Test Shoot Reflections
What went well:
The wealth of running shots is good for a test shoot and allowed us some room for error with continuity, particularly with the running where each few metres was captured from a variety of angles, distances and movements.
Lighting was very little of an issue for us, with rain solely present towards the end of the running section being the only real issue. Because of consistent cloud cover our outdoor lighting up until the end had little noticeable problems, being quite grey and implementing the gritty, urban feel we desired. For a first try the indoor lighting was particularly successful in not looking unnatural but keeping to a relatively high standard.
With limited direction the acting was reasonably convincing, and although there is room for improvement, seeing what worked well and what in terms of dialogue, expression and movement will aid our progress valuably. Our script improved drastically from the animatic stage and provided significant, impacting narrative without being too repetitive or allowing the audience too much information.
Criticisms/things to change:
From teacher feedback we decided to shorten the amount of time our protagonist is running at the beginning of the sequence would need to be decreased as many of the shots are fairly repetitive. While editing I (Matt) tried to incorporate too many shots in the last stretch of running. Because at the time I was editing on my own I chose not to make the decision of which shots to use, instead using all of them available, meaning even with decent continuity this part of our edited test sequence looked jumpy.
Actor body positions need to be under more scrutiny in the next shoot in order to avoid continuity errors. Our protagonist did not make the exact same movements in the conversation shots we took from 3 different angles, so matching the action upon reversing the shot to follow the dialogue, due to limited takes the actor had jumped to a different position. To avoid and improve on this our movement directions will be more specific and scripted on our real shoots. Running speed needs more consistency throughout, also.
In a small number of shots the lighting equipment is just in frame. We edited quite successfully to avoid it featuring on screen by cutting to different angles but some footage could not avoid part of a lighting stand being visible in a corner.
On two occasions with shots we took there were very slight breakages of the 180 degree rule, e.g. where the camera shoots from a windowsill facing our actor from the opposite side to the rest of the running shots. We did not select any of these for our edit because of these reasons, however they were intelligent shots with a creativity we should try to incorporate in further shoots without breaking continuity rules.
Despite being good early in the shoot, our use of the clapperboard decreased as our filming progressed. Being prepared and professional before each take from start to finish and keeping good track of progress and takes, and record this information onto our shoot board to know exactly who did what and any specific issues we noticed at the time with each take in order to speed up editing.
Although it is less evident on camera, the fact that we began shooting around 10:30am rather than slightly earlier meant that earlier into our filming we encountered obstacles such as traffic and pedestrians coming past, which we had to wait for, with obvious reasons of continuity in mind. We did spend time assessing our setting before recording, however, which helped, so for coming shoots we can begin earlier with more confidence and without obstruction, and record more takes while staying in schedule.
The wealth of running shots is good for a test shoot and allowed us some room for error with continuity, particularly with the running where each few metres was captured from a variety of angles, distances and movements.
Lighting was very little of an issue for us, with rain solely present towards the end of the running section being the only real issue. Because of consistent cloud cover our outdoor lighting up until the end had little noticeable problems, being quite grey and implementing the gritty, urban feel we desired. For a first try the indoor lighting was particularly successful in not looking unnatural but keeping to a relatively high standard.
With limited direction the acting was reasonably convincing, and although there is room for improvement, seeing what worked well and what in terms of dialogue, expression and movement will aid our progress valuably. Our script improved drastically from the animatic stage and provided significant, impacting narrative without being too repetitive or allowing the audience too much information.
Criticisms/things to change:
From teacher feedback we decided to shorten the amount of time our protagonist is running at the beginning of the sequence would need to be decreased as many of the shots are fairly repetitive. While editing I (Matt) tried to incorporate too many shots in the last stretch of running. Because at the time I was editing on my own I chose not to make the decision of which shots to use, instead using all of them available, meaning even with decent continuity this part of our edited test sequence looked jumpy.
Actor body positions need to be under more scrutiny in the next shoot in order to avoid continuity errors. Our protagonist did not make the exact same movements in the conversation shots we took from 3 different angles, so matching the action upon reversing the shot to follow the dialogue, due to limited takes the actor had jumped to a different position. To avoid and improve on this our movement directions will be more specific and scripted on our real shoots. Running speed needs more consistency throughout, also.
In a small number of shots the lighting equipment is just in frame. We edited quite successfully to avoid it featuring on screen by cutting to different angles but some footage could not avoid part of a lighting stand being visible in a corner.
On two occasions with shots we took there were very slight breakages of the 180 degree rule, e.g. where the camera shoots from a windowsill facing our actor from the opposite side to the rest of the running shots. We did not select any of these for our edit because of these reasons, however they were intelligent shots with a creativity we should try to incorporate in further shoots without breaking continuity rules.
Despite being good early in the shoot, our use of the clapperboard decreased as our filming progressed. Being prepared and professional before each take from start to finish and keeping good track of progress and takes, and record this information onto our shoot board to know exactly who did what and any specific issues we noticed at the time with each take in order to speed up editing.
Although it is less evident on camera, the fact that we began shooting around 10:30am rather than slightly earlier meant that earlier into our filming we encountered obstacles such as traffic and pedestrians coming past, which we had to wait for, with obvious reasons of continuity in mind. We did spend time assessing our setting before recording, however, which helped, so for coming shoots we can begin earlier with more confidence and without obstruction, and record more takes while staying in schedule.
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