Shooting

I have officially finished the shooting portion of the project, and I encountered a lot of obstacles. First of all, I have 1 minute and 50 seconds of footage, that's without the credit slides. I will talk about those slides when I do an editing post. Once I am done, I should have my 2 minutes of footage. First problem- I forgot my tripod head (I am yet to complete a project in which this doesn't happen). So, I had to drive back home and back to the site.

First of all, I had a lot of problems with the audio. The first one was capturing the audio during long shots and extreme long shots. My camera was unable to pick up audio from that far, and I needed a solution. So, my idea was to wear an AirPod on the ear not facing the camera. I tried this, but the audio sounded awful. It was completely unusable- it sounded like a telephone call. So, I thought to use the microphone I ordered. However, it is a plug in mic, and I had to have my phone near me. So, I drove BACK home, borrowed a family member's phone, drove BACK to the site, and got to work. And it was worth it. The audio picked up by the microphone was perfect. To make sure I could sync it properly, I began recording audio and video at the exact same time, so I could simply pair them during editing, and editing would not be a nightmare.

Another problem I encountered was getting the shots right. Since I was both the actor and the cameraman, it was difficult to calculate the distance I had to stand at to get the shot just right. In close ups, I either missed the camera completely or was too zoomed in. In some shots, my head was just cut off, so I had to get the angles just right. Again, this was difficult, as I had to set the camera, shoot the shot, and then check if I did it right. It was a very tedious process that took up a lot of time.

Lighting was another challenge I struggled with. Since I don't have a large budget, my lighting had to be provided by the lampposts installed in the parking lot. In some shots, the lighting was facing directly into my camera. This made it impossible to get the shot, so I had to find ways to set up my camera around the lighting. Thankfully, some shots had some dark areas to create the mood I wanted; that of darkness and depression.

Overall, filming was not as bad as I thought it would be. It, of course, was very challenging, as I was the star, director, and cameraman all at once. It was not impossible, but I do feel as I have created something I will be proud of.