We Finished Filming for Episode 2!

Alhamdulillah, the ZF Drama Club is totally excited to announce that we finished filming Episode 2!  We have spent two months on this episode and are looking forward to viewing the final product.  Stay tuned to find out more about the editing process, ideas for future episodes, and the launch of Return of the Bully!

Here are some behind the scenes pictures from our last official drama club meeting when we finished up our last few scenes:

What are you most excited to see in Episode 2 of the Chains of Friendship series?

Progress on Episode 2 and Behind the Scenes Pictures

The Chains of Friendship team has been working hard on filming lots more scenes for Episode 2: Return of the Bully.  So far, this episode looks like it doesn't want to end since it just keeps getting longer!  Return of the Bully might turn out longer than A Friend, Not a Bully.  Either way, this episode has some surprising plot twists that will make it totally exciting.

Here are some behind the scenes pictures we haven't shared yet from our last few drama club meets.

Photography by Nur Kose and Adeeba Allimulla

Progress on Episode 2

The Chains of Friendship team has been working on our second episode and we recently filmed a few more scenes.  This time we got a scene outdoors.  We finally had the chance to do an outside scene during daylight hours and....it was raining!  Thanks to a handy umbrella, however, our camera didn't get wet.  We are looking forward to seeing how our outside scenes turn out, and we hope you are, too. 

Here are some more behind the scenes pictures from shooting a few new scenes. 

What do you think is going to happen in the second episode?  Write your guesses in the comments below. 

The Story Behind This Picture: The Case of the Missing Tripod

In a previous post, I posted a bunch of pictures Adeeba and I had taken of different behind the scenes shots from production of our second episode.  One of the pictures I took and posted was this one:

When looking through the pictures in the post later with Huda, I remarked, "Isn't it funny how Meryem has to tip-toe to whisper to you?"  What I didn't consider was what Meryem was whispering about.  Laughing, Huda said, "That's when she was telling me that she hid the tripod."  That's when I realized that I had captured a prank in action!  A prank that had left me flustered until I realized what had happened.

You see, the drama club only meets once a week, and then only for one and a half hours, so there isn't much time to get everything done.  To effectively use every moment of the time we have, I get myself prepared beforehand.  Getting to the center early, I set up the props in their places and got out all the film equipment.  I set up the blanket against the wall for Amina's scenes, carried the heavy coat rack to one of the classrooms for Aisha's scene (which by the way is still there - no one put it back!), made sure the video camera had charge, and got out the tripod.  

Making a movie without a tripod is no fun.  The difference a tripod makes is simply amazing, and the handy ZF tripod located in a hidden, yet easy-to-access place is one of the things that makes our movie better.  With a few minutes remaining before filming would start, I took the tripod box out and left it in the big prayer room/playroom where we would be doing the majority of our scenes.  Then, I got out my camera and began shooting pictures.

Finally, I decided it was time to begin filming.  There was no more time to waste.  We had to get this second episode going.  I put the camera away and got out the video camera, scanned the script to see which scene we would film first, and then reached for the tripod...which was nowhere in sight.  Flustered, I checked back in the other room where my bag was.  Nope, not there.  I looked behind chairs and tables, inside classrooms, even inside rooms I hadn't been in that day.  The tripod was nowhere in sight!  

"Has anyone seen the tripod anywhere?" I asked, looking around more wildly now, and being mostly ignored.  I couldn't understand it.  I just knew I had taken the tripod out.  Where could it have gone?  How could I have lost such an essential item for our movie?  Returning back to the place I had left the tripod, I again asked the girls, "Do you guys know where the tripod is?"  That's when they revealed the secret.  

Pointing to Merve, who was the closest target, Meryem announced, "She hid it over there!"  My gaze flew to the corner where there was a pile of hijabs.  Quickly recovering my prized possession, I ignored the culprit and forgot all about the prank in my haste to begin filming.  It wasn't until the next day, when looking through my pictures, I discovered the evidence...evidence that Meryem was the one who hid the tripod and that all the girls knew about it but chose not to tell me...hmmm....

What an interesting story that can be told from simply one picture!  And how wonderful that it turned out that I wasn't actually the one who lost the tripod!

