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Adeel Ahmed

The Shoot: Day Two

by Aqeel on 13 Apr 2009 · 0 comments

in Production, Shattered Pieces

I woke up at 4am to get ready. The call time was 7am, the location was a bus stop on Finsbury Square.

When we all got together, Pete began to set up the camera, and I went through the scene with the actors while they got their makeup done.
Then, trouble…

Due to the Easter weekend (I think) there was a Jubilee line replacement bus service. The problem: the buses were using our bus stop as a waiting stand! As one left, another would take its place. Disaster!

It got to a point where I had to make up a new story of how these characters meet to work with the only location we had in control at that time, a monument thing, or, scrap the day to shoot on another day. My director side wanted to do a different day, but my producer side said no way.
It was bad, and I felt as though my film was going to be ruined!

Luckily for us, Andrew Ormerod showed us all, once again, what a great Location Manager and scout he is. He found us a new bus stop on Silk Street (near the Barbican centre) within 10 minutes. A bonus was that this new bus stop was actually better than our original. It was a quieter road and was still urban looking (being just around the corner to Finsbury Square).
In the words of KC, our Assistant Ditector, Andrew Ormerod is a ‘legend.’ :)

By doing the recce a few days earlier with the original bus stop, Pete Wallington easily adjusted to the new location, and the shot list didn’t have to be changed.

Shooting was “easier” than the night before as all the scenes were at this one location. We shot the first scene pretty quickly as it was only about three lines and we moved on to the next.

There was a little interuption when a security guard from a nearby building decided he wanted to feel important and powerful by demanding for our shooting permission. After a few words from Andrew, he went away saying he’ll be back after talking to the law department and police. He didn’t come back and no police came.
Maybe he just wanted to be in the film.

Anyway, the scene was a flashback scene, pre-destroyed London. To have that contrast that I want, this scene involved extras. I only needed about five, but the night before my casting director told me he couldn’t get any extras because of the Easter weekend!

Luckily, after only a few calls to friends and family, I had my extras. I’d like to thank them for helping me out when I really needed them. Thank you: Davina Tirvengadum, Kay Munns, Alyaa Khogali, and my mum. I just forced Adeel (my brother) to sit there pretending to read a newspaper next to the actors. So, he’s actually in a lot of the shots with the actors! Also thanks to my sister Zahrah Ahmed and my aunty Amina for turning up and doing nothing. :)

Anyway, we shot that pretty “effortlessly” although the extras did get a bit bored, not realising the time it took to set up between shots. Thanks again extras!

Next up was a post-destroyed scene, where the characters are battered and bloody. Jane did a great job matching up Drew’s makeup from the shoot on Saturday, and pretty quickly too. It was also Claire’s first time with the blood and scars. It was gross.

Surprisingly, even with the few hiccups and near disasters that we encountered, we actually finished early! That’s all thanks to the great cast and crew. We’ve all become friends, having fun and still getting the film shot on time. We’re doing what we love.

We also witnessed a pigeon dying. It was sitting there when we started. Chris Patterson (Focus Puller) could probably tell the story better. He’s told it so many times, each time it gets better and more epic. Basically, it was quite ill looking. It’s wing was badly damaged. A little while later, we went to check on it, and it started coughing up blood. Then it’s head slowly dropped, and it died. Sad. :(

By the end of the day, I was in a bad state. I had the worst headache I’ve ever had, and I had to drive home.
When I got home it worsened, and I felt really sick.

After some TLC from my mum last night and today, I’m feeling a bit better. I’ve been lying in bed writing these two posts and tweeting on Twitter on my iPhone. :)

After all the energy it has taken out of me, I still love directing. Just next time, I’m going to try limiting films I write to day time and set it indoors where it’s nice and warm!

Here’s some production stills taken by Andrew “The Legend” Ormerod:

Bus Stop with my lovely extras

The characters, Ted and Claire first meet

Adeel showing Claire the prop newspaper

Bus stop after Andrew Ormes vandalises it

Me talking to Claire and Drew

A pigeon we saw die on the street, while we continue like normal.

