The Making of Amal: Behind the Scenes. Production.

Production. Fun. Exciting. Nerve-racking. Long Hours. Persistence.

Our production should have only been three total days however. It was four. Lets get to that later.

Day 1:

Smooth, but long. Very long. We got there early and left late. Of course, the night before there was very little sleep. My friend Amina and I took a Sprinter Van over to Queens which was about an hour and a half drive. We backed in, unloaded everything and set up started. People started to come in and before we knew it set up was done and it was time to start. My mind was just on filming so, it was a lot of takes and retakes and providing instruction. This was day one. Just come as prepared as possible, and make sure that your vision for the day is flexible because you have to stay on schedule and things are bound to change.

Day 2:

Yikes. We got shut down in Jersey because we used a plot of land that we didnt have a permit for. Guerrilla filmmaking works sometimes, for a set like ours though it didnt because we were 11 people. So…lesson learned. We took a fall that day though and had to reschedule for a different date in a later month.

Day 3:

Again. Day 3 was easy. Same kind of thing. Doing scenes over and over again, going down the shot list. Arriving early and leaving late. Before we knew it though we had a semi-finished project.

Day 4 (Re-done day):

This day was tough because its tough coming back to a project you thought would be done. However, we had to do it. We all wanted to finish what we had started. So we went to Jersey, and switched locations to a plot of land that I found a few days before. It worked out, we had to work with some unconventional lighting to make a fire appear to be there and used a smoke machine to add to the effect. We ended up starting 4pm and finished at 4am. It was a crazy day, but its good that we finished.

REFLECTIONS:

So many. Its so important to make sure you are informed and on point as possible this helps both you and your team members. Looking back, I could’ve done better and been more organized with everything in order to ensure production goes smooth. Every production you should learn something. Also make notes the night before your shoot and ensure that you have everything that you want outlined. All of this is super important. Keep your Focus, and you have to take initiative because its your project.

With all this being said, we had some lovely times on set.