DIRECTIONS UNIT: THE SHOOT

The Pub shoot
On the first day of shooting it went very well. Everyone arrived on set on time (10am) and we had set up a small section for teas and coffees while we set up. Since we had done the tech run on the 8th Feb where we got the lighting set up, I spoke with my DOP (Trine Hagan) and my Sound Operator (Jack Nix) to set up the lighting and the camera as they knew what I wanted and I went and began to block through the scenes with Jamie and Jacob. Following the shot list, I walked through how I wanted them to go through this, with Jamie sobbing, upset, feeling terrible and down and Jacob trying to get him over it, drinking, eating, doing the 'Clyde' impression and trying to cheer him up. I then went on to explain to the extras (Jason, George) that they simply need to act like they're in a pub but not to actually speak since we needed Jamie and Jacob's dialogue here and I could add in the background noise in post.

One issue that I faced the night before was Domenic, who was going to play Snakehips, canceled the night before due to illness. So I had to contact my friend Oliver Fidds and ask him to step in. I put together a costume for him which was a long black coat and the rings which I had borrowed for Domenic, although it wasn't as good as Domenic would have been it still worked for the character, he looked old enough and with his facial hair and the rings it helped to create this mysterious mystery of the character. So I placed all the characters into their positions, making them close to each other but making the scene look busier than it actually was. Once this was done I set up the table to look like Shaun and Ed had been drinking for a while with some packets of pork scratching on the table and we began shooting for 11am.

Once we'd gotten the footage from the pub being open done, we changed the lighting to make it darker, I thanked Jason and George and sent them off set as I was done with them and we moved onto the pub being closed. This was where Jamie (Shaun) and Jacob (Ed) had their biggest sections of dialogue so we talked through how they would deliver it and also what they would do while speaking it, we agreed on holding the pint, drinking every now and again, just always doing something rather than just sitting and talking. We also added more onto the table to help give the idea that time has passed. Here we also got Oliver Freeman (John), Kim (the woman) and Oliver Fidds (Snakehips) to do their roles.

Overall, inside the pub went really well and we finished inside at 3pm which was on schedule. We were organised and worked well through the shot list and the shoot went according to schedule. We came back to the pub at 6:30pm when it was dark and went to shoot the exterior footage, we got Zak and Victoria there as the couple but we encountered a lot of issues here. Firstly, the LED lights weren't bright enough to see both Morgan (Zombie) and the actors and we couldn't really see the couple either. Later, the battery in the Sony camera died, so as a last resort (since we didn't have another battery) we had to change over to DSLR and record the audio separately. Although we did get the shot in the end this was where the shoot went slightly wrong since I should have put the battery on charge during the break between shoots. However, we thought quickly and professionally and got the shot done in the end.

House, Street and shop shoot
On the morning of the second day we encountered a problem as soon as we arrived on set. I got a call from the manager of Spare Store and she informed me that we could not film inside the shop and we wouldn't be able to till the following week. I spoke with her and asked if we could film outside the store and she said that would be fine. My idea was that we could get all the footage we needed and later we would have to go and find another store to film inside and just change the store scene from one shop to 3 separate shots due to this issue. But I didn't let this get the better of me and we got the extras straight into make up when we arrived on set.

While the extras were in make up, me and my crew went ahead and got the interior house footage filmed with Jamie and Jacob. Jacob's was very quick and easy since he only had one line. We then moved into the kitchen (where make-up was still happening) and filmed 'Shaun' waking up and walking off.


























These scenes were easy to get and I worked with Trine to get the pull focus shots that I wanted for Shaun waking up. Once these were done I still had actors in Make-up so me, Trine and Jason went outside with Jamie and we began to block out the scene. We blocked out how we would do this scene, each time moving further up the street to help show 'Shaun' walking further and further from his house. I also chose to cameo in this like quite a  few directors have done such as Alfred Hitchcock, Peter Jackson and Quentin Tarantino. However, rather than having focus on myself with lines like Quentin, I chose to go for a more Hitchcock style of just being in the background for a few seconds. So for the 'dead body' that I had Shaun walk past, I was that body. I like the idea of director cameos as it's the director being in the Universe that they are creating.

We also found a small turning down the road from the house I chose to use as the cut point, I wanted to have Shaun turn here and then cut where we could change to the footage at the shop. We recorded everything we could without the Zombie extras to keep to schedule and once we had filmed Shaun walking to the shop and walking past the body, we got our extras and moved over to the shop.
Since we had two actors covered in blood and make-up, we had Morgan as our runner and placed him around the corner from the shop just to warn people when they were coming close about the actors to ensure we didn't scare the public. This entire shoot was really difficult as we always had to wait for cars to stop going past in order to shoot since this was meant to be set after a zombie outbreak so there was a lot of cutting and re-takes in order to get the shot. As well, at the Spare Store there was a dog tied up outside and an old ladies shopping cart. We did the take of Shaun walking in and once we got that the woman wanted to move the dog. I saw this as a perfect opportunity for the film and because Jamie had acknowledged as Shaun when walking in. I had him notice the dog was gone when we walked back out but with the Zombies even closer now giving the idea that the zombies took it and adding to the comedy that Shaun still doesn't notice anything.

We finished off and got the final shots and the final shot for the film of Shaun going back into the house and the zombies coming closer to the house. Once we did this we moved on to get the footage of inside the car. We got the fake blood and covered the windows down to get the hand marks. I decided to get Shaun walking to and from the shop both in the same take but with the zombies coming back with him. The shot worked even better than I'd expected as we managed to get the zombies following seen in the mirror which gives this really nice effect. Once we did this me, Trine, Jason and Jamie got together and drove back to Rochester and after asking many different shops, we were given permission to film inside the store 'Best One'. We got the shot and wrapped. Although this wasn't very organised we had to work fast and find another location but we got what we needed and as well updated the risk assessment as we went along to ensure we followed health and safety regulations.

Overall, I feel my shooting days went really well. We had a few issues but I was very well prepared and had a clear vision of what I wanted from the film. I focused on my role and worked well with my actors. I made sure I made my crew understand what I wanted vision wise and with my actors I clearly explained how I wanted them to play the roles. Overall I'd say this was a success.