How to shoot...

The actors are chosen. Great. Now, we had to decide how we were going to film them. Not great. The reason for this is because we now had 3 ways in which to film:

1. We had both actors at both shoots: Wednesday is to be Stacey's shoot where we record her entire performance in front of the camera. We could have both her and Grant there to work lines off eachother and the same with Grant's shoot on Friday and Saturday night. The problem with this is we now have two inexperienced actors and putting them in the same room together could completely screw things up...
2. We have both actors work of screen recordings of eachother. Ultimately, both characters are reacting to eachother through screens: Stacey sees Grant through the Televisual window in his TV and Grant sees Stacey on his television set. I've heard of Skype rehearsals before where actors have run lines with eachother from opposite sides of the world but would this work for actors in the same city? We weren't too sure so we thought of one more option...
3. We film both actors separate from eachother with them working off me. I know this sounds odd but considering Option 1 and 2, we realised that the story dictates that neither the characters nor the actors actually work off real versions of themselves. Stacey only sees Grant on a screen and Grant only sees Stacey on his TV. So why should we film them any differently? The only issue by attempting Option 2 is that our actors aren't experienced enough to attempt this style of acting.

So what did we decide? We spoke to Robin who proclaimed, with a splatter of expletives, that we were making a film and that was just as important as producing a great performance. Therefore, there was no reason why I could not "act" with my actors to direct them to carry out what I need for the film. Having both of them in the same room would mean we would have a really hard time controlling their performances and having them work off screens was just too risky. Therefore, our shoot will be an experiment for all of us which also makes it really exciting.