Shooting Day!

Today was my first day and hopefully only day of shooting. At the beginning of this week, I was hoping that I would be able to start shooting normally but as you could see in my last blog, that’s not what happened. Long story short all of my previous actors Canceled and we were not able to help so I had to call four people from Latinos in action to help me. I was able to get a few people to help me.

Today was a very stressful day full of unfortunate events. First of all one of my actors had to do a rehearsal for LIA but when we were told that we could leave the head dancer did not let us leave, which caused us to lose a lot of daylight and time For the film. Eventually, we finally could leave, and we went back to my house to begin filming.

Filming was a fun but interesting process. The only downside is that a few shots were a bit rushed because one of my actors had practice later. But for the most part, most shots looked very good and the acting was pretty decent. I will be looking over the shots tomorrow and Saturday so hopefully they look good if they do not me and my actors may have to reshoot, but hopefully, that is not the case.

For a few of the shots, I had to improvise or add a few things so that it would flow better or make more sense. For example, the beginning of my film, was supposed to be an argument, and it still is, but since my actors were not able to stay composed for lots of the arguments, my idea was to use fragments of the good parts and put cross dissolves between them so that it looks like they have been arguing for a while. After that, I will probably have to put crosses off onto the part where they actually start to argue. I also had to get a few different angles of shots so that it looks cohesive or so that I have different options for when I edit.

When it came to audio, I wasn’t fully sure what I was going to use because, at the beginning of the week, I was planning on using a microphone for my camera, but CBTV he’s on a trip so there’s not much equipment left for me to check out. Jim from Beacon TV is also at STN so I would not have been able to check out from him either. For the project, I ended up using my phone and for the audio, I used the audio captured from the video as well as a voice memo. Hopefully, the voice memo sounds good or I can try to use the new iPhone 16 feature on videos where it can focus on voices on a video and cancel out background noise.

Luckily, my friend lent me her light kit, and I was able to use blue for both scenes of the couple feeling upset after their fight. I use the blue color because blue usually represents sadness or a sort of mellow feeling. I felt that the blue for the shots made it feel more in-depth as well as look more aesthetically pleasing. Especially for one of the shots. It looks very nice, but it also gives the audience more feeling about what is happening.

The iPhone quality was very nice and helped capture lots of nature while I was outside as well as the emotions of the characters. I was able to check out a tripod, but sadly it was not as good as I expected because the height was not able to reach high-level or higher. So I ended up having to use my sister’s tripod, which is not stable, but it does the job. For lots of the shots, I would have to hold the tripod or try to put it in the position where it is still.

Shooting with a real couple was the right move. However, this couple was not able to get into an argument until the very end. Even though they were not able to get to that point for most of the shots, they eventually, or after various shots were able to make it look authentic. They are not actors or have not really acted in anything but they did pretty well and eventually adapted to what they needed to do.

For the most part, I think that the shooting went fairly well. I just wish that I had more time. If I had more time, I feel that the shots and the overall quality could’ve turned out a bit better but maybe through editing it will turn out a bit better. If not, then I might have to re-shoot but hopefully, I don’t have to because I don’t want to have to take more of my actor's time as well as my own to start editing the film opening. I will see how the shots turned out, hopefully they turned out well. Maybe I will be able to work my magic and fix it up or I will not need to put much magic into it because the shots will be good enough. I hope the film's opening turns out well.