Day 1 of filming fell on Friday the 4th of April, and it was our longest of days on set. We had a lot to get through on this day as we only had the location at Victoria Baths (living quarters) for 1 day and there were many scene's to get through in this time. We could only get into the building at 10am as the building opened at this time, and then when we got their we needed to pick up a mattress for the set which took a while to collect. Whilst they were collecting the mattress I took the time to sort out the lighting, while Elliot did some rehearsals with the actors in the room next door. As I was working with a load of new kit it was good to have a bit of time to get used to it and set up correctly. We set up the lights for the first scene and then I walked around the building and got some cutaways of the interesting space, to be used to break up the scenes.The set was ready for about half 11/12. By this time we were way behind schedule, but we quickly made up the time once we started filming. Because the lighting set-ups were so similar in each scene, we were able to work through the scenes rather fast. As we were so rushed on set, I didn't have as long as I would have liked to perfect the lighting and camera movements, but overall I am happy with the footage I captured on this day, and more importantly Elliot was more than happy with the footage we got.
Day 2 took place on Saturday 5th April, and it was the shortest of the days on set. The crew were on set at 8am in Swinton, at my parents house, to do the scene when Joe and Pete are posting the ransom note. We did a simple lighting set up for this and then started filming. All went well in this location and then we had to make our way over to an alleyway in Fallowfield, where we were set to shoot the opening scene to the film, which was filmed on a Steadi-cam. We got to Fallowfield at around 2pm, which was slightly behind schedule. I was renting the Steadi-cam from a friend who has lent one for a year as his friend who owns the kit has injured his back so cannot use it for over a year. He offered it me at a really cheap rate which was nice and he was with me on set to set it up as I had never used a Steadi-cam before. We built the Steadi-cam and balanced it all out, but I did not have long to practice with it as he had to be gone by 3:30. The shot I wanted with the Steadi-cam was quite difficult, as the shot itself lasts around 30 seconds without being cut, and has lots of movement. Also the ally way that we filmed in had very uneven ground, consisting of cobbles and pot holes, so therefore it was very difficult to keep the shot smooth. After a few tries I managed to get the shot I wanted, although it wasn't perfectly smooth. When watching the clips back, I decided that the fact that the shot is not perfect actually improves the shot as it fits with the camera style/movements of the rest of the film, which was done handheld.
Day 3, and the last day of filming, was a very stressful day. We had a lot of scene's to get through this day, including the last scene consisting of a police officer. I managed to organise a real police officer to star in the film, as he is a friend of the family and agreed to give half an hour of his time to help us out. We only had half an hour with him because he was on duty at the time and we had to shoot the scene in Swinton where his beat is, incase he got a call up. Me and Elliot were very stressed leading up to the shooting of this as we had to get the shots done that weekend because of the camera hire, and there was so much that could go wrong and force the scene to be put on hold. We agreed to meet Colin, the police officer, in an industrial park which we felt was a suitable location, at 1pm. Another problem arose when the actor playing Pete said that he couldn't get work off that day. He agreed to drive down on his lunch break, which would give us half an hour to film the whole scene. Elliot got to mine on the saturday extra early, along with my assistant, Chris, so that we could go down to the location and make sure we knew exactly what shots we were going to get, to eliminate any time being wasted. But of course problems arise, and the actor playing Pete got lost on the way down, and was 20 minutes late, meaning we only had 10 minutes to get the whole final scene shot. Not only did we only have 10 minutes to get these shots done, it poured it down with rain for the last 5 minutes that we had, which made it extra hard, especially for sound.
The footage I got for this scene are probably the weakest shots in the film, which is a real shame as its the final part of the film, but we are unable to shoot it again so will have to deal with it and be clever in the edit. At least we got the shots we needed. Once we finished this we went back to my parents to get dry and watch over the footage, but this was quickly interrupted when we were told that we only had until half past 5 in the University location, as apposed to 8pm which we were originally told, and had planned for. This was a major blow to the production, as we were were filming 2 vital scenes in this location, one of which with a complex lighting plan, and another which included using the steadi-cam. When we got to the location, Elliot asked if we could have the room until later and they said that we could have until 7pm at the latest because thats what time the building shut, this was a slight relief but still meant that I had to compromise on set-ups.
We had to wait until 4 for the actors to arrive, so I spent this time trying to perfect the top lighting, which was proving to be quite difficult. Conner was a real help this day as he offered to help me and Chris set up the lights and carry the equipment whilst he didn't have to much to do. We got it done in time and I was very happy with the footage I captured for this scene. Once we got the interview scene out of the way we had a quick change around, for the shot when Joe & Pete bust into the Interviewers office and attack him, changing the light slightly and blacking out the windows as this was supposed be set at night. We quickly captured this shot and then started to build the steadi-cam for the corridor shot. Again, I was rushed with the steadi-cam, not having anytime what so ever to practice this time as we only had 10 minutes until the building closed. Me, Chris, Elliot and the Actors we down to the corridor location, whilst the rest of the crew moved the equipment out of the building. I had to record straight away we were so pushed for time, without even having a run through. I managed to get the shot but it was no way near as smooth as I wanted it to be which is a shame, but the shots are definitely usable.
Overall I am happy with the footage I got for this film, although I was forced to compromise and had to compensate at times, I achieved the look I wanted and once its all put together and graded it should give the mood that Elliot was after when he first wrote the script. It was a really fun project to work on and the cast and crew were a pleasure to work with.
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