Shooting day (for film opening) + Choosing the protagonist

Where do we start... Probably 2 weeks before filming, I had a lesson with my tutor in which we were talking about the filming day. Then she asked me, "Asztrid, do you feel ready?" and I responded, "Yes." Then her next words were, "Be prepared for the unexpected." Right after she said that, my head started imagining what could go wrong, and I told her, "Imagine I get to the apartment and there is construction in the building and I can't film." Fast forward to the day of the shoot, I get out of the elevator and below our apartment, there was construction going on... I started panicking because I was scared I wouldn't last the whole day, and I could still do my film opening shoot as I was having my cousin/protagonist coming from Alba, which is one hour and 15 minutes away from Cluj.

Then another story with choosing the protagonist... I asked one of my friends who I know can get into role, and with her feeling very fast, she said she is very happy to hear about my project and she will give me a response. After 2 days, she came with a response that she cannot help me due to the fact she also has some exams this year. I started struggling a bit because I was looking for someone who can get into role, also knows English, and also is not shy in front of the camera. I then got the idea of ringing an old classmate that I thought could work for the role of Grace. And she said yes at first, then told me she can't do it anymore... While in my head, I still had a voice telling me to ring my cousin. So that is what I did, and it was the best decision because she is not shy in front of the camera and she also was a very good help with helping me use the camera. The camera that I filmed with (Canon EOS) was the exact camera she had at home, and as I was still new to using the camera (even if I tried doing a vlog with it on the weekend), she helped me a lot with sometimes adjusting the lighting or getting her opinion on things as she also has a very artistic view/does vlogs.

Back to the shooting day. We planned to start at 9 - 9:30 but didn't quite manage as my cousin also was a bit late because she stopped on her way to also buy a nice pajama set to make the movie more realistic as Grace is an influencer (that was very sweet of her as I didn't ask her to buy new clothes, only what she had). But because we started a bit later, it was a good opportunity for me to go to Lidl to buy some snacks to have while filming until we were hungry to get food, but also to clean the balcony as the birds made a mess.

After I did that, she also got to the apartment. We went over the plan a bit and tried to see what we could do until they stopped working at the apartment below us. We exchanged some ideas on how to film the outside scene with the morning coffee, but by the time we wanted to start filming the outside scene, I was so concentrated on the filming that I didn't even realize they had stopped working. When my cousin entered the apartment from the balcony, she told me... ASZTRID, THEY STOPPED WORKING!! LET'S GO!!

She changed quickly and began working on the documentary-style part. We didn't know how long the quiet time would be, so we tried to get it done as fast as possible. We were very scared that we would not finish in time with the right amount of takes before they started working again, and surprisingly, they stopped working at around 1 PM and didn't start again until 4 PM or 5 PM. But we didn't know this at the time, so until we adjusted the cameras and my cousin got comfortable with the role, it took a bit of time, but we still managed to finish before they started working again with plenty of time (finished in an hour and something). One of the challenges when doing the sit-down vlog/documentary shot was getting used to the role and also getting into the role, not going too fast like you want to get it over with, but also learning the lines more so she didn't add other things to it. This was very hard for my cousin because she didn't really have time to learn the lines well. But in the end, we managed to get 4 or even 5 good takes for this shot, which I was very pleased with.

Some of the behind-the-scenes for this part are here:

Here I am in the corner in a very tight space. The room was not very big, so the walking space was also very tight, and when you also put a tripod, there is very little space for you to sit, watch the camera view to see if everything is good, and not make any noise all at once. :))

As I said before, my cousin had some trouble with the lines as she didn't manage to learn them, so we had to improvise with the laptop. It was good that I brought it because I was thinking of leaving it at home. As you can see in the first and last picture, we had the laptop on the bed, but it wasn't okay because you could see in the video that my cousin Olivia was looking downwards. We improvised with what we had in the apartment and managed to get it a bit higher (you can still see a bit in the video that she is looking downwards, but we can't do anything about that). But then we had another problem occurring when Olivia would go to start the camera; you could see a bit of the laptop, so now Asztrid... Start the camera, make sure everything is okay, make sure you don't make any noise, and also hold the pillow a bit down when Olivia is approaching the camera. All at once :)

In the last photo, you can see me with my phone in my hand because I was also filming the behind-the-scenes of the film opening that I want to edit and post on my YouTube channel.

