IMPORTANT CHANGES

    Hey blog! After finishing editing my video I went back through my previous blogs and noticed that even though there are not a lot of changes, I did have to make accommodations to some of the elements in my project to make sure everything fits in well and truly convey the purpose of the film opening. The change I wanted to talk about is sound. While looking back at the video after it was done editing I realized that the sound doesn't fit in well to add tension to the film opening. What I did instead added a sound that would really make the audience really interested in a way stressed of what's going on. I added the new link to the copyright-free music below. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rOTgT0-ZEk&t=298s

    Another change that I had to make was to cut out some of the dialogue that the characters were going to say. For example, when Eliana is talking to her mom and when Mercia talks to her coach. These moments I filmed but when I put them in while editing it didn't really fit in well so I just decide to edit them out. Talking about cutting out, I think I mentioned this before but I had to cut out one of the characters, Serina, because if I kept her in it would have made the film opening way too long and I felt that it was too many characters if I would've left her in. 

    Overall I'm really happy with the final product and I am really excited to share this with all of you guys and for following along my journey of creating my film opening. Thank you!

THE FINAL TOUCH

     Hey blog! We keep getting closer and closer to the end. What I did today was add all the credits and titles to the film opening. The credits that I added were the director, producer, editor, writer, cinematographer, and all the major actors. For the actors, I had promised my friends who did help me film the opening that I would include their names and I feel like they deserve it because without them I wouldn’t be able to make my film opening idea become reality. For the title as mentioned before I would use adobe after effects to edit and animate the tile onto the opening. What I did was put it not at the end of the opening but in the middle so that the final scene could give some context to what may be seen throughout the film. I really like how the titles animation came out and with the credits, I put transitions so that they would transfer from one to another smoothly. At the bottom, I have added the title so you could get a sneak peek at what it will look like in the film opening. 

A POP OF COLOR

    We are almost at the finish line. Looking back at my film opening I felt as if something was missing. I really want the color to be one of the main ways in which the characters are being represented or what their representation may mean. What I decided to do was to add a color filter to the scenes and their characters. For example on Juliana, I put a warm tone sorta yellow color filter so that the color is emphasized but not super into one’s face. I really feel that adding these colors will help determine to the audience the representation all the characters have. A problem I ran into while editing the colors was that I notice that the scene filmed at night was a little too dark and grainy but the color correction helped the scene be seen better and you could really see the emotion on the character now. This was an issue that I thought would be a big step back cause it would mean I would have to refilm that scene but thankfully everything looks great and I won’t have to. 

QUIET ON SET

    Welcome back blog! This week is very exciting because I am going to be finishing editing my whole film opening. I first put everything I had filmed from the other day into the editing system and then I put everything in chronological order. I did have to move some of the scenes to a different part of the film so it would look in chronological order since the last scene is at night I had to make sure that the scenes before it was all done in the right timeframe. The next thing I did was make sure that everything to do with sound was synced correctly. I make sure to rerecord or use foley for any of the sounds that we're missing that would emphasize or add to the film opening. I also added the music that is being played in the background of the film as well as when one of the characters, Eliana, starts playing music in her room. I made sure to add any notification when the sounds come together so it doesn't take too much away from what is being seen. For the music, I converted the youtube video into an mp3 and then added it into a premier pro. I also made sure that all the sounds being used were copyright free.

FINAL DAY FILMING

     The day has finally come when I come to a conclusion and finish all of my filmings that is going into my film opening. On this day, all my friends came together to film the film shots of the film. I was super nervous because I felt that having them all in one room was going to go so wrong, but they all did an excellent job staying focused and needed to do what was done. I did have to change the location of the ending from being outside Alesia’s house to now being inside one of the girl's houses and them meeting up to try to find a plan of what is going to be developed and also letting the other characters who have no idea about what’s happening have an in sight or a clue. The setting of the scene also has the color red which wasn't seen in any other part of the opening because of the fact that they were talking about Alesia there and how now they could be in danger. The dark lighting can also emphasizes how they are trying to keep everything a secret The script changed a bit as well but it’s okay because when I checked the footage everything looked smooth and the actions look more normal.  

FILMING DAY THREE

      Filming today wasn’t too bad because it was just me and my friend who knows how to play soccer out in the field filming. At first, I kinda felt awkward walking around with a camera but then when we started I felt completely fine. Finding a perfect location and waiting for the sun to be at the perfect I would say for me was the hardest part. But other than that everything went pretty smoothly and even after we were done filming, a group of people came up to us and asked if we wanted to do a soccer match which I thought was kinda fun. They also were very interested in what I was filming. I thought they were really kind after not feeling so good about filming in public and it gave me some reassurance that it’s okay to film out in the open. Something else that happened while filming is that I realized that I had too many characters so I had to cut out Serina because if I left her character in, the film opening would have been too long and surpassed the 2-minute time limit.

EDITING DAY ONE

    Hi, blog! This week I decided to start editing to make sure I had enough time left to include the other characters in the film. Thankfully with the footage, I got only 1:00 minute down and it gives me room to include all the other characters. The program that I'm using mentioned before is Adobe Premier Pro and since I have worked with this program before so hopefully, everything goes good and will be easy for me to edit. What I did was that I put all the footage from each scene together in chronological order and I put them into order. I think later on I am going to have to change which scene comes first due to the timeframe they were all filmed but I don't think it will be such a big problem. I also added all of the videos without sound because I want to make sure later on that they fit well within the film or if I should rerecord the audio to make the scenes better. What I am also thinking it to cut out the parts in which the characters are rushing to meet each other because I fell like that will be implied with the characters meeting up at the end. 

