Construction Post 3: Reflections on our main shoot session

There were a few errors which we could
easily correct - such as this shot, which
lost focus as the light changed.

I felt that our main shoot went very successfully - especially when compared to the test shoot. We had admittedly left ourselves with a massive amount to work on after the test shoot and needed to film in a new location with our main actress for the first time, as the target audience feedback group were not keen on the original setup at all. Nonetheless, we completed all of the shots to a high standard and with time in hand, with the other group members expressing that there were far fewer problems compared to the test run. For instance, the location offered more natural light which was much easier to control using the blinds, thus avoiding the same continuity errors with lighting as the test shoot. The location was also much larger to shoot in, which meant that pans or tracks were easier to perform. As a result, the vast majority of our main shots were used in the final sequence.

We also wanted to correct small details
 to improve the storyline. We felt, for
instance, that we could have added a
little more aggression to this shot.

On the other hand, there were still small areas and shots which we wanted to improve, plus a few noticeable errors such as:
-the separate pans when Grace walked around the bed were a little jumpy
-some shots, like those filmed on the bed, were shaky as there was little camera support
-the shot of Grace preparing to leave lost focus as the light behind changed suddenly
-Grace's shoes are clearly put on in this sequence, yet in the next shot she exits wearing only socks

Luckily, though, these were extremely minor compared to the problems of re-organising & re-planning a great deal of our entire project, and were easily able to be corrected. Overall, despite these small improvements for the back-up shoot, I was really pleased with how smoothly the shoot ran, as we worked efficiently and ensured that the takes were good enough.




        






(left) An obvious continuity error                      (right) Our main edit (without back-up shots)