While I'm sure each person in the crew will go into their own pre-production and work on this film, I think it's still important to add my thoughts (because I love adding my thoughts). Each person in this group did incredible work and gave their all into every aspect of this production and the smoothness of the shoot is not just down to the incredible Lucy Gilmour and her team of PAs, but also down to each person running their department cleanly and efficiently. Each and every person who came onto the set helped us out so much, bringing hands, expertise and good vibes. It really was a dream of a shoot, which unfortunately I couldn't see at the time. I had tunnel vision for a week straight and only now am I able to see it for what is was.
There were some initial problems when arriving on set for day 1. First of all, my Gaffer had to pull out of the first day of shooting as she got paid work elsewhere, this was the day before filming so I didn't have time to find a proper replacement. But I had my lighting plans, I knew what I was doing and I had three people (Cal, Kushal and Sam) to help me get the job done.
The idea behind the lighting in the changing room was to create these pockets of hard spotlights from above that would pick out our main characters and add depth in the scene. Will comes in and is told to sit under a spotlight as he's introduced. Aaron is also picked out by a spotlight, as well as another couple of the supporting cast. One thing I really quite like about Andrew's performance (the actor playing Aaron) was his posture - constantly leant forward, both towards the coach and out of the hard spotlight, so it hit the back of his neck and shoulders rather than his face. I do like the way the actors got to play within the light, moving in and out of these spotlights. Collaborating with James and Ben about Graham's (the coach's) costume, lead us towards having him wear a cap so that during all these top-down lighting set-ups, his eyes are slightly in shadow, making him seem more threatening and imposing.
The set-up was fine, didn't take too long, but the issue came when trying to frame up. We weren't doing a rehearsal for the first take so as to get Stanley (Will's actor) reacting to entering a room with all the extras for the first time. At that point, seeing Stanley in the frame instead of a stand-in, I realised his posture, height and position on the bench was quite different and he didn't have a precise mark to hit and therefore the lighting looked a bit strange. I should have erred on the side of caution and had the spotlight come from further back, but as Stanley was sitting mostly with his back against the wall, I kept getting the hard spotlight hitting his nose, creating a kind of awkward lighting that isn't flattering or that interesting. I should've moved the light after the first take. However, part of me kind of likes the awkward nose light, it makes Will seem even more out of place and uncomfortable - but that's me trying to dodge criticism, it's just some bad lighting that I should've taken the time to fix.
In the afternoon, we shot scene 10, where everyone comes back in to the changing room after the training session. I changed the lights around slightly for this scene, so that they were roughly in the same place, but creating more contrast through their placement and brightness. Moving the panel light so it wasn't spreading light down onto one side of Will's face let him brood in the darkness. This is where the lack of plugs became an issue as the Scorpion lights we were using for the spotlights were running out of battery, so I had to bump up the output of a light I had bouncing in from the corner, which didn't look too out of place, but also didn't have the same intense feeling as the spotlight.
It was a very stressful first day, between shooting three scenes, the tenuous battery life and the loss of a team member, it was all a bit of a blur and I left feeling quite unhappy with it all. I wasn't able to see what Cal was shooting during the day, so needed to put full trust in him, which I also found stressful, despite the fact that Cal is very capable. Thank god for the shooting schedule's days off. On the day off, I was able to go over the rushes with Ben and Jake, plan how we could improve our practice for the next days of shooting. The rushes were a lot better than I thought and there seemed to be more than enough for Jake to work with.
This one felt good. I was very much in love with the character that James created through his production design. All the details felt very real and I could see the boy at the centre of the film. I had a very simple set-up for this day, mainly using natural light, diffused and bounced in, for a naturalistic, vaguely romantic/hopeful feel. Before Will heads off to the training session, he packs his bag and looks around his room and I was really enjoying finding these frames of the details of his room, with Will dirtying the foreground, playing around with the soft-focus. I also had a practical light picking up some items on Will's desk, mainly his goalie gloves, with a warm light, giving them more of a significance in the scene. So, I tried out some different wattage bulbs, and an LED one with frosted glass for a softer source.