Filming Is So Fun!!

As the past few posts already told you, we finished filming half the movie! I was so surprised. We just did scene after scene without many mistakes. Not only did we have much more experience and practice but since we had a huge center and all the rooms to ourselves, we had many different places to have scenes. So when only one person or two people ar acting everyone goes to the main room and play while the filmer films. So there is hardly any noise in the background. (unlike the past movie) Basically, the only one who doesn't have a break is the director. I was so into the movie that the time past so fast and we had to finish the filming for next time. I wouldn't mind staying there and finish filming and editing the movie. It is so fun! I really want to watch the end results, inshallah we will be done in about 2 or 3 more weeks. (like hana said.) I can't wait till next Monday to continue filming!!

Behind the Scenes Pictures from Filming Episode 2

That's right.  We started filming Episode 2!  Hooray!  Surprisingly, we were able to film nearly half of the entire movie in just our first day of filming.  Compared to the two to three scenes we used to film each week during production of our first episode, this is a huge accomplishment.

Having recently moved to a new Zakat Foundation Community Center, we have more options for sets for our scenes.  Viewers will get the opportunity to see new settings, such as Amina's room.  In addition, our second movie will feature two new actors joining the cast!  We won't be announcing who they are, but you can be sure that they will be making the series a lot more interesting.  And, of course, don't worry.  Aisha will be back to continue annoying the other girls!

Check out some pictures we took yesterday when filming some of the scenes:

Amina's Room

Outer View

Handy Script/Scene Summary, camera, and charger

The Scene in which the girls find out some bad news...

What everyone looks like when Aisha is around...

Photography Courtesy of Nur Kose and Adeeba Allimulla

The Hardest Scene

The bloopers were just plain hilarious. The hardest scene to do was the make-up scene with my older sister in the show for a flashback. My older sister (played by Nur) was blabbering random stuff that made no sense it was so hard not to laugh as you in the bloopers video I failed at it. My favorite part was when Adam brought me water. Here's the story I say I'm thirsty and like me or someone else says like get it after the scene and then at some point Adam brings me water. The whole flashback scene was the hardest I had where I had to do a voice over but the make-up scene was spot on the hardest and funniest one to accomplish. Hey, I didn't fail though I succesed so a big pat in the back for me but not only for me but everyone in the show. You all did amazing and I gotta admit my last post was made to be annoying a little for the older kids. Not like I ever got off track.. Actually yes I did atleast once.

My Favorite and Worst Scenes

Looks like I was annoyed! (probably with the
little kids.) Maybe that was my worst scene.............

In the movie, A Friend Not A Bully I had many favorite scenes. But one of them is the one in the library. It was when Adeeba was being mean to us. She acted out Aisha. It was really funny because Adeeba is kind of the youngest out of all the older kids in the movie. It was weird to have Adeeba being mean to us. It was kind of annoying. But I still really liked that scene. In the middle of the scenes I kept laughing cause it was so weird. Also my worst scene is the one we kept on redoing. I mean we did that with every single scene. But one was really annoying. Ok, I forgot but I remember a real frustrating one. Anyways I can't wait to start filming our next episode! Just have to wait until Monday, 3 more whole days! I still  have more experiences and things to tell you but that will have to wait till later.

Episode 1 Planning and Behind the Scenes Pictures

Chains of Friendship is back!  That's right.  Hana's post last night speaks the truth.  The Chains of Friendship group is totally excited for Episode 2 and our planning is already finished.  Filming commences next week. :)

Beginning the planning stages for Episode 2 brought back memories of our first drama club meetings way back before our show didn't even exist.  Coming up with ideas for our first episode, developing a storyline, and connecting the actors with their parts was a big job.  Our handy notes were very helpful to keep us on track.  Check out some of the pictures below featuring our notes from the planning of Episode 1:

We have all our notes for Episode 2 ready, but you will have to wait until the episode comes out to find out what happens. :)

- Nur Kose

New Bloopers Video

Check out this video featuring some of the bloopers and mess-up scenes we had while filming Episode 1.  You can find more bloopers and behind the scenes stuff here.

