Phil Peel

Film, video, photography, sound and story

No Apologies Final Scene

Posted by Phil On August - 21 - 2011

This was a series of quite complicated scenes with five actors during a series of group therapy sessions.

Particularly difficult with the number of eyelines involved.

We were filming at the Trouville Hotel who were really helpful to us. We set up the lighting the evening before.

I used a Chinese Lantern overhead with a 110 watt fluorescent bulb (equivalent to about 500 watts tungsten)with black wrap to take the light off the top of the wall. I rigged a second lantern in case I needed more light. It would save us having to stop filming and clamber up. In the event we didn’t need it, but it’s worth being prepared. As it was nighttime, I couldn’t tell how much light was going to come in the windows.

Here’s Jude checking Nicola’s bruise on the continuity photo.

So the crew was Mike, Jude and myself

Here’s Paul Francis and Martyn Lowe. Paul Witcombe doesn’t seem to appear as he is taking the photos

As there were several long scenes, Mike decided to shoot them in different styles. So we had tracking shots

Static shots…

..and Steadicam style. We used a U-FlyCam which is similar to the Merlin Steadicam, but cheaper. The GH2 is very light which makes it considerably less tiring to use

The room was very spotty 🙂 but I think the monochrome makes it look worse than it was

It was a long day, but went well

THE END

Here’s some links to how we filmed it.

http://www.philpeel.com/2012/05/new-trailer-for-no-apologies/

http://www.philpeel.com/2011/06/filming-no-apologies/

http://www.philpeel.com/2011/08/no-apologiesthe-police-interview/

http://www.philpeel.com/2011/07/no-apologies-filming-the-other-sex-scene-4-in-a-bath/

http://www.philpeel.com/2011/07/filming-the-car-park-argument-no-apologies/

http://www.philpeel.com/2011/07/no-apologies-the-sex-and-strangling-scene/

http://www.philpeel.com/2011/07/filming-no-apologies-the-bathroom-scene/

http://www.philpeel.com/2011/08/no-apologies-final-scene/

Filming, Lighting

Filming Music video -Captain- disrupted by swan!

Posted by Phil On May - 4 - 2011

Mike and I shot a music video last week in Gareth Henderson’s magnificent River Studios, on a yacht at Hamble Marina, at Calshot and Lepe Beach.

The singer was Dretonio and he travelled down from Wales with his band, manager Schwarz and director Tyrone.

So we started the day in River Studios. I always believe in spending time getting the lighting to look good. though it wasn’t easy hiding the lights

Mike did a great job on the lighting considering the problems with the relatively small space, all the mirrors and me wanting to use moving camera shots.

Using the Panasonic GH2 DSLR gives the lovely shallow depth of field, so you can pull focus to isolate performers. As in the next two shots.

Though the mirrors limit the camera angles ,they can give great shots.

The next location was over at Hamble Marina. We managed to lose the band on the way. so by the time we all arrived we had lost an hour.

I had made a shoulder mounted rig for the GH2, which worked well. You can see it in this shot.

I tried out the camera on the on the boom. Obviously the worry is if the camera should fall off the end of the boom, so I had a system to attach the camera strap to a point lower on the boom.

A problem is that there tends to be quite a lot of vibration, with the weight on the end of a slim pole, so it’s not easy to keep it steady. Mike’s bouncing in some light into the shadows.

But the shots worked well. This really created the impression that the boat was sailing.

Over to Calshot Castle to try to get some shots of Dretonio with yachts in the background. When I had recce’d this there were masses of yachts, but today only a few and a long way away. So I had to use the amazing range extender of the GH2 which doubles the focal length without any drop in quality. 35mm equivalent of a 600mm lens !

Then as the Sun began to set, we moved onto Lepe beach, where there was a good view down the beach with the setting sun. If the clouds stayed away … which they did!

I was very sceptical about having a drum kit on the beach. Not least that I thought it wouldn’t be good for the drums, but I was proved wrong. It provide some great shots

But then we attracted the attention of a swan, who decided to investigate and hilariously chased the band from the beach.

However as if you make up for interrupting the session ,the swan then beautifully swam into shot to provide a stunning final scene as Dretonio walks into the sunset.