Production - Finding Angles

Once we finished the read-through, Nicole and I moved straight into testing blocking and camera angles at the park. This was the part of production I had been most curious about, because there are certain moments in our script that I could picture clearly in my head but wasn't sure how to actually execute on location with real people and a real camera. Testing angles gave us the chance to figure that out before filming day, which is a lot better than trying to problem-solve it in the moment when we have a limited window to shoot everything.

The scene we focused on most was the ball sequence, specifically the fall, because that moment is the emotional and comedic centerpiece of the entire opening. If it doesn't look right, the whole ending falls flat. So most of our time at the park went into figuring out exactly how that sequence was going to work.

Testing How Audrey Falls

The first thing we needed to figure out was how Audrey's fall onto Mattias should physically happen. This moment is the turning point of the scene, where everything stops being an argument and becomes something else entirely, so it needed to feel natural and have the right energy. We tested two main versions to see which one worked better in practice.

Option 1: Back-First Fall

The first option we tried was Audrey falling back-first onto Mattias's chest. This version ended up being our preferred choice for a few reasons. It looks more controlled on camera, which actually makes it feel more cinematic rather than less, and it positions Audrey's face so that her expression is still visible to the audience during the moment. It also turned out to be significantly easier and safer for Nadia, which was something we were actively thinking about throughout the whole testing process. Since Nadia and Evan are friends and not romantically involved, we wanted to make sure whatever we settled on felt comfortable for both of them and didn't put anyone in an awkward or physically risky position.

Option 2: Face-First Diagonal Fall

The second option was a face-first diagonal fall where Audrey's body twists slightly and lands closer to Mattias's chest at an angle. This version had a more chaotic, comedic energy to it which wasn't wrong for the scene, but it felt harder to control safely and the camera angle that would make it look good was more complicated to set up. After trying both a few times, the back-first version was the clear choice. It gives us the rom-com moment we're going for while keeping the blocking clean and manageable.

How the Ball Causes the Fall

Once we settled on the fall itself, we had to figure out what actually causes it, because the ball is involved in this moment and we needed the connection between the two things to make sense physically. This took more testing than I expected because the obvious solution didn't actually work when we tried it.

Option 1: Audrey Trips Directly Over the Ball

The first thing we tried was having Audrey trip over the ball itself as they're both going for it. On paper this seemed like the most logical setup, but when we actually tested it the whole thing looked forced and a little clumsy in the wrong way. The ball is small, and using it as a realistic tripping hazard required Nadia to exaggerate the fall in a way that broke the naturalism of the scene.

Option 2: Audrey Steps on Mattias's Foot

The version that actually worked was having Audrey accidentally step on Mattias's foot during their scramble for the ball, which destabilizes her and causes the fall. What's great about this is that it keeps Mattias as the reason she falls, which is more interesting narratively than her just tripping over an object, and it lets the ball roll off to the side naturally rather than needing to be used as a direct tripping prop. The physical comedy of it also feels a lot more grounded because it comes from the two of them being in each other's space rather than from a convenient prop placement. After testing this a few times it became the obvious choice, and it also happens to work really well with the back-first fall we had already settled on.

The Ball and the Title Card Shot

The other major thing we needed to figure out at the park was the title card shot, which in the script has the ball in sharp focus in the upper right foreground with Audrey and Mattias blurred together in the lower left background. This is one of the most visually specific moments in the whole opening, and we knew from the start that it would require some problem-solving to actually pull off.

Our original idea was to have the ball spinning in the air while the two of them are blurred behind it, which would look amazing if done the way I imagined it but turned out to be extremely difficult to execute in practice. Timing a spinning ball mid-air while also keeping the actors in frame, hitting the right depth of field, and making the whole thing look intentional rather than accidental requires a level of equipment and control that we don't have access to. We tried it a few times and the only way we managed to get one photo where the ball was in sharp focus with a slightly blurred background was when I held the ball with my hand and it looked exactly as cinematic as we'd hoped. But getting that same result consistently in video with moving actors is a completely different challenge.

Option 1: Ball in the Air (Original Idea)

The mid-air version looked incredible in that one test photo, and I don't want to dismiss it entirely because it genuinely captured the visual we had in mind. But the practical reality is that recreating it on filming day with any consistency would be extremely time-consuming, and we already have a tight window to get everything shot. Relying on a single difficult shot that requires perfect timing, angle, and height every time is a risk we can't really afford.

Option 2: Ball Rolling on the Ground

The alternative we landed on when the is rolling the ball along the ground and comes to a rest while Audrey and Mattias remain blurred in the opposite corner of the frame above it. This keeps the same compositional idea intact of the ball sharp in the foreground, couple soft in the background and is dramatically easier to control and repeat. We tested this version at the park and it worked well. The visual concept reads clearly, it's achievable with our equipment, and it doesn't require us to perfectly time a mid-air object while also managing two actors and a camera. After comparing both options honestly, the ground roll version was the right call for where we are in terms of skill level and resources.

Reflection

Going into this park session I knew the ball scene was going to need the most work, and that turned out to be completely true. What I didn't expect was how much the solutions would come from just physically testing things rather than planning them in advance. The stepping-on-the-foot idea wasn't something either Nicole or I had written into the script, it came from Nadia and Evan actually trying the scene in the space and finding what felt natural. That's exactly why this kind of testing matters and why doing it before filming day is so important.

I also came away from this feeling a lot more confident about the title card shot specifically. It was the element I was most uncertain about from a technical standpoint, and knowing we have a workable version that we've already tested and that looks good is a real relief. The next step is getting everything locked in terms of the final shot list and making sure Nicole and I go into filming day knowing exactly what order we're capturing everything in so we don't lose time making decisions we should have already made.