With the script done, the next step is to shoot the footage.

Before the shoot however, there were some list to check off. Firstly, the location is at my friend’s (Terry) house. The actress is also one of my friend, Niki, who’s also a media student. Then, I had to borrow some equipment from the technical office, that is an LED panel, the stand, as well as microphone. I wasn’t so sure what mic I should use, but after explaining my situation, the techies gave me a lapel mic. For the camera, I’m using Terry’s , while I have my own tripod. Then, it was scheduling the shoot. Unlike last project, this time it was so much easier to decide on a date. Since I am working on my own, I only had to match my schedule with Terry and Niki, both of whom were thankfully pretty flexible. Thus, I scheduled a shoot on a Wednesday night.

I started the shoot at 5, when there were still sun, as I wanted to have some shots with natural lighting for the opening of the scene. It was a really great environment to work at, the fact that we’re all friends really help. I was using a tripod for the first bits as I wanted to do jump cuts later on, so i need the shot to be consistent throughout. On the film set, I was the director, cinematographer/camera operator as well as art director, aside from being also producer, screenwriter and editor. It wasn’t actually bad, as it was a very small production. It’s fun even to actually have my hands on everything myself, as I don’t need to keep telling others what I want and save time. Since we shot the scenes at the living room, i also arranged the furniture and designed the room until i was satisfied with the look.

After, the three of us had dinner. It’s important to make sure that everyone in the set is happy, or at least not hangry, to make sure the shoot goes smoothly. At 7, Ben came to help. It was already dark by then and it was time to shoot the next scene. We experimented with the room lights and the lights from the LED Panel, and finally decided to go with completely dark room with only the LED lights switched on. I also layered lots of the orange diffuser panels to give it a really orange-y tone to it.

At first, we shot scenes that didn’t have any dialogues. When we do however, we tried to operate the lapel mic, as per the brief instructions from the techies, but even after some google searches and youtube videos, we gave up. I decided to just record the audio separately.

Throughout the shoot, we were playing with lights. From its brightness, warmth to it’s location, I tried to make use of it as much as possible to create a mysterious yet beautiful shots. I especially liked Ben’s idea of blinking the lights for the door to give the impression that it’s really speaking and to give more depth to the character.

Ben left before 9 and I continued the shot myself, with Terry helping me out at times with the light. I managed to get everything shot, aside from the audio bit for the door and we wrapped the shoot at 10ish.

After going through with the files, I decided to do another shot on Saturday night. So I booked the lights again and this time a zoom h4n recorder on Friday. This time, the shoot was shorter as it was just to have additional shots and also re-shots for certain parts, not the whole thing. This time it was completely just me, with Terry, again, helping with the lights. Since i had the recorder, I also recorder Niki’s lines in a quiet bedroom. I also recorded my part at home when there was no noise.

Overall it was a pretty smooth process. Scheduling wasn’t stressful, the equipment did their job, everyone was nice to work with, location was available at the right time. I really think the fact that I was working with my close friends made this a smooth process. The only thing that was a little bit unfortunate is how Terry had to pick up and also drop back the equipment that i borrow. It was too heavy for me to carry all the way home and it was more efficient to just leave it at his place, where we shoot. Thus, I felt really sorry but thankful for Terry and promised to make it up to him somehow for all his help. I’m also grateful for Niki’s help in the project as she was really easy to direct and had a really good attitude during the shoots, and lastly Ben who was helping me out during the shoot.

Next stage: editing.