Working on Progress

Today we had another filming day. Our goals for the day were to get all of the minutes three, four, and five filmed. We started filming around 6pm so we would be able to capitalize on the setting sun. Minute three would be the entrance into the gambling ring, getting a feel for the kind of place the characters are at, and what it's genuinely like to be there. The main issue we had here was the lack of extras we had available. We wanted to show the gambling ring as being more full, with many different people playing throughout the room. However, most of the people we had available were sick. We ended up mostly using the few friends and Angel's family members in order to get these shots. The good part about only having one dealing table was that it gave the scene a sense of secrecy and exclusivity. However, because these were people close to us instead of trained actors, we spent a lot of time working with each person and trying to get others to understand what the scene should look like. We took several takes of each shot so as directors, we could get a feel for how the scenes translate on camera. So many shots were taken, in fact, that our SD card ended up running out of storage and we had to take a break to download the videos onto a computer. Something we also did that elevated our filming process was redoing scenes with different extras and people. Based on what costume we had available, and the person's likeness to the character, we chose different people for each part. While we originally had Angel's brother bumping into Jackie entering the gambling ring, we eventually changed it to Angel's sister. She was able to better capture the snobbiness of the character that we really needed. However, when it came to the dealer, Angel's brother did an amazing job. Overall, we had to make a couple changes here and there. However, it will be for the best of the film and working with what we have in order to do the best job we can.

This is a behind-the-scenes shot of our gambling ring, right before the snobby extra is escorted out.

Until next time, Danniella signing off.

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Danniella Miller AICE Media Studies

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