NFTS Residential- Day 8

One of the most amazing days of my life!

Today was the 2nd and final day of shooting "French Cricket". We started off the day back on location, shooting the exterior shots of the house, including shots of the car pulling up in the driveway. To do this, we used two radio mics in addition to the boom, in order to catch Will's dialogue inside the car and his conversation with Jim more clearly. For one shot, we placed the camera inside the car and filmed the scene from this position. This meant taping the mic to the inside of the car out of shot, and having me curled up in the boot recording and mixing it (which was surprisingly good fun)!
After this, we spent the next few hours setting up the TV Studio at NFTS ready for the car journey scene. This was amazing! Brian Tufano acted as DP for this shoot, and also came up with ways to create the illusion of the car driving on a country road, as opposed to sitting still in a studio. The solution was to darken the room and hang black curtains around the walls, giving the impression that the scene was taking place at night. From there, our Gaffer (who worked on Star Wars) placed two smaller studio lights on a low T-Bar and had them swung from right to left (facing the car) every so often, giving the illusion of passing car headlamps. The effect of traffic lights was also created by placing red and orange gels on studio lights and shining them at the car. All the way through each take, the camera rig was gently rocked back and forth to add movement and a sense of realism to the shots. To light the actors in the car, small rectangular LED lights were taped to the inside of the car, pointing at the actors' faces, giving a subtle, natural light. Brian also came up with a way of giving the illusion of passing countryside; by taping large branches together, he was able to make a couple of 'bushes'. These were then attached to a dolly and rapidly wheeled across the back of certain shots at certain points. The effects combined looked very realistic!
To mic the actors, we placed a radio mic near each actor (we didn't use the boom until we recorded wild tracks of a car boot, a car door and a slamming door at the end of the day). I wrapped (after wild tracks) just before 7 in the evening.
It was a very long and tiring day, but definitely the most enjoyable and rewarding!