We may be an advertising production company by nature, but on our own time, we are huge movie buffs. We have always believed that this passion for cinema has made our commercial work better, so now we wanted to take that to the next level. This meant taking the opportunity to explore narrative filmmaking. This personal project felt creatively expressive, while also enabling us to expand our video production skill set. We are firm believers in professional development through independent projects and this felt like an opportunity for exactly that.

We reached out to our capable acting contacts, Samantha Gracie and Bayleigh Pelham, and got to work on planning for the day. Once a scene was chosen, and a time solidified we were ready to experiment and enjoy the process.

For this shoot we ended up filming this scene in my living room. Along with having the right set decor already in place, it also has a large north facing window that we were able to use as our key light. Beyond that, we set up an Aputure 30.0 light and bounced it into the ceiling behind the scene. This allowed us to lift the light levels within the room without having the scene look over lit. We also used an existing practical, a table lamp, as a bit of an edge light for one of the characters on the left.

All of this was to accomplish lighting that would read as early to mid morning during a weekday. The story called for an emotional confrontation, and so we weren’t looking for bright sunlight streaming in as that wouldn’t have matched the narrative. Instead we wanted the lighting to be subdued, creating more of a mundane, but anxious feel. This approach also complimented the colour scheme of the set which is of course a bonus visually.

Shooting multiple angles and multiple takes means we had to be hyper aware of continuity, eye lines and framing. This is really where we learned the most. Tracking the framing while being aware of the actors performance calls for a keen eye. With some experimenting and solid rehearsals we were able to work our way around some framing obstacles and had a pretty smooth day of shooting.

It was such a treat for us to have a chance to work with real actors, professionals who have committed their lives to performance work, it was a completely different vibe and energy that we fed off of. Samantha and Bayleigh have been studying acting together for 3 years and have so much experience working together in scenes like this, that it made the actual filming very easy. As cool as this was, it was even cooler that it took us out of our comfort zone and made the collaboration so fun and satisfying. We can’t wait to work more like this.

Our crew for this was very small. I was directing, Mark Archibald was the other camera operator and DOP, and we had Josh Owen doing audio. Josh is an extremely accomplished audio tech among other talents, we couldn’t have done it without him. We were also lucky enough to have had an 2nd year NSCC photography student, Rix Mascarenhas, doing assisting and some camera operating.

Overall, we had a great experience working on this. With thorough planning, a committed team and great gear we got through this shoot with little to no issues. In fact,  I think we did 3-4 takes max for each framing, and most of those were for safety and because we were really enjoying watching the actors work. I don’t think this will be the last of this kind of work you see come from JIVE Productions.