Behind the scenes of our Christmas Advert - PART 3

Chris Porter - Director

After two long days with late finishes, day 3 was upon us before we knew it and was shaping up to be our most ‘congested’ day. It was the day we had scheduled to shoot the majority of our in transit and delivery scenes - this would mean moving many many times throughout the day for sometimes just one shot. Not a big deal right? Well, ordinarily no it wouldn't be! In fact, short one/two take set ups in single space set ups is usually the most relaxed of days - however we were up against the shortest of winter days, so the game off chasing the light was on the menu.

When doing short shoots which are only meant for one or two shots in the main film, it’s important to be mobile and fast to set up. We didn't;t have the luxury of turning up hours before and lighting the scene - so we leant heavily into natural light with minimal enhancement when possible. Reflectors were our friend throughout the day. These allowed us to bounce light into a subject when needed, but also act as a light blocker when needed if the sun was in a direction we didn't want it to be.

As with the previous two days, we had decided to shoot all material on a 35mm anamorphic lens - so this lack of lensing choose certainly aided in a swift ‘turn up, shoot and leave’ approach.

The beauty of the Sony FX3 during this whole project, meant that we could quickly derive when needed, strip down and smack it on the side of the van with a suction support system when needed, in relatively quick time frames.

See the full part 3 Behind the Scenes below: