Guys, I am sorry to report that Willem Dafoe never responded. I know it was a terrible reach, but you never know. I thought he would be a somewhat charitable guy, but I guess he is too busy. Understandable. But just think how cool it would have been to say that THEE Willem Dafoe was in our project. I'm thinking of maybe reaching out some other people, but maybe that's too much. I don't know. I might be a little too optimistic. But I digress, I'll get back on task.
The crux of this intro scene and the entire feature film is the therapist's office. In every loop, we are brought back to this office over and over again. So, it makes sense that most of our shooting was in the same location.
Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I am pretty proud of most of the shots that I conjured up. Yes, I was following the storyboard do a certain degree, but because of the state of our set, some of the hsots we had planned were not possible. Also, we completely changed the ending when we were writing the script, so (as the director) I did have to improvise on the day. Do not get me wrong though, I was completely mentally prepared to have to do this, and I think I executed it well, but I suppose that I will find out when it comes to editing.
Watch Me Whip
I know I promised some raw footage and I am a woman of my word. But before I show you the shot, I would like to explain myself a bit first. So, the shot I am about to show you takes place after she first experiences the time loop and is reliving her therapy session. In the original scene, the assistant comes into the room unexpectedly and simply asks the therapist a question. The first time we see this interaction it is shot kind of far away from a sort of outside perspective, but when we show it in the loop, we wanted to show it from Alice's perspective.
To make this distinction, I cultivated the idea to do this shot that is all in one with several whip pans going from character to character. Now this could have been a disaster, and it almost was. But, I think after many, many shots I got one that worked pretty well.
Now, I know that I could have probably made it a little more stable, but I can fix all of that in post production. But, it's pretty good, right? Maybe I'm just gaslighting myself, but with a few touch ups, I think it could be pretty cool. What I wanted to get across by using the consecutive whip pans was the fear and franticness that Alice is feeling, as this is meant to be shot more from her perspective.
And, yes, this shot was also decided on a whim. I did have an idea for this part prior to shooting, but in the moment, it felt like this moment could not be shot stagnantly. It was lacking movement that would give it that urgency. So I was like, why not give it all the movement. I think that my whim was right, because I am proud of how I composed this shot.
Improving on the spot is not always the ideal situation, but adaptability is a key skill to be successful with projects like these. Yes, in a perfect world, everything would turn out as you planned, but we do not live in a perfect world (obviously). Sometimes, I come up with my best ideas when they are unexpected. Of course it is still important to plan things out as much as you can, because as they say to fail to be prepared is to prepare to fail (that is corny). But, if something arises, you must be prepared to improvise.
And now for the movie quote of the day... (but it's from a musical)
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