I had planned to start filming at the beginning of the week, but unfortunately, the Sunday before, I broke my foot. This made capturing footage extremely difficult, as my filming location was only accessible by car, there were no walking paths or public transport. I had to rely on someone to drive me there, and once on-site, I was unable to walk properly. I couldn’t make my way down to the sea or onto the sand, which significantly limited what I could capture.
Using crutches made it difficult to hold the camera steady, and I struggled with balance, which meant setting up a tripod was nearly impossible. Because of this, I couldn’t take still shots, and my footage was shakier than I had hoped. I also couldn’t look into the camera while filming, so I wasn’t sure how my shots were turning out in the moment. Despite these challenges, I did my best with the situation, but I was initially disappointed with the footage I managed to get.
Once I returned, I spent a lot of time sorting through my clips, choosing the most stable and in-focus shots. I imported the usable footage into After Effects and worked on stabilizing the movement. While I could have continued refining it further, I eventually reached a point where I was happy with what I had. Interestingly, even though the shaky footage wasn’t intentional, it ended up enhancing the nostalgic, home-movie feel I was aiming for. In hindsight, using a tripod might have made the footage too polished, taking away from the raw and personal aesthetic I wanted.
This project was always meant to feel like a holiday, an escape, something familiar and in many ways, the imperfect, wobbly footage adds to that effect.
Next, I’ll focus on colour grading, adding informational text, and selecting a font.