Disaster!

So, we had everything planned (as you can see from my last post) for our day of filming today. We all met (except one actor who couldn't come down till 1) as planned, 12 at Morrison's. At around 10 past 1, we set off to begin filming. Now, we had planned to use the perfect forest just behind our school for the film. So, after getting through a gap in the fence we made our way up there. However, to our dismay, we discovered it was private land, so filming there wasn't an option. After spending the next hour or so trekking around nearby, it became quite clear there were no better places around. The time by now was 2:30pm, and we were fast-approaching the time when the sun would dissapear and his friend the moon would be out, cascading our filming location in a sea of darkness. With time being of the essence, we continued our desperate search, but to no prevail. The realisation kicked in that this had become a wasted day, and no filming would be occurring for now. Destraught and dissapointed, we made plans to use an alternate field the following in Geddington and made sure our actors (and actress) would be readily available too. So, we began our long walk back, to home or a lift home. But, there was some hope, as I found a good spot we could use to film an escape scene from the zombie, just so we had something we could use. Quickly getting out my Dad's camera and my own tripod (purchased this very morning), I set it up and everyone began discussing what we'll be doing. Then, another disaster struck! My camera, which had been working brilliantly just a few hours ago when I tried, and that had been charging throughout the night, decided now was the time to no longer work. So, after attempting to fix it (even phoning up my Dad for tips), it was clear we were definately NOT doing any filming today, and that this had indeed been a wasted day. Finally we gave up, and went about our seperate ways...

So what did we learn? Three things mainly:

• Check your filming location first! Make sure it's not on private land....
• Always check your equipment! Even on the way to filming your scene, or definately as you're setting up, keep checking that everythings working fine before.
• And if you do both of these and then discover, when everyone's in position and it's time for the film to roll, that the camera has decided today is the day it shall stop functioning- BRING A BACK-UP CAMERA!

And finally, a message to all budding directors or indeed other AS-Level Media students (perhaps even fellow colleagues from my class) about your respective works- FOLLOW THE ABOVE STEPS! You should be fine if you do.

If you're in my Media class (or any AS-Level Media class across the country) and you're reading this, then I would just like to say good luck with your filming! Hopefully it'll go a lot better than mine and Dan's!