Working with the group

As a group I thought we worked very well and, personally, I thought I was very good at working with everyone as well.

During pre-production I met up with all the group members, whether all together or individually to talk about the designing of the film regarding the points in which our various disciplines crossed over.
The main bulk of these meetings for myself was meeting with Ben and Henry to plan the shots. This we did in very efficient way, bouncing off each other ideas and suggestions to create a storyboard set that we were all happy with.
Meetings with Joeley concerned me finding out as much as I could from Joeley concerning what the set would be like so I could use that information to draw more accurate blocking plans.
Meetings with Georgina concerned me getting nagged to get my work done so that she could create a schedule. I also gave her lists of all equipment I needed and time estimate on how long each shot would take to shoot.
Ben and I met frequently to discuss the look of the film. We both had similar 'Lost Highway-esque' ideas so this was never much of struggle to arrive at a final look.

On set, despite tiredness creeping in later on the week, we all worked very well together and at the end of the period, we had got all we had set out to get. Georgina controlled the timing of the shoot, constantly rescheduling in reaction to how we the filming crew were progressing in real time. Henry and I acted almost as one cinematographer, framing, equipment fetching and lighting in a way that allowed to work very quickly.

The Final Film

https://vimeo.com/97358764

Equipment list: Over all equipment used for camera dept.

Track

Basic tripod (the more heavy duty ones were prone to slipping their legs)

Sony F5

2x dedo kits

4x kino 400

giant gold reflector

2x clamp stands

4x clamps

2x gold reflectors

1x light meter

1x clapper board

10x extension leads

5x XLR cables

Evaluation

During the very early days of this project, the story, plot and majority of design is quite different to the resulting final cut, a lot of planning was still put into the initial blue prints which I think are worth noting so as to produce a full picture of a beginning and a completion of project that has received a multitude of attention, crafting and many changes.

In it’s initial conception the film was essentially a crime film revolving around the drama of a long time, seemingly unwilling crook who is trying to get out put being prevented by the ‘head’ of the criminal organisation. This version of the film was intended to be dark, moody and tense. It was to be set in a single location, more a less like it is now. The film would have been set in a café or bar type setting and is the reason for a similar setting for the film made before this project. When we we’re pitching the project my contribution to the pitch was mainly to talk about my working methods and aspirations for the standard of the work as well as my inspirations, although I could talk about my specific aims and ideas for the film a little we were still at early stage with scripts and other plans and so talking ‘through’ other films was easier. It is worth noting that although these initial plans were for a different version of the film and that the project would alter somewhat in essence and story, that many of these ideas linger on through into the final film and that they are still relevant to the new story and focus. Films such as Edward Dmytryk’s 1944 Murder, My Sweet and John Huston’s 1941 adaptation of The Maltese Falcon, as well as other great noir films from 1940s Hollywood. These films, although quite remarkable in their use of light, have a very deft and wonderfully ‘simple’ way of telling their story visually. Through careful and attentive shot construction, composition and sequence they are able to put characters in danger, dominance or a variety of different situations depending on the requirements of the script, story and needs of the film makers. Huston’s Maltese Falcon I believe is especially notable for both its sophistication and at the same time, staggering simplicity.  It was this film especially that I hoped to capture the visual story telling and mood setting aspects from, right from the initial crime idea to the present final version of the film. As the single location film was to be based mainly around tension and atmosphere this highly telling visual style would be perfect in order for us to get the intended effect of the film across. Moving forward into the ‘new’ idea for the project, concerning a man in limbo over the death of someone, this more ambiguous and pared down narrative would benefit more from a highly emotive visual style, clearly letting the audience know the dynamics of each character and their relationships with others and the environment, or even confusing these by playing with the style, something the script implies. This simple yet sophisticated and effective style was also perfect for our short film. The unambiguous narration this style can give will quickly establish the tone and effect intended, essential when you only have minutes to tell your story.  Although my focus and inspiration was to draw heavily on the films mentioned above, I felt at time that this over extreme styling, specifically the lighting would be wrong for the film for a number of different reasons. Firstly I felt that the by being as exaggerated as some of the mentioned noir films, the film would lose its more grisly real feel, this goes for both the crime concept and present emotional one. By having something more extreme, I felt that the film would lose its ability to express the extreme emotions that characters are going through. It is for this reason that I also took on board inspiration from Wim Wenders’ 1977 The American Friend. Wenders’ film is at once an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel Ripley’s Game, itself a very psychological thriller, a stunning piece of seventies cinema and a homage to 1940s noir films that had initially inspired my ideas for the project. The film is much more realistic than the 40s noirs but also plays a very tight emotional game with characters who are caught up in unpleasant situations. The film is a great example of film that can sustain itself on tension and the situations and binds the characters find themselves in rather than drawn out plot. Like our rather complicated plot for short film, The American Friend’s incredibly complicated plot is given hardly any attention because the characters’ between a rock and a hard place situation take precedent. The film uses moody and dark lighting without losing its touch with realism and uses, sparingly, shot that convey the magnitude, emotion and danger of the situations occurring. Moving forward into the second script project I carried these elements over, as well as adding new one for a new and perhaps more relevant to the story films. Another reason for not wanting to use the full ‘noir style’ was a practical one as well. Time constraints as well as budget would be a very limiting factor in being able to realise the scope and ambitions of film that use lighting in such an extreme and integral way. From past experience with lighting set ups, none of which have been extreme as noir lighting, time is precious and just lighting a scene minimally can be extremely time consuming and the amount of time it would of taken to produce a lighting scheme even for a film of just 10 minutes or so would a require an amount of time we could not afford ourselves especially when all the other aspects of the film begin to be factored in, location and actor availability especially. As I will discuss later, this timing factor also had a bearing on the schedule and lighting design dynamic in a very big way.

