'The RED experience'

The shooting of our first end of year film ,Sole Mates, is all done and squared away. This shoot has left me with an interesting experience of on set practices and a (somewhat brief) insight in shooting on RED.

The shoot began rather well in the small village of Eaglsham. For myself, I got the impression of a very relaxed and confident shoot ahead. The camera department, of which I was a member, were coping well with the new camera equipment and it simply seemed a case of just plodding on with the shoot. That was until, however, we moved location to Dennistoun. With the exception of our Producer's car running out of Petrol on the road back to Glasgow, all was going as intended. Inside the small shop lights were going up and myself and Luke were steadily reassembling the Red camera in the small kit room we had. With the camera almost ready I proceeded to insert the next card number, this act proving to be an ill fated or lucky incident depending on how you look at it.

I would at this point like to put forward a defence, in the case that anybody has doubts about our handling of the new kit. Having not inserted a card into the red before, I checked with Luke the correct way to put it in, and so I did. It did not, however, feel secure or at all right. With the camera fired up we attempted to go ahead and format the card... and the rest, as they say, is history. The pins were bent and the new camera out of commission.

Luckily Galina and myself had with us our Cannon 550D DSLRs which had been used for a shot earlier in Eaglesham. It was decided by Gavin, Charlotte and Andrew that we could continue the shoot using these cameras, while we waited to hear back from Ray.

No I mentioned earlier that the downing of the Red camera could be perceived as a fortunate incident, and I justify it with the following fact. The Red going down was a complete bummer, and as it was myself who had inserted the fatal card, I felt somewhat guilty and responsible for the whole thing. And Yet, if the Red had not broken, and we continue shooting as we did the first morning, Sole Mates would not have been completed at all, and I believe that to be a fact. The speed at which we were getting slates in the can, was unbelievably faster than when we used the red. However, even with this significantly increased shooting rate, we did struggle to get the shot list done, so much so that pickups were needed on the Friday. I honestly, believe that if we had continued on the Red the shots would simply not have been completed, and the final film would be severely compromised, if not uneditable. So my main and only criticism of the Sole Mates shoot would, I suppose, be the shot list or handling there of.

On another note, I feel I must to praise Gavin as the Director for his unwavering Good mood and humour throughout the shoot. Even when the Red was down and the shoot was behind, he kept an optimistic and jolly frame of mind as he battled on to get what he needed. I think set a good example to the entire cast and crew.