Short film: Gambling film development

We were only filming in two locations. The venue of the poker scene and a bathroom. I'd originally arranged to film the poker scene at the Belgrave Music hall on Sat 15th Feb. Me and Ef had agreed that a friend of ours from high school would be perfect to play the main actor who had the roll of a gambler that always wins. We knew he would be up for acting as he used to do some himself and thrives in front of a camera. The 3 other poker players around the table had to look the part so i asked my housemate who does security on club doors, and two other friends that have experience of casinos and gambling that wouldn't look out of place. A couple of issues with people not being able to make it for that weekend which lead me to having to move the date back two weeks time to the beginning of March.

The two actresses are both theatre and drama students that have experience in plays. They are on the same course as the actress that was in my dissertation film. Before i got in contact with them, my two female housemates were originally set for the part until fairly late on they had too much work and asked if i was able to find other actresses instead.

I wanted the whole theme to be in sync with the location, so, smart and well dressed was the dress code. I had arranged for the bathroom scene to be filmed the next day at a friends house in Headingley. I met with another friend, Jess Henderson, who studies set design. She had only recently been on a film set and had experience of prosthetic make up so i asked her to test some bloody scars on me because i wanted her to create the scars for the main actors chest. She used latex, vampire blood and black make up.

The equipment i took out was...
5D Mark iii
24mm f/1.8
Arri 650w lights x3 tripods
Kino Lights x1 tripod
Track and dolly
Shoulder mount
Camera tripod
Sound boom & mic
Scrim & tripod
Plug extensions x2

It cost me a £10 cab from uni - home with this equipment, and £21 from home - the music belgrave hall!

Two weeks before filming, It crossed my mind that we will want the poker players to smoke as it will add an extra dimension within the film. Aesthetically it will be a lot more pleasing and it will add to the realistic atmosphere of an underground classy venue. I emailed the manager, who i had arranged with to film, and i asked him if it was possible to smoke. By which he replied that it was fine.

When i was setting up the venue, i asked about Simon and was told he wasn't there, whoever it was that was in charge at the time wasn't aware that i was allowed to be filming. I told him that i had arranged this with Simon and that we were allowed to smoke but he wasn't cool with it and without being able to get through to Simon, he wouldn't let us to smoke. I was in and out of the venue arranging people to get there, I had loads of things that needed sorting still, and unfortunately i hadn't told everyone that we weren't allowed to smoke anymore. We had a small confrontation with the guy in charge at the time who had threatened to kick us out and didn't want us to film in there at all. I took responsibility and apologised, especially after they were doing me a favour by allowing me to film in their venue for free.