BLINKERS - DURING

August 19th and 20th, 2017, VirtueMedia shot their first short film. Here is how it went for the Director of Photography Joshua Tue.

FRIDAY

Blinkers was a go. Actors locked down, locations organised and many man hours of pre-production finished. Friday was a prep day so I knew the kit would be 100% fully functioning on set throughout the whole weekend. We had the Focus Puller Pete Swinford, both Loaders, Ryan Clutton and Mike Simpson and Jamie Cook as Camera Operator. Many hands make light work and within several hours we had the van loaded and everything was ready to start shooting Saturday morning.

SATURDAY

Call time was 06:00am and after a strong breakfast we got the camera team in position for the first shot of the day. As the DP, anticipating the lighting situation and how it would benefit the shoot was my first thoughts that morning. Luckily, we had blue sky and a brilliant sun rise. It was fresh and the light was lovely. All of Saturday mornings shots were exteriors and because mother nature was kind, most of my work was done for me. Minor adjustments were all I needed to make set ups look how I wanted them too. Straight from the off, the crew were fantastic.

Brad Sparks the Gaffer was brilliant. He had everything on hand in a minutes notice and also did things without me having to ask. The team chemistry was very high. We fell slightly behind in the morning, however, my scheduling was ambitious to begin with. One thing we didn't want to compromise was quality.

Having Virgyl on set greatly increased productivity for several reasons. He was able to help cut certain shots when we fell behind and together we could visualise the exact shots we were going to use once in the post production stage.

A huge thank you goes to my fiancee, Zoe. She took the position of 1st AD/Unit Driver/Runner/Costume roles single handed. She made sure that between set ups, the actors were getting in the correct costumes and making sure everyone was fed and watered. Jacob had 16 costumes, Wesley had 4 and Jenny had 5. With her organisation, I could focus on the composition and lighting. 

Saturday afternoons location was 'Wesleys house'. Here I had 3 different times in a day that needed to light, covering 3 rooms of the house. Due to the size of the house I had to be creative with my lighting choices. Having a crew of 10 in a two up - two down was interesting, however, we managed to get the lights up and shoot regardless. We cast Emmerdales very own Bhasker Patel as Wesley. He was incredibly professional and very easy to work with. Jordan, who was Directing Blinkers took away any pressure from me as he was always with the actors getting the best performance from them. The word synergy keeps coming to mind when I talk about how well each member of the crew and cast performed. 

SUNDAY

Sunday morning brought a location in which I had total creativity. We were shooting all of Jacob's office scenes. There was several times of the day we needed to portray. We blacked the windows out and it turned into more of a studio where I could get the exact feeling and style. 

Sunday afternoon took us to the final location where the crew went from strength to strength. Lighting wise, there was only a minor issue with one set up that I wasn't completely happy with at the time. An interior night time shot didn't evoke the emotion I wanted. However, with a few minor tweaks and adjustments, I managed to get the shot looking right. 

Sunday went as well as Saturday and the performances from Will Barrett and Louise Maugurite, who play Jacob and Jenny were brilliant. They were great to work with and knew their characters down to a tee. It was a real pleasure to work with such professional and hard working actors. 

WRAP

Once we wrapped on the final day of shooting, it began to sink in that we had done it. Several months of build up and planning and we had captured the story. Without all the people who donated to the film it wouldn't have been possible. Our original fundraising target was £350 and we smashed it raising an overall £510. This allowed us to get the better actors and the best kit for the job. 

I like to say a huge thank you to all the crew who gave up their spare time to work extremely hard to help us create something we can all be proud of. Thank you to Jamie Cook, Pete Swinford, Mike Simpson, Ryan Clutton, Kris Winter, Matt Kennedy, Brad Sparks and Zoe Robertson. They all worked their socks off.

Finally, thank you to none other than Virgyl and Jordan who both were fantastic on the shoot. Working with your friends to create something together is very rewarding. 

NEXT STEP

Let the edit begin! Virgyl has all the footage and will be editing to get a picture lock as soon as possible. Following this we shall get the music composed, the film graded and the audio mixed down.

We hope to enter Blinkers into as many film festivals as possible and I hope you look forward to seeing it. 

JT.