Film: RANDWICK SCREEN & MEDIA STUDENTS 'GOING GLOBAL'

Guest blog by Director of Photography ... PAUL HOWARD

Day 4 - Begin pre production for our film, BIG APPLE DREAMING - camera & sound equipment is checked & technical rehearsals performed. Our team is organised and energetic, ready to tackle an ambitious shooting schedule.

In preparation for the production number and dance routine, our actors laid down their vocals for the musical track they will eventually lip sync to. The rest of us went to CNN for a studio tour.

New York is a centre for news production and TV news programmes and facilities don't come much bigger than this. CNN have 4 massive production studios and a number of smaller studios to facilitate live crosses into networks around the world. With up to 20 edit suites, turning around a news story in record time is what they do best. The studios are suitably equipped, with up to 6 cameras including a huge remote camera crane and a Steadicam. The students had the chance handle the latest in studio equipment and talk with staff, learning how news is captured, edited, and broadcast at CNN ... an invaluable experience.

Tomorrow is our first day on set and we've just been informed that we've lost our location, due in part to actor availability. If you've attempted a no budget student film in another country, you'll know the sinking feeling when all the balls hit the floor. So we have a new motto at Team Randwick...  "if there's no danger of it all falling apart, it's not an adventure"

At a pinch we might be able to rearrange our schedule and shoot at Central Park. It'll be tight, one of our lead American actors, Ashleigh Griffen, needs to wrap by 1.30pm, so we have to wrangle our team to location by 6am - good practice. Our biggest problem seems to be the weather forecast of a 10% chance of rain... hmm