FMP week 9

1. WEEKLY REFLECTION 9
This week saw a lot of challenges and good fortune. The entire week has been dedicated to filming, in order to get the largest chunk of filming out of the way.
In that respect we were successful and actually managed to complete filming for both Donna Kitching (playing Elizabeth Baker) and Olivia Maiden (Playing
Skye Matthews) Barring reshoots. This was very fortunate. As Olivia became unavailable for the foreseeable future on Wednesday. When she informed me of
a private personal issue that necessitated she leave York. Though this means I won’t be able to reshoot any of her scenes. She had completed the bulk of
them on the Monday and Tuesday, as well as the previous week. The only scene yet to be filmed with her is the climax of the fourth episode, in which Skye is
discovered kidnapped by Joshua (played by myself.) At first I was stumped by this problem and realised I may have to rewrite the whole script for the episode
in which Olivia couldn’t complete her scenes. However. Another solution was discovered upon reviewing a behind the scenes Photograph (Seen in the next
slide) where I noticed that India Harrison, who is already a part of the production as a sound and camerawoman, as well as playing River Matthews; the
mother of the twins Skye and Riley, bears a close resemblance to Olivia from behind. As their general frames, hair length and hair colour match well. This
opened the possibilities for using India as a body double for any outstanding scenes featuring Olivia. Meaning that rewrites could be kept to a minimum.
Though I haven’t yet decided how this might be implemented. The option of a body double is something that I will work into the schedule for filming in the
next few weeks. This week I also filmed the majority of scenes requiring India, as her character is featured primarily through flashbacks and visions of Riley
Matthews (Played by Fraser Hardwick.) this meant POV shots made up the majority of her screen time. Each scene where she featured in a flashback was
initially shot out of focus. Before coming into focus slowly, as if it was a memory becoming clearer on the part of Riley. I achieved this by making use of the
manual focus on the camera. As well as Olivia leaving the production early, this was also the final week for Donna Kitching. However, this wasn’t nearly as
much of an issue as Olivia’s leaving, as Donna had informed me upon being cast that she would only be available for three weeks, and she has much less
screen time than Olivia, so her scenes were all completed well in advance of her having to leave the production. Her scenes were easy enough to film. As the
majority of them are shared with only one other actor. Primarily Fraser or Cassie Fonth (Who Plays Jessica White.) This meant that a minimal crew was
needed for filming her scenes. Which made the production easier to get done quickly. Though future rewrites that may be necessary for scenes featuring her
character will have to be revised so that Donna is not required. But this shouldn’t be a big issue. As most of her finished scenes are coherent and well shot
enough that I don’t think reshoots will be needed. However. It was discovered after our longest day of filming and indeed the longest shoot in the entire
production (A shoot on Monday that lasted 9 full hours and required a crew of nine people, all seven actors and two crew members, including a drone
operator and a makeup artist.) was recorded on a broken microphone, which was only discovered to be broken after the fact. Though some of the sound may
be salvageable. Most was unusable and may mean that sound issues will plague the entire production. Though I will try to mitigate as much as I can through
post production editing and usage of the on camera microphone. However, it is unfortunate, as all 9 hours of the shoot were recorded on this microphone,
meaning a huge chunk of the production will have sound issues.
-Donna’s final scenes
-Olivia’s unavailability
-Sound issues
-Dancing drone scenes/battery failure XP

2. As seen in this behind the scenes photo, India (Left) and Olivia
(Right) Bear a strong resemblance from behind. Which is how I
came to the conclusion that instead of rewriting the entire script,
the scene Olivia was needed for could be rewritten to accommodate
India as a body double.
A screen shot of the footage
captured for flashback scenes
featuring River Matthews
(Played by India Harrison)

3. A screenshot from some of the drone
footage captured on the Monday
shoot.