Establishment: Shooting

 The day finally came, but things didn't go exactly as planned...

SHOOTING DAY 1:

My actors and I reached Akora (our filming location) on Friday, 21st January, the intended day for the shoot. As night fell, we started our shoot as soon as we could, but unfortunately it started raining, and we had only shot a couple of opening shots. The environment was misty too, but the rain took that away within seconds, and it was a missed opportunity, since my original aesthetic was the misty weather.

But on the bright side, I got the time to properly plan the rest of the shoot because we only had one night left to complete it all. I decided to change my theme and set it on a rainy night with the wet roads reflecting the lampposts. I had my actors prepare for the next night and had them look at the rough storyboards I had planned.

SHOOTING DAY 2:

Saturday, 22nd January, and the final night came but this time we started just as it got dark enough. I went along all the shots chronologically because it felt easier and more organized. I didn't just shoot single shots of each scene, but tried different angles so that later I could choose the best and more fitting ones, because having to do reshoots again didn't sound possible, considering the circumstances.

One by one , I shot many scenes, and had the anxiety of my final cut being a little too long, so I tried to be as minimal as I could. We were done with our shoot in about a total of 2 hours, and yeah that's an odd time to spend on shooting a 2 minute scene haha. I rechecked all the shots to confirm that I had everything I needed, and that we didn't have to come back out. 

SHOOTING DAY 3!

Unplanned, but on Monday night, 24th of January, I walked out alone super late at night, into the quiet of the streets with just my camera and tripod, and shot still compositions of liminal spaces, which are just lifeless videos of an empty and familiar landscape. I thought I might make good use of these shots as they fit in the story too. they give a sense of isolation and mystery. 

The shooting script in the next post will provide the details of the filming process...