1920's shoot.

Today we completed our 1920's shoot, which was certainly the most fun to film so far. We created a cosy tea/petting party scenario based on extensive research into popular culture & the social norms of this decade. We dressed our actresses in mid leg length skirts, head dresses, feathers, pearls, tap shoes / kitten heals from the 1920's. We tried to uphold historically correct costume and thus if any of the dresses were too short to look authentic for the era, we made sure the people wearing them were sat down at all times. The location we chose was perfect for the shoot as well, we had debated long & hard over three locations after visiting them, and comparing the back drops & mis en scene already present at each (in addition to the extra props we had already sourced). We finally deciding upon our location (a large & quite dated house in the local area), and in retrospect this was definitely the best decision. We stuck to the storyboard least on this shoot out of the ones so far completed. I feel that this was only because the actresses were so comfortable in this improvised setting that there natural flow of socialising - conversation, dancing, laughing created a visually stronger piece than if we had been much stricter in there actions. We brought along snacks for our actresses as well - which we also used in the shoot as they seemed very appropriate, we knew that when filming people with out any pay that clear direction & incentive were key. Though the shoot was more loose in structure than some of our previous ones i.e.: the 1980's, we still directed all the participants with briefs before we began filming each time to a.) ensure we got every compulsory shot completed and b.) we got the best performance possible out of everyone. We used the lights for the first time as well today and really noticed the difference they made to the footage, improving not only the quality of the shots in terms of the mock natural light we could create in dreary December, but also the actor's complexions all caught the rays well and made them photogenically much more glamorous & stylish.