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The Shoot: Day One

by Aqeel on 13 Apr 2009 · 0 comments

in Production, Shattered Pieces

I wanted to be able to make a new post after each day, but even when I got back home, I was busy preparing and organising for the next day or exhausted, so I couldn’t. I’m posting about the first weekend now anyway, starting with Day One. I’ll make a post about Day Two later.

We all met up at Paul’s Walk (On the Northbank, London), our first location, at 2am. This was going to be a zig-zag back and forth, switching between two locations, and trying to make them look like they were meant to be the same place. With the horrible weather and the light (from night to morning) against us, it was a race to get everything shot on time, then move and set up on the next location as quickly as possible.

Being at Paul’s Walk in the middle of the night was kind of spooky. There was nobody in sight, something I wanted to achieve as part of the film, but it was still odd to actually be there. It felt as though I was in this world I was trying to create for this film. I guess it probably helped Drew (the actor playing Ted) to really feel as though London had been evacuated.
Shooting the first scene went well. We did have a few problems with the battery for the lights running out of juice, but Pete (the DoP) figured out how to shoot without them, being creative and moving things around to use the available light.

Once the Paul’s Walk scene at night was done, we raced over to an Alleyway in our cars to set up for the next shot. It had to be a follow on from when Ted walks off Paul’s Walk, into an alleyway. Once that was shot, we had to make the alleyway look as though an explosion had happened. Andrew Ormes (Production Designer) did a great job, with posters on the wall and bit of bricks and concrete he used (from the time we collected it from his brother-in-law) and dressed the set. Again, it was spooky as it felt so real. :)

Jane Stiefel (makeup artist) made Drew look as though he had been hurt badly from the explosion. Blood and brains! It was disgusting.

Once that was over, we had to clear up the mess we made, and drive back to Paul’s Walk to do the post-destruction scene. Again, Andrew Ormes dressed Paul’s Walk to look as though an explosion had happened. At this time, it was day, so there were people around for the weekend, walking on Paul’s Walk and crossing over the Millennium Bridge, which didn’t help as we were trying to make it look as though London had been destroyed and abandoned. Drew was still covered in blood, and the sight of the boom and camera drew a lot of audiences, but it was unavoidable. We still managed to get it shot in between people moving and the noises of boats and an annoying helicopter!

Then, Drew got cleaned up, and ready for the next scene, a flashback scene. Claire (actress playing Sara) came in, got dressed, and had her hair and makeup done. She was the lucky one, as the rest of us had been shooting since 2am. Her call time was 1pm, so she was fresh and energetic, which probably helped as the character needed to be the same.

The people walking around wasn’t so much of a problem with this last scene for the day. I wanted there to be people around, to have that contrast when there aren’t any. The only problems really were the noises, and when people looked straight into the camera when walking behind the actors. We took a few takes, and it won’t be noticeable when it’s all edited together— I hope!

That was the last scene of the day, finishing at about 5:00pm. I got home about 6:00pm, exhausted and barely able to keep my eyes open. Unfortunately, I had to fight the need to sleep because I had to prepare for the next day’s shoot and sort out extras for the bus stop scene! Luckily for me, I had great family and friends who helped me out, and offered to be extras for the bus stop scene (which I’ll talk about in the day two post).

I got to sleep at 12am, to have to wake up again at around 4am…. Day two of the shoot coming soon.

Here’s some photographs Andrew Ormerod (Location Manager) took on day one of the shoot.

Paul's Walk Pre-Destroyed

Alleyway Pre-Destroyed

Drew with blood and wound to head

Crew at Paul's Walk, while I'm thinking

Drew and Claire

Pete and crew set up, while Andrew Ormes dresses the set

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Auditions

March 28, 2009

I’m writing this on my iPhone, knackered, so there may be a lot of spelling mistakes and things that don’t make sense. I’ll edit and correct it later when I’m not so tired.
As you may have guessed, today auditions for my short film, Shattered Pieces, were held.
It was my first time auditiong anybody (a lot [...]

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