Filming Marathon
How easy everything can be, when the director has a clear vision and can communicate effectively.
For Hannah's Me, Myself, and I, I was designated boom op. Although I cannot really imagine myself working as a boom op in the industry for more than necessary, I do enjoy the task (and the physical training that comes with it!) Regarding the fact that my first two to three boom op jobs resulted in very shaky arms and a lot of muscle aches afterwards, it is surprising to me how fast I got used to holding the boom for extended periods of time.
This time round, the production was also way easier for me, since all the necessary paperwork was prepared and I had more than a week to read into the script and consider what foleys to take.
Our shooting schedule consisted of three half-shooting days at two different locations and thus resulted to be an extremely relaxed one.
Having said that, the upcoming storm on day one was not really helpful in capturing pristine, class A dialogue and foleys. A lot of times, we had to interrupt a take since our camera op Katie was picking up wind noises amidst the dialogue.
Fortunately, we had enough time booked in with the studio, so we were able to sit out the most annoying gusts and instead shoot in the interims. But this also required a high level of concentration since everyone would constantly listen in to ensure that the wind has died down well enough for us to continue filming.
Since we were filming inside, I have previously not considered how influential the weather outside can still be on the sound. I will make a mental note for my future recces to also consider how the acoustic environment inside can change with the weather outside to accommodate for any short hand changes in the shooting schedule like soundproofing the studio or change the position and direction of the directional mic.
Furthermore, working together in a team gives you a lot of inspirations for future projects. In Hannah's case, on the second shooting day, she chose a static low-level shot of her feet as she walked along a corridor, entering a door and thus moving out of frame. While a simple shot to take, the fragmentation of her main character is inciting a lot of assumptions about her.
Lastly, for her piece required the use of a weapon and the cutting of her wig with said one, we had a martial arts supervisor coming on set for the last day of shooting. I was impressed by the supervisor's knowledge and his readiness to chip in whenever at a loss.
For we underestimated how blunted the weapons really were - neither the dagger nor the sword would be sharp enough to cut through the synthetic wig and holding the cut-off strands in the hand inconspicuously, which is why we had to improvise by pre-cutting the wig first with scissors and running the dagger through it afterwards. It took us several attempts since most of them turned out to look fake on camera.
Finally, I realised that a highly or at least well organised director can give you a lot of motivation and security to its crew and cast, which is a nice tie-in to my thoughts on the director's role of motivating his crew the other day.