During these early stages I sat down with Ben (the director) and talked through his and my ideas for he film. I talked to him about my various ideas to do with the look of the film and the sequencing of the shots, as mentioned above. Ben was happy for me to take the film in that direction and was in fact happy for me to put whatever stamp I felt fit on the film in that respect. This proved both a blessing and somewhat of a hindrance. Many of these initial discussions, especially when including other team members, mainly Joeley (art direction) and Georgina (producer) revolved around the use of location or set. The first film, which was being made around this time, was made using location, set in a café. Because this film was lighter hearted and concerned more ‘everyday’ characters it was obvious and easy to find a café that was suitable for the film. For a camera and lighting perspective too, the café was a good location for fulfilling the aims of the plans. We were able to block and light the whole placed with a lot of freedom, which is probably the crucial factor in making the location usable in my opinion. Whether we could repeat the same sort of location use again for the next film was less optimistic. For starters, both in its initial conception and in its current form, the film required a very specific setting that tailored to the needs of the situation and finding a location that was even similar would have proved very hard indeed, and finding a location that was both suitable but needed dressing and available at the correct times would have been very difficult indeed. The decision was made by the group, with me in favour, to shoot on a set. This had a variety of pros and cons, however I thought, and still do, that the pros out weighed the cons. This then set into sequence a long chain of pre-production events. Firstly it meant for Georgina and Joeley to book a studio and begin gathering, from scratch, props, the set itself and other items such as paint and wallpaper that we would construct the set out of. The group set about building the room that the events of the film took place in.  This included constructing the walls of the set and putting them in place, scraping them free of debris, wallpapering them, painting them with several different coats of paint, fitting a floor surface to the room, setting up the props which Joeley had sourced and then preparing the set and studio for becoming a working film making environment.

Before and during the set construction, Ben, Henry (the editor) and I met frequently to build up a storyboard, shot plan and lighting plan.

I had asked both Ben and Henry to meet me frequently regarding the shot design and construction for several meetings, this was because I had felt in previous films that there had not been enough communication and coherence of vision between crew members of films I had worked in the past. Although Ben did want each of us to have our own input into the film I felt as though it wasn’t going to work having each of us going off and creating something and bringing it back for the group to have to adjust to. All of our roles in the crew over lap and I thought Ben’s role (obviously) and Henry as editors role were too closely linked for us not to work together in planning the films visuals. Ben, because the film is his vision, I wanted to make sure that whatever I created was inline with this and that I would not be, through my own solo input, be creating any mixed or new messages to the audience.  I wanted Henry present because he also has a very good knowledge of how a film can work visually, so I could bounce ideas off him and receive good feed back but also because as editor I felt he had a better idea of the film in the form of montage as a whole, where as my brain works in more isolated frame way, emphasising single or double frame sequences. It would also be handy as an editor to better understand the reasoning of the sequences and shots you are given when it comes to the editing process. Although often I would be working on the storyboards alone, it was only in a drawing capacity, the real brainwork was done around the tables we met at to discuss the film. Firstly Ben and I met to mark up the script with rough ideas of where shots would be more or less on in the film in relation to certain directions and what type of shots they may be. Then Henry joined us and we went through the script firstly discussing any changes to the shot ideas and then drafting up a big storyboard for each shot in the film including the following: scene and shot number, a description of the shot and the action it shows, lighting notes and ideas, a rough blocking plan, a predicted lens angle, any jib, grip or focus pull notes as well of course as a sketch of the frame itself. This way of working is, in my opinion, very efficient and really allows for a thorough thinking through of any concept or obstacle preventing a effective shot flow. My way of working is one of having things worked out before hand, hence this storyboarding method, and that my approach is one of intellectually approaching art. Although there are those that can and tend to rely more the moment of creation and improvisation to achieve an artistic result, I only feel like this results in less developed results and is too romantic a notion for me to take seriously. After these boards were fully revised they went into a period of scheduling. As mentioned before, the shot’s blocking and lighting affected the schedule in a very big way.

