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.