Production & RISK 3

Thursday 11^th October

I arrived early at the MAC ready to get down to work with my designated ‘Risk’ group, setting up and filming the ‘memory’ scenes we would be projecting during the performance.
Unfortunately duty called elsewhere as we had an impromptu production meeting with Anthony about the YouTheatre week we would be working on for The Rep. during half-term.

So I was unable to collect the video camera off Ellie that she had kindly brought in for us to use. I explained the situation to my group and being the resourceful lot that they are they decided to forgo the video camera and to use their mobile phones to film instead and we agreed that I would go and find them once the production meeting had ended.

Anthony took us through the information that he had received from the two theatre companies that would be performing during the YouTheatre sessions: Seabright Productions on Tuesday 23^rd and Box Clever Productions on Wednesday 24^th. Both companies had sent very comprehensive timetables, set/lighting/sound requirements, Box Clever had even sent a detailed floor-plan/lighting schematic for their set.
We went through the lists and timetables and organised our own timetables for the week including prep, get-ins, get-outs and listed any lighting and sound equipment that would needed to be outsourced for the week.

We then set to designing the lighting we would be rigging on Monday 22nd so the lighting requirements would be covered for all the shows and we wouldn’t have to change all the rigging each day for the individual shows.
There was an increasing amount of technical jargon being thrown around and by the end of the meeting I found myself feeling that my brain had been filled to capacity and was quite confused as to what everything was, although Anthony very nicely tried to explain what we were talking about I still found myself quite lost. But I’m sure that once I have gotten to see the equipment in question and worked with it for a bit I’m sure it’ll all become clear to me, and I’ll be able to tell Par cans from Fresnels and Gobos from Gels.

By the time we adjourned it was almost lunch time so I went in search of my Risk group to see how they were getting on. Turned out they had already filmed a couple of scenes and that they were just about to wrap for lunch. So we organised to meet up again later and set up for the next scenes which would probably require a bit more organisation.

After lunch I found my group trying to set up for the ‘You’re better off on your own!’ scene. It called for a sitting room type setting and the group chose to use the seating/screen area by the exhibition hall. I was having difficulty finding a suitable angle to shoot from when Alex N. happened to walk by and pointed out something that had been ticking away at the back of my mind: copyright and privacy issues! The copyright issues arose from the fact that we were filming in front of a plasma screen displaying images from the photography show in the hall, I had been trying to find a camera angle that wouldn’t show those images but was finding it difficult to get it right; the other issue was the jukebox blaring in the back ground, not only was it drowning out our dialogue but also playing music that we did not have rights to. The privacy issue was quickly becoming apparent because we had already had passers by trying to include themselves in our shots and we did not have waivers for anyone of them to sign even if we did keep them in the scenes.
I decided to go and speak to somebody from the MAC, 1^st to gain permission to film on the property and 2^nd to ask whether there was anywhere else in the building that would be more suited to our setting requirements.
The lady at the information desk handed me over to a manager named to Camille to whom I explained our situation and requirements, she kindly gave us permission to shoot on the property and helped us to locate an area that fitted our needs perfectly, (a cubbyhole off the foyer that had been used for mini exhibitions but was standing empty just for that day), she also gave us permission to move a sofa from the seating area into the cubby and then back again once we had finished. I assigned Jonothan and Leon to this task as they are both big strong lads and could lift and move the sofa with relative ease. I myself directed them across the foyer making sure that they did not bump into anything or anyone and that they were lifting and carrying safely.
The filming went surprising well and after only three takes we had the footage we needed.
We replaced the sofa to its original spot and left a message for Camille at the info. Desk that we had finished filming interiors, that we had replaced the loaned sofa and thanked her for her help.

The group then went outside into the park to film the ‘I don’t want to be alone’ scenes. I found a perfect location for the park bench shot up the hill by the band stand then helped to find the right angles and ambience needed. We then went down to the duck pond, where I discovered a new job description that I probably won’t be adding to my CV: duck wrangler!
We needed Eve to be happily feeding the ducks on the pond when suddenly they all abandon her for the lovey-dovey couple from the park bench… It was then that we discovered that none of us had any bread or such to entice the ducks over, but we did have a packet of posh cheese and onion crisps left over from lunch. I took the crisps crushed them up to have more to work with, and then rationed them between the actors and myself. I used my own crisps to test the ducks behaviour and figure out how we would set up the shot, then I explained to the actors how we needed to get the ducks to do what we wanted and how I would cue the actors into the shot. We recorded the scene in two takes and hoped that it would be enough footage to work with because we had run out of bait for the birds and they had swum off.
We then went back inside to finish off recording the ‘You’re so boring’ scene.

After that filming was done the group went back to the English Suite to try and devise a way to recreate a bird taking flight. The idea was that the actors would group together forming the general shape of the bird and its wings, flapping, taking off and soaring free. At this point I had to mainly do risk assessments for them, due to the fact that some of the movements they were attempting including lifting each other and hanging off each other were a little too dangerous and I had to steer them away from those ideas. I also tried to explain what a large bird such as an eagle looks like when it takes flight and soars, Amy who was supervising at that point recommended that during the weekend they should research some videos of large birds in flight so they could get a proper idea of how they move.
It was getting rather late in the day so we had a quick recap meeting, organising who would be doing what on the project over the weekend. As I would not be seeing the group again until the following Thursday Leon volunteered to be in charge of all the footage we had collected that day and do any editing necessary. I explained that if there were any emergencies that needed my attention that the group could contact me but that if they needed onsite production artist aid that I had arranged for Alex N. to cover for me whilst I was away from them on other jobs.