February 2, 2016
I hate everything.
Yep, today is one of those days.
We had a meeting with the cast and crew today. Or the ones that could make it, meaning sans Ayla, Jada, Gabe, Alyssa, and Thomas. We discussed days we could shoot and finish the film. The meeting wasn’t supposed to be too long. In fact, I spent most of it setting up for the photo shoot (more on that later.)
Jack, Patrick, Carter, and Mayah decided on three more days of shooting. Tomorrow until 5 for scene 26 (the important school scene), and Wednesday and Thursday next week (Feb 10 and 11) to walk to Jack’s house and film the hallway scenes.
After the meeting, we began the photo shoot. It was fast, but it was painful. I worked with Patrick. Sometimes I just want that boy to sit still. Working with Patrick can sometimes be difficult because he is talkative and it can be hard to get him to focus.
I don’t swear, but lately, it’s been harder and harder to hold my tongue. Sometimes I just want to tell everyone “%*#&! shut up and focus! If we get this done as fast as possible, you won’t have to worry about it for the next month! It will just become my %*#! problem in the %*#! editing bay!”
If things keep going on like this, I may just explode.
To add on to the stress, I’ve gotten some of Gabe’s footage, and frankly, some of it is unusable. I guess I wasn’t clear enough about the shots I wanted and how we were going to get them. I need to fix a hideous jump cut in one of the bedroom scenes. Also, scene 2 is wasn’t framed well from his end. I take these mistakes as my fault. I should have given more guidance.
Also, I’ve royally screwed up the last parts of the movie that take place in the lab. In the background you can see lots of the crew members lying around, and in some shots, I didn’t tell them to get out of it. There is so much going on in the background of those scenes that I may not have caught on to it initially.
I’m definitely going to need to slap some 2:35:1 bars on the video so I can finagle with the positioning of the footage, but it’s going to take some work to get it too look good. This means more time in compositing, which may mean a nail biting deadline. April 2nd may be a lot closer than I think.
I’ve been in a sour mood towards the end of my day (which was otherwise good) because of this. I think this slump is starting to affect my tennis game. Over the course of 24 hours, I have acquired painfully sloppy forehands. (It also didn’t help that Coach wanted me to use a new racket.)
Anyway, today I tried to use YouTube to drown out my sorrows. I watch an episode of DSLR Guide. The host, Simon Cade, is not much older than me and he recently completed a short film (Two Wrongs). He worked in less time, had more gear, and more people to deal with. The episode, Preparing for a Short Film Shoot, was about his struggles with pre- production.
It was the perfect episode for me to watch today. I felt a lot better about my struggles. The way he put it, it was all a part of the process. I decided to go ahead a mope about my issues today, get all of the tension out, and forget about it tomorrow. It helps that I can relieve all of this pent up tension in this journal, (which is undoubtedly one of my more negative). I will still hammer out that poster. Follow my passion. Make this movie.
I’m still a little upset, but this is (hopefully) just a phase.
February 3, 2016
Okay, today is certainly doing nothing for my mood.
First of all, we had a mini monsoon today. Lately, I’ve found my mood to be at its peak on sunny days (especially sunny Fridays.) Regardless if it is a sign that I’m going nuts, a rainy Wednesday is on the opposite end of the spectrum. To add insult to injury, our recycling bin got swept away in rushing water. That’s going to be a pain to clean when I get home.
Rubbing even more salt in the wound, we had to cancel filming today. Gabe was sick and Alyssa couldn’t make it. I did what I could to let to show go on, but it was futile. Things are beginning to crumble and my sanity is waning.