Things can change very quickly when making projects for the screen! So many people and so many elements are interdependent, and if one part changes then the flow on effect goes on forever. Since I am extremely invested in the TVC project, the flow on effect includes my moods as well.
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At the moment I am happy. My shoot is finally over and done with! And tomorrow editing begins.
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Since my last TVC post:
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In my last post I was very happy and contented, having had a good pre-production meeting. The following day, there was another pre-production meeting that left me feeling far less happy and far less contented.
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In many ways I had brought the problems on myself; after all, we are supposed to be making 30 second commercials, and I turned up to my final meeting with a shot list for a 45 second commercial. I have no one but myself to blame for that fact. On the other hand, I felt that it was completely unfair for the tutors to run the pre-production meeting the way they did. I turn up to a pre-production meeting prepared to talk through production issues. I don't turn up prepared to defend the creative story-telling content of each individual shot. Of course a director should be so prepared and have everything so thoroughly thought out that they should be able to do this at any time, but I still don't believe it is fair to ask this of them in a pre-production meeting in front of the whole crew, wasting everybody's time and making me thoroughly embarassed. This is not to say that the feedback the tutors gave me wasn't helpful - in fact they made some very useful comments, criticisms and suggestions and I wish I had heard these things earlier. I simply think these comments, criticisms and suggestions should have been delivered in a different forum, such as a private tutorial, and in fact I am going to ask whether in future we can actually add such a tutorial into the pre-production process, and save pre-production meetings for production issues.
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After the meeting, Ben felt the need to lay into me a bit as well. As soon as he began I stopped him and warned him to rethink how he wanted to have this discussion with me, as he is not my tutor and shouldn't act like it. From then on, our meeting was entirely constructive and productive. This is the advantage of working with someone like Ben, who shoots straight from the hip; you can shoot straight back and know that they're going to take it, not get the sulks.
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On Saturday I had a costume fitting with my actor, Veronica. It went very well, and not only did we come up with a costume, it was also a good opportunity to get to know each other and bond a little bit.
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On Monday I spent the morning frantically running around filling gaps in my props and wardrobe for the TVC; two Grisilinias from Plant Barn, one green plastic water bottle and one pair of brown tramping boots from Kmart. It was quite stressful running around in the morning looking for the best look for the best price, all before 12 o'clock, but it was fun and satisfying too, and I was pleased with the results.
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After the (horrific) doco pitches on Monday I went to view the edit Toetu had made of our camera test footage, but unfortunately when he tried to show me he found that all the media had gone offline. He was able to get a few clips back and quickly cut them together to show me, but unfortunately there wasn't really enough to get anything from it.
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I also tried desperately to trim down my shot list to a 30 second ad, instead of a 45 second one. After a great deal of frustration, Ben happened to come in, and with his help we were able to create something we called the "33 second plan", which may not be 30 seconds, but is a hell of a lot better then 45. Unfortunately, he later came in to reveal that he had been checking the gear, and discovered that Sai Yin had not given us an LCD monitor or a light meter, which would make things painful for us. This announcement also came around the same time as Lisa and I were frustratedly emailing each other back and forth and I was beginning to wonder whether the shoot was going to be a complete meltdown. All in all, a foul end to a foul day.
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Nevertheless, I'm not one to hang on to a bad mood, and woke at Tuesday, excited and optimistic for the shoot. And I wasn't disappointed!
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Not everything was absolutely ideal of course. It was very touch and go on the first shot, with rain starting and stopping every few minutes, and the light changing every few seconds. Plus it was a difficult shot to operate, a difficult shot to act, very cold, and I had no monitor, so it was extremely difficult to know whether I was getting what I wanted. We then moved onto a tracking shot, moving back on a close-up of the actor's face as she walks down a forest path. The showers continued, it was still cold, the timing for the grip was extremely difficult, and still I had no monitor. Worst of all, we were only just too late to catch the flicker of the sun in the background that we had been hoping for. After a lot of rehearsals and a lot of takes we moved on, with me thinking that the shots were turning out decidedly average and that the commercial was going to turn out average too. For the third shot, however, luck and the light were decidedly on our side. Finally I had a monitor, and was feeling much more capable and comfortable as a result. The shot was extremely difficult to get the timing and focus right, but after many many rehearsals all of the elements came together at last, with perfect timing, perfect focus, perfect acting, and stunningly gorgeous light, and the whole crew was over the moon.
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After this shot we moved on to one of the bigger challenges of the day; working with Paradise, a mischievous five year old girl. The shot had to be changed on the spot, as we discovered that we did not have the mini tripod we required in order to get low enough for our planned tracking shot. We also had a different plant than we had planned for, as we had to plant a seedling given to us by the Park Ranger. Fortunately, the ranger allowed us to use the spot on the trail that we had been planning for. In the end I think it was a lucky accident that we could not do our planned shot, as tracking takes a lot of rehearsals and takes to perfect, and we would never have been able to pull it off with Paradise. She was so young, and so cold, and surrounded by so many people, that we were very lucky to get as many rehearsals and takes as we did, and a huge amount of credit is due to Candice and Veronica for getting so much out of her. Candice looked after her in between takes, and Veronica did a great job acting with her during the takes, and we were able to get what we needed, despite a few tears. I think next time I want to work with a young child I will definitely ask to clear the set of everyone but the essentials, as we had a bit of a problem with Paradise showing off during takes, or being completely overwhelmed with attention in between.
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The rest of the shoot continued to be successful, and we got more material than we had planned for, in both the forest and city locations. The team were fantastic and everyone pulled their weight, and the project along really well. I do have a couple of regrets though. I wish I had asked to stay a little bit longer at the forest location and got one extra boot shot, as these are very useful for linking the material, and I also wish I had tried the track zoom in the city. We definitely ended up having time for it, and tried many options. I was thinking of it while we were doing the other options, and wanting to try it, but as we came to the end of the shoot I was increasingly desperate to go to the toilet and ended up completely forgetting about it! I really think we could have pulled it off too, as the camera team were really in form by that stage, and Veronica still could have given us a few more takes. But no use crying over spilt milk. I just hope I don't find myself sitting in the editing room desperate for those shots!
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It was a fantastic shoot, all in all; incredibly stress free, with a good team, good actor, and a bit of luck weather-wise. And I finished a shoot early for the first time ever! The day was capped off superbly by watching the rushes later and discovering that the two shots that I had thought were average actually turned out to be stunning.
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I learned a few things:
- The joy of shooting outside, in open spaces, not hot cramped rooms and studios
- The joy of working with only natural light, and how much faster and more relaxed and beautiful it makes things
- The joy of having an awesome relationship and thorough preparation with my DP
- The fact that it is really really hard to direct without a monitor
- That I feel sorry for camera people, having to try to get the most beautiful shot possible with only a tiny view finder. There is no way I would be able to tell with such a small screen whether the shot is any good.
- That you can only get a couple of rehearsals and takes out of a young child, and that you really should clear the set of people as much as possible
- The value of a great makeup/wardrobe person in looking after actors
- The fact that a 5am call time is actually wonderful. It always takes a really long time to get the first shot away, and working in the cool darkness without the stress of the passing day really helps to have a good, relaxed mood on set. And plus it feels great to finish early.
That's all for now; I can't wait to edit!
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