"A-ha" Moments

          There were many ups and downs during the shooting process. I knew that production was going to be the hardest part of this project, but the problems we encountered were so unexpected. While planning, my group did not put in enough detail to the storyboard which led to some issues during filming. We also tried to include way too many shots to the beginning of our film opening that left the clip looking messy and unorganized. It really hit me after watching the edited version of our shots that we needed to come up with a better plan. Instead of drawing up another storyboard decorated with stick figures, Josie and I wrote down each shot we wanted to film. We reviewed the first rough cut many times before deciding which shots should be kept and which shots could be taken out. Below is a picture of the elimination process we went through:

          After we had a clear vision for our film opening, reshooting became much easier. The first time we filmed it took Josie and I almost 1 hour and 30 minutes, whereas reshooting took about 30. The time difference between the first and second time we filmed really showed me how planning thoroughly can make the production process much easier. Apart from the planning, the importance of mise en scene was emphasized during reshooting. My group was lucky enough to have our peers review the first rough cut of our film, and they pointed out that not having other students on campus made the setting appear very artificial. Deciding to shoot during the actual school day was probably the best decision we made, having students in the background dramatically improved our opening. Here, you can compare the setting of the scene:

I would say that these two events were the “A-ha” moments my group experienced when filming. We were able to fix our mistakes thankfully, and honestly I’m happy they happened. The second version of the clip looks cleaner and is a better reflection of the effort Josie and I have put into this project. Just for fun, here is a look at the first version of our rough cut (WARNING: It is indeed very rough).