Production Blog: Finally Filming

    Hello! Yesterday was a momentous occasion, my team and I were finally able to convene and film. We left together after school and I rode with one of my teammates to the other's house. After eating a hearty chicken sandwich, we were on our way to our filming location. Once we arrived at the home we would be filming at, we immediately set up and prepared to shoot. I had gathered what I believed to be all of the necessary props, but upon taking stock of what we had collected, we realized that we were short on a few items, likely due in part to oversight, but primarily as a result of the excitement we had felt about finally being able to begin. Since one of the props we had forgotten to acquire was the pair of glasses that our primary subject wears and interacts with at the very start of the film, which we had intended to record yesterday, we had to resort to filming the bathroom sequence. Before anything else, we ensured that our primary subject was dressed in an informal, pajama looking outfit (impeccable taste in terms of the T-shirt, I must say), and that the bathroom was properly set up for us to film, removing miscellaneous objects. We had originally planned to have a medium full shot frame our subject while they got ready in front of their mirror, but after re-evaluating the dimensions of the mirror inside of the room, we determined that said approach would not be plausible. As one does when faced with an unexpected challenge, I adapted to the situation. As a result, I nominated that we settle on an angled medium close-up shot, which would ensure that the camera remained out of view of the mirror and that the necessary elements, particularly the alcohol flask, remained in the shot. In order to sell the idea that the primary subject was a messy individual without detracting attention away from her, I suggested we find a way to make the mirror seem dirtier. In response, our main actress spit some water (mixed with toothpaste) onto it. As we began to film, we realized that to match the feeling of a quick, yet monotonous morning routine, we would need to have a quicker cut. To do so, I suggested we incorporate an additional, seamless transition into the scene, which one of my groupmates expanded on, by stating that a quick cut should occur between the toothbrushing and the drinking of "alcohol" from the flask. In an effort to make the scene look uninterrupted as a result of the cut, we took a long, continuous shot of the entire sequence. When I edit said scene, I plan to splice together during an upcoming editing session. Filming ended up taking us a total of eleven shots, but we got it right! There were times where I was starting to get a little but frustrated because of how tedious it had become trying to obtain the right shot, but the perfectionist in me couldn't help but be elated once we finally achieved it. Obviously since we filmed after school on a weekday, that meant that my team and I were running on limited time, but I felt as though we accomplished a decent amount that will set us up for our next filming session.

Here's a still from the scene we filmed yesterday! 

As we get closer and closer to the deadline, I can vouch for my team when I say that we are definitely feeling the pressure. As Ke$ha puts it, I'm really seeing that "tick-tock on the clock(!)" (2009) as our time winds down!