Category: Production

As I discuss in my rough cut blog post, I really wanted to refilm at my school location. I wanted to refilm the part where my character is getting out of her car since I messed it up the first time. I also wanted to try some different camera angles of her running to class because I felt like it looked boring in my rough cut. However, I ran into a bit of a problem…

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MY ACTRESS HAD TO GET STITCHES. Six of them, actually. Right on her chin. I couldn’t even hide them. She was playing volleyball, dove for a ball at the same time as someone else, and busted her chin on the floor. And the worst part is I didn’t even think of the continuity errors until she was already changed and ready to act. So because of this, I was unable to film her walking in the hallways; the only shot I could get was her running out of her car. She made sure to hide her face from view while still making it look natural.

I’m not too disappointed that I didn’t get to try out different camera angles for the hallway scenes. I thought that part of my video was boring, but everyone else I asked said they weren’t bored by it and they quite liked the tracking shots I used. Their approval makes me feel more confident about what I have.

I learned a lot from this experience. It makes me think of how, on an actual movie set, if an actor/actress is injured the entire production process has to halt. This can put films months behind schedule and cost millions of dollars. This is something I knew before taking this class, but after having this experience myself I have gained a better understanding of the feelings of frustration that go along with it. Thankfully, my film does not actually have a $3.5 million dollar budget or a production and distribution studio depending on it.

Influences

For my project, I pulled a lot of inspiration from The Edge of Seventeen (2016) and Eighth Grade (2018). I did a lot of research on these films, including a shot by shot analysis for The Edge of Seventeen and an analysis of the Eighth Grade title sequence, so it makes sense I would heavily rely on them as influences. I’m glad I did extensive research before filming because if I hadn’t I wouldn’t have known where to start. It helped me a lot when deciding what shots to use or what kind of mise-en-scene elements I wanted to include. I also learned a lot about the filmmaking process by using these influences. Most of the time, when people think of the word “copying” a negative connotation comes to mind. However, if you think about it, all movies within a genre contain a lot of the same. Filmmakers recycle a lot of techniques and are always learning from each other, which in turn makes the film community grow as a whole. I never thought about it this way until I began the production phase of this project.

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Here’s an example of how I was influenced. In my Storyboarding post, I included my plans for this shot. Here it is with my actress and the proper decor elements. It isn’t the exact same, but during pre production I thought about this specific composition and angle of this shot.

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Here’s a few more examples, except these ones are influences from The Edge of Seventeen.

Changes

I didn’t make too many changes during the filming process; the only think I did was cut out one of the shots I storyboarded. However, I think I am going to go back and film it. I cut it out because I didn’t think it was necessary but after editing my rough cut I think it definitely is needed. Other than that, I adjusted a few shot angles from my original plans.

Sources

• I used various IMDB links throughout this post. Their specific URLs can be found when clicking on them.
• Eighth Grade Title Sequence
• The Edge of Seventeen can be streamed from Netflix

Yesterday was my second day of shooting. I filmed at my school in the parking lot, hallways, and classrooms. It felt like it was going well at the time, however when I looked at the footage, I wasn’t as happy as I originally thought. It turned out sort of bland. There is also one shot that I might have to reshoot, but I’m hoping I will be able to fix it in post production.

Filming Process Reflection

While filming, I thought everything looked good; I knew the footage would have to be stabilized in post production, but I thought the camera angles were diverse enough to be interesting. However, after looking at the footage, I’m not sure this is the case. I originally planned to have a montage/jumpcut situation where Aspen is walking to class. However, once I put the footage together in a rough cut, I thought it could be considered too boring. Also, the beginning of the stuff I filmed yesterday has some continuity errors. When filming, I should have done one long take of Aspen getting out of her car. Instead it’s chopped up and I slightly moved my camera angle so I can’t even pretend like it is the same shot. Below are screenshots of what I’m talking about.

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Just like last time, my actress Taylor Moore was fantastic! She did everything I told her to and helped me decide on certain shots and camera angles. It was pretty hot outside yesterday and Taylor was wearing leggings and a sweatshirt; she was a real trooper! My business teacher, Mrs. Virgen, let me use her classroom for filming, which was great because her class layout works well for the blocking in my title sequence.

Raw Footage

Here is some raw, unedited footage from my second day of shooting.

Preliminary Rough Cut

This is part 2 of my preliminary rough cut. It only includes the footage I shot on the second day, so it isn’t an all-inclusive look of my title sequence. There is still a lot of progress that has to be made and I plan to combine the rough cuts together in a future post.

Here is a screen recording of me making my rough cut in iMovie.

Sources

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqPbFrMhc_Q

This past Saturday was my first day of shooting. I think it went really well! I learned a lot about the filming process and some obstacles I’m going to need to overcome for my second day of filming. I started to make my preliminary rough cut as well.

Filming Process Reflection

Before filming, I was super nervous that something would go wrong and I wouldn’t have enough footage when the editing process began. However, I ended up being really satisfied with the end result. I had originally scheduled 4 hours to film at my shooting location and ended up only needing an hour and a half. My actress, Taylor, was great and super cooperative; she listened to all of my directions and even helped me when I needed assistance determining what shots looked better. She’s my best friend so we work pretty well together.

I learned a lot about aspects of cinematography as well. When I first learned about cinematography and all the different shots that cinematographers use, it was kind of hard to fully understand what their job entailed. Yeah sure, they’re responsible for filming the movie and recording all the close ups, mid shots, long shots, push-ins/outs, tracking shots, and many more, but I didn’t quite know how they accomplished those things. Through the process of filming, I learned a lot about how insightful cinematographers must be. They have to adapt to certain situations, lighting conditions, and orders from the director. They also have to make decisions concerning camera angles and shot types in the moment. Thankfully, I’m my own director so that was one less thing I had to concern myself with. Other than that, these were all challenges I faced when filming. There were a few shots I filmed where the lighting was weird, so in order to avoid this in the future I will have to adjust the camera angles and the focus.

Production Design Reflection

My first shooting location worked really well too! I love the decor elements in Taylor’s room; they make it look very teenager-y, which is exactly the vibe I’m going for. I also love how the rest of her house has super simple decor that doesn’t draw attention away from my main character, Aspen. I used Taylor’s clothes for the costuming, which was a great choice. She has some funky pieces that I used to create the disorganized look of Aspen, including gray cheetah print leggings and mismatched socks. More information on the mise-en-scene of my title sequence can be found here.

Raw Footage

Here is some raw, unedited footage from my first say of shooting. Notice how a lot of the clips are labelled “Take 2”. This is because there was a previous take that I plan to include in a bloopers reel at a later date.

In the above video, I had to use a really strange camera technique. The shot was supposed to be from the mirror’s point of view and in order to do that I had to hold my phone on the mirror and flip the camera to be front-facing. This resulted in the footage being really shaky, but that’s okay because I can stabilize it in post production.

Preliminary Rough Cut

This is my preliminary rough cut. It only includes the footage I shot on this day, so it isn’t an all-inclusive look of my title sequence. However it is a start and I think it will be beneficial to see it as I get further along in this process.