Account of Shoot Day

In order for us to be prepared on the actual shooting day, there were few things we needed to make sure were ready the day before. One of the main props we use in the thriller is a Chrysler car and the radio inside in it. We also collected all the objects we needed like books, pillows, blankets and rubbish. On the next day we collected all our props and shooting equipment and loaded them into the car we were using in the film and began our 15 minute journey to our location. One of the main problems we encountered was the last minute switch to our location. On our shooting day, it has been snowing a lot and due to that weather condition the car couldn’t get up the hill and therefore didn’t reach the car park we were supposed to shoot. Hence, another location was chosen. This was one of the most valuable lessons I learned that day, that sometimes things on the shoot day can go wrong. After that incident, we began decorating the car in order to achieve the effect of somebody living in that Chrysler. So we lowered one of the seats to create space for our main character to sleep, we also needed to empty the trash piles we previously collected like fast food boxes and coke cans. This process was time-taking but at the end I think it was useful and made a difference to our thriller. Also on the day of shooting it was freezing and from time to time that weather would make it difficult for us to continue working or concentrate on continuity. During the shooting, we switched the roles of continuity, cinematography and directing around so each member of our crew could experience and learn something new on the job. I particularly liked the role of a director since I had a clear idea in my mind of how our project needed to look like and how can that be achieved. The role of a camera operator was interesting too because watching back something that you have filmed and created is so empowering and freeing. Overall I feel like I have learned a lot from our shoot day and next time we do this activity, we will go into this process more open-minded and with better understanding that in fact that there are particular things that can go wrong during shooting and that its fine as long as you can find quickly an alternative option like what we did when our location had to be changed. It is also important that next time if we will be filming in January, our dress code will need to be more suitable for the weather as we were freezing during filming. To sum this experience, our group worked very well together helping one another and I cannot wait to see our final piece.