The biggest factor in scheduling the film for Georgina, apart from hiring actors to work at specific hours, was that we only had a half a set, this meant that after filming everything that took place in one half of the room, the set was then changed around to look like the other side of the room and everything else set in that side was filmed. This meant that, in regards to my input into the film, that lighting set ups had to be simplified so that they were similar to each other as much as allowed, and that all sots that were filmed in the same positions were strung together so as not waste time resetting up set ups that had been up previously.

When the time came around to start shooting, most things had been planned and accounted for and the shoot went relatively smoothly. Each shot and set up had a certain amount of time to be shot in, however, as always, seemingly, this ran over regularly because of, in the main lighting set ups. The main reason for this was that because the studio was booked up right until we needed to build and shoot in their, the first time we got to light the set was on the first day of filming, consequently the plans made before hand were just estimations made on tests in other rooms and from experience on other film sets of what might be required to achieve a desired look or effect.  Another time consuming problem, related to the lack of time we had with the set before we could shoot on it was that spacial estimations in relation to perspective in the shot construction and the choice of lens were having to be re-evaluated and thought through mid shoot, which was obviously a serious time consumer. Shots were also cut and added on the fly, mainly by Ben and Henry as they were constructing edits in their heads and as they days went by after watching the rushes during the nights. Georgina was very good however at adapting the schedule to keep us on the track in relation to the number of days we had in the studio, lunch breaks and hours in the day.

Everybody on set was very professional and this allowed to get through a very tough and busy schedule more or less on time with what we needed.

During testing the camera to decide on settings, it was agreed that we would shoot on S-Log 2, a profile that gave a relatively flat and washed colour scheme to the images. Henry suggested this because it was thought that the images could then be graded with more freedom that if we had used a more extreme profile. While I agree with this to some extent, I think that it resulted in a too flat a image in most of the shots, which led to some extent to a loss in drama. This was not the whole story though because during the storyboarding process we decided not to light too dramatically because we thought it would be too over the top, as mentioned before, as well as time consuming. This now seems like an obvious mistake and what should of happened is that either we shoot on more extreme camera setting profile or we light in a more dramatic way.

After the studio scenes were shot, there was the business of shooting in as of then unknown bathroom location. This involved shooting both characters of the film against a mirror, against a door and one in a bath full of water. These were hard to plan as the bathroom location was agreed until last minute, but the simple shots needed were listed and then we did the best we could with the time available. This working method and its results were just, unfortunately, the product of our budget, time scale and pure necessity.

I thought that everybody in the group performed to a very high standard, everybody worked hard and in a professional manner, Ben, Georgina and Joeley especially I think require extra special mention because of the sheer amount of hours of organisation, cast and prop finding and paper work time they have put in. Ben was always on top of what needed doing when, however I feel like he was never clear on his artistic vision for the project and that sometimes this led to ambiguity and a lack of focus when we were trying to think of solutions and methods to achieving ‘effects’ and meanings. I think that a rather bland script and concept is evident of this. Unfortunately there is nothing really to be done about this as Ben was always going to be writing the script and if the inspiration doesn’t hit, well then it doesn’t hit. Bearing in mind that there was only around 4-5 months spent chasing ideas around, and the original was scrapped tells you that the idea was never fully formed.

