Filming Day Part 1
Welcome back to my blog reader! Hours before the first day of the filming process began, the actor who is my cousin’s friend and that was going to play the role of the stranger for the outdoor scenes in the short film ended up cancelling at the last minute. This led me to an immediate search for another actor in an extremely short amount of time in order to not delay my filming schedule. Fortunately, I was able to find actress to fill in the role which was my mom’s friend. Now moving onto the first day of filming, we were supposed to meet at 9 in the morning with the actress named Ariatna at my house, but she ended up running a little bit late. While my cousin Gaby and I waited for her, we decided to film the bathroom scene. I prepared the props for that scene which were the lipstick and the hairclip while my cousin finished getting ready. We practiced the shots, but they were too close therefore I ended up getting inside the shower to have more distance between the camera and my cousin. After that was settled, we now had to get the time right as she had to come into the bathroom as I waited inside with the lights off for her to turn on. This took me a few tries but, in the end, we were able to get the take that I wanted. Then, we moved on with the over the shoulder shot of the protagonist Gabriela looking at herself in the mirror while applying lipstick and retouching her hair. Later, actress Ariatna met with my cousin and I at my house at around 9:40 in the morning. Then, my cousin drove us to the Northridge Shopping Center as it did not have as many individuals around at that time of day in contrast to other malls. Further, I knew that the scenes that included the stranger would have to be filmed as quickly as possible due to that our newly found actress had to work at 11 in the morning. Therefore, when we arrived at the mall, I explained to my cousin Gaby and actress Ariatna what they had to do and gave them their lines. They practiced their lines while I was practicing the angels I was going to use and then we all came together. First, I filmed the scene where Gabriela stops walking and decides to ask someone for help in which, we see the stranger at a distance. Then, I decided to film their interaction in three different ways which were a two-shot, a shot reverse shot, and an over the shoulder shot. Out of the three, I feel most confident about the two-shot as I feel it gave a clear image of their interaction. After taking a couple takes, we were done with the scenes that included the stranger therefore we took a break from filming and went to drop Ariatna at her workplace. We then went back to the mall after dropping her off in order to continue filming. Moreover, I began filming the scene where Gabriela decides to call Nancy which reveals shocking information. Calling and filming at the same time is not possible, therefore I edited an ongoing phone call with the name “Nancy” while my cousin was rehearsing her lines. Then, I shot a close-up of her holding the phone in two different ways as she drops her hand when she is shocked by the information Nancy is giving her. My cousin made slight movements with her hand to add realism to the scene because an individual doesn’t stay still, especially when they are anxious. Then, I filmed a medium close-up of her as she said her lines and I also did the take with the arc shot as her confusion grew. Further, I will be doing the audio for Nancy therefore when I begin the editing process, I will do a voice over of my lines. From here, we did our last scenes at the mall which were those of Gabriela walking around looking for the event. After wrapping it up at the mall, we went back home and shot the scenes that took place outside at that location. It began with a pan as my cousin went towards the camera and then up the stairs. Now upstairs, I did a tracking shot of her as she walked towards the door, and then I grabbed her by the shoulder, and she gasped. This scene took us multiple takes due to that we could not get grabbing the shoulder part right. We re-did the scene until I was pleased with the result. Moreover, this concludes all the exterior scene therefore concluding the first part of filming my short film “Lucky.” Well this is my cue to leave, until next time reader!
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