After we had put together the schedules, I sat down with Freya to confirm that she was definitely happy with the order and then I made any adjustments that we came across

“A good First makes things happen in the most efficient way possible” (Gill, 2019)

Mine and James original plan was to have one of us be 1st AD on week and one to be 2nd and then switch in the second week, however we decided instead that it worked better for us to switch each day. This meant that we had one person with the clipboard, primarily in charge of keeping track of timings and the schedule, and one of us in charge of the clapperboard. While both of us kept track of time, this meant that one of us could put their full attention on the schedule to make sure we stayed on time.

One thing that did slow us down a bit was that given their corridor was surrounded by classrooms and offices, there was a lot of noise coming from through quite a lot of the time. This meant sound really struggled to get a good take. We tried our best to give time for extra sound takes but after a while we had to move on and accept that the odd line may need to be ADR.

We did a really good job of keeping on time and we were really happy with the way the shots came out. We went over schedule on a couple of shots but managed to get back on track quite quickly and make it to lunch break on time.

For this location, we didn’t require as much crew. As there was no dialogue, we first sent sound into the room to get sound effects and room noise while actors had their makeup and hair fixed and adjusted. This mean that as soon as both departments were done, we could send them home, saving them time and saving us on having too many people filling the tight space.

We got all the shots that we wanted however, since only the locations team had actually been to the location, some of the shots had to be slightly adjusted due to the layout of the room. This meant that we were worried about the timings a few times as the reevaluation of shots took some time however we finished on time for the day.

One issue we faced was that there were exams on which meant there were people coming in and out for the toilets. This was fine however, one of the invigilators thought that we were trying to have the corridor closed off which was just a simple miscommunication and I spoke to him calmly and explained what was going on and that the corridor wasn’t closed so in the end this wasn’t a problem.

We did start a little bit behind schedule though as I asked James (who was with the hair, makeup, costume and actors) to ensure that they sent picture of the actors hair and makeup to me so I could show Khieng and he could approve them before they actors made their way to set and hair and makeup went home. However, some of the makeup team told James they would send pictures but didn’t, and when actors arrived at set, Khieng wasn’t happy with the actors looks. This meant we ended up a little behind. However, we resolved this pretty quickly by just continuing to set up the shots, practicing camera movements and blocking the scene with people standing in for the actors whose makeup was being fixed.

This meant that we ended up filming in the New Adelphi toilets, while it was last minute, it was only 3 shots so James and I made a very quick schedule for the shooting just to make sure that we didn’t run over, since the building were kind enough to give us the location so last minute.

While this was a stressful situation, I think we handled it effectively and efficiently.

While we did end up dropping behind on a couple of shots but we quickly made up this time during the day and I think this is potentially because we cut 1 shot from the day and adjusted 2 meaning that out timings changed slightly but overall we ended on time.

This location was the biggest for set design, so it was a lot of work and an early call time to make sure we got it all right. When we arrived, everyone helped to begin setting up the gazebo in the spot that the locations department had found and agreed with Khieng during preproduction. Khieng hadn’t arrived yet so I decided that we should keep setting up anyway as call time was 15 minute prior and we needed to get going with the set design, so we began nailing the gazebo into the ground. One thing that I found difficult was that when Khieng eventually arrived he didn’t say anything but went off into the park so I was unsure on what he was doing. When I went to talk to him with Florrie I found out that he wanted to move the gazebo. However, this was no longer going to be possible for several reasons. Firstly, we were now 30 minutes past call time and we really needed to be doing the set decorating by this point not moving the location. Secondly, the gazebo was already nailed down meaning it would have taken even longer to move. Thirdly, the location Khieng wanted to move to was right next to the play park and I was aware that since we were due to be filming until gone 5 o’clock and it was a sunny Friday afternoon, this location would be too hard to use as the park would be filled with children by about 3:00 which would ruin sound takes and potentially the visuals too. This was one thing that I struggled with as I of course wanted to execute Khieng’s vision but there were too many factors, time in particular, that made it very tricky. I think had Khieng have got to set sooner and immediately said he wanted to move the location, it would have been plausible.

