The Shoot

Due to scheduling conflicts, the time and situation of the shoot at Mt. Pisgah was set for 5:00 AM this morning. However, ALL people involved slept through their alarms. The idea was to catch dawn (5:35am) and shoot in the pink/orange glow of dawn. Instead, we started meeting an hour late. I began to panic. This happens far too often when I plan a shoot (since none of the actors are paid). One of the actors (Lindsey Kerth) had helped me Wednesday for a film shoot in a different class (the cyberpunk project) and luckily she was free again to help out. The problem was she was driving and since we had lost an hour already we had missed our morning window. She had her own classes to attend until noon.
Early Afternoon Lindsey and my friend Sam Coggeshall (who is also lindsey's boyfriend) became the only two people available to shoot at the new time. I changed the set of shots that we would experiment with to the shots of the couple walking in the forest with the baby. Also you may recognize these two as the actors in the first attempt at "In The Forest" although as different characters.
We went down into the same valley I had found the weeks previous and played with various setups. I started by playing with compositions of light and foliage resembling some of the photographs I had taken. This was to be able to discuss how the lighting textures work with the song and which ones would be most appropriate. After shooting these variations, I went with what I thought felt right in terms of the lighting and played with two variations of the actions the couple deals with in the storyboards. I chose for Sam to carry a machete (and to not even have rags anymore for a shirt) instead of a gun because it felt more real. The first approach was to shoot the walking and hearing something and pointing the machete at the noise (like in the boards). The second approach was to have a more emotional and physical reaction of fear and posting up behind a tree and protecting Lindsey and the baby as he assessed the situation. I shot some sample footage of playing with depth of field to create the uneasy focus of the violence. Most likely I will only use the reaction shot of Sam's face after the attack and not the attack itself.
Tonight I have begun to play with the color correction to balance between the tones of "The Road" and "Children of Men" that I would like to achieve.
Also the shots of the spiked stick have been taken at many angles and pans and lifts so that next week I can begin to learn the techniques of implementing the 3D models!
Peace