All Aboard the Filming Train!

   Finally my partner and I were able to film together all the scenes needed inside my apartment. The filming process was so much fun and fairly simple since we had our storyboard to guide us. We were able to finish recording all the scenes needed for the first location with the first main wealthy female actress which I play. Since we filmed on my SD card I was able to dump all of the footage onto my laptop so I can start editing the footage we have tomorrow after school. Jeannie was a wonderful director as we both ensured we had all the camera angles, movements, and shots that is needed in our final movie opening. During the filming process we had a lot of bloopers but we still managed to get all our filming done in the matter of 3 hours. The hardest part of the filming process was the lighting since my room has dark lighting but then we realized that this is beneficial for our film to create the suspicion of the character. We realized that when Jeannie starts to edit we can fix the lighting for some scenes that have a more brighter setting. Since we started filming after school the lighting in the bathroom provided a perfect fit from the light coming into the room through the window and from the lights we have. Jeannie was able to direct me into frame and made sure I did each scene perfectly.
    I honestly had so much fun, which I always do when I film for other projects with my friends. Since we are saving the parking lot location for the weekend to film we were able to change some things regarding the storyboard which include how the character will dress up, portray her hair and makeup. The rest of the scenes still remain the same in our storyboard. I laughed most of the time when we were filming which is why we had so many bloopers because I couldn't think of something serious to get me in the mood and mindset of our character. The wealthy women in our film plays a serious yet intimidating character since she is a business woman and has a reputation. She also plays a cautious yet risk-taking character due to her paranoia and the feeling she has against her sister. For me I had a hard time acting this out since we were filming in my house and I was feeling hyper and goofy this evening. Jeannie was always there to get me on track and to stop myself from messing up the scene because we were filming for 3 hours. We did although have a hard time setting up the tripod before we started filming because a lot of the screws were loose which I was able to fix and tighten to make sure the camera stays on the Tripod. I had an amazing time filming and I can't wait to film the scenes in the parking lot where the thriller and intensity of the film will be revealed.

Filming Coming Soon

This weekend my partner Jeannie and I weren't available to start filming our movie. I already made plans with a previous group to be in their movie and film with them on Saturday which took us three hours. The weather was not cooperating with us that day since it was raining and we had to do many re-shoots since people and cars kept coming into shot. My partner and I however do plan to film this weekend. We will take about 2 to 3 hours filming in the two designated location and do any re-shoots before so we can have everything before we edit. We will re-watch everything we filmed and I will start editing at home to have something for the peer review coming on March 3rd. But this weekend was super stressful since I had to be in another groups film, do all of my homework, volunteer at Petco and since it was my dad's birthday. My partner Jeannie also couldn't film due to my plans being all scattered. To be honest we don't have complicated scenes to film, all of it can be done quickly. During our filming process I also have to make sure that we have a the camera angles, movements, and shots needed in our film.
 This week I plan on buying all the props needed for our film such as the fake knife and a extra shirt that will be stained with fake blood for a couple of our scenes. I'm going to discuss with my partner if I can start filming all the scenes in my house so that this weekend we can focus on the scenes needed to be filmed in the parking lot behind the shopping plaza.This will give me time to edit the first section of the movie from one location which will be easier on me then filming all scenes in one day and start editing the next day. For our costumes we didn't have a specific outfit that the actors have to wear so I don't have to worry about buying clothes except for the plain white shirt that will be stained. My goal is to have a full story-line movie to show the other group that will peer review our film. I plan to edit over the weekend as well but just to get the layout and all scenes together and trim or even cut out some scene from the movie. I'm not that focused into the sound and titles for now I want to focus on getting the structure together and make sure it is efficient and not choppy just like a real movie. By Thursday I plan to check out a camera and start recording once I get home from school with the assistant on my sister who will also be one of the actresses in the movie. For now I am going to discuss everything with my partner and hopefully we can get everything done on time which I know we will. I also know that my partner, sister, and I will have a fun time filming for our movie and lots of bloopers.

