Finally Filming!

Finding a filming location began promisingly but quickly became a hassle as the location we needed to film in (a house which we originally intended to be large and expensive-looking) is not exactly easy to book for several nights of filming. Because Chancellor, Jacob, and I did not even have an empty room we could stage for our film within our houses, we had to resort to asking any friends and relatives we knew to borrow a portion of their home until we were done filming. After our request was declined by several people, my aunt (who lives very close to us) graciously offered us her empty guest room which turned out to sufficiently serve its purpose.

Staging the bathroom using props

The room we used in my aunt's house didn't exactly scream teenage girl, so we had to put in some work to adjust the scenery and match our vision for set design. Because Chancellor, Jacob, and I don't have any makeup of our own, we asked our wonderful actresses to bring some of their own which we then chose from to decorate our set in the manner we thought best. Earlier, we thought of what objects we most envisioned when we picture our character Brittney, and many of the objects pictured are among those which we felt connected to the character. A multiple mirrors may reflect her self-absorption, various makeup utensils show her focus on appearances, and accessories like the fuzzy, white pom-pom shown are often associated with popular, teenage girls. 

Trying to figure out lighting in the relatively small room

Since we were limited to a relatively small, square room, we had to utilize it for Tiffany's initial shots and the setting of Brittney's room. Because we purposely chose low-key lighting for Tiffany's shots in the beginning, the obscurity of setting made it much easier for us to re-purpose the room. We filmed low to the ground, with the computers, tablets, and phones we placed into these shots filling most of the frame or sharing the frame with Tiffany. As the subject or focus was not the setting of the first shots, but rather Tiffany's clear obsession with social media, we are (hopefully) able to get away with not having two separate locations to shoot.

Framing, lighting, and the angle at which we shot at seemed to be consistent issues, but after many shots and readjustments we attempted to fix glaring issues. For aesthetically pleasing shots, we often framed the subject using ideas such as the rule of thirds (which we learned early into the year), however, it was often difficult to decide whether it was necessary to break filming guidelines, and whether doing so would portray a specific idea to the audience. Our storyboard helped immensely with keeping us on schedule, keeping our filming consistent, and allowing our shots to convey meaning as we had planned. Some shots and ideas had to be altered to fit our location, but overall I believe we have maintained most of the meaning we intended to construct through our film opening. It was interesting to direct and work with actors, given my history of having others also working on a project with me act. I am both dreading and looking forward to reviewing all of our footage.

Now that filming is wrapped, we just need to wait for our footage to export before we can begin editing. The incorporation of credits, a title screen, and editing together all of the footage we took is an integral (exciting) part of post-production. Especially given the fact that we are adding much of the sound in during the editing process, editing may be even more time-intensive than filming. Once we get into the editing process, I'll be able to explain more of the individual shots and choices behind mise-en-scène.