Process Book - Blog

 One thing I have learned for sure is that no matter how roughly or random you plan your film or documentary, plans will always change in one way or another. We are all different and not always things are going to be the way as we want or plan, but where is the fun in that? A new change is a new adventure and even though Afarin and I tried to stick to the plan as much as possible, something always came up, which is perfectly fine because we still stick to our main aim and plan.

 For Mexico, we did the same steps lighting and camera wise as we did with Iran. We set up the bedroom with the lighting and the tripod and stick with the cameras, and we tried to set up a warm mood. This time it was a bit harder since the bedroom had different sides with the desk, so we tried our best with the lighting, i.e. there was this light that we did not know how to put because in a certain way you. could see a shadow underneath the desk that was a bit distracting since it had a rare shape, so we decided to pull the night table next to the desk and put the light there so the shadow could disappear, we considered that one as my Key Light, since I was the one that was interviewed for this video. The Fill Light was next to my teammate, who was a bit in front of me, and the Back Light was behind and next to me with the other camera: We had to be precise, with Iran as with Mexico, in order to capture the angle without showing any lights or cables. We tried our best. For the inte...

 We filmed 3 countries in one day: Palestine, Iran and Mexico in the end. For Iran, we had to set everything as the interviewee's bedroom, who is my teammate, and we are both making this documentary come true. After we finished setting up her bedroom, we set the lights and we had to change their positions like 3 times following the Key Light, the Back Light and the Fill Light to have as less shadows as possible. I believe we did a good job with matching the angle of the lights with the angle of the cameras, which were one on the front and one on the side. Some shadows showed at the beginning but then they were reduced with their right angles. To be honest, we filmed Iran previously, but we felt like we had to make the interview again because of lack of information and confidence, so we filmed the week after. We saw this time that this interview was better than the first one we made, because we were more prepared and the lighting was even better. At first, we struggled with some ang...

Palestine 🇵🇸 was a challenge as well since my interviewee is Palestinian and was born and raised in Qatar 🇶🇦. So I asked him to talk about both. Anas felt comfortable enough since this is not the first time that he has taken part in my filming projects. This time the lighting was different since Afarin did not bring the LED light so we used two desk lamps. We tried to place the lamps in order for Anas to look in the right way, I am not sure if we did. Anas' stuff was placed on the desk, which was his scenery so we could make it more personal, learning from previous experiences that we lived with Colombia, Jordan and Hong Kong. We talked about anything that could come up to our minds about these two countries, and it was not hard for Anas since he has shared this information with me before many times. We took small brakes in the middle since filming is fun but it takes time, so we have fun brakes from the fun. That is one of the reasons I decided to create Real Reality 2020, sha...

 For the Second day of filming, we decided to film Hong Kong 🇭🇰 and Jordan 🇯🇴 since it was easier for us to film Palestine 🇵🇸 , Iran 🇮🇷 and Mexico 🇲🇽  later with time. We started with Hong Kong, and Marcella was our interviewee. It is worth mentioning that we are all students and we were all following the social distancing and hygiene rule. Afarin and I tried to make sure that all our interviewees were comfortable enough to share their point of view and experiences without surpassing their privacy or the things that preferred to keep to themselves. Marcella felt comfortable enough since we are friends and I told her to just have fun with me. We first talked about it while filming some parts so it could be natural, and then we filmed the rest after. It was a good environment since all the people (except for Gaby - Colombia 🇨🇴 ) that will take part in the documentary were there. All of the countries were gathered together for Hong Kong and Jordan. So we talked, we sh...

 I forgot to add that when we filmed Colombia it was a stressing and rushed time so we had no time to book the equipment since it was Sunday the day we filmed. Since that happened, we decided to continue with our way, so here is the new and updated equipment list that we have used so far: 1. iPhone X 2. iPhone 11 3. Phone tripod 4. Phone holder and stick 5. iPhone X and iPhone 6 for audio recording We will keep this equipment for the rest of the filming since it is more accesible. The interviewees will send me the recordings of their voice from their phone (since we film with our phones we ask the interviewee tho record with his phone, preferably an iPhone to make the transfer easier).

 For Colombia, it was our first time filming our first part, country and footage for this documentary. Gaby is Colombian but has lived in Dubai for the past 9 years, so I asked her if she could talk about both, but focusing more in Colombia, which is her homeland. We tried to figure out the best background possible even though they place we filmed it was not as good as expected. I guess I could have stepped in a bit more and decide to film it in her room, which would have been more personal. My teacher told us we needed footage of our interviewees in the place they talk about. So I asked Gaby if she could send me some footage of her walking in Dubai because she went there for the holidays, although I will include some footage of Colombia as well, possibly Bogotá. It was hard cause it took us time to film it, but I guess it is just part of the creative and fun part of it. I think it was fun.