Direction unit - Episode 11 BURN NOTICE

Direction unit - Production

Review of productions

With the planning completed and the excitement building I was more than pleased that the first scheduled production shoot for the ‘Directors 13’ internet series was my very own. My take on the American television action drama ‘Burn Notice’ had developed an increasingly British feel swapping the built up city of Miami location for a fairly typical secluded British countryside setting. Along with the change in location came a change in the age of the characters this was more of a practical decision due to the ease of accessibility of available cast members. On this subject the availability of cast members was one of the more difficult elements that I had to attempt to organise. After one cast member dropped out and another being very limited as to when he would be able to shoot I attempted to recast these parts in order to proceed with the scheduled shoot just a couple of days later.

A majority of the footage captured for my edit was shot over a period of two days. These days were very diverse in regards to the way I felt during them and the footage that was produced by the end. At the commencement of the first day of shooting my cast and crew arrived at my home where I briefed everyone as to what I was looking to achieve, showed the original scene from ‘Burn Notice’ and finally had a group read through of the script before making our way to the location for the days shooting. After resolving an issue with the location’s occupying horses that were intent on scaring my cast and crew by charging at them I was able to finally block out the scene with the two cast members that would be taking part. Due to high winds and a very unlevel location shooting was far more difficult than I had anticipated whilst planning the shots for the shot list and storyboard. The pressure of trying to get the shots I wanted at the same time as making sure everyone was alright and getting their lines right got to me on this occasion and I attribute this to be the main reason that upon reflection of the footage I realised that I hadn’t got as many shots as I had hoped for and some of those that I had got were not as powerful on screen as I had imagined. More disappointingly the image quality was dramatically inferior to that I had hoped for considering the fact we were using high definition cameras but I did not know the cause for this issue. 

Skip forward a few days to the second day of my shoot and the person that I had recruited as my camera operator Lauren Howard revealed that between herself and Lauren Woodfall they had adjusted various settings on the camera resulting in a greatly improved image quality. This being great in most respects it does mean however that when I come to edit the footage from the two days shooting there will be an unwanted rise and fall in image quality. The shoot on the second day felt however far more professional and exciting and thankfully nothing monumental went noticeably wrong. Apart from the images I saw on the camera viewfinder at the time of the shoot and upon a quick review the footage on the computer I do not know whether the shoots will be as good as I hope. All I can be sure of is that there are some powerful images contained within that captured footage. At this point all I can hope for is that the edit goes smoothly and the changes in image quality do not affect the resulting final piece too greatly. 

‘Directors 13’ productions I have worked on

Considering that there will be a total of 13 episodes in the ‘Directors 13’ series I take great pleasure in saying that of those 13 I have in some shape or form taken part in the production of eight covering every position from directing my own episode to operating the boom mic on Jo’s shoot, helping set up the lights on Lauren’s as well as operating the camera. I also operated the camera on Hennie’s, Maddie’s, Abbi’s and Dean’s episodes and then finally going onto acting in Matt’s episode. In each of these roles and on each of the shoots I defiantly feel I have learnt something different and transferable to future productions.

Johanna’s shoot

The job of the boom mic operator is a far more difficult one than I had given credit for in the past. I now have a respect for the men and woman that do it to earn a wage especially those who are operating when they don’t know who’s going to speak. It isn’t something that I get to excited about because I feel for this type of project it is possibly more about physically endurance of how long you can hold the extended pole in the air before your arms begin to ache. I don’t know how Jo felt about her sound but she hasn’t come and complained so I can only assume that it wasn’t too bad.

Maddie’s shoot

Maddie’s shoot was the first that I was behind the camera for and by the following day I dare say she wished she hadn’t been. At the time of the shoot there was a really good atmosphere amongst both cast and crew. It was the nearest to what I imagine it would feel like being behind the camera of all of the productions that I worked on to that I have experienced from the working industry. Maddie was confident in the shots she was asking for at the same time as being experimental in the methods that some of those shots would be achieved. I think we all came away at the end of the day thinking it had been a job well done. This would have become so if it hadn’t been for the tiniest of silver switches that control the gain. Not having ever been caught out by the effects or even really knowing what gain did in the past I felt awful when Maddie was clearly disappointed with the image quality. I know she has gone back and re-shot a couple of the scenes and is making the best of the footage I took. Thankfully she has not held anything against me and I think it will be a mistake that none of us involved on that shoot will make again.

