Tonight's Dinner - Production
- Alexander Hutchings
- Dec 9, 2024
- 2 min read
An early start and I’m off to go food shopping for cast and crew and perishable props including salad! I’m picking up the actresses from two different locations and then we’re off to the studio for a day's filming of Tonight’s Dinner, a short film by Shannon Murphy.
An oversight by one of the team meant that several props were not arranged, so we shared this task between a few members of the team; these items included a Shepherd's pie, mashed potato and fake blood.
Once at the studio, it’s straight to make-up for the actresses while I get ready for the VFX shot!
We are lucky enough to have an Arri Alexa camera and the set looks far better than ever expected. Things are going well, really well.
One of the actresses needs another pair of shoes, so I’m back in the van heading back to her mum's house to collect a bag full! I guess a girl can’t have too many shoes!
Being a 1960’s cooking show, the make-up artists got to work on retro hair and make-up. They also needed to cover all visible tattoos, and this took quite some time. But it was worth the wait. The actresses looked amazing within the set, they just popped!
With the air conditioning in the studio now turned off ready for filming, and the lights switched on, it was hot, confined and claustrophobic! The risks with a situation like this are the cast and crew feeling unwell as well as perspiration affecting make-up and clothing.
I’m advising the cast on what's happening and working with them until we can get a rhythm going. I take on the clapperboard (normally the 2nd AC’s role) as it just makes sense.
Short breaks and hard work but it’s getting late and there’s so much to do. I talk with the cast to see if a second day of filming is possible, but it’s not, so we need to press on with a balance of safety, wellbeing and productive filming.
Once we had caught up, there was massive relief, and I then took on the role of the DIT (Digital Imaging Technician), transferring rushes and saving them in three different locations, including uploading them to our server.
That’s a wrap! I can hear the cheer from my desk and then the last card arrives for me to download.
I drop the actresses home; it’s been a long and tough filming day but, we did it! All the scenes were filmed, no arguments, and lots of teamwork: we overcame any difficulties and the day went well.
I’m home, shattered, and it’s 9:30 pm, but I can’t help but start looking at the footage and adding the custom Arri LUT that I’ve been working on! The following photos are from the actual colourised footage and I’m over the moon with the results:
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