Filming Session 2 - Michael McGroarty

We filmed on Sunday the 7th of March. We hit problems early on when we found out that the gels that we would have used with the torches had been lost. This made our lighting difficult once again as the torches have a high powered beam. It is easy to tell where the lighting comes from and where it hits. The gels disperse the light evenly, which means we can manipulate the light easier. Unfortunately, as we were missing the gels, we had to bounce the light off various objects. Some shots were very difficult to film because of these problems.

We decided to re-shoot most of our shots from last time, as the footage from our first shoot was too grainy, dark, and blurry. Generally, the footage was a small disaster. We kept the continuity up; the actors wore the same clothes, we set up the makeshift table in the same way and place, and we used the same candle. We also had the XM2 camera; the high quality one. The footage we got is significantly better than last time; it's sharper and more clean looking. However, due to the difficulties with the lighting, some of the shots are a tad too dark.

This shoot was a lot quicker than last time, although the absence of light all the time was a slight hindrance. We could have used the torches for light, but they only had a short battery life; 45 minutes tops, so we had to conserve the power. If we ran out of battery power, the shoot would have to end; maybe sooner than expected. As it turned out we were very conservative with the torches, so they didn't run out on us.

Our actors remembered there lines well, so we didn't have to shoot each take too many times. We went for a safe 2-4 takes for each shot. This way we have plenty to use when it comes to editing. Like the last shoot, we only shot from 3 or 4 different places; the cellar this time had more barrels, so we were restricted somewhat by the extra barrels. We moved a few of them, and we freed up some room, but only enough to shoot from those limited places. The room itself has a low ceiling, and it isn't too large even without the barrels. We can't shoot out of the room because then the light that was perpetually on would have conflicted with our post-apocalyptic-no-electricity vision. Also the lighting would have been ridiculously hard to pull off professionally. Learning a lesson from last time, we shot all of the shots from one place in a row as oppose to shooting in sequence. This was a major factor in our speedy filming session.

Posted by Michael McGroarty