Actors
At first or filming day was moved on Monday right after snow weekends and not all of our actors were in school so we asked for moving our filming day so we finally filmed on Wednesday. Day started with trouble with our main actor. He said that he won't be able to be filmed during this day. This was very unprofessional of him not to tell us before we were about to film. Anyway I took opportunity in my hands and I was running around the school searching for suitable actor for our thriller. We decided to take Max Kulik as our actor because of Raf's recommendation. I wasn't quite sure if he can handle this but he was surprisingly confident and all into work. I was impressed how our actors were very focused and sufficient during filming process. They were in their roles right after we said "ACTION!" and focused until we said "CUT!" . It wasn't hard to explain what to do in the scene maybe because almost all of our actors were Russian and this was quite helpful. Max as we found out was very photogenic and he might appeal to our female audience as handsome badass hero. He looked very brutal with blood all over his face and shirt that the look we were trying to make. Also as he escapes in the end that will attract male audience because he represents male hero character that almost every male wants to be. Our two guards looked good in military costumes and they made right atmosphere in our thriller. They looked serious and unsparingly as they dragged Max all the way. Mike our "American" agent was much older than the rest of the cast and he is being killed in the end that will attract our target young audience. We haven't filmed Dayana yet but I think she will justify our expectations.
Location
We were filming out in the woods near the physiology classrooms. We found a bit of ruined building which looks quite mysterious and might be used like the secret lair. We were very lucky to have snow that day because in film we wanted to say that action happened in Russia and snow made that right atmosphere. Because of the weather we were only able to use tripod and our own had to hold the camera but anyway shots that we made looks like typical action thriller. We used hand held to bring action atmosphere and let the audience be more involved in the picture. Tripod helped us to film beginning wide shot of our characters walking through the woods. This is also quite typical action thriller shot to represent atmosphere around the actors. Also we used close ups to show actors emotions and high and low anfle shots to represent status and position in particular situation.
Expectations VS Reality
I would say that our filming day went not the way I expected. We had some problems with actors, costumes and make up but we fixed all of these problems. I would keep in mind that filming day needs very careful preparation and on my future filming days I would spend more time on all of this things. I drew a storyboard and we made shot by shot list to film. That really helped us to plan what are we going to film and in which order. Also we asked about our costumes in advance but we haven't looked at them but when our actors putted them on it looked the way we want them to look like. We asked our to guards not to shave as well because we wanted them to look older than they are. When we decided that we want our main actor to look beaten up Loz ran out of special make up so I ran to the other group that was filming on the location and asked them to let us use it. Anyway even if we had problems our filming day went very well. It was very productive even in such cold weather.
Costumes and Props
As I said we prepared our costumes and props mostly in advance but we haven't expect that we need more of them. We prepared all of the guns and putted them in editing suit to find them easily. Then we find out that we need some fake blood, rope and make up so we had to go and get them on the filming day. Our main character wore white shirt with blood on it. We decided that it is going to illustrate that he is a good guy in this opening sequence. Our guard where wearing military haki costumes. This dark and dirty colours comparing to white shirt looked negative so that means they are representing "bad" side. Mike wore his own clothes. He was concern about filming so he wore creme jacked and brown leather gloves. This costume differentiated him from guards and signified that he is head of this operation.
Sound
As dietetic sounds that we were trying to get during filming process we wanted to have footsteps on the snow, Maxims groaning, Russian words from guards and Mikes speech. Also we wanted to record wind and woods sound to use it because we wanted to represent atmosphere of being in the meddle of no were and sometimes in action thrillers you can build tension with silence that usually means that soon we could hear loud gun shot and somebody is going to die.
Team Work
We've done a very nice team work. We gave a chance to everybody in our group to record, hold the camera or mic, work with props ans actors. Every member of our crew showed maturity and ability to concentrate on the project. Atmosphere on the location was very relaxed and calm. No stress at all after we solve all of our problems that we had and during filming everything was excellent in terms of discipline.
