2nd DAY OF FILMING!!

 So today we actually had major success filming!

One of our actors was busy with work so we had to kind of be weird about what scenes we shot. We ultimately came up with this: today we would film all the flashbacks and black void scenes, as well as the scene right outside of Andreina's house and the new opening. This would allow us to get all the location shifting out of the way so that tomorrow we could focus on just filming all the single location stuff.

So today about an hour after I got home from work, the Crew came to my house to film, we started setting up my sisters room to be Claires room, and we had to take a quick detour to pick up the black backdrop from my dads friend (my dad lent it to him over the weekend) Once we got back we did the lighting set up for the backdrop which looked like this:

Our actors mostly showed up late :/ so we finalized all the character posts while we waited for them to show up!

So after our actors showed up we started with filming the bedroom scenes, then we shot everything in the void, and finally around 6:30 we filmed claire arriving to Andreina's house. 

Tomorrow we're actually filming the plot so stay tuned to see how that goes!

Creating the socials

 So one thing we kind of neglected to begin was the social media BUT THATS OKAY because were doing it now and its going to be amazing.

Today we had our cast and crew come over to my house take pictures on this black backdrop thingy!

Aneesa and Nico had this amazing idea of putting them into tarot cards so we actually loved that idea and went with it.

Here's an example of what the raw photo looks like:

Now heres the photo once we designed the tarot card and put some fun filters over it

I actually really like this because it feels like a clear and cohesive brand that we can use for all of the posts to come!

Writing win

 OK SO today 2 of my team members and I met to actually finish the script so that we could actually shoot things on Sunday when we film!

We went back and fourth with ideas about how to end the story before we ultimately decided on changing it AGAIN!! But it's a long road to greatness so it's ok.

We ended up deciding to have the void play a more meaningful role in the story, as well as scrapping most of the scene since they mentioned random people that didn't really mean anything. We also replaced Will with Sarina, since we didn't want to bloat the cast, and we already had 3 characters that go through barely any development. So we made sarina a past friend of claire's, giving claire a better motive to try and break into the popular girl group. We also slightly rewrote the opening so that it would fit better with our new story.  

So without further ado here is the final script:

The schedule is conflicted...

 OKAY so something has come up during the main weekend we were planning on filming! YAY!

basically our primary antagonist, andreina, MIGHT take a tour of the college she is going to on that weekend. KEY WORD: MIGHT!

This means we still need to write the script and have it ready by the weekend in the case that she decides not to visit the school. Either way, this creates conflict for us because its essentially hard to ask 5 people to keep their weekend open on the CHANCE we film something that day. 

Were also already around a week behind our original schedule, meaning we'll only have around a week to edit, and less time for our critical reflection, which is not the best. I hope we'll be able to film next weekend so that we can whip together atleast a draft of the film in the edit in the 3 or so days following, so that we can have 2-4 days to FINALIZE the film as well as create the many many social posts that are needed.

writing da scrip

 "A wise man once said, write drunk edit sober"

- Nico, 2026.                                        

Okay so were obviously not doing that, but thank god for my team member Nico who late at night and in a sleepy drowse (basically the same thing as drunk) wrote out what we wanted in our script.

OBVIOUSLY it's not perfect, but thats what the edit sober part is for. I overall genuinely like this new direction and I do think it creates a more dynamic character for claire.

Going through changes

OK so today we got on a call and decided, the general story as we have it is kind of bland.

The most prominent issue being the fact that nothing really makes our audience care about our main character. In the film she goes through a physical struggle, but none of that struggle really makes anyone root for her. SOO we decided to tweak the original idea!

After some discussion we came to this: instead of anything along the lines of what we were thinking before which would've been a malicious spell steals claires life force, and she needs to find a way to stop or counter it, we decided it would be much more intriguing if the witches actually were welcoming her in to their squad. We decided the main conflict of the story should be something that tests her need to fit in. A placeholder example we used for this was the 3 witches ask her to help them bury a dead body. This creates a more inner conflict within her: should she help the witches and finally fit in to a group, or should she do what she knows is right and stay alone.

I think this change definitely fixes the issues with attachment to the main character because it creates a more personal aspect that can make an audience really connect to the character.

So this is the point at which we have the script right now (just one page longer than last time) and I will update once we've written out our new idea!

The shoot from heaven (?)

Considering we only locked down our actors just yesterday (bad form i know) the shoot today actually went AMAZING!! but before I elaborate on how the shoot went let me explain why we even shot today (considering the script isn't even finalized)

OKAY SO basically I would consider us behind as far as writing goes, we realistically should've atleast had a first draft by now, buttt life gets in the way, and atleast for me, several doctors appointments later, I wasn't really in the physical capacity to write, and with my partners catching up on make-up work from STN we never properly coordinated a script. Now yesterday, we created the first scene, and we tried to refine it the best we could for today. Also one of our group members would be gone the entire break, basically meaning we wouldnt be able to film (he has the equipment). 

Anyway on to the shoot which actually went really well! Our lead actress Claire is genuinely perfect for the role, and our Mean girl clique is also very dynamic in their presentation of the classic "chic" personality that we hoped to capture. Anyway as far as equipment we used Zach's tripod, his mics, and my camera which is a Lumix S5. Luckily the class we shot in had these weird rolly desks which allowed us to do a psuedo dolly shot:

We also were able to finish ahead of schedule, so now our plan is to take spring break to really fine tune the writing and make it absolutely stellar for when we shoot after break!