Filming (3/26)

Since everything went smoothly scheduling wise and we were able to sort something that worked for me, the actors, equipment wise, and for the location, everything was ready for the next day. The day before, I picked up the equipment from Mariana and made sure everything worked (it did) and sent some last minute reminders to the actors. 

I asked Roger to take pictures of me while I was filming Matt, but he said he forgot because he was "playing brawl stars." So the pictures I have are just ones I took on the camera itself so sorry that they're kind of silly lol.

When we first got there, at 3, the agreed time we had with Coach Cater, there was a little misunderstanding. I had asked to come when the mats would be empty, after their practice, but he didn't seem to understand when I asked over text. See, they had just BEGAN their two hour practice when we got there and wouldn't be done until 5pm. No big deal though, we just filmed in the weight room (which was a good majority of the shots anyways) from 3-4:20 and then waited it out until 5. We had to wait a bit longer than 5 because the wrestlers were clearing out but then again, no big deal. We got all the shots we needed and it went really good. Honestly, the best part of this experience was working with Matt. He was super invested throughout the whole process and would give his own ideas on shots top get, it was fun to do and I did take a lot from his vision.

Edit: In more detail, some things were different than I expected. For one, the lighting was actually really good in both the mat and weight room, so I didn't even use the light kit I had checked out. The Sony camera is super good at letting you adjust the ISO and aperture without it looking too grainy, so that was obviously a big factor that allowed me to rely on the lighting already there. Not having to haul a light kit in and out of the school was very nice though. Also, another great thing about this camera (I unfortunately don't know what specific model it is.. but general rule of thumb is that Sony makes great cameras) is the built in stabilizers. While I'm already pretty comfortable with going handheld from my experience in other projects, I do know that it's kind of "frowned upon" and you should always use a tripod in order to avoid shaky shots. Not so hot-take though.. I HATE TRIPODS!! I feel like they limit your movement sooooo much and I just prefer going handheld whenever possible. With the help of these stabilizers and my already steady hands, I honestly shot every single clip handheld. Like every single one. Which was a life saver for the wrestling scenes because I very stupidly realized that I didn't check out a Ronin or steady cam, which is what was used when shooting the 360 movement in the Waves scene I took inspiration from. Lucky for me, I was able to create the same effect just by going handheld and moving around the actors as they wrestled.. it went perfectly. The shots were stable and still had great movement (movement I wouldn't have been able to get had I used a tripod!). 

After filming, I did as promised and we went out for dinner at Hooters!! We ordered 50 wings like we usually do... except we didn't take into account that we usually eat that many with our whole team. We did in fact NOT finish, but they were delicious :)

Overall, filming went great, I got all the shots I had in mind plus so many more I came up with on the spot or that Matt had ideas for. In TV, we're always told to overshoot and I think I did exactly that so I guess the good habits are forming!! I reshot anything that needed and made sure to get lots of angles. I ended up with like 182 shots and had to cut down to like 89 before I started editing.