Final Cut of Watching Her Every Move

CCR 3+4!!

You guys keep asking for it, so here is my skincare routine and answering your questions!!

CCR 1+2!!!

I was interviewed by two newspapers about Watching Her Every Move!!!

 

Editing Uh Oh

Melina Cinnamon is our editor and she had a few bumps in the road while editing our movie. She had some problems with Premier Rush on her personal laptop, so she started editing on a different laptop. She was a little over halfway done editing when the laptop she was using shut off on her. 

She had updated us on this inconvenience but Sarah and I weren't worried, we had confidence that she would get it done as we had a lot of time before the final cut was due. And in the end, she did get it done and it looks great!

Landline Improv (Film Day 3)

On the last day of filming, it was very stressful. We had a lot of scheduling problems and ultimately Melina was unable to join Sarah and me. Since Melina was the editor and we were done with all the stalker scenes, it was okay for her to be there. The only thing that completely slipped my mind was that Melina was the one who had the landline. So Sarah and I had to improvise. We ended up using a remote control to be the phone. 

I then filmed the other side of Sarah's face so her head would block the fact that we are using a remote as a phone. 

It ended up working well for us because, in the final cut, you cannot tell that it is a remote control.

Shadows

While filming Sarah getting out of her car and walking up to her front door, we had problems with lighting and shadows. The plan was for me to swivel my body to keep the camera in one place but still twist around to follow Clara to the door. We found one position that worked best for me to produce the upper-body swiveling action, but it made a shadow in the direction of the car after experimenting with numerous different positions. This would be very obvious through the camera. 

Here is the photo:

So I had to distort my body and move slightly so that there would be no shadows. We got the shot, although it's a touch wobbly because we had to forgo ideal positioning to avoid shadows in the frame. As we were recording Clara approaching the door, I asked Melina to use her flashlight to brighten the area on camera so that the car could be noticed more successfully, but you could see the glare in the car's reflection. We had to abandon that as well. We left the lighting alone after experimenting with the exposure on the camera because the lighting would be quite different in real life due to the brightness of the porch light.

The 180 Rule

For one of the scenes in Sarah's house, we were filming her in the kitchen where she was cleaning up and putting groceries away. While we were filming, I realized that we weren't exactly following the 180 rule.

Here is Sarah and I realized that we broke the rule:

We fixed the angle of how we are filming and we were able to follow the rule for this scene.

Lexie is the Star

Before anyone started filming, our teacher told us "everyone loves dogs". So, heading his advice, we used Sarah's dog, Lexie, in our film. She played herself and will just be in the shots. However, Lexie is a diva on and off camera. She refused to stay put and would walk off in the middle of the take. We tried many different ways to keep her entertained by the front door, but she would either follow Sarah or just walk into a completely different room.  

We eventually figured out that she would stay in a certain area if we teased her with her toy, doesn't mean that she would look at us though. She knew that we were working around her and she was gonna make us work extra hard to get the shot. 

Here are some videos of her: 

It wasn't long before she was sick of being teased by a toy and Melina opening and closing the door, so she ended up leaving us and didn't come back. We left her be and moved on to shoot other scenes within Sarah's house.

Continuity Errors

On the first day of filming, we were filming in a parking lot where we could not control who was appearing in the shot or what cars moved into/from their parking spots. We had parked "Clara's" (aka Melina's) car closer to the front so the first part of our short film was not all walking. Since we were closer to the show, we had a lot more activity such as people going in and out of the grocery store and cars passing by. It added movement to our shots but also cost us our film's continuity aspect. 

A truly upsetting example of this is the car that was parked next to us. It had been there for the majority of filming, but the car's owner eventually came out and left.

It left an empty space next to our car and we needed to fill it soon. The stalker was gonna hide behind the car to watch as Clara leaves. We ended up getting into a small tiff about how to fix the empty parking space. It was over before it even began and we chalked it up to us all being tired. We ended up moving Sarah's car into the spot and so if anyone were to look closely, they would see that continuity error.