Georgina was an excellent producer and that is all I can say really, she did such a grand job or orchestrating a full set build, casting and jam packed shooting weekend. Scheduling was particularly good as she was always on hand revising schedules on the fly as the events on set evolved and she was also very good nagging us to make sure we kept on schedule. Joeley likewise did an incredible job or organising a full set build within a few days and find all the props, make-up and effects we needed on a very tight budget with compromising the quality of them.

As said before, I think that as the final cut is quite different to the script is testament to the vagueness of the concept of the film, however I think that Henry has done a sterling job of pulling something in line with our original ideas out of the footage we have. One of the things that bothers me the most about this re-edit is that it seems as though some of the shot flows clearly didn’t work as planned and so they needed to be re-edited, this is perhaps something I need to work on as I can get too focused on just single or double frame clips rather than how a whole sequence of shots work together.

I think that Grace has done a pretty good job of making a good soundtrack in  short amount of time but I feel sometimes as though it is too much and that a less noisy and cluttered sound design would have been more effective. Some of the more electronic sounds in the design seem just plain out of place. This may have been the product of a film with very little dialogue but I still feel that in this case less would have been more.

I believe that the film is effective in achieving its general desired effect that although rough around the edges and perhaps visually tellingly made on a budget, the film is nice to look at and watch.

Bathroom shoots

The bathroom shots were always a bit of an elephant in the room. they were never really properly storyboarded ever because we had no idea what the location we would get would be like. Ben and I made a general list of shots that we needed to get from that shoot and that was all. When the location was found and got, we were in filming there the next day. Because of prior engagements, when I arrived there later on in the day Ben and Henry were working well on getting most of the shots and because the film was changing during the edit, Ben and Henry had a clearer picture of what needed to be shot. I served mainly that day as a camera assistant, giving advice and fetching equipment as needed.

On the second day we needed to film the female actress in the bath which meant suspending the camera over the bath. This meant me holding the camera in place, while Henry, because he was much taller than I, was looking through the view finder framing up.

A third day, of reshooting the tap and the bath filling up was required and Ben and I went out to get those shots.

Because the light coming in through the frosted windows was sufficient to light everything in the room evenly, something which contrasted nicely to the harsh 'red room' shots, I decided not to use lights. It also helped as we had a very small amount of time to shoot these shots and plug sockets were sparse.

Filming

After the set build was complete there was virtually no time between finishing and the beginning of filming, the equipment was collected the night before and we prepared ourselves, mentally for the challenge.

After the storyboarding had completed they went to Ben and Georgina who used their knowledge of when the actors were and wern't available to decide which shots be filmed in which order, this was made more complicated by the situation regarding only having each half of the room for half of the shoot.

The first day of filming went fairly smoothly. We started with the set facing the side of the room without the door, this involved shooting both characters as well having to manage to positions of the chest and table in the middle of the room.
Because Ben and I both wanted to shot mostly the wider shots and work in to the tighter ones, it meant that the lighting scheme was fairly 'basic', compared to what we had to do for some shots. This involved at it's height, when both characters were on screen, each of them having a strong key light (dedo), a slightly weaker fill (dedo), both of these lights were almost at ninety degrees to what ever the positions the camera was in, creating a strong and high contrast 'cross' effect. There was then also two kinos per side of the room as well as one in the middle creating a soft 'blanket' light to bring out the features of the objects in the room as well as the walls. These also helped soften the extreme lighting scheme on the actors faces.
When the day had started out I had intended to use a giant reflector suspended over the set, to act as a fill and general ambience light for the set, however this proved to awkward to work into such an small and intricate working space as well as far too time consuming be used throughout the shoot, I mad the decision to get rid of it and go with the three individual kinos as these were much easier to tweak and move about quickly when changing set ups.

Moving forward into the following day and we ploughed on, essentially ticking shots of the list in quite an efficient and robotic fashion. The main issue encountered during the second day was the issue of spatial relations and lens angles. As said in a previous post, because we had not been able to see or practice on the set before shooting began, the exact spatial relations between everything could not be anticipated and so shots were taking longer to get due to three variables being constantly changed. For example on the first day, when Michael wakes up in the room, a shoot not actually used in the final film but nether the less shot, we had to get the background of the room, michael on the floor through the legs of a table and the lights out of shot. This took considerable adjusting of the actor, the table, tripod height, camera angle and lens angle before I got something I was happy with.

Changing the set around so that it then became the door side of the room meant we began to be faced with more problems to overcome within our time budget. Most of these problems were to do with the set and working with its inadequacies, for example, the door was quite flimsy and so was the handle, so filming it in CU meant careful placements of crew members to hold and sturdy it when it was being pulled.

