About shooting our short film

Hello!

Last weekend we finished filming our short film. The process was a bit harder than I thought (even though I consider myself a realist) and I definitely learned something. Of course, there's stuff I'd like to have done better, but then again this is our first short film (not counting the silent one), so guess I'm still learning. But I'm still somewhat satisfied.

During the first day only we shot about 40% of the film. We were still a bit stiff and had some troubles with lighting, but thankfully we improved later.
That day's length was... well... it was too damn lengthy, okay? About 14 hours. We filmed our movie's longest scene and had to move to another set at the evening for another scene. We had one of our actors just for this day, and thus had to shoot all of his scenes that day, although that wasn't the plan. After all that we all were very tired, but had to wake up at 6 A.M. for another shooting session, as one of our actors had to leave early and we had to shoot all her scenes before that.

During the second day we still had slight troubles with lighting, but otherwise everything went better than the day before. A lengthy day, but not as unbearable as the first one.

During the third day we shot outside of the familiar apartment were we had shot almost all the earlier scenes. We moved to a local cafe before it opened, but failed to shoot everything we needed before customers began to rush in and ruin shots :P. Instead we decided to leave and film 4th day's scenes early.

During the fourth day we returned to the cafe and filmed all we needed to and re-filmed some earlier scenes. We shot the movie's first scene for last (we shot almost everything in reverse order, as it was easier to shave a beard than to wait for the main actor to grow one)

Everyday was shorter than the one before, picture quality was better and everything went smoother than it previously had. Except for relations, as we had some tension within our crew, but I can't talk about in detail in a public forum like this.

After every day we looked through the material we had filmed and investigated whether we had to re-film scenes. And usually we had to, but that was expected, as there's always something one fails to notice in the situation. Unfortunately there's also limitations on what can be re-filmed and what cannot as actors come and go, they alter their physical appearance (shave their beard, etc.), and the set transforms irreversibly.
I'm a perfectionist and I shot a few scenes again and again (up to 9 times, until I was satisfied or someone convinced me to stop). There were some scenes I wanted to shoot again, but unfortunately for the reasons stated above or because of lack of time, couldn't.

Equipment worked as it should have, and the time I spent practicing definitely didn't go to waste in that regard. There were many scenes we couldn't practice, but they went surprisingly well.

In the end, within 4 days we worked somewhere between 30-40 hours. We shot exactly 300 takes and material for about 40 GB. For that reason we shot SD instead of HD, as high definition would have required about six times more space, which we couldn't reasonably spare.
We filmed a lot more material than we'd need, but it's better that way, because few things are worse in the editing table than not having enough material to work with.
Unfortunately editing is not my job in this project. I'd like to, as I love editing, but no can do mister.

It's up to the editor now, but I think we filmed a decent flick.

Sorry if the text isn't as good as in previous posts, and I think I forgot a lot that I was supposed to mention, but I'm tired as I came from fitness boxing.
I'm not sure what I'll write about next time, but I have some ideas. Until then.

J.

Today I listened this song for a first time in a long while:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=modXbqbsAvs