Tom Downsborough Set Ready Portfolio
In Your Shadows
Boom Operator
Day 1 was shot entirely in the bedroom with one of the actors in bed. We put a mic under the pillow, and I was primarily following Lara as she was getting ready for her days. Other than a few wide shots, it was a good start to the film.
The morning of day 2, I was still in the bedroom. The first 2 scenes were pretty easy, but scene 3 started with a shot that I could only just fit the boom above the frame. The final scene of the day was a time-lapse sequence set over the course of the day. First, Lara walks in and makes coffee before leaving for the day and then returning during sunset. Rather than holding a boom for the whole long shot, we set the boom up on a stand so I wouldn’t need to hold it the whole time.
Day 3 was a night shoot starting at 1 pm. There were some basic scenes we shot in the kitchen, but the main part of the day was scene 10, where James attacks Lara. There was a lot of action in the scene and the camera was handheld and being moved around. The scene ended up being a difficult but fun dance between the camera op, actors, and me.
Day 4 was pretty normal, just finishing some of the scenes, including a short scene in a bathroom where Hailey (the 2nd sound assist) and I were booming from opposite sides of the room to avoid the mirror. after that we had too packup the sound stuff in order to use it on the next film
Audio Examples
Howl at the moon
Production Runner
On Howl at the moon I was a production runner. On the first day, I had to take the actors from their homes to the set. After that, I was helping various departments move stuff and then setting up gazebos. at one point went to the shops to get ham and cheese and then during lunch, I was watching the set. I stand around set for awhile afterwards and then went back to unit before throwing up twice ending the day early.
I was at home sick for the next 2 days
On the 4th day of shooting, it was really wet. We only got one shot done, but it was a very complicated moving shot. I spent the morning with an umbrella over the camera, then the rain got worse, so we had to hold set till after lunch to deal with the rain. Whilst standing around, I got sent on a run to get the largest 12-dollar snacks I could. I then went back to set and was standing around the corner with an actor to inform him when he needed to enter the shot. Then, for the last hour, I was helping out the grips clean the very dirty apple boxes and loading the truck.
the final day was quite busy, I was following the director acting as his radio for the morning and then helped pack up unit in the afternoon and the general set. I ended up with all the cleaning supplies and chairs in my car to bring to set the next day
Future Proof
Production Runner/Unit Assist
Unlike the other films Futureproof was shot across 4 locations meaning almost every day was at a new location. day 1 was at a beach where other than helping setup I talked to the public and got them to avoid the set. we then had to move all the equipment too the house we were filming at which I took the chairs and a few other things too
Day 2 was all at the house, I went on several run that day to get supplies and at one point had to go back to ecu to return a smoke machine that wasn’t working.
Day 3 the unit manager wasn’t there so I ended up taking over his role and was in charge of drinks and snacks, I think I ended up making about 20 toasties that day. it was the day of our big party scene so there was about 20 extras on top of the 40 person crew. we then packed out of the house to film at ABC studios the next day.
Day 4 was first at ABC studios filming an exterior. the unit manager was back but I was still organising alot of the unit stuff. we then headed too ECU to unload all the gear from the truck and prep for the final day in the ECU Studio.
Day 5 was pretty chill for me, people going in and out of set was very restricted due too the smoke machine being used soo I just stayed at unit base with a radio in helping out wherever required. at one point I had to go to nandos to change our catering booking and then later went with the producer to get the nandos and set it up for catering. the scenes wrapped before lunch and then after lunch it was just us checking over the gear and packing it away.