Then for the final scene, where Will comes back to his bedroom after the session, I was trying to emulate streetlighting, so spent a long time blacking out the windows in a way that still let me light from outside with a large light with a full CTO gel. Lots of rigging, but a fun lil exercise, and I was very happy with the final result. I shot it at a normal exposure, but planned to bring it down in post, so most of the frame was shadow, but there wasn't any unwanted noise.
It was nice to have a day off and then a far more low-key and controllable day where I could get back to basics and build my confidence back up before the pitch days. One actor, one camera, one location and a couple lights. A far cry from the rest of the shoot.
The pitch days presented us with a set of difficulties. The main issue was the time pressure. We had the location from 3-10pm for 3 days, needing to cover 7 pages of material, however, the night-time setting meant we could only start shooting at 7pm and in order to get off the location at 10pm sharp, we would have to be packing up at 21:30, making just 2 and a half hours of shooting time per day. This is where the dual camera set up really helped, ensuring we could get enough coverage of every scene. This first day was a bit of a nightmare as we had to shoot the walkout where we would see the whole pitch, so there couldn't be anything out on the pitch set up before the sun dropped. On top of this, we had a constant spitting rain throughout the evening, meaning we had to wrap all of our equipment to keep the rain off. I spent a lot of this day inside a plastic bag, so communication wasn't the smoothest.
Niamh, my gaffer was back for this day which meant we could test out our plans together and see what could be improved. Again, starting with the walkout meant we couldn't test the lighting too extensively in our prep time. This meant that when we were setting up for the first scene on the pitch proper, we had to take some time working out where to put lights and how to control the floodlights. The first training scenes are definitely the roughest in terms of lighting. We shot chronologically as we hoped the rain would stop at some point and we didn't want to have inconsistencies within scenes. I think you can see in the final film the way that the lighting improves throughout the pitch scenes. The stretching scene is massively underexposed as I was wary of hotspots as I was having to light a large area so I kept the light quite far back and diffused. Then, in the high knees drill, I added in more light as we weren't filming in as wide of an angle, so didn't need to hide the lights as much. This scene is then a little overexposed on the skin, which is exacerbated by the movement close and away from the lights, making for an inconsistent exposure and a bit of a tell that there's a light just off screen. I would like to think I would be able to light these scenes properly if I wasn't so stressed for time and could see the frames before they were shot.
The final scene of the day, where Graham tells Aaron off for bullying Will in a drill, was the first time we got something properly good in the can. The actors were in quite locked-off positions, not moving too much and were therefore easier to light.
The pitch scenes became a balancing act of trying to add shape to the floodlighting through diffusing or bouncing and adding in our own battery-powered lights. I felt a bit like shooting with natural light, just ugly natural light that was coming in from every angle at different colour temperatures and tints. The best combination we found was diffusing the floodlight behind camera, making the far-side light our key and then filling in on the camera-side with backlights that hit one actor before spilling out onto the other.
We had another day off as we couldn't book the pitch. We used it to have a meeting about what we could improve on, especially in regards to communication. We'd also had to move the schedule around throughout the shoot, so had to discuss these changes all together. We also spent some time looking at more rushes, where we realised we would need to reshoot the walk out as we shot it too early in the evening for it to match the rest of the scene. One more thing to get in our extremely limited time.
