On-Set Production – ‘Breathe’ Filmed Rehearsal
On-Set ProductionFor the short film ‘Breathe’ (directed by Luca and written by Kyle), I am the 1st AC working alongside DOP Gus. On Tuesday 24th October, we had our filmed rehearsal with actors Karis (Imogen) and David (Donny).
We had an initial mix-up with the booking of 1/53 – it had been double-booked, which would become a common theme and issue for my other rehearsal. Luckily, we were able to stay and continue setting up equipment.
Gus and I set up the Sony FX6 with little hassle but then ran into our first obstacle – finding the correct codec. We had set our frame rate to 25fps, but the codec we were using seemed to be in 35fps so we were a bit apprehensive about the effect this would have on the footage. We didn’t have the time to properly trouble-shoot and trawl through the camera menu to find our desired setting of Rec. 709, so we settled for XAVC-I 35. Thankfully, we’re using the Ursa G2 for the final shoot so this isn’t a major issue.
Despite this, we were able to capture footage our director Luca was happy with and work through the shot-list quickly and shoot additional shots. The atmosphere on set was calm and collected, and as I’m directing for my film workshop project, it was useful to be able to see Luca in action and make some mental notes for my own filmed rehearsal the next day.
Here is Jack being a happy sound guy even though he is doing the gruelling task of both boom operating and sound mixing.
One thing I took away from the filmed rehearsals is that they are less about the crew and more an opportunity for the director and actors to begin the collaborative process without the pressure of being the official shoot. The filmed rehearsal is a space with lower pressure and more room for improvisation and creativity. Nevertheless, it was useful to begin to operate as a crew and learn how each other works before the shoot itself on the 13th and 14th of November.