Rentals you ask? That is the segment we filmed on Thursday the 1st of October. We decided that seeing as one of our main three characters, Valentina, is a real estate agent, that we’d be filming at Steph’s Carlton North Abode. After some planning and pouring over the script, as seen below, we head off to Stephs place.

So at Stephs place, we realised that we had the perfect home to film in. We had to film 3 things with the character. The confessional, her getting out of her car awkwardly, and her walking into an open house, which of course is left in a terrible, messy state. Steph house fit the bill quite perfectly. She had a really long hallway, which we outfitted with beer bottles. She had a kitchen bench, which if we filmed at the right angle (and I think we did), which would look like a place where the comedically professional Valentina would have for her confessional. It worked out quite great. Steph most likely would have written these things in mind, and I feel like it really showed. So next came setting up. We had quite a while to set up before Alex, our actress, showed up to film, but it turns out we needed it.

I’m definitely not a tech wizard, and that kind of showed up. We had to figure out how to put cameras on tripods, how to use technical equipment we loaned from the real tech wizards of building 9, and in the end we just gave up on the lapel microphones. We lacked the wizardry. However, we eventually set up to an adequate standard by the time Alexandra came to get ready. I really feel like its a valuable experience, to have a fair bit of time to set up before the talent comes, it’s fairly unprofessional and can waste time.

That doesn’t mean we didn’t waste time. Even after Alex did show up, we spent a fair bit of time getting the focus, the lens and the framing to a good standard.

So, we eventually got we needed with the confessional, which we shot first in order to have Alex look a lot more chilled out, and within her own space without looking so professional, which is what we were after for the confessional. We then moved out on to Stephs porch, where we began filming her getting out of the car awkwardly. That was where the troubles began.

Firstly, theres the sun. Not only was it glaring at around 4 in the afternoon, and burning my fairly pale skin, but it was potentially a shot ruiner. I haven’t shot in almost direct sunlight before with my camera, I was a little nervous about how good the shot would come up. But, that turned out okay. The real problem was time. As it turns out, my cameras battery life isn’t great. And I didn’t plan for a full day, so I went into the day with a battery that wasn’t fully charged. So each shot was a stressful one.

We got the bare amount that we needed, but we really could have used a few more shots for safety. We literally ran out of battery during the take we hope to use (I hope it didn’t wipe the take) But we found our stride during this time. I was the camera man, and seeing as it’s mockumentary, it required a fair few amounts of crash zooms. They took a while to get used to, especially with the need to focus afterwards but I think I figured it out. It was a real (pun coming up) crash course (do you get it? I said crash earlier…) in how to direct (along with  and be a cameraman. It was kind of good to be thrown in the deep end in that respect.

Anyway, we got the scene we wanted. Ozzy got his mnms, and he went and did a great show.

Shout out to Ashton Peck, for his black and white photography.