Each filming session took place in the photography studio, after the suggestion from Mike Downing. I had no problem booking out the equipment, as was originally thought, and Mike was able to book the studio for me. This was a little frustrating, as had I known filming would be that easy (i.e. as an audio student I could still book out the equipment/room, I could have bypassed requesting help with filming and set up from media students), as waiting for a response to my posts delayed me by several weeks, if not months.
Filming session equipment: Canon 600D DSLR, tripod, 3 x LED lights. We used the white background, in the photography studio. This set up was the same for all sessions.
It took three sessions to get all of the footage I needed. The first had the aid of Mike who helped me set up, and taught me quickly how to use the camera. Even just a little help gave me the confidence to set up myself the following two times. He took me through how to set up the camera for what I wanted – we didn’t change much, just the ISO settings to increase/decrease sensitivity mainly. The photo below explains the set up better, but we used three LED lights, two for the background, one for the subject. The two background lights were set to the highest setting (255) and the subject one to a little lower (200) so it wasn’t so bright in the Sam’s (the actor) eyes. Additionally, the subject light was set off the the side, so it wasn’t as uncomfortable for Sam to be looking in the direction of the camera.
It took a while to get the initial filming session booked. As I wasn’t a media/FTV student, my room booking had to go through Mike, and I had to rely on him replying with when it was free for him to then book. He advised not going in on the weekend in case I needed help, so I had to wait until Monday to book. The first session went brilliantly, but the camera was angled slightly up and two one side, and caught the edge of the background in the corner of the frame. This was so small that I didn’t notice on the DSLR screen, only when I got home and loaded the footage onto my laptop. As this was the first session, it was also my first time directing an actor, and operating a camera. I had directed actors a little doing ADR, though I’ve never had to worry about what they looked like. I was pleased with the footage, however, during recording, I realised how unnatural the character looking straight into the camera was. I continued filming, to get the full script recorded, but I knew I’d need to come back in to film.
Unfortunately, I was now pushed for time, and there were very few studio slots available. To avoid the weekend, I had to book a single hour slot on Friday morning at 9am, before I was due in the sound theatre. Taking into account getting the items from media loans and set up, we didn’t even have a full hour to record. Additionally, the student who had used the camera previously had set it to different settings than I knew how to fix. Mike also hadn’t come in yet, and I couldn’t find Adam or any media advisors when I quickly went to look. It took a long while to figure out how to change the settings, but I got there eventually. However, almost as soon as I get ready to start filming, two fashion students arrived at the door with costumes for the student in the studio next. They spent a good few minutes finding places to put the costumes, and were wandering around the studio, so I didn’t feel able to film. After they left, they came back with more students and more costumes, but instead of putting the costumes in there and leaving, they sat down and began chatting fairly loudly. I wasn’t interested in the sound recording (I didn’t need it for the project as I was recording everything), but I felt unable to direct Sam properly because they were so loud, and it was incredibly distracting. In the end I just packed up the equipment and left, with very little recorded. I knew that the photography student would be along soon to set up, and I suppose I was too stressed and irritated to ask the students not to talk. I suppose I was also a little self conscious having others in there (having anxiety isn’t very good for that).
Having said that, I’m fairly glad we had to record again. Yes, it did massively delay the project, and I wish I could have got it all recorded much earlier, but I managed to get a Saturday slot in the studio, and the timing went really well, far better than previous sessions. By now, I knew how to set up quickly, and I could direct with no distractions (being a Saturday, there were very few people in the building). I had changed the script following the first session, and it worked really well. I was very happy with the new script/footage.
Here are the photos from the first session:
And here is a photo from the last session, after we moved things around a bit, to avoid catching the edge of the screen in the top corner:
