With the final weeks of this semester closing in, it’s almost time to wrap things up. So far I am happy with the progress I have made so far.The last couple of weeks, I have been working with different people to help out with their films. Just this Thursday was Ella Thompson’s film, a colleague of mine with a deep passion for film. The days leading up to the shoot were interesting. All the planning and construction of shots was really exciting and really made me think as a DOP. I tried to think of easier, yet effective, ways to film the shots she required. Ella had organised the shots following the works of three award winning filmmakers. Using the script from the 2008 Steve McQueen film titled Hunger, she has managed to change up the script to fit the location she had in mind.

All in all, the shoot went great. Ella and I worked closely together trying to come about the scenes as best as possible. The first two scenes were fine since it only consisted on tracking and stationary shots. The last scene however, was very tricky. The long take was very challenging. I tried to understand what ella was expecting from the outcome and my job was to interpret her idea similarly. Not only was the understanding of the shot difficult, the physical ability of filming these shots also played a very big role. Even ella had a go with the camera so that I could see her in action. Anyways, six or seven takes later, by that time I had a better understanding of what Ella wanted to achieve.

Another tough task I faced was lighting up the scene whenever I was required to. This is when I realised my knowledge of lighting is very limited. I might have to pick up a “guide to being a better DOP” soon! But hey, this was definitely a learning experience. There came a great outcome out of this experiment. I’ve learnt how to work under pressure, working closely with the director, that LIGHTING plays a very big role in film. It doesn’t stop there though. On to the next one I guess…