Planning My Shoot - Project Development

Planning My Shoot

Location

I was very excited to start planning and dive into finally shooting my film. For my first project i didn't want to put myself through a lot of locations due to not being sure if i would get permission to film in most of them so i stuck to 2 minor locations, my own Apartment and Chatham Graveyard which were both very accessible. Of course i had to get permission from Kent Film office to film at the graveyard, it took a few days for it to be approved but it really helped for me to get used to this kind of process for further projects i will create. Hannah from the film office was very nice and helped me throughout the shoot. 

Casting

As for now i did not use any professional actors as my story didn't involve a lot of dialog as most of the visuals expressed the story. I was very happy with two of my friends Lucy Hulatt and Katie Joslin acting in my film as they really represented the characters that i have created. They both did a great job and i couldn't of done it without them. I also had Callum Mulholland on set with me so just assist me with sound and just help me create the perfect shots that i wanted. 

Planning

Before i started shooting i made sure i had the script ready for my actors so they can see a small outline of the story and what i expect of them. I also storyboarded most of the scenes that would be performed so i do not miss anything crucial. The storyboard really helped as both of my actors clearly understood what they needed to do through the format of pictures. I have planned the time and date (14th November 12PM) before hand with both of my actors making sure they are free to perform at my shoot, this succeeded and we wrapped up the shoot by 4pm. Everything went smoothly.

 I used this storyboard every-time i filmed a scene so i did not forget my crucial scenes within my film. I used this instead of Shot-listing because for me this was easier to understand and also for the actors. We could all see what shot exactly i was going for and how i wanted it to be perfectly executed. I feel like a lot of people like to look at images that way they understand easier what i want them to exactly do within the filming. I never really liked shot-listing because it doesn't exactly execute what you want to do. Planning before hand was also easier by just putting down the time and date and as we had all day to film there was no need for shot-listing.