Research and Development Journal 14/02/2016 (Test Shoot for World War 2 VT)

For the VT of the World War II History section of the show, the plan was to make the basement at some of my peers/ crews house and turn it into a world war II shelter and then have two characters act a short scene.

I took an advantage to see the location earlier so that way I can suss out what needed to be done to make the scene just right. So first before shooting I took some photos around the location:

After would we started the test shoot with a short script that Jess wrote and we turned that into a short video. From that shoot I learned how to make use of the location and where to persuasion the characters when it comes to the real shoot.

When we got the footage off of the camera, I made sure to take screen shots of the video we made and took note on how to make the story boards out of the shots we had.

Refection:

What went well -

The look of the location is perfect and looked very World War 2 and already I can visualize the place being decorated right so it can look just like a shelter.

The lighting was good mainly because we only used one light source to make it look dark and somewhat candle lit.

The shots were framed very well and when the when we withdrew the footage onto the Mac I found it helpful to plan out the rest of the shots I may need in the final filming.


What didn't go so well -

The sound for one thing, we made sure to set everything up and we thought the microphone was on but it wasn't so we had no sound what so ever, a very amateur mistake on my part. So for next time, definitely remember to make sure that we have sound and that it is working.

Some of the background didn't do so well as there was two things that didn't look so right in the background. One was the window as it let in too much light and plus it made the scene not so World War 2. The plan is to cover the window with a blackout certain that way it would like it would be in an air raid.

Most of the filming was interrupted by a fire alarm as the red head light gave out to much heat when we were recording. So in order to fix this we had to put on a glove over the fire alarm to prevent it from going off.

Conclusion:
Apart from the sound not working, the shoot was a success, it will help me with the story boarding and I now the environment that I will have to deal with on the day. The team worked well to help this shoot become a success, as I director it is good to know I can work with people who understand my vision but also can help each other when something bad comes round.