In my post here, I talked about everything I was doing to prepare to move between my original two filming dates of March 12th and March 19th. However, it turned out- as it often does- that not everything worked out the way I'd expected it to. On March 12th, the first day of filming, I wasn't able to complete all the entryway shots. This was due to a few different reasons. First of all, I hadn't expected the bedroom scene to take so long to film all the shots and angles I wanted, since we also had to rehearse a lot to get to a combination of convincing delivery and good camera movement. Second of all, I hadn't expected how much the physical exertion of filming would demand from my body; I am chronically ill, with chronic fatigue, and by the end of the bedroom scene I could barely walk. Although it's unfortunate, it's also something I should have expected, given that I've lived with my conditions for years. Third of all, the unexpected need for props presented itself in Bia's idea: I could buy cardboard boxes and have Christine and Charlie move them in, and I could also write my credits on those boxes. I really wanted that to be a large part of the transition between the car scene and the bedroom scene, which both felt a bit disjointed at that time, and I was also worried about my time constraints- namely, that the bedroom scene wouldn't be long enough. So, I felt that I couldn't film the entryway scene without those props.
Since I'd expected to move later that week, I began thinking about locations in my new home that would be suitable for filming it. But I didn't have to. Due to other personal events, my family decided to postpone our move until this week, the 31st of March. Unfortunately, there was one more further thing: on March 19th, when I was supposed to have my second day of filming, I had a migraine and was unable to fulfill it. So, over spring break, on Friday- March 24th- I was able to (finally!) have day 2 of filming.
My previous assistant cinematographer, Max, and assistant producer, Ellie, were back in Orlando. But, luckily, I had a third pair of hands on set anyway. Although he's been mentioned a few times on this blog, this marks the first appearance of my partner, Foutch. He mostly helped me out with physical tasks and my personal health- helping me clean out my car, move boxes and such- and set dressing. (He also washes fruit and brings me water. I'm spoiled, I know.) He is one of my assistant cinematographers, and shot about half of the day 2 footage- or what I couldn’t shoot- and I'm very grateful for his help.
The Day 2 Crew: Foutch (left); Clover (middle), me!; Bia (right)
The very first thing we did was make our box props. Before picking up Bia, I went with Foutch to buy boxes from Home Depot. Using this website, I made a list of everyone I was going to credit in my film. It was pretty easy- most of the people were me. I used a Sharpie to write credits in my neatest print handwriting.
We loaded them into my car and we were off.
We shot a few different types of the credits. At first, I had wanted the credits to be one wide shot of the trunk, like the photo above, cut with close-up tracking shots of each box after it was taken away. I quickly realized, however, that those types of shots weren’t really possible without a stabilizer, and I didn’t want to risk injury or overtiring myself trying to walk backwards smoothly. Eventually, I also realized that the credits looked less busy if only one box was visible at a time. After reviewing my footage, I regret that, but only because the credits feel too long yet I'm finding it difficult to cut them and keep them readable. My final decision was that the only tracking shot of a character carrying away a box would be Bia and I carrying away our individual actor credits, and the rest would be placed in a pile, with some boxes being lifted away to reveal others and handheld camera movement. But I really wanted a transitionary shot between the setting of the car and the setting of the house; although the actual process of moving often feels abrupt out of denial, I wanted the length of the transition to reflect the awkwardness of it. So, we decided on a shot that involved Bia opening the trunk and taking out my production credit that read, "a Clover Fields Media production". This took a LOT of tries to get right. At first, it was just her opening the trunk from the side and me dropping to one knee to get the box's text filling most of the frame. Eventually, however, we decided on a final combination of shot composition, angle, and camera/actor movement: I followed her getting out of the driver's seat of my car with a close-up handheld tracking shot, and kept the shots relatively tight and angled so that the boxes- specifically the box she was holding- was only visible at the last second. I think it added a pretty cool cinematographic effect, and I was really proud of the shot, but it took a long time to film- maybe a half hour for about 5 seconds or less of footage. Still, by then, we were definitely grateful to go inside. However, upon getting inside, it immediately became clear that I wasn't up to filming more, so we agreed to meet again the next day.
That Saturday, again with Foutch and Bia, we filmed the door scene and the stairs scenes that bracket the bedroom scene in my opening. We used a combination of Bia's tripod and Foutch holding my phone. I wasn't able to get as wide of a shot as I would have liked for the door scene, however, because of the placement of the stairs. But, of all the days of filming, Saturday was definitely the shortest, and the shots were the least involved, as well as the least changed from how I originally imagined them.
And, with that, I end my chronicle of production. There's more to come on post-production, and how I fixed what mistakes I felt I made during the photography process. But- what is it those in the biz say? That's a wrap?
Yours always,
Clover Fields
Sources:
. (n.d.). Www.evercast.us. https://www.evercast.us/blog/film-credits
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