The original premise for this project was simply to be a script, I was going to write three scripts each of differing lengths, a full-length film, a short film and a television pilot. While I still pan on working on those in time, Over the course of the semester I decided to try doing something I wasn’t comfortable with, taking the time to actually film one of them.
Realistically of course I chose the short film, with what I had to work with the other two just weren’t feasible for me to accomplish. So, I set out with a goal in mind, and a script in hand. Over the first half of the semester I planned out scenes, continued writing and rewriting the script, and put out ads for actors on the school Facebook page.
A couple of weeks later I had three confirmed actors to work with and the second to last final draft of the script.
Filming began on Wednesday March 24 with the original three actors at a small restaurant in downtown Tampa called the fusion bowl. Everything went as well as one would expect, we did a short shoot there for the opening of the film and prepared to meet the next Saturday to begin the actual shooting.
The first difficulty arose when one of my actors never got my emails or texts until the moment they were supposed to be at the shoot. With only two actors to work with I made do with what I had in the time I could use it in. Getting in a solid two hours of filming left only the parts with the other actor to shoot for next week.
The shoot went just fine, better then fine actually. As a first-time director working with other people, the rate at which we got through the scenes was extremely uplifting to how I thought this project would go.
Both me and the actors had a riot on set, it was fun and easy to work with them as they listened to my instructions, even when I was fumbling with my words and had no idea how to work a certain scene.
After about two and a half hours we had finished shooting. With most of the scenes done We all thought we would only have to do one more shoot to get the whole thing done. So, I thanked them for their time and sent them on their way until the next time.
Getting home I uploaded all the footage to my computer to check how it all looked. The colors were perfect, and the shots lined up nicely and everything was in focus.
Except, there was just one more problem.
When there are only two shooting modes on the camera one is using, do make sure that it is in the mode one wants….
and not in time-lapse.
Yes, when getting back home to edit the footage, I realized that it was super quick and choppy. It was only when I checked the camera that I realized that the whole time during the previous day, I was shooting in time-lapse mode which made the footage look good but move extremely quickly.
So, another shoot was set up, this time with all three actors, a new one to replace the one that didn’t arrive the previous day and did not respond back to any messages afterward.
Everything was set and on track to do the entirety of the filming in one day, get it all out of the way so that I could edit and work on everything else that I needed to afterward.
And everything was just fine during the shoot. Of course, the batteries only lasted about ten minutes each, someone had misplaced the charger making me use two extension cables and the wired charger for the camera, but it was something we could get around.
And once we were done, everything seemed just fine, the footage looked good, the lighting and colors looked just fine, it was all good for editing, albeit the files were a little large to move directly onto my computer.
Once the transfers were all done, it was time to edit, and finally finish this thing.
Only
There was one more problem.
Half the footage looked great, usable, everything lined up perfectly and was going straight into editing.
The other half, not so much.
Scrubbing through the footage showed that more than half of the frames turned up red, just, flat red.
Now it was time to panic. All that work, three hours of filming turned out this? I did not get any sleep that night from the stress.
The very next day I spoke with my adviser on what to do, we both scrubbed through the footage to see if something could be salvaged from the absolute wreck that it was. All that was there for me to use were single still frames.
We both saw that nothing could be done with it and was only good for taking up space at that moment. We both agreed that I would be better off just reshooting what was lost and trying my best to make up for what happened.
So, another date was set, due to the time constraint I could only get two of the three actors to do the reshoots, which was fine, I could still get the final message across with them. The difference this time would be that I no longer wanted to use the Black Magic Pocket that I had been using up to that point. Not only was it unavailable, but I couldn’t rely on either myself of the camera to accomplish what I wanted.
I decided to go with the tried and true Nikon that I have had years of practice with. The day arrived, and we shot during the afternoon as the sun was setting, which presented an issue mostly in terms of post editing, but it was something I could and have gotten around before. Nothing a little editing magic won’t solve.
Two hours and a lot of sighs later, we had finished, with just enough time to spare as the sun had just crossed the horizon into the west coast. Taking a quick look at the footage I thanked the actors yet again, and sent them on their way, this time, hopefully for the last time.
As soon as I got home I immediately scrubbed through the footage we had just shot, making sure everything was in order, none of it was corrupted, and it looked how it looked as I was filming. Everything was good, the footage could be put right into Premiere Pro for editing.
I breathed a huge sigh of relief as I placed everything into a single folder, so I could find it later. The hard part was over, everything else was editing, audio, color correction, all things I’ve done before.
If I took anything from this experience it would be this, stepping out of my comfort zone to do something I had done but in a different way can be challenging, but also plenty of fun. I had a blast doing this, but probably wouldn’t do it again without a lot of planning first, mostly in the scheduling.
Another thing I would take away is that going forward I can no longer be afraid to begin a project, the fear that something might not look how I envision it can’t hold me back from started. No matter how it might look in the end, it shouldn’t stop me from starting in the first place. The amount of time I wasted for fear of it not turning out how I wanted was probably the main reason this film didn’t attain its full potential, even though it turned out just fine, and I accomplished my goals.
I cannot thank my actors enough for agreeing to my asinine scheduling, and my professor for being understanding on the issues. The process was stressful, and most of the time I had no idea what I was doing with anything, but it was also fun, and something I’m glad I spent the time and commitment on as my last project.