Filming

So, it finally happened. Yesterday was pretty intense and incredibly cold. Apparently one of the weather sites quoted Cardiff centre as being at about -6C (with windchill). It was absolutely bitter. I felt ever so bad for Rachel, Dylan and Hazel, and indescribably grateful that they had come to help despite the icy conditions.

We decided to get the biggest and most complicated shot out the way first, before Rachel, Dylan and Hazel arrived in Cardiff. Amy (my graduate compositor) and Jon (my 2nd year Motion Design cameraman) were an incredible help throughout the day. Helping me to judge camera angles for the best shots.

SONY DSC SONY DSC SONY DSC031

We spent some time setting up outside Cardiff Library before we finally got the green screen out and set to work. It was great fun, but since I managed to land the job of running from the elephant, it got tiring quite quickly. All too soon I needed to go and pick up Rachel and her kids from the station and I left the rest getting a few more takes of the elephant shot as well as some crowd shots and general reaction shots.

Once we got back I sent everyone but myself, Amy and Jon back to uni to warm up as Dylan was feeling shy and didn’t like such a large number of people. Dylan was an absolute natural. He rarely looked at the camera and he got almost every shot right first time. What a fantastic little star.

By lunch time we had got every shot we needed and I sent Rachel, Dylan and Hazel off to have some lunch and warm up whilst we got a few more shots with the monkey toy. In the end, Dylan didn’t want to take the monkey back home with him, so he now has pride of place on my desk.

073 082

After a stop in the union for lunch, we headed out to try and get some more shots. However it was getting a quite overcast and dark, even at half two, so I think it likely we will have to reshoot those. We finished the day with just two shots we hadn’t managed, and possibly an extra one if the afternoon ones turn out to be too dark.

089

Whenever we filmed something that would include the elephant, I made sure to take a set of photos of a chrome ball at various exposures. These will be used for the lighting in Maya. My chrome ball was a bit smaller than ones I have used in the past, and the camera’s zoom quite small, so I will have a bit of work in photoshop getting rid of myself and the camera in each shot.

SONY DSC SONY DSC SONY DSC SONY DSC SONY DSC SONY DSC

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.