We had already blocked through how the scene would work during the day, however this was without actors so we had an allotted time (1 hour) to block through the scene with the actors and make sure it flowed properly and that the actors understood everything.
Title sequence
When planning out the schedule, my crew and I discussed something which we hadn't considered... We haven't thought of a title sequence for this scene. Although this isn't needed. We did say this could be ideal practice and something good for the edit. Looking at the original title sequence for Jessica Jones:
The original title sequence really plays with the colour scheme of the show and also uses graphic novel style art to show that this is from a comic book while also showing aspects of Jessica Jones's character such as the streets she walks down, the buildings she'll often spy into for clients, etc. The title sequence does a lot to tell us who this character is.
For our title sequence, we agreed that we wanted to have something which revealed our character but only Jessica as it's only her and Malcolm, Malcolm isn't the main character and the programmes title is the main characters name. Jessica is known for breaking into places and spying on people, so we decided to use this as the title sequence. The idea was to have it in 4 simple shots. Jessica walking, the shot focusing on her feet. Jessica walking past the camera, focusing on her leather jacket, then a following shot from behind Jessica leading up to the house and finally a shot from the front where she takes a photo with her camera and then her face is revealed. Slowly revealing the character and then finally showing us Jessica right at the end.
Blocking
When blocking through the scenes with the actors, I moved around the set and the actors to see what angles would be best and also to see if I could get anymore ideas for shots. Although I did have a shot list, I often look to see if there are better shots as I've found from previous projects that I will change some of the shots on the day. However, this has also been done by other DOPs as the shot list is one choice but changing it might benefit the production. We blocked through the entire script and also the title sequence with the actors. I used my phone here a lot to look through and see how the shots would look which did benefit me a lot.
Shooting
Title Sequence - We started shooting the title sequence while it was still light as I found it didn't matter if the titles didn't match the scene, the idea of this is to introduce Jessica. I decided to keep the title sequence moving it would all be shot on the DJI Ronin. We used the bottom of Victoria's garden as it looked like a completely different location and then when 'Jessica' walks up and takes a photo it does look like she's breaking into someones garden. This was a nice and easy shoot to get done. I got a few variations of the shots so that Jemma had something to play with in the edit. Using the Ronin worked really well as it allowed me to just move around more freely and also not have to set up more kit, as well as keeping the shots nice and stable.
Scenes 1 & 2 - The walking scene with Malcolm worked really well. We did have to cut at times due to cars driving past, Although this would happen as the scene is set on a standard street, I wanted to create the atmosphere that it's really late at night and with that, the lack of cars in the shot help. I did add in an LED with someone following but it just looked very unnatural. The street lights, although not creating constant light, worked better as you do feel like you're on a street. We did about 3/4 takes of this and moved onto scene 2.
Scene 2 we actually came back to at the end of the shoot. When trying to get the shot of Malcolm running down the steps, I found that the Ronin couldn't get the shot as I wanted to whip pan to the right as he runs but the ronin is stabilised to slow the shots down. Later I came back to this shot with my shoulder rig and it worked much better and got the shot I needed.
Scene 3 - From here on, we were in the main scene and in the main location. Prior to the shoot I had decided to get all the shots with the gimbal, then tripod and finally end with my shoulder rig. This way I wouldn't take up time with rigging and de-rigging. With the gimbal shots, I knew it was more helpful with the first half of this scene as it allows much smoother movements. I changed a shot which was Jessica standing up. Originally my idea was to have her get up and the camera follow then have Jessica's back to the camera, however when looking I found that the lights gave a really nice shot of moonlight on our actors face and found this worked too well not to get as a shot (see photo to the right)Working through the scene, I got what I needed from the gimbal, shots of both characters and Malcolms entrance and Jessica's exit from the scene. A lot of the shots I realised would need to be on the tripod such as the shot of the board as the rig was too heavy to hold up high and it didn't work if it was moving. Once done here I moved over to the tripod. I had originally planned to have the opening of this scene as a tracking shot with the gimbal, luckily I managed to get hold of a basic slider on the shoot day which gave a much smoother shot. We well it worked much better to slowly reveal the scene, we see the room trashed, then Jessica and then we had Jemma spin a upside down desk chair to make it look like Jessica has only just trashed the room, this is the last thing revealed in the scene. The tracking stops and just lets the audience take in the scene for a moment and what 'has happened'. I think it's really effective and shows the emotions Jessica is currently feeling.
Actors Dialogue - originally, I had planned to have the actors doing their dialogue in one take, pull focusing between the two characters as they talk. Although I did get this shot, it wasn't how I pictured it due to the size of the set limiting how close the actors to get while also having ash between them. For safety I got singles of each characters dialogue.
With the discovery of the drugs in Jessica's bag, I added in a locked off shot here with a pull focus between Jessica and the drugs. I preferred this than a cut away of the drugs and it keeps the shot smooth and more cinematic as well. Finally, I got the locked off shot of the board which is the big reveal.
Moving over to the Shoulder mount, I got the last little bits I needed, run throughs of the second and third page of the script with the lighting change and the hallway.
There was very few issues on the shoot. The camera died 3 times however we had batteries on stand by and we ensured all the lights wee both weighed down and had someone with them at all time. Ronin gimbal worked really well as did the set but we had come up with.
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