Summer Job

[Stuart Brereton]

Hi,

 

Here's a few grabs of a horror short that I'm shooting currently. I may post a proper shoot diary, as long as none of the production staff mind....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is spec shoot for Feature funding. The Director is currently at the BBC. we're shooting on a DSR450 at 25p

Edited September 17, 2005 by Stuart Brereton

[Stuart Brereton]

Hi Tim,

 

thanks for the kind words! In answer to your question, there was no diffusion used on the lens. I've never been that keen on it, although I am quite interested in having a look at a glimmer glass set.

 

just about all of our scenes were DAY/INT, so I had decided to only hire in HMI lamps, with a couple of 4 bank daylight kinos for fill. My plan was to light only through windows, with just the kinos in the room. However, as this was a production funded by the director, we were begging and borrowing a lot of kit, which included the kinos. The night before we were due to start shooting, the company who were lending them to us suddenly pulled out. This meant a quick rethink of my lighting plan, but nothing too serious. The main issue was that some of our locations were very tight for space (hence the need for kinos) and getting a fill lamp into the rooms (usually a .575 hmi through a 216 frame) was awkward.

 

I was using quite a lot of smoke on set as well, and having much the same problems as David Mullen has described on Astronaut Farmer. We had a smoke machine rather than a Hazer, so controlling the smoke level was difficult, with cast and crew in and out of small rooms all the time. Just when it would reach a good level, someone would open an exterior door and before your eyes it would evaporate :-(

 

It was a tough shoot, as these things usually are - long hours and short tempers, but I enjoyed it immensely, and i'm looking forward to seeing a cut.

[Stuart Brereton]

The motivation for the smoke in our main location was that it was a dusty, closed-up house that rarely got any fresh air into it. In our other locations, I used much less smoke, just enough to lend some texture to the air.

 

The desaturated palette came mostly from the smoke, although I also altered the Camera Matrix to reduce the colours a little.

 

The kitchen window was just something that happened. The story is supposed to take place on the hottest, sunniest day of the year, yet the interiors are supposed to be moody. I didn't want the window to blow out completely, but nor did we want to see too much detail out there. Our Art Director was fantastic and helped me out with all sorts of window coverings to help mask the outside, whilst still allowing hot light through in the right places.

 

In our main location, the idea was that even thought the sun is so bright, it can barely penetrate into the darkness of the house, and the further you get from the door (and safety) the more dangerous it gets. In the scenes where someone enters the house, I allowed the daylight outside to blow out, to convey that feeling when you walk from a dark room into the sunshine, and your eyes take a second to adjust.