Rehearsal Notes:

#1 Breakdown of script:

(a) Number of actors: 2 (Tenchi Thomas and Pierre Thornton)

How many scenes will each actor be in? Length of Performances?

• Both will be in all three scenes. Their performance length in scenes 1 and 3 are about equal.
  

(b) Performance time: (in fractions of a full day. Fraction of day needed for performance is same ratio of time on camera.)

Scene 1:

• Tenchi and Pierre: 1/2 a day each.
  

Scene 2:

• Tenchi: 1/3 day
  
• Pierre: 2/3 day
  

Scene 3:

• Tenchi and Pierre: 1/2 day.
  

(c) Location: 1 location. Single-floor house. Open floor plan. Living room/kitchen.

(d) Stunts and special effects: (2)

• Fall in scene 2. Slips on watery pancake mix. (1 shot)
  
• Simulation of smoke coming from stove in scene 2. (2 shots)
  

(e) Costumes: (Already acquired)

• “Nathan”: Green Sweater, brown cargo pants.
  
• “Jack”: White and blue sportswear. Currently looking for red and yellow alternative, if needed.
  

(f) Props: (Acquired)

• Empty egg carton
  
• Box of generic pancake mix
  
• Flour
  
• Sugar
  
• Baking powder
  
• Salt
  
• Milk
  
• Veggie oil
  
• Plastic forks and spoons
  
• Extra clothes to place around set. (hats, etc.)
  
• Mop and bucket
  
• Bowls and skillets
  
• Eggs
  
• 2 game controllers
  

#2 Location Scout:

*cleaning and prepping for shooting was in progress when shots were taken*

closeup of kitchen area. Note how much daylight can be seen through windows. We will be blocking these to extend the amount of time we can film during the day.

living room has adequate spacing for lights

Sound Quality:

High quality silence with low echo. Acoustically sound; can carry sound from one end of set to other. Needs to turn off fridge to stop hum, and bathroom fans. Surrounding area outside set is quiet as well. Biggest issue with sound is the children and dogs inside and around set. Arrangements have been made to alleviate sound problems during actual recording of movie.

Available Light

4 – 6 ceiling lights (4 windows, 2 in each area.) Light quality is higher in living room than kitchen. Will need more lighting for kitchen.

Electricity:

3 readily available power sockets. (1 in each area, and 1 in the middle of both.) Can use a 4^th if needed by moving Television and 5^th if string an extension cable to bathroom.

#10: Rehearsal Notes:

The first rehearsal was definitely a learning experience. There were a lot of mistakes made and things that can be improved. That said, I believe it went much better than it could have gone had we not been prepared. We spent a lot of the scheduled time for rehearsal going over the nuances of the script. We discussed the motives of both characters, how long they’re on film, how they further the plot, their motivations, and how the viewer is supposed to perceive each character at every point of the film. This helped greatly when we began to film, although we still spent a lot of time working out kinks.

I am happy we did multiple takes of each shot. It gave the actors room to experiment with different methods of acting out the same set of lines and gave me an opportunity to experiment with framing and available lighting. Although we spent a lot of time figuring out how shots would work from different perspectives, I do wish that we filmed more of our shots from different perspectives with each take. The actors are working on their performances, something that shows with each individual take of the same shot. They are getting to a level I am comfortable with, but still have room for growth.

It was rehearsal, so we did not have all lighting and sound in place. This is most apparent in the kitchen scenes, where I discovered that the levels of natural and fluorescent light we have is still darker than the living room. This can be remedied with extra lights, so I’m not extremely worried. In regards to the sound, the hum the fridge as well as one of my actor’s kids can be heard in some shots. It is understandable due to the nature of rehearsal, and our set being his house. Nevertheless, all extra sounds will not be there when we do our final shooting for the movie. We have arranged to have the entire set perfectly quiet except for necessary sounds in the movie.

A list of props has been made for the film. Luckily, a lot of “atmospheric props” like pans, cups, and bowls is already in the set so acquiring the few props I do need is not a problem.

There are some scenes we did not shoot, mainly close-ups of the characters faces. I have decided to shoot any quick close-ups after shooting major narrative footage. If I shoot them all at once and break them up in final cut, I can limit the amount of times I have to reposition the camera.

None of the scenes became too problematic, although I did change the usage of a specific prop to lower the movie’s budget. At the end of scene 2: we no longer use a fire extinguisher to put out the impending fire, baking powder is poured over the fire instead.

Although we did not get a chance to shoot rehearsal footage of the entire movie, we did review the movie off-screen beforehand. The 15 minutes of footage I do have is for a little under the first half of the movie (3 – 5 takes for each shot.). After acquiring that footage, I made a HUGE mistake and double-tapped the record button after filming, which resulted in about 20 minutes of absolutely nothing. Luckily it did not erase anything I needed. In the future, I will be buying two tapes just in case anything happens to the first one.

#11: REWRITES: Earlier post of script will be updated with revisions.

(scenes 1, 2, and 3) Midday: Jack and Nathan’s house. The Couch

• Anytime it says "apartment" in the script, I have changed it to house. This lowers the amount of time I have to spend setting up and taking down equipment, now that I no longer have to drive across town in-between locations to get a shot of an apartment.
  

(scene 2: end) JACK RUNS AWAY FROM SKILLET, RETURNS WITH BOWL OF BAKING POWDER. DUMPS INTO SKILLET. POWDER MAKES CAMERA GO TO BLACK.

• Cheaper solution to putting out the “small fire” that gets started in the film. Smoke is used to convey the idea of fire, without burning anything.
  

(scene 3) JACK LOOKS BEHIND HIM TOWARDS NATHAN. NATHAN IS HOLDING TWO PLATES OF HOMADE PANCAKES.

CLOSE UP ON THE PANCAKES. CAMERA TILTS UP TO NATHAN’S FACE. HE SMILES AND SLIGHTLY NODS.

CLOSE UP ON JACK’S FACE. HE SIGHS AND SHAKES HIS HEAD IN REFUSAL.

• Fixed a typo in the script. Original line: “CLOSE UP ON NATHAN’S FACE. HE SIGHS AND SHAKES HIS HEAD IN REFUSAL.”