Classroom Filming

Blogggggeerrrrrr!!!!!! I have a mega update. So much weight has been lifted off my shoulders. So, yesterday I filmed all of the classroom scenes as well as the walking out of the bathroom scene. Me, Madi, and Mrs. Stoklosa arranged a way to incorporate all of my classmates to assist me by being actors and walking in the hallway, to make it look realistic and crowded.

I was so lucky that I had about 10 people help me in filming these scenes as it was effective in making the hallways seem crowded and natural.

Here is a video of me directing the actors on where to go.

Our tactic was to have some people walking toward the camera and some people away as people took different routes to their different classes. We also had some people chatting against the wall and some people chatting while walking. We also had someone walking from behind me, which made it seem real. We had Jake leaning against the wall, on his phone but looks up at Lily as she passed by.

In the classroom scene, we made a minor alteration of me sitting down in my chair to give the effect that I am present in the class.

We reduced the amount of chaos of finding a teacher to leave their class and help me out by having one of my classmates act as the teacher.

This low angle establishes his authority and I directed the two student actors to look at him while he speaks.

We thought that the teacher should first say “good morning” and ask the class how they are feeling as it makes the environment more comfortable and natural. My teacher suggested that we do a voice recording of him, saying this and layer it with background chatter of students.

Along with this, we also filmed audio of all of my classmates, responding to the question. Here's a behind-the-scenes video of my classmates and I filming an audio of the students responding to the teacher.

These additions will ensure that our sound feels like a real classroom even though it might take extra work to accomplish. I have to make sure that the audio of the teacher speaking aligns with the video of him, speaking.

I realized that I didn’t really have anything else for the teacher to say until after the flashback so I had my actor start talking about the theory of evolution which will become muffled as my attention starts to drift. As we were filming, I realized that, as my focus started to drift away, and I zoned out, the teacher's voice should become muffled, to reduce attention from everything else but Lily (me). The muffled sounds of the teacher, give the sense that Lily is no longer focussing on the words of the teacher, and rather the ideas drifting through her head.

I also think that the way we filmed the flash forward of the close-up of the teacher, was very effective, especially with the way the teacher pronounced “Lily.” I gave him a tip on how to say the name, but Mrs. Stoklosa liked the way he said it better. This is him saying Lily.

We also had some struggles with the lighting as Lily and Jake needed to be across the room from each other. This wasn’t the issue though. The issue was that our actor playing Jake, Dino, was facing away from the window which allowed for not as good lighting. Dino also altered the exposure to make it a little bit more low to give it more of an effect. We also made Jake look a little bit away during the eyeline match to show a sense of tension and regret.

My partner, Madi, had to leave for a lacrosse game so I had my classmate, Vanessa, help me in filming. In this video, you can see how I struggled to look zoned out and became distracted by Dino in the background.

I got a few different angles of the eyeline match of me, so I may use the farther one first, and then the closer shot, to show that I think more and more about that night, the more I look at Jake.

Jake was filmed from more of a distance, a medium shot, with an actor in the back, completing work, and enforcing the setting.

Tomorrow I will be filming other scenes so I will have to change into my original clothes which is kind of annoying, but anything for the film.

Since we’ve filmed every other shot, the last thing we have to do is the walking into school shot and the bathroom shot. The plan is to film me, walking into school, during my lunch and I’m going to bring about 6-8 friends. Actually walking into the white gates outside of our school, might not be as crowded because there are not as many people off school campus so I may use a couple of friends for the outside of school, but the halls should have some people in it and then the people that were in the white gate shot will be saying hi to me in the hallway. I want to get my Spanish teacher and last year's English teacher to pop out of their rooms and say hello and be one of my actors so I will text them tonight.