Filming Inside The Car

A small portion of Watching Her Every Move was filmed in a car. Cars leave very little room for clever maneuvering and it was trial and error to figure out how to have the camera capture the right angle. Another problem was how far the camera was propped against the dash/front windshield. I had to stand on the outside of the car, in front of the car to be able to see how the shot looked on the camera screen. While I was viewing the camera from outside the car, I could see that it was too low to be able to properly capture the rearview window. So I was left to improvise. We had bought a cereal box in Winn-Dixie to act like a prop in the cart, we thought of putting the box on the dash and then the camera on the box. It ended up capturing the perfect angle and we were able to fix most of the problems that we experienced within the car (minus the mirror shot!). 

Exposure Experimentation

Our plan for the film was to shoot in a dark parking lot to establish that creepy aura right at the start. It was a good idea because we did not have to worry about the sun changing places throughout filming but it created a new problem of how to shoot in the dark. As a cinematographer, I had to prepare the possible ways to work around shooting in the dark without having a flashlight on the actress. While searching for potential solutions, the common answers were to shoot at a wide aperture, use pools of light, avoid auto-focus or use reflectors/white cards. I was overwhelmed with all these options and instead of taking the internet's word, I went and asked my film teacher his opinion. He told me that instead of messing with all that extra stuff, we could just adjust the exposure on the camera. I played around with how the different exposure settings and was excited to film.

When we arrived at the Winn-Dixie parking lot, it was not what I was expecting. We thought that the parking lot would've been darker but it was surprisingly well-lit. But thanks to learning how to manipulate the exposure settings, I was able to darken the parking lot to create an eerie vibe for Watching Her Every Move. 

While this picture does not show the exposure level, it is at -0.7. If we left it 0.0, the film would look a lot brighter than what is on the camera.

After filming the parking lot scenes, we transitioned into the interior car scenes (which were supposed to have the failed mirror shot). While the parking lot was well-lit, the car was not. I had to change the -0.7 exposure level to +0.3 level, which would help brighten the shot.

After filming the previously mentioned scenes, we moved on to Sarah's house to film the exterior and interior scenes. But there were many problems that came to lighting that if I had done a negative or positive exposure level change, I would've ruined the shots in one way or another. So, I had to settle for filming Sarah's house scenes in +/-0.0.

Car Door Jammed

Since we decided to date our time period in our film in the 2000s, we needed an old car. What a coincidence, Melina has an old Jeep SUV. We decorated the car with props, such as medals, duffel bags, and flowers showing that Clara is a dancer and that it was her car. 

While filming the very first shot, Clara (Sarah) would be getting into the car while the stalker watches from the rear window. I would need Sarah to rush into the car so that the shot was not too long to the point where it was awkward. The problem was that the driver's door of Melina's car would get jammed. 

For example:

We worked around this problem by having Melina stand by the driver's door so she could yank it open so Sarah can jump right in the seat by the time the stalker reached the rear window. 

NEW WILD SOUND OPTION?!?!?!?

While filming in the Winn Dixie parking lot, I was getting barked at by a dog in a car (windows were down). I thought it would be pretty cool to have the sound in the movie because the dog only barked as I walked past the car. Having the dog barking in the movie, at the stalker specifically, could be a fun and subtle way of having the audience warned about the stalker but also warning Clara but she ignores it because she is a teenage girl. I tasked Melina with recording the dog barking while I walked past to film, I think it will help create tension for our film. 

Stalker Drama with Black Jacket

We had to work around the fact that we did not have an actor for our stalker silhouette. I couldn't do the role because I am a bit too short, so Melina had to play it, she is the perfect height and stature. The problem was that Melina was wearing everything but stalker attire, she was in a bright yellow shirt and colorful pajama pants. We all had a mini freak out because Melina in a yellow shirt would ruin the shadow/silhouette of the stalker. Luckily I remembered that I had a black jacket sitting in the backseat of my car. I was so relieved that I found it, it helped make the shot even creepier. 

