Ravers firing on all cylinders busting out the glow sticks + grooves. No narcotics were consumed in the shooting of this scene.
Back a couple of months ago, on the 2nd of May 2009, We finally completed shooting everything we needed to shoot to complete the edit. Here is a series of images by photographer Karim Sahai, who was there to document the action.
Now, while most of the "principal photography" of this project was completed a good 2 years ago, there were still a few little bits in pieces, or "pick-ups" that we felt we still needed to do in order to tie up the story a little bit better. So this was one of those shoots.
Hmm, well what else can i talk about on this post without giving away too much about the story and where this scene fits within it? Ok, i will state the obvious here that this scene takes place at a rave - In a nightclub, in the very early 2000's :). We learnt quite a bit about how to deal with doing a scene which involves working with a large group of extras. Directing was especially tricky, as i was shooting the action while Phil was performing as Angus. Normally when we were shooting the rest of the movie we could get away with not having someone acting as an assistant director, not so in this case. So we got the help of Sophia Elizabeth, who took on the juggling tasks of keeping the extras happy, dealing with misc production issues during the day as well as being an extra herself.
Juggling tasks is the order of the day: Phil ques up a portable DAT tape recorder to record the audio feed from the Sandwiches mixing desk shortly before shooting the first take. The idea here is to actually use the audio from the microphone that Angus is MC'ing into for the dialogue in the actual scene. This will be incorporated into the sound mix later on.
An extra patiently waits between takes.
An extra applies some hair gel whilst others chill out before the shooting begins.
Phil looking happy as he gets ready for shooting the scene while Sophia is wettening his hair for a more hot and sweaty appearance.
Extras stand by for shooting to begin.
Home made: Rachel holds up our makeshift slate for the camera. For this scene we shot in a very "freestyle" manner, so yes, we were very loose with our slate naming conventions :)
Phil as Angus: Working the decks.
Ravers in full swing during shooting.
Girls on the dance floor.
Quickly discussing some notes between takes.
Crowd shoot complete.
James downloads and quickly reviews a couple of takes as Clare looks on - its in the can!
Chatting with Hamish (cowboy hat), Who plays the character "DJ Danny Reed". This scene was actually shot on a high def camera, a Panasonic HVX-202. The media will be down sampled to match with the rest of the standard def DV footage. The idea here was basically: "well we have one at our disposal, so might as well use it. Better to have more information to work with than not enough"
If you would like to see more of the brilliant photographic work by Karim Sahai, check out his website - where you can browse his portfolio and order prints.
Sending out a BIG thanks to all who helped make this shoot happen, including: (and not limited to) Sandwiches, all of those who helped organize costumes, the lovely extras, Rocket Rentals for their sweet rental deal on the camera and microphone equipment, Grouse lighting and everyone else we may have missed writing here - thank you!
