My Film - The Job Hunt (In Development)

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Here's a screenshot of a small scene we filmed recently:

Filmed two more scenes yesterday. This one which mainly consists of one character (John, left) talking in to the camera, and another involving those characters and my brother (the image in the post above) in a more comedic scene. John's only in a couple of scenes, so we had to rush to get his scenes done yesterday as he works away in the army, but it went great. Everyone remembered their lines and got their roles spot on, so it didn't take that long at all, and I think in terms of comedy it works well.

In the second scene we shot there's a part where John throws a hat towards my brother but misses, hitting the camera. We told him to go ahead and try and throw it close to the camera as it wouldn't damage it, and in about his 4th take (we did some more that didn't get up to that point, as the scene takes place in one take) he managed to throw it and get it to hit the camera's lense so the zoom went right in, so we had to zoom back to carry on the scene, I had my fingers crossed the rest of the scene would go perfectly so we could use this, as I think that it would go really well and fit in with the real documentary style of the film, I hope the comedy comes across well to everyone else who watches it

Moving ahead now on the filming, I think we filmed five scenes yesterday. Got a timetable/schedule complete that helps us shoot in blocks at certain locations and also keep track of continuity like clothing. Not sure how much footage we have filmed now (as in, once its cut down from the numerous takes) but we're probably about a quarter of the way through. Got to get it all done before Friday now, so got a week left to get everything done, shouldn't be a problem although a couple of scenes are tricky, but I'm sure we'll get round them

More filming yesterday, this time at my house, well, my nan's who lives next door actually. Got a few scenes done, all of them involving my brother but also involving a couple more "actors". My younger sister and my mum both appear in scenes, we also got a car interior scene (driving) done. Still quite a bit too go but it's all shaping up well

I'm really looking forward to the final result, Daniel.

It's hard to get an idea of how it's going to be before I see it. But you seem focused and committed so I bet it'll be a fine piece of work in the end of it all.

Looks awesome, man! Congrats.

Yeah, those RODE microphones are great. I got one for a 48 Hour Film Project that I did a few years ago. Looks like you're shooting DSLR? Which camera do you have?

I'm curious about the lighting. I know we talked about this earlier personally, Dan, but can you go a little more in-depth on your lighting process?

I look forward to it!!!

You've been doing your sound with the mic attached to the camera?

Yep, they are really good, we have 3 lavalier ones, that Rode mic on top of the camera and also i think another audio recorder that works really well that is normally close to the camera and we point around to wherever is needed.

We made the decision with the lavaliers not to hide them as it's a self-aware documentary so there's no need for them to be a secret, and it means we get the best sound quality. In some scenes however there are characters who are meant to just walk in or just passing by, so for them the sound is more difficult to shoot as we can't have them visibly wearing a lavalier.

And yeah DSLR, I think it's a 500D but I might be wrong. You see I've always been interesting in filmmaking but don't have any experience on the technical side of things, so I knew a mate who was already involved in that kind of for his job and asked him to join me. He already had this camera, a couple of mics, tripod, light stands, editing software, which means we got to save a lot of money by not needing to buy/rent and also having someone who can do great work without pay. Me and him are pretty much working together in getting thsi done

I'll try and get some more specific lighting pictures for you mate, but yeah, we purchased two sets of "Aputure Amaran AL-528W Portable LED Video Light Panels" which are really lightweight and easy to carry around, the plug into power sources but are pretty portable. For indoor scenes we find ourselves either using one or two, depending on the brightness. We find that drawing the curtains and blocking out natural light is normally the best option, as it can be problematic at times. The lights are really, really bright. The only reason we would use two I think is if we're in a large room and we need to spread the light around, so we normally have them at opposite ends if we can. There's no way that the actors could deal with the light shining directly on them so if we close the room and block other light coming in we normally have them on stands up against the walls, or at an angle so the light shines evenly and nicely were we want it too, normally full brightness isn't needed, we have two light diffuser things to help out with this too, my mate also has some sort of panel thing to help manage the levels of whiteness and make sure everything looks good and consistent.

Lavs are nice, I wish I had them sometimes but there is just so much equipment in film making. Wish I had a 3-axis steadicam too or a movi or something. Ah well I just want to shoot more!! I get caught up in the red tape and now have to replace another actor

Yeah, something like a steadicam would be great, it's challenging just how much room and time all the equipment takes up if we use it all. The Rode lavs are pretty straightforward though, they connect up to our iPhones, then we use a file transfer thing on their free app to upload them, open our computer, download them. Doesn't really on the internet upload speed either, just uses an IP address trick so if you're both connected to the internet it takes probably around minute per 20 minutes recorded to grab the sound off the mic onto the computer.

One of the problem we have at the moment is outside actors, there are a couple of scenes planned that involved additional actors, older people (we're all around 20 years old) that we probably wouldn't know, coming in at extremely short notice. Hopefully we can find a way around it though and get most of it done.

Old people are actually kind of easy to get, because they're retired and looking for fun activities. They have more free time than anyone else.

Thats cool about the iPhone app. I wonder what sort of quality you get off those lavs without a preamp or anything. One time a friend loaned me some wireless lavs with the transmitters but his lavs had already gone bad so I didn't get to play with them. Amazing how crappy audio cords are and how regularly they fail.

Thanks for the info about the lighting Dan. Lighting seems like challenging business, but you guys appear to be doing an awesome job. I was really impressed by the image/footage of your bro, the lighting looks great.

Those light panels look awesome for a young filmmaker, like they're not overly expensive but seem to get the job done very well. I think I'll look to getting some myself.

So, let me just get this right - you're using those light panels for light, as well as diffusers to diffuse the light? I'm curious about the panel thing you mentioned that helps to manage levels... any more info about that would be great, if you can. Thanks again.

Congrats on finishing filming. Be sure to not screw up during the editing process.

Wuhuu, awesome to hear you finished up filming!

Hope to get some sneak peek footage soon! I'm really looking forward to how this turns out, Daniel.

Thanks guys. It's currently being edited by my friend (the one on the most left of the photo above) but he's just started his first year at university, and I've just gone back for my final year too, so we're both quite busy. Not exactly sure when it'll be finished, but I'll keep everyone updated, shouldn't be too long hopefully. I'm really excited to actually watch the film myself, although nervous at the same time. Hopefully I can upload a clip, trailer and some images from the film soon

For those of you who have Facebook, please like this page: https://www.facebook.com/TheJobHuntFilm - At the moment it's probably our biggest platform in terms of reach, and it's quite handy in terms of uploading multiple photos too

Thanks Chypmunk

Here's a graphic I made today, as our new FB cover. I think it's quite nice and might adjust it for a general promotion image:



Edit: Just did this...