Abbi’s shoot

What a trooper Abbi is! Choosing to shoot at halls I dare say wasn’t her first choice of locations for her episode yet through adding a fair number of candles she changed the look more than I think I would have achieved. Fresh from Maddie’s shoot the day before and upon discovery of my mistake I was extra careful not to make any stupid little mistakes. Being set in one location and for a majority of the episode having her three characters sat around a table the shoot went very quickly and easily.

Hennie’s shoot

In her family home located in Dartford Hennie’s shoot ran almost as smoothly and quickly as Abbi’s had. For someone that claims not to be confident when telling people what to do she defiantly know that shots she wanted from me and when there are hot dogs on offer as well you can’t go far wrong.

Lauren’s shoot

Arguably the best looking set of the entire directors 13 series Lauren’s shoot took place in the Drakes pub founded in 1636. The interior had a quality that was perfect for her episode and she really used the location to the best she could. Being the only production on the series that I worked on that used the additional studio lights she really knew what she was trying to achieve. Working alongside Lauren Woodfall we both shot her content. The actors she used were brilliant, shoots brilliant and her direction brilliant over all the nights shooting was... brilliant.

Dean’s shoot

After struggling for a far while to find an actor to play his lead Dean eventually was forced to throw in the towel and follow somewhat reluctantly in the footsteps of some Hollywood great and play the lead role at the same time as directing his shoot. Passing a lot of the responsibility onto myself and Lauren who was capturing the scene for him he was still able to convey exactly what he wanted and checked the footage back and re shot where he saw fit. He experimented with some camera moves and wasn’t afraid to trust in the footage that he had rather than shooting the same scene for the sake of it. Overall when faced with the challenge of being in front of the camera and directing I think the shoot went really smoothly and I hope that the footage would reflect this.

Matt’s shoot

This was the final shoot that I was involved with and it took place a bit too close to the final deadline for my comfort, however, this time I was to give over my comfortable role as the camera op and take on the part of an actor. Not something that I have ever really been interested in it really did give me an appreciation for just how difficult it would be to be an actor. Knowing exactly what the line is when the camera isn’t rolling and then my mind going blank as soon as he called action. I don’t know what people will think of my performance and as I told Matt on the day I thought he could have done with shooting a bit more coverage but this will remain to be seen when the series goes live.

Direction unit - Pre Production - Shot list

Direction Unit - Pre production - Characters

Direction Unit - Pre production - The script

Direction unit - pre production - storyboard

Direction Unit - Complication resolved

In my previous blog entry I said how one of my actors may have to pull out of his role. It is also a fact that my brother who was down to play one of the minnor roles is at school during the day of the shoot limiting when I could shoot the portion of the sceen that he would need to be present for. Therefore a few switches have been made meaning that of my original four actors only one is playing their original role.

The cast now stands as follows:

Michael - Dean Ross
Evelyn - Amber Moody
Sam - Myself Dan Baugh
Doug (to be renamed) - Maddie Ireland

Direction Unit - Complication

After I’d planned everything down to the last detail and everything seemed to be going so well something had to come along and throw a spanner in the works. The guy that I had booked to play my lead went and got himself a new job which means there is good chance that he won’t be available to play his role. I have sent a number of text and emails out to other people that fit the part. However another solution is existing due to the fact that I cast my ‘actors’ younger than the original characters in the show the possibility that should I not be able to find another actor in time for my shoot on Wednesday I could continue by following in the footsteps of Clint Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone and Ben Stiller as well as many others by starring in the same film as that which i would be directing. It isn’t ideal however it would mean that everything would continue as planned. By looking at the direction unit work of the second year students it looks as though it is possible to achieve a good standard film in this situation.  

We’ll see how it pans out.