Set building completion and filming

Last week we filmed the sequence within our fully built set after putting some final touches to the decoration of it. This was a learning experience as the process was completely new to us, however it was enjoyable and I think as a group we were productive in terms of the time and resources made available to us within the final accessible day to the studio.

We had decided as a group beforehand to use a large light with an orange coloured filter to create a fire appearance effect, which was a technique Sarah and I had some experience in creating before. We also decided whilst on the set that a few extra DEDO lights would aid us in lighting our green screen from behind, so we set these up on top of the larger light. Setting up was quite time consuming in this way, so we decided to split our group up into two smaller teams again to work on different parts of the pre-shoot set up; Carrie, Sarah and I worked on the technical elements such as setting up lighting equipment and ensuring that the XF100 camera settings were set appropriately to match our newly lit set up. Whilst we did this, Terry and Billy helped Ryan to run through his small acting scene and helped to work out the best way to direct the action that would be occurring. Organising ourselves as a group this way made the set up more efficient, as it meant that once we were all set up with the camera and lighting equipment, Ryan felt happy to go for a take and Terry and Billy were happy to direct him and ensured this was happening safely in such a confined area by having done a few previous rehearsal run throughs.

Before and after green screen & addition of lighting :

The problems that we encountered during the actual shoot mainly related to us having to carefully plan out and consider shots in terms of their type, length and how movement would affect the lighting against our green screen. This was quite problematic at first, however due to our efficient set up time, we managed to creatively problem solve as a group and take our time with it, which I feel was a strength of our group. After a few run throughs and practice takes/reviews, we were happy with the outcome, but continued to gain footage for extra safety for when it came to the edit. This consisted of a series of close ups on individual items that contribute towards the theme of 'the uncanny' within our set, as well as design and material choice elements such as the red handprints on the walls and the sticks layered wallpaper effect.

Overall, I feel that the shoot went well and we gained more than enough footage which has made us feel satisfied that the edit will hopefully work out well, especially with the green screen element. However, I would say that what I have learned from this experience is that working with sets can be extremely time consuming and come with many challenges, so organisation and allowing ourselves enough time to set up and plan out what we are doing would be advantageous in the future if we ever work on filming this type of set up against a green screen again. I would also think about the original set up again and spend more time planning out this, as although there were three separate sets all organised within the production studio space, the green screen did seem a bit cramped into one corner which could have contributed to the initial issues we encountered with working out the movement and how this would affect the lighting of our set.