Day 1 of filming :
The first day of filming was all about creating the perfect mise-en-scène. Having planned to film the scenes from Emma's bedroom first, it was important to take advantage of the bedroom space - specifically with the use of lighting and key props.
When it came to the lighting I tried hard to convey a specific aesthetic that would convey the emotional realism of my film. Therefore, I created a colour palette before starting to film and tried to incorporate those colours using different LED lamps, as well as candles. My chosen colours contrast with each other, from purples and greys to beiges, in order to create an ambience which is warm due to the candles but also has a cool touch to it. This is done specifically to convey my character's emotions to her surroundings and to be able to impact the scenes by doing so.
And when finding and implementing key props into the scenes, I created a bunch of sticky notes with different reminders written on them and stuck them specifically so that the poster "Don't Give Up Kid" would be seen. This poster symbolises a reminder to stay strong to the protagonist. Moreover, I used a couple of envelopes in order to show all of the character's bills and created a messy room - with vinyl records, shoes, books and clothes on the floor. The bed was also disarranged in order to reflect the protagonists messy life.
Overall, the first day of filming was very productive and went well. However, I did not follow my storyboard fully, instead I gave myself the creative freedom and filmed different shots in a way that I wanted to in the moment. The storyboard was used as a guide and therefore the scenes turned out much better; in a way that was organic and logical.
At first, I tried following the storyboard and as I did that, I found myself feeling unsatisfied with the way the scenes looked on camera. My sister and I therefore paused filming for a moment and talked about ways in which I could improve the camera work.
We came up with the conclusion of starting the shot from a high angle and adding more establishing shots, as well as movement. The establishing shots would reveal the protagonist's room in a seamless way and reveal the most important points of her room which will depict her personality and life without having to say anything.
Once we reviewed the scenes that we filmed - and selected the ones we liked the most - we finished day 1 of filming. But, we did save all of the props just in case we had to re-film some of the scenes.
Day 2 of filming :
The second day of filming was a bit more challenging due to the fact that we had to film outside. We woke up at about 6:30 a.m. in order to be able to film in the morning haze and without many people walking by. Successfully, we reached the shopping street where we decided to film and started filming in front of "SWAROVSKI" - which had the most fitting display for the film.
Once we started filming, we got to experience what's it really like to be guerrilla filmmaking. This is because of the way we had to let people and cars pass before starting to quickly film a specific scene - timing was key during that time. Thankfully, this was the only problem that we faced.
Throughout the filming process we re-filmed all of the scenes about 2 to 3 times in order to make sure we had as much of options as possible. And while filming, we also used the story-board and followed most of the camera angles stated on it. Match cuts, tilting and filming from the side were all used to establish the scenes and depict the cold early mornings before work.
Day 3 of filming :
The third day of filming was unplanned and happened because I had to re-film the establishing scenes of the protagonists' room. Luckily, we did not have to make the whole room messy again because we needed only the scenes of the wall with the old sticky notes and envelope bills.
I quickly started setting up the wall again and the perfect lighting that was used in the previous scenes. After doing so, I filmed more versions of the same scenes in order to have more options to choose from - since on day 1 I did not do that for the establishing scenes. Moreover, I filmed similar scenes from different angles (one tilting upwards from the envelopes to the sticky notes on the wall, the other one from the side to see the "Don't Give Up Kid" poster more prominently and another one just showing emphasis on the bills).
After downloading all the footage from the camera to my phone, I reviewed the scenes and was happy with them. And just like that, we were done filming and I had started thinking about creating a production company and editing.
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