We shot an entire short film with no script in just 2 hours today. We had a couple hours after recording ADR for another short film, and I’d been itching to just make something for the fun of it.
We decided we might as well do something in the recording studio since we were all there, so we came up with the idea of an apathetic sound engineer getting locked in the studio with an overbearing spoken word artist.
Having a script is probably a good idea
After filming for about 1.5 hours we hit a wall on how we should end the film – it really underlined the importance of having an actual script before you shoot.
We were all getting a bit delirious. Tired, thirsty, and hungry, we were banging our heads against the wall trying to figure out how to end the film.
However, the only reason we came up with this idea is from Jason and Wes’ inputs. Their improv was fucking hilarious. I was killing myself laughing, trying to keep the camera as steady as possible.
Single-camera is better than multi-camera?
Due to the improvisational nature of the short, I decided to record the main improv with a two camera setup: my Trusty ol’ Canon 700D, and a C100 owned by UCL Film Soc. Don’t know how well they’re gonna cut together, but fuck it 🙂
I can see why DPs like Roger Deakins are against multi-camera shoots. I noticed I tended to not act on an instinct to move in with the camera, as I knew if I moved in I would get in shot of the other camera.
As a result, I felt that a lot of the later dialogue shots suffered in quality – they’re super bland and samey, because I didn’t give myself the freedom to move with the actors.
Will have to see in the edit how it turns out, but I think the short would’ve been better with just one camera coverage. I’ll stick with just one camera next time.
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