Production - Filming Therapist Scene

To begin our second filming session which would finalize the filming for our opening we went to a local library as its quiet environment, ease of access, and empty areas with tables would provide an ideal location to film these dialogue heavy shots and that fit into a similar aesthetic of one that a therapist office would have. 

Due to me arriving later than the time we scheduled we had a limited amount of time to record before the library closed, surprisingly I think this helped us more than it hurt us as it put us on a time crunch and kept us focused making every take more meaningful and higher quality out of fear of having to record another take and waste our limited time. 

The first shot is a technical transition between Lilly closing her car door from the previous scene to Dr. Fernandez shutting his binder. To film this angle, I had to almost lay on the table to get a close-up shot of the binder and took multiple takes because it was the first shot of the day, and we kept mistiming the shot. 

The next sequence of shots is filmed in a shot-reverse-shot format where I cut between Dr. Fernandez and Lilly as they have a conversation discussing Lilly's mental health, I filmed this shot by kneeling next to the table and shifting in between characters. This sequence is also the first part of the film opening that includes dialogue. This led to many takes where Samuel or Laila would blank on their lines and had to go back to review what they had to say. 

The shot then cuts to a 2 shot of the characters talking showing their distance from each other and providing a smoother flowing conversation. I filmed this by propping up a chair and using the 0.5x camera feature to fit both characters in frame.

Lilly is then shown to become aggravated due to Dr. Fernandez's lack of care. This is when the camera cuts to her, and I can be seen behind her as the shadow figure. I achieved this by putting on a black zip up with the hood up and a black ski mask worn backwards to not show my face. This shot was filmed by Samuel and was done in one take. 

The scene ends with Lilly standing up which was done by a point of view shot achieved by Laila holding the recording phone up to her face as she stood up. The shot then cuts to a panning shot of Lilly storming out of the shot which then pans back the other way to show Dr. Fernandez unbothered.

This part of the filming session was very successful as we efficiently got quality shots in a time crunch. The only difficulty we faced was the actors remembering their lines or staying in character. Overall, this section was successful and adequately adapted the script into visual media.