Preparing for the Shoot

This week in preparation for our short film opener, we planned what props we'd need, where to get filming equipment, confirming our filming date, and more.

To get our filming equipment, we rented equipment from an organization called Shortcuts TV, a televisionprogram that aids high-school students in making their own short films, and rents out equipment to students to do exactly that. I went and picked up a camera, a tripod, and an RGB light on Wednesday, so we would have high-quality filming equipment for this project, and to ensure a higher quality film in the process.

To find our props, we looked on several websites. However, for the lamp, we wanted something basic and maybe a little vintage. The light level wouldn't matter since we'd mostly be using the RGB light as the primary light source in the garage, and the lamp's light would mostly be a facade. We settled on using one from Katherine's grandmother, who has a spare lamp we're allowed to use. 

For the radio, we were looking for something a little more old-school and cost-effective, so it was more difficult to find one that fit our vision. However, we found this one from Amazon, which matched all of our aesthetic criteria, and won't break the bank.

We also confirmed our two filming locations. Our first is Treetops park in Davie, FL. We chose this park because it has ample tree cover to get a good shot of the light shining through the leaves, and ample walking space to have the kidnapping scene take place on a path. Our other filming location is my friend Mia's house in Miramar, FL. She is playing the main actor in the film, and has a house with an empty enough garage to have ample filming space.

Finally, we officially set our filming date to Sunday, March 1st. It was the only day our group could get to together to film, so we'll be filming most of the day, I estimated we'll be starting at 1 PM to catch the mid-day sunlight at the park, and ending at 7 PM to film the indoor scenes at night.