As fantastic as our crew pulled off this short film, the team had some bumps in the road making this project come to life!
Choices needed some work
In the beginning stages of making this film, we all agreed that the script needed to be more developed. Along with the script, the characters needed more dimension. We passed around ideas for a couple of weeks trying to find a way to deepen the script handed to us by a previous student, and the thought of adding a betrayal seemed necessary. How could we deepen those elements without creating a villain? The crew wanted to avoid placing any character in the "bad guy" role since we named the movie choices. If some one was undoubtedly a bad guy, the choices aspect wouldn't seem that hard of a decision to make. The ideas circulating around the team were all amazing, and we came to the decision of creating two genuine characters that have kind intentions. None of the actions of the characters were coming from a malicious place, but rather to look out for one another.
We need to ace this screen media element
Including screen media in the film was much harder than we thought, but we managed to get it together. Initially there was supposed to be two scenes that were going to be based via video chatting, but the first run in with utilizing the idea completely failed. The screen media with scene five (Joanne and Beth) was supposed to just be recorded on FaceTime to avoid having to do major edits in the postproduction phase, What was supposed to be a quick scene recording, took about 45 minutes to film. It was difficult to not only have sound attached, but have both characters seen. In attempt to use FaceTime, the team tried using multiple phones, a laptop, and a screen recording software but the FaceTime calls were causing too many sound complications. We agreed to use zoom as foundational screen media platform since there was no interference with sound and was able to pickup both characters speaking. Overall, the challenges faced during the filming of the movie did not hinder the creative process of making the movie but rather made the crew more appreciative of the difficulties that real directors and producers encounter when making a project.
The Locations. A mission within itself
On one of our production days, the team thought it would be great to scout for locations for film shooting. Although it took about an hour and a half to find the places that would be ideal for shooting, there were a few last minute changes to what we collectively agreed on. The scene for Eric speaking with Caroline, we initially planned to film on campus in Charles Library, but it was not a feasible location because Temple required masks to be worn at all times. Filming a movie would not have been conducive with our actors wearing masks, so our backup plan was to shoot at a crew members house and make an office scene out of a bedroom. No one could tell, but the decision to move to Josh Kelly's house was last minute.
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