For me in the main, most problems arose from lighting. This was basically just problem solving, albeit very time consuming. Shadows cast where I didn't want them or levels that we not quite right or not in keeping with the grand scheme of the whole film. There was never any real quick fix to this, Ben, Henry and I would just stand on set, one on camera with another one of us on the relevant light adjusting by the eye of the person on camera.

Henry's role as a co-cinematographer on set was very helpful. Henry would always be on hand to give me advice, operate the camera when needed and just generally help me with setting up. We worked very fluidly together.

The Set

Since the years earlier project, that was filmed on location in a café, I, and the group, have had the idea of shooting on a set in the back of our minds. There was the possibility that that film could of been shot on a set, however due to us quickly finding a suitable café with flexible hours in which to shoot in never transpired.

When the script for this project came around I thought straight away that it would benefit from being shot on a set. This was for many reasons. The script was very much set in a single room, but for the bathroom sequences. This meant finding a suitable room that we could both shoot in for an extended period as well as having it look the part. I for one  pushed the studio idea because I simply did not believe that is was possible to get a location for free that would let us both shoot for a couple of days for up to 8 hours a day and drastically alter the look of the room as well. The decision was made by Ben and Georgina to shoot on set.

I think that decision to shoot on a set was most dramatic on Joeley's job as art director, as she had to organising the building of the room of the film. However, the decision also meant a lot of things for me as cinematographer, some positive and some not so much.

1. Filming in a set meant I had total control of light, which I found very exciting and at the same time scary. It meant that I had total control of the look of the film in respect to camera and light design and Ben and I decided on a lighting scheme to reflect the feeling of the film we were trying to achieve. The design had to be simple and yet convey the weight of the situation the character was facing. It was decided by me that using a harsh cross lighting effect, with minimal back and fill lighting would create a dramatic tone that could be recreated relatively easily in most of the set ups.
2. Filming in the set meant that anything we wanted to achieve, we could do so because we were not limited by a locations peculiarities. To this end we were able to set up around eight lights for most of the shots, on location there simply would not have been the power capacity or space to do such a thing.
3. The limitations of the set impacted strongly in the framing up of shots. Because I was not able to practice on the set before hand it meant that the exact amount of space of the set floor and the size of the set could not be fully appreciated until being there physically, especially when bearing in mind how the angle of the different lenses we wanted to use changed how the room looked dramatically. Also because there was only so much wall (wall pieces) the shooting schedule was very back and fourth in the script which meant that Ben would constantly be having to direct the actors in relation to the mood of the relevant scene, costing time.

Overall, if I were to do the film again I would shoot again in the studio in a heartbeat, it afforded us a lot of creative control that I don't think would be available to us, at the budget we had, on location,

Lynch Research

Since the script has been changed from a more crime based drama to something more in tune with a psychological thriller type deal, my 'inspirations' and places I am drawing technique from have changed, mostly gone have the noir and crime film ideas and in there place stand one mans body of work, David Lynch.

Because the film now concerns someone experiencing (or dreaming, or hallucinating even) a terrible event from his past, the films impact will mainly derive from how real we, as a collective film crew, can make this man's suffering and torment feel.\

David Lynch's films, specifically Mulholland Drive (2001) and Lost Highway (1997), have an extreme dream like (or, even, nightmarish) quality that is at once very cerebral and of the subconscious as well as terifying and unnerving. Lynch achieves this through eery camera movement and placement, an impeccably designed sound plan and situations within the script that seem both real, scary and nightmarish. 

Because the shot plan is the thing that I am directly responsible for, I will look at Lynch's use of camera in his films.

The scene in which Fred describes his dream to Renee, although different in story is quite similar in effect to the direction I want to take the film. The sequence uses a collection of shots that naturally fit together and create a disorientating effect. There is also a very warped sense of space in the sequence that would be perfect for the room in which we are to shoot, as it more or less resembles the character Michael's headspace.

The sequence also, through static close-ups using harsh lighting creates a severe angst in the character which would wonderfully with the pain that Michael is feeling in the script. The lighting, deep, dark and moody using very soft filler and strong harsh cross lighting is almost exactly what I had imagined from the first moments of receiving this script.