However, we did manage to overcome this! I suggested that we just make sure to angle the set design so that the “boring” areas were covered by the props and fabric in the shots and overall I think set design did an amazing job in recovering this problem. We also managed to get back on track as camera could set up and begin blocking the scene with actors while set and props finished dressing the gazebo.

Once set up, the day went relatively smoothly! We had some issue with lighting which slowed us down slightly as the cloud coverage was very minimal in the morning but by the afternoon it was quite grey but they managed to make it work very well and get back on track. Quite a lot of shots ended up being moved on the schedule, deleted or changed which moved the schedule around a lot but we still managed to keep it very much on track. We finished for lunch slightly early which was very helpful as the tripods were slightly dodgy and kept slipping, so Freya and I went to the kit store in the break to swap them. This did put back the start time after lunch slightly but we quickly caught back up.

The final shots of the day were the drone shots. To do this, we put all the kit underneath the gazebo and asked the rest of the crew to leave the part of the park we were filming in so that the shot would be clear. These took a little while to get rough and the battery did have to get replaced but it didn’t take us too long.

Overall, I am very happy with how the day went, my only comment would be that I think communication needed to be a bit stronger to make it more efficient.

One slight frustration I had was that it seemed that a lot of people weren’t reading the call sheets and meeting point messages as it often ended up that there were the wrong crew in the wrong places which just slowed us down and meant someone had to go on a hunt to locate them.

The morning went very well! We managed to get everything filmed in plenary of time and were far quicker than expected which was very lucky helpful as being such a long day we knew cast and crew would need a good break. When making the schedule, I made sure to give us a lot of extra time as given the difficulties that come with the location, I wanted to eliminate any risk of running out of time even if this did mean we had lot of spare time when it actually came to it.

After shooting the first scene, I sent Khieng and the actors to go and block the sunset scenes so they knew exactly where all the action was going to take place and where the camera would be. I decided this would definitely be beneficial as given how many shots Khieng wanted within the sunset, it meant we only had a maximum of 6 minutes a shot that evening so we needed to ensure we knew what we were doing well before the time hit. In the mean time, myself and the rest of the crew took all of the kit back off the beach and to the cars.

James and I decided that it was a good idea to ensure the team all had a long break so they were all full of energy for the hardest part of the shoot. After break we headed back to the beach about an hour before the sun was due to set. This meant we could get the camera and tripod set up and go over any last bits we wanted to before the sunset arrived. However, it ended up that we just started shooting early and lighting used reflectors to imitate the sunset on Phoebes face. This therefore saved us time later on.

However, just as the sunset would have been perfect, the sun dropped behind the clouds, so sadly there was much less to work with than hoped. However, with some creative camera angles and some reflector work, the shots still had a visual focus on the sky just not in the way Khieng originally planned. This did however mean that for a while, a lot more time was spent on shots in an attempt to get some sunset and this did knock the entire schedule off. However, we recovered this by cutting down the shot list a lot, but it meant that the shots ended up being quite a muddle as no one was sure what we were going to be getting next as Khieng adapted it on the spot.

I did find this situation quite frustrating as while the weather can’t be predicted, I did suggest that the shot list be cut down back when we discussed it in the early stages of production as I made sure to schedule this day first as I knew it would be challenging. However, I was told that 7 minutes would be more than enough per shot. I do think that had we cut the shot list originally it would have saved the time that we wasted trying to adapt the shot list on the spot. But as a replacement for this, just before returning to the beach in the afternoon, James and I asked that Khieng decide which shots we needed to prioritise on the beach. While this isn’t as effective as just cutting down the shot list from the beginning, I do think that it really helped.

For the meeting points today, everyone was asked to meet in the Allerton classroom. This mean that all hair, makeup and costume could be sorted there so we didn’t need to take so much crew. This also worked as Niamh doubled as both PA and hair and makeup which became very handy for this shoot, especially since both actors got sunburnt in the morning, meaning that Niamh had to fix their makeup to make this less obvious!