Here' the Reel on our filming 🎥

On our schedule my partner and I planned to start filming our movie on the first weekend so we can have time to re-shoot any scenes. But this wasn't the case for us because in the first weekend we had plans with family that could not be rearranged to fit our filming schedule. My family and I had two birthday parties on Friday and Saturday and then on Sunday I had tons of homework and online class to catch up with through the day. My partner Jeannie could not make it to film this weekend was because she had work and family issues that was going on preventing her to be able to come to my house and film. On Monday we thought to film since it was no school due to President's day. However, I could not make it because my parents friends came to my house which is one of the main location for the movie. The noise and volume would be too loud and irritating since most of our scenes require no sound and dialogue. Yes we could have muted the sound when editing. I know for a fact that when there is a camera you can not stop little children from wanting to be on camera. My mind already had a mindset on the schedule I came up with in the previous blog in the presentation but because we did not film my mind is all over the place thinking about when and how we will get this movie done on time and not miss a single deadline, but I always reassure myself everything is gonna be perfect. We plan to film one of these weekends before the peer review our teacher assigned us for March 3rd because we wanna get all our scenes recorded and to start somewhat editing our scenes for the other group to review. My partner Jeannie and I discussed what we plan on doing after filming and before the date for the peer review. We agreed that once we finish filming the scenes I will dump all the footage onto my laptop at home to start editing and export onto a flash drive to have something for the other kids to watch. My partner Jeannie agreed that this is the best way to get a grade for the peer review. Honestly having control of that situation puts my mind at ease because I will have all the footage so if God forbids anything happens when on the school computer I will have everything on my personal computer. In my head I already have a vision of the entire layout of the movie as well as the storyboard. I already have ideas on how to edit our movie to evoke the Thriller and Action feel with the lighting and music. The best part about not filming is that I have all this time to search free music without copyright since some scenes need it. Now I can look and get a feel of the music and know how the actor and actress is supposed to feel in that scene. Hopefully this weekend we will be able to plan a day to film everything and start editing in our music and titles.

Planning Blog: Storyboard

My partner and I were able to story-board the scenes and ideas that came to us during the planning process shown below in the presentation. I was able to convey the main story from the shooting script onto paper through drawings. I wanted our storyboard to be detailed yet still simple enough so we don't over complicate ourselves when filming our movie. I was able to stretch our all the scenes we created in the shooting script onto the storyboard paper however, honestly we did not have 10 pages of story-boarding done. I did not want to add to the story-line that I knew wasn't true and because I did not have the chance to talk it over with my group member so I story-boarded all the vital scenes that is crucial for our first two minutes of the movie. We wanted to keep the opening of the movie suspenseful and not give away the main plot of the movie which is summarized through our pitch. The opening scenes of the two minute film will allow the audience to get to know and see the memories and personality of the characters before actually finding out more as they watch deeper into the movie. This is why we gave no names to our characters or actors because the opening allows you to make a judgement based on looks and dialogue said but we wanted to keep the name disclosed until later in the movie just like some movies do today. Although it is not our best drawings we still wanted to put effort into our storyboard so when it comes to filming we already have a visual of how the movie will turn out but in better quality and color. Presented below is our storyboard we hope that the drawings allow you to visualize our two minute opening but just to keep in mind this is is our planning and will be better on camera and once it is completely done.

Planning Blog: Title Design

When my partner and I first started discussing our Title design, we were completely stumped on how we wanted our titles to look like in the first two minutes of our movie. Since the genre of our movie is Action and Thriller we wanted to include the colors, fonts, and sizes that is typically seen in that specific movie genre. After our title research blogs we have done in the past we had somewhat of an idea. In the end we were finally able to agree on the Title design that best suited our movie. In the presentation below you will see examples and the design we decided on for our title which honestly with the lighting and theme behind our film will draw the audience to feel the action and thriller feel by looking at the titles. By adding the red colors in our titles along with the black we can create a suspenseful feeling toward the murder that will come in the first two minutes. The red mimics the blood of the victim in our movie which adds to the thriller part of our genre. The lowercase and uppercase spelling reminds us of the writings seen in most murder movies such as that on a type-writer or on TV and newspaper. The red color in our title also represents the revenge the main lead actor feels towards his mother murderer in the movie. In the presentation below you will have a closer look at our Title design that we agreed on but can change if needed.  

