Editing Time!

     In conclusion of filming yesterday I am going to be editing from here on forward on my movie. I am going to be posting tomorrow on my social media sites since I have finished editing all the photos which are ready to be uploaded. Today was a very relaxing day as I spent most of the time editing with music in my headphones as I found a quiet spot to do so in my balcony. I exported all of the recordings from yesterday's filming onto my sister's macbook so that I can continue editing on IMovie. IMovie so far has been very responsive and has been so far the best when I edit my film. Today I worked on organizing and trimming the newly imported shots and placing them in the correct order based on my storyboard. I am going to upload soon on a separate blog my screenplay so that you can follow along and understand what I was trying to show through my film. I worked on fixing the lighting's of some scenes in case it was too dark or too bright which there wasn't much to fix on that part. Lastly I worked on the sound and background sounds making sure that you can hear everyone clearly and muted or even lowered any diegetic background noises. I didn't work much on the cut scenes of each shot or scene as I am going to work on that over the weekend. 

    The main task I did today in editing was researching and finding different websites that provided copyright free music that I can easily download onto my computer to use for my film. I found a couple of websites but they turned out to be click-bait as in the end I had to sign up or download their app in order to use their sounds or music which I didn't want. I found two useful websites to use that I saved onto the bookmark of my laptop for easy access. I found a couple of free songs and sounds to use in my film but I am not too sure of which one to use. I also thought about using multiple different musics as the score in some of the scenes but I have to make sure it fits with what is going on with that specific part. When i finished editing for the day I got my sister to review or look over what I already had so far. She said that it still needed a lot of work to be completer but that so far it looked good taking away all that I still haven't finished. Looking back at it I do agree with Sabrina that there is a lot still needed to be done in order for it to be perfect. I am wishing everyone to have a Happy New Year and hopefully I will be done with editing soon enough and the film will be complete. 

Filming finale

     At last the day has come where I officially am done with filming for my short movie. I am so proud and grateful for my sister and friend Allison that has been on this journey with me and for helping me get this done. This is only the halfway mark as I still have to edit all of my footage in order to be completely done with my movie. I also still have to upload on my social media tomorrow