Preliminary Task - Diary Entry, Filming

New Role

Filming commenced at 09:30, and we were allowed to come into the library pre-opening to set up, filming also must have concluded by 12:30 as that's the time the library closed. My role expanding during the shoot to the audio engineer and I used our boom mike to capture the audio of the shots. I provided the boom mike, which consisted of the pole of a old metal mop, with a singstar microphone attached (not my own, and this is because a microphone was not provided in our pack) to the top with masking tape, with the wire curling round it down to the camera. I felt I made the best of this role, however found it sometimes difficult to carry out, as I had to be aware of the public in small spaces. 


The shoot
Excellent. What we got is what we wanted to get. Can't really put it any simpler than that, on the other hand of course there are always improvements on how we could have done things better, but I think with the available resources and restrictions we accomplished a lot, and to a good quality. I definitely felt we worked well as a team, always communicating and discussion the best option, keeping in mind the hierarchy of command, aka director's final word. But Beatrice was a good director, and showed the cast how to approach their lines in the correct manner according to the requirements of the script, the film and the vision. She also managed Ryan and myself well, explaining to us how the shot is to be composed and trusting us to set it up without her laying hands on the camera or equipment.
The public were another major issue, as we were obliged not to get any of their faces, and as the morning progresses more and more people began to arrive - completely unlike the Saturday before. We coped well though, we had to move a few shots around to avoid disruption and forbidden filming, but everything we shot turned out the way Beatrice wanted it to do.
The actresses were given the script a couple of days beforehand to familiarise themselves with the plot and their characters, and possibly their lines, but we stressed that they didn't have to learn them if they didn't want to. We told this mainly because according to the turn out we would've had to jumble and mix the parts around, which is what we had to do. So some of the shoot time was consumed with helping the actresses learn and recite their lines, but I think that went smoothly.
The main problem though, as the microphone operator was the concern over background noise, because there was an awful lot. Being the editor too meant that I could use Adobe Audition to scrub and edit the tracks, however it still would've been nice and easier to have had a quieter library.
Overall, I think as a team we completed the filming quickly yet effectively and the best of our abilities, I would totally agree with the statement, 'do you believe that your filming was successful?'.