Production Day 1 Reflection

 On our production day 1/2, we shot the kitchen scene and the car/conversation scene. This shoot took longer than expected, starting at 4 pm and ending at 11:30 pm. Keon, Andres, and I met at my house to shoot the kitchen scene while it was still daytime.

First thing, we gathered in my garage to go over the script with Keon. Andres introduced Keon to the personality of Khalil in order to get into character. Andres showed him the video I blogged about earlier of Donald Glover and Childish Gambino in order to get a sense of how Khalil talks and behaves. We went over the script and Keon practiced his lines. We did this ahead of time so that we wouldn't waste too much time with actor directing while filming and so that Keon could have a chance to immerse himself into the character of Khalil Parker and make it his own. Even tough it took various takes throughout production in order for Keon to get the lines just right, he did thrive in making Khalil come to life. We were now ready to go on set!

In this scene, Khalil is seen in his kitchen as he opens a letter of admission to his dream arts school. His excitement is overwhelming yet his awkwardness holds him back from comfortably expressing it, giving the scene comedic effect. Khalil is then let down by the fact that his own father won't answer the phone and is home alone, with no one to share his excitement with.

I had a bit of trouble with setting up the right lighting in order for the scene to look interesting. Going through the footage, I am not quite satisfied with how the scene came out visually. I had a very specific vision for this scene as far and lighting a mise-en-scene and we just weren't able to execute it as planned. With all that set aside, Keon made up for it with his great acting so we were good enough to move on with production.

After we concluded this scene. Because of personal commitments and scheduling conflicts, we took a break and met up again at 8:30 pm to shoot the car/conversation scene. This time, Andres had to go back to work and Sebastian was able to meet us after his band rehearsal (now it was Keon, Sebastian, and I). I introduced Sebastian to his character, Vince and had him practice his lines with Keon. This part of the production day became more complicated, since I was the only one running production and direction two actors. A lot of peculiar things happened at this point.

I was basically handling every basic position of film production all at once. I was camera operator, grip, script supervisor, and director while the two guys did what they could to help. Sometimes I wish I could have multiple clones of myself, then I could get a lot more done with a lot less stress. Then again, I'd probably end up arguing with my clones because of how stubborn we all are... Anyways, we parked in front of the 7-11 by my house and shot the conversation scene inside my car. Since it was a two-way conversation, I first shot all of Vince's lines and then all of Khalil's lines of the conversation. This helped in saving time and staying organized. I really like how this scene came out visually. I shot them through the window of the car which reflected the street lights and the lights of the gas station, adding more texture to the shot.

Finally, we shoot the scene where Khalil and Vince are seen driving around while jamming to some A Tribe Called Quest. This scene actually comes before the conversation scene and serves to show a time of bonding between the two to further push the idea of human aspects to Khalil and his friendship with Vince. This makes Khalil's death all the more significant.

(WARNING: Ms. Stoklosa, you might want to pretend you didn't read this next part).

There is one shot that I would like to mention. It is not even that grand of a shot in the film opening but it did, however, require more effort and risk than the rest. It is this shot (to the right) --> I actually got on top of the hood of my car so that I could get a medium two-shot in front of Khalil and Vince through the windshield as they are driving and bonding. I kneeled on top of the hood of my car, holding the camera with one hand and grasping the hood of the car so that I wouldn't fall as they drove precociously. I really wanted to get this shot because I felt that this angle shows the relationship between the two friends in a more effective way than any other angle would. (I promise I'm fine, I'm still alive).