Lifetime Test Shots - Scene 01.

John playing Adam - The second days lighting worked so much better

A small crew got together to shoot some test shots for lifetime last weekend. It was a really usefull experience. Not only did we get to test ideas like lighting and camera but with a little time on the edit, it was like the ultimate full rehearsal which highlighted a number of points worthy of consideration.

Although only test shots, I felt that in order to give some sort of authenticity to the agent character something more than a cotton boiler suit was required for his time travel suit and helmet.
 I wanted to try some experiments with glass beads that are used in road markings to reflect light for the production suit. I wondered if highly reflective tape might work for a mock-up suit. Actually acquiring this tape proved more difficult than expected and in the end I purchased a couple of large high-vis vests purely for the reflective ribbon from Arco. The ribbon was removed and bonded to a white disposable suit with double sided tape. This proved quite effective once tested with a still camera using a flash but under redhead light (used inside the room on day one) did not work quite the same.

Reflective ribbon screenshot of Adam and the Agent.

I will still look to conducting experiments with the glass beads and get a couple more high-vis vests whilst they remain reduced at Arco to create the final production suit.
Some sort of padding is required to make a suit more substantive. 

The lights looked nice but quickly ran out.

I had already decided that I wanted the agents helmet to include a visor that enabled the whole of his face to be visible and illuminated similar to the diving masks developed in the production of The Abyss. For the mock-up I purchased a full face visor from Arco and topped it with a hard hat worn backwards, this assembly was covered with a slit cloth bag which was bonded in place with the highly reflective ribbon bonded with double sided tape. I used a cheap solar LED rope light around the extremities of the visor. This didn’t illuminate his face too much but was effective initially. Unfortunately the battery for this ran down quite quickly and recharging was slow resulting in it not really being visible in the footage, but it can be seen in the production stills. In practice during shooting the mask steamed up frequently and this can be seen during some of the shots. I may try to run a line from my compressor to the visor for the final mask to prevent this in-between takes and shall look to removing the solar battery and running the lights from a conventional source.

The Agent arrives in a puff of smoke

 We wanted to try to create a practical effect to enhance in post for the time umbilical. Due to problems acquiring reflective tape to create an umbilical we decided to try to use the remaining light rope from the helmet visor. This seemed a good idea at the time as it was already connected to the suit. The plastic rope was drawn up to and over the mic boom pole which was held to the ceiling. In practice this was not very successful as it draped from the pole and it was not possible to maintain any form of tension. This may have been more successful if connected to a body harness and strung over a studio lighting rig on which the tension to keep it straight would be able to be applied. The reflective tape is very effective when the light hits it just right, but another solution for the umbilical material would probably be more appropriate.

A shot gun was required for the final shot. Whilst it was always planned to have a genuine prop for actual production, for the purposes of the test shots a simple prop was constructed from 22mm copper pipe utilising two 'barrels’ gaffer taped together to a third support to hold the construction together and act as a handle/stock which was then sprayed black. This was effective enough for the tests as a representation and maybe something for the actor of the final piece to practice with in order to make using a genuine prop more effective in the final production. I once saw a programme about how assailants using knifes improve a threatening ‘technique’ to induce fear as they commit more crimes without the need to shed blood. How the gun will be held and performed with in a threatening manner is equally/more important than how good the final prop will look.

Bad Mad Dad - Kyle with the shotgun 10 min prop

  I wanted to create a dark and dingy intro to the film with a noir venetian blind effect with shards of light entering the room that Adam then sat in. To this end I had planned to place redheads on the flat roof outside the window to shine through. However on day one we were unable to do this due to rain. To counter this we postponed these shots hoping that day 2 would have better weather and proceeded with other shots with the room illuminated from the inside. The resulting shots look too bright and stand out from the nicer shots achieved the following day when we could use the lights on the roof. Whilst some colour grading could have reduced it, this and failing to create the required blinds shards effect due to all our smoke being lost through the window (our power cables fed through) prompted a conversation about a studio build to control this situation which we could then hotbox as more lighting may also have helped. 

This experience has been so useful highlighting development necessary for production and direction it would be good to attempt the same for all the other Lifetime scenes before committing them to film.

Wilton works shoot/hillside reccy

Wilton works and the wind turbines out to sea at Redcar.

Following day one’s test shots for lifetime we took a drive up to Lackenby  to take shots from the footbridge spanning the A174 of the Wilton chemical works for the final composite shot reveal.
Following the rain earlier in the day which prevented us from placing lights outside, the day had really brightened up.

The bridge has a cage all the way round but the camera on full zoom easily shot through the mesh keeping it out of shot.
Unfortunately it was too early for shots of them illuminated and there was too much haze to get good daytime shots. Due to this we decided to carry on up the hills following the path that the bridge connects Lackenby to.

