Finishing up!

 2 days until the due date.  I'm cutting it close, aren't I?  Still, progress has definitely been made.  Plus, I work better under pressure anyway.  

As of now, I can finally say that my production is a solid 98% done, all thanks to the last-minute decision to film yesterday.  The process was in no way easygoing, but the sloppy-made plans ended up working in my favor.  Let me paint a picture of my Friday afternoon, as I believe that this detailed timeline is the only way I can truly explain my situation: Friday.  2:42 PM.  The dismissal bell has just rung.  Upon leaving my classroom, I flee to my school's TV production classroom, where I meet Ren in a last-ditch effort to rent equipment.  After a few wasted minutes and conversations with people I didn't know, the task was done and we left, now having two more microphones than we did before.  2:53 PM.  We walk out to the dismissal area, rush to collect the assortment of friends I was driving home (Joey and Mica), and hurried to my car, which I conveniently parked 8 minutes away.

Once seated and secured (remember to wear your seatbelts), we began the grueling process of leaving the school as all 5,000 students are desperate to leave along with us.  This would have been tough enough if we only had to make it to my house, but there was one last pit stop I had to make before we could head home: this was the house of my good friend Virginia, who was the only person in possession of the equipment that we desperately needed.  3:30 PM.  As we begin to enter Vir's neighborhood, it becomes apparent to me that my visitor's pass has been thrown out, most likely by my innocent parents in an attempt to clean out the car.  Not a big deal, I think, but definitely could have saved us some more time.  Now we're outside her door.  We get the equipment, stick it in the back, and rush out of there.  3:50 PM.

By 4:05 PM, we'd finally gotten to my house.  By this point, we're all complaining about hunger and the heat, but time is running short as I need to be out of my house by 5 o'clock to make it to my shift on time.  Ren and I begin setting up the camera, all the while Joey is desperately trying to order pizza.  Now, I can't even begin to explain why calling Papa John's for a large cheese pizza took as long as it did, but the conversation ended approximately 15 minutes later... It was 4:23 when we began to film.  The shots were easy enough to get, but setting up the camera using this chunky and extremely complicated tripod was definitely time-consuming.

After filming the first scene, which we finished around 4:45, we took a short break as Joey and Mica recorded some of the shots he was missing for his own production.  Meanwhile, I pulled a random white button-up from my parent's closet, forced Joey to change into it, and instructed my dad to dress up in the pre-planned priest uniform.  It was around this time that we got a call from the gate, which I assumed was the pizza, but inconveniently turned out to be Joey's mom, who had come to pick him up... As you can assume, this did nothing to calm my ever-growing anxiety.

Now rushing at a speed faster than light, I set up the tripod downstairs, filmed some scenes of Joseph looking nervous as he awaited his meeting with Father Peter, and got ready for the big finale: the meeting itself.  For this scene, which was the only one in the whole production that required on-screen dialogue, Ren helped me plug in a boom (similar to the one pictured below) to the camera so that the audio would be synched.

Boom microphone

By this point, I was sweating profusely (both from the stress and the ever-persistent heat of Florida spring), but the scene went perfectly.  This was my dad's acting debut for the production, and his fit of uncontrollable giggling helped alleviate the tension.  I managed to get a few takes of this, some of which went by better than others, and I was insanely satisfied with the outcome.  Although you can see some defining characteristics of the room behind him (which aren't compatible with those of an office setting), I feel like they don't take away too much from the effect on the audience.  I would love nothing more than to link them here, but unfortunately, they exceed the maximum file size.

It's now 5:03 PM.  Having finally wrapped up filming and having received the pizza, we sat down for a very rushed and very well-deserved snack.  I sped upstairs to get dressed for work, said a hurried goodbye to my friends as they came to get picked up, and managed to clock into my shift only 8 minutes late.

Behind the Scenes

Upon leaving my shift, I finished the day off by having Ren come over to collect the equipment we hadn't had a chance to put away before, and then promptly driving back to Vir's to drop it all off.  We ended up staying there for about an hour, where I had the chance to import all the footage (including these sick thumbnails), and begin editing them into the final project.  This yielded mostly no real progress, although my two more experienced friends did teach me a little about Premiere that I hadn't known before.  Mainly, they taught me how to full-screen tabs (yeah, I know, I probably should have known this already...), and they taught me how to add constant power to my audio.  This was undoubtedly some of the best advice I could have received, as the seamless transitions that this provided me with enhanced the entire production.

As of now, I'm nearly done with editing, and nearly done writing the script for my Creative Critical Reflection (CCR), where I discuss my production in detail.  I'm filming the footage for the CCR tomorrow, and I intend on spending all of the day editing that together.  My final takeaway?  I probably should have done this all sooner...  Regardless, I'm extremely satisfied with what I have thus far and I know that the hard work I put in will be reflected in my final score.  This is where I leave you now, as I must go and edit.  Until next time!