Filming 'Beach Body'

We started filming three weeks before our deadline, and even by this time I didn’t know what the story was about. Again I had to get stupidly early to get to Weston for 9:30am on the Saturday. When we arrived at our first location, we sat around for a bit, had a bite to eat, and then started. It was a scene about a family loading their stuff into a car and heading off to the beach. Of the whole day these few shots were the most time consuming.

I was the cameraman which I always enjoy doing, it means I can direct without the pressures being the director. It was fun but we weren’t getting much done in the little time we had. From there the shots were of the journey to the beach, not to long, mostly GV’s of the surroundings. The next location was sandy beach in Weston. The wind was so strong that capturing any kind of audio was going to be a challenge, however it did create a miniature sandstorm over the beach that looked mental. Sam had her son bring along some of his mates as extras, so the first shots we got done were with them in it. This way they wouldn’t be hanging around, getting in our way, however this did become a problem when it came to food…they stole mine and Tom’s chicken sandwiches Sam had made us. After they had gone we were left filming just the family doing beach holiday stuff. It soon became apparent that this film wasn’t going to win any awards, we were just trying to get through the shots as fast as we could. The day was a bit of a bore but I did enjoy having a lot of input towards the project, as bad as it may have turned out. I think we’re going to have to spend a lot of time editing to get this film looking half decent.
Even though I think the film will turn out to be total crap, it’s not a wasted project. This assignment can definitely to used as a learning curb, when you finish any film, its not all about the outcome but what you learn from it.