These really allowed us to make sure that we captured all the different shots required for the video with the least amount of performances that the band had to provide in front of camera and also allowed us to be a bit more creative with certain cutaway shots. One nicely composed shot I really liked on set was a cutaway of the drummer playing his kick drum from a very low angle.

This I thought might really work well in the final edit of the film as the music track itself seemed to have an heavy emphasis on the drum and the kick drum in particular.

I had decided to shoot the footage in colour, because I thought that filming in the monochrome setting on the Canon 550D probably wouldn't allow as much creative freedom with colour correction in post. Though I did at times put the camera in monochrome setting as a reference point to see how the lighting set up was looking on camera, the setting up of the lighting for each shot was achieve really quickly as Rob had brought his Lighting Plan to the shoot and there were pretty much spot on in terms of position. Any minor tweaks that we’re made was by me talking to Rob on set and showing him what I thought needed to be changed in order to get the creative vision that Damian had wanted for the video.

And before we started shooting any scenes I would show Damian how the shots looked in camera before recording any footage, this allowed us to capture and be creative with the shadows that me and Rob had set up to be projected onto the back of the Infinity Cove.

We stayed on schedule for the shoot, despite having some complaints from the noise coming from the drums (guess that was to be expected), we probably in hindsight should have given prior warning to the ERC that we would be filming a band and that the noise levels would probably be very high for periods of our shoot; a bonus of the shoot was the decision to shoot digital, as we not only had the Canon 5D MKII from the stores, but we all brought our own cameras to the shoot, which allowed all of us to chip in with the camera work, for alternative shots with the idea that they could be used as nice cutaways in the final edit, Overall a highly successful day of shooting and I’m really looking forward to seeing the finished article in black & white.

Equipment collected/Equipment List – After Arcadia

Today I picked up all the equipment that I booked from the ERC from last week. I also borrowed some equipment from Rob Cooper that we needed for the shoot in a couple of days.

Equipment List

Canon 550D

18mm Zeiss Lens

28mm Zeiss Lens

50mm Zeiss Lens

Monfrotto Tripod

DSLR Rig

Marantz

ME67 (mic)

Small Sunbouncer

Large Reflector

Tent (keep equipment dry)

Large Umbrella (might provide useful on set if it rains heavly)

Last minute research before shoot – After Arcadia

Today Joe planned on going through some rehearsals with our actor, so decided that I should also keep myself busy and do some last minute research to get more prepared for the shoot in a couple of days; I found this book on composition in the library called Picture Composition by Peter Ward and I found a couple of really hopefully quotes.

In summary, good composition is the best arrangement of the subject matter in sympathy with the function of the shot. It should have simplicity and intensity and achieve its objective with clarity, precision and economy. (Ward, 2002:7)

This I believe applies really well to one of the shots that we plan to shoot; where a simple shot of our character is the centre piece of the composition of the shot, but he’s talking to something just out of shot implying an importance to whatever it is just out of shot whilst concentrating on his character that is in the shot. Hopefully this composition will make the audience sympathize more with our character whilst still being aware that something just out of shot will play a huge importance to our characters situation and feelings.

Colour not only has a profound influence on composition, in many forms of image making, it is the subject of the composition. (Ward, 2002:84)

I feel that if I can get the right stylistic look for this film within my own personal camera settings during the filming of the footage for ‘After Arcadia’ then I believe the visual style and the colour palette of the film itself will create this environment that will have it’s very own atmosphere and give the film some substance through the visuals alone; I hope to find the balance of style and realism that will leave an imprint of the films cinematography in the minds of the audience.

Interesting and helpful research - After Arcadia

After our group discussion today, I was reminded of some rather interesting quotes and information that I had come across early in the week from my research.

