Directors Unit Production Preparation

In terms of organisation for my cast for the filming, I knew who I wanted but getting them on curtain dates was a whole different story. I had to book them for 2 weekends as I knew that this wasn't going to be a one day shoot. So I had to get some of my main paper work done and send a form and message the Kent Film Office to tell them where I would be filming and what I would be doing and using prop wise as well.



I managed to get some of the storyboards and done ready for the intro for the hero/ loner character. But I knew getting the dialogue scene had to come first as my actress, Lisa Huntley, could only do the  first Saturday on day 1 on the filming which meant getting the visionary and feel for the conversation scene had to be my top priority.

I won't lie when I say that i did get very stressed when trying to come up with an idea within a short amount of time, and I did have to use a method of calming myself as I did at some point, start to panic, but I reassured myself and tried to get back on track.

Managing to get the risk assessment done, for me it was the green light for go on my filming so I booked out the equipment and prepared for my filming.

Before the day of film it was one of those annoying disasters where my cameraman decided to drop out at the last minute due to an emergency. It was my job as the director to remain calm and make sure to hunt down for a cameraman or sound person to be ready to come to Rainham at 10:00am, and from there to come with the rest of the crew to Capstone Farm Country Park ready to film.


I managed to contact an old College mate of mine, Kyle Terry, who I knew was great on sound and I knew could be a big help to me and luckily he said he would do it, and for that I couldn't be more grateful.

On day 1 of the filming I decided to do the conversation scene first, because with the organisation of dates when my actors where free I had only one day to record my actress Lisa Huntley as she was not free next weekend as she explained to me she was going away so I had to make sure I got the conversation scene done and sorted.


This production to me was a great practice to book out the Sony EX Camera and get my hands on it's power and focus to help with my filming. I wanted to see what it would be like to recording using an actual industry standard film camera compared to my Nikon D5200, the same camera I used for the meeting.

Although the weather was dull and often changed which effected the colour of the scene I managed to sort out the scene and with just the shots I had at the time here is a quick edit of the ending scene so far:

I also managed to get them to sign off on the Actors agreement form as well as my cameraman just incase, they say you can never be too careful.

When it comes to the daily commute scene and introducing the character. I thought I would use this time until the next Saturday to perfect the storyboards and plan my shots better to take the style of Peter Jackson. I have also considered another ending for the film as well.