Filming

Yesterday was our first day of filming. Nyaira and I prepared the night before by creating a list of things we would need for our first shoot as we didn’t have much time to film. Things on the list included props, costumes, and other things needed to get ready like mirrors, makeup, etc. Nyaira also decided to stop at Dunkin Donuts before coming to school to pick up a wide range of products for our commercial. I packed my bag and awaited the next day.

The next day, I went to school and I helped Nyaira carry in our Dunkin Donuts merchandise. In the classroom, we prepared for filming. I was the main actress so I got dressed in my first costume. Nyaira and I decided to work from the end to the beginning so I got ready into my “Autumn” outfit. While I got dressed Nyaira set up the tripod and began to film some of our still shots for the product promotion. I assisted her with some of our more artsy shots like the pouring of the iced coffee.

We then filmed our first action scenes where the character finally tastes the product and is amazed by the transformation. We are cutting the shot from sleepwear to the autumn outfit by zooming in on my eyes then zooming out. It was difficult to line up the shot of the eyes to be perfect in one continuous shot. After trial and error, we found the perfect spot and marked it on the ground for reference. We took a couple takes but, we think we came out with some pretty good shots. We then shot the next scene where the character is excited and rejuvenated from drinking the DD coffee. It was difficult to frolic and look happy without looking dumb and sarcastic. We did this with the tripod set up and the character starting off-screen so it doesn’t seem unnatural to have the girl start and stop when filming. Nyaira and I agreed to film extra happy scenes so we have many options to choose from and fill in with. This portion of the filming took most of our time as it is the bulk of our commercial. Overall, it was a learning process that I feel will help to film in the future. (I think on Monday!)

Lastly, we went back to the classroom when we had about 15 minutes left of the period. We were instructed to dump our footage onto the class computers. We received an SD card reader that we put our SD card into. Nyaira created a new folder for all of our footage from the day. We dumped it into the folder, labeled it so we can access it later, and saved it. Next class, we are aiming to accomplish initial editing and organizing of the footage we have. We can access what we have, what we need to improve on, and future shots. Next class I know we need to film some more aesthetic coffee shots for when we describe the coffee in voiceover. Additionally, we need to film the entire beginning premise with the sleepy and distraught character.