House Hunters IRL

It appears that I might have found a room that my team can transform into Diego's.  Yipee!  While drafting my last blog post, a nudging thought in the back of my head kept asking to be heard.  Finally, I caved and began to weigh the pros and cons of this potential solution.  After all, would it be so problematic if we film in my brother's room?

Being a 15-year-old boy, his room already fits the mental image I had of Diego's living area.  He has the cheap Dollar General posters, random framed images and clutters of messy wall decor, a collection of Funko Pops and Arizona Tea cans (?????), his bed is never made, and, most important of all, an RGB gaming computer setup.  Honestly, this feels like it's as good as it's gonna get.

Still, I felt a little out of place when I asked him if we could take over his room and use it to film.  Even though he spends most of his free time outside, I had my reservations, since I didn't want to invade his privacy and make him feel obligated to do this big favor for me.  So, I came to him with a proposal: I explained to him the project I was working on, described the changes we might make to his decor and the proposed filming schedule, and promised him that we wouldn't change anything he wasn't okay with.  After all that, his answer was a simple "That's chill, as long as you make my bed."

A picture taken with the 0.5x camera

I'm excited to get started on decoration.  Still, as good as this development is, I have some worries about this room.  First of all, it's really a lot smaller than it looks in the picture.  There's very little room to maneuver oneself in there, and it could get complicated when we have to fit a group of three, a tripod with the camera, and an actor crammed in there.  Sure, we don't all have to be in there, but we need to account for enough space for the actor, the cinematographer, the acting director, and the person holding the boom.

Another thing that worries me is the giant window directly in front of the desk.  As this piece focuses heavily on the use of the internet, the computer is going to be one of the most prominent aspects of the room.  The light being cast from the window could lead to over-exposure, and it could cause other issues as the lighting changes when the sun begins to go down.  Additionally, the view itself is unappealing.  If too much of the neighboring house is visible, then it would ruin the illusion of Diego living in a college dorm.  Sure, we could just pull down the blinds and hope for the best, but that could also leave us with a room that is too dark, and we'd need some natural lighting to help establish setting.  Although we'll be using light kits, natural lighting will help tie it all together.

 Ultimately, I feel confident about using this room.  Sure, there are some potential roadblocks, but I think that we could very plausibly work around them.  The next step is acquiring all the props, which I'll write a blog post about when the filming dates come nearer.