Finished Filming

I am glad to report we have now finished filming. It's been a long, cold, windy night, but we just completed our last shot and now all we have left to do is finish editing.

Not So Lazy Sunday

So today's filming was pretty much a nightmare. For starters, Liam didn't show up because there was a mix-up with the timing. You see, Liam doesn't read ALL of his texts, so when we said we'd start at 10am and be done by 12:45, all he read was 12:45, so he thought we were starting then. So, as if filming without a cameraman wasn't bad enough, every single dog owner in the universe decided to walk their dogs at the same time in the same spot in our shooting location. By the time we'd finally gotten the shots we needed, the skies had opened up and drenched us. We could have gotten a lot more done, but our energy was depleted and we decided to call it off having less footage than the amount we need, to say the least.

Filming rained off

We had to cancel filming for today as it is battering down, so we have decided to reschedule for tomorrow.

How can Sense8 be considered a postmodern production?

Sense8 is a science fiction drama television series broadcast via the Netflix online streaming service, and is one of their original series, standing alongside such others as House of Cards and Narcos. It could be considered a very postmodern work in a number of different ways. For example, the whole concept could be considered postmodern. It tells a non-linear narrative about eight individual characters, each with their own storyline, told through short sections of around four to six minutes, which are seemingly unrelated but connected by themes. The story features telepathy, which is a non-standard form of communication and a fantastical element that does not exist in the real world. The pilot episode features characters appearing out of thin air, either as a hallucination or as a spectral illusion, which is not made fully clear, and is not apparent in the real world, or only apparent to the person having the visions, which invites the audience into the world of the show and almost breaks the fourth wall. The multiple storylines are confusing, and throw characters in and out left, right and centre, much like reality, where there are many people we do not know around us all the time. The show is blurring the lines between reality and fiction in this way. It features characters who are a part of the LGBT community, which is a very modern development and has only recently become socially acceptable. One character is both trans and gay, which stays true to the actor playing the part. One character hears things that are not there, and it is unclear whether this is diegetic or non-diegetic, which can be seen as postmodern. There is a story within a story. The whole thing is very blurred and postmodern.

Halfway through filming

We are midway through the filming process, by which I mean we have half of the shots we will need for the video, and it is edited to about 1 minute and 30 seconds, which is approximately half the song. I've changed my mind about Liam as a director, if I'm being totally honest. He's steered us in the right direction, gotten us some great shots, and he's kept the group together, so he's done a much better job than I could've done.

Editing underway

To work more efficiently, we have made the decision to edit while we shoot, so when we finish shooting, we won't have a whole new process to begin from scratch. This way, all that extra time that we aren't filming that would otherwise be wasted time can still be spent working on the video. Paddy has been working diligently to edit (and we've been helping).

Fourth day of filming

Filming is getting harder and harder as the weather gets progressively worse as we get deeper into winter. The wind is howling every night, and as we're shooting on the coast, where the wind is the most severe, there's sand blowing in our faces constantly. Liam had his scarf whisked off his neck and flung about a mile down the road. On a positive note, we got some brilliant shots done, including my own singing shots, which wasn't as daunting as I thought it would be, and some tracking shots of the car taken from a separate car.

Casting "Grace"

We had some difficulty casting the role of "Grace" (name suggested in the shot with the name etched into a rock, a shot that was my idea, by the way). None of the girls we know wanted to appear in the video. The only one we could get was Liam's friend Alice, but she and Luke have a murky history together. It was quite awkward, to say the least, but made it convincing that they were a couple drifting apart, so it's all good.