Script Read Through - 26th February 2012

DATE:                                        Sunday 26th February 2012

LOCATION:                              PH86 - St Matts

CREW:                                       Myself - director, second camera, lighting
                                                     Natalia - first camera
                                                     Fin - sound

ACTORS:                                  Lewis - Support Worker (SW)
                                                    Mike - Homeless Man (HM)

EQUIPMENT:                          Panasonic HMC camera
                                                    Canon DSLR 550D camera
                                                    Tripod x2
                                                    Track and Dolly
                                                    Red Head Lighting Kit
                                                    Rode Microphone for DSLR
                                                    Shot gun Microphone & Boom pole for HMC





On Sunday 26th February I held my second practice shoot, this time with both of my actors and a production crew. This was a very informal shoot forming mainly as an opportunity for my actors to get used to the crew, and potentially intimidating filming equipment - particularly the lights. At this point I hadn't heard my script read aloud so it was also a chance for me to listen to what I'd written and recognize any parts that don't make sense or sound a bit awkward. We only had two hours as one of my actors had plans in the afternoon so we were working within a time limit.



Overall the practice shoot went really well. I was really impressed with my actors and crew. Having extra crew members on set to help out was really useful mainly as this enabled me to use two different cameras filming at different angles simultaneously which was really crucial due to the limited time scale we had. Secondly, the additional crew members were able to pick up on things that I may've missed. Having worked with Natalia closely on a film project last year, I trust her judgement and know the composition of her work is always to a high quality, this again was really useful as she could make suggestions based on previous discussions we have had in our production meetings.


My actors are now going to go away and learn their lines. In between takes I added stage directions onto their individual scripts and talked them through the different emotions their characters are feeling. Lewis, playing the Support Worker, was struggling a bit to understand his character profile so I spent an additional half an hour discussing this with him to aid his understanding. Both actors coped really well with the equipment. There were a few moments in the script where the lines seemed quite awkward and tongue-twister like, Mike has said he will make ammendments when he's learning his lines and will email me these.

The next filming session is scheduled for 24th & 25th March due to actors having prior engagements.