That's a Wrap! (Featuring Your First Look at The Abnormals!)

Ok so that title isn't entirely true, but what is is that I filmed nearly all of the film in one day! The only thing left to do is to film this brief video call footage with one person which will appear on the screen in the film. But I'm not thinking about that one shot with two lines right now because literally everything else is done! 

This morning, staring at around 10, my three actors Max, Sawyer, and Reagan arrived at my house and we filmed all of the indoor scenes at the Abnormals HQ, the ones that begin and end the film. Then my dad ordered pizza and we had lunch at around 12:30. After that, we filmed these brief suit-up montage shots against the greenscreen. Seeing everyone in their full costumes for the first time was one of the best moments of the day, made me feel like my vision was coming to life in front of me.

We then took another break after that and drove over to Tree Tops Park to meet up with Jaden and Lee, the other two stars, to film the forest scenes which take up a bulk of the runtime. We got there a little after 2 finished at around 4:45. When it came to the indoor stuff, we really had no issues. The outdoor scenes also went smoothly, however we did have to pause a few times for park goers to walk past and to wait for the sound of planes and cicadas to subside, which are both very common in that area for some reason. 

I think I speak for everyone when I say that we felt a little embarrassed hanging around this public park in our superhero and villain outfits, and yeah I think we got a few stares. I don't know if I've ever mentioned this here, but I'm autistic, and because of the social anxiety that comes with that I was kind of dreading this, so I just forced myself to not think about the passerby and just focus on the movie. I mean, we're actors and filmmakers, we're weird people. You see the general public making up stories and playing pretend as adults or even young adults? We're weird people, and that's cool.

I originally said I would make a shot list for this film, but I didn't have time. It still worked out though. I actually kind of prefer the method of improving and coming up with visual ideas in the moment. For example, I wanted to put some knick-knacks around my living room to make it look more like a superhero base, and I found this conch shell. I got the idea that when the character Astroknight turns on the TV to get the team's mission, he should do it in a cool, unexpected way. Thus, the secret mission channel is tuned into by spinning around the conch shell on the coffee table. I also allowed for a degree of improvisation with the performances. Jaden and Lee especially did a lot of these exaggerated moments that felt highlighted the campiness of those characters and the film itself. Sometimes I felt like they were taking it too far and had to ask them to dial it back, but regardless I loved what they did with those characters.

It was really fun blocking the scenes. I feel like I direct my blocking with a more theater-like sensibility than film, probably because I do theater and I'm very used to it, so if you were on set you would've heard a lot of talk like "form a line" or "form a triangle". Then again, maybe that is traditional in film and I haven't been on enough sets to notice it. 

One of the main reasons we were able to film most of the movie in one day is that I only did one take for most shots. The only times I did multiple takes were if someone messed up a line, if I messed up moving the camera, if an unexpected sound occurred, or if I felt like someone's performance or delivery needed to be tweaked. All of those things rarely happened, and I'm happy to say that a vast majority of the shots we're two takes at most. Some may say that this is a flawed method, while I say it depends on the director and the cast. I feel like the first take is usually the most authentic performance and I don't want to stress out my actors or myself with too many takes (looking at you, Kubrick). It saves time both in filming and in editing, because I don't have to endlessly watch the same clip over and over to see which variation is best.

Now is a good time for me to mention just how fun the set was. Yes we were making a film, which is work (something I had to remind my cast of a few times) but we were also hanging out and having a good time. By the time it was done everyone was feeling good and accomplished and was just as excited to see the final product as me, which makes me happy.

This is becoming a very long blog post but I'm just so excited about this movie! Now that it's been filmed, a massive weight has been taken off of my shoulders, and I have more than enough time to edit and do all the necessary marketing shenanigans. Today was an amazing day.