#locationrecce

Location Recce for Where Currents Meet

For Where Currents Meet Bethany also had a similar plan to shoot slightly further afield. This time not quite as far as my other project but instead in Dundee, more specifically Broughty Ferry, where she grew up. Again I was unsure of filming there and not in Edinburgh logistically but upon seeing it I felt this was right for the film.

This recce was about a week after my location recce for Saint Catherines so I knew the drill. Again I was the driver, taking Bethany, Sam, Alex and James with me. Again we had a Spotify situation and the journey on either end went by pretty quickly.

When we got to Broughty Ferry, Bethany and her parents showed us around and we checked out several location options for the bridge, river, and beach scenes. We also saw Bethany's bedroom at her parents' house where we would be shooting the bedroom scene. I noticed immediately this bedroom was much smaller and would thus need some different camera setups to what we had in the test shoot. So this was very useful to see in advance. It was also very helpful to see all the locations so that I could keep these in mind when preparing the shot list. The recce was overall very helpful because it confirmed the need and justified filming in Broughty Ferry. Thus solidifying our set locations and accommodation at Bethany's parents' house. The locations were beautiful and matched our story very well and the joint accommodation meant that we would all be together every morning from the get-go, which would save time every day. Shooting further afield also limited our crew and meant that we would be shooting at a smaller scale than we might have if we had shot in Edinburgh. I quite liked this because it meant we would be a bit more relaxed and as I was already pushing myself out of my comfort zone I liked not having any added pressure of many extra people around.

Here are some photos of me documenting the different locations to see what it looked like through my camera (what it looked like through a camera you will see in the final film):

Location Recce for Saint Catherines

For Saint Catherines, one thing we knew early on was where we would be filming. The film is named after the place where it is set, as I believe, I have previously mentioned on this blog. This is because Orla and Katie found through research that sexual assault victims often relate the place where they were assaulted to the assault itself. This meant as the name suggests we would be shooting in the small Scottish town of Saint Catherines which is on the shore of Loch Fyne and thus looks out onto a relatively calm and very beautiful body of water. I had previously wondered if we could film somewhere nearer to Edinburgh as this seemed easier to me, but upon seeing the location it was without a question to me why we had to film there.

Orla had had the namesake and location of the film in mind from reviewing first drafts with Katie, having gone there on several holidays herself when she was younger. And so Orla had both our set location (the caravan) and crew accommodation (a lodge nearby) booked in and sorted well in advance with her family and family friends who owned both properties. She is such an organised and incredible person, and I have to say I aspire to her level of organisation, togetherness, iconicness and all-around loveliness. It is always a pleasure working with her.

So before we entered production we knew that we, the rest of the core HOD's, needed to go to Saint Catherines for a location recce. It was quite the road trip. We did this at the beginning of February, giving us plenty of time to plan for each department. This was a little later than we had planned because the MOT of my parents' car had expired, so we had to wait an extra week until this was sorted. We only drive safely and legally of course! That makes it sound like we don't, but I promise we do. Luckily the extra wait did not impact things too much because Orla had planned this well in advance so going a week later did not affect the rest of our schedule or creative process.

I was our driver and the rest of the gang brought the vibes. It was Orla, Katie, Jack and me. Aimee and Alyssa couldn't make it and there weren't enough seats in the car for all of us anyway. The road trip brought us into the holiday spirit that is an essential nostalgic element of the film and really added to the experience of our filmmaking and creative process, even from this preproduction stage of recceing the location.

The overall return journey took around 5 hours, roughly 2 and a half hours each way but sitting in the car flew by as we played music from each of us which is something that Katie does with her family where we each would select a song from each decade gradually moving forwards in time. It was a nice way to see who had picked what song.

As an experience, I feel this really brought us together and gave us a sense of being a team.

The journey was not only fun, because there was a major accident and we had to go on a little diversion to arrive at our destination and Google Maps nearly led us onto a private army firing zone. But we made it and it was also very beautiful because we were surrounded by stunning Scottish landscape whilst driving through all 4 seasons.

When we arrived it was snowing so we stayed in the car until it died down. This was not something we had expected, but being February in Scotland it was not out of the ordinary.

Being on set location helped further materialise the film for each department. Although we were unable to get into the caravan we could still get a real sense of the location. Each department could find things that they would need to think about and develop for themselves. Katie looked at her shortlist and saw how shots would look within the space. I recorded sounds within the space to see what it would sound like and this later translated into my sound shopping list and my sound design where I think about the wooden steps leading up to the caravan or the gravel ground around it. Or the pebbles and seaweed at the shore of the loch or the crunch of the leaves in the forest. Looking at the caravan from outside as a space before shooting also gave me a sense of claustrophobia and entrapment within such a beautiful location that I hoped to use somehow within the film's sound design where I planned to keep the sound space within the caravan close and tight.

Here is a recording I took of steps on the pier and in the surrounding seaweed there.

Overall, I feel the location recce was a key part of our early foundation of the film that further solidified the group and project into one.

Here are some photos of the location recce crew (I felt the others look like they are in a band):

Here is a link to a video of the recce that Orla put together on the Saint Catherines Instagram:

1. City of Glasgow College Archway 

- lit using an LED panel, there is a lot of noise in this photo but the building itself was quite shadowy to has to turn my ISO right up even with the LED panel. 

2. City of Glasgow College Stairs

- Lit using an LED panel, again, quite a lot of noise - maybe not the best place to shoot but liked the reflection of the light bouncing off of the silver stairs. 

3. Patch of Green bushes with old sandstone building 

- Lit using a silver reflector, good white balance although a quick Lightroom edit was added to this to enhance the vibrance.

4. Silver fence

- lit using reflector, I like the way the light bounces off of her face. However, could maybe hold reflector a bit higher so you get some nice light in the eyes as they look a bit dark. 

5. Large monument 

Group photo

lit using reflector and light adjustments were made in adobe Lightroom to adjust the vibrance and warmth of the photo ever so slightly. 

6. Stone Archway with glass building behind

lit using LED light panel and also a reflector

Again, could maybe have held the reflector a little higher to get some light into the eyes, however, I like the fact that there is contrast in the background and her face is lit well regardless.

7. City of Glasgow College Steps 

- Lit using an LED panel 

slight adjustments were made in Lightroom to increase the warmth and to adjust colour balance. 

1. City of Glasgow College indoor walk way 

Erin holding an LED light panel 

2. City of Glasgow College steps

3. Silver gate fence

LED light panel and silver reflector 

4. Big tall monument

5. Under a wee stone archway that looked onto a glass building behind strathclyde Uni.

6. City of Glasgow college outdoor steps

Green space outside of Strathclyde Uni

For our master shot project we decided to shoot in a small woods near where I live (shown below).

I went on a location recce by myself as I know the area quite well. Here are some of the pictures I took. 

As a group we made a moodboard which contained ideas for framing, colour pallettes, lighting and costume.

We also came up with 3 different shot ideas, poorly storyboarded by me below:

Due to covid, we are limited to 2 households on set. Therefore, I will be acting and Euan (who is designated DoP) will be shooting. The rest of our group will help with editing.