3am Costume Making and the Greenscreen Shoot

Last weekend we had our Greenscreen shoot.  The plan was to film everything needed upstairs first (the scenes involving dirt, as this couldn't be done in the studio) then move downstairs on Sunday to film the Int. ship scene.

We knew from the beginning that this would be a tough shoot.  We had no DOP, no gaffers, no VFX supervisor.  Our Camera operator was also no longer part of the course and we had to find a replacement.  We had a very limited crew this time round. 

Callsheet 16th May

Callsheet 17th may

When we arrived on set we were already 30min behind.  I had driven the van to pick up a couple of people in the morning but they had overslept and were late.  When we arrived at the location most of the crew weren't there.  The VFX assistant contacted one of the art department to say he wasn't coming just before his call time, but hadn't told the producers or me about it at all.  Between Vincent and I we decided that we would manage.  At 9am our actor was due to arrive, he ended up being an hour late. 

All in all we weren't off to the best of starts.  There were also a large amount of shots required, and many of them would require rotating the entire set and lights.  I had previously created a colour coded shot list which showed where each shot would need to be filmed, but I knew that I would need to do a precise breakdown of the shots to minimize the amount of time spent re-arranging our location.

Shot List

Since some shots had been altered or added by our director we didn't have storyboards for everything so I took the time to draw up a couple so that I could get more idea what he wanted out of those shots.  This was also to help me when it came to thinking about what direction the sets would need to be placed in.

Storyboard 1 by Sarah Dewbery

Storyboard 2 by Sarah Dewbery

I drew up a shooting order, intended to help out with shooting in front of the greenscreen and set ups, which only became longer since we didn't get through everything on the first day.

Shooting Order for 17th May

Clearly we had a lot to get through, and we only managed to film about half.  I underestimated how long some of the shots would take to set up and film- especially the closeup shots which I thought we would get out pretty quickly.  It seemed like there was just a real lack of motivation from the crew and every time I turned around someone had wandered off set without saying anything and we had to wait while we tried to track them down.  Since we were all doing multiple roles we really couldn't even carry on if one person disappeared.  I think the other holdup came from greenscreen inexperience, which I didn't realise would be such an issue.

By the time our first scene was filmed we had manged to make up some lost time, but unfortunately we had an art department hold up.

The previous night myself, John, Vincent and Chris had spent until 3:30am that morning at the tin-shed trying to finish one of the costumes which was needed for Saturday's shoot.  We were mostly done, or so I thought, but John stayed up the entire night after the rest of us were gone working on it.

I sewed the cloak ^

          
I've been called on a few times to help out with costume, because I have a bit of background in sewing and design from school.  I'm no seamstress but I can definitely sew basic stuff together.  In previous weeks I sewed the following patches onto jackets, and I also went shopping for a replacement costume with John after they had bought the wrong sizes.

But I digress.  Anyway, the costume wasn't ready and we ended up being held up another hour or two while we waited for it.  I felt bad for our actors, not only were they waiting around for us, we then had to race through shots to try and get them done before they had to leave again.  I feel a little sorry for the animators too- there will be some significant rotoscoping in quite a few of the shots we filmed as we didn't manage to get the height we needed and at times the greenscreen wasn't lit brilliantly.

We reached a stalemate of sorts.  Vincent and I could see the problems at a glance because of our VFX backgrounds, but neither of us had the skill or lighting knowledge to fix the problems.  Whereas those who were more experienced with lights in our group (not that there were many with no Gaff or D.O.P) simply hadn't developed the eye to even see the problems, even if they were pointed out.  This contributed to a lot of time spent trying to communicate within the group and getting issues fixed. 




We decided we would need to film the rest the next day, because we would need to pack up everything in that room before SIT closed on Sunday night.  I knew right there that we wouldn't be getting through everything, as we already had a lot of shots in the scene scheduled for the following day, that I was skeptical about getting through.  This lead to some messy scheduling as our actor required wasn't available until the afternoon.  We had to wrap up our filming downstairs at 3:30 or 4pm on the dot at the latest in order to film a shot we needed upstairs before our actor had to leave again.  On our second morning of filming our actor was an hour late again....

We also ran into heaps of other issues during the weekend.  Two lights blown, a faulty RCD, cords that didn't work, Tripods that broke.  You name it.  Oh and we had no slate...

Murphy's Law. Retrieved from https://bizkidsrochester.wordpress.com

I guess that the lesson here is that no matter how well you think you have scheduled something, whenever you are relying on a large group of people or on equipment you can expect things not to work out.  Especially if you are dealing with something your group is unfamiliar with like a greenscreen shoot!

Despite the issues it was actually a really enjoyable shoot.  Working with such a small crew was really nice, there was less tension and for the most part everyone just got stuck in and helped where ever they were needed.  It was slow work, and there was a lack of urgency in the crew which wasn't ideal but it also felt relaxed. 

Two more days of filming to go!  I'm still hoping, probably against all odds, that we have a day where things actually go to plan.