Thanks so much for all the feedback! It's very much appreciated. Even when it's for the crap I did wrong that I know I did wrong. I hate when that crap gets called out
The kiddo surprisingly delivered the "I'm all done" line on the first take. Great, I thought, this will be easy. Never get cocky. Not with kids. She immediately turned into the biggest diva and it took a ton of effort to get anything else out of her. I had planned my shots to get all her takes first but didn't anticipate how quickly she would lose it. We managed to get all the interiors of her and my wife done that day but had to stop. And then my wife went into labor the next morning!
We were sent home from the hospital when labor wasn't progressing but were told we'd likely be back very soon. We waited around at home a few hours and then the contractions stopped. I very, very tentatively asked my wife if she was up for trying to film a bit and she surprisingly agreed. The kiddo was again the most uncooperative diva and I considered myself lucky to get a single semi-usable take for each shot without any sound. (hence the phantom banister on the last shot - I figured it would be quick enough that nobody would notice - but you guys are far too sophisticated for that! Should have cropped in. Also hence some of the rough dialogue).
The baby was born a couple days later. We filmed all the outside closeups and recorded dialogue after we were home. I'm proud that the story was actually able to hold together through all this. Some of the recorded dialogue definitely didn't match up to the video but I learned a lot in my first experience doing ADR and hope to do better next time. I mostly do solo documentary work where I can plant a camera and focus on the talent or focus solely on camera operations for B-roll. It really doesn't work that well to try to direct your family and operate the camera at the same time!
I really do appreciate all the feedback, whether it be with sugar or straight up. I wanted the audience to enjoy seeing a mom teach her daughter. I didn't anticipate that would leave certain parts of the audience feeling like they were being spoken to as a toddler so that was a good note. This was a blast, looking forward to the next one.
Cheers!
-Bob