Since she has taken over the role of a stalker, for the next day of filming we will all be better prepared and dressed for their parts.

Groceries and Other Props

The whole premise of the first scene is to have Clara coming out of Winn Dixie after a quick shopping trip. What we didn't discuss was how we were going to get the groceries to act the scene out. Since we were at Winn Dixie, we just shopped for a bit. Bought some cereal and other things to fill a couple of bags to put in a shopping cart. By buying groceries we were able to better communicate what Clara is doing walking around a parking lot at night. Here we are checking out:

The next things that were bought to better communicate Clara was a ballerina were some fake flowers from the Dollar Store to act as a bouquet from a recital and then some medals to show that she is a really good, award-winner ballerina.

By adding these tiny details into the shots, we are helping to tell the smaller parts of Clara's story to the audience. Which adds an even more meaning to the shots that I capture. 

Where is Our Actor?

Our friend Ricardo was supposed to play the stalker. He is super tall and lanky looking and that is a classic horror silhouette. But due to some scheduling conflicts with his job and homework, he was unable to attend either day of filming we had planned. 

So after a quick team meeting between the three of us, we asked Ricardo if it would be easier for him to stay home, so he isn't stressed about homework or his job. 

It was fairly easy to find a replacement for Ricardo. Melina is tall and since she is the editor, she was free during filming to do whatever I told her to do. That is how Melina became our stalker and she did an amazing job at standing ominously.

Mirror Shot (Total Fail)

While planning our film, I had come up with the idea to have the stalker watching Clara through the rearview window. Clara was going to adjust her rearview mirror and catch a glimpse of the stalker but once she fixed the mirror, the stalker would be gone. Sarah and Melina really liked the idea and I was quite excited to try it and create my idea. My biggest concern was how I was going to get the angle just right without showing me or the camera. That ended up being the easiest part, I just had to move into the back seat. The hard part was finding Melina (she was playing the stalker) in the window and mirror. It was too dark to see her, it wasn't helping that she was wearing a black jacket and blended in even more. After about 20 minutes of trying different methods to get it to work (lights, Melina's face showing, backlighting her), we gave up and decided to scrap the idea. It made me pretty sad that I couldn't bring the idea to life but I am happy with everything else we filmed and it gives us more time in later scenes. 

Me sitting in the back seat trying to find the right angle.

A photo of what our camera was seeing in the mirror. It is just a black blob.

Wild Sound

In our last film (Queen of Hearts) we used an awful Nightingale audio to include bird noise in the happy park scenes. Our teacher said it killed his ears and we are not allowed to do that again.

Here are the bird noises in question:

So in order to avoid using pre-recorded bird noises, we are planning to record Lexie barking, cars driving, breathing, footsteps, and the landline ringing. We started capturing some wild sounds in a parking lot. We were able to capture a grocery cart going across the asphalt and just the natural noises of a parking lot such as cars locking/unlocking/driving, keys jingling, loading grocery bags, carts again, and the noises of the busy road.

Here are some of the noises we have so far:

These sounds will help make our movie a more natural feel to them. We still plan to film even more noises like Crickets but this is a good start. 

First Day of Filming: Location Change

We started filming on March 4th, 2023. The original plan was to film at Sarah's house but that plan was scrapped because her parents had invited their friends over. Filming with many people would've been very messy and frustrating. So we decided to film in the Winn Dixie parking lot. We spent quite a lot of time there, prepping the shots, running into obstacles, and then fixing said obstacles. Overall the first day of filming was productive as the first scene was finished. I think the hardest part of filming right now is my schedule. I have a job and work mainly nights, which causes a problem when the movie is supposed to take place at night. We are currently working around my schedule but with the amount of work we put into today, we will have the movie finished quickly.