After experimenting with the footage we have, all of our group members found that the shots we had were not sufficient enough to create the emotional tone we wanted. The scene were Sierra and Lydia played a game of two truths and a lie to catalyze the plot turned out a lot less impactful. The dialogue seemed unnaturalistic, as well as the fact that we only decided to add two actors in at the last minute, and pulled from the extras. The lack of costuming and preparation led to one of our actors, Bravo for the part of Marcus, wearing a very thinly striped shirt. The stripes produced a moiré pattern that was very distracting from the dialogue in the scene. This was discovered post-production. I researched the effect online to find the root cause, and found this definition for why it happened.
'When the web cam takes a picture of a striped shirt, the shirt is digitized into an array of pixels. The array is a sample of the image in front of the camera. Some pixels are perfectly aligned with a stripe and appear dark. Others are perfectly aligned with the gaps between the stripes and appear light. Most pixels, however, are imperfectly aligned with the stripes. The pixels are assigned a shade and a brightness that are determined by some image-processing algorithm and might be processed further by an anti-aliasing algorithm. This light-dark pattern can create moiré patterns in the image. The problems do not stop there. The image is transmitted to a computer monitor, which has it's own array of pixels. During a presentation, the image is often shrunk into a small image in the corner so that a slide show can occupy most of the screen. This shrinking induces additional artifacts. It gets complicated fast.
Although the digitization of a striped shirt in a video is more complicated than overlaying two grids, the result is the same: an interference pattern where some pixels are dark, and others are light. In short, a moiré pattern.' - Source: [https://blogs.sas.com/content/iml/2023/06/05/moire-patterns.html]
The footage of the game also had lighting constantly changing, because on the day we found that without the lighting facing the actor, the shot was too dark for the camera to pick up on. Moreover, my camera, the Sony ZV-E10, does not do that well in dark lighting, and I found that the higher I adjusted the ISO settings to fit the darker scenes, the more pixelated and grainy the footage became.
Not only was the lighting inconsistent, but since we on the day of the shoot pulled extras to become main actors, the actors were slightly unprepared, which was a fault of our own team.
Hence, we've decided to shoot some pickup shots, and a few more extra scenes. The argument shots between Lydia and Sierra were well-shot, and we were happy with the results. We felt the same about the drone shots of the car pulling into the driveway. Thus, we decided to use the footage we had to our advantage, and think of ways to fill in the missing scenes and plot holes.
I settled on creating a non-linear narrative structure, where we film Sierra and Lydia's fifteen-year-old selves, the progression of their friendship fallout, that the film flashes back to. We have our shoot planned for the 25th April, 2026, and we have our actors for young Sierra and Lydia hired. I will use my Sony ZV-E10 as the camera, as well as my iPhone 15 Pro Max if we end up shooting any dark scenes. Aubrey will be in charge of props and costumes, as we found that sound was also very intertwined with the job of the cameraman. Gino would be in charge of lighting, but I found in the previous shoot that I was the one who ended up doing the bulk of the lighting.
Yesterday, I created a Google document, where I just splurged all of my ideas onto, which will be copy and pasted below.
Beach day shoot where we shoot lydia and sierra being friends etc
Honestly just have them having a conversation that’s very sweet etc.
YOUNG SIERRA - AYLA ADAMS
YOUNG LYDIA - EVAN HUNTER
https://youtu.be/lhLimczQmPM?si=lBW_-7bcVvKES5yR
The short film did an excellent job of setting up the emotional tone of the narrative within the first few shoots. I might take inspiration from this for the editing of the film - starting right out with a big argument.
Maybe even start out with the big bang - ‘I’M SORRY’ - ‘ME TOO’ - SLAMMING OF DOOR, THEN REWIND to the beginning.
Maybe even school. Meeting at school - its a flashback so these shots are quick and over with fast. Beach days, hanging out, laughing, concert simulation.
START: school/even a party/something prompts Lydia and Sierra to become friends.
IN BETWEEN: moments of friendship, maybe a theme of Sierra knocking on Lydia's door, and then they hang out. Also symbolizes how it’s always Sierra knocking on the door, keeping the friendship alive. Then maybe show Lydia getting more distant,
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