Music for the film

     Throughout my film I plan to have a lot of dialogue and score music. I also want to use as much diegetic sound as well to make the scenes and movie feel even more realistic and more movie like. Yesterday I was able to find a free download link converter that I placed in a bookmark of my laptop so I can convert any links. I plan to use copyright free instrumental music throughout my film as I find it easier than contacting the actual producer or singer for permission. I also find that some copyright free music are better than going through the hassle of getting a copyrighted song approved and then working it into your film. I still need to research safe websites that are legit that I can download non-copyrighted music for free. I also want to research and see if the editing software I am using have free music that I can use that comes with the software. For music I am not that specific or picky about because my movie revolves around a lot of dialogue from the characters. The main plot of the movie is conveyed through the dialogue. Originally I wanted to use a copyrighted song for my movie, but because I wasn't able to film this week and have been really busy this Thanksgiving I had to change my plans and now I will be using non-copyrighted music.

    My plan is to find an instrumental background music that can easily be amplified in scenes when there is no dialogue and played lightly in the background when characters are speaking. There will also be scenes when the score music will be cut out and diegetic sound will be heard in some shots. I want to improve on the sound of my film as last year for my introductory film project, wind and lots of background noises could be heard which is distracting from the actual dialogue. I want the dialogue to be clear and the main focus for the movie to progress in the plot. So far I have one website for music which I used last year but I wasn't a fan of how confusing it was to download the music so I am going to look for a new one. I want the music to start of calmly as we are first introduced to the characters. Once the movie progresses and the audience finds out what is going on in the movie I want to put music that will be suspenseful to create the mood. I do think it is important that the music conveys the mood throughout the film so that the audience knows how to feel in that certain situation. For me, music and sound is an important factor for a film and I want to be able to show that through my film. I will do lots of research and put in work to make it happen. 

Why we did not film

     Over the long Thanksgiving break I planned to have filmed at least half of the shots that I needed, but plans changed when I found out that one of the participants from my movie wasn't going to be back in Florida for Thanksgiving. I found this out right on that Friday when we started our week long break from school. It wasn't until Wednesday I found out she is actually going to come today from New York. Amy who was supposed to play the Assistant in the film will be added to the website under the cast as she will be able to be in the film now. I plan to finish filming before Christmas break as I want to use that time to edit my film and then do a peer review with my friends for any changes that need to be done. This week I have been talking with Allison one of the cast about costumes, makeup, and hair that needs to be done for each member. I also was reviewing to see if I needed to go and buy any props this week for the film so that we have once we start filming. I also have another friend I have to ask if he wants to play the role of Itai the main male role in the film. Once I get the chance to speak to him and hear his decision I will add him to the website as well if he says he wants to be in the movie. This week I also used the time to speak with my friends about their schedule so I know what dates specifically we can film on since most of them have a job or in college. In my mind I feel like I am behind and that I have a lot to do, but then again I can't control what life brings to me on a daily basis and I can only take one day at a time. I know that my friends and I are super excited to actually film as it feels like childhood when we would make skits when we were younger. 

    Starting Monday I am going to have everything planned out even though I had a rough sketch of how our schedule was going to be like earlier in November I have to make rearrangements. By December I will have the website updated of any new casts added and I will have a set date of when we will be filming. When we do start filming I had this plan of filming all day from morning until the evening and I also planned to order pizza for everyone for working hard filming the movie. I want the filming experience to be fun for all of us and something we can enjoy together. I don't want any of us to feel irritated and annoyed because the filming process can be long and sometimes tedious. I want to make this film something my friends and I can look back at and be proud of what we were a part of. The only person I am not set on for the movie is my guy best friend as I haven't spoken to him in a long time and don't know if he would agree to be in the movie. I hope he says yes because it is a short part he will be playing and probably will only take 1 hour or even 30 minutes to film his part. If he says no most likely one of us will try to play the male role. I can't wait to actually start filming and I will be using my storyboard as a guideline and I know we will have fun and content to share. 

Marketing campaign for short film

     A week ago before we started our Thanksgiving break we were told to create social media sites and a website for our short 5 minute film. I was super excited to go through the process of designing and editing my own personal website. I realized how much time and effort needs to be put on creating your website to make it appealing and creative to attract an audience. The hardest part of creating a website was understanding the tools that they provided on wix.com to edit and personalize the look and style of your site. The hardest part in creating a social media site was creating one for Facebook as I had to create under one of the characters name and couldn't do for the film itself. When I was creating my website I had so much fun making it, as I was playing music on my mini speaker and just taking the time to be creative and have fun with it. I also had many ideas rushing around in my head of what I wanted to post in the future on the social media accounts and how I wanted to market my movie. The rushing ideas that was enveloping my mind helped me narrow down how I want to handle and move the movie forward because of the social media ideas that are sure to attract an audience. I wrote all of them down as well so I wouldn't forget and even had a collective call with everyone that is going to be in the film to share them and gain feedback. Before I could even create my website I had to come up with a captivating name that would make people want to watch the movie just by hearing or reading the name, I decided on the name Hidden Behind a Woman as it was the most voted on name from my friends and family. 

