After completing pre-production at the end of the second marking period and finishing in class presentations, I went forward with the production stage of my project. The following presented work is what I have accomplished:
After breaking for lunch, we finished filming in the shed and packed up all of the filming gear so that we could move locations. Our next spot to film at was the senior lot of the school parking lot. When my actors and I arrived at the location, the additional actors that were to be involved in these scenes were already there and ready to go. It was also at this time that Zachary Willard would take over for Justin Creelman as my camera man. We managed to accomplish two out of the three scenes that I intended to shoot at that time, despite the wind becoming a major issue especially in the wide open parking lot. When it came time to film the finale of the film, the weather became unbearably cold. It was also at this time that my camera battery had died and there was no easy way to recharge it at that moment. Because of both of these issues, I made the decision to conclude filming for that day. This was a tough choice to make as this scene was the last one I intended on filming that day as well as it being the finale for the film. However, I felt that under the circumstances that we were under, the scene would not have turned out as I would have wanted it. We then decided that we would go back and film this scene at a later date.
The second day of filming was scheduled for February 15th, the Saturday following the previous filming date. This day would be much easier than the day prior as it only involved two actors on screen at a time along with all of the scenes taking place indoors. When the time came to begin, both my actor Jack Travisano and my camera man Justin Creelman arrived promptly. One of the difficult things for these scenes was properly lighting and framing the shots. Without a better location, I had decided to film these scenes along the white wall within my dining room. These scenes were supposed to feel darker in tone, so it was critical that the scene was lit well but not overly bright. We shot the three scenes that I had planned, completing all of the scenes that Jack was required for. Following a break, we transitioned into my kitchen in order to film the last three required scenes. Again, the actor who was called, Grace Smith, arrived right on time so that we could get right to work. Since I am close friends with Grace, she insisted on re-writing portions of my script as they sounded unnatural and very much "like how Kyle speaks". Filming these final scenes went fairly smoothly, with the only issue being that we occasionally had to stop and wait for a battery to re-charge. Overall, the second day of filming went exactly as I had planned and was much more productive than the day prior.
Production Day #1
The first day of filming was scheduled for February 14th as it was a day off from school. As I did not have a final list of actors for when I had created my pre-production blog post, I made sure to decide upon my actors and make sure that their schedules worked with mine, prior to filming. The first day of filming, all my actors arrived at the time I requested them to show up. Unlike my last project, I am acting within this film, so I employed the help of Justin Creelman to work the camera for me. This scene was supposed to be set within an old fashioned western store front. Since western store fronts are a tough commodity in central Pennsylvania, we filmed within the shed in my backyard. The process of filming went fairly well. Both of my actors as well as myself managed to give fairly decent performances for what I was expecting. The one difficulty of shooting on the first day was the weather. Despite filming in the shed, the weather and wind outside were very cold, which lowered morale for the four of us on set. This cold weather ended up coming back to bite me later.
After breaking for lunch, we finished filming in the shed and packed up all of the filming gear so that we could move locations. Our next spot to film at was the senior lot of the school parking lot. When my actors and I arrived at the location, the additional actors that were to be involved in these scenes were already there and ready to go. It was also at this time that Zachary Willard would take over for Justin Creelman as my camera man. We managed to accomplish two out of the three scenes that I intended to shoot at that time, despite the wind becoming a major issue especially in the wide open parking lot. When it came time to film the finale of the film, the weather became unbearably cold. It was also at this time that my camera battery had died and there was no easy way to recharge it at that moment. Because of both of these issues, I made the decision to conclude filming for that day. This was a tough choice to make as this scene was the last one I intended on filming that day as well as it being the finale for the film. However, I felt that under the circumstances that we were under, the scene would not have turned out as I would have wanted it. We then decided that we would go back and film this scene at a later date.
Production Day #2
The second day of filming was scheduled for February 15th, the Saturday following the previous filming date. This day would be much easier than the day prior as it only involved two actors on screen at a time along with all of the scenes taking place indoors. When the time came to begin, both my actor Jack Travisano and my camera man Justin Creelman arrived promptly. One of the difficult things for these scenes was properly lighting and framing the shots. Without a better location, I had decided to film these scenes along the white wall within my dining room. These scenes were supposed to feel darker in tone, so it was critical that the scene was lit well but not overly bright. We shot the three scenes that I had planned, completing all of the scenes that Jack was required for. Following a break, we transitioned into my kitchen in order to film the last three required scenes. Again, the actor who was called, Grace Smith, arrived right on time so that we could get right to work. Since I am close friends with Grace, she insisted on re-writing portions of my script as they sounded unnatural and very much "like how Kyle speaks". Filming these final scenes went fairly smoothly, with the only issue being that we occasionally had to stop and wait for a battery to re-charge. Overall, the second day of filming went exactly as I had planned and was much more productive than the day prior.The Next Steps
The next steps that I need to go through to complete this project are filming the finale and moving on to post-production. I have yet to film the finale as of this date as Brett Foltz, the other actor in the scene, was unavailable during all the times that I asked if he could meet up and finish filming. Post-production seems like it should be a fairly easy process. The only difficult thing would be if I need to record ADR in the event some of my audio is unusable.
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