Meticulous is an important word approaching a big shoot, leaving nothing up to chance, every minor detail is considered. Shot lists, shot schedules, call sheets, maps, floor plans and storyboards are all prepared beforehand because on the day your biggest enemy is time.
There just aren’t enough hours in the day which often means prioritising the shoot in whichever method is the most time effective be it lighting setups, location availability, equipment, daylight hours or artist availability.
PPPPPP (Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance) which is why we’re putting so much time and effort into planning tomorrow’s shoot for FUSE!s
On the Shooting Day:
Arriving at the shoot with one of the most impressive collections of filming equipment and one of the most impressive film crews I’ve worked with I knew it was going to be a big day.
Dwarfed by the sheer magnitude of Director Tom Phillips and DOP Chris Plevin, both having worked on such blockbusters as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Sunshine and Attack the Block, I tried my best to impress as well as use it as an opportunity to learn.
The level of detail that was attended to really made me think about how I make films (although it is necessary to have so much attention when you’re working with the RED) and Tom’s “no stress” approach to the shoot kept the cast and crew in a good humour.
Even Jason Dully the professional focus puller got in on the windup action telling me (in a serious tone) that “Clappers have feelings and have names” only to burst out laughing seconds later.
FUSE were excellent enjoying talks about what films they watched recently and accepting the challenge to play any song we could name; which was a fun way of spending time between takes.
After a long day and several costume changes we reached the final set up which, just like all the others, was nothing short of genius. Now usually once the Director says those magic words “It’s a W-R-A-P” everyone is off like a rocket but this time everyone hung around to give each other a hand making jokes doing impressions of Bane.
Long hard day, long funny day !!
Tai Campbell
27/07/2012