part two of studio shoot: first evaluation

Previous post on Studio Shoot - research of my role as Production Designer

Leading up to the shoot, I made multiple different layouts as the plans kept changing due to small issues of communication between the groups. At one point we had an angled back wall, then windows on both sides, then a few different locations for the door.

In the end, we went to the first day of studio build with this layout:

However, when we took the Film set down, we realised there was only one window panel of the size we wanted. As we had already placed it on the side that Group A wanted, Group B sadly agreed to have the one window on the right side. Also we decided to go for 4 x 4 panels as we didn't necessarily want a big space, and were going for the atmosphere of cosy, smaller room.

After the build came the sanding, painting etc. The weekend before our studio build, Pip, myself, Brodie and Jen went to Homebase to get all the things we needed: paint, rolls, tape, brushes, etc, so as soon as the walls went up, we were able to start painting! Here is a wonderful photo taken at about 6pm on Tuesday, 20th.

And here's the prop list we went shopping with:

It was very impressive how quickly the set came alive. Even though there were some issues of communication, most of the crew followed art direction and on the first day we left with most of the walls having had the first coat of paint. The following day we focused mainly on re-painting the walls, window and door. We wanted the door brown, so we sanded it before spray-painting it brown. Within a day and a half, our set was up and ready to be dressed, which was very impressive and unexpected. With the door and window in place, we decided to focus on putting up the curtain pole / curtains and the flooring. When doing this, the first issue I came across was that there weren't enough wooden floor boards, but with Alex and Jen's help we put together a rather interesting flooring consisting of two rugs, floorboards, and other wooden panels we found in the studio. Despite how strange it sounds, it actually looked lovely.

Then came the actual dressing and with the help of my group we placed the furniture where we wanted it and I added little bits and bobs, such as a plant outside our window so it would be visible when the light shined inside against the back wall, and used fake blood to fake wine stains inside the wine glasses as we didn't want any liquid on set.

Surprisingly enough, everything was perfect so surely enough something was gonna go wrong. Pre-light went fine, although Pip, Anike and I had to go out shopping for one of the actor's wardrobe as the clothes Grace had brought in couldn't be made dirty using fake blood. This took some unplanned money out of our budget as we had expected to use clothing we already had. 

When we came back after the weekend, as I was inflating the balloon in the morning I realised that something was wrong with our helium canister. With 30 minutes before the shoot, Pip, Emily and I jumped into a car and drove to Aldershot to find a party shop with helium canisters that we could buy. 

Despite our rush, we held the scheduled time back by approximately an hour and that's my biggest regret of the studio shoot as I feel like it was my only job to ensure everything was okay for the shooting to begin and I failed. I'm very thankful for my group being supportive, and for Emily and Pip being quick thinkers and getting more helium.

After that, everything actually went quite smoothly.

In terms of my role, I felt like I achieved what I set out to do. I learned a thing or two, and worked very closely with our Producer and my Set Designer to establish a visual look from quite early on in the pre-production. I'd like to think I achieved the look we were going for and to see it come alive was an amazing experience - it actually looked like a cosy little room once it was lit up.

I don't think there's anything I would change at all because I feel like we did everything the way we planned to. I'm definitely thankful I had the support of my team & Anike did a wonderful job at creating the fake meat we used on set. 10 out of 10.