Shooting Beibhinn again

Previously on 7 Minutes with Beibhinn, our hero was shooting a film, and he still is... Okay, not meaning to confuse the narratives here, but this is indeed a continuation of the last post.

   Day 3:   
Shooting the party scene on Thursday was a bit slower to start than the previous two shoots, largely due to the location, which took a lot of looking at maps and calling the producer to find. We arrived, scoped the place out, set up, and found ourselves waiting longer than expected for the actors to arrive. It seems they had trouble finding the place too, good thing this was night shoot. On the plus side, we had time to test out the majority of our shots and have a coffee, and after a quick run through when the actors arrived, we were ready to go.

The first shot, on the balcony, was troublesome for lighting set up. With no way to put a light behind the actors, their dark hair blended into the night sky all too easily. I tried to rectify this by opening the shutter more but it blew out the highlights on their faces. Adding to this was the trouble of positioning; I found that the best place for one of the key lights was outside the window to the left, and the gusty wind meant someone needed to hold the light at all times. The shot did turn out nicely though, the actors stood out well on the dark background (except for their hair), and there were some nice lights in the distance that I could achieve a bokeh effect with if I positioned the camera just right.

For this shot, the trick was lighting the characters properly, but showing no shadows on camera. It took a bit of experimentation, but I eventually got there. I put the lights high, bouncing the back light off the ceiling, and the camera low, which meant getting a good depth of field so as to keep the bottles at the bottom of the shot out of focus.





Despite the delayed start, we finished up just a little after we had anticipated (though I still missed my bus...). The most difficult shot of the day was a tracking shot, where Brian walks into the apartment. Without a proper steadicam or shoulder mount, it was really difficult to keep the camera level for this one.


   Day 4:   
There's not so much to say about this one (there aren't even any pictures!). The day went incredibly quickly, the shots were all static mids and MCUs, using the same lighting plan as the promo. All I really had to do was make sure the composition and exposure was good. The daylight was on our side once again, and things went swimmingly.

So, that about wraps it up for the 7 Minutes with Beibhinn saga. I really learned a lot about the shoot, and am way more confident with a camera than I was when I first went in. I personally think I did a good job too, apart from a colour balancing issue, all my shots were pretty solid. I was glad David was keen on keeping it simple, it meant I wasn't way out of my league.