June 13th, 2015. 6:00AM
Ricky and I awoke for our packed day of shooting. First, we would shoot the first half of the film at a ranch in Davie, FL. Thanks to our lead actor, we were able to secure this location on short-notice the night before. After a short break, we would then proceed to shoot the rest of the film in the residential hall showrooms of Nova Southeastern University. If everything went according to plan, we would complete the shoot by 5PM.
We ate a quick breakfast, grabbed our equipment, picked up the food we ordered for our team and headed to the set.
8:00AM
We arrived to our set and began setting up for the scenes. Our lead actor was the first to the set, so we began with his voice-overs.
I made the decision to ADR the entire first half of the film because I wanted the story to be portrayed from the mind of Jack, telling the experience to Dr. Sternwood. This included the dialogue scenes of both Jack and Sky.
After his VOs, we shot his close-ups and solo scenes as we waited for our lead actress to arrive.
10:30AM
With most of the cast and crew on set, we began shooting the bulk of the scenes in the ranch. We did the VOs for our actress, shot the introductory scene and then went to the outside of the ranch to shoot our “picnic.”
1:00PM
By this point, we were running late. Everyone was supposed to be at NSU by 2:00PM to shoot the “office” scene, as well as the flashback sequence, and we hadn’t even completed the prologue yet. We hopped the fence with our equipment (trying to avoid the “souvenirs” left by all the horses) and searched for a safe area to place the picnic blanket. It just so happened to be very hot and humid that day and we were all extremely sweaty, including our actors. Unfortunately, our lead’s sweaty shirt was not something we were able to hide.
2:30PM
With the first few scenes completed, everyone set out for NSU, where we’d be shooting the office scene, as well as the flashback. Honestly, I think we did pretty well with making the residential hall showroom look like a doctors office. Sometimes, I even forget that that’s where we shot it. We had a single lab coat for our doctor’s assistant, but we still needed a coat for our the doctor that would escort our main character down the hallway. Luckily, we found a coat rack with three other lab coats on it in one of the rooms. We moved some chairs and desks around and managed to create the office. We quickly went outside to shoot the flashback and then went straight in to shooting the dialogue scenes, this time recording the audio straight from the scene.
6:00PM
After getting a few final angles of the corridor shot, it was a wrap for the day. We cleaned up the room, leaving no trace that a movie had been shot there. Most of the cast and crew went back home. Ricky and I went back to headquarters (Ricky’s House).
After much contemplation, it was decided that we would rest for the remainder of the day and begin editing on Sunday. We slept for 10 hours. (This could possibly be a world record for the most sleep recieved during a 48 Hour Film Project).
No Monster Energy Drink needed. To this day, they are still in Ricky’s refrigerator.
Lauren McGarrett 