Shooting Too Much Love / Day two

Today was hugely successful after a slow start.  We were originally supposed to be set up by 9am to start shooting for 9.45am.  However, David Reed was driving to mine and he hit hard traffic in Newcastle so didn't arrive at my house until around 9.30am.  I explained the delay to the actors who I was supposed to be collecting from Northumbria University at 9.20am.  They were also going to be late as well though, so David's delay didn't have such a knock on affect that I though it would.
I met Jessica around 9.35am outside the Ellison building but Micky wasn't there as he was a little confused as to the pick up point.  After about 5-10 minutes I finally found him and we were on our way back to the 'set'.

Testing lighting positions in the sitting room

Testing lighting filters in the sitting room

We got back to mine for around 10am and David was almost fully set up.  We were shooting downstairs for the first time but we had practiced with the lighting there a lot, so we were confident.  Victoria Spalding was also helping us out with the shoot today as a clapper loader.

The two actors we had already knew each other through a mutual friend and they were comfortable with everything that we were going to do.  We got started and shot downstairs for about an hour and then headed upstairs to do the bedroom scenes.  David used the shoulder rig for the downstairs shots and used a variety of lenses to get different view points and angles.

The shoot had so far gone very well.  The actors were good, the crew were good and we were getting plenty of shots, trying different things and just being very thorough really.

David explaining the art of the sex scene

The bedroom scene could have been awkward for people less professional than we had on the day, and the fact that they already knew each other was a bonus.  We talked through the scene with them and David explained exactly what it entailed.  It went very well, and again plenty of shots were taken and re-taken.
The actors were very responsive to David and mine's instructions and direction.  They were good to work with and often helped each other out with their own feedback.  They weren't afraid to chip in with their own ideas or help to improve the scene either.  We made it comfortable and just had a laugh.

We broke for lunch after this scene and I took Micky back to Newcastle as he was done for the day.  We still had a lot to get through with Jessica though, but she was feeling good and was ready to go!

We decided to re-shoot the make up scenes using the shoulder rig.  David also changed the emphasis of this scene from sad to happy.  We still kept the red lighting though.  The rig just added such a great subjective feel to these scenes.

We shot the bathroom scenes today also and I was very impressed with Jess!  She made it incredibly emotional for me who was just sitting and recording it.  This will look even better after all the editing and in the final piece I'm sure.  Jess smeared a little bit of Vicks under her eyes and then just went for the rest of it with her own abilities!  Very good stuff, very powerful and will surely pack a huge punch.

Bathroom scene

We also tried to film the exterior shots of Jess(Adie) walking through the streets.  Yet we were losing light fast and it was incredibly windy, so it didn't look too right.  But still, we got the best shots we wanted of Jess & Micky!

We kept a casual vibe to the day and i think that's what made it so easy to work with everyone.  There were certain times when me personally got a little rattled when a shot didn't go right, but that's just the way I am, I try to be such a perfectionist.  It was a great day overall and we got loads completed.