The view over the chemical works and out to sea from the hill side is fantastic but the actual shot needs to be from a much lower angle, more as when approaching Wilton from on the road, a lower location than the bridge ideally.

We also looked to performing some test shots for the ‘flying cars’ part of the composite, but there was simply not enough traffic needed to make it effective.

The guys take a breather walking up the hillside.

As consolation about three quarters of the way up the slippy muddy hill side we found the remains of brick and concrete constructions from the old mine workings, including a large tunnel entrance running directly into the side of the hill.
Whilst it automatically suggested itself as a shot location, you would be left with one hell of a lugg to get production equipment up to the site (ripe for a horror though!). 

Criminology Additional shoot 29th April

More blood, More Blood!

 Kyle, Matty and myself went back out into the abandoned streets to shoot a couple of cutaway extra shots for Criminology. Whilst not essential to the finished production, it was decided to shoot them to give Jodie more options whilst editing the street assault scene.

Matty dressed as the security guard again and sported a face full of fake blood that he had made whilst he lay on the floor blood spattered. Kyle donned a red boiler suit whilst standing over him with the baseball bat. As only his legs would be in shot, it was unnecessary to call out the actors again.
We also took a couple of close-ups of the bat dripping blood into a small pool of the fake blood. The final cutaway shot that we took here was of the remaining pot of blood being splashed against the wall for the initial attack, however the gooey blood was quite difficult to control and unfortunately missed the intended camera framing. With no more blood to replace it we left the location to get Matty cleaned up who was a right bloody mess.

The streets just aint safe any more.

Once Matty was scrubbed we proceeded on to the Grand Hotel who had given us permission to film at the rear of the building (as establishing shots to represent the Penopticon). There is a large lovely bay window with stained glass and fire escapes in the court yard. We set about dressing the walls with posters but the area was very busy with staff and deliveries and we abandoned the location once we realised that we were not going to get the shots that we wanted. So we headed out to the Headland and back to the old council buildings as an alternative. We took shots of the exterior and a couple shots of old walls with Criminology posters on them to finish the day.

Kingdom shoot 4th April

I had agreed to be a driver, runner and an extra on the Kingdom shoot at Tim’s family home in Welbury. The day started well with everybody meeting up early at Middlesbrough train station and finding their way successfully out into the sticks to Tim’s house, without anybody getting lost.

It was a long day as once the initial driving was over (and A LOT of bicycles had been moved) there was little for me and Kyle to do, who was also an extra in the barn scene.

When our time arrived to perform we were given little preparation and as we were not party to the rehearsals conducted in the studio were not aware of what to expect from the other actors and the action in the shot.
Garry Davison and Eilidh Talman played a blinder as whilst Kyle and I were wondering what happens next Garry who had been stood with us all day ran past us dragging Eilidh who was on the floor by her hair out of the building. It was the first time we had seen him move, we both looked at each other like we should run to her rescue. They were very effective.

To Jodie’s credit whilst driving Garry back to Middlesbrough he said that it was the most professional shoot that he had been on and the first time that he had received a production pack.

I'm glad I was following Darren, I think my Satnav would have got lost.

Criminology Shoot 4, Hospital shoot two - 19 March

Phil prepares for the spooky coridor shots.

We returned to the hospital to complete the shots with Phil. Kyle, Phil and I arrived a little earlier than the rest of the crew whilst footage from the day before was logged back at CCAD. We took advantage of this time by shooting some cutaways of Phil with the BMPCC. We hoped that this might warm him up a bit for script based shots once the rest of the crew arrived. Once the rest of the crew arrived we took the rest of the shots including the measuring sequence, with a nice slider shot of the tools being picked from a table top, quite uneventfully. Originally scheduled as a short days shoot we finished as planned and decided to collect extra on spec shots and take advantage of the location, since we would not be coming back

The gruesome tools used during the shoot.

 We had to break of from the shoot midway through for a meeting at CCAD before coming back for some corridor shots. After the success of the Dolly on the first shoot due to the studio like floors we thought we could use this to our advantage to create one long rolling shot the full length of the corridor I had suggested that we could take two sets of redheads to illuminate the corridor through the open doors of the different wards running off it, inspired by a shot I was considering for the bendy corridor shots for lifetime in the FE College using coloured gels through the window walls. Kyle constructed some shots and we followed the wheelchair on the Dolly with the camera and then filmed a POV shot handheld from the wheelchair. These worked really nicely, dark and moody. When finished because we had the time to and the ability to I wanted to take a shot of the camera rushing down the corridor towards Phil and Liam with the chair at the bottom. I don’t think the shot will be used in the final production but it occurred to me that it would be a a good shot for a nightmare dream sequence. It had a great look to it similar to the Evil Dead rushing camera shots as the little bounces along the smooth floor gave a great effect. This is definitely one to use again sometime. After another successful days shooting we called it a day.