Production Blog: First Day of Filming

    After much planning and working around many obstacles, we finally aligned our schedules and got to the first day of filming. After school, I got into Marissa and Mackena's car to drive over to the fire station which was about a ten-minute drive from the school- much closer than I expected. We got to the station and it took us another ten minutes to find somewhere to park. The original space they usually park was taken so we had to call their dad, who was working there at the time, to come open the gate around the side to enter into the employee parking lot. Once we finally parked the car, we were greeted by their dad who led us into the station and showed us to the kitchen. We wanted to start right away but we had to wait a while for Riley to show up because she had to drop her sister off at home before coming to the station. This put us a little behind our desired schedule, but we started immediately after she arrived. 

    We decided to start filming the scenes with only Marissa and Riley in them first because we had yet to find a male we could use in our video. We have friends who are males, but finding a person who does not have a busy after-school schedule is a little challenging. Since we decided to film after school so last minute, we were unable to make any male friends aware and dedicated to the part. 

    To start, we assumed our roles of actors and filmers. At this time since we were not filming the scenes with the guy and Mackena, and I was not going to be on camera at all, tMackena and I were the designated filmers. We began with scene five, the split screen of Marissa and Riley on the phone. Because we were all kids, their dad had to escort us around the station to make sure we did not go somewhere we weren't supposed to or anything like that. He was kind enough to let us use his room to film that scene as Marissa's room. I did a few takes with different acting, angles, and lighting to find what suited our vision best. Filming this was a bit difficult just because we all kept laughing when Marissa would try to fake cry or sound distraught, but we eventually got it done. During this scene, the alarms started going off, calling the firefighters for a job- an open sea drowning to be specific- so we thought we would have to leave the room. It turns out that because the victim of the call was so far out at sea, the firefighters were unable to do anything and a boat would be sent. It was very cool to see the behind the scenes of a firefighter call like this!

    Next, I filmed Riley's part of scene five. For this, we moved to the day room where at the time, the on-shift firefighters were playing ping pong. There are big cushioned chairs in there which we thought resembled a living room which is why we chose that room. We had Riley sit in the chair in the far corner to be as far away from the ping pong and distraction as possible. We again did a few takes to experiment with angles and acting. Since this was a public space we were unable to alter the lighting, but fortunately it was well-lit which contrasted the dim lighting that was made to match Marissa's unhappy mood in the scene that will be placed next to it using a split screen. This took quite a few tries as we were debating on whether she should stand up midway through or stay seated to look more natural. While I was filming, I almost fell over quite a few times because of where I had to film from to get a good clear angle between the rows of chairs below where she was sitting. We settled on her staying seated and, after many failed attempts at staying serious, finished the scene.

    We then moved on to scene six which is where Riley goes to Marissa's room to console her. For this, we traveled back to the room where we filmed Marissa's part of scene five. We wanted to make sure we were integrating as many elements of camerawork into our takes as soon as possible. To do this, we decided to use a tracking shot and an over-the-shoulder shot. We started with Riley outside of the closed door and as she walked up to the door and opened it, I followed her in with the camera over her shoulder. This was a bit challenging because I had to keep the camera steady as I followed her, and simultaneously ensure that both she and Marissa were in the frame. We had to refilm this scene quite a few times to get the right motions of the camera that would follow her in and then back out a bit to show both characters. The areas of the hallway and the bedroom were quite small to work with, so it made it a bit challenging to get a nice wide angle that did not feel cramped. For this, I had to press up as close to the wall of the hallway across from the bedroom as I could while still being able to see what the camera was getting in the shot.

    We then wrapped up our filming at this scene because I had a piano lesson to go to very soon, and I still had to wait for my dad to come pick me up from the station.

  Filming was much more fun than I anticipated and I cannot wait for our next day!