Filming, Day 1

Dean and I went to film today. We picked up Angelo and Rodrigo, prepped gear and props, and got to moving. We were probably fifteen minutes late to the set, so the band got there before us and checked out the house we would be filming at. We met up and began bringing all of the band's instruments inside the house, along with all of our camera gear and equipment. Setting up everything probably took about an hour. Setting up cameras on tripods, having the band set up drums, their amps, and lastly, setting up balloons onto the walls of our set. We'd also gotten a broom, so we were able to sweep up a lot of debris to clear room for us to move around, and effectively reduce the chance of one of us getting hurt.

Maxx couldn't find any place that sold letter-shaped helium balloons, so Dean and I ventured out to buy some that spelled out "Breathe" and just blew them up before coming to the set. Because they weren't filled out with helium, we thought that attaching them to the ceiling would be cool, but when we got there and tried placing them we realized there were multiple issues with this idea: the ceiling was too high, the wind in the house would push the balloons around, and they wouldn't be in view of the camera. We figured out that we could just tape them to the wall instead, which worked spectacularly. I taped the letters strategically so that it was hidden behind the lettering and looked more seamless.

The filming went great. We got two takes of them performing the song altogether, and then a few of them individually: Madisyn singing in a bathroom in front of a mirror; Kenzie drumming; Maxx and Nick playing together; and then one with Nick and Maxx playing separately. 

Seeing them perform the song for the first time, and see how into it they got was refreshing like they really care about what they do. It just sucks that they don't care that much about helping us, since this is for a school project. They can very conveniently use it as a music video for their branding, etc. although we're the ones being graded on it, amongst other things. It's a lot more of our time and money at risk than theirs.

While prepping equipment, and while filming, I was the photographer, taking pictures of the band members. We don't know exactly what we're going to use the pictures for at this point, but it's still good to have. We could probably use some for their Twitter social media page. I don't know, but I really like some of the pictures that I took. I have quite a few of the band members messing around behind the scenes, and nice shots of them during their performance. I believe I got around 100 photos taken in total.

There was also some cute stuff that went down during the time we spent working. A praying mantis had gotten on one of Kenzie's drum pieces when we'd first brought everything into the house, and after double-checking on google that praying mantises aren't poisonous (just to be safe, because admittedly I've never seen one in real life), I nudged it onto my hand and held it a little. It jumped off pretty quickly and hid underneath some rubble in the house, however, I went back to retrieve it after prepping some more equipment. It was much calmer about climbing onto my hand, and this time was extremely still. Just straight chillin'. I ended up bringing it outside onto a tree, where it proceeded to stay on the bark and look at me all funny. 

I thought it was really cute. Instead of climbing or crawling away when I put it down, it just turned its head and looked directly at me. So I gave it a little pat or two. It let me pet it without a problem, and after fawning over it for a minute and taking pictures, I went on my way to help everyone finish setting up for the performance.

After we finished filming and were making the trek back to our cars with equipment, we had a little bit of another, albeit very cute, problem. There are cows in the field where this abandoned house is. They were far off when Dean, Claire, and I had gone to scope out the place for the first time. Today was no exception, except for when we were ready to go and realized that the cows had migrated towards the property due to the noise we were making. All that music playing through speakers and Kenzie's drumming definitely attracted them, as they're very curious creatures. The herd walked over and were staring at us. 

We were scared at first that some of the cows with horns would charge at us. Particularly Angelo believed that the bulls may be aggressive toward us, chase us, or whatever else. Cows aren't necessarily violent or aggressive, but they're hundreds of pounds and could kill us without even trying, really. 

They seemed to be really sweet and I like cows, so I ventured over. There was a flimsy fence separating us and the house from the cows, so I wasn't too afraid that they'd trample me or anything like that. I walked up, much to the dismay of Dean and Angelo, but to my surprise, I scared them off. Upon my greeting them they all flocked away from us and back to where they were before. So we were able to bring our belongings back to our cars and get home for the day. 

Regardless, we spent a while filming and working on the performance aspect of the music video. Overall I think we spent a good four hours at the set, working together and getting everything we need to make this project look great. Undoubtedly, myself, Dean, the crew, and probably the band as well were very tired, and in need of some water and rest by the end of it. That was a whole lot of working, filming, and spending prolonged amounts of time standing up with no end in sight nor air conditioning, but we got it done. And pretty well I believe. Dean and I are excited to see what we got. He's particularly excited about getting down to editing it all.