Planning Blog: Location, Health, Participants, and Scheduling

In today's planning I was able to breakdown all the details that will effect our movie but also guide us on how we should run our filming process by narrowing down our location, participants, scheduling and safety crew. I was able to do this blog mainly because I knew the location and knew that I could get a picture or video to show in the presentation below. The rest of the presentation was easy to assemble together because my partner and I already discussed all the details way back in the beginning when we were creating the pitches for the different movie ideas. We wanted to keep our cast simple mainly because we felt like if we had a lot of cast members we would not be able to focus on filming and because the film doesn't call for more than three actors. In our movie we have one male lead role which is an important character in our movie because the story-line revolves around him. But my partner and I decided that I can play both roles even though I am a female and will be playing the lead role of the wealthy woman. Because our movie revolves around a murder we had to ensure that we discussed about the safety measures that will be implemented during our filming time outside of school.In the presentation below we go into further details on what our safety crew will be doing to ensure the safety of our cast and director/editor. For scheduling I narrowed down our goal of hopefully finishing filming and editing before spring break starts. Although it is a far stretch we want to try and reach this goal so we can have time to look back and re-edit if necessary. All of the location, participants, health, and schedule is presented below.

Planning Blog: Sound and Dialogue Script

In this set of Google Slides we incorporated all of the sound whether it is any dialogue and any music that will be used in the first two minute beginning of the movie. We put in details so that when I start story-boarding I can include all the Camera angles, movements, and shots and all the sound that will be used for each scene and each six seconds if any. In our Google Slide presented below we go in specific detail about what to add in our scenes. We have to make sure that any of the music we incorporate in our final movie is not copyrighted or else we have to send an email to get the song approved to be in our movie. Which is honestly a lot of work and majority of the time we will most likely not get a response back. Me and my partner made sure to start thinking about free non-copyrighted music to add into our different scenes. My partner and I are researching different websites that will give us free music that will be useful in the two minutes of the movie to build the Thriller/Action genre which will be carried out. We did not include any of the Camera angles, movements, and shots because this presentation will solely focus on sound and dialogue. Sound and Dialogue script will help us see any of our mistakes which we can easily change it and fix and will also help benefit us when we need to film so we know which specific scenes will have any sound or music. The Google Slide presented below is the planning my partner and I did for all the sound and dialogue of our movie.

Planning Blog: Shooting Script

Today me and my partner discussed and broke down each of the scenes that will be used in the final task of the movie which will include all our actors, camera angles, movement, and shots. It will also include specific actions that will be done in the first two minutes of the movie that will make it into the Thriller/Action movie we envisioned it to be. My partner and I made sure to include parts into the movie that left the ending suspenseful making you want to watch it more and more of it and to make sure our movie had an interesting story-line. In our shooting script of the movie we had to include every detail since I am going to be story-boarding the scenes we wrote down on the Google Slides. Even though we were not supposed to include any sound we added the type of music we wanted in the that specific scene so we could be prepared when editing our final movie which you will see in the presentation. The shooting script we discussed and will soon be brought to life which will help us during the filming process and get done filming quickly and efficiently so we could start editing and adding in all our titles and music for each scene. Overall our movie is on the right track and we are super excited to officially start filming the movie since we are both proud of our story we created when coming up with our pitches. We wanted to keep our movie simple and not too over complicated with lots of props and actors which we will stick with during this planning process. Honestly my partner and I all week in school and in class focused on finishing our Google Slides in which accomplished. The Shooting Script is presented below and hopefully you enjoy reading about the different scenes (plus extra) that will be played out in our final movie.