TEST SHOOT IN LONDON.

On Sunday 6th November we carried out a test shoot. Will Hanke, our brilliant DOP, Arij, my magnificent producer, and I travelled to my brother and sister-in-law (both actors) in West London.

I mapped out a scenario between two characters, a husband and wife, who have a meal together. I hoped to gain inspiration for how to shoot a particular dinner scene in Wedad which I have been labouring over; however, I didn’t feel the need to recreate the exact scene in question in my short film. Instead, I wanted to see how we might be able to adapt to the environment, rather than trying to have the environment or location adapt to our needs.

It got me thinking about how best to shoot this scene, given that we’ll have one camera only. We started with a wide shot during the test shoot, but this got me thinking that it would probably be better to start with a single shot, to capture the performance and facial expressions whilst they’re still fresh, especially as the dialogue will be unscripted and semi-improvised on the day.

What was also apparent is the importance of controlled lighting. We used natural lighting for the test shoot simply due to the flat we were shooting in not having curtains. For continuity, being able to control the lighting will be important.

Lastly, this is my first directing effort, and I am very conscious of wanting to communicate with my actors in such a way that my feedback is clear, constructive and helpful, but also to give the actors a sense of autonomy over their performance to hopefully achieve something naturalistic.

Nadeam and Sabira are particularly good (trained) actors, I found I did not need to provide them with many notes. As they were largely improvising, with every take, something new and interesting seemed to manifest, which I found thrilling.

As we went in for close-ups of their facial expressions, I quickly learned that every gesture seemed to magnify. As all the actors in my short, bar Nisrine Adam, will be non-professional actors (which I feel sure is the right decision, to evoke the cinema verité style), I will also be thinking of ways to help them adapt their performance for those close-ups during the shoot, to avoid falling into the realm of melodrama.

In short, what I wanted to say is, I am very excited - only two weeks to go before we head out to Morocco! :)

Elias Suhail x