Another Busy Day

So today was the vital day i assumed it would be. It started off when i called the Oxfam shop that i had contacted last Friday at 10:30, they asked me to call back later in the afternoon to speak with another manager. I called them back at 2:30 and agreed a fee and a time scale with one of the managers. They seem like really genuine people and since im paying them, i know i'll have the entire shop to myself which makes shooting a lot easier. It sound crazy but by paying them i feel i have a lot of control over the shoot and this makes me a lot more comfortable and confident.

I met with Dale Morgan at 11:15 to bring in a large collection of props - dolls, a safe, a gothic mirror, i had it all. I spent around 7 or 8 hours building a set for the Wednesday shoot, the set now looks like the white room i wanted. However it's forced me to change the camera i intend to use, i'll pick up on this later. At 3 o clock i met up with an actor who was interested in playing the lead role. We sat talking about our favourite films before going over the script. He's a lovely guy and he brings a lot of intensity to the role, i'll have to direct him with his mannerisms but i'm ecstatic to have him on board. I contacted the actress i had scheduled to play the homeless woman and mentioned to her than she may be bumped up to the lead role if i couldnt find another actress in time. However after this i texted actresses i had used in previous film projects and luckily one of them seems to be able to help me out, she said she is free this Sunday and would be happy to do it - so im calling her tomorrow and going over the project and im quietly confident this will work out!

So yes, i've flip flopped again and i now intend to shoot on DSLR. Now that i know i have full control over both locations my primary reason for using a Z5 has gone. On top of this there wasn't enough boards to cover the floor, so im hoping to buy a white cloth and cover the floor in that - using a DSLR which has a shallow focal length, the audience wont be able to see the floor with clarity and will automatically assume it is a white board as well. Plus DSLR's look more cinematic and shooting on a SD card is ideal as logging footage can take an absurdly long time. The only issue will be syncing up/recording sound - i called my sound man Karol at 7 to discuss his thoughts on this change and he seemed cool with it. We figured it out on his shoot, so im sure we will figure it out on mine. If not, we are filming at BMC on Wednesday, so we can ask a tutor and have it sorted by the time we film on location.

Tomorrow will consist of buying cloth and masking tape (to tape over the gaps in the board), buying costumes in Primark, testing the special effects with Chris at 1 and then reccying the Oxfam/Antiques store at 2:30/3. So pretty much another busy day. However i'm actually not too stressed. Don't get me wrong, today was hell. Although i feel like the majority of the groundwork is done and now it's a case of optimising the quality of the project, more so than gathering the materials for the project to actually take place. Anyway, i have to go e-mail the actress the script and go over everything again to make sure i have forgotten something.