i got a late start today because i really needed to sleep a little bit more than i have been. then i started prepping some footage that i thought i would use in a shot i would film today. for the ending of the office manager assistant now building superintendent character, i had always wanted it to be that she discovers a video control room. on the monitor, she sees surveillance footage of the building, the hallways, inside the apartments, including her own. i was preparing the footage to be displayed on the monitor but the rendering process was taking too long and i still had to pick up my cast member and drive to the set. (that sounds very professional, doesn't it? in reality, we are filming most of the scenes at work on the weekend so that it's a cool, free location and we won't be bothered.)

i picked up the girl playing the superintendent, then we went to campus and started setting up. as this was going on, i was rendering the footage. after it was rendered, i tried to make a web page that would display the footage. i was having a hard time, probably because the video files are so huge. i eventually got it to display on the laptop i have been using for the project, so i transferred it to the computer that would be in the scene. however, the computer's browser would not display it at all. forget this! i don't have time to trouble shoot browser/quicktime issues! i will special effect this shot! so i ended up shooting a blank monitor.

on the spot we were able to create a tighter narrative based on the objects in the office. if only i had known about these objects beforehand! we had to create some props due to the change in the story.

i didn't think we'd be there very long, 1-2 hours but because of all the things we had to do, i'd say we were there fo 3+ hours. after that, i drove the superintendent home. then dani, who is playing the game designer, came to my house and we filmed some shots that i didn't have and/or wanted to redo. for the surveillance footage, it should have some kind of bubble effect. i tried using an effect built into final cut pro, but i don't want to have a fcp looking film. i don't want someone to watch my film and think immediately "you used final cut pro". that's why yesterday i went to the hardware store and bought a glass piece that you put on lamps. earlier i had tried to use one of my glass cups on top of the camera lens but it just wasn't working out. after i bought the glass, i immediately went to heliosphan's house, (the role of the pet owner), reshot her scenes with a new angle, and used the glass piece. for $4.99, it was a very good buy. the shots came out great.

i wanted to reshoot dani's surveillance footage with my new glass lens modification. for some things the lighting is tricky and the reflections can fuck you up. i don't have time to mess around to get perfect lighting. there is one shot of dani going down stairs that could have been gorgeous, but the lighting was off. that's ok though, i feel it adds to the realism as surveillance camera footage isn't very sharp and cameras in a hallway are likely to get fucked up. tomorrow we are going to reshoot the surveillance footage of dani when he discovers the basement.

overall, i think the new version works a lot better and i am much happier with it. i think the audience can get into the story a lot easier and i didn't sacrifice too much of the story. the background details are gone and of course there's not really character development, but the basics are still there and there is pretty good flow.