This was my first time working and approaching a film alone. The pros of working alone is that you can do whatever you want to do with your film idea. It challenged my ability but I was able to prove to myself that I can do it alone. The only crew I had was the actor. I am glad to work with an actor that I know. The actor is my friend and having a background in film and design she was able to help me out. She was able to give me feedbacks on the shots. It was easy working with her because she easily understood the approach that I was going for. Before filming or the day before I will brief her on what I was going to film so that she will be prepared. For instance, I will inform her on her wardrobe like bringing another set of clothes so that the scenes will look like we shot on a different day and also the scenes where she needed to talk to strangers. Knowing her shy personality, I wanted her to be fully prepared that she was going to approach random people so that she would not backed out on the day of filming.
However, it was difficult to work on the availability of my actor. There were certain days she was available and at a certain timing. It was extremely hard to do a night scene since the actor has to go back by 9pm. The first few attempts of filming was especially shot during the day because I was making use of that time to shoot possible scenes for the film. The scenes shot during the day was not ideal because it just did not suit the atmosphere of the story. There were only once or twice that I was able to shoot during dusk. During the period of filming the timing was changing so night time came at a later timing. On the last day of filming I had to make my actor stay a bit longer so that I can get all my shots. I really wanted to secure the timing from 5pm till night since that is when the day starts to get darker and evoke the right atmosphere to my story.
I had the chance to also work with the baristas at sensory lab for one of my scenes even though I did not used it in the final film. Some of the baristas were shy to act in front of the camera so I had to convince them that it was a wide shot and that their face can’t be seen clearly. Also, informing them that their role was to act exactly like a barista. They were welcoming and understanding when I needed to shoot a few takes. It was actually fun filming with them.
The next time around when I do get the opportunity I hope that I will be able to get another crew on board so that we can take turns carrying the items. It was easy to just bring the camera around but when the scenes needed the tripod it was hard to carry it from one place to the other. It would also be great to work with a cast, somebody new and experience working together. Overall, it was a great opportunity to work the film idea alone and experience carrying the amount of weight from the equipment from one place to the other. It makes me feel like I have accomplished everything by myself.