    In the future when we start filming this December I want to post lots of fun and exciting posts about the movie such as behind the scene footages and bloopers while filming. I do believe that allowing the audience to see what goes on behind the scenes and off camera or in a different perspective attracts people because they see how real and close with the audience you are. I also would love to post bloopers because they can be super funny and something for the audience to enjoy. My sister who is playing Ace in my movie came up with the idea of each character having a takeover, this means that everyday a different character will have control of the social media for the day and can give the audience an insight on the actors and the characters in the film. When I heard that idea I was in shock of how good it was and can't wait to see it happen. I also want to post a get ready hair and makeup with the cast just like some movies have done with their casts. I remember watching a video like that and knew I had to do something similar but unique for social media. I plan to post consecutively once we start filming on all the social media sites I created which include: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. I also want to post and do a mini photoshoot with the whole cast and also to have to so I can create and edit the movie poster for the profile pictures on the social media sites. I have a lot planned before Christmas break and I can't wait to go through with them.

Storyboard for short film

         This whole weekend and including days from last week I was working on my storyboard as it has to be 10 to 15 pages long and understanding me, I know I would have waited to the last minute. I made sure to start ahead of time so that I can use these days to finalize and fix my storyboard in case I wanted to cut some scenes out as I had too many scenes that would be past 5 minutes long based on my screenplay. In my screenplay I had about 13 pages of dialogue and action for my movie, but my teachers said to add as much as we can because it will be easier in the end to cut scenes out than it is to add them. Once I finish storyboarding I hope we can start filming especially because Thanksgiving week is coming and I can use that time to get together and start filming. I am going to film all scenes from my screenplay including the one I already planned to cut out just so I can have in case. I wan to have everything organized so that this process can be easy on not just me but also the participants that are going to be in my film. My storyboard is a bit rough but I am far from an artist, I understand that my drawings are a little hard to look at but I tried my best to get the overall scene onto the paper. I do believe that on camera and on film it will look much better than that on my storyboard. I already have in mind how I want to film and direct each scene. I was super happy to see the email from my teachers stating that they have extended the due date for our storyboard because I was able to work and focus on it this weekend which I was happy about.

    Drawing the storyboard did take some hours out of my time and I even brought it with me when I went dog sitting yesterday at my family's friend house. This whole time I was storyboarding I made it a fun task by blasting music and just using the time to de-stress and just draw how I want it to be since it is my movie. I ended up having 10 pages because I plan to elaborate more in my film but I drew all the main scenes in my movie onto the paper. What I did first was label all the 10 paper I had and wrote over each box what I was going to draw. I then proceeded to draw everything out first before I wrote what type of camera shots, movements, angles, editing, and sound for each box or scene. Storyboarding for me is not my favorite part of the filming process mainly because I can barely draw so I find this part of the process boring. I can't wait to actually start filming because my mind is bursting with creativity and ideas that I want to bring to life for the movie. I hope you enjoy overall my storyboard presented through Google Slides as I worked super long and hard on it. I am actually happy that I am official done with my storyboard for my movie and that I can finally work on filming once my teacher gives us the okay. I am also excited that tomorrow we will start our social media for the movie, I can't wait to upload and promote my movie and give fun behind the scenes footage of the process. 

Planning for short film

     Two classes ago we worked on our screenplay assignment where we had to produce a script of our short film that had to be 6 pages long, that we can easily cut out scenes if needed too. We also did a peer review of other students screenplay assignment in which we had to read and give our feedback and send it back to them for changes. For today we had to start our planning progress for the short film, which I am super excited about because we can finally start filming after I finish planning and storyboarding. For my schedule for this movie I plan to use today and everyday up until November 13 to storyboard as it had to be 10 to 15 pages long. Once I finish storyboarding on November 13 and finish blogging about it, I can finally meet-up with the actresses that are gonna be in film and start recording. On November 16, I want to start recording and meeting up to film and since Thanksgiving break is coming up I plan to use that time to re-film any scenes we messed up or just needed to be re-filmed. Since it is corona time I limited the amount of people that can be in the film to ensure everyone's safety which is why we will have masks on when not filming. My parent's will be monitoring us and we will have a first-aid kit on hand in case of any accidents which hopefully won't happen. The main character Ace will be played by Sabrina, Rish will be played by Me (Stephanie), and Ice-T will be played by Allison. Itai the main antagonist and the secondary character the Assistant will be played by Amy. Those will be the only participants that will be seen the movie. 

    The location for most of my movie will be at my apartment because it is the closest location for all of us since Amy lives 2 minutes away,  Allison lives 5 minutes away, and Sabrina is my sister so she lives with me. The location will consist of my sister and I shared room, our backyard, the narrow alley that leads to the pool in our backyard, our balcony that consists of an office desk, the living room, the sidewalk in front of our apartment, our kitchen, our dining room table, and the parking lot. My parents wanted to keep the location at home mainly because of corona and to not interfere and get in other people's way especially since my neighborhood consists of elderly individuals that are at a higher risk. I wanted to respect my parent's decision and kept that in my when planning and all the participants in my film agree. Props will include all of the furniture that is stationary in the house the only real props that will be used throughout the film is a cell-phone, messenger bag, fake files and confidential papers, empty luggage's, iced coffee, and fake ID tags. Each of the participants that have a role in the movie are responsible for their own costumes so I don't have an exact answer of what each character will be wearing exactly. The only thing I know is the concept I want each of them to wear is such as Ace to be dressed in business casual most of the time, Rish to be dressed in crazy colors and baggy styles of clothing, and Ice-T to be dressed in outfits that are stylish, bold, and colorful. Itai will be dressed in a business outfit and the Assistant will be dressed professionally in a business outfit. As for Makeup Allison will be in charge of the makeup department and she will be doing everyone's makeup for the film. I am super excited to start filming so much is going to through my mind and I know my friends are also excited to be in the movie. I also can't wait to open up the social media sites for the movie so I can start promoting the film with fun content and behind the scenes footage.