Experiences

Experiences

We all had our fair share of experiences in the taking of the video. Some funnier than others. I had some so why not share them? If you didn't know I played Amina. The only nice sister that was nice throughout the whole video. Let's say there was a lot of improving on my part. I did certainly mess up and leading us to start over. Ya not good but mostly my fault. My main scene was the flashback scene where I had to look smaller. I was on my knees to look smaller in one of them. Anyways, I had to a voice over on them because my line were pretty long for me to remember any of them. Well I finished all my voice overs and next week they were gone. Which meant I had to do all over again which was annoying because I couldn't do it next week because this week was the last to film. I also had a sore throat which my voice was pretty weird. Scratchy and all I still did it and surprisingly it didn't sound real bad. If you notice at the end my voice did raise. Hmm... who's fault was it? Not mine, it was the other girls they started talking louder so I just raised my voice so you wouldn't hear them. If you didn't notice you probably want to check now.  That was my experiences for the flashback. (P.S the older girls don't know how to stay quiet some times but don't tell I said this. Shhhhh...)

                                                                                                                                 - Merve Kekik

A New Experience

The Drama Club was a very interesting, exciting, and new experience to me. I can't wait until we start filming the next scene. Actually, first we have to think of an idea then the script. But that's all the boring stuff, cause all we do is sit and write things down. When you film, you are in action which is so much more exciting. During my experience making the movie, I realized that not only the director but also I had to have patience. We had to keep redoing  the scenes over and over that I couldn't even keep track. Actually next time we should see how many takes it took to make the movie. That'd be interesting. Also my ears hurt after every meeting we had. All the little kids were making so much noise, like Adeeba said. Ok, ok, I am not saying the older girls didn't make noise but half of it was us trying to make the younger's be quiet. We hardly made any noise. (not including shouting at the young kids to make them quiet.) Well, for acting it was so fun because I could relate to myself with the movie. I have to admit, it was pretty easy acting what I did. But now I am actually getting the hang of keeping that promise for real. (kind of)So, we should have a good moral like this one. Then most of the actors will follow it.(like me, well I try)  Despite all the bad sides of making a movie, most of this experience as pretty great. All of our actors together I think make a pretty good team. (also of course, the director too)

ACTING IS FUN

One of my favorite scenes I acted in was where I had to act mean and rude although in reality it's not really nice to be mean and rude. I liked that scene because I had a chance to use different props.  It was funny when I kept messing up on my lines and I kept laughing.  After doing that scene several times we finally got it.
Something what I enjoy about acting is that we act like someone else and have different characters in ourselves.  The funniest thing I think when I am acting is that we laugh in the middle of scenes and we have to start over.
Acting is so much fun but sometimes in can be annoying also.  Especially when we have to do the scenes over and over again.  Also when the big kids are trying to film a scene and the small kids are making so much noise.  Then also we have to do the scenes over and over again.  But most of the time it is fun to act.  Can't wait to begin filming for episode two.

Behind the Scenes Pictures and Poses

We hope you guys are having a great Thanksgiving break!  Today we are posting some behind the scenes pictures and poses from the days when we were filming A Friend, Not a Bully.  Click on the pictures to see them larger.  Enjoy!

Chatting between scenes

Checking out notes to remember everyone's names

going over the flashback scene script

hanging out in the "little girls' room"

doing each other's hair between scenes

Trusty video camera

Squishing Organizing together for the group pictures

The Collapsing Group Arrangement

"Take your shoes off before standing on the sofa!"

Throwing the scarf at camera to ruin the picture

Throwing the scarf Take 2

The Final Pose

And now...for a long series of posed pictures...

"Everyone, make a sad face."

"Everyone, make an angry face."

"Everyone make a silly face."

Spotlight on Meryem

Spotlight on Merve

Spotlight on Adeeba

Spotlight on Anaum

Spotlight on Sanable

Spotlight on Sibal

Spotlight on Huda

Spotlight on Nur

"Everyone, do this."

Sanable's Pose

Woah, we definitely took a lot of pictures that day.  Here's the coolest part: everyone (except for Sibal) was wearing black and white even though no one planned to match that day.  It provided a great arrangement for the unplanned photo shoot!

- Nur Kose