Today we were given 2 hours to film the Taxi Driver scene given to us two weeks ago. Unfortunately we hadn’t spent any time rehearsing the scene since the session two weeks ago and, considering this, it went better than I’d expected. We used a room in the Workstation to film which I feel was good for the scene - it had a desk in there which we used as Betsy’s desk, and a door at the opposite end of the room which Travis would enter at the start of the scene.
We spent quite a while setting up the scene and rehearsing lines, leaving us only about half an hour to film the scene itself. Mark gave me a hand setting up the camera as I have never used the PD 170 before, and also took over filming when I had to dash off to put more money in my car! Thanks Mark.
It was interesting to see some of Mark’s shot ideas, such as the pan from Betsy’s face to Travis’s in the style of a shot reverse shot. I’ve never considered this shot before and feel that it could work well for scenes including a long conversation between two characters, allowing more shot variety than a simple shot reverse shot. It might, however, have worked better on a tripod as the camera was a little too unsteady at times.
I think the session today made us realise the importance of preparation and organization BEFORE the shoot. For example, we wasted a lot of time learning lines which effectively could have been learned before the shoot. This wasn’t necessarily anybody’s fault - we were all that caught up in our own film that we didn’t pay this session to much attention - but it is a lesson that has been learned for when we use actors for our film.
Another important thing for me is a filming schedule. Turning up today without any idea where we were starting or any time restrictions was a bad idea. For example, as mentioned earlier, we only left ourselves about half an hour to film the scene and had to rush. I feel that when it comes to filming our film, we must definitely have a schedule ready for every shoot.
Finally it has taught me that storyboards are key. Although I do find that when on set more shot ideas come to me, having no storyboards today proved quite difficult. Thinking up all shot ideas on the spot took up quite a bit of time, time which we could do without losing when it comes to the real thing!
Despite these problems the film turned out to be quite good and told the story, despite not editing the footage at all.
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