My Personal Role
At first or filming day was moved on Monday right after snow weekends and not all of our actors were in school so we asked for moving our filming day so we finally filmed on Wednesday. Day started with trouble with our main actor. He said that he won't be able to be filmed during this day. This was very unprofessional of him not to tell us before we were about to film. Anyway I took opportunity in my hands and I was running around the school searching for suitable actor for our thriller. We decided to take Max Kulik as our actor because of Raf's recommendation. I wasn't quite sure if he can handle this but he was surprisingly confident and all into work. I was impressed how our actors were very focused and sufficient during filming process. They were in their roles right after we said "ACTION!" and focused until we said "CUT!" . It wasn't hard to explain what to do in the scene maybe because almost all of our actors were Russian and this was quite helpful. Max as we found out was very photogenic and he might appeal to our female audience as handsome badass hero. He looked very brutal with blood all over his face and shirt that the look we were trying to make. Also as he escapes in the end that will attract male audience because he represents male hero character that almost every male wants to be. Our two guards looked good in military costumes and they made right atmosphere in our thriller. They looked serious and unsparingly as they dragged Max all the way. Mike our "American" agent was much older than the rest of the cast and he is being killed in the end that will attract our target young audience. We haven't filmed Dayana yet but I think she will justify our expectations.Location
We were filming out in the woods near the physiology classrooms. We found a bit of ruined building which looks quite mysterious and might be used like the secret lair. We were very lucky to have snow that day because in film we wanted to say that action happened in Russia and snow made that right atmosphere. Because of the weather we were only able to use tripod and our own had to hold the camera but anyway shots that we made looks like typical action thriller. We used hand held to bring action atmosphere and let the audience be more involved in the picture. Tripod helped us to film beginning wide shot of our characters walking through the woods. This is also quite typical action thriller shot to represent atmosphere around the actors. Also we used close ups to show actors emotions and high and low anfle shots to represent status and position in particular situation.
Expectations VS Reality
I would say that our filming day went not the way I expected. We had some problems with actors, costumes and make up but we fixed all of these problems. I would keep in mind that filming day needs very careful preparation and on my future filming days I would spend more time on all of this things. I drew a storyboard and we made shot by shot list to film. That really helped us to plan what are we going to film and in which order. Also we asked about our costumes in advance but we haven't looked at them but when our actors putted them on it looked the way we want them to look like. We asked our to guards not to shave as well because we wanted them to look older than they are. When we decided that we want our main actor to look beaten up Loz ran out of special make up so I ran to the other group that was filming on the location and asked them to let us use it. Anyway even if we had problems our filming day went very well. It was very productive even in such cold weather.
Costumes and Props
As I said we prepared our costumes and props mostly in advance but we haven't expect that we need more of them. We prepared all of the guns and putted them in editing suit to find them easily. Then we find out that we need some fake blood, rope and make up so we had to go and get them on the filming day. Our main character wore white shirt with blood on it. We decided that it is going to illustrate that he is a good guy in this opening sequence. Our guard where wearing military haki costumes. This dark and dirty colours comparing to white shirt looked negative so that means they are representing "bad" side. Mike wore his own clothes. He was concern about filming so he wore creme jacked and brown leather gloves. This costume differentiated him from guards and signified that he is head of this operation.Sound
As dietetic sounds that we were trying to get during filming process we wanted to have footsteps on the snow, Maxims groaning, Russian words from guards and Mikes speech. Also we wanted to record wind and woods sound to use it because we wanted to represent atmosphere of being in the meddle of no were and sometimes in action thrillers you can build tension with silence that usually means that soon we could hear loud gun shot and somebody is going to die.Team Work
We've done a very nice team work. We gave a chance to everybody in our group to record, hold the camera or mic, work with props ans actors. Every member of our crew showed maturity and ability to concentrate on the project. Atmosphere on the location was very relaxed and calm. No stress at all after we solve all of our problems that we had and during filming everything was excellent in terms of discipline.My Personal Role
I think I've done a lot of things for our team to succeed. I brought lots of effort and energy that day especially when things went wrong. As well as being director I was a camera man as well and I was responsible for props and costumes. I solved all of the problems that occurred during filming day so I personally think that if I wouldn't control what is happening on the set than there was huge risk of our groups failure. In other words I've done hard work to give our best and I think it worse it.
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