Media shoot!

Account of shoot day

Our props for this shoot were a Submarine remote control which would act as our submersible (used for establishing shots) We had sourced from the internet. We tried this submarine out before the shoot day to make sure that it works, and that it will be suitable for the thriller. We liked the fact that he had blue lights on front of the submarine which could be used for establishing shots. However the actual remote didn't make the submarine go in straight lines around the fish tank, it made it sink and go diagonally down to the bottom of the tank - because this was a problem for our film as we want shots of the submarine looking around we decided to do all of the moving of the submarine manually with our hands. This made us have a lot of freedom as we were able to decide where it went, what it did and at what angle it was to the camera. We had a shipwreck which we again sourced from the internet, this was for the bottom of the fish tank - to be laid on the 'sea bed'. The shipwreck looked perfect for what we wanted, we weren't going to see the whole thing in light so it wasnt a problem that some parts looked really fake. We placed the shipwreck in the sand, some of it covered and the bit we wanted to use to film was visuable and sticking out from the sand. We had also bought sand for the bottom of the fishtank - however we didn't realise that what we actually should have brought was larger grained sand (almost gravel). I had printed out blueprints, and then got them laminated in my local Staples, along with buying a white file which held the blueprints in. The reason I chose to laminate the paper was because they were underwater, they may for some reason get water on the paper- and if so, it would be handy for it to be laminated to prevent the images getting ruined. I chose the white file, because it looked pretty professional and it wasn't exactly a fashionable item - more of an informative item. 

Our day began buy collecting two black leather chairs from the other end of the school – these were to be used for the set of the submersible. It was raining so we had to put our coats over the chairs. Once the chairs were in the studio the submarine set was complete. We had already set up the TV screen, controls, the circular hole and all of the props and costumes. This is what the complete set looked like:

We then had to get the underwater set ready (the fishtank, sand, shipwreck). In the studio we had a 6ft long fishtank that we had ordered into school already. We emptied the sand into the bottom of the fish tank, then we had to fill it up with water. We had a bathroom next to the studio which we went to and thro from their with jugs of water to fill up the tank. However whilst we were filling up the tank the water turned more and more brown..When we shined a torch on the side of the tank we could not see the light from the other side. Even when we put the shipwreck in there it was not at all visible. It really looked pretty disgusting...

We needed to come up with a plan b QUICK. We decided to empty the tank and start again but this time with larger grains of sand. Our teacher kindly rushed out and bought us some larger grained sand which –SAVED THE DAY! But…whilst emptying the tank we discovered that there was a massive crack at the bottom of the tank.
Luckily things got better. There was a smaller tank available that the media department had, we were able to use this. We filled it up with the sand that our teacher got (he also got us all cakes which cheered us all up and gave us energy!). We then carefully added water, and this is what it looked like once we’d placed the shipwreck in the right place:

Once the whole palaver was over we were able to start filming the underwater shots. We turned off the working lights to create the sense of being deep underwater where there was no sunlight. Also by making it darker it was easier to make it look realistic. We used a gopro camera to film the underwater shots. For these shots one of us held the gopro camera underwater and moved it around to the places we wanted to look at (usually part of the shipwreck). Another one of us held a torch above the gopro as if it was the light from the submersible searching around. To build suspense we wanted to show the submersible searching around and finding nothing, but also getting close to the shipwreck. This is thrilling as it’s the unknown for the men, but also the audience are trying to see what they’re looking at too. We did have a few problems with the lighting and the angles of the torches. Because it needed to be in the right line with the camera otherwise it didn’t look like it was coming from the submersible. We didn’t want there to be too much light as it would show too much and maybe give it away that it was filmed in a fish tank instead of under the sea, but we also didn’t want it to be too dark.

We did a few test shots and some were too dark so then we adjusted the lighting to make sure there was more light – to be able to see the shipwreck. By having it quite dark it creates suspense as you can’t see anything clearly, and there’s an uncertainty, which makes us in the position of the two men.

We also had ordered the costumes - being two blue boiler suits. We needed to costumes to be totally realistic and as close to what men would have worn when going in a submersible. Here is a picture of our two actors in the costumes. We were happy with the final look of a) how they looked together, and b) how they looked in their costumes.



During the shooting day my role was that firstly having to sort out the underwater shots – for example the filling of the fishtank, the emptying then the filling of the smaller fishtank. I then sorted out the lighting for the underwater shot. I also did some of the shooting with the Gopro underwater shots, I was happy with how I did this as I went up close to the shipwreck. It was hard however to get good shots with the Gopro because of the lighting – but once we had done the lighting it looked so good when we watched it back. For the scenes with the two men in the submersible I was there throughout the whole thing. I held the microphone for some of it – which I had to make sure was still at all times and out of the shot. By me being there all of the time I was able to keep an eye on the acting and shots being shot. During the breaks I got all the cast and team drinks and biscuits (it’s important to keep everyone happy!). I was also incharge of watching on the monitor the shots we were filming – this is important because it shows you how it will look, the shots, the frame, the light.

(pic of monitor) (pic of men in sub –from position of mic)

I think one thing that I definitely think is one of the key points to filming with a team is to keep positive. It’s important that each and every one of us have energy – and the way you get this is to make sure you are positive and then they feed off of that positivity. Our team was very strong, it was four of us girls. We are all good friends, and there were no tensions which is very important if we want to get the best results. We divided up our tasks very equally – we all did filming with the GoPro, all helped out filling the fish tanks etc.. If each of us wanted to contribute to anything of course the others stood back to make sure they did what they wanted. We all went to collect the chairs and make the tank look exactly how it did. By us deciding that we just wanted side on shots, whether these being close up or wider shots, it made us able to concentrate on these angles. One of us (Laila) was incharge of changing the screens on the television screen when they wanted to look at different shots of what they could see outside of the submersible. She volunteered to do this as she likes to work with computers, I would have been happy to do that job but I must say being where the performance was at was where I was happiest.