Blog #40 Filming Day 1 - Scene 4, Shot 1

 After the cast warmed up in the field and the weightroom, it was almost the end of day 1, however I wanted to get one more shot out of them, and completely check off Scene 4 from filming. Shot 1 of scene 4 is one of my more complex shots, its a bit longer and has quite abit of camera movement - which also has to be very sturdy/still as the scene is during the harmony of the film, I cant have any handheld shakiness until the more horror focused climax. I was pretty confident we could do this on day one as while it does have alot of camera movement, all Gavin and Lauren had to do was walk towards each other, they just have to ignore me. 

We went over the scene plan I had created and I explained to Gavin and Lauren what we would be doing. I had us rehearse the shot twice with no camera just to get a gage at the actual physical environment and how the shot works in it, and we created action words and cues to orchestrate complex scenes like these; for example since I need different actors doing different things at ether the same or different times, I had to create multiple cues for them to follow and assign it to them before each rehearsal and eventually shot. For example in this shot I waved my hand to tell Gavin when to talk, gave a thumbs up when Lauren had to start walking over, and I just told them to hug verbally at the end of the shot. After the two rehearsals I had one more rehearsal/ test with the camera, and then on the second try on the camera we nailed the shot.

Dillon waving hi to Anna - Midshot

Dillon and Anna walk towards each other - Over the Shoulder - Tracking shot

Dillon and Anna hug -  Two shot - Pan

I am extremely happy with how this shot came out, and I am now very hopeful for the more complex shots from the third act of the film.