FILMING DAY 1

Today was the big day! Filming day #1: the much harder, more intricate part of the film to execute. I'm glad we're getting it out of the way first.

Time Frame

    Jack and I blocked out 3 hours to film everything. We told our cast to meet us at 4 and we would be done around 7. We planned 2 hours to film and 1 hour for wiggle room. To our surprise, we needed all 3 hours to almost the very last minute! 

The Process

    When everyone arrived we started with a read-through. A read-through is what we call it in theatre, but I believe in film it is referred to as a "table-read". Either way, we read through the script to clarify any questions and hone in on the specific intentions behind each line to make sure the acting execution was on point.

    After that, we started. We filmed chronologically, which will make it a lot easier for me post-production to sort through all 154 clips we took. 

    One of the hardest parts of the whole filming process was placing everybody. With such trained actors, I didn't have to worry much about building chemistry between characters or giving them much direction with lines. But, I did have to place them. I did so to not only make shots look visually appealing, with different depths and levels, but also fit their character's level of interest and quirks. 

One of the opening shots

    Here, Nicole is on her phone: uninterested. Ember is bored and unenthused: not loving the plan. Ben is strategizing: leader of it all. Christian is standing up: a simple way to show dominance and care. Joshua is throwing an orange in his hand: goofiest and most inattentive. Details like this are often overlooked, but it's what makes the film believable.  

    In addition to this beautiful wide shot of the whole group, we of course had to have shots of each character at many times to hone in on their emotions as individuals rather than a whole.

Behind-the-scenes of Jack shooting a mid shot of just Ember

    The funniest thing to film was Skyler's character, Humphrey, who constantly making the most digs and jokes that made us all laugh. Due to our laughs, we had to re-film a few times in order to get a serious take. I can't wait for everyone to see his spit-take clip, it's seriously amazing. We got it in two takes!

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    After 3 long hours, filming was finally wrapped up! We finished at 6:56 which was perfect. Everyone went home satisfied with what we completed, and all full on the pizza we ordered for production purposes and also to feed our actors.