We had already brought all the props and costumes and everything we needed to do the shoot with into the studio so we where ready to set up. All I had to think about now was dealing with the people. Out plan was to do the set of the movie first and then do the office. We were then notified that the person who was meant to be playing Marilyn Monroe couldn’t do. We did have another person who said they could do it but we couldn’t pull her out of her lesson. The only solution was that I did it. We got all the guys that we needed together and divided them into dancers and crew member and organised their costumes. We were then notified that the floor that was painted red fro the set wasn’t yet dry. This meant that we had to tell all the actors to come back at 1.30 and we did the office scene first. This actually worked out better for us because the Marilyn could come and more male dancers could make it.
We then had to get on and set up the office scene. We were well prepared for this and had everything we needed such as monitors picture, posters and documents about Marilyn. However I ended printing out more pictures because the room was bigger then we intended which worked out to be a positive thing but also took us a lot of time to fill it up. We added a few things on the day like a few more tables to make it look more like an office and to fill up a lot of dead space. It was different to our set sketch because the room was a lot bigger then we had planned so we added more tables and filled up more space. I think that this worked really well. We also thought about putting up a suspect bored and putting pictures of possible suspect which made it seem more like an investigation and I think without it. It would have not looked so good and would have lost the point of it slightly. It took a while to set up but at the end after we had I was pleased with it and I thought it was better then we planned. We then started to think about the camera pan. We knew what we had to finish on and what we had go across but we had to change around pictures to avoid dead space we then also decided it needed a bit of depth so we put a wig to pan across which I think looked quite good. Unfortunately we could have floor boards down like we wanted to but in the end the floor did show so that was not a problem and would have coasted us time. Next to think about was the lighting. We wanted to be as dark as possible but when we got it as dark as I would have liked it it didn’t come out very well on the camera so we had to make it lighter. For this bit I had the job to help with the camera work by pushing the losmandy spider dolly along the tracks. We did about 3 practice and 6 takes. In the first couple they were quite jolty and messy however after some practice we started to improve and got it right. We then had to take down that set and had a lunch brake.
When we came back for lunch we had to set up there other set. We had to put the 3 steps and dropped a white certain which we had to light red to make it look like a red wall. The floor was already painted red and was now dry. We met all the actors in the canteen next to the studio and got them all in the right suits and ran them though what they had to do so that when we brought them onto the set it would be more organised. Then had to make the crew look more 50’s and we gelled their hair back and but some of them in trilby hats. This made them also look a bit older which was needed because we found that all the people look kind of young. We managed to get a few of the teachers to be in it. Luke one of our media teachers was the director and we got him to run up to Marilyn and act really enthusiastic. Luke was great because he is a really energetic character and I think he brought some life to it. Our Marilyn then had to go and get her make up done which was done by my mother. We told her to use a pinkish eye shadow and to do small flicks to make it look more late 50’s early 60’s.
Inside the studio however there were a couple of things that needed to be sorted. We needed to get directors chairs to try and emulate the film set which we were basing our film on. However we unable to get hold of them so my media teacher brought in his deck chairs but they were blue and white stripy so we compromised and put their jackets over them, this hid the fact that they weren’t what we wanted but created the desired effect. We also needed to set up the tracking shoots which went from the edge of the red film set and then lead all the way back to the end of the studio. We did this so that we could slowly revile the set and it will almost make the person feel like they are there and walking backwards. We then had to set up our camera that e had made from cardboard. What we did not make it look real is putting a light behind it and making it into a silhouette. This meant that you couldn’t see what texture it was on and it looked real. I was really pleased with this effect.
We then got everyone in and put them in position and gave them jobs to do such as collect love hearts and move cameras. This was to make it look as busy as possible and to create a dramatic and interesting scene. We did a couple of run troughs and it was all looking good. However I had not watched it on the monitor yet. We then started filming I was the director so I got to shout out and watch the monitor and make sure that it looked good. I really liked this job because I could begin to imagine what it would be like when we edited it. Our first shot that we filmed went okay however I thought that it was to précised in what everyone was doing and it looked really staged. I took in consideration that in real life it would have some kind of order because everyone would know what to do. I thought that it didn’t look busy enough and I thought that there should be person walking right in front of the camera because this would also give it a little more depth. We then me and the group thought that it was a little too quiet and there needed to be more chatting. After that it went well and we only needed to do a couple more shots and we had then finished that shot.
Over all I think that it went well because we were really organised and any problem we had such as getting actors or getting a suspect board we were able to sort it out and keep on track. I was really pleased with the shots that we got and I can image what it will look like and I am excited to edit it.
Here are some photos from the day:
This is i photo if us setting up for the office scene in the morning. This is just before we started and as you can see we had the tracks down on the floor and the camera on the tripod ready for our tracking shot. Also you can see that we had love hearts in the foreground not the wig which we changed soon after. 
This is the camera that we made and it came in a lot more useful then we thought it would. This is what made the shadow in on the wall.
On each shot we had someone looking at the monitor checking that the shot was in focus and making sure the composition was perfect. On this shot this was my job.
This was the set up for the shot of the camera panning down to the director. I did the camera work this bit.
This is the set up for the studio shoot and everyone is in possition to start rolling. You can see how we sit the back red and had the red head light on the right.
