# data[].attributes.body
On Monday, we filmed the “campfire scene” where the group discuss and decide whether or not to trust Morgan and his plan. This was a shoot more similar to most other shoots I am used to as it had a lot of shots and as the actor is was all about trying to give a good performance but also the same performance in each shot for continuity. I feel like I did this well, but I will have to wait until the film is finished to see! This is something I am finding odd but sort of refreshing about this film: not being involved in post-production, just wrapping a scene and not seeing any of the footage. I think this is a scene that will look good, because it was the first scene where we had the whole cast in one full scene together so it was nice to see the dynamics and feel how each character felt towards each other properly.

On the Thursday, we reshot the roof scene from the week before and it went so much more smoothly than the last time we tried. It wasn’t raining this time which was a big help, because we had done it once the shots were a lot quicker to set up and there were more crew members on set to help out. The wind didn’t help as it was still quite cold and it was blowing both mine and my co-star’s hair around which didn’t help with our performance but I am slightly worried about what the continuity will look like. I am confident in the shots with the skyline background, but I think we are all fairly confident we will have to ADR the scene as the wind was such a big issue.

Overall, having wrapped on this film, I am happy with my performance, I think I had a good and solid understanding of my character, thanks to my own character work and the work our director did with us in pre-production. I have enjoyed the production of this film and think almost everyone has worked really well and really professionally to produce some really good work, and I cannot wait to see the finished version of the film!

# data[].attributes.body
Monday I was only in for my building the barricade scene. It was tough because of constantly resetting and forgetting to reset the set but from what I’ve seen the shots look nice. It was a good start to production. I realised just how useful the character work last week was because it meant once I got to set I had no doubts about my character, I knew exactly how he would do everything and how to deliver all my lines.

Wednesday we filmed the argument and whip pan scene. This was a more difficult scene to film as the first shot was a tracking shot that required a pull focus and all cast to be in the exact right place and get timing exactly right. This lead to a long shoot with several takes, not helped by some cast members moving around between takes and then having to reframe and set up the shot between each take. Once we eventually moved onto the whip pan argument each cast member was called in one by one to film their lines separately. I am slightly worried about the continuity for this part of the scene as I’m worried it will be too obvious the other characters aren’t in the space and some of us were moved around from our original positions in the first shot and I’m worried this will be obvious and look jarring.

On Thursday we filmed the goodbye to Taylor scene. This was a fairly simple shoot as the whole scene was one long take of each character going and saying bye to Taylor before she enters the Finn’s dream. We went for a few takes, being able to be more perfectionist about this shoot as it was so much simpler than the others we have done. This biggest task on set for this shoot was everyone hitting their marks and getting in the exact right position as the shot was quite tight but this was a nice experience and a good thing to get used to at this level. I feel like this was a successful shoot and I’m excited to see what the shot looks like in the final version.

Friday was a difficult shoot as we were outside and on the roof on the Adelphi building. Due to the wind and rain, this shoot was not a lot of fun, with the awkward positioning of the railing and traffic in the background, it took a while to set up each shot, leading to the actors being stood in the rain for quite a while. Once the cameras were rolling we were fine as both my co star and I were strong with our lines and performance and we were so into the scene we almost forgot how cold we were, it was just between the takes we struggled. What makes the shoot even more annoying is that due to the fact that we were getting wetter and wetter, continuity was completely off and we are having to reshoot this scene, so it feels like it was all for nothing.

On the whole I think it has been a positive first week of production and I am excited to film the rest and can’t wait to see the work we have produced when it is all edited together. I hope it reflects all the hard work we have put into this project!

# data[].attributes.body
We spent a lot of the first week developing our characters through various different exercises. These exercises included hot-seating, levels of tension, 3 universes and creating detailed character profiles. The first thing we did was sit down and have conversations as a whole production company so that everyone was on the same page as to what we were aiming for with this film, what everyone’s role was and what everyone would be doing in the weeks to come.

The cast then split off with the director and writer to do a more detailed scene by scene read through, focussing on who our characters were, what their relationships were with the other characters and why they did what they did. I feel like this is where we really started to build our characters as this made us stop and think about our whole backstory, who we were before the Plague, how we had come to the theatre, how we felt about the other characters etc. In the afternoon of the first day we call came back together as a whole production company to do a detailed scene by scene read-through, stopping after each scene for each department to discuss what they had planned for that scene and what they still needed to sort. This is where my excitement for the project really began because it was great to see all the exciting ideas people had planned for shots, locations, set dressing etc.

Throughout the rest of the week we spent more time developing our characters by splitting off from the crew to do some hot-seating. I enjoyed this because I think once you’ve done a bit of character development, this exercise is great because it puts you on the spot and having to improvise with your character, you either create some great backstories and answers, or you realise you don’t know your character well enough and need to do more development.

After we joined back as a group, our main focus for the rest of the week was tech rehearsals, giving the cast a chance to get these scenes on their feet and realise roughly where the camera would be for each shot, and also gave the crew a chance to familiarise themselves with the equipment and get a practice at how the shots would potentially like.

I have enjoyed this pre-production week and think both we as a group and I as an individual have done some really great and insightful work to prepare for the coming production weeks. It has been a nice to change to go back to really working on and getting to spend so much time focussing on one character over a whole film as opposed to the quick paced week in week out one scene characters we have had to do recently. I am excited about this project and have a lot of faith in us as a group that we will create a great and creative film.