IT'S A WRAP!!! - FILMING DAY FOUR

 After filming Tess's interview and B-roll, I fully dedicated myself to another project: a music video for a local indie band, Playkill. This was not my own project, however. It was Maya's.

    After interviewing her and having her take time out of her day to be in the documentary, I wanted to return the favor and help Maya out with her own project, especially because I love making music videos and am interested in music. Joining the team was definitely a win-win. The shoot took place from Wednesday to Friday, from about noon to 6:00 PM every day. Overall, it was a very interesting experience (this was the first time that Maya had worked with a client, and the first time that I had to help create something for other people). I was nervous at first since it felt like they were not taking us seriously, but as we got more comfortable with one another, the shoots became more and more relaxed, as well as much more enjoyable. 

    I personally really enjoyed the experience besides some small things here and there. I even made sure to take advantage of the situation and ask them if they were interested in being a part of my friend's music documentary-series, Curtain on Fire, which they seemed pretty interested in. Who knows, maybe I'll be shooting with them again sometime soon, whether it be at UCF or somewhere in south Florida. Regardless, I'm proud of myself for establishing that connection. I don't think I can reveal much (especially since it is not my project), but here is a picture I accidentally took with my camera while shooting:

    Once that came to a close on Friday, I prepared for Sabrina's re-shoot by making sure everyone was on the same page and knew when they needed to be at my house. Around 6:00 PM on Saturday, Wade, Sammy, Kim and I moved my living room again, set up the equipment and props, and then captured the shots we wanted the first time around (with the proper lighting of course). Here are some BTS (behind the scenes) pictures:

    Because we had done this multiple times before and were already familiar with Sabrina's outfits, behavior and tendencies, we basically blew through this shoot with minimal issues. The best part? Wrapping up the filming felt AMAZING. Here are some stills from the shoot (again, keep in mind that the footage is underexposed due to the SONY cameras having a weird, slightly uncalibrated monitor):

    Compared to the first shoot with Sabrina, these looked great not just because of the most controlled lighting, but also because everyone was already much more familiar with the equipment, what angles worked best, how much to under/overexpose, etc. I don't believe in "practice makes perfect" because complete perfection is unattainable, but I definitely think that we certainly improved our filming skills as well as our attitude towards the project (especially since we were feeling much more confident this time around).

    Now with filming done, however, it is time for editing. I knew going into this that my computer was in bad shape, and that I wanted to try shooting in a high resolution. In order to make up for both of these things, Kim asked our TV Production advisor whether we could use one of our program's "monsters," the most powerful computers we have. These are the computers we use for serious competitions and to edit our weekly show together, which both require some hefty rendering power. However, they don't call them "monsters" for nothing. They have insanely fast processing speeds and a good amount of memory on them. Our advisor approved, so now I have to wait until I go to school Tuesday in order to check it out. Until then, I need to start planning ahead so that these next two weeks are not extremely painful. As of right now, my main mission is to make the line-edit, choose the B-roll that will be playing over the interviews, find the videos that are going to be on the screens and edit them on with tracking/masking/blending modes. Once that is done, I can focus on the finishing touches: perfecting sound, color grading, and simple graphics like lower thirds and credits. I will admit, though - this is going to be one hell of a project. Check out how large it is:

Yup!

    No matter what, I am a firm believer in the phrase "if there is a will, there is a way," so no matter how difficult it may be, I want this project to be created consciously, purposefully, and with passion, especially since it talks about an issue that definitely requires more attention. Once I get the computer, I will start editing and start posting updates! Keep your eyes peeled for those! Until next time.