Big Issues

So I’ve ran into a lot of issues this past week and I need to record them before progressing into my following blog posts because they’re going to change a lot of things! First, there have been many scheduling problems with my main actress. As you know, I started shooting last Saturday but the footage was lost as it was shot in the wrong format and, thus, unusable. We filmed a big scene on Monday and I cleared Tuesday to get the majority of the remaining scenes that afternoon but an hour before shooting Isabelle asked to reschedule for Wednesday. I said okay however on Wednesday there was another issue where we were going to shoot a scene in the morning in addition to the afternoon but she cancelled because she realized that she had the SAT at 7:40. A miscommunication ensued where because we cancelled the morning shoot she thought that we had also cancelled shooting after school which I had no intention of doing. She said that she would be available Thursday instead and so yesterday I shot over half of the film combined with solo scenes of another character (the one from Isabelle’s imaginings) after she left.

I was stressed for time, of course, because the due date is steadily approaching but it also seemed doable to complete the rest of the film on Wednesday after I get back from NYC if I edit and work on my film, CCR, website, and postcard advertisement on my trip.

The message that appears when I try to play one of the files.

The folder made by the recovery program.
The blank files are the ones that I'm missing and won't open.
There are also many files just not showing up.

When I went to import the files, though, something strange happened. Although it was in the proper (.mp4) format it said that the files were unable to open on my computer and when I went to play them back on my camera a question mark appeared where the file should’ve been. I called the Sony customer service line which redirected me to San Disk’s number and after a very long phone call it was explained to me that I would have to download their recovery program and hope for the best. I did exactly that and in the morning checked on the files’ states to see that none had been recovered. I am heartbroken, stressed, and have no clue what to do! It is possible that I could reshape the idea around my brother and film Saturday and Sunday but if I don’t like some of the footage there would be no way to reshoot because he has work Monday through Wednesday. I would also feel terrible restarting because my other actors have already lent me so much of their time, it would be saddening for them to not see a final product. I’m going to ask my teacher for advice today in class, hopefully a solution presents itself!

Talk soon,

Cassie.