1 Box of Global Health Crisis Mix (COIVD-19 works best)
2 Best Friends
1/2 Cup of optimism
1 1/2 Cups of determination
3/4 of a car garage
3-4 Actors (We used the “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Broadway” brand but any brand should work as long as they aren’t in quarantine).
1 Teaspoon of hand sanitizer (We used store-bought but apparently you can also make your own).
Combine all ingredients and mix. Let them sit for about 1.5 hours in 86° heat with light humidity and serve!
Tina LIVE!
On Monday we were all sitting around bagging our heads against a wall when from the heavens came a gift, Tina (Our lovely Cambridge instructor) sent us an invitation to join an online meeting of our media class! That’s right, not even a global meltdown can stop our little media nerd cult from assembling!
A few students and I joined the online meeting at 3:30pm. Tina talked about how we should learn to adapt our production to the circumstances we were being presented. As my classmates about their production struggles which varied from not being able to get equipment to having equipment but being unable to film anywhere or with anyone, I realized how lucky Jake and I were that we worked efficiently and I became really thankful for what we had. It was then when I realized that it was BECAUSE we had gone so far that we couldn’t stop, we owed it to ourselves, our cast, and to our story to finish it all despite the adjustments we had to make. So when the online meeting was over, Jake and I decided that we would go on full speed ahead, taking into account the delays that we already had. We knew that we couldn’t film at any of our locations because our school was closed, so we set out to create our own environment, and that’s when things got interesting…
The Filming Day
Have you ever looked at your garage and thought…“This place has potential”? Well, most AICE media students have! I took one good look at my garage and knew exactly what to do to make things work. So I told Jake yesterday that we would record in my garage today. Of course, when I did that, I was hoping Jake would bring this backdrop, which would have made it infinitely easier to make up a set; however, he didn’t bring it. And thank gosh he didn’t! Because what we did was even better!
When Jake got to my house with Sebastian (Andrew), Jake suggested we build an L shaped backdrop so that we had some freedom in the kind of angles we could use. He remembered that I had done something similar for my project last year and that I had created the illusion of full room by having the object in the middle turn instead of the camera. Here’s a graph to help visualize what I mean (this is from last year, but same idea-ish):
I began to build the L off of black plastic tablecloths while Jake went out to pick up Jakoob (Bryce). There were a couple of holes in the plastic so I had to patch them up and paint over the tape we used to hold it up in case it accidentally came into the frame while filming. Once I was done I decided to test the composition with the camera (this time we were using Jake’s blogging camera since we had to turn in the old camera and Sebastian had let his friend borrow his DLSR). I noticed that everything I hadn't covered was clearly shown, so I had to use a very rough-looking plastic tablecloth to cover it up. Jake’s sister Kailey (Miranda) arrived just in time to help me!
When Jake got back, we set the camera up and began to film! We set up a wide arrange of lights of different colors including blue, pink, red, and black light to get a really cool color light effect on the actors’ faces. Our light set up was AWESOME and it made the room look extremely futuristic, perfect for a VR simulation room! We recorded some shots of Sebastian and Kailey so that we could use it in the new ending we made earlier (You can read about it HERE). As usual, Jakoob broke character the moment the camera made the starring to record sound or whenever I said action. I don’t know what’s that funny about me saying action, but he finds it hilarious apparently. After we got through a few trials of him just laughing and one time he accidentally fell in the chair and kicked the camera, we finally got all the footage we needed. 
At the end of today, we took pictures in the cool light set up and Jake and I even took the chance to record a bit for our CCRs. Today showed us that we could adapt to even the craziest circumstances. Of course, we took all the necessary health precautions like handing out hand sanitizer multiple times during the session. I’m excited, tomorrow is the last day of filming!If I had a dollar for every time I’ve said that…
Signing off,
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