We filmed Maddy’s part on Saturday and everything went well. It’s our first time ever officially shooting and working together and I’m glad that we all tried our best to be professional and had fun along the way. I know I’ve said probably a million times that the four of us got along very well and Lauren, our actress, also was super nice and cooperative, I could barely tell it’s only her first time acting. I love my group!!!#blessed
Maddy’s the director so the rest of our had to take turns being her AD, I was mainly on the tripod. We also gave our suggestions on what could be filmed better and kept reminding her to film as much as possible because it’s important to have enough footage to work with. When we’re filming the bit at the harbor, of A. standing and gazing into the distance, Maddy struggled to think of some body languages that Lauren can do to express the complex thoughts A. is having in her mind. It’s really to see some of the gestures that we thought of looked really intentional and weird through the camera until we settled on scratching the back of her head (where A.’s chip is installed) and tightening fists around the hem of her coat. The footages she got were really beautiful, a lot of the scenes in which the sunshine’s illuminating A.’s profile were breathtaking. It was a good shoot!
On Sunday was Niki’s and my bit. It’s the marriage equality/LGBTQIA pride parade. We talked about getting some footage there as Maddy wanted to show maybe A. could live to see a time where AI rights are protected and celebrated. The rainbows signs could be the sign for AI rights in the film with manipulation. Maddy couldn’t make it there that early so I filmed a lot of footage for her. Margot, Lauren and I walked with the crowd for a long time and ended up dancing at a park. We had a great time and I filmed a lot if we wanted to use the parade for A.’s story. And on the way we got back to my apartment, we walked on Collins Street and there were lots of exhibition windows and glass and mirror so Margot filmed for her part as she originally proposed reflections as her idea. I helped Margot carrying all the stuff while she was filming. Maddy and Niki waited for a bit longer than they should so I thought we could have worked out a better schedule or even a call sheet so it’d be easier and no one’s time’s wasted. Anyways, Margot’s got some beautiful footage and it was really worth it carrying all the stuff for her. I feel like a proud mom.
We got back to my apartment to film Niki’s and my parts. Niki’s part comes up first in our film and takes place in a bedroom so we shot it in my bedroom. Originally, the last shot is A. shifts her body to the center of the bed and then falls asleep. But in the start of my part, A. wakes up and unplugs the cable that’s attached to the back of her neck so I suggested that maybe include A. plugging the cable in before she goes to bed and Niki agreed and filmed it. So our parts could connect seamlessly. It finished up pretty soon as it was mainly static shots. Then it was the filming of my bit. The beginning of it starts with where Niki’s ends so it’s still in the bedroom. It was my first time working with an actress so I was really nervous haha. Giving instructions was something I definitely sucked at, so I chose to show how I wanted A. to look or what I wanted her to do by posing and acting. It was much easier that way. It was already too late when I finished the bathroom scene so we decided to find another day to film the rest.
We decided to film the rest of my part on Tuesday after class. The first scene was when A. walks out of a grocery store and gets texts from a guy she met a couple nights ago. I asked Margot to be Jake to text her and Nicki to read out the text that I wrote to Margot. I filmed the whole texting scene in one long take while controlling the timing of when each text comes in. It was a hard task to make things fall in order while being on the camera. (Man. Why do I always make life hard for myself?????) After the texting bit, it’s a POV shot of A.’s and she’s walking along the street and starts hallucinating and sees people looking at her judgmentally. The random pedestrians were played by Margot, Maddy and Niki. I arranged their positions and we practiced a couple times of the looks and the walking before filming. It was extremely hard because there were crowds and crowds of people walking pass us all the time so we had to wait when there were less people. After a couple of tries I got the ideal footage. It was harrrd man!! And Niki and Margot had to take off because they got plans. So only Maddy was there helped me filmed a bit where A. walks long the street and suddenly sees a girl’s face up close and she tells her “You’re not one of us” and A. panics and a second later she realizes it’s just another hallucination. Because the girl is just a random person who’s on her phone. And the girl was me. So what I had in mind was filming her from the front and her eyes would flicker around and look down and eventually shift to the front and see the girl and is scared at the sudden appearance of the person’s face right in front of her eyes. I told Lauren to looked scared but she said she couldn’t do it without being scared for real. We tried a couple of times and she found it too hard to act so I changed my mind and told it’d be good to just look lost with unfocused eyes and stops walking after 10 steps. But to continued from the tracking shot from the front that I filmed when she’s passing through 3 random pedestrians, I had to film from another angle to connect the shot that were filmed from the front. So I filmed from the side. It was hard as well. Nothing happened so far had been easy. NOTHING. Who would have thought walking sideways while holding a camera was this hard?? Why did no one ever tell me that?? The shots I got were sort of wobbly because the road was not plain enough and I sucked at walking sideways. But it can be fixed later so I was not worried. Finally we got to the second last the film A. walking like a lost kitten and comes to a stop. It was not easy either. It’s hard to predict when she stops. I mean I could’ve just told her because I wouldn’t be using the sound anyways but I did not think of this when I was filming. My brain was already died of walking too much sideways. But we managed to get through that, sort of. Everyone was tired. And I asked Maddy to film my bit, which was the girl saying “You’re not one of us” and the girl talking on her phone. It’s done pretty quickly. And I thought we’re done for today. But when we’re about to cross the street to walk back to my apartment I suddenly remembered that I forgot to film A.’s reaction to the last hallucination. I struggled 2 seconds (it’s late and everyone’s tired.)before I told them we had one more shot to film. The shot was A. looking at the girl on her phone and realized she didn’t see what she had just seen and get confused and look to the front while hyperventilating. We filmed the last one quickly.
After the scene on the street I only had one last scene to shoot in my apartment during night time so Lauren stayed with me and Maddy left for home. The last bit went through smoothly and I was very pleased with what I’d gotten. I felt relieved when my part came to a wrap. FINNALY. It was a wild ride man. Never thought I’d had gone through this much stuff. But I thoroughly enjoyed it because this was what I loved to do and I’d rather it be something that’s so hard and torturing but helps with my understanding of filmmaking than something that’s easy and can be accomplished without giving much thought to it. Nothing worth having comes easy.
We went to see Paul and showed him our footage. And guess what. I FUCKED UP THE ENTIRE POV SHOT AND DID NOT EVEN GET IT BECAUSE I WAS A DUM FUCK AND MESSED UP THE BUTTON THINKING IT WAS RECORDING WHEN IT’S STOPPED. MAN I WANTED TO KILL MYSELF. I COULD NOT LIVE WITH SUCH AN EMBARRASEMENT. The POV shot is really important because it’s the only one that presents the hallucination subjectively. I messed up the most important one. FML.
BUT my teammates were soooo nice and said they could help me do it again. Reason #62371873 why I have the best teammates in the world!!!! I realized that it’s always important to check the footage after shooting and find out if there’s anything wrong or if more footage needs to be shot.
So we redid the POV after a week and it’s finished within 10 mins and I got exactly how I wanted it to look. I was super satisfied. I asked Margot if she needed to borrow my camera because she didn’t’ have one and I felt like she hadn’t filmed enough footage for her part. But she said she could film some B roll with her phone and told me not to worry.
Anyways it’s basically the end of all filming and all of us had already gone into editing. From the whole production process, there were certain things that I learned in a hard way, like always check if the camera’s rolling after pressing the button, always check the footage after a shoot. And I also realized that I could have totally avoided walking sideways because I could’ve just done it with my upper torso turned to the side to film the tracking shot of A.’s profile. Again, I’d like to thank my dumbness as it has taught me so many lessons not just in filmmaking but in life as well. #staygrateful #blessed