Production Diary: DAY TWO (14/12/16)

We have gotten through our second day of production! This day, we had allocated to complete Scene 1 where we introduce the story of Street Style with a frantic Elle as she arrives at the studio as well as the beginning of Scene 3 where Tory and Elle talk before beginning the big dancing montage scene.

Overall, this day felt a whole lot more stressful and difficult. We were working under very tight time conditions, having only 2 hours to complete both scenes. This put pressure on us both to get everything done but also do it to a high standard.

As we didn't have the availability of our dance actors for this date, we had to change the location of the beginning of Scene 3 to a bathroom so that Elle and Tory could enter the dance studio with the
other dancers at a later date. While this was a last minute change, it was a great decision on Vicky and I's part as it allowed for some really interesting mirror shots and a feeling of tight, tense space. Having looked at the footage, it visually looks better than expected!

As I (Erika) play Tory's character, I rehearsed lines with Eliza, who plays Elle, prior to filming to give us as much time as possible during filming. I am not the best actress (despite doing a couple years of here and there theatre!) so remembering a long conversation of dialogue was a challenge and we had to do several takes before getting the shot we needed. This continued to put strain on us as we raced to complete all we had planned. Since I was acting the majority of the time on this day, Vicky focused on filming and directing. Heavy equipment continued to be a challenge!

Although we really pushed for time, we managed to complete all filming that we needed for this day. We have taken a look at the footage produced and while some could have been improved here and there, overall we did well. If necessary, we will reshoot some of scenes of conversation between Elle and Tory at a future date.

A quick thank you also has to go to Lyjan for acting as a behind the scenes photographer on this shoot, it really helped Vicky and I focus on making Street Style!

Next date of filming is planned for this Saturday 17th of December and we will be filming the big dance montage with our biggest cast yet. This will require a lot of focus and organisation but we have allowed for more time to give us flexibility if things go wrong. It will feel great to finish for sure!

Production Diary: DAY ONE (11/12/16)

Yesterday was the first day of filming Street Style! For this day we had allocated the entirety of the alleyway scene to shoot for the beginning of our opening sequence.

This day, we had a time constraint of about 3 hours so it was difficult to get the most shots we possibly could. In order to make sure we had as much time as possible to film this scene, we made the actors run through a rehearsal of the whole scene. We then planned around our shot list and storyboard to get the most out of this scene in footage.

We were also working around the sun setting so we had to wait for the lighting to go dark enough to film and play around with the camera's settings to get the best quality footage that still was visible and clear.

For this day, Vicky was acting in of the roles so I (Erika) focused on filming and directing, with Vicky's input throughout. This was difficult at times with the heavy equipment but we managed to work around and get all the footage needed.

Another struggle we faced was having moved the date of shooting previously due to our main actress being unavailable on our original day.This made it a challenge to organise other background extras for this scene but once we were all on set, organisning everyone into their roles was quick.

In the end, we managed to get all of Scene 2 done and we will be watching back the footage soon to make sure it's good for editing. We will film again on the 14th of December for the short scene 1 and 17th of December for the big dance scene, all of which will be rehearsed throughout this week.

Overall, this was a very exciting a productive first shoot day and we are excited to see the finished product!