This day started off great, we got in and got set up quickly and efficiently. Our first shot of the day was a scene with extremely simple blocking and no camera movement which covered a page of the script. It was a shot I was very excited for, a moment of light amongst the intense atmosphere. The feeling of distance and observation took on a different tone in this scene, for me. Instead of highlighting how the audience is unable to help the situation, it instead has us unable to intrude on a quiet little moment, happening on the outskirts of this world, where Will tries to befriend Aaron. I'd rented out a lens for the film, a 70-200mm lens, which allowed us to accentuate this feeling as the 110mm on the FS7 wasn't quite doing enough to get the desired feeling. Such an important shot and scene was great to get first thing as we had all the time in the world to set up lights and blocking and then as soon as the sky got dark enough, we shot it. It was a softly-lit, quite warm wee shot. We clamped a small light onto the fence above the actors to act as a hairlight and then filled in with some diffused light and then had a harder, brighter source coming in over Aaron's shoulder to pick him out from the fence a bit better. This was one of a couple scenes we had designed to play out in a single shot, however, you don't waste the talents of Eva Magdic Govedarica. She fed into the framing of the main shot, then found a different reverse that wasn't storyboarded so Jake had more choice in the edit. Here's some BTS of the setup:
Our next scene was a big one as well, with a full drill going on, with four different lines of action. We managed to sneak a light in to pick out the goalies nicely and again, diffused the floodlight behind camera. For a lot of this scene, the lighting on the goalkeepers is quite nice, however, when they switch positions, again there is the issue that you can sense the light just off camera, due to an inconsistent exposure from having the light too close. Most of this scene is quite nice, I think, I also had another light clamped above Graham at the side-line to pick them out when Graham gives Aaron a talking to. This was a hard, almost spotted source, which gives nice clear contrast on our characters. Again, this can be noticed when Graham moves off his mark that the light disappears quickly, betraying the fact it is not from the floodlights. Again, while these issues are there, I'm mostly happy with this scene's lighting. The framing can be a little dull when shooting the goalies as the frames are a pretty flat as there's nothing in the background or foreground and due to shooting on a 5-a-side pitch, the goals are a bit of an awkward height that neither frames our characters nor leads our eye into them. Everything else I think is compositionally quite strong, simple, but strong. I like having the players moving in the foreground while we watch Aaron get shouted at, as if it's not a big deal at all and is also something on the periphery.
Things did slip at the end as we were massively running out of time to film the second water-break scene. Ben wanted the scene to continue directly on from the previous scene without a cut, so we would track with Will as he went over to talk to Aaron. It was a scene that was constantly getting changed in the script and I think we never really knew what to do with it, what the beat should be. In the end, the lighting is fine, but the framing and composition is in a bizarre no-man's-land where it feels like it's not really focusing on anything. This is something we should've blocked out early in the day while it was still light as this scene didn't really work for anyone, I don't think, where Rosie couldn't get clean sound and I didn't really have a good frame to hit as the actors were moving where they wanted. But alas, it's a very small part of the film and what we got was fine? I guess? it's just not as impactful as I wanted it to be. We were right up to the wire in terms of time, very much risking pissing off the location so once again, I left feeling not great about what we'd got in that last half hour.
For our final day, both my Gaffer and 1st AC had to drop out, meaning it was Eva, Sam and I against 4 scenes. However, strangely, this was the smoothest day in terms of set-ups and shooting speed. It really is great working with people in your team that you love and respect, because we were all pitching in to craft the lighting and framings. I found myself leaning on Eva quite a lot on this last day as I had no gaffer, so was constantly asking her opinion on our set-ups. This was the day I was by far happiest with in terms of the quality of images shot. We did the arrival scene and the walk-away from the club, both scenes that were also designed as single shots, with Eva finding different angles to get more coverage. Both of these turned out exactly how I had imagined them, with the 200mm lens again doing bits. We had some nice colour contrast with the blue evening light and the warm tungsten lights running down the fence and the same at night, with the white floodlights and the warm fence-lights. One thing that was difficult was trying to colour match our light to the floodlights, so there's a bizarre change in colour temperature when shadow falls over Malcolm's face, but overall, I was incredibly happy with these frames and loved what Eva found for the walk-away.
