Filming in Walmart

    

Not only was filming outside difficult, but filming in a store, during a worldwide pandemic was that much harder. One would think that the circumstances would limit the people we ran into. That unfortunate was not the case. Not only was filming outside filled will uncontrollable factors but it felt that Walmart had that and more in store for us. It felt that no matter where I turned there was someone there. And it wasn't even always like this. I only included Walmart in my plans because when I typically visit, it's relatively empty, and the spaces I had intended to film weren't frequently toured.

    It was extremely frustrating running into all those people. I of course didn't want anyone else in the shots, but I was also trying to maintain my six feet. It was nearly impossible though. It seemed that as one person cleared out, another would come to replace them. I must have backed into three or four people who would just appear behind me as I was looking through the camera. The comings and goings of people wasn't even the worse part. Of course, people came to shop at the store, that much was excusable. But I noticed, even single time the camera started to roll, someone just had to pause in order to take in the none existent scenery. Or group up and chat about something. And worstly pause to take a phone call in the middle of the aisle. What impeded me the most was when I decided to wait until someone made their way past, rather than moving to another location, and they in kind slowed themselves walking down the aisle. Iv never felt more impatient in my life. I wasn't even waiting on anything worthwhile.

Filming Outdoors

     Filming outdoors was difficult.  A lot of scenes had to be reshot because of unconsolable noises. Too many cars would drive by at one. Or someone would pass by on their phone. And while background noise isn't unwelcomed, the volume of said noise is. I would prefer them to be distanced and blended in to create scenery. Rather drown out the focus of my film.

     We filmed at and on the way to a nearby park. Not many people we out that day. There was a man and his two kids playing on the swing set and monkey bars. And a woman on the opposite end with a baby, next to two teens on the basketball court. We kept our distance from them and filmed. They provided some nice background noise too. It wasn't too noisy and it was much better than having an empty park to work with. It was getting to the park that was the issue. When filming the running scenes, I don't believe anyone would believe the number of cars that passed by. And it wasn't only normal cars either. A garage truck impeded filming for quite a while with its obnoxious beeping. And it was followed by a foliage collection truck, it was quicker overall in passing, but decided to stop in the middle of the road we were filming on. Being subjected to all that was exhausting. Not only that, we ran into the issue of my sister being unable to run long distances due to an ankle injury she received from soccer. She informed me of these moments before filming the necessary scenes, we managed to wrap her ankle with a brace and shorten run time at the expense of actual sweat for realism. 

Filming Indoors With Madison

     Our indoor scenes were by far the easiest to shoot. The elements we filmed in was perfect, and for the most part, was exactly how I envisioned it. It was seamless up to a point. For some scenes though, I didn't account for the front-facing participants. In my head, I thought I could just black out their face or something. Thought that I could angle the hoodie down so that the face wouldn't show. That wasn't feasible at all. It didn't come close. Because an added issue we ran into was that Madison and my sister not only differed in height but differed greatly in skin tone. And no matter how much we angled the hoodie, her face showed.

    That limited me to only behind the shoulder shots. Not much room for variety if I'm being honest. That aside. My team was beyond frustrating, My confidence is not the highest as when I initially went into this project. Going back to what I first thought, I think I failed to reach my intended purpose. I wanted to tackle current events, and I pushed that aside for a new point of an interesting and engaging film. It has now taken my strife to push me to look back a the fact that I was skewed from the conception of what I wanted this film to be. Nevertheless, I'll keep pushing on and make the most of what I have. Not only for the grade of course but for the pride that comes with this being my project. No one else name goes on this but my so ownership of this lies with me, for better or worse and I will see it to the end. I will be the sore captain that goes with the wreck of the ship, and proudly so.

Filming Update

     I can proudly say that I managed to get a grip on the situation that is filming. After the disaster that was Michell leaving for the break, I came to the conclusion that I could no longer rely on her. And that I must essentially fill the parts where she was needed. That left me in quite a rough spot if I'm being honest. And at the risk of adding too many delay blogs, I'll illustrate the painstaking workaround I came up with. 

