Thursday, March 18, 2021

Close to Finished: A Reflection

I am so thrilled to say that we are finally reaching the end of our project. This has been an interesting journey with lots of ups and downs. In fact, we've had to make so many little edits and changes along the way in order to make everything work. 

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, we've had to make several adjustments to make sure everyone stayed safe. For example, originally, Betty was going to be played by my friend, Amber, and the scene would be filmed in her room. Unfortunately, because her parents required her to quarantine, we had to make a last minute casting change and Tori took on the role of Betty. However, we still had no clue where Betty's Room scene would be filmed. We originally thought of my sister's room, but that didn't work. Eventually, we carried out our finished result, in which Tori filmed the scene by herself in her own room.  

We have also has several changes concerning the screenplay. In fact, my original script included a fourth character, Inez, who would've been a gossipy friend of Betty's. Due to a lack of time, we had to cut her from the script. Even the voiceover was something that I hadn't originally intended on doing, but we came up with later. Another change we had to do was the tilt to the sky during James and August's argument. Originally, the scene would've been filmed from the outside of the car, facing the front window, but due to obscured visibility and hearing, we had to open up the sunroof and film the scene from inside the car!

Working with others has definitely contributed to many of these changes. For example, it was team members' idea to include the voiceover, the ripped up letters and photos, and even the POV shot of Betty walking to the door. In fact, my original idea for this opening might be similar to the finished product, but it has gone through a complete evolution ever since I got more opinions and thoughts. Especially since we're in the time of COVID-19, we have to be especially careful working with others. To stay safe, we were actually thinking of making Tori film her conversation scene script off-site, so she wouldn't have to take off her mask with us around her. Realizing this might get complicated, Tori decided to take a risk and film her part at the same time as me. 

There are probably many things I would have done differently. For example, if I had more time, I still would've loved to include Inez in the scene, even though my partners might not agree. I also probably would've tried to make the conversation between James and August a little bit longer. I say this because it kind of cuts from James angrily getting in her car to an intense argument with little context on how things got so intensified. My original script included a short conversation while in the car to explain this heated conflict, but due to time, we had to cut it out.  

My spring break is next week, which means it is our last bit of time to make the finishing touches to our film. We will be making the final changes to our opening that will give us our final result! We will really be focusing on adding all the credits and title sequences, which I described in an earlier post. Tori will also be recording her voiceover and we will be adding it into the film, making sure it lines up with everything. After that, all we really have to do is watch the opening and make sure there are no errors and that everything looks good. Then, just like that, we're done! Stay on the lookout for more blog posts as we reach the finish line!

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