 

GETTING ORGANIZED

     I believe that in order for me to continue working on my project and make sure I have all the clips and scenes necessary to complete all the goals I want to achieve I need to get organized. After two days of filming, I imported all the videos from my SD card and separated them into different files in regard to each character. After separating them, I looked through all the clips very carefully because when I saw they were in my camera and sometimes it is different from what yous see in the camera to what you see on the computer. Doing this will really determine if I have to reshoot or not, which from what I have seen everything seems to be fine. In the file, I added another file within to separate extra fill footage that I have got and I put them in chronological order in which they are going to be shown in the film opening. 

SECOND DAY FILMING

    Hey blog! Yesterday was my second day filming and I am so glad it went smoothly and easily compared to the first day. For this second day of filming the only one I could film was Eliana but it is okay because her scenes don't require anyone else until the end. I made sure to incorporate mise-en-scene elements to portray the representation that she has within the film. In this specific scene, I have her and her mom having a conversation and I have yet to decide if I want to include her mom just talking in the background or actually show her mom speaking to her. Other than that I think everything was great from the angles and lightning to the sound. What I think I'm going to do soon is start editing the clips I have from Juliana, James, Eliana, and Ariana to see how much content I would still need to get because I have a feeling that I have added too many characters are settings. By doing this can also help me get an idea of what is missing and if I need to go reshoot anything. 

SOUND

   In films, sound can have a significant impact. It can help communicate the storyline and advance the plot by surrounding the audience in a strange environment. Sound can also evoke feelings and establish the mood of a movie. For my film, I wanted to add sound because it can make a difference in how the audience feels while watching the film. I decided to make sure that there is nothing of sound as we filmed so that the emotion the characters are portraying can be heard. I also wanted to add a music piece throughout the film opening to create a sense of worry and make what is going on in the scenes more dramatic. 

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V-pYCGx0C4

In the film opening, there is a moment in which one of the characters, Eliana, is changing and getting ready in her room while playing music to try to distract her from what she had just done. After playing the music and she puts the sound at its max level which eventually makes her mom tell her to lower the sound. This can make the audience really feel how she is calming down a bit after such a chaotic moment. The music piece that is shown above is still going to be slightly heard in the background to really connect all of the characters and their scenes together. 

     

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CHxHmH4e68       

  

Another sound element that I will be using is sound effects. I will also be making these sounds with techniques like foley in order to really get the perfect sound. For example, the moment when Mercia's coach blows a whistle at her will be done by me and a microphone. One of the major sound effects is what ends the film's opening with a police car siren. This will give the audience reassurance that what the characters did was bad enough to include the authorities in the picture. 

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=police+car+sound+effect

FIRST DAY FILMING

    Today was the first day of many! This weekend I wanted to start filming so that I would have enough time to edit or if I needed to reshoot anything I would have enough time to do so. I definitely wanted to finish filming this weekend but due to me having any characters and a variety of locations it sadly wasn't possible. Thankfully my friends who are going to be in my film opening are willing to shoot during the week, which is so amazing. I wanted to tell you guys a few things about what I learned during filming this weekend. The first thing I primarily learned was that it's okay to make mistakes while filming and to have patients, a lot of it. Since my friends aren't anything close to real actors it took a lot of tries to get the perfect shot. We also laughed a lot. But the great thing about me doing this with my friend is that I can have fun all while doing something that I really enjoy and putting my creativity out there. Something else that I learned that is very essential is to be prepared for anything wrong that could happen. For example,  in my storyboard, I had put that I wanted one of the opening shots to be Juliana riding a bike. You're never going to guess what happened when I went to get my bicycle.... the tires were flat!!! At that moment I didn't know what to do because I really needed that first shot because it is essential to the whole film opening. Thankfully my dad let me borrow his shooter which had yellow assents on the wheel, which I honestly never had seen before till today, and everything worked out really well. Working with many people at the same time can also be very stressful because of not being able to control everything. What happened was that I had one of the characters at my house but the other one who was in the same scene wasn't and the sun was going down. My solution was to shoot everything of the character that was in my house and then the other character came right in time before the sun went away and we were able to do everything. Anyways here are some pictures of me filming today. 

SCRIPT

Blog I am so excited to tell you that I finished writing my script! Even though I know it might not be perfect just yet, it gives me and those who will help me film an idea of what will be said while filming. I decided to color-coordinate what each person is going to say so that it will be easier to know who says what. While shooting I want to make the scene as natural as possible so I sent the script to my friends and told them that it was okay if they wanted to make changes or if they wanted to improvise while filming it was fine with me. In the script not only did I add what was being said but also key facts that I want to have in the scene as well as actions the characters may be doing. 

EQUIPMENT

     Welcome back blog! This weekend I have decided to start filing my film opening in order for me to have enough time to edit and make any changes if needed. Throughout the week I  contacted my friends to make sure they were available and also made sure they were okay with taking part in the film opening. I had to prepare all my equipment to ensure my film opening looks as best as possible. In the past years, I was in a program in my school called CBTV, which has thought me many techniques such as editing, and like I said before I will be using Premiere Pro as my editing software. I will also use my camera, tripod, and grip stabilizer.  

Canon EOS Rebel T8i

Tripod                         

Grip Stabilizer