Filming Blog: Almost Done!

 Hey, I just finished filming today!

            The scenes I filmed today are the bulk of the music video. These consist of the scenes where I actually need actors, for this I used my Mom and my sister, Riley. Riley decided to rebel against me today being extremely annoyed at everything I asked her to do, but I just kept going and we eventually got it done!

           The very first thing we filmed was her running down the stairs. This show was the easiest shot we did that night, and surprisingly with no issues at all!

            The next shot we filmed was where my Mom brought the hot chocolate mugs to Riley who was coming down the stairs. My original plan for this was to film a tracking shot coming from the original hot chocolate-making location, but I couldn't locate the props used in that scene so I had to instead do a long shot of my Mom bringing the hot chocolate. While this isn't what I had in mind for this shot, I think it still had the same impact I wanted it to. For some reason in every take we did of this scene, my sister did this awkward smile when she met my Mom at the bottom of the stairs. I tried everything to get her to not do that, but she was already doing me a huge favor by helping me with this, and it didn't look horrible so I decided this wasn't a battle I was willing to fight.

        After filming this shot, we filmed the present opening scene which pans to my Mom drinking the hot chocolate she made. My sister kept looking into the camera for some reason so it took a couple takes to get the perfect shot, but in the end, it worked out. I had to use presents that my mom is gifting to someone for their birthday as I forgot to wrap my own presents for this, luckily the present wrapping wasn't too birthday themed so it ended up working out. But, the biggest issue I faced filming this was the camera pan. I couldn't just turn the camera because it would make my Mom be blocked by a wall, so while the camera pans I had to move with the camera to position it in the correct place. Let's just say, it turned out really shaky. However, when I was editing the commercial I saw a feature on iMovie (the editing software I used) that can stabilize the camera, I have no idea how it works, but I had to test it before moving to the next scene just to make sure that it actually worked. To my surprise, it worked better than expected, it stabilized the camera really well, not completely, but enough to not look awful.

     The final scene I filmed was the tilt of the Christmas tree with Riley underneath the opening presents. This was easier than I expected it to be, and we finished it really quickly! I didn't need my Mom for this scene, only Riley, which worked out in my favor because its fewer people to direct, meaning that it went by faster.  I, again, had to hold up the tripod to film the tilt because it didn't go high enough, all I have to say is whoever made the camera stabilization option is my favorite person in the world right now. But, there really weren't any other issues with this scene, and we got it done in less than 5 minutes!

We've finally wrapped up the filming, and
now onto my favorite part, the editing! I hope you all have a great rest of your day!