Our Shoot Day

On the morning of the 31st of January, I arrived with my group to the studio to set up our set, the friday before our shoot we had to pre-prepare by painting our box black so that it would be dry on the day, this was made out of chip-wood which can be easily supplied through gardening stores. Our set also required a stage as our plot was centred around a magician who performs tricks.
Our setting for our story was to be set in an old burlesque type looking bar, we created this by having black curtains drawn around the outside, with black walls and black flooring, our props included:

• A black box
• table and chairs
• wine bottles
• wine glasses
• table cloths
• a top hat
• fake blood
• smoke machine

we had to gather these props and display them around to create the effect that it was a crowded and busy bar, we did this by arranging the tables, close together so that when the camera tracked through it would have mid shots (shoulder upwards) in the shot, creating the illusion that there was many people there (sound later will be added to create this effect).

For our actors and actresses we had them dressed up in:

Males:

• suits
• bow tie
• shirt
• (smart looking)

Women:

• Cocktail dresses
• Smart jackets

Magician:

• Bow tie
• Top Hat
• Suit
• Frilly shirt

Alice:

• A vintage style dress in the colour white, to show her innocence
• black tights
• pumps

Magicians Assistant:

• Gold Sparkly Dress
• New Yorkers

we didn't call our actors untill after 11.30 as we did not need them yet because we still had to set up the shot and make sure that it would all run smoothly. In our set we also had a smoke machine as this added to the effect of a burlesque bar, this is because in those days you would be allowed to smoke in bars and clubs. We also set up 3 tables with white table cloths on top of them, we had the 3 tables staggered so that the camera could track through them easily. On the tables were wine bottles and wine glasses filled with apple juice to look like white wine and cranberry juice to make it look like red wine. Once we got the actors in it was pretty simple, there job was to sit there and react to the action around them whilst the magician asked his assistant to pick a person from the audience.

A problem we had on the shoot day was figuring out how to make it seem like blood was pouring out of the box, we tried an idea by me coming out later on in the shot and crawling onto the stage out of shot of the camera and pouring the mixed blood of cranberry juice and fake blood onto the stage. However we realised that this wouldn't work, so instead we drilled a hole into the corner of the box got a funnel with a tube which was placed into the box, so small you could barely see it. So, once Alice, the girl in the box was positioned in the box, her cue to pour the blood from inside was the number 2, on this the blood would pour out and from the camera angle which was situated from behind the box we would be able to see the audiences reaction to the blood in a long shot.

We shot this 2 times and within that we got our shot. The shoot day was very successful as we got everything we wanted done on time and quickly, this was due to proper planning and good collecting of props to use in the piece. I found the shot day to be very fun and relaxed and this has given me a taste for shooting more often. I am now looking forward to the editing process as this is my favourite part. As it was one long tracking shot we will not have to piece any material together but it will be a very time consuming process to put all the sound in as we will have to create layers of it to create the right atmosphere of the piece.