Production Blog Post 3/21

Over the past few weeks I have been extremely busy with a multitude of different projects. However, this hasn't stopped me from working on production for my next film. Despite my limited time to work, the following is a reflection of the work I completed during the Production stage:

Changes From Pre-Production

Even though I had a general idea of what the film would look like, I still ended up making a few changes during the production stage. The first of these changes is the removal of the whole "time travel" idea from the film's concept. I originally incorporated the idea that time would rewind each time the the briefcase was opened. However, I thought that explaining this idea and actually showing it on-screen would be difficult. Now, each time the case is opened it simply causes something random to happen, which should be easier for the audience to understand. The second main change that I made has to do with the film's ending. The ending that I had completed around the time of pre-production wasn't much of a ending and the film seemed to just stop at a certain point. The new ending should bring the plot in a full circle and conclude the simple premise of the film. These changes should hopefully make the film flow better overall and aid with both production and post-production.

Shooting

As I stated in my introduction, I have been extremely busy over the past few weeks and haven't been able to focus as much attention to production as I would have wanted. Despite this, I did manage to get a sizable portion of production completed so far. Originally, I had planned to act as all of the characters within the film in order to make the production process easier. This weekend though, I was able to have one of my friends could help act as he was already helping me with another project. Quickly, I had him fill in as a character within the introduction scene, which we then filmed. This scene would have been difficult with just myself as I wanted to incorporate some shots where both characters could be seen on screen at the same time. In addition to the opening scene, I also shot another sample scene of what opening the briefcase is like. Likely I won't end up using that footage but it was a good test to see what the other briefcase scenes will look like once I have more time that I'm available to shoot.

Next Steps

Over the next two weeks its my goal to finish shooting the scenes that I wasn't able to shoot during production. "Spring Break" falls within this period of time which means that I'll definitely have a period of time completely free that I know I can get shots done. As for post-production tasks, there really shouldn't be much for this film. Assembling the film, color grading and sound editing should really be the only things I need to do. There is the potential however that I might have to use some effects within after effects to further characterize some of the practical effects with the briefcase. This really depends on how well these shots turn out and if I feel something needs to be added to make them better. With all this laid out, I feel as if I have a relatively decent road map for completing this film.

Work Log

• 3/15 - Planned briefcase scenes
• 3/16 - Filmed and edited elementary videos
• 3/17 - Edited elementary videos
• 3/18 - Planned S.I. Independent Project Film
• 3/19 - Planned for filming
• 3/20 - Filmed opening scene, music department video
• 3/21 - Filmed and edited elementary THON reveal videos