Kickin' it with Trent Marley

 For Day 3 of production, we traveled to the 'far away' lands of Davie, Florida to get to BECON-TV. Over the previous week, I had been in talks with the Executive Producer over at BECON, Jim Guarasci about using the studio space they have. He first had to double check with some of the other people there to verify the space wasn't going to be used for Friday Afternoon. 

Once that was confirmed I nailed on 1pm-4pm. Connor was returning from a trip that day so,  we couldn't schedule for earlier. Because of the later start time, I also thought it'd be best to prioritize getting the sit down interview shots for scene 3 in the script, since that needed the studio's set and props, where as the monologues can really be filmed anywhere I can prop up a curtain and lights. 

I drove over to BECON-TV with Nicole Piñeros and Sam Perez, they both helped me with brings props from the closet as well as with setting up. For the scene I choose 2 bold red chairs, a blue background, a table in the center, and place plants behind them. As for lighting, the studio had already 5 3200K lights in it's rig already turned on, so I used them as backlights. In order to properly light the subjects I grabbed two 5800K COB lights and place two big soft boxes over them. Each light would be focused at one of the subjects while also filling in the sides of the other subject.

 

By the time I finished tuning in the lights, Connor finally arrived in his 2 piece suit and tie. It was also around this time Sam had to leave, but it was fine since it meant it was just me and the actors. I was able to talk to Connor about Trent Marley and we landed on having him over exaggerate his movements, but still keep a semblance of grounded-ness to it. During the practice takes, I remembered how Nicole also had a background in Cypress Bay High School's American Musical Theater program which made sense as to why the two quickly had good chemistry.

I opted to record the scene from 2 angles, the wide of the two and a medium of Trent Marley. I technically shoudl've gotten a medium of Nicole's character too, but in the final edit, I'd be cutting between Eric and Trent while on the TV, so I wouldn't to shown Nicole's angle. After getting a 3 good takes from each angle, I called it a wrap for the day. I had gotten the shots I needed, and even material for a social media post. I found it super fun to work with Nicole and Connor (for the first time) as they both were very professional and focused on their work. Afterward we even had a conversation about the risks involved with the fields of film and musical theater and goals for later in life. In general I found it to be super cool. I'm also super excited to film the monologues and closing scene soon.

Ungraded Final Shot

Another thing that happened when we finished was Connor finding a piano to play: