AFP #1 – Boundaries (Production)
Day One
As we were staying in the loft during our production and that our first scene and location was at the loft, the night before the shoot, I had the opportunity to pre-light the room that was going to be used for the first scene. In which it would save some time, on set during the actual production.
For the the first day of shoot, the crew call was at 8am and thus had to be up early. Despite all the crew reaching in time on set, we had some early setbacks as we realised that we did not have the pick up spool for the film magazine. In the end, we came to the general consensus and Herman went home to take the extra film that we were given during cinema class. That was the only that that we could do, even though the pick up spool was for daylight film and that we were shooting on tungsten. That tad bit of carelessness caused the schedule to be pushed back, even when we have not started our shoot. It wasn’t a good way to start o the production. Further more, one of the casts woke up late and it pushed back our schedule even more.
With the film magazine loaded and while waiting for the casts to have their make up applied, the director and I started to prepare for the first shot for the scene. After going through all the last minute changes to the camera positions, as there was a change of blocking for the casts, we were ready to start recording (of course with some help and advice from Mr Lau). Through the shoot for the first roll of film, the shoot went pretty smooth, with the casts and crew knowing what they had to do. However, when it came to loading the second roll of film, Herman ran into some problems with the feeding and receiving end. While Herman was trying to figure out what was wrong with the loading, Euminl and I took the opportunity to run through the remaining shots for the scene. Ultimately, Herman found out and realised that there was nothing wrong with the film. By then, two hours had past already and because of that, time was lost and thus for every shot that I had to reposition the lights, I had to think fast and act fast but also at the same time, provide what the Director wanted from the shot. It was not much of an issue as it was a indoor location with a controlled lighting position, and all was needed to be done was to reposition the lights and not having to remove or add any specific lights. The rest of the shoot for the scene went pretty smooth.
Lighting up the next scene at a different location was some what like a challenge in the initial stage, as we only had photos for references and that the location was only confirmed on the actual day of shoot. Besides with being stranger to the location, there was a change of script, and I to wait for the ‘new script’ for the scene to be confirmed. What I could was to set up the shots which were confirmed, which was the establishing tracking shot of the house external house which we were using. Also, what I could do was to block off the house lights with the flag kit and set up the lights for the location which we were going to use (lighting up the location, not the casts), as I did not know the blocking of the casts yet.
With the revised script for the scene done, I then discussed with Herman and Euminl as to where would be the most appropriate place from the casts to sit as where they were seated would determine their background and also how I would have to light them. Apart from the setback of the script, the rest of the shoot for Day One went smooth. I wrapped up the first day of shoot by 2:30am.
Day Two
For Day two, the crew call as at 8am and the first shot of the day was again at the loft, thus I didnt have much trouble lighting the casts as I have done the lighting the previous day.
However, for the later scene it was a different challenge altogether.
In the next location, it was an outdoor night scene and I had to figure out how to light the whole place and also to make crucial decisions as to what lights to use and what kind of lighting do i want. Also there, there were house florescent lights which would ultimately affect the colour of the footage.
As we have had made the location scouts during production, the shoot went pretty smooth as we know what which of was were required to do, even though at times temper did flare as we were kind of behind the schedule and I was not given enough time to set up the lights for the scene at the shot. Apart from the time constrain, the crew did not run into much trouble with in terms of blocking and filming.