One of the details that I thought wasn't even that relevant, but when mentioned to my tutor she told me to say it in the blog, was that on the side of the bed was a portrait picture of my uncle and his family. I told my cousin I would take it from there because it would look like you have a family. But what was really interesting was that there was another frame on the desk in the room

which had a very nice quote because my uncle seems to have motivational quotes in the house, and it said: "If you can dream it, you can do it." And I think it goes very well with the theme of social media because as an influencer you try to paint this image of how your life is.

Next, we took a small break to then film the notification pop-up on her phone. This scene is the notification that pops up during the time she is filming her vlog/documentary, and we get a back shot to see the setup and everything. This was my original idea, but my cousin suggested also trying to get a shot of the phone and a bit of her leg so it is more intense, and we see how she gets the phone to see who texted her.

Then we took a lunch break and relaxed a bit.

After the break, we continued with the shots from outside. So Olivia (my cousin) changed into her pajamas, and the task she had was to also do a screen recording from her phone so we have what to put on the screen. After doing some shots, we got the idea to also put a camera outside to catch it from outside as well, but also more angles so if I wanted, I could play with jumping from inside to the outside. The only thing is that I can't do that anymore because it was not focused. When we checked that it's focused and the light is good, it looked very focused, but apparently, it wasn't. Another hard thing was to play with the light so we can see Olivia through the window, and we also see the view, but at the same time, the viewer can tell you are in the house. Because it was that dark inside, you could only tell that you are inside based on the window but nothing else. What we decided to do is to leave it a bit lighter and, when editing, play with the exposure/highlights and all the others to make it perfect.

After we had done the shots of her trying to get the best photo, we jumped into doing the shots where she is on the terrace chair editing and picking the perfect photo for Instagram. We first did the medium to long shot; here we see that she is on the terrace still, but this time we also added a robe on her because no one is watching her, so she can be comfortable. Which again, for some reason, turned out without focus. But it was good that after, we also got some shots of her that are much closer but still medium shots of her struggling to create the perfect Instagram story. How the viewer will know is we did a screen recording of her creating the story, but when we actually filmed, it was only her making struggling faces :). Then there was a shot of her relieved because she managed to create the story she wanted. But here, when I told Olivia to make a relieved face, she struggled a lot, so instead, I got a close-up of her hand with the phone finishing up the story and clicking the share button, and then me zooming out to see her without any stress.

That was for the outside scene. A thing I forgot to mention is that we can see that the scene is filmed in the afternoon because the light was not as strong in the morning, that bright light, but we didn't have a choice, so yeah, that was it for that scene.

Now for the last and final scene, it was the night shots in her bed trying to fall asleep, the notification pop-ups, and lastly her scrolling through reels because she can't fall asleep. The first shot we did was the notification; here we changed the time on Olivia's phone, and she sent a message from my phone to hers, renamed me to Collaboration, and then we only see her hand taking the phone. The next shot was of her scrolling through the reels; here at first, we got some shots without makeup around her eyes, but then I told Olivia to put some makeup to look a bit more tired. So the only thing she did was to put some pink eyeshadow around her eyes, and that made the perfect look for this shot. She was also covered up very much with the blanket, and we can only see the light from her phone on her face. We also did some angle changes as well; from a side version, we did also one where she holds the phone up, and it's a more medium to a close-up shot; here she blocks most of her face with the phone, but we still see the light from the reels. And lastly, we did her moving around the bed trying to find the right position to fall asleep in / also showing that she can't fall asleep.

In my perspective, the easiest scene was the one in bed; we finished it very fast, and I was a bit scared how it would look with the blinds closed because the room had no light when the blinds were closed, but it was just fine because we cracked open a bit the door to have some light coming in, and it was perfect. We can only observe a bit that the quality of the video is pixelated, but everything else turned out very fast and good.

For the whole summary of the day: It was tiring, and to imagine that actors do this every day for good months, early mornings, late nights, and one day is only 2-5 minutes of the movie is insane. But I can also say that it was a very fun experience, and I would do it again (filming but also the protagonist role :)) as my tutor says, "you always have to prepare for the unexpected," and that something will always go wrong, but I can say that if you stay calm, everything will be just fine. ;)

A fun photo of me as I do my job :))

Byee