Test-shoot

This entry was originally published at Toastmaster K - The Blog!

Posted by Tom

Today was our first test-shoot, and it was a blast. It was exhausting, but it was a blast. After about four months of writing and planning, we finally got on location to actually begin shooting. This was the first of three test shoots, and we chose to shoot two of the scenes from the first Friday night in the film. We are using these test shoots to learn about the logistics of lighting, sound, and stage management.

The day began with an acting workshop for the actors, as well as interviews of the actors for the purpose of a “video diary” that will later be used in a “behind-the-scenes” making-of documentary. All four lead actors were involved, and filming was done on location in East Hall at Olin College. We filmed in the common area of Kevin’s suite, and in the room of Kori Haymore and Amy Lee, friends of ours.

We had a good turnout in terms of crew. We had our two PAs on hand, as well as a boom operator from a local high school who heard about us through New England Film. We also had our cameraman, and a behind-the-scenes videographer. Our still photographer showed up to take some photos while we were on set, which we intend to use for publicity purposes.

It was really neat to be on the set with all these different people running around focused on their part of this huge job. We finished a draft of what is intended to be a 4 minute scene in around 3 hours, so I’m expecting about an hour of filming per minute of final film – this would leave us with about 100 hours of actual filming time – this excludes outside work on the project (scripting, storyboarding, location management, and other organizational/administrative tasks). It is now even more evident how much work will go into this project.

But at the end of the day, I’m extremely optimistic about this film. We all had a great time today, and we got some serious work done – and the footage looked great. We have a long road ahead of us, but I think it will be a lot of fun.

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