Thriller Shoot day

The day before our shoot I looked Cornhill over for what felt like the 100th time to make sure that our main shoot locations were adequate by setting up the bag and contents of the bag that we needed for the following day. Waking up on the morning of our shoot day was like any other day, I felt nervous in a good way as I wasn't entirely sure on how I would find the experience. On arriving at school on the morning of January 29th, myself, Kinglsey and Tyler headed up to the studio to collect our equipment. Sony NX5 camera, tripod and sound equipment. At 10 o'clock we headed over to Cornhill Manor, where we would be shooting. Cornhill was looking as expected and as it was during my last visit which set me in positive spirits for the rest of the day. At 10:15am our lead actor in our Thriller opening title sequence, Simon Hudson arrived. On his arrival we all immeidiately set up what we needed for a first scene in which Simon is packing up a bag ready for departure. We added a few more shots from within the bag than we intended which is a plus as I think that these shots allow the audience to connect with out thriller far more. As we progressed, our work became more fluid and we began to work better together. On shooting the sequence at which our main charecter retrieves the hard drive, we decided to make best use of the ceiling tiles avaible to us. Therefore we shot the same sequence from extreme close up, to wide shot and even to placing the camera inside the ceiling to gain a completely different view of the action. Simon helped us a lot as he was able to provide direction on improving a story through shot organisation and by suggesting that we add certain shots. This enabled us to work with him to obtain the best shots that we could in the day. The fire escape sequence presented us with potential problems due to the fact that Cornhill does not have a clear fire escape that connects a clear escape route, however we worked arround this by shooting what we did have, and cutting the shots approprietly. The last shots that we took before lunch simply involved Simon driving away in his car to show his escape from the men that are after him. At 12:30 we left for Lunch and returned at 1:20, at which time Ted Jackson and Adam Grant joined us. Their task was simple, to arrive in a car and proceed to inquire about our man at the hotel reception. They would then walk up the stairs to room 17, only to find that our man was no where to be seen. This however took most of the afternoon as we took many shots from every different angle, for example, from down low to up high, from behind, to infront and so on. This enables us to have a choice in which shot to use when we come to edit our thriller. Throughout the shoot day myself, Kingsley and Tyler split the jobs up reasonably equally with filming, directing and moving things around. I feel that my directing went particularly well as I saw it to be clear and direct with no real questions needing answering. The entire day went very smoothly with the shots of the hard drive being retrieved going very well, which I very much look forward to seeing when it comes to the edit. I most enjoyed shooting the scene in which Simon, our actor drove away at speed down the drive at Cornhill. My production group worked incredibly well together as a group as we all understand what are jobs where and when to do them, with no mistakes or hiccups.