Production Diary: DAY FOUR (11/01/17)

Good news! WE HAVE FINISHED PRODUCTION! 

On this day, we managed to shoot reshoot all of the bathroom scenes. This was partly because the footage before could have been improved but also beacsue Erika completely forgot to bring her costume (she prefusly apoligised, no bad blood obviously). These scenes ended up looking a lot better and now we have to replace the old footage we've started post-production work on with this quality footage. 

The main reason we needed this extra day of filming was to have more time to both improve and finish the dance scene at the end of our opening sequence. Just before we filmed, we got more time to practise with the dancers and I went over the routine with them before we filmed so shots took less takes. We also ran through any acting involved points, such as having to interact with Elle's character, letting them know what they needed to do. When shooting, we made sure the dancers continued a conversation in the background to fit the atmosphere of the dance studio.

Also, we had to shoot the connecting scenes from the bathroom to the dance studio to help introduce the dance scene. This was an addition we made when we moved Elle's and Tory's scenes to the bathroom as we needed it to make sense chronologically. To film this, we had to change the shutter speed of the camera in preparation of the dance scene, to focus on motion and remove blur.

The dance scene itself was our biggest technical challenge, especially considering the fact that we couldn't have a steadicam this time or when we originally planned to film the dance. Overall though, we got a lot more dance shots than anticipated, as we tried to vary all angles and shot types for choice in edit. Very proud of us for getting on with this task despite the difficulties!

We still had a limited amount of time to film due to scheduling with actors and dancers. However, this time felt most relaxed because we had rehearsal and a shot list that Erika made right before filming that we could follow for this day. 

So, now that we FINALLY have all the footage, it is time to put full focus on editing and putting together a rough cut. We've already got pretty half of the basic scenes together, so we will work from there to finish and starting adding music, effects, titles and more. 

This has been our last production diary and we look forward to updating you with the rest of the process soon - possibly in video form. 

Production Diary: DAY THREE (04/01/17)

So it turns out the third day wasn't exactly the last day of filming. Nor was it on the date planned...

Funny story: the college at which we organised to film dance studio shots WAS CLOSED. Apparently, filming during the holidays means there is always a chance of facilities being unavailable. So, long story short, the filming was moved to 18 days later.

Finally, on the 4th of January we tried to film the dance scenes as well as some shots of Tory and Elle walking into the dance studio. Really, we only got about 4 usable shots. Problems on this day included:

1. The studio we needed to film in was occupied until the very last 20 minutes of our filming schedule

2. We tried to reshoot some scenes in the bathroom but the college was busy at this time, so people were going in and out and around the area constantly, interrupting the filming
3. I (Vicky) had very little time to teach the dancers the routine which cut into filming time
4. The lighting in the studio to which we temporarily switched to had terrible lighting that made footage unusable
5. The dance scenes were filmed with very low shutter speed, making the footage look unprofessional as it was difficult to make out motion

6. We didn’t have a Steadicam, as it was unavailable, so a lot of the shots turned out too shaky

So… overall pretty terrible.

The footage we have is usable so we will keep it in case we need back up. And at least the dancers got some good practice in for the routine! We have rescheduled to re-shoot next Wednesday, 11th of January. Let’s hope things going smoother this time and we actually manage to finish!