We started with the interior scenes; Frank's living room & bedroom. We did some test footage on my DSLR and compared it against the same shot filmed with the Sony video camera.
The director decided he would prefer to shoot on the DSLR for various reasons:
DSLR Pros
- Superior image quality
- Compact size - allows us to get more varied shots and the increased availability due to not having to book the camera out, just the lenses.
DSLR Cons
- Less control over white balance - (my Nikon DSLR only has white balance pre-sets, no manual option)
- Sound could not be monitored in real time due to the lack of a headphone socket.
The director decided the pros outweighed the cons so we have shot everything with the DSLR, using wide, macro,18-55 mm and telephoto lenses.
A lot of the footage has required post production colour balancing to fix white balance issues but the footage has come out looking pretty good overall.
As the cameraman I have been trying to think of imaginative shots, always trying to keep in mind the law of thirds and the 180 degree rule. I have also tried pulling focus on a few shots with some pleasing results.
I thought about the atmosphere of the shot and tried to think of a shot style that best matched it.
Examples of shot types employed
- The shot of Lawrence against the tree after the knife fight, when he pulls out his gun, I used a Dutch angle to try and convey confusion and tension on Lucas' part.
- The shot of Frank hiding behind the logs wondering what to do next, I decided on a slow handheld arc around Frank from the opposite side of the log pile- again to keep the shot tense and interesting.
I had discovered by the woods filming that focusing the subject where they would end up in frame using the viewfinder before switching to the live view on the screen helped keep correct focus as I found it hard to see if focus was correct on the small screen, particularly with the wide lens which has a lot of focus range available.
The correct aspect ratio is also not displayed until recording so I recorded rehearsal takes to practise my framing.
On the third day of filming after shooting 2 days of interiors we moved to the office scene. We shot the office in the morning before our editor assembled a rough cut at lunch. We then did a pick up shoot in the afternoon.
Shooting the office scene
After more work on the edit we had to go back for additional pick-ups to fix certain continuity problems. Where an actor changed body position between shots we inserted a wide 2 shot, which also helped establish the geography of the scene after the opening first person shot.
We also did a pick up shoot for the woods scenes to fix similar issues.
As producer it has been my role to book equipment out and make sure that people are ready at certain times. This has proved challenging trying to make sure people don't sleep in or aren't late.
A typical shooting day has been starting at half ten and working through to around 4. After trial and error this was the earliest time that I can ensure most of the crew will be awake and ready to shoot.
As we stand today, out of a total of six scenes we have 3 completely shot, (the office, the woods & the kitchen) & 3 shorter scenes remaining (The bag drop off, the pc interaction and the celebratory final scene).
Editing has been carried out concurrently with shooting to enable us to identify any issues with our footage and shoot pick ups.
We are hoping to finish shooting tomorrow.
