This last week we continued to shoot our short film. I've found that it has been difficult to schedule times when everyone can get together to shoot. Our first day of shooting was rather difficult; one of our group members has training during class and couldn't be with us. The next day, a Friday, our actress had to leave town for the weekend so we were not able to film again until Sunday afternoon. After that, school kept everyone fairly busy so mid-week filming was unlikely, coupled with the fact that our other actor/group member and our camerawoman was occupied whenever our actress was free. Our actress also left town the next weekend, as did the our other actor/group member. At times, it was utter chaos trying to get all the puppies into one basket. It seemed that we were always going in separate directions. I can only imagine the difficulty a legitimate film crew must face when trying to organize a feature length film (though having actors and a crew who are not students must help infinitely).
Aside from the scheduling chaos, our shoots went fairly well. Our camerawoman was a bit unsure of what to get and how to get it (as I am sure we all were) but--with a little advice from some film majors that I know--we figured it out splendidly. I think we got some nice shots that will work nicely in post. There was a sticky situation with one of our scenes that involved a car crash, though. The scene goes that our actor, played by Wilson, is crossing the street and looking at his iPod when he is struck by a car. I took over the camera for a bit because--as the editor--there were a few shots that I wanted to get that were difficult to describe. I got a really nice through-the-driver-eyes shot that I think will look amazing. After he is hit by the car, there is a shot of a crowd gathered around the body in the middle of the street. I had to ask the police for permission to shoot there (which they were understandably skeptical of) and even after that, a squad car stopped to ask if we were done (after a policeman asked us that, we kind of had to be). People kept stopping in passing cars to ask if Wilson was okay and we had to constantly assure them that, yes, he was fine, we are just filming, no, please don't call 911. I also had to worry about fiction becoming reality--I had to make sure none of the extras or myself were hit by a passing car!
Last Sunday we filmed a scene in front of Starbucks that was kind of difficult to get, too. Our camerawoman was gone and the rest of us had little to no experience, so I had to rely on my film major friend to give us a quick intro into the fine art of camera-slinging. The role of cameraman rotated between me, Clint, and the film major (though him as little as possible). However, we got a nice rack focus out of that afternoon.
I also missed an afternoon of filming due to work and a foot injury that kept me on crutches for most of the week. I have not seen the footage yet, but I am sure that everything will look wonderful. We are shooting one last bit a dialogue today and then shooting will be a wrap. After that, it is up to Jessica and myself to pull the film together. I will be doing footage editing and she will be contributing to sound editing.
Aside from the scheduling chaos, our shoots went fairly well. Our camerawoman was a bit unsure of what to get and how to get it (as I am sure we all were) but--with a little advice from some film majors that I know--we figured it out splendidly. I think we got some nice shots that will work nicely in post. There was a sticky situation with one of our scenes that involved a car crash, though. The scene goes that our actor, played by Wilson, is crossing the street and looking at his iPod when he is struck by a car. I took over the camera for a bit because--as the editor--there were a few shots that I wanted to get that were difficult to describe. I got a really nice through-the-driver-eyes shot that I think will look amazing. After he is hit by the car, there is a shot of a crowd gathered around the body in the middle of the street. I had to ask the police for permission to shoot there (which they were understandably skeptical of) and even after that, a squad car stopped to ask if we were done (after a policeman asked us that, we kind of had to be). People kept stopping in passing cars to ask if Wilson was okay and we had to constantly assure them that, yes, he was fine, we are just filming, no, please don't call 911. I also had to worry about fiction becoming reality--I had to make sure none of the extras or myself were hit by a passing car!
Last Sunday we filmed a scene in front of Starbucks that was kind of difficult to get, too. Our camerawoman was gone and the rest of us had little to no experience, so I had to rely on my film major friend to give us a quick intro into the fine art of camera-slinging. The role of cameraman rotated between me, Clint, and the film major (though him as little as possible). However, we got a nice rack focus out of that afternoon.
I also missed an afternoon of filming due to work and a foot injury that kept me on crutches for most of the week. I have not seen the footage yet, but I am sure that everything will look wonderful. We are shooting one last bit a dialogue today and then shooting will be a wrap. After that, it is up to Jessica and myself to pull the film together. I will be doing footage editing and she will be contributing to sound editing.
Can't wait to see that rack focus!
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