Production Week: Day 1

Today Brandon and I met up during 4th period to film the movie. We had over an hour to film, so we had to make the most of our time. Here's how the first day of filming went.

Brandon and I couldn't film the first scene in Ms. Vincent's room because she had a class, so we decided to film the rest of the movie first. We started by filming me walking home until I check my phone for a notification. Then we got to the scenes where Carla gets stressed and walks towards the inside of the theater. Once Brandon and I got inside we filmed the flashback scenes in the back of the costume room, which resembled a kitchen of a house. After filming the flashback with our friend Emily, or Carla's mom, we went to the front of the stage to film the scene where Carla talks to her teacher about her grade. Our teacher wanted to do it in one take, so we had to make sure the angles and other camera work was perfect before proceeding to film. After successfully filming the killing scene, we realized we ran out of time to film the first scene in the media studies class, so we decided to cut the scene entirely.

Through the entire process, Brandon and I had to go through some experimentation to find the best angles to film from, what type of camera work to use for specific scenes, or where to stand for the best framing. It was a process of trial and error for sure, but we made it work.

In terms of camera movement, we mainly used pan. It's a simple movement but successfully moves a story forward. Tracking was also used to follow Carla's hand before she killed Mr. Johnson.

All kinds of shot sizes were used while filming. Wide and master shots were used in the beginning before Carla entered the theater, a medium close up was used to showcase Carla's sad expressions, and full shots were used to follow Carla's walking.

For camera angles, the main ones used were eye level and hip level since they were the simplest ones to master and fit well with the storyline. However, dutch angle was used before Carla picked up the knife and ground level was briefly used to show Carla walking up the stairs.

Camera framing stayed fairly simple. Carla was the main character, so the movie was mainly a four shot and occasionally two shot when she interacted with her mom and teacher. There was a POV shot as Carla picked the knife up.

After a successful day of filming, I put all the videos together on my phone and emailed it to Jada for them to edit it. What surprised me is that we were able to film everything in one day.