The Bedroom Scene

I emailed my friend Pam and mentioned my interest in shooting several scenes in her room. She said I should do it soon because she was planning to move everything around. That was exactly what I needed to spur me into action!

11-10-07 Friday
The shoot was scheduled for 1:00 that afternoon. The plan was to shoot all of the bedroom scenes at the same time and hope that they looked like different days. I spent the morning making the origami cranes that would be used in one of the scenes. I thought I would remember how to make them but I got bad instructions off the internet and it took longer than I thought which made me very antsy and nervous.

I needed to collect all the props that would be used in the scenes and I made the decision that the character would have no costume changes and wear the same outfit through out the film except for possibly one scene. This was a difficult choice because I was afraid it would make the film look less professional. But I tried to draw strength from films like The Science of Sleep and Rushmore in which the main characters pretty much wear the same clothes in every scene. These are movies I really respected and enjoyed. Obviously this too, would give me more freedom in post, helping me to re-arrange the scenes however I want.

I wasn't sure if the character should have black hair or not and I suddenly realized that I would have to decide. Wednesday night when the shoot was confirmed I went out with Jon to get the red paper for the Kung Fu Muralist flyer I also thought I would get the black hair dye but of course I just couldn't decide...

That night I saw Four Eyed Monsters for the first time and knew that I could make this movie.
I highly recommend this film. Its way better than mine. You can download it and watch it for free.

Later in the evening I heard that a relative for whom I had great personal affection died. It was Uncle Robin. My Mom and I planned to go to be with the family after work on Thursday. Jon also saw his family Thursday night and we were unable to connect until later that evening. So my hair remained un-dyed. At this point I really wanted to let everything go. Making the film felt unnatural like swimming upstream. But I had to remind myself that the really meaningful and valuable things in life are never easy.

When Friday arrived I knew I needed black hair for the character. So around 12:00 we went to CVS to buy some dye. 20 min. to apply it and 20 min. to let it set and another 20 min. to rinse it all out. We managed to arrive at Pams house around 2:30pm

It would have helped obviously if I could had done most of those things the day before but sometimes things happen that we can't control. I learned when you plan a shoot to always expect the unexpected.

When we arrived, Pam was very sweet and it was clear that she had prepared the room for us. We shot the origami folding sene in which ASB folds a ton of cranes, and we speed it up in post. It was really exhausting and my fingers where already tired from folding so many of them that morning but I was happy with how it looked. Also we shot ASB entering the room and plopping onto the bed. Around 5:00 Pams parents graciously invited us down for dinner. After eating we shot the pan of the night table and ASB waking up. After that we shot the getting dressed scene with the wide angle lense at the end of which she is wearing a colorful outfit which will fade into her usual drab outfit in post. This was tricky of course but we attempted to achieve it by placing cling wrap on the monitor and tracing my shape and outfit with a sharpie. Then I changed into my drab costume and Jon helped me line up with what we traced on the monitor.

I really wanted to shoot everything in one day but we were unable to. It took a lot of time to set up the lighting and blocking for each shot. I had not storyboarded the scenes to her room so figuring out where to shoot each scene was very tricky. Storyboarding is a tremendous tool that makes communicating scenes much easier.

Pam had offered to let us shoot again on Saturday and we ended up really needing to. We left everything there went home and celebrated our first day of shooting with wine and chips and salsa and watched old '80's episodes of 'Bosom Buddies'. I fell asleep in front of the TV.

11-11-07 Saturday

We arrived at Pam's at 11:00am and shot the Evil Phone scene. We actually had to put the camera outside on her balcony and shoot in through the open window with the wide-angle. This way we were able to capture me sitting at the desk with the bed behind me. I felt it was important to show the bed so it would be easy to connect the location with previous shots. Also I really liked the pink and white bedding and felt that it really suited the character and the film. Red and pink are very important colors in this film because they contrast so strongly with a shy personality. Then we shot all the cut aways of the phone and me reacting to it. We also shot ASB calling the number on the red flyer. Then I tried to shoot a stop motion animation with the origami birds and we ran out of tape. We only had two Panasonic tapes and we had filled them both. plus it was 3:30 and I was due to assist in a commercial shoot at Mugs-N-Jugs at 4:45. So we cleaned up and went home.

All in all it went rather well and I think it may have been the most difficult shoot because it was the first. I wanted more coverage though and would have kept going if we had more tape. Its hard to make your self stop shooting when you keep thinking "Just one more for safety!" The next day my skin broke out from all the stress.