FMP- 99 problems

Filmmaking is all about problem solving. Making a film is, at the heart of it, a puzzle. So it's no surprise that during are FMP shoot we ran in to some issues. Here is what they were and how we dealt with them. 

General Public

This tends to be an issue no matter where you go. However, when we decided on a location, a lay-by in the middle of no where, we were pretty confident that this wouldn't be to much of an issue. But alas, it was. Where we were filming is actually an entrance to a local cycle path. And as it turns out the UK has a lot more bike riders than we first thought. It became very clear very quickly that this would be a recurring issue.

Although we had permission to shoot at the location from the council we did;'t have the ability to close it off to the public. So we simply had to wait between waves of people. If someone wondered behind a shot we paused then continued from the point before they got in the way. By the end we got this down to a fine art form. 

Continuity 

With so much going on in the film, some things were noticed to be quite off in the edit. The biggest example is that Mallory, after he shoots Mango, puts the gun used to kill his friend in his hand, making the whole thing look like a disagreement between two greasers. However, we didn't shoot his putting the gun in his hand meaning on all the wides he doesn't have a gun in his hand. This meant doing some last minute shooting at my house. Adding in a "putting gun in hand" shot and having to get Jake (who was the stand in actor for the day) to recreate the same arm position as on the day but on a green screen and holing the gun. We then keyed out the great and put the new arm on are head mango, fixing the otherwise tattered continuity. 

Traffic

Another big challenge was the that the lay-by was right next to a road. Again, during recee's of the site it was evident that there wasn't that such through traffic, however, on the day there was significantly more. We went about dealing with this issue the same was we dealt with the public. Wait it out and then carry on once they pass.

Actors Bailing

The day before we were meant to shoot, one of are actors had to leave the project due to person reasons. This left a huge hole to fill. Luckily, I had a few back-ups in mind for such a time. Unlikely, none were now avalblily, expect for Blake. The issue was he couldn't shoot on the Saturday, only the Sunday. This was the only time we had access to the car and main actors. So what we did was use a stand in on the Saturday. Jake dressed as Mango and did everything the character did, just off camera. The only time you can see him in briefly in the cig exchange scene and in some wides. All Blakes parts were shot the following day.