Lights! Camera! Action!

What I learnt from my first two shootings.

Pre-Production!!!!! so important to have scouted the location beforehand thoroughly and thought about lighting placements shot types and what will be practical. I changed my idea about the location of my chase sequence shoot at the last minute due to the wether and practicality and ran into trouble with not having planned enough in advance. one main problem I had was the fact I could not locate switches for some fluorescent lights so our lighting was a mix of ugly fluorescent and tungsten lighting this led to me having to white balance on every different shot and was very time consuming and annoying for others on set.

Other things I learnt:

Don't forget headphones.

Scout the location for a while before hand to plan lighting and shots.

Keep positive even at the end and don't cut corners even when everyone is tired. Especially white balancing (this mistake is evident on my last shot of the chase sequence, actually was too bad I couldn't colour correct properly in post)

Bring your storyboard and tick off shots as you go.

Clear memory cards before hand and check frame rate etc. before shoot so you don't waist time on set!!

Overall it was a very good learning experience and was great to have so much help from fellow classmates helping with lights, dolly and sound etc.

The second shoot was the interview and this was a lot simpler and after all I learnt from the chase sequence shooting made this very easy. 

I had the convenience of being able to set up lights beforehand without talent being there and that was great so I could think clearly and try different setups and locations around the room.

One thing I found on this shoot that with all the lights, camera, and sound gear set up it was quiet daunting for the talent who thought they were going to just have a handy-cam in front of them. so making them comfortable was very important with cups of tea/coffee and snacks for them. getting them to talk about there breakfast was a good way to get them relaxed too. 

nailed the three point lighting too! used blue gels with ambient lighting from window and that worked really well. Just had to be mindful when the light changed outside.