Well, after two long days, principal shooting for “Are You There?” is finished. This will be a long post so before I continue I want to thank everyone who helped during the shoot. There will of course, be proper credits in the finished film but we are still a good bit away from that! So thanks to RJ, Elaine and Sharon; our primary cast. Thanks also to Zakk for general dogsbody-ing and Ryan for lighting assistance, both being willing extras along with Naomi, Lauren and Shelley.
Day 1 – Tuesday 22nd – 1pm: National Outdoor Centre.
Our first location on the first day of shooting. This in some senses was the most critical location because we had very limited time and would not be able to come back to re-shoot anything if we didn’t get it. However in terms of the look of the film the mountain (Clairemont Cairn) is the most critical, more on that later!
And this was the extent of our craft service table! Tom and I (Patrick) didn’t have much in the way of a budget, even for feeding cast and crew. The National Outdoor Centre was gracious enough to let us use away at their coffee machine though.
We spent a large amount of the limited shoot time on maneuvering furniture and trying to dress the office set, which was not the best use of resources we must admit.
In the above you can see Tom direct Sharon (Dean Harper) and RJ (Teeay) during a rehearsal. We tried dress the office set as best we could; we had our lights outside the window for a nice back lit effect but sadly the bulbs were far far too weak to produce worthy lighting, there was also supposed to be A3 posters which I designed relating to other planets and archaeology however the printer wouldn’t play ball. You can see A4 versions on the desk. The screen was also intended to be used however it wouldn’t cooperate properly and will have to be added in post!
Day 1 – Tuesday 22nd – 8pm: RJ’s House.
Party time! This is were the few extras mentioned at the start were needed. This was one of the more physically demanding setups with the moving of lots of heavy furniture and installing of lighting rigs. Fair play to RJ for being a good sport about it. In the footsteps of Hollywood greats, the party scene was recorded without the actors being able to listen to music. Tom has already created the music for this scene but it’s somewhat unusual and he didn’t want people to have preconceived notions about how they would dance.
Once we finished shooting we helped get the place back in order and we were totally knackered! It didn’t help we knew we’d have to be up again at 5:30am to go shoot on the mountain…
Day 2 – Wednesday 23nd – 6am: Clairemont Cairn.
DISASTER! The weather was reportedly going to be bad anyway but worse later in the day. Upon arriving at the mountain at 6am we were pretty crushed. Our main location, inspiration for the film no less, was covered in thick cloud. We sat in our cars for an hour and a half to see if the weather would lift. It didn’t.
The location itself is pretty much a character in its own right.
We decided to leave and go try and get other shots done.
Day 2 – Wednesday 23nd – 9am: Abandoned House.
We were provided with another excellent location that morning though, when we turned up at a super abandoned house. Left derelict roughly 26 years ago it was perfect! This put the disaster on the mountain to the back of our minds as we got about filming our scene.
The house provided a fair challenge because unlike other locations; using our work lights would be impossible without a generator, which we did not have. We resorted to using a dive torch and two iPhones for light, the reflector we had was the biggest help though. This is where an extra crew member would’ve been useful as even between 3 of us, there wasn’t enough hands to hold all the gear properly.
Day 2 – Wednesday 23nd – 12pm: RJ’s Again!
The above office cabin, being “decorated” by RJ & Zakk, was the setting for the scene of the movie where our hero finally reaches the top of the mountain. Once again thanks go to RJ for his generosity. By this point in the afternoon we were spotting nice bright patches of blue in sky which gave us hope that we might yet get our main shots up on the mountain.
This was probably our most “dressed” set which included lots of old telecoms equipment we got free off gumtree, LED light ropes and even my own 32″ TV. The TV was for displaying some effects which I created and ran off my personal mac mini. We even managed to get some 60s era Star Trek practical effects in the form of Zakk turning on some LED’s at the right time, which actually worked quite well for it’s simplicity.
Day 2 – Wednesday 23nd – 5pm: Back to the Mountain!
ALL CLEAR ON MOUNTAIN! The thick, low, cloud that put our scheduled filming off in the morning had finally buggered off! Cameras out!
Once on the mountain we were trying to get as many shots as possible. Whilst being very tired, the fact that we were now presented with the possibility of being able to finish all shooting, in spectacular fashion, really gave us the energy to push on and get everything we could.
At some points though, there was plenty of time for the crew to stand back and take in the scenery. Elaine and Zakk pose for a quick photo in between setups.
At approx 8:30pm we finished all shooting. Tom and I thanked Elaine, RJ and Zakk then sent them home to which RJ said he was going for a big juicy steak. Unfortunately for Tom and I though, there was still more traveling to do along with some organizing of the footage.
That’s the main production shoot for Are You There? done. Now we have to make into something! We will still keep this updated with stuff too.
Are You There? A sci-fi Short Film 