Our Experience at Super 8 Motel

Today marked our first day of production! Located at Super 8 Motel in Tampa, we spent a very long, tiring, and exciting day filming for our rough cut. While I enjoyed the entire experience and was very glad I got to make a title sequence with my amazing group, there are some factors from today that just cannot go un-said. The first thing that I would like to point out is the VERY deceptive nature of the motel's webpage.

Online, Super 8 made their cheap $80 room look cute and cozy. It seemed like a nice place to film, while simultaneously not grossing us out. We thought we got super lucky, because what're the odds you get such a good room at such a low price?! 

Pictured here are some photos from their website of our requested room.

But let me be the first to tell you, this was NOT the case. After Pierce, Robert and I were shocked at the outcome, I decided to take out a camera and record a mini handheld documentary of where we were about to film. The living room was missing furniture, the door to the bedroom was gone, and the dishwasher had disappeared from what appeared to be a long time ago. Please enjoy the video I filmed seen below.

It was rater ironic how our production designer Bianca had found a nasty review of the motel online from an angry customer who claimed the motel was so un-kept that the sheets were always stained and their was always pet hair on the beds. Well, after examining the bed, that was exactly my statement as well! 

But besides the let down on the physical appearance of the motel, we did experiment with some abnormal shots during our time here. My personal favorite was our "under water" shot idea. We didn't have  a water proof case, but we did want to attempt to get a video of Robert from below the water, so I brought along my trusty zip-lock bag and hoped for the best. Here is an example of one of my test shots before we got Robert in the scene. Though the shots did get more clear as we practiced more with that unique shot, we decided against using it in our rough cut, because it felt too out of place. Nevertheless, it was fun to film!

One of my favorite parts of today was experimenting with lighting. As cinematographer, it was definitely an important skill to learn and a massive part of my role. As a group, we were all able to test out the industrial lights, lamps and iPhone flashlights that we had on set. We would test out how our actor looked on camera with these lights up close or far away, and even experimented with using multiple lights at once. A big factor that I enjoyed was discovering hands-on how the angle in which you hold a light can cast spooky shadows on your subjects face, making the thriller factors even stronger. All in all, today was a very interesting, exciting, and tiring day, but I can gladly say we completed our rough cut. 

Bianca and I holding 3 iPhone flashlights at different angles as Pierce tests the camera to see what shadows look the best on film