From the meeting point, we all split into three cars and drive to then meet at the car park selected by the locations team.

The first one we had was that we there was no where to hang the clock on the wall. This did out us behind a little as we ended up spending alot of time trying to find a way to put it up but to no success.

The only other real problem we had was the heat. It was incredibly hot in the classroom and all of the shots required a bit of set up but also sound meaning that we couldn’t leave the windows open. To combat this, James and I adjusted the schedule slightly to allow time for people to take a little break to leave the room, get some fresh air and have a drink.

However, overall this day was really successful and moved very smoothly!

As Mei wasn’t needed in the morning, he wasn’t called in until the afternoon however, since we ended up filming the morning so quickly, we asked if he could come in early. Since it was last minute we understood he may not be able to but in the end he could and it worked out very well.

As we were right next to the play park, we struggled a bit with sound takes. It was a very sunny day so the park was very full which did cause the sound team problems which slowed us down slightly but we managed to work around it. The camera team also faced some issues that delayed us quite substantially. Due to the very hot weather and the fact we had been in the sun all day, the camera was struggling to cope with the heat meaning we had to take a break to allow the kit to cool off. This was a bit stressful as we didn’t know how long we should give the camera as it was effecting its ability to film, however, at this point in time we weren’t actually behind schedule so we decided to give everyone 15 minutes just so cast and crew could get a sufficient break too. When we reconvened after the break, I did find that everyone seemed to be struggling to stay focused and this did slow us down.

We then had a bit of a location problem. Since this wasn’t the tree that locations had originally planned to film under, the plan surrounding the shots including the path had to be adjusted. Khieng wanted to film on a path that was quite a way from the tree but this meant blocking the central path round the park and given how busy it was I decided that this wasn’t plausible. Florrie also had concerns about this with the path being between a drop down to the river and a drop down into the park so the it was in quite a precarious location. Between these two problems, we decided it was best if we adjust the location slightly and move down to the lower path (that you can see in the picture) to be more out of the way for the public and in a less risky location for kit. This issue did however take up a lot of time. Khieng was initially very hesitant to move as he knew where he wanted the shot but we eventually managed to agree that moving the camera was the best option as all the members of the public walking through would have taken up far too much time.

By this point we were really quite tight on time, especially since Aoife (who was in this scene) had to leave be a certain time. This meant James and I really had to push the crew on timings but there we found there was quite a lot of resistance from Khieng which we struggled with. At one point, we had informed everyone that this take must be the final take for this shot as we already had good takes and we needed to move on, which everyone understood, however just as we called cut in this take and everyone began moving to get sorted, Khieng stayed still with the camera and rolled it again without communicating with anyone and without boarding the shot. This was very frustrating as given we were already behind time, the extra few minutes he took on this shot without explanation really pushed us back further. To overcome this, James and I simply had to really push timings on the final shots, we implemented a 2 take rule as much as we could especially as since they were simple, static shots, this was more than doable and just eliminated any time wasting.

On the final shots, sound and lighting weren’t being used so I sent a lot of the crew to go and begin packing down the gazebo which had acted as a base for all of the kit and bags that weren’t being used. This would just make sure that everyone could get out as soon as possible.

We did in the end manage to finish on time although spirits felt quite low but I think this was due to the heat and a very long day.

Annoyingly we didn’t realise this until we had began setting up the shot for the scene with Lisa and Patrick but we caught it just in time and thankfully we had already put up the gazebo in order to claim that spot in the park and use it as a temporary kit store for anything we weren’t using. So I quickly got everyone to come back and we allowed half an hour for set design for the set and props team while the camera department set up for the first shot. This worked out fine as we were due to have an hour for set design after lunch when we were going to be doing the scene in the afternoon, but since we did it in half an hour instead it meant that we were actually ahead of schedule. We managed to get on with the shots quite quickly and only had a couple of issues.

