Set Life
Day by day of the 2 days went alright. We got there to the house and relaxed before heading to set a few hours before Talent was set to arrive. This allowed us to much about with lighting for as long as we needed to ensure people weren't hanging around waiting. We started a bit late due to sundown but that wasn't an issue at all. The first day was a challenge as we only had Abhi for that one day. We smashed out all his scenes and then moved onto exterior scenes. We set up the second day the same except went to film the bulk of the film, the dialogue scenes.
Problems on set only arisen from select people not putting in the effort to be present and helpful on set. The girls, and when I say the girls I mean all 3, turned up late to set the second day. MJ and Alexia both days put in little effort on set and instead decided they would eat all the food, nap and complain constantly about the fact that they were tired. It was a 4 am overnight shoot. We were all tired. Many put this aside and remained professional. Others did not.
I talked about this in my Critical reflection but I was DoP on set so I was in charge of almost everything visual and I think I smashed it. This is directly due to my outstanding team. I don't think this shoot would have gone well at all if I didn't have a super helpful and professional camera Dept.
I allowed myself to get frustrated and affected by bad behavior and moods on set. After the 3rd time receiving attitude from MJ when I asked for help with continuity for a scene, I stopped referring to her. After asking Kyal numerous times to assist me as runner only to have him drag his feet, I started deffering to others or myself. These are a few examples but I should have remained professional. I allowed the fact that I was tired and stressed myself dictate how I approached the night and it definitely shows in some of the shots, as well as the master we never shot.
In my minor role, I made sure I was as available as possible, as MJ was DoP in charge of my dept. I can easily say I would have been just as helpful regardless of the DoP, but the fact that I had an opportunity to show MJ how a minor should act on set didn't escape me. I believe I succeeded. Wests set was much more disorganised than ours, not due to anyone's fault in particular. I was able to follow in the way that director and dop talk and make decisions directly influence your on set duties and the time it takes to work. Creative decisions harshly affect everyone jobs, such as shooting towards a blown out window which results in nearly an hour and a half of lighting your talents faces.
This blog has been rushed and its a topic I could rant about for hours so if you wanna email me to have a chat about it more in-depth let me know. As for now, I'm going to leave it this mess.
* None of the BTS photos I had acees too would upload because they were RAW.
