Filming Progress

    Filming has officially commenced! I, first, wanted to capture the shots of the objects placed around the room. My hands are not the steadiest in the world (God knows I could never be a brain surgeon), so after taking a few practice shots of items around the room, I knew I would've needed the help of some filming tools. Thankfully, I was able to borrow a camera stabilizer from my teacher and the rest of the shots appeared much better. Some movement is still detectable, but I wanted to hold the camera rather than use a tripod because I wanted to give the scenes a sense of natural movement as there is already a lack of excitement and movement in the scenes, being shots of only the items. I wanted to go for a homey and realistic feeling, like as if the scenes were being witnessed by the audiences own eyes. I was inspired by the memories captured by the character Yang from the film After Yang, and I wanted to create that same feeling of tranquility. 

Link: https://youtu.be/cIJ8-HGWlKw?si=Plti5C-DPwuh9mfA

    For the most part, I'm really satisfied with how everything looks. I'm taking multiple shots of an item/area at different angles, lengths, and focuses. My phone has a setting on the video mode called "Cinematic" where it takes the video at different focus pulls. This is a cool feature because I'm able to focus on different things by activating what's called the "AF Tracking Lock." I'm hoping this will give my film a more sophisticated look with more dimension as not all of the scenes will be constantly in deep focus. I'm also content with how the lighting is going. I was worried that it wouldn't look bright enough since I was just using the natural light source from the window in the room, but I think it actually gives it a more organic look rather than a bright or harsh overhead light.

    The next scenes to be filmed are with the actual actors! In terms of costume and makeup design, the main character will be well-groomed (his hair neatly done) and in the action of putting on dress pants and a dress shirt. Graduates typically wear formal clothing since the day marks an important achievement. It's not extremely formal where the men wear suit jackets or tuxedos, especially since the graduation gown acts as a jacket anyways, but it's still a pretty formal event where everyone tries their best to look good. That's what makes the opening and Alejandro's actions in it even more impactful because he's running late to his own graduation, clearly not showing must interest in hurrying or getting there on time. This is extremely telling of Alejandro's view of and interactions with the world that the audience will encounter later on in the film. The father character will also be dressed formally, except unlike Alejandro, he'll be wearing the suit jacket for a more mature look.

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