We began shooting at around 11AM. We would have started sooner; however, I was late due to roadworks causing mass traffic. This didn’t affect the shoot much as the film is only around 4.5 minutes in length. We shot the entire film on my Nikon DSLR, I would have preferred to have used a higher functioning camera such as the Black Magic pocket 6K as it produces higher quality image. We had no access to external sound equipment, so we had to rely on the DSLR’s internal microphone. This was due to filming in a small space and Jamie-Lee wanting the crew in limited numbers. Thankfully the sound was feasible and clear. The rough aesthetic added to the narrative of the mockumentary as I and Jamie-Lee intended for it to feel real, even though we were making a ‘spoof’ of factual content Channel 4 produce.
For the interview scenes, we used a typical participatory setup in which the journalist/filmmaker is stood/sat next to the subject while interviewing them. This worked very well as we were filming in a small space. We had to reframe several times during the shoot to ensure the image was bright enough. This became necessary for Kaleb’s ‘interview’, as we wanted to capture his movements, plus Jemma’s reactions.
We had to shoot Jemma’s scenes first as she had to do a work shift later that day. We made sure that we marked the scenes by using a clapperboard that I provided. This would aid myself when editing the film in post-production. After we shot all of Jemma’s scenes, including some pick-ups (retakes), we then shot all the scenes with just Kaleb and Jamie-Lee. We had no one else to mark the scenes so Jamie Lee marked them with the clapperboard. Each time we had to retake, we had to keep erasing and writing take numbers as this aids the editor (myself with creative guidance from Jamie-Lee) in post-production for continuity purposes. Jemma would then provide a voice over for the film to introduce the subject of the ‘documentary’.
I played two parts within the film. The part of the camera operator who reacts to Kaleb’s trance and the part of Eddie Boon. Jamie-Lee shot my scene with Kaleb. We decided to improvise the scene since we didn’t write any form of dialogue. We kept having to re shoot as I kept forgetting to say anything as the scene is quite long. We managed to obtain the shot after several attempts.
