Firstly, I spent the morning looking for props to use to dress the set, including some colourful superhero posters and toys to dress the basement. Whilst I looked for props, the rest of the crew set up the equipment at the location and began set dressing for all the scenes in the house and had agreed to block each scene out so that we can start much more quickly tomorrow on the other scenes.
When dressing the set we tried to include as many colourful set elements as we could, not only to make it more visually appealing but to create contrast with the interrogation scene - which we decided would be desaturated and graded to create a cold, harsh aesthetic. Other elements of set design which we included in the interrogation scene were cassette tapes, various wires, documents and a cliché conspiracy board which would be revealed in the lighting change.
Unfortunately, due to how long it took the team to set dress, we were running behind schedule by the time the actor arrived at 5pm. Due to availability, we were only shooting the interrogation scene, and thought this would be enough time to focus on the difficult blocking and lighting change.
With me playing the interrogator, I rehearsed the scene with our actor Lewis a number of times before we started filming. As we had anticipated during rehearsals, the light spilling on to the walls and the harsh shadow thrown by the spotlight was an issue, and took a while to correct by using the barn doors and adjusting exposure on the camera.
In our first setup we filmed the shots I had outlined in the shot list, making sure to get enough coverage. This included a clean close-up of the majority of the scene, an OTS shot including the interrogator (framed so Laurence's eye-line suggests I am much bigger) and inserts of documents being taken out and passed across the table. Due to time constraints we had to omit some of the more complex shots involving the slider, simply panning across instead.
For the shot when the bag is pulled from Laurence's head, we used a slight lighting change to mimic the adjustment of his eyes to the bright light - bringing down the intensity after a few seconds. Although the effect worked, in hindsight the same effect could have been achieved afterwards in post-production by blowing out the highlights, which again would have saved us time.
Moving to the opposite side, we had to spend a lot of time reconfiguring lighting and exposure to get the silhouetted effect on the interrogator. On reflection, it would have been better to pre-light this shot and set up before the actor arrived, as it took the most time trying to achieve the bright rim and flare from the practical light. To create this effect we used a setup similar to that which I had pre-visualised in virtuallightingstudio:
- Two Dedo lights on stands, both with CTB applied.
- One lamp facing directly on to the protagonist from above the interrogator's shoulder - spotted to reduce spread on to the back drop.
- A second lamp not visible by audience, placed lower, behind my back, and angled to provide an edge on my shoulder.
When I reviewed the footage afterwards, it was clear that the desk lamp, although flagged, was still bouncing and causing the interrogator's mask and neck to be visible - requiring increased contrast to hide. The rim around the interrogator's head was also too thin and inconsistent across its outline, but this was our only option as using a light on the backdrop would reveal the environment.
Also, some of the shots on the reverse were very poorly framed; not using the full frame, framing centrally rather than using thirds, and making the interrogator look much smaller in the frame, which is the complete opposite effect we were trying to go for with the cinematography. The position of the light behind my head meant that it was visible whenever I tried to move, which will reduce my options coming to edit.
It was very frustrating to learn that neither the director nor the cinematographer had looked at the shot list I had created for the scene, and it was clear from the footage we took that there was confusion and miscommunication between them both.
When coming to enact the lighting change, I was clear about which shot this would take place in. Despite this, we filmed the lighting change multiple times from different angles, including from Laurence's POV, which was ultimately pointless. The change itself was very difficult to co-ordinate due to the lag time of the Kinos switching on and the other light switch being upstairs. We started by using a two-step lighting change for when a hall light appears and then the room light is switched on, but as this was too difficult to coordinate we simplified it later in to one.
By the end of the shoot it was so late that we only had time for one take of the character leaving the scene afterwards and grabbing the important items off the table. Upon reviewing, this shot had a jerky motion that makes it unusable, and without insert shots and coverage around the room showing the different elements of the set design, then this is wasted.
After reviewing all the footage, I found inconsistencies in lighting and positioning of the props between two of the important lighting-change shots, which I feel would not cut together or will just appear jarring. Despite our best efforts, I still found the background set was still visible in the majority of the shots of Laurence, which, although may be fixable in post-production, may cause further problems for the final grade.
Overall, despite maintaining a professional workflow I am disappointed with how the first day of shooting has gone, and the lack of preparation has clearly caused issues for the footage. As a result, there is not enough usable coverage to assemble the entire scene, and that which is still has issues of framing and lighting.
Although we are at an early stage I would strongly advise to re-shoot the scene with these issues in mind, perhaps simplifying the lighting change even further and using our time more efficiently to get enough coverage.
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