Cleaning Up (Role and Evaluation)

Cleaning up is a short film directed by Plamen Dimitrov, the story is about a nurse who accidentally kills her neighbours dog in attempts to try and cure it. After being sentenced to community service she befriends an old man in a wheelchair who has a drug problem after the death of his daughter.

I was given the job being the cinematographer and did behind the scene photography as well and being a production assistant on the production.

My job involved making sure that every scene and day was recorded so the film had it's pictures recorded into what happened each day of filming. The shots had to invoke a lot of crew working and actors performing while being filmed.

For the first day we filmed inside a student residence house as there scenes with the main character and her roommate who is keeping an eye on her as she does her community service.

Our second location was based in Chestington where thanks to Alex's connections, he managed to contact his Grandma's estate and was given permission to film on location. The location is a horse stable and has many, many horse train and taken care off by Alex's Grandma and the people who work on her estate.

In this location is where we meet the second character that our main character has to look after. He is a rock and roll fan, disabled in a wheelchair and has a drug problem after the passing of his daughter. Whenever he hears the sound of drug packets he will do anything to have them.

Our their location was set outside a Train Station need Tunbridge, the scene was where not only I made a cameo but also where the characters Susan and the man in the wheel chair start to develop a friendship.

The weather was perfect, the only thing which was a down side was the trains going by and the sounds of seagulls and hunters with guns firing in the distance.

Next location was set at a drivers rest stop near Tunbridge. The scene was set as the resting place of the daughter that past away, a man in a BMW car was to come onto camera and piss in front of her grave and Susan gets angry and throws a toy at him.

Lots of traffic control had to be taken and sound was quite a challenge as there where a lot of a cars to drown out a wait for until the ambience was just right. The weather kept changing so we had to wait till the shot looked just right until we could hit the record button.

The final scene was filmed at the campus of the Maidstone University For The Creative Arts. The man in the wheel chair had to cry as he sees another picture of his daughter and can't take it anymore, he is filled with sadness and loneliness. The scene went smoothly unlike the others, the sound was quiet and we had full access to the location as well and having a good wide space to work with in terms of filming lots of different shots if necessary.

What Went Well?

• Communication from cast and crew.
• Location access.
• Camera shots and set up.
• Crew and volunteers to help us when filming.
• The type of shots recorded and teamwork.
• Acting was on point and everyone got along well.
• The story was delivered and played out very well and everyone was passionate about the project.
• The director knew what he wanted and worked professionally with his D.O.P and described each shot well and each of his decisions was respected and carried out to his vision.

What didn't go so well?

• Aspects of sound as there were a lot of distractions.
• The camera tripod would often brake as something would go wrong and would have to be repaired quickly in order to keep on schedule.
• Most of the shots had to be retaken as there were not to the director's liking and we lost daylight on a couple of days which took us off track tot he schedule.
• Animals and absence for the majority of the outside scenes where hard to control as something would always be happening and we had to wait for the right moment to hit record.
• We had trouble with aspects of finding something to eat until we found a Tescos and a cafe near the location in Chestington.
• Though we had no caterer on set we ad to make sure we had to feed ourselves and Plamen our director had to be given receipts for each and every meal we had to buy so we are expecting payment for our director for our food.

Overall it was a fantastic project to work on, the shot came out very professionally with the help of the Black Magic and our D.O.P Sam Creamer. The team worked efficiently and with passion in order to get the filming done and at the same time everyone got along and had fun while doing it.

Though sound was a issue to tackle at most occasions though each of the days of shooting, we always made sure to set up quickly for another take and then move on quick to another location if maybe to do more shooting.

My role If eel was a success, my photography was received well, the director was very pleased of what I had presented as well as some of our professional actors who where with us while we where making it. The actors requested that I would send the photos of the shoot over to them when they were ready so they can use them in their acting profiles which meant quite a lot to me as I know I did my job right. I also made sure that recoded session of behind the scenes where taken to ensure that we had extra coverage to support us on our blogs.

Working with animals and traveling to different locations was quite fun, the journeys is what I like about film making as i get to experience different places I have never been to before and took note of where I have been incase I need somewhere ideal for another film shoot I may do in the future.

Communication from the directer was very professional, he gave me the times and dates he wanted me to do and he insured that we where on schedule and on time to meet each take and each scene within a certain time frame.

This major project was quite a wonder to be apart off and if it gets accepted into a film festival I would be so happy knowing my name was apart of something really wonderful.