Urban endings: the shoot

In the run up to shooting my UE I felt a tad unprepared, mentally, since it was slap bang in the middle of constant shooting on others and I ended having to do my last minute prep during the lunch break on Amelie's shoot. It worked out fine but I do prefer to have some time to get my drecting head on and really immerse myself in the process.

Over-all I would say that I was very happy with my shoot. I had a great crew, great actors (my decision to devote most of my budget to get a good actress payed off) and good locations. Why I don't say "great" is that in my recce of the first location (BoConcept, the furniture shop) I hadn't quite factored everything in.

It looked perfect and the staff were super helpful, but the sound was very problematic. For one, there was the phone, then there were the staff who hung out only a few meters away, chatting, then there's Sauchiehall St and its ubiquitous traffic noises. I definitely learned a lesson from this: do consider sound when choosing a location! I'm not sure I'd have changed locations, though, because I really really liked the look (not to mention seeing about a hundred things I'd like to buy) and in the end the sound issues were not too major.

The other big thing which, upon reflection, could have been better, was that I definitely needed polarising filters. It was an oversight and while I think the shot (through a glass window) still works it looks like a shot which needed a polariser.

I think the strength of my film is the performances. I'm really pleased with how it turned out and I'm glad for going for quite a modest set up in terms of length and the complexity of the cinematography (the shots were very straight forward so I could focus my attention on the actors) and I think the story is carried by their performances.

Although the shot list was quite simple (two shot, single, single, close up, close up) I was really impressed with Chris's lighting. I pretty much just turned around for a minute and then it was all sorted and exactly what I'd wanted. I love moments like those!

So all in all it was very successful, and I think the finished film works. I wasn't tired at the end of it, which was good because I had two films to do the next day!