March 28, 2016
Technically, the sophomore project is over. I've written the essay, shown my evidence, and I've put more than enough effort in. I don't have to write these journals anymore. The only thing that can keep me working on the film my love of the process…. And the dozens of people that I promised it will be finished.
Saying it is one thing, doing it is another.
We filmed all of the hallways scenes and scene 26 on March 24. It wasn’t one of the more enjoyable shoots. We needed extras and Thomas and Ayla failed to show up. I was especially upset with Ayla because she told me she would come, however, she changed her mind when Thomas decided he didn’t want to. I would like to stay mad about it, but there wasn’t anything I could do but adapt. (And I just generally don’t stay angry for very long.) It also didn’t help that Patrick complained through the filming about when we would be done. Luckily, Mayah was able to show up and help out, running sound and being an extra. I’m just going to say, the film has a very inconsistent class size.
I’m also worried about how it turned out. I didn’t really think a lot of the shots through, so I came up with them on the fly. I’m especially worried about scene 26. I hope it cuts together well because we can’t afford to go back another day.
On a happier note, we gotten all of the footage we wanted that day except for some shots of Gabe for scene 26. Plus, we have officially wrapped on Patrick. He’s done with all of his scenes.
We have a little more than 6 scenes left (we left a part in scene 26.) Jack and I scheduled to film with Carter on Tuesday (March 29). I’ve contacted Gabe to film scene 26. At first he agreed, but then he realized he had to study for a chemistry summative* and asked if we could reschedule the filming for Thursday. I was upset about it because he part was so small, we would be done within 30 minutes.
I’m only halfway done with the VFX. I’m realizing over and over again that this process is largely stamina based. For the past few days, I’ve consistently had to stay up past 1:00 and I still didn’t get done all that I wanted to complete. It doesn’t help that the week before Spring Break is a summative season and there is plenty of other school work I need to complete as well. I’ve made 1:00 my limit on working time for the sake of my sanity. However, as time goes on, I think I have to make it earlier and earlier.
I’ve had to extend my VFX timeline to the end of this week. However I have moved into color correction now! I’m doing the work simultaneously. I’ve completed 5 VFX tonight and I’ve color corrected all of the bedroom scenes and scene 2. With luck, I can finish VFX, color correcting, some basic sound correction (and hopefully color grading!) by the end of this week. It’s a bit ambitious, but I think once I start completing the school summatives, I will have a bit more time on my hands.
March 29, 2016
We have wrapped production! It took three months, but finally, we can put the camera down and focus on post. Hallelujah! I’ve waited for this day for so long.
This morning, I was able to text Gabe and convince him to come today. It just didn’t make sense to wait until Thursday. My mom had a meeting that would last until at least 4:00, meaning he would have to stay until about 4:30. If he came on Tuesday, he would still have time to study anyway.
Gabe came in and the filming went smoothly. We ended on time and even laughed a little. After that, we wrapped on Gabe. With celebratory claps, we headed outside to shoot the final scenes of the movie. (It’s actually the first time we filmed outside for the entire film.) Shooting in March proved to be a silver lining in our very late filming schedule. Had we filmed in January as planned, we would have been bitterly cold. Today was a beautiful day, hardly a cloud in the sky.
At 5:30 we wrapped production of Liquid Lighting.
I haven’t gotten the chance to edit all of the footage together and I’m planning on doing it tonight. With luck, I can complete the “rough cut”. (It’s still named the rough cut because I never had all of the footage.) Hopefully all of the holes are filled and I don’t have to call anyone back to do anything besides Automated Dialogue Replacement (ADR).
*Summative: assessments that count for (usually major) grades.