The first problem we faced, and one that we faced all day was that due to the temperature, the camera was really struggling to function after too long in the sun. Thankfully, as we were getting through shots faster than expected, we had more than enough time to take a few breaks to allow the camera to cool off. While it wasn’t ideal, it didn’t effect the schedule too much.

The second problem we had, which thankfully didn’t impact us too much, was that one of the props on the table was a glass ball and we made the mistake of leaving this in the sun and this lead to it setting fire to the blanket on the table! Thankfully it wasn’t a big problem as it was mostly just smoking but we made sure to keep it in the shade for the rest of the day!

Overall, I’m really happy with how the day went. It was quite a frustrating day as I think due to heat and tiredness, tensions were quite high and communications were very low, but we managed to get everything we wanted within our schedule and around everyone’s availability.

One frustration I did have while filming was that there were a few members of the crew who seemed to take the call times as a suggestion rather than a set time, often showing up over 40 minutes late and sometimes not showing up at all and failing to contact me or James to let us know. Especially given that the 2 people were both costume and PA meaning that them showing up late, especially when they are supposed to be supervising costume, is entirely futile. Sadly the only way we could work round this was by simply not putting any trust in them and just expecting that they won’t be there. To cover ourselves with this, we just had to make sure that cast knew what costume they needed for the following day, and we tried to make sure that there was always another PA available if needs be.

One issue I did find today was that we struggled a bit with communication. I think that given the heat and the fact that we were all very tired, director included, communication definitely wasn’t as good as it should have been. I found that today, Khieng’s communication was quite poor in that he often was sat quietly and didn’t tell us what shots were next, wouldn’t respond to ether or not he was happy to move on to the next shot and often didn’t explain what the shot was that we needed to be doing. This meant that James and I were left trying to move the set along and guess our way through some shots in ordered to keep the set moving and on schedule. I think this issue did all just boil down to heat and tiredness but it was still very frustrating situation to be in. I do think we overcame it very well and we still managed to get some lovely shots.

Given the temperature in the room, we had to make sure that as well as the long lunch break, we also made sure that everyone got plenty of short breaks out of the room to get some fresh air and cool down.

As we did quite a few times throughout filming, I again had an issue with the costume person not showing up until about 45 minutes after call time. This meant that costume had been entirely sorted and we had already started blocking meaning there was no point in them being there and I had to send them home straight away. I felt bad doing this but it was very frustrating when people didn’t communicate they were going to be late and instead just showed up when they were no longer needed.

As they were all moving shots, I did make sure to schedule quite a bit of time for each shot just to be safe however, since they were reshoots and we had already done the shots, we didn’t end up needing anywhere near as much time as expected! This worked out perfectly as it turned out there was one more shot we would have to reshoot due to continuity that we hadn’t realised we needed but since we were so quick with the other shots, we had more than enough time.

Overall, I’m really happy with how this reshoots went and I’m glad we didn’t have to get too many!

We just asked everyone to meet in the cafeteria again as we were filming in the chapman corridor so it was convenient and quick.

While the crew was minimal it was very effective and efficient and I’m really happy with how the day went as a whole.

This took us quite a while as we wanted to be really vigilant and make sure we didn’t miss a single thing.

We particularly had a lot of meetings with the camera department. This helped make sure we could make the schedules accurately as we could talk to them about what kit we were using for each shot and what the movement we were doing for each shot.

We also had a meeting with lighting and camera with Jason the technician. This was to help us get a better understanding of lighting and different kit the uni has access to and to learn what we could use in different ways. This was a really helpful meeting and gave us a great insight into what options we had.

The main thing that we wanted as AD’s was set up timings. We decided that while we are in the process of making the shooting schedule and call sheets, it would be essential for efficiency on set if we knew exactly how long each department would need for set up each day.

We tasked each department with meeting in their groups to practice e.g. makeup to practice and time how long it would take for them to do the actors makeup looks.

We also asked the camera to try and get some timings for how long the different bits of equipment will take to set up e.g how long they would need to put together a slider or change the follow focus. This means that when it comes to making the specific shooting schedule for each day, we can have a more realistic idea of how long they will need on each shot.