Production Diaries

 Production Day 1 

On our first day of production we went to Temple Beth Emet to record a Shabbat Service for B-roll. It was my first time in a Jewish Temple and my first time attending a Shabbat Service and it was a very beautiful experience. Throughout the service we split up and aimed to get as much B-roll as possible, focusing on getting a diverse variety of footage. We filmed with Zach's personal camera a Sony A74 and Samuel's personal camera a Lumix s5. Here are some examples of shots we got:

Production day 2:

The next morning we went back to Temple Beth to conduct interviews. Zach acted as the interviewer as he knew both individuals and knew the most on Judaism. The interviews went very well and we got some thoughtful insight from both the Rabbi and the teacher. We used the same two camera's we used for B-roll to keep the quality consistent. additionally, we used Hollyland Lark's M2 lavalier mics (which I won at a film competition) for our audio. 

Our interview shots:

Production day 2.5

Fast forward to the day we initially had our priest interview scheduled I get a call that he isn't available. This is when I started freaking out a little bit because we still hadn't filmed any part of the catholic part of the documentary. That afternoon Samuel and I went to another Catholic Church in our city and asked if we could interview a Priest or another member of the congregation. However, after waiting in the office for 45 minutes all we were told was to email or call the priests, which we had already done. 

Production day 3

At this point we had started to give up hope and we were considering switching our documentary to be solely on Judaism. In a last effort attempt we called the Priests again. The first Priest was booked all week but the second Priest happened to be doing an event at our school that afternoon, and was willing to be interviewed. Are miracles real? Because in that moment it felt like it!

That afternoon Nico and Samuel conducted the interview with Father Omar. He gave us a lot of great insight into biblical stories, more specifically the story of Abraham and Issac. 

Additionally, eariler that day during our study hall period we all hopped on a zoom call and conducted an interview with Amanda Furiasse, an assistant professor at Nova Southeastern University. Her interview gave us a key piece of our documentary, she really helped give context to everything, and explain the psychology behind it all. 

Production day 4

A few days later Zach and Nico went to St. Katherine Catholic Church to interview the other Priest, Father Saul, and get more B-roll.

Interview shot: 

B-roll examples:

Production day 5 and 6

The weekend before our project was due our group decided to divide and conquer. Saturday Afternoon, Zach and I interviewed my mom at my house. She acted as the voice of a member of the catholic church. She discussed the community aspect of the church and how members connect through faith. 

my beautiful mom!

On Sunday morning Nico and Samuel went back to St. Katherine to get some final B-roll of a mass service. They got shots to represent the community aspect we were focusing on. 

Aside from a few hiccups, production mostly went smoothly and I'm happy with everything we shot.