[Day 3] Production day 1 - Hallway section #1

Day 1: Hallway Section

📆 Date: Wednesday, January 31st, 2024

⏰ Time: 15:25 - 17:45 (2 hours 20 minutes)

📍 Location: Vinschool Central Park, Classroom Hallway on the 4th floor, Bathroom, Staircase from 4th to 5th floor

👤 Personnel: Anna, Jennie (Actor), Potter (Assistant director & Lighting operator)

🎥 Equipment:

• Camera: Nikon D5600 (School's)
• Tripod (School's)
• Lighting (School's)

💄 Costumes & Props:

• Black jacket (Jenny)
• Vinschool uniform shirt (Jennie)
• Uniform skirt (Jennie)
• Shoes (Jennie)
• Exacto knife (Sofia)

My Responsibility

🤵‍♀️ Director: As the director of my film, I am involved in every stage of production process and is responsible for all the creative decisions.

📽️ Camera Operator + Cinematographer: I am responsible for operating the camera for all the shots, setting up the camera for each shot according to the storyboards, and being mindful of the picture and sound recorded. Any technical issues on set will also need to be taken care of. It is also important that I need to maintain all the equipment borrowed from the school.

Personnel

👩‍🎓 Nguyen Vu Khanh Nhu (Jennie): Actor for "Nadine" & "Anne"; Assistant Director

Jennie did an exceptional job at acting for both Nadine and Anne, she was able to fully showcase the differences in personality of the 2 identities and the results exceeded my expectations. Besides being an actor, she also contributed to giving critical suggestions and ideas about the camera shots or additional ad-libs that helped to fully convey the idea to the audience. Jennie was also very professional on set and I'm very grateful to have her as both the actor and assistant director.

🧑‍💼 Luong Nhat Minh (Potter): Assistant Director & Lighting Operator

Potter was also a media student, so having him on set on both production day 1 and day 2 is very helpful. Aside from capturing the behind-the-scenes moments, he also suggested ideas to help improve the shots which was very useful. Another important role Potter had on set was a lighting operator, which is especially needed to create a lightning effect, which he carried out successfully. I'm very grateful that he agreed to help me out on both production day that happens at school, despite me only asking a few hours beforehand. 

Challenges

• Sound from the choir who is practicing downstairs
• Continuous changes in location
• Continuous changes in outfit
• Handled movements
• IPad seen in the frame during a scene where an exact match cut is required
• The timing is too rushed

During the filming in the hallway, a choir practice was happening at the time and we didn't really notice the notice until we rewatched the footage and the sound got caught in the shot. There was nothing we could do about the sound as apparently, we couldn't know exactly where the sound came from or the purpose so we couldn't force them to stay silent for our filming, therefore we just accepted that the sound would be heard in the footage. However, I believe that I could remove the sound during post-production so it is not so much of a worry for me. As for next time, I could wait for when the choir is taking a break to film which could avoid the sound getting into the footage. 

The 2 most challenging parts during production day 1 were not technical problems. Still, it is how Jennie had to change 3 outfits during the 2 hours shoot while I needed to constantly move the tripod and camera to 3 different locations in the school, which cost a bit of time. Since we were filming after school time, it was hard to stay at school late so I was trying to be efficient with all the filming and make up for the time lost due to outfit and location changes. In the end, despite having 15 more minutes to reshoot any footage that I was not fully satisfied with, we were already warned by the teacher to leave before 18:00 so we just decided to wrap up the shoot and stick with what we already got. For improvements, I think I could have an additional day to reshoot all the footage that I'm not really satisfied with to improve my film.

The first day of filming was the most chaotic during the 3 days as it was my first time filming so a lot of details changed during the filming process. In the end, I decided to do most of the shoot in the hallway by handheld movements rather than using a tripod since I felt like the idea would be better conveyed and since I had not tried it during the experimental shot day, it takes a lot of shot to nail it and takes some time as well. Moreover, my height was a lot shorter than Jennie so I also struggled to film her at a higher angle which caused the footage to have a bit of a shake. Next time, I would have tried more options during the experiment to fully be ready for any changes when the official shooting day came. 

One mistake I made during the staircase scene that frustrated me the most was when I left my iPad on the staircase during the first shot where Jennie was wearing a detective outfit and I took it out when Jennie changed into her uniform, which leads to the 2 scenes not being identical in the surroundings. As I wanted to match cut the 2 shots, I was really angry at myself for not carefully checking the surroundings and it is a lesson learned for the 2 other production days. I also can't force Jennie to change her outfit again to reshoot so I just stick with the footage that I already have. I think that to fix the mistake, I could use the surroundings of the later footage and try to match cut Jennie in both outfits only, not the full background. I don't know how it will turn out, if not, I might have to accept the fact that it will be there as a mistake and can't be removed but next time, I would be more aware of what got caught in the frame. 

Lessons learned

• Be extra critical about the shots that need to match perfectly. Remove all unnecessary props seen in the frame.
• Always observe the whole frame while rewatching, don't only observe the object but also the surroundings. 
• Always leave a few seconds before pressing stop filming the scene. 
• Always check the storyboard to see if any shot or scene is missing. Check for camera shots, camera movement, and all the technical details before filming a scene. 

Storyboards

Despite already having a main storyboard, I have decided to create a production storyboard used for the filming day. I believe that summarizing the storyboard helps me, Jennie, and Potter know the shot list better and add any additional details to make the film flow smoothly. For the storyboard for production day 1, I also considered the time to film in each location, such as filming at the staircase first since windows are seen and I wanted the scene to be in the morning so it is filmed first. The hallway scene is set to be late at night so I have filmed it at the end, after the bathroom scene. 

Sample shots

Scene 5 Shot 2

Scene 5 Shot 1

Scene 5 Shot 3

Scene 5 Shot 3*

Scene 2 Shot 6*

Scene 2 Shot 5

Scene 2 Shot*

This is one of the additional scenes that I planned to add but in the end, it is too hard to film as I can't set up the camera so that I could film Jennie's face due to the sink and it is too risky to climb above the sink so I decided to not film it and ignore this storyboard. 

Scene 2 Shot 5

Scene 2 Shot 1

Scene 2 Shot 2

Scene 2 Shot 3

Scene 1 Shot 1

Scene 1 Shot 9

Scene 1 Shot 8

Scene 1 Shot 5/6

Behind the Scenes

Here is a video of what specifically happens behind the scenes during production day 1. Besides the shots that are filmed in the bathroom, the staircase and hallway shots are all captured.