Shooting Process Blog Post

    Today, we finished our filming for our project. In all, I believe that it was a successful day of filming because we were accurately able to execute our objectives while increasing our original expectations from filming.

    In this picture we are preparing for our first scenes. With me and John Paul playing the main characters, Vanessa had to take charge of obtaining the footage as well as the audio. She managed to do this through the camera and audio equipment I borrowed from my CBTV class, which was a key asset in increasing the quality of our project. With its presence, Vanessa was able to detect audio issues as well as problems with lighting, making our footage better fit the image of what we wanted it to be. 

    When we initially arrived at the park, we saw that almost all of the tables were occupied, but we had managed to secure a table that was not only shaded but had also a pathway connected to it. This allowed us to maintain our previous storyboard plan without adjusting it to fit our current circumstances. 

    In the picture above, John Paul and Vanessa were discussing the dialogue scenes that were supposed to go on between me and him. We had been able to film our introductory and establishing scenes extremely well, doing multiple takes to ensure that we would have the best possible footage for our project. The problem was that when me and John Paul tried to go over our lines, we would either mess up or break character, which inevitably prolonged our filming process. Although the effects of this were ultimately limited, for the future, I will try to make sure to practice the lines for a script more to ensure that I can say it in the manner needed for the story.

    For the picture above, we were deciding how to film the later stages of the dialogue scenes, with the main buildup of our story occurring here. We were able to execute our ideas extremely well, and even though it had taken multiple takes to get right, I believe that it we were still able to obtain good footage. 

    The sequences after were focused on me because it revolved around Asher and his reactions to Austin's stealing of his work. So with the help of Vanessa and John Paul, we were able to make those sequences just as strong as our previous dialogue scenes.

    After my scenes, we then finished filming the climax of our opening, which was the murder of Austin by Asher. We decided to shoot the murder of Austin in one take, with Asher running from his table to stab Austin in the neck. Now, in the picture above, we would film our final scenes at the park, with the Hershey's strawberry meant to represent blood. We would use this resource by having a dedicated series of shots portraying me looking at Austin with the murder weapon and scene covered with blood.

    

    Then, for our final shots, we went back to my house where we would film our dedicated tracking shot. In this picture, we were deciding how we should organize my room in order to capture the character of Austin. We also debated on how we should capture the tracking shot, because it would involve me entering my house and having to close the door behind me. With Vanessa and John Paul following behind me, this would be an issue.  However, after a consistent amount of attempts, we had managed to find a pattern that correctly portrayed our ideas. This also fit our inspiration from the film "1917," which had made our project stronger by revolving around a central shot type for a major transitioning scene.

    In this picture, John Paul is pointing the camera at my face because it would be the transition between the park eye match and the eye match of Asher entering his house. This would not only transition our scenes in a secure manner, but also set up our tracking shot into Asher's house. Although this had taken a multitude of tries, we were able to accomplish our goals with the tracking shot, making for an extremely strong ending sequence.

    However, Vanessa brought up an interesting point that it would not be natural for all of the school supplies already be set up for Asher. So when Asher entered his room, we decided to then have an individual sequence focusing on his organization of his supplies. We believe that this made the whole opening stronger as a whole, with a narrative beginning to be build around Asher as the story progresses overall.

    Throughout the production, we also consistently checked our footage and our equipment to ensure we not only had the footage, but that it was of a high quality. In doing this, we managed to ultimately create a very secure series of shots, allowing for a strong stockpile of footage to use in our editing process for next week.