Shoot 3 + 4: Evaluation + Photos

Evaluation of Filming – Shoot 3 + 4: Stoodley Pike + The Bride Stone rocks.

This was by far the most challenging shoot. The plan was to film the film’s opening at Stoodley, and finale at Bride stones, with a possible 3^rd scene after if there was time. It also required my Dad and a friends dad providing transport throughout the day.

The first thing to go wrong, was after speaking face to face twice, and emailing but getting no response, (over two weeks) the equipment I had been trying to book out was there, but the crane didn’t have weights, a necessary part of the crane equipment. Luckily I had recently bought Dumbells and had my own that would suffice, but it was pure luck that this did not ruin the shoot.

Stoodley went well, we all got up on to the moor on schedule but realised immediately just how windy it was up there. Far too windy for the crane, and my wig was not guaranteed to stay on my head. We began with filming the first scenes, and after discussion came up with a quick way to give the illusion of a character being high up the monument, without using the crane. This was by setting him in front of the same pattern stone on the ground and shooting a worms eye view so he looked high up. This I felt was a good way of faking the shot, although I am sure it would have still looked better shot properly as planned, but the way we went about the problem worked well.

My wig sat well on my head all day, despite the horrendous winds, thanks to Meg who was in charge of hair and make-up. The wig was attached with hair clips to give it extra stability. After we finished early at stoodely (as the time I set aside for using the crane was now not necessary) we rang our lifts and got home for a 15 minute toilet and lunch break, and set off to our next location.

The Bride stones were somehow colder even than Stoodley, and completely covered in mist, which gave a very atmospheric feel. We explored how wet and windy it was, and decided it was too windy for the crane, and started to plan around this. This is when disaster struck. The actor playing Loki slipped on the rock and broke the fragile Sceptor that had been glued. So immediately we got out the glue, and tried fixing it, but it did not work. With the weather getting worse we were running out of options, so I decided to take off one of my socks, tear it in half and tie it round the breaking point. I then glued it down, and with the help of my runner and documenter (Wren and Callum) fixed it and sprayed it again. Though it was fixed it was now very delicate and didn’t look good, with the fixing obvious. So I cut the fight scene, quickly explained the new plan to my camera man and began shooting, now not on the rocks as a crew member had fallen and it was unsafe. The weather was getting worse as the cold swept in I began to loose feeling in my fingers. We suddenly all got very organised, we were quick, efficient and although we forgot one backplate and another one backplate was not quite exact, I am confident I can fix this using screenshot and Photoshop to create a new one.

For such disaster to strike I am very pleased and thankful we got the footage we did, as it is all useable and to me looks fantastic. I am confident the problems can be fixed in post and although it is not exact to storyboards, I feel I have enough footage and the film will work well.

To conclude my filming process, the main thing I would have to say is that I am so very thankful to my team. They were professional, organised, quick, efficient and took the harsh weather (close to unfilmable) and worked through it. Even though times got stressed to whole team worked together brilliantly and I would like it noted that every member of this team deserves a lot of recognition for the ambitious project I asked them to help me with that was very challenging to say the least. I have learnt that filmmaking on a low budget student project has problems that can’t be planned for (such as superglue not working on set due to wet weather and the weather itself) but what I have also learnt is the importance of planning as best possible (if I hadn’t brought glue at all filming would have been cancelled.) Choreographing and practicing fight scenes is also essential, and that to seek help from a reliable, strong, hard working team and members of the public such as Micheal Masset (how let me use his footage), Christopher Domeracki (who helped me to use the car park at Leeds Met), my Dad and even a friends dad (who provided transportation and lunch) all of whom deserve a special thanks as the project who have failed if all these people didn’t help me the way they have.