We've reached a point in time where I'm able to look back and see how far we've come. Through the difficulties and the challenges, we've pulled through and are very close to finishing. And it feels scary since I didn't think we'd get here so quickly. Time really does pass by quick, so hear me out as I reflect on our journey.
Starting this course, we all knew that COVID-19 was going to impact how we were going to approach this project. We wanted to take careful precautions and keep everyone safe, but at the end of the day, we still needed this film opening to be made. COVID actually affected the location of filming. We were going to film in Amber's bedroom, but her parents didn't want anyone entering their house since they wanted to stay safe. This is understandable, but it meant that we had to adjust our plans. So, what ended up happening was Tori self-filming and having her mother film her for the bedroom waking-up scene. Not gonna lie, I was pretty scared that the quality may turn somewhat bad since the director (Hannah) wasn't there to give filming tips. But, my doubts were quickly proven wrong since I love the way these shots turned out. I think Tori's camera truly made it seem like an actual movie. Through this experience, I learned that even though things may not go completely according to plan, things can still turn out amazing. Also, by working with other people, I learned to trust others more when changes do change. Go Tori!
Another thing we had to change was the plot and therefore the screenplay. Daniel's idea of a fourth character, Inez, was scrapped because of time constraints. Inez would have been the gossipy friend that told Betty that James was cheating on her. Before we decided on scrapping her, Daniel had already written a script that included Inez's lines in it. Of course, we had to then change the script to exclude Inez and her lines. Also, we changed the tilt to the sky. It was supposed to be shot from outside the car facing the front of August and James, but because of visual and auditory problems, this ended up getting switched to being shot from behind August and James in the backseat. The pan to the sky still happened, though. We just had to open the sunroof.
My three friends and I have our own tastes and ideas, and the four of us individually impacted the project because of this. I added the idea of using props to highlight the breakup, and my friends added the idea of a POV shot and the pan to the sky. Tori and I were both concerned about the length of August and James' conversation since we were afraid that this would take up too much time. We had to communicate this with the rest of the group. The combination of all of our ideas created the end result, and it would not be the same should any of us be missing. Another impact of working with others was the fact that we had to constantly keep COVID in mind. In order to stay safe, my family wouldn't let me go to the filming site at all. I would have definitely been allowed to work in person with my group if there weren't a pandemic. But, even Daniel, Tori, and Hannah had to take precaution while filming together. Daniel and Tori considered filming at their respective houses, but this did not work, so they did the best to take precautions while filming mask-less near each other.
There are a few things that I would do differently if I was able to do this all over again. I would, of course, love to have been there during filming. I could have offered different filming opinions and shots, and could have possibly made the outside-the-car shot of the August and James argument work with recording a separate audio for the dialogue. I also would have liked to have had more, longer shots. This would allow for greater flexibility with editing since I can just crop videos and test a variety of sequences rather than being forced to work with the limited shots we do have.
Further changes we can make can really only be done with editing at this point. I'm working on the title sequence at the moment, and I will soon work on adding filters so the film opening looks pretty. One of the last things I'll be doing is adding in Betty's voiceover once Tori sends me that audio file. Other than that, I think we should be good :)
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