Sweet Talk Interviews - 11th May 2021
Today I've been familiarising myself with the Nikon D5200. This is my own personal camera but I haven't filmed with it in over 4 years. Therefore I felt this was a great opportunity to understand my camera again in regards to filming. I also had the chance to work with the RODE Wireless GO, which is a compact wireless microphone. I feel after using this I have a greater understanding of sound and feel this is definitely a go-to piece of equipment that I should own myself. The type of filming I tend to do in my spare time is short profile films and interviews therefore I have always felt this camera is very well suited to the types of project I tend to film. Today reconfirmed this and I am so excited to start filming again on the Nikon D5200 for small projects. Its ability to autofocus whilst recording, as well as manually focusing is ideal. This gives myself options and is great for run and gun shooting on location.
Portland Building shoots!- 4th & 5th May 2021
On these days Sweet Talk shot inside Portland Building for two days. These shooting days were very different, the 4th we shot the end scene and the 5th we shot the start of the film. For these shoot days the camera department included myself, my 1st AC and 2nd AC. The crew and cast was a lot bigger than last time we had multiple actors, extras and runners on set. I hadn't worked with a team this size before but I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it exciting to bring the writers story to life visually. I found shooting the end scene the most exciting as I had never shot any scene like that before. I took inspiration from many different thrillers for the end scene of Sweet Talk. I wanted to ensure we got the right pacing for each scene, therefore for this shoot I made sure I had the script, storyboards, shot list and short videos I had create prior, on hand. Again we faced some challenges one of which was the noise level of Portland Building, due to it being a work space. However we adapted and made staff aware how long we would be filming for, which in turn helped us and made for a quieter set. The filming schedule for the 4th and 5th was very full on as we had a lot to cover in terms of the script, but I feel we worked efficiently together as a team and created some cinematic shots for this film. It was really important to me to get across to the audience how the characters were feeling in each scene, therefore myself and my AC's made sure to showcase this through the use of movement and angles. Both shooting days required movement throughout the office and therefore we decided to use the Sony FS7 on the Indie dolly to get these smooth moving shots. Overall I feel we did a great job cast and crew and now I can't wait to see the end results.
Sweet Talk starts filming! - 10th & 11th April 2021
On my graduate film Sweet Talk I took on the role as Director of Photography. For the first shoot of Sweet Talk we filmed for two days back to back. Our location for the first day was situated in southsea, therefore it was relatively easy to get too and didn't involve any travel on the day of shooting. The morning of the second day we started filming outside Portland Building with two of our actors. After filming scene 1 we headed back to continuing filming at the house in southsea.We made sure that we always wore masks when filming on set and limited the amount of crew necessary for each scene. Due to the size of the room we were shooting in made it of utmost importance that we had a organised and detailed shot list. Therefore I made sure to have many meetings beforehand with my director and over zoom we would do blocking for particular scenes. Myself and my AC set up the Sony FS7 and also the Sony A7Sii on the Ronin-S in the morning of the shoot. At times there was challenges such as time constraints but we adapted and made sure to capture everything we needed of our main character. We constantly checked our detailed shot list and the script to ensure nothing was missed out. However we did experiment with a few shots during the night scene, which I feel gives us a more personally and close look into our main characters life. I feel myself and my crew did a great job over the two days and I look forward to see how the edit unfolds.
Ronin-S & A7Sii - 9th April 2021
Before the big shoot! Today we picked up the kit and so I decided to familiarise myself with the Ronin-S and A7Sii. I connected the Ronin-S to the app so I could do a balance test, this ensures less time setting up on the day. This extra time with the kit meant that I could familiarise myself with the different modes the Ronin-S offers. I adjusted my modes that I felt would be best suited for the shoots in the coming days. We decided to drop off all the equipment at our first filming location the night before to ensure efficiency. Here I practiced particular movements and motions that I felt would be effective within Sweet Talk the film. My cinematography has been inspired by the film Trust a thriller/drama, which has similar elements to Sweet Talk. The cinematography of this film is very important and I am confident in using the Sony FS7 and Sony A7Sii on this film to creative a cinematic and exciting film. I look forward to learning more on set and showcasing my own visual style.