10 Hour Film Day

 Hi blog! So the other day all 5 of us met up to film. We got there at 10am and left by 8pm so it was a very very long day. Would you believe me though if I said we still didn't finish? It doesn't really matter that we didn't completely finish EVERYTHING because we planned an extra day for reshoots and finishing up before we took down the set. 

    We started off the day with just Steph because I would say about 60% of the film only includes her, and Melia is included in about the other 40%. That being said, Este met up with us at around 4:30. When we were only filming Steph, it was a little slow at first because we all needed to get warmed up. Steph was of course acting and going over her lines between filming. We printed out physical scripts for both actors as well as for the production team so that we could write on them, mark any last minute changes, check off when stuff is done, highlight lines, etc. It was really helpful and probably one of the best things that we possibly could've done, since it also can help Renn when we get to editing, so they remember the order that we filmed in as well as any minor tweaks.

    Speaking of, Renn was the one behind the camera for most of the day because they wrote the script and helped Vick with the shotlist, so they had a clear vision of what they wanted to happen. Vicky was directing, calling "action", "cut", etc. It was really helpful because it made my job even easier, which was basically everything else. 

    
I was being gaffer, aka dealing with the lighting, designing and creating props, giving small notes to the actors, helping them get into character, getting content for the insta, picking out Dahlia's wardrobe from what Steph brought, rearranging the room as time passed in the plot, writing on the white board, etc. Of course, I was not doing this alone by any means, Renn and Vicly helped me out a ton, but I was essentially doing all of the stuff that affected the things that the viewer sees on screen from lighting to props. I will say, I absolutely loved the whole thing. It was such a blast and we all worked really well together the whole day.

    When Este got to the set, I think the part that took the longest to film would be the argument scene. I do think we should have asked the actors to be more rehearsed before they arrived, because when they got there, they didn't really have the scene memorized whatsoever. It all ended up working out, but we burned a solid hour and a half on that one 30 second long confrontation. I am really excited to see how it turned out thought because although our two actors never met prior to this project, their chemistry on camera is undeniable. While that whole scene was going on, I was painting the final pot that is shown at the end of our film.

    Since we are already on the topic, I will mention that the ending is the main part that we didn't end up getting to film on this long day, which was in a way great because it meant that Renn could start editing the beginning and middle before we met up again.

    This day was insanely long, but absolutely SO worth it. Not only did I learn so much about lighting from working with it first hand, but also I got to witness how a real production happens, because this years was so much more professional and well-thought-out than last year's, no offense to younger me. I also had a blast because everyone is so talented and I didn't have to stress about anything else that I wasn't responsible for, since we all played our roles really well.

    Filming was very productive, and I will talk a bit more in depth about what went right and wrong in my CCR later next week.