We then re-shot the walk-out and while I wasn't as happy with the camera movement and the people playing in the background this time don't suit quite as well, it was the right choice and we got something pretty okay. The walkout shot was one of my favourites in my head. I was picturing a sense of scale on the level of Dune 2, just football and floodlights instead of explosions and dunes and stuff. I think it has some of what we imagined and there were definitely ones from the first time shooting that did live up to it, but overall, it doesn't entirely hit you in the gut the way it should have. We then also shot a football game, no shots planned, just shooting a football game and finding the emotion in it. We clamped a light in the cage behind the goals so it could backlight Will without getting knocked off by a stray ball and then filled in with a Nanlite +diffusion on Will's near side and the Aputure + diffusion on Aaron's near side. Eva and I just played around for about 20-minutes trying to find moments where Will was isolated, Aaron was overwhelmed and Graham was dictating the plays. All the extras were upset we weren't focusing on their "tekkers", but we had bigger fish to fry. I was very happy with the frames we both found and yeah, I left feeling very happy on this last day.
Overall, I think that there's lots of lighting and camera imperfections or just moments where a bit more time and preparation and rehearsal would have greatly improved the image, but still, I am very happy with how the team reacted to the many challenges that this shoot had to offer. I felt that I had mostly managed to live up to what Ben had in his head and I was very excited to see what Jake could do with all the material we shot. I haven't mentioned anything about all the inserts Eva and I were constantly grabbing of the environment and of different details whenever we could to give a bit of texture. But yeah, I'm proud of my and my team's work on this film. When presented with a new direction, we managed to adapt to it and planned it out as much as possible and rolled with the run and gun stuff pretty well.
I don't think the film is necessarily "good-looking", whatever the fuck that means, but I do think it's consistent in it's tone and perspective and seeing it all together now, I'm confident that we made the right call for this film's visuals. The imagery is perhaps a little factual sometimes, but there's still plenty of emotive images throughout the film. My favourites include Will's close up during the final football game, where he is set out stark from the dark background, all alone. There's also the holding of the gloves between two grazed knees at the end and of course, the long shots that start and end the film. The camerawork also often really helps to sell the emotions - I like the bump zooms that sandwich the scene where Aaron is bullying Will. First in to add intensity to Aaron's vicious kicks and then out once Graham puts him in check. The drifting focus was something we wanted in the visuals, to give that rough and ready feel and while sometimes they occur at inopportune moments, there's a couple drifts I really like. In the water break scene, there's a drift as Will asks about what Aaron does outside of football, as if we're looking for something else to focus on. The juddery focus on Graham's single in the changing room is great as well, as it accentuates his anger and movement in and out as he delivers his team talk (big ups Cal White who operated that shot). I also think the 90 degree shutter works really well throughout the training session, making the start and end feel different subconsciously from the rest of the film.
I think the main thing that I have taken away from shooting Keeper and from my practical study this last year is a better ability to collaborate, trust and adapt. Having worked on St Catherine's earlier in the term as a gaffer and then having a larger team than I've ever helmed before for this shoot, has really helped me to get out of my own head when it comes to my practice. In the past, I've been a bit of a total dick a lot of the time when it comes to collaboration - untrusting and poor at communicating. Job well done, do it yourself kind of mentality, which is just shite - for the film, myself and most importantly other people who just want to work together to make something good. Working with Kushal these past couple years has taught me how to delegate and rely on others, which has then grown to me needing him to approve of the overall work that he is contributing to. Working with Katie on St Catherine's was also a great experience as she liked what I did (I crave approval) and I helped solve problems and it was entirely in service of her and the final film, both of which I really believe in, so there was no opportunity for my ego to get the better of me. And finally, this film meant so much to me (and my ego), I wanted it to be good, so badly, spent so long stressing about it and wondering if I had the knowledge, skill or temperament to pull it off. I needn't have worried because with the team that I was so lucky to have with me, we were able to do it. We can create great stuff together! Each shot in the film relies on the collective knowledge, skill and temperament of the Keeper camera/lighting team. Bring on non-hierarchical filmmaking practice (big ups the Film Cult).
It was tough sometimes to see if it was going to work at all, but trust in my collaborators and the ability to adapt to the needs of the film was the only answer. I think I am now more able to adapt to different kinds of stories and shoot them in a way that is focused on the emotion and the tone of the film.
Hoping to keep making movies like this, with people like these.
"Alex, you can't put a light there, they're kicking balls in that direction"
