Shooting Day 1 + 2

After getting a little to comfy over easter it was finally time for us to get this project off the ground and start shooting. We were already aware that there would be difficulties as the film uses entirely exterior locations and takes place predominantly at night. There was a busy schedule for the first night which was already delayed with the actor's late arrival from leeds. Never the less it didn't take too long for them to sink into their roles and bring the characters to life, and their performances only improved as the shoot progressed. They should also be commended for the sheer amount of cigarettes they blazed through in each take, and whilst i'm sure there will be a few continuity errors with the lengths of the cigs, their efforts are appreciated none the less. The portable lighting provided sufficient illumination and from what I can tell we got some pleasing shots. There were several technical difficulties encountered that left us with no choice but to call it a night prematurely on both days. On the first night my Marantz went through two sets of batteries far too quickly, and by the time we had replaced them the cameras SD card had filled up.

We took a break to clear the card and have some food but when we returned the marantz died yet again, and the following night the shoot was eventually abandoned when the cameras battery died. 

We thought we would have a spare camera but this turned out not to be the case, but we will definitely make sure we do when we next return. On the first night the shots weren't properly slated which will make the syncing of video & audio more troublesome in the edit, but we made sure to amend this the second time around.

The main issue encountered, especially from a sound point of view, was the difficulty in controlling the outdoor shooting environment. Although we were in a quiet backstreet of town behind the cathedral, there were still frequent interruptions in the form of passing cars, busses, pedestrians and distant sirens, which was to be expected but annoying none the less. There was also a cathedral bell practice for at least 20 minutes and a police helicopter circling over head for  around 15 minutes which made standing in the cold waiting for a take all the more frustrating.

Had the budget allowed it I would have deployed tire spikes and enforcers armed with crossbows at both ends of the adjacent streets to silence any inconsiderate disturbences but alas, this isn't Hollywood.

Pictured: not an enforcer.

Despite the problems faced and the subsequent schedule setbacks its been a valuable learning curve and still been an enjoyable shoot and I'm pleased with the footage so far.