Chess Film Pre-Production: The Location

 Choosing Our Location

On this day, we chose where we were going to film our chess film. My group in general wanted an area in the back to be farther from other groups. We also wanted a more unique location that could possibly play into the comedic aspect of our film such as filming with the chicken coop in frame or with lots of vegetation. It would have added to the overall randomness of the film and the idea of denying the professional setting one would expect from a chess match. 

First location that our group looked at.

As the editor, I wanted to have a location that was mostly static. I wanted the least amount of movement possible from the background so that the film would have a consistent timeline without any discrepancies. This would be an issue however a when doing a reverse shot of our location you would be able to see other groups filming and even with the mid shots of our location, there would be possible movement from people in the garden and from moving branches moving in the background. When brought to the group's attention we scouted a different location where the background would have been very bare but consistent. 

As the editor I wanted a vastly different thing from the rest of the group as I thought it would have benefitted the film more from an editing perspective. Shots would line up better and make more sense as the background wasn't constantly shifting like in the second location. It had no real way for vast changes to be made between takes so it would have been easier to put together in the editing room. But, the first location looked better and would have been better for what we wanted to capture.

Far away shot of the second location our group looked at.

We ultimately went with the first location. It would have added to the film unlike the second location which took away from the tone/mood in our opinion. It would have been easier for the editor to go with the barer location but it would have been a decision that made the film less visually appealing. 

It was this moment I realized that the decisions made weren't for the ease of our workload but instead for the creation of an appealing film. I learned that it was going to be up to me to come up with possible solutions to maintain the film's continuity. I couldn't just choose a setting that would serve easiest to me cause it meant less work. It wasn't going to be an easy ride in the editing room, and I would have to pay close attention to what changes in between the takes we shoot. I would have to be ready to call out to  any changes to the rest of the crew to see what we could do different, such as different angles or focus types. I need to make sure that we had a clear sequence of events happening and not a montage of loosely related videos. This included possibly cropping some sections out or adding blur to keep the viewer focused on what needed to be focused on. It also meant I might have to put together shots that make more sense together than just the best looking shots we had. I might not be able to just use the best take every time but instead the takes that work best together.