Finding Actors Is HARD!

 Just last week, I mentioned that I had a set actress for Iris, but had yet to find a mother to act in my opening. The actress for Iris had a really busy schedule and scheduling time to film was difficult, so that called for finding a whole new cast. I reached out to a lot of different people this past week to help me out, and I ran thin on my luck. It's been an exhausting task for me because I reached out to every theater student and TV student I knew, but none of them had free time to film over the next few weeks. I contacted the theater students I knew first, but they had a school play to rehearse/perform in, so it was unlikely that they would have time during the day to film. As for TV students, most of them are actually my friends but all the people I had in mind either had other big projects to work on or they were just too busy. But I was overlooking something: the one person I never thought about was making myself act. I don't really mind being on camera because I've gotten used to it as an active member of Cypress Bay's television program, but I wouldn't really say I'm good at it. Although it's not an ideal situation, the only person I know I can rely on is myself, and having to schedule filming with someone else could easily prompt filming problems. 

If I don't find someone by the end of this week, I'll have to suck it up and put on my best show. There's a good chance I'll ask my mom to act as the mother as well, but we'll see how finding actors goes this week. On another note, the props have arrived and are mostly ready to go! Here's the anklet I ordered: 

It was a lot thinner than I expected, but if I'm able to use a Canon 50mm lens the shot should be close enough to see the details and even get some really nice depth of field like this: 

Source: Vernon Calmers Photography

Depth of field refers to the distance between the nearest and furthest objects on the camera. Basically: a REALLY blurry background with clear subject = Good! Now that I'm thinking about it, making that specific shot from my storyboard (the close-up of the anklet) have a shallow focus adds much more meaning to the shot. The shallow focus could mirror the amount of value Iris places onto this piece of jewelry because it could've been a gift she received from her mother when she was younger, or a souvenir they got on a family trip. I don't want to think the entire film's plot through, but I know that this specific anklet would be a sentimental object for her because it was a gift, so having that shallow focus could imply an emotional attachment she has to it. The shot would look something like this, but tighter on the anklet:

Basically, the goal for this week is to make sure all my set design is ready to go for filming next week. I want to try filming at least half of it so I have something to edit over spring break. What I am a little worried about is the timing of my opening. I'll have to write out all my shots digitally and estimate how much time each shot will take to calculate a probable run time for my opening. I'll leave that for the next posting though, so stay tuned!