The First Test Shoot

I have just completed the first text shoot for this project and have, at the very best, had mixed results. There were a number of small issues, such as a lack of a story board or having to settle for a cannon 7D when I reserved a 5D, not to mention having our two hour time slot reduced to a one and a half hour time slot, due to me not being informed that the college shut a half hour before my time was up. However, me, Isaac and Ben, who were wonderful enough to aid me in this shoot, pulled together and managed to overcome these obstacles, with no friction and only a minor period of stress on my part. Overall, most of the shoot went very well indeed.

But, unfortunately the most crucial element of the test shoot turned out to be a failure. Because of a yet unknown technical error, the camera read the blank 32gb card as full and only recorded for a second after pressing the record button. This resulted in me not getting any of the footage, which to be honest honest, is crushingly disappointing.  We have since examined the camera and card, which still has over 31gbs available, and found nothing wrong. We were able to record perfectly fine.

Still, I refuse to let this be a complete failure and so I'm determined to learn from it. I intend to re-attempt a shoot and I am currently composing a list of things I have learnt from this shoot.

1) Get out equipment a day in advance and test it is working correctly.

2) Use the Dedo light kit, more lighting is needed to create the full effect.

3) Make sure to have all props before filming.

One positive thing to come out of this shoot are that it proved to me that this idea works and the characters look great. Also, I found working in a studio environment very useful and enjoyable.



I am going to begin organising another shoot, I intend to use the studio theatre again and if not possibly Room 1.22.  Below are some screen shots of what little footage was captured, unfortunately for some reason these pictures show considerably less darkness than the actual footage, in which the background was not visible. Please bare this in mind when viewing them.