With the prospect of our shoot day being rather cloudy it reminded me of a quote from cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond (Deliverance) from the book More Contemporary Cinematographers on Their Art by Pauline B. Rogers. Which I had been reading because of the connection with director John Boorman who Joe has listed as one of his main influences from his 1968 film Hell in the Pacific. And from a cinematographers standpoint I thought that Deliverance (1972, dir. John Boorman) was an interesting piece because of it’s cinematography within a natural environment.

“We were very lucky with the weather” he adds. “The sky was cloudy most of the time.” For Zsigmond, this was the simplest way to shoot the picture. He didn’t have to wait for the sun and the lighting matched all day. (Rogers, 2000:179)

Looking at the forecast for our shoot day it is due to be very cloudy and a strong possibility that we might have 100% cloud cover, which would be great for matching up the lighting, though I’ve still got a Sunbouncer and a large reflector booked out for the shoot day just in case the forecast is wrong. This quote really stuck with me because even though you expect professional cinematographers to be meticulous with their attention to detail in regards to lighting especially it seems that even the professionals get lucky in regards to lighting and weather when shooting outdoors and can concentrate more on all the shots they need.

After the group discussion when everyone seemed to be really keen on the idea of shooting a montage scene I also remember a couple of quotes from two books I’d been researching this week, the first is the same book as mentioned above and on the same page as the previous quote.

“The challenge was how to make the trip down the river exciting,” Zsigmond says. “We shot different tests on the river, like shooting from boat to boat. We also tried different angles, different camera moves. (Rogers, 2000:179)

This made me think that I myself should walk around the area once on location to find interesting and believable areas where I can portray our character traveling across land in the montage for the film; though because of our time constraints this might have to just be done by framing scenes just in the camera without our actor playing out each scene as we have an already very tight shooting schedule and too long spent on this will see our light source soon fading fast. I will look to envisage the montage shots as we walk through the shooting location and whilst I’m setting up the user preferences in the camera before shooting commences.

The other quote that came to mind after our group meeting was from the book Cinematography: Theory & Practice by Blain Brown. I had been reading this early in the week as it looked like it might be a good source of information for those looking to develop themselves as upcoming Cinematographers.

Montage is generally only useful for short sequence in narrative storytelling. It can be useful informational work such as documentaries or industrials but most often just for short sequences to establish a mood or give an overall impression of a process or situation. (Brown, 2002:27)

This I thought was a very interesting quote and one that was key in my decision in looking to create a montage scene on our shoot day as looking to establish our character and his setting and situation is actually really key to the overall aspect of the short film project as a whole. And the reference that montages are prominent in documentaries just adds to my overall vision of the film as my idea initially was to have this film have a realistic feel to it and hopefully the inclusion of a montage would subconsciously have that effect on the viewers mind, that the film would seem more believable and feel very realistic.

There was another quote from earlier in the same book that made me think about a certain shot in the opening scene of ‘After Arcadia’ the quote is in reference to Hitchcock’s Rule, that was actually brought up in a recent morning session with Andy James after the screen of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1948 film Rope.

The size of an object in the frame should equal its importance in the story at the moment. (Brown, 2002:25)

This made me really think about one of our scheduled scenes for the shoot day when our character is speaking directly into a mirror; as the mirror is actually a really important object and matter in the film, we could try and apply this rule to our film and have a very close up of the mirror as our character is speaking to it as at this point the mirror is extremely important to the film; and also I have an idea for the montage, so that at the end of the montage our character can find an object that signals previous human existence which again is a massive part of the idea behind ‘After Arcadia’.

Group Meeting with Joe and Bob – After Arcadia

Today’s meeting was about the logistics of the upcoming shoot day; we decided that filming at the clay quarry in Plymstock would be the best for our project and Alex Littleboy has agreed to show us the way on our shoot day. We looked at the weather forecast which was due to be cloudy with a high chance of rain later in the afternoon. I also brought up the idea of a montage that I had from last night after watching Alex’s film The Blackouts; the rest of the group seemed very keen on the idea of this and we as a group decided that we would try and fit it into our shooting schedule directly after the shooting of opening scene was complete.