My first filming day!
Today was SO great. I went with Nylah to the Gold Coast Railroad museum and everything went so amazingly. To follow up on my last blog about setting, I have a few things to update you, the reader, on.
I ended up calling the museum on Saturday (and this is where my time management issues come in) thinking that it was a good idea to just call the day before. Which was a fault on my part, but luckily I struck gold with the kind helpers that work at this museum.
At first we were worried because on the website, it says that the first hours of a film shoot would cost about 250 dollars. So after calling, I ultimately decided to send a formal email where I explained how I'm a student and this is a project for my Media Studies class, how I'd use my own props, and only needed an area in the museum for an hour or two. Thankfully, this morning I got a call back from them telling me I'd only have to pay for the tour entrance fee for everyone that's going (which would be my parents, Nylah, and I) and that an employee would have to stay with us as a type of surveillance since we wanted to work around the tracks. We told them at what time we were going to go down there so they knew when to stop the trains for a bit (which is such a cool feature about this museum, working trains!) And with that, we were so relieved and excited to go. More than we were already, at least.
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Once we got to Miami and to the museum, my parents and I were both attended to as soon as we got in. We explain that we were the ones who they spoke to on the phone and they told us we'd get a small tour to see in which part we wanted to film in. Soon after we got there, Nylah did too. And as she did, we walked to a back part of the museum to where some of the old-ish looking trains and tracks were.
When we saw the area above, we knew it was perfect for my vision, so we started to set up. We opened the suitcases and laid everything out. The clothes, the trash, everything to make the set look as realistic and abandoned as possible, the terrain suited the scene as well because there were overgrown plants and cobwebs around.
After we were done setting up, we started on Nylah's makeup and some extra props. We added a flashlight, screwdriver, and mask to her belt. Then, we used the makeup palettes and resources we had to make the dirt and cuts on her face and arms.
Then, finally, we started filming. The idea was to make it feel like the camera's perspective was there walking with her at the start. So instead of having still shots of her walking around, which I felt might be choppy with how short the clip had to be, I made a tracking shot of her walking through the suitcases. Along with that, we also made a few close up shots of her picking up the necklace to look at it, the can, and finally her eating.
We didn't have any fancy filming gear, we had a go-pro, which didn't have the best quality, but I honestly really like how it looks. It looks a little old and vintage which is exactly the kind of vibe I want the start of this movie to give off. Something in the middle of an A24 film and the Blair Witch Project.
The biggest problem we ran into was the sounds around the place and some people walking by, but we got a decent amount of shots with no one in the background and no sound. And I'm thinking with the music it won't be too big of a deal.
The experience was tiring because we had to take SO many shots, back and forth until we got it right, But at the same time I think it was fun! Along with that, it was amazing to work with Nylah, she was so great throughout the entire process.
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Lastly I'd like credit two wonderful people I had the pleasure to meet today!
Kimberly is the event coordinator at the Gold Coast museum and also the one who helped us on the phone and greeted us as we got in. She explain everything to us perfectly and was so welcoming and patient.
Mr. Cully is the train master of the museum. He was the one who supervised as we used the area. Cully was so patient as we got everything set up and we appreciate him so much for that since it took quite a while. But his job which I'd like to include is driving the trains around the museum, which I think is a cool job!
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