The original plan was to rehearse and block in one of the Adelphi rehearsal rooms, however this was unattainable until 12pm when it became free. We ran through the two scenes set in Lena’s apartment, assuring that the cinematographers were conscious of the shots and whether they were able to capture or would have to be substituted for another shot.

The location managers did not book a room to rehearse in, so I got in contact with Georgia Lynch and managed to find Rehearsal room 6 for us to block and rehearse the apartment scenes in fro, 11.30am til 2.30pm.

Vedad and Renzo took 30 minutes to set the camera up and arrange the set for the focus pull, which set us to 12.20pm for the first test shot. I made sure to take rough notes of how long each shot took and noted it down in my shooting schedule, which Lucy and I plan to edit on 24/04/24 after 12pm once blocking and rehearsals are completed.

Our call time was 8.30am as the original plan was for crew to arrive 30 minutes early and set up so we could then go straight into filming, yet one of our camera operators was over an hour late so this set us back by another hour. I tackled this issue by setting up lighting and sound equipment, checking with other departments on where they were at with production stages (who were in attendance) and marking up my shot lists to run identical to the shooting schedule, which will be completed with Lucy tomorrow.

I worked on the continuity log for Josie as she had to leave an hour early, so managed to take rough notes of shots, cuts and props for her to look over in the next rehearsal and edit where needed. We also had a brief meeting with props to discuss how we would bring the goldfish to life and make sure that everything was ready for filming on Friday. We cleared up the goldfish issue (being that props had bought a non-moving fish) by looking for a robotic fish to use instead in order to come across as more realistic and believable on screen as it can move around itself. Lucy and I also attended the wardrobe fitting with three actors, for Walter, Jasmine and Lena, and gave notes according to what we envisioned in terms of the colour palette, I.e. adding a bit of orange to Lena’s outfit to visually link her to J.C.

We finished blocking all 4 scenes today and were sent a rough cut of how each frame will line up in the final edit. This brought me relief as I was unsure of how the product would turn out, even just with the test shots for the editors, because I was able to see a clear vision of how Vedad pictured the film, at least as a first draft.

Today, following my shooting schedule, we were supposed to start filming by 9.00am and finish by 12.50pm, even after me knowingly giving time leeway for filming and such, yet the timing went very downhill because we wrapped shooting by 5.00pm. I believe this was because the props department hadn't set dressed the night before, the cinematographers were unable to find the most suitable lens in time for the first shot and our director had a creative vision to change the shots for a more attainable sequence, i.e. we were unable to fit the camera into the microwave for the protein drink shot as the microwave at Lily's house is stuck to the wall, so we changed this sequence to instead have Lena make a smoothie.

Lucy and I did our best to follow the schedule we made weeks before shooting and save time by checking in with every department at least once every two hours, keeping up with the shot list by ticking off each shot/staying on track with continuity and remaking the community centre scene shooting schedule.

Although I am disappointed in my struggle of being unable to foresee the issues we faced today, it is experience I will benefit from and keep in mind in future shoots and projects. Something I want to work on is trying to get less stressed and agitated when we are not following the pre-planned schedule. I am very worried that the following shooting days in the community centre will drastically run over -- Lucy and I discussed previously that if this happens or we catch onto it happening early on, we must constantly remind our director of the time constraints and, again, do our best to make sure every department remains productive and on top of everything.

Our goal today was to film the first 15 shots of the community centre scene and finish the remaining 15 shots on the 29th. Unfortunately, due to crew complaints of them feeling offended by Morgan’s characters costume, we had to reshoot everything the following day.

From an optimistic perspective, I am glad we were able to at least get comfortable with the filming equipment, material and generally what we were going to be filming so the next day went a lot quicker.

Even if we were to use the footage we shot today, I would still be disappointed with how behind schedule we were (similar to Friday), though I did predict that we would not be at all accurate to the shooting schedule due to what happened on Friday, with us being very behind my allocated time schedule. The aim for today was to film 15 shots, and get the other 15 the following day, however we only managed to film 11, leaving us more shots to film for the 29th.

The night before filming on this date, we were informed by Vedad that multiple anonymous cast/crew members felt uncomfortable with Morgan's costume as it could be seen as an offensive depiction of a Muslim women. Lucy and I decided to contact the cast and crew as a whole to keep them in the loop and make everyone aware that everything we shot on the 28th would have to be re-filmed as well as the shots we had left.

Though this certainly left a lot of the cast and crew shaken and stressed, it encouraged everyone to be more on their toes and concentrated on getting everything filmed and shot, more so than usual, so this is something I was grateful for. I wish a lot of the crew were more concentrated during the other shooting days as I do believe that the productivity of today would have pushed us way ahead of schedule and allowed us wiggle room for other potential shots.

Today, the editing team sent a message via Teams to me and Lucy, expressing their confusion on how to arrange and order the shots and asking for the final shot lists for each scene. Updated shot lists, accurate to the filmed footage, was not something we could provide due to our director changing the shots on the shot lists Lucy and I made and we were left uncertain and confused regarding whether or not this should be written down or not; the order was not stated and neither was the usability of the shots.

We communicated this with Johnny, Morgan and Renzo and pushed them in the direction of contacting Vedad himself in the fear that our advice would communicate a different outcome of what he envisioned. Though, we did advise them to edit the sequence how they think would be most appropriate/make the most sense and I, myself, met with them in New Adelphi to look over the shots and see if I could help in any way with the order or the edit in general. I believe this helped at least a little bit with the sequencing as I was the only AD/director in attendance to advise them.

Morgan approached me with the inspiration of Wes Anderson, something we decided during pre-production, and wanted my opinion on the ending credits scene with the title "The Goldfish". I helped her decide on a general transitional idea on how the title would appear i.e. a typewriting style, a slow fade-in, etc.

My communication skills were particularly great with the props department, the cinematographers and the editors. The props department were arguably the department who were able to adapt quickly and provide all of the needed props for each shoot, even if the props were announced day before/day of. I stayed in constant contact with the props department, particularly before shooting days to make sure everything needed was acquired and secured in order to be prepared for filming. Furthermore, with the cinematographers, I always communicated them the updated shot lists and shooting schedules, as well as making sure they were both clear on the general vision our director had in mind for each shot. The editors kept in contact both via Teams and in-person, constantly updating me on the edit development, the data wrangling and any issues or confusions they came across and needed to be advised or guided.

As well as this, something else I want to improve on is trying to keep my emotions under control and not coming across to the cast and crew as too demanding or snappy, as this was something I was concerned off after day 1 of shooting (though this is not applicable to any other filming day). This was never reported back to me however, yet it was something I grew aware of in reflection. I learnt over the weekend break to regulate my emotions on set because it does not benefit anyone and to not let the stress get the best of me, as overall this was a great experience and an exciting insight into potential future shoots.