Our main goal for this team session was to complete the filming for our infomercial. Our final script casts Ron acting as “Mr. Developer”, and Sumeya as “Resident 1”. Though Aziza was unable to join us last week, we were happy to have her this week and gave her the role of “Resident 2.” Nikki was our camera operator while Prashansa assisted Ron, Sumeya, and Aziza with their lines throughout the filming process.
Our infomercial begins with Mr. Developer promoting the new public spaces in Regent Park, specifically the Aquatic Centre, Athletic Grounds, and upcoming Catholic elementary school. However, two residents soon barge in and challenge the things that Mr. Developer is saying. While Mr. Developer tries to defend the amazing things that these facilities bring to the community, the residents continuously provide a counter-narrative, exposing how the community is actually marginalized or forgotten in many ways. The infomerical thus unfolds like a heated debate between Mr. Developer and the residents.
While the residents’ lines were largely shaped by Sumeya and Aziza’s personal experiences and/or knowledge, such as parents lining up at 3 a.m. to sign up for swimming programs, our own research guided much of what Mr. Developer was saying. For example, we found that “social inclusion” and “social cohesion” were two outcomes that Toronto Community Housing emphasized in its 2007 Social Development Plan, so we used those terms to establish the official narrative of why new public spaces were being built. Moreover, we found a quote from Pam McConnell about the Regent Park Athletic Grounds, which we included in the infomercial to once again illustrate the optimistic and positive narrative surrounding the revitalization, in contrast to what the residents suggest.
Sumeya, Ron, and Aziza acting out the infomercial while Nikki films.
We began our day by practicing our infomercial in front of the greenscreen so our actors could tweak their lines and actions as needed. Ron, Sumeya, and Aziza were great with their parts and also inserted some fun improvisation while still sticking to the outline of the script. During practice runs, Nikki and Prashansa tested out different camera angles and shots to determine what would work best. Because we only had one camera, we collectively decided that it would be easier to film using a full-shot, then zoom-in as needed during the editing process. We completed filming in relatively good time while also taking multiple shots to ensure we would have a variety of clips to choose from when we begin editing.
Filming with a greenscreen meant we needed to be cognizant of our shots and how they would look with our photos and videos in the background. As we were filming, we were imagining the different elements we could include in our infomercial through the editing software, such as zooming in and out, text-layers, and audio and visual layers. Prashansa edited a clip from last week to project some of our images onto the greenscreen using Final Cut Pro, and it looked very clean and professional. We are all looking forward to playing around with the software and piecing our clips together to make our infomercial as cringey, yet thoughtful, as possible.
A still from one of our shots, where Regent Park residents (Sumeya on the left and Aziza on the right) are questioning Mr. Developer (Ron in the middle) of his definitions of “public” and “public space”.
Because our script was shaped by the experiences of Sumeya and Aziza shared with us as well as our external research, it was important to stick to the general outline in order to do their stories justice. However, the process of acting – from memorizing lines to embodying particular characters – is difficult, especially since none of us have much training in it. Nevertheless, we would say our filming process was successful as Sumeya, Ron, and Aziza were confident with their lines and were able to paint a funny, dramatic, yet genuine picture of the barriers residents of Regent Park face when accessing some of the public spaces in their community.
Ron as “Mr. Developer” trying to highlight the new public spaces that came out of the revitalization of Regent Park.
Since Prashansa is skilled in using Final Cut Pro editing software, Nikki and Ron will assist as she will be taking the lead on editing the infomercial. We will meet-up at least once during this week to go over the infomercial together, and we aim to have a preliminary draft to show Sumeya and Aziza at our next session.
Sumeya, Aziza, Ron, Prashansa, and Nikki are the Space Jammers.