In order to create the best possible scenario for the Mason LIFE program, we decided to have the setting be at the grocery store Giant, on Braddock rd. This one was specifically chosen because it is commonly frequented by the students of the Mason LIFE program, and thus would provide a sense of familiarity as well as a way to learn for future visits. Before conducting the filming, I was in contact with the store manager and explained to him why we would like to be able to film there and asked what the best time would be. He excitedly allowed us to conduct the filming at the store because he was really interested in the purpose of our project, and told us we could come in and do it any day but that we should probably do it right at opening so there are as few other customers there as possible.

On the day of the filming, myself, Marcela Angulo, and Coralia Aguilar went to conduct the process. Myself and Marcela each brought one person to act in the scenario and Coralia brought two. We assigned on person to play the “not-busy customer”, one person to play the “employee” (who Giant graciously let borrow a shirt and name tag so the scenario would be more realistic), and the other two people to play the “busy customers”. We had prepared a shot list before going to do the filming so that we could do so as quickly as possible. We were able to film all of the “actors'” lines as well as some stock footage in different settings within the store to have in the background when choices are show on the screen during the game.

Overall the filming went really well. We only encountered a couple aspects that made it more difficult than we had anticipated. The first issue was that the music and ads playing over the store speakers were pretty load, so the actors had to make sure that they said their lines pretty loudly. Also, the tripod we were using was not tall enough to be at an average eyesight height, so we had to put it on top of boxes in order to make the footage more realistic. Finally, one thing that we will be sure to pay closer attention to next time we film is to make sure that the footage that will be used as a loop is able to loop more naturally and does not cut back to the beginning of the shot in a choppy and unnatural way.

This experience was really helpful to know how to improve for the next time we have to film more scenes for the game, or if we end up re-filming the scenes we filmed that day.