I did the first shoot for my latest short ‘Living With Someone’ last week. The shoot went very well. Also I completed the script, which has come a long way since the first draft, it has been completely re written.

I have been working with some grading options and have a few stills, which can be seen below. I am going with the first option, as I really like the flat indi look.

I mentioned in my last blog that I am going to be using completely natural light to the location to film. So for my first shoot I shot against a window which I know is actually a bit of a no no when filming but due to the Red Scarlets incredible dynamic range I actually really like the over exposed glair you get round the subject, almost a glowing halo.

Although I did not light I did use a mirror to bounce some light on to the subject’s face. You can see in the images below the setup I used if you’re interested.

I was shooting this alone so it was a little tough to get everything set up but I am very happy with the results.

So I am planning on trying to keep this films budget to £0! I am filming all around my local area, so I will talk to all the locations and tell them this. They are far more likely to help me for free due to being out of a city and someone approaching them about film making will be far less common so it could be interesting for them. Also I will offer them a credit and talk about the amount of views the video will get online. They may ask me to do something for them in return like a promotional video that I would be happy to help with.

So I have around 3 to 4 more days shoot which will be spaced out over the next few weeks. Some of these are:

Cinema/projection room and stage: For this I plan to use lamps in the projection room and keep it rather dark. I will light the subject and hopefully have the light from the projector in the background.  When the subject is on stage I will use the lights they have. This is aloud due to the lights being natural to the location.

Some of the locations are outside which I will take a bounce board with me to give a more even light across the subjects face. I am hoping to also shoot just before and in magic hour. I really want that orange glow that you get from sunsets but I live in England and we don’t get a lot of sunny weather so I will have to hold out for one of those.

Well I plan to do my second shoot next week so stay tuned for more.