Portfolio Project: Production

 Making It Up To Ourselves

    Since we had a couple of delays in shooting, I will use this last production post to cover every aspect of production we have accomplished since our last post.

Day 1.5: Family Photos

    A very important part of our project is the mise-en-scène, and specifically the set design of our main shooting location. This is why it was of the utmost importance that the family photos got done first. So, we headed over to the park with a few outfits, got some photos, and then edited them at home. Below are some examples of the photos before and after editing.

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

    The technique I used to capture these photos was taking frames from videos I filmed of the actors posing. I would direct them perform a certain action such as, "point at the water," and while they talked about how silly their actions were, I would record them. This way, the photos came out with an extremely candid feeling which I thought would show the family's love for each other.

    To edit the photos, I used Photoshop Express, which is one of the best and most intuitive photo editing programs for mobile devices. I first created a look preset based on the family photo on the stairs, and then applied it to the other photos before fine-tuning them. Other photos such as the ones below took a different approach to the color and style of the photo. I even recruited help from my boyfriend to edit the main portrait, in which he edited based on his own personal editing style... 

Similar look, less intensity in colors

Monochromatic look

Vibrant look

    Below is a video showing the directing process behind capturing one of the photos, featuring a familiar face...

Day 2: Church Day

    Although we only needed three shots at the church, it was one of the most fulfilling aspects of the production process as shooting required asking permission. It was like, "Wow, what we are doing right now is so official that we need to ask someone for permission." I felt like a big boy ready to go into the big world that is film. Anywho, we asked the main office of the church and they said yes. I don't know why, but I was expecting at least a little pushback.

    The filming process was quick. We filmed a couple versions of one of the shots that did not require any of the actors while the actors were on their way to the church. Then, when the actors arrived, I just sat them down and did my thing. Below are some of the screen captures of the raw footage, as the files are too large to upload here.

Celebration, Yay

Day 3: House Day

    The last leg of the production journey also saw most of the footage. In fact, on day three we shot nearly 30 minutes of footage for this two minute short film (granted, a lot of that time was me directing the actors). We arrived at the filming location (my grandparents' house) at around 7:30 PM and filmed until around 11:30 PM. The first step was to set up the memorial altar, which required some moving around of furniture. 

Memorial Altar

    Filming was fun as even though we had both the script and storyboard, we had to improvise certain shots as they just did not work in practice. THIS is my favorite part of directing. There is not much to say about filming as it went relatively smoothly, besides the fact filming took a few hours longer than intended, which was honestly expected. At one point, we took a break and went on a late-night run to the market for some food and to pick up a print from Walgreens we forgot to print beforehand. Another small setback is that we forgot to prepare a moving box, which was a required set piece, so I ran to Home Depot and picked one up before shooting.

    As previously stated, there is not much else to say, so I will just show instead of tell.

    One issue during production is that we worked with only a phone and tripod. In some scenes where we needed stable movement, it was just not possible. However, we used this to our advantage, going for a more handheld approach to our dynamic shots. In the scene where the father storms out with the photo, we take this to the extreme in order to really imbue the shot with the energy and the anger felt by the father.

    Also, the microphones we rented did not work for what we were trying to accomplish, so in certain shots we hid a phone which recorded exclusively audio.

Behind The Scenes

Moving Forward

    Now that production is finished, we will move on to post production. Here, I intend to hone my current editing skills learn new ones. I would like to focus on learning color grading, specifically manual color correction and simple grading in order to achieve our intended look for the film. Beyond that, we will also need to work at the sound, as much of the film will not use diegetic audio, and the scenes that do may require some foley.

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy." - Jd