Before shooting The Echo I did a lot of prep work, including storyboarding the film. Below is a small selection of storyboard frames and their comparative stills from the final film. You can see where I stuck to the storyboard and where in some cases it was necessary to alter the original concept.

The storyboard frames were created in Frameforge Studio 3D, which is a great bit of software. It has a bit of a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, it can be a really useful tool for planning your shots out in advance. The main advantage of it is that it is photographically accurate. You can set a lens, a precise camera height etc and what you see is exactly what you would get.

I had to knock up a very basic version of the train station in order to plan the shots in Frameforge, but it didn’t take too long and since it was for me only, I didn’t worry about it being too pretty.

The purpose of the storyboard was not as a document to follow religiously, but as a guide to help out when things got tough on the day. The Echo is a simple film and shot even more simply – but even so, when you’re trying to get 15 mins in one day it really helps to have planned ahead. If you don’t storyboard, I would at the very least have a good shot list to keep you on the straight and narrow.

Some shots were added on the day. The front on shot under the sign for Folkestone Harbour was the biggest addition. It was just too good to miss and has become the ‘poster’ image for the film. We actually left some kit in the shot, it was very wide and we just didn’t notice it. That was painted out in post.

Some shots were dropped, the biggest being the jib shots. I had planned a couple of jib shots – but as time was running out they dropped off the list. This seemed like a sensible thing to do at the time, but I regret it. It would have added some extra production value to the film. More importantly, I neglected to put something simpler in place of one of the main jib shots that would have acted as a nice master for part of the scene. It meant that I had greatly reduced options when it came to editing. You live and learn.

One of the greatest revelations on the day was how possible it was to pull off dolly shots with the ‘Wally Dolly‘. If I had known that this simple dolly would be quite so effective and so fast to set up I would have used it more. I was amazed at how quick it was from unpacking to tracking.

Another consideration of course was that moving the camera meant having to follow focus. The film was shot using the Letus Extreme 35mm DOF adapter, which meant that focusing was much more critical – and since we were going for a shallow depth of field look, the margin for error was far greater. When I set the film up and got Phil Bloom on board to DP, we had talked about whether or not he wanted a focus puller. He decided against it. I think this is because his background was ENG/News and he is capable of pulling his own focus. I know that since then he would never contemplate it again!

He actually made a great job of pulling focus of the barrel of the lens – including the shot where we track into Carlisle. It took a few attempts and I would not have tried this on other moments where it might have got in the way of performance. I would hate to have to go over and over again and lose a great performance for the sake of trying to get focus.

I’m certain that whatever I shoot next with Phil, he will at the very least use a follow focus, and would probably consider a focus puller/AC.