Photography by Christopher Lee
Finally blogging about the actual shoots on the 'Thousand Words' MV production! The cast and crew were battling the elements on our first shoot day, but despite the bitter cold of the classic British weather and lack of daylight, everyone did exceptionally well and we actually got a lot completed! The best news of all? We were not arrested or moved on by the police, despite shooting on location in Central London!
Bit of a slow start in Soho Square, getting to grips with the location, equipment and lighting (as well as Chris G being late! Tut tut!) but despite it all we got some really lovely shots of Chris and Chantal together and some solo shots of Chris, including our very first singing (or rather lip-syncing shots)! After some moving around, a brief scare with a Community Support Officer walking past, a LOT of church chimes, a very large tourist group that were standing in the background for an uncomfortable length of time, a convoy of roller-bladers with loud music and a few hobos coming over to talk about their own "productions", lack of hats/socks and then asking for money, we moved on to some different locations around the area to get more shots and coverage.
We moved on to film some couple walking scenes and were cheating when it came to the close ups of the holding hands, where we made the actors walk at a fraction of their normal pace to get the right movement. To get some scenes of Chris walking alone, we ventured around the corner and dealt with some issues of having to move the equipment set up because of cars and letting some members of the public know they were about to be filmed, but all in all, we managed to get some lovely footage and even managed to fit in some time for close ups. Then we moved to Meard Street to get some shots of Chris as the "isolated protagonist" where we ran around him many a time to get the right effect and while he was trying his best not to burst into a fit of giggles, the rest of us had a hard time to keep up with Luc, our wonderful Cinematographer and his extremely long legs! Further up the street is where we set up for our very first set of singing shots and we were all very pleasantly surprised to find out how good Chris was at lip-syncing! Alas, we also dealt with our first rude and uncooperative member of the public here, when some grumpy old man walked right into shot despite crew being on traffic control! Some people eh? The joys of shooting in public spaces!
After breaking for lunch we resumed filming back at Soho Square where it was important to utilize the daylight while we still had some. Therefore, the 'time lapse' shots had to filmed at this point. Poor Chris had to sit out in the cold for half an hour, trying his hardest not to move and when he did have to perform some sort of movement (including blinking!), he had to slow it right down and do so at a fraction of his normal speed. An incredible challenge for him, sitting so still for a long period of time is hard enough but in the painful cold was some feat! Good job we cut it all short in the end, as we were originally planning to leave it running for an hour (yikes!) to get the best movement when sped up in post! After some warming up with some hot drinks, we moved on to film more singing shots in a different location, mainly looking for an aged brick wall. Surprisingly enough, we didn't deal with too many complications with people and vehicle traffic here, but rather the fact that Chris and Chantal neglected to follow the rest of the crew and ended up getting lost while we were on the move! Our final couple shot followed these singing set ups, with our on-screen couple window shopping together. By this time, the daylight was rapidly fading and there was not much more we could have completed externally, but we managed to get - in my opinion - more than enough footage for the edit, so a wrap for the first shoot day was called! After a cast and crew group photo was taken (minus Ellie, our Runner), courtesy of our Production & Commercial Photographer Chris Lee, we were all happy to make our way back to the warmth of our own homes!
Next shoot day: Interior 'Apartment' - our most important and cram-packed day! Check back for more in-depth details about it!
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