PRODUCTION DIARY - DAY 5 - January 6th, 2011 | Bonython Park
Crew in attendance: Peter Ninos (Director), David Tang (Cinematographer), Ian Bethune (Gaffer/Camera Assist), Trent Ninos (First A.D.), Teena Ninos (D.A./Sound Recorder), Billy Ninos (Clapper Loader/Boom Poll) & Paul Larsen (Grip/Runner). Cast in attendance: Adam Schmerl (Jake).
Scenes being filmed: OMEGA Scene 15 & Scene 18
2011, punch it! New Year and straight back into filming. Hope everyone had a great holiday and enjoyed the time off.
Today we started the first of our Four-Day Adam-Exclusive shoot, we needed to wrap up all of Adam's scenes before he flies out to Melbourne on Monday... crap that's in four days! We were originally supposed to film on the grounds around Adelaide High but we ran into a heap of problems when we found out the Schützenfest guys would be there testing their lighting and sound system for next weeks event - so we needed another location. We considered a few other areas that would match the exteriors of the wooded and green Stockport Observatory Grounds, we eventually settled on a neat little corner in Bonython Park.
Being an outdoor shoot we assumed power would be non-existent so Trent bought along his generator so we could power our equipment. Luckily we ran power off the nearby BBQ area, it handled the lights like a dream.
Scene 15 and Scene 18 are essentially the same scene (split in the script for two quick cut-aways to Kate and Devon) so we had all the action taking place in a small area of the large field. This sequence also happens to be the finale of the film, so that was fun filming the ending before we're even halfway through the shoot. We had Adam running back and forth across the grounds several times, we had him running in and out of frame, light and focus - when cut together it'll make for an adrenaline fueled scene. Teena and Billy got some great sound of Adam running with the grass and gravel crunching beneath his feet, very effective. Adam was great in the various shots, he was jogging, running full pelt, on the phone to Jess, tripping over, looking up amazed, grabbing his ears in pain and finally getting thrown back - great belt yanking Billy but you almost knocked Adam out cold!
We did two cool visual effect tricks in-camera, the aforementioned Adam flying back shot and the eerie shot of Jake's dogtags slowly rising into the air. I'll explain both in a bit of detail...
Adam flying back was achieved easily enough, we had a mattress behind Adam and Billy with a firm grip on Adam's belt. We rolled camera - first Ian would kicked on the bright Blondie Light (Diffuse and Blue Gel), then Adam would react to the light then is immediately yanked out of frame by Billy, DTang would then snap the camera down and to the left to give the impression of the entire action happening faster then it did. We did three takes and they all looked great. Simple execution but so effective.
The army dogtags rising, again, was achieved simply enough. Trent and Adam fastened some black string to the ends of both tags and suspended them over a C-Stand, they varied the lengths so both tags would rise one after the other. We had to do a handful more takes after the tags kept getting caught on Adam's jacket but once we had the actions down the effect worked perfectly.
Filmmaking at its finest!
A great night of work from everyone! Tomorrow we're back at UniSA filming four scenes, on four different sets! How will we do it?!
Major thanks to Adam, DTang, Teena, Trent, Billy & Paul.
A special thanks to Ian Bethune, it was his last night on the shoot with us tonight before heading back home to Canada. Thank you Ian - it was great working with you, you've helped make OMEGA great!
No comments:
Post a Comment