I recently got the chance to work on the BFI young filmmakers thriller competition for filmmakers aged 16-25. I was approached by a team of young filmmakers with an idea already in their heads. Zane (writer, director and actor) wanted to create this film that challenged the views that western media has put on society about Muslims. We created this powerful short that I will not spoil but really makes you feel guilty as a viewer if it makes you ‘think’ a certain way.
DOP of Remnants, My Next Short Film Project!
BTS Photography by Ai Narapol
During the end of my university degree, while I was shooting Kilig, I had been contacted by two very lovely people. Jakob Barnes from Jumpcut Studios and Chris Boyd an up and coming writer and director with a keen interest in horror films. They both had seen my style of filmmaking and wanted to get in touch to have me on board Chris’s latest story, remnants. I thought it was crazy at first, I’ve never been in a position where I would DOP a short that wasn’t a student project. There would be a lot of responsibility on my shoulders, but I felt like after shooting Kilig, I have what it takes.
BTS Photography by Ai Narapol
Remnants is a horror film set in the modern era. We follow Adrian, a teacher at a reservoir. He then finds a walker, one with a strange act to them and pursues them. Over the course of the film, we find to realise that the walker is the ghostly figure of someone Adrian knows very well…
After many discussions with Chris, I got a great idea of what the films visual style was. Chris and I both went to the location to scout and find places where we could shoot, I then boarded the film on CineTracer.
One of the main challenges we had was the time constraints. We were shooting a 10 page script in two days. This involved multiple scene changes, actors, possible weather disruptions, etc. I ended up boarding 43 shots on the first day and 47 shots on the second day. I know this sounds crazy, but both the director and I knew going into this project, we had to take on a guerilla-style approach to shooting. This meant a simple rig, easy to execute shots and shooting what we need as I could come back at anytime without the actors and shoot pick ups of landscapes, etc.
A new thing that I’ve never done is shoot in water. Like, actually put my camera underwater. This was scary considering the price point of my S1H and it being all that I’ve ever worked for but I decided, hey let’s trust this £80 glorified-sandwich bag from Dicapac and see what happens. It worked surprisingly well! One thing to note, the UV filter of the Dicapac seems to clash with any filters used on the lens, creating a weird rainbow effect on reflective surfaces, such as the water we were shooting in.
BTS Photography by Ai Narapol
To summarize, this was a freaking epic shoot. Everyone on set were so on ball with the project, the actors were fantastic, all the crew nailed their roles and I am so grateful for this opportunity. I really look forward to seeing how Katie pieces this together in the edit (it’ll then be shipped to me for the colour grade!)
Credits:
Cast:
Yara | Emma Leah Golding
Adrian | Simon Weir
Catherine | Rayyah McCaul
Crew:
Producer | Jakob Barnes
Director | Chris Boyd
DOP | Darshan Gajjar
Sound | Marcus Anuzis
AD | Nick Deal
AC | Tarik Skalli
Production Executive | Tom Sheffield
Make-Up Design | Isabella Percival
BTS & Unit Photography | Ai Narapol
Editor | Katie Senior
Promoting a Good Cause with Film, Filming with Sheffield City Contact Tracers.
I am happy to announce that I am now part of the filmmaking team at SCCT (Sheffield City Contact Tracers). On the team, I will be working as their director of photography for their second episode, check out their first one if you haven’t already. Coming on as the DOP, I wanted to get under the skin and know all about the project to inform my decisions when behind the camera.
The project, albeit a simple one, was a sensitive one. In this episode, we plan to get under the topic of mental health and how it has affected people during the pandemic. Above are a few stills of the first day of shooting. We shot with Mental Mate, which is a charity that not only provides boxing lessons to help with mental health, but people to talk to. Everyone at Mental Mate has/is going through something and are all about talking about it! I cannot wait to share what we have done in the fullest, video form!