    As it stands now, we have three filming days. Resulting from hours and hours of phone calls and text messages. The three days will serve as dailies and reshoots for all intents and purposes. It came out this way because of the varying personal schedules of the two additions I made to my team. Justin is a part-time worker and can only film on Friday, which is day two. I enlisted the help of both my partner and my sisters, mine babysits and won't be available until next week Tuesday, and my sister's partner luckily is available tomorrow, which is Wednesday, and marks day three and day two respectably. And it that seems confusing, it is. While filming is now wrangled, this scheduling creates its own unique issue. Now if I were to want to mix and match footage, I couldn't. Each participant of course has a different height. My sister is the only constant and is the focus of the film, my partner is shorter than her, hers taller, and Justin is assumed taller but we have no way of determining that until filming day since they have never been in the same room with one another. It isn't a big issue. It might even add an unexpected element to the film that this mysterious s figure changes shape and size throughout until its revel. Though said and done, with filming on different days, we run into the fact that the scenes outdoors will be completely unsalvageable, being that weather and light are unpredictable and uncontrollable. I'd have to pick the best singular figure for those scenes. 

Filming Hiccups

     Plans were made to rewrite it seems. I'm not sure who said it, but I'm sure it's a quote. If it's not, it should be because it hasn't seemed more true than right now. My plan included starting filming on the first few days of our winter break. But it would seem that I didn't learn from my Thanksgiving mishap. I waited too long to get started. I enjoyed my break too much and neglected to begin the work I had delegated to myself. At no one's fault but my own, I now have to rearrange a few things.  And it's not just because I waited, I still have time, so to speak. The problem is, that by waiting, I have now lost a key component of my plan. 

    My plan consisted of four people. These people are: myself, of course, my sister, my classmate outside of this particular class, and a mutual friend who doesn't attend this school.  What has now happened is that  Michell, my classmate is leaving to visit family for the winter break. This is bad on many levels, the first being that she will no longer be able to assist me in filming, and I have lost access to the high-quality camera she posses on her phone. Then on top of not being here, though he is a mutual friend, Justin will be less inclined to lend his assistance without Michell accompanying him. But even if she were to come back in time to lend me her camera, assist in filming, and convenience Justin to participate, her travels jeopardize safety so I couldn't have her there. It wouldn't be fair to the other participants in this time of unease. Covid still runs rampant and I would hope she wouldn't travel, not only for this project, but for her safety, but there's nothing I can do.  I'll just have to find a replacement for them both. Hopefully in time to begin editing on schedule.

Disruptions in Filming

    Maybe it was a tad overzealous of me to assume Id get to film at the first chance I got. And giving myself a week, was a little too ambitious. Didn't take into account that at least two of those days would be spent relaxing and enjoying the break, two more for other projects I had on hand, the day of thanks of course, then the day of cleaning from the day of thanks. Leaving one sole day, which wasn't enough. Instead of filming I just ran through the general plan of the film. Ironed out some details like transitions and so on. My main issue is the the issue continuity. Right now I want the character to be wearing the same clothes when the wake, so they can go to sleep in the them to create the loop, in the picture taken on the news, and when the viewer see her get murdered. Everything is fine up until the last point. I have two actors playing the same person, therefore I must find a way for them to look indistinguishable until the reveal. I hold that either I can do a quick warobe change and swap outfits, with a convenient enough angle, or that my actors have similar enough clothing. But that saying I hope the differences in my actors don't show too heavily on camera. 

   With that all said and done, I planed for Christmas break as well. And to my surprise, it's a two-week break rather than just one week, so that's great. However I was informed that one of my participants might me leaving the state in order to visit family for the holidays. While this isn't as much of an issue, It puts some dents in the plan. The person in question was meant to hold the camera while I direct. That being so I wouldn't have to do everything. Also It would allow me to shoot more effetcily, by positioning the camera woman and actors. Ill mostlikly move the dates up for my orinbigal plan by a few days and start filming on a weekend. Its not as concrete of a plan, but I still want to get started in Demcember, which is approaching stortly.

Websites' Alive and Well

     As of today, the website is fully functional. And just like the social media accounts, It wasn't very hard. My peers and I, by the suggestion of our instructors, used the website, Wix.com. The instructions thereon were pretty straight forward. I choose a general category; film, and some general templates that I liked, and Wix put together a website that I liked enough to start to edit. And not to sound like a sponsored ad, but I found it extremely easy. It didn't take much time, especially since there were other things I had to attend to. The website itself is live and can be found under "https://daziechain.wixsite.com/daziechain".

Which brings me to the decision of the working title. Not that it needed much thought or a deeper meaning, but I did so. It's like a little cherry on top for now. And in terms of branding and them, I like them a lot. I thought of Dazie for the name of my character, as in the name Dasiy, mixed with hazy, to represent the misty and foggy feel that I want the film to have. The chain came in because I want the film to have a looped effect, that the start and end are connected, and can repeat after the film has ended off-screen. And though the name is subject to change the elements I was want to embellish won't. The name will still most like retain apart of its origin if it changes at all.