Storyboards: Extra Detail

This first frame is a perfect example of what we wanted to achieve in the planning of the film. This board contains almost all of the information a cinematographer, as well as a producer, would need to schedule, organise and know to be able to get the shot captured in an effective and efficient manner.
Included is:

• Scene and shot numbers
• a shot description
• blocking diagram
• lightings notes
• grip/jib notes
• estimated lens
• general f-stop range guide

 This one above includes two boards as the shot pans. This shot, at the start of the film was chosen to shoot the male character upside down to create a certain mysterious and strange atmosphere, to let the audience know that 'something is not right'/.

 The one above here includes two boards as although there is no camera movement, there is a significant change in frame composition due to an actor entering frame.

 This one included a more detailed sequence with it (from the initial board ideas, this was so that the shot could be understood in the context of the sequence it was in, as all the shots in the sequence were not be shot together.

 The board shows a particularly high angle shot. This board was done with just the idea of the shot on it, when it came to shooting it, many adjustments needed to be made to the blocking to achieve the desired effect.

 This board included sequence and blocking/jib notes as an attachment.

 This board referred to small sequence so that the context of each individual shot may be better understood.

Throughout the storyboarding process a lot of shots that were more 'sequence shots' than key ones were added to the boards of more important shots of the sequence they were in. This helped speed up storyboarding as well as making shooting easier due to be able to have just one board with us during the time we were shooting the relevant sequence.

Marked Script: More Detail

The way in which I went through the script was to to have several copies and 'improve' my marking each time. I marked in  all the imagined shots whee they would take place in the edit, on the script. If a shot was to last a long time or be re-used then a line would continue from its start point and continue until it was supposed to finish.

The type of shot would be added also, as would any sketch of the shot was quite particular.

Extra notes such a lighting and jib would be added if the impression of the shot required them.

After this, a list of all potential shots was made. Shot numbers were created at this point and were then added back onto the script to create a more complete understanding for the three of us who were working on it.

Storyboarding

Storyboarding took three main stages in developing. As I like to have things thought through and planned before a shoot, so that no artistic decisions are being made on set, nearly all of what is seen visually in the final film is the result of this planning.
There are a number of reasons why in this instance the planning was done in this way, but it should be noted the decision to do so was never taken formally, it is just the way I wanted and everyone else was happy to work. For a start, I feel most comfortable working in an a way that allows me the time to be able to explore and fully develop artistic ideas outside of the high place pressure of the film set. I think that trying to make big decisions that will ultimately define the course of the final piece will result in under developed or even misleading meanings within the piece and trying to use some sort of inner meaning is just hopelessly romantic.
Perhaps the most important reason for completely pre-planning, though, was that we had an extremely small time budget with which to work and that trying to think through how we were going to shoot things mid shoot would have been fatal to completing of the film.

The initial stages of the shot and storyboard planning, once the script was finished, was to read through and mark it up with ideas for where shots would go and what they would look like etc.

Marking up basically involved writing on the script the impression of the shot imagined with an arrow pointing to its starting point in the script. Even at this stage as much description as possible was included, (i.e. shot distance, lighting scheme, lens angle etc).

*For extra detail, see post Marked script: extra detail

The next stage was sit down with Ben (director) and to talk through each others ideas from our own marked scripts. Then following a third marked scripted I went away to produce a rough storyboard of what we had talked about, this would serve as a base for the final boards and would also enable to work in more swift manner.

These boards included further detail to the marked script but also included details such as how they might be shoot logistically, minor blocking details and any lighting notes that were above ordinary.

When the final boards were drawn up, in three or four different meetings, Ben, Henry (editor) and myself all sat down to do them. I had wanted them both there for a number of reasons. Firstly so that, specifically between Ben and I, there could be no mis-communication by working apart and that instead of going back of fourth with ideas, just to sit down and discuss them and design them together, for times sake as well as communications. Also, having an editor there in Henry, helped me design a better shot flow. I generally tend to focus a lot on still frames and can often overlook the structure of a sequence as a whole, so having someone whose job it is to create sequences was very helpful. Also, Henry would be serving as something of a camera assistant to me and so it made sense that he should be present during the creation of the shots so that hey may better understand their purpose, but also not have to learn from scratch what they mean while setting them up with me.

These final storyboards included all the necessary information relating to the production of the shot, including a storyboard, blocking, lighting set up, estimation of lens to be used, jib notes, grip notes and anything else that might assist during production.

More details on the nature of the storyboards in post: Storyboard: extra detail