Monday was a day of pre-production for Melissa's Mail. We worked out our various spheres of responsibility within the shoot and divided the production work between us all, overseen by Gavin. This certainly eased some of the pressure on pre-production. It was my job to essentially find everyone we needed cast-wise and also to get a make-up person.
We are very fortunate in the Academy to have top-class actors wandering all over the place, so casting three out of four roles from within RSAMD was very helpful. The fourth one was quite a nightmare to source, but we eventually found a gentleman called Tony who was perfect for the role. I also gained some experience of working with a casting agency from the point of view of a director, as opposed to as a background artist.
Tuesday was a lecture on the Golden age of Hollywood, followed by our final Screenwriting class, where we presented a further selection of premises and got our assignment over Easter. One three-minute script, ten seven-minute premises, three of which are developed into three paragraph outlines.
Wednesday was a PAT tutorial, followed by a Program Meeting and a screening of Cathy Come Home. Undeniably a powerful piece of TV drama, which I had heard of but never seen. It interested me that it was quite unafraid to proclaim it's message very loudly. It did not try to follow the "I'm just asking questions?" or even "It's whatever you make of it" approach that seems to be somewhat in vogue at the moment. It was verging strongly towards what might be termed "preachy" today, and although this is usually seen as a defect, it did not seem like that to me in this piece. I wonder how well something like this would be received today, when it seems mandatory to prefix every conclusion, even in a documentary, with the word "Perhaps".
Thursday was a Technical class, where we looked at various aspects of a shoot in a somewhat random fashion as words of wisdom queued themselves up inside Ray's head. Some of this I found useful, some less so, but it was good to have a time to ask any questions about the technical side of the project.
Friday was an open day (AKA intense pre-production day), and at 1630 we got the kit out for filming Lord of the Rings in 60 Seconds. I was filming this on Friday evening and Monday daytime and went immediately into Melissa's Mail on Tuesday and Wednesday. This, of course, was not good for the nerves, but Lord of the Rings had been well into pre-production long before the two course-led films had been selected and the dates of filming revealed.
So what have I learnt from the experience?
Lord of the Rings
- The Props department are truly amazing (Elven shears, the Eye of Sauron, a sword, etc)
- The Costume folk likewise (hobbit costumes, a gown, a cloak)
- If you want something done, don't ask a Designer.
- Risk Assessments are a minor nuisance, but they make you very safety conscious throughout.
- A reflector board, being waved around in a light beam, produces a lovely flickering effect.
- Lighting a set takes ages compared to setting up for another camera angle within a lit set.
We only had four DFTV students involved in Lord of the Rings while we were shooting. Phil was directing, I was 1st AD and also helping out with the lights, Luke was on camera and Graeme on sound. However we had about 8 TPA students involved over the two days, doing everything from Set Dressing to being an improvised Dolly Grip or Focus Puller. (In the absence of a dolly, we borrowed a small platform on wheels which was found lying discarded at the back of an emapty room, and set the camera up on that. I was particularly pleased with that shot, where one person was on camera, two were moving the dolly, and a fourth was pulling the focus while a fifth cable bashed!) I found this initial collaboratio to be very promising in terms of what TPA and DFTV can deliver when they work together and look forward to our next collaboration next term.
Melissa's Mail
- Once a white room is lit with a general even wash, it becomes much easier to light it in future. The problems are with trying to avoid seeing lights in wideshots and trying to find a little bit of highlight in tighter shots. A pepper is very useful for this.
- Don't wrap people too early just because you feel sorry for them getting bored!
- Have plenty water on set for cast and crew.
- Don’t leave complex shots to the end of the day. You will be too tired to care.
- It’s best to be able to pay extras. Two out of four never showed, though the two that turned up were brilliant and very professional.
- Having an extra couple of folk standing by on set is very useful if anything unforeseen should occur.
Overall, having not seen the footage, I am still very pleased the way Melissa’s Mail turned out. The shot list was terrifying, with close to sixty set-ups. However, with an even light, with a schedule cleverly designed by Gavin and with a continual eye on the clock we managed to get through the marathon and had cleared the office building by half five on the dot.
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