Shooting - Weird Sky

I planned to shoot with Jack today. I'd already given him a brief summary of the shots required and asked for him to bring extra shirts and his instruments - these shirts would be used to distinguish between the clones. I brought my two animal masks and two cameras and a tripod, however I made sure to get Niamh's mum to bring Niamh's light - which she uses for her YouTube videos. I used the same Canon Powershot SX510s that belong to the school, which proved to be difficult to film with in the low light areas; the footage therefore is extremely noisy and doesn't look high quality. I suppose this isn't really much of a problem if I fix it in post, but I will not know for sure yet. Although I would note that I certainly intended to make it dark, which led me to positioning cardboard in front of the window to block out enough light; I feel that I could have kept more like in the room as to maintain the quality of the shots had the room had darker paint - the white walls picked up a lot of light and would give away the lighting.

For filming the performance clips I chose to record each clone individually from a tripod on one camera and take the other for some zoomed in handheld shots (to get different angles and shots). This minimized the number of takes we had to do but I did retakes for each of the three clones in order to ensure the footage was right. This multic-cam setup allowed for easier syncing and the performances were done with music in the background as to again help with syncing but also to ensure Jack's performance matched up with the original recording - as he could have performed too quick or too slowly. I believe the steady camera is quite professional but it is juxtaposed against the handheld shots; these create a sense of unease which seems to grow in the later shots and I feel this will reflect the 'bad trip' extremely well.

It was difficult to film in the dark and to make matters worse Niamh's light failed to work, this light being something I intended to place in front of the TV as to cast a light on Jack's face - as if the TV were on. This was due to the fact that the house had no electricity and would therefore not be able to have a television on. I had to instead settle on attaching my phone to the TV with the torch on, which helped to cast enough light but not as much as I might have wanted; additionally televisions tend to give off a more blueish tint which Niamh's light would but my camera could not.

All in all I believe it was a successful shoot and I managed to overcome all of the issues I was faced with. If I could reshoot some bits I'd likely focus on the lip syncing for Jack and perhaps get a few more close up shots of Jack singing or some abstract shots to overlay within the final video.

Below is a clip of me trying to block out the video as to see if Jack would be in frame and a video of me testing lighting positions. Additionally, there is a vlog sort of clip in which I describe the location and what I did in order to make it appear darker.

Sequence 01 from Eughan Wooding on Vimeo.


Rough Time Plan:

11:00am to 12:30pm - Meet Niamh's mum at the house and begin to set up the areas I will be shooting.
12:30pm to 12:50pm - Debrief Jack on the concept and area we will be shooting, ensure he is refreshed and ready.
12:50pm to 2:00pm - Film the clones and performance pieces upstairs whilst there is still light outside.
2:00pm to 4:30pm - Film the downstairs segments (the parts with Jack watching the television).
4:30pm - Tidy up the house and help Jack transport his instruments to his house, then return the house keys and Niamh's light.