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            

      

WARDROBE TIME

    Hey blog! I am so excited that for today I am going to be explaining what my characters will be wearing and show you an idea of what it is going to look like. I really like the idea of not having my character being head to toe in the color they represent because I feel like that would be pushing it a little too much. What I did instead was give them accents into their outfit with the color they represent. For example, in Eliana's outfit, I would like a green shirt with a green bow and white shoes but with a little bit of green. Also, I decided that for the outfits I would like them to match the activity they are going to be doing. In the case of Mercia, she is playing soccer so I included a purple headband and purple cleats. As well for Ariana is doing yoga so I gave her a sports outfit so it would match the activity she is doing. These outfits also add a lot to what their personality will be like and will help when describing to the people who are going to be in my film opening what I am looking for. I wanted to add that for all the girls I included a necklace or bracelet with their initials which I would like for it to be a key factor in the film since the whole group has one.

WHERE SHOULD I FILM?

For today, I put an outline of what the location of where I am going to film will look like. I think this is very beneficial because it allows me to know exactly what I am looking for and make sure I am using all the mise-en-scene elements mentioned in previous blogs. 

The location in which I will be filming Eliana is in her room. Since the color in which she represents jealousy is green I wanted to add a lot of green elements and accents to her room since I'm probably not going to be able to paint a wall.  

Mercia's location is going to be a soccer field due to one of her hobbies is being a soccer player. I want to make sure that I get some sort of a sunset while filming so that the sky can be a bit purple since she represents purple for passion and I feel like one can see the passion she really has as she plays her sport.

In the case of Serina, I really want the location to be like a coffee bar because I feel that is where many people go to study and read. Her color is white which represents hope and I want to make sure that where we film is bright enough to understand why her color is that way. 

Ariana's location is going to be in her garage doing yoga because since her color is blue represents peace I want her to be in her garage because I feel like it's something a teenager would do because not everyone can really pay for a yoga location. It can also be helpful to have the quietness around to really get that peacefulness she portrays.

For Juliana and James's House, I would like for it to be yellow so that it matches Juliana's representation but also lets James stand out a bit more since his representation color is black, and is one of the main characters who will eventually be accused of murder.

For Alesia's house I want it to be like a normal house and not necessarily be connected with the color red because for the film I would love it if only the color red showed up when Alesia is around and not with any other character. Also having blue around to be the representation that the cops have arrived at her house.

 

STORYBOARDING

Today for the blog I wanted to show how I storyboarded my film opening. I first looked up storyboarding templates that had lines at the bottom so I could describe what was going on in that shot and what type of shot it was going to be. I find that storyboarding can be very helpful because while one is filming their scene we tend to forget what we are actually looking for so this will definitely help me while filming. Also storyboarding gives me like a timeline of how the film opening will look and an idea of what I would like the scene to look like. This also gives a good idea of what the characters are and what role they have in the opening.