First Day of Filming

    For this post, I will be detailing how the first time our group got together and filmed for our movie opening.  There are a couple of different factors that went into our first day of filming and I will highlight everything that happened.

    We had decided to get together at our designated location after sundown since we want to film our movie at night. Since I live very close to our film location, it didn't take me very long to get there, so I waited till my partners, Daniel and Sofia, get there first. After they told me they had arrived there, I went towards the office building. It was very fortunate there was hardly anyone at the office building. The area in which we filmed parts of the opening didn't have any other person's cars obstructing the shots, which was great as we wanted the office building to seem empty. The roles for each of our members were as follows; I was to be the main character, Daniel is the second character in the film, and Sofia is the camerawomen.

    The costumes that we used for the shooting are as shown in the pictures above. I, on the left, wore a fairly plain, formal attire in order to appear as an average, everyday office worker, tired of working all day. Daniel, on the right, is wearing black clothing and a hoodie in order to blend in with the night, acting as the supposed stalker of the main character. 

    Additionally, we also had to use multiple of our cars throughout the film as props in order for us to get the right footage. My car is the gray one on the right, Daniel's car is the white one in the middle, and lastly, Sofia's car is the black SUV on the right. We used the cars in a couple of different parts during our first day, and I am glad that we were able to get ample enough footage with them to not have to reshoot using them again.

    Moving along to the actual filming itself, the first shot of the film is the one we were stuck on the longest. We were decided exactly how we wanted to do it, debating on if I should go inside the building and then exist or simply start the shot with me already being outside. Unfortunately, the building required a special key card to gain access so we were forced to go the with latter option as has been described. On the other hand, there was a wall on the right of the entrance of the building that hid me from the camera so we were able to make it seem as I was exiting the building anyway. Something that I was concerned about while we were filming the first shot was there being a person actually at the entrance talking on the phone, but thankfully, he left before we got the shot we needed. We were able to capture what we believe to be a sufficient enough shot for the first shot of the film that a reshoot of this scene isn't necessary.

    The second scene had me walking towards my car, starting it up and leaving, while soon after I left, the stalker's car starts up in the background and follows me. For this scene, we had elected to use Sofia's car as the stalker's car instead of Daniel's since hers is all black, which would blend into the background far better. This scene took us a couple of tries as we had to line up the cars in a way that the stalker's car would not be seen immediately, only after I had driven away, as to not alert the main character that someone is following them. In order for the audience to know that the stalker's car is following the main character, the black SUV turns on its lights.

    Once the parking lot scene was finished, the last shot of the day we recorded was a scene where the main character is driving towards home, down a long straight road. What I really like about how we did this scene is that we shot it not from the main character's perspective, but actually from the point of view inside the stalker's car while they are in pursuit. We took care in not relieving the identity of the stalker whilst we filmed in the car, opting to only show the arm of the stalker. Fortunately, we were able to wrap up this scene in one take, opting to only do it once because we all believe that the footage we captured was good for the opening, and because we didn't want to have to drive up and down the long road multiple times for the filming.

    These three scenes are all that we captured during our first day of filming. We decided to stop after the third scene since it was getting late. Once again, I do not believe that we will need to reshoot any of these scenes. Also, the sound and the actual video recording itself are smooth and run well, leading us to believe that, overall, the first day of filming was quite a success. We are looking to come together and film the other parts of the movie opener potentially this weekend, or perhaps next week, as I think that now we have gotten over our worries about how to film. Overall, the first day of filming was a success and was pretty fun doing as well.