The Daily

    We only had two days to shoot our film, and the experience was both challenging and rewarding. On the first day, we faced a tight schedule since we were filming during school hours. Our primary challenge was to capture enough footage before the bells signaled the end of each class period, particularly since we started shooting during third period. Despite the pressure, we managed to film almost half of the production, although we had to jump around between scenes due to the absence of some cast members. Our biggest hurdle was ensuring the entire cast was present for filming. On day one, for instance, we began shooting several initial scenes, albeit without GOON #2, who was unfortunately unavailable. We filmed many key moments in the story but had to skip scenes requiring him, especially shot 5, where his character plays a pivotal role. The reality of having to adjust our shooting schedule meant we lost some continuity but also found creative ways to work around it. Another significant portion of our filming included some intense scenes that featured blood effects. We utilized simple stage blood for these shots, which required careful setup. We had Casey assist by standing underneath of the camera and splattering the blood onto their faces. Although it looked great on film, we quickly discovered one of the unexpected challenges: cleanup. The stage blood, known for its bright red hue, stained the floor extensively, and our cast ended up spending hours trying to scrub it away. Despite our efforts, we were only able to achieve a slight reduction in the reddish stains, which was far from ideal. Once third period concluded, we attempted to continue filming during fifth period, hoping to fully leverage the available location space once more. However, our plans were hindered yet again by GOON #2's absence. Faced with this frustrating setback, we decided to film after school. Unfortunately, just as we were ready to begin, an unexpected school-wide evacuation was announced, cutting our shooting day short once again.  Given the circumstances, we called it a wrap for the day and returned home to start the editing process. At the end of our first shooting day, we gathered all the footage we had obtained and created a rough draft of the film. Despite the challenges we faced, we felt pleased with the progress we made and looked forward to refining our work in the days to come.  

    On the next day of filming, we tried to come in earlier before school. However, because the auditoriums were occupied for the morning, we couldn’t film again until fourth period. Once fourth period came around, we filmed; however, I was absent from the process since I couldn’t get excused from class. The cast was fine to film without me; however, I would’ve recommended my presence, as my role in the movie production as co-director to Casey is to live update the script and make sure we adhere to the written aspects of the movie and not be overtaken by spontaneity, as Casey is naturally prone to. Once fourth period ended, I made my way to the location to join my cast in filming the final scenes and adding the finishing touches to the script. This time filming went very well, and we were very succinct and quick with filming and ended quickly. We were even able to reshoot some old shots that we thought could be better. But with all this success comes the setbacks: cleanup again. There is a scene where ABBY uses the bat to beat GOON #2 to death, and blood sprays all over her face. This scene was by far the hardest to clean up as blood did not just get on the floor but also everyone’s clothes, the walls, and more. The process to clean this up took a very long time; however, we did end up cleaning up most of it with just remnants of the red blood embedded into the floor. Finally, at the end of fifth period, we completely finished filming, I updated the script for the final time, and got straight into editing. The editing process was done solely by Casey as he was the most familiar with the software. The written production and editing were done mainly by me and Casey, as he wrote the original script and I tweaked most of it to fit into our given time frame. Sam had a big contribution to the creative process, helping us visually map out our scenes by creating the storyboard. He also took to the stage as an actor and successfully acted as GOON #1. These are the fruits of our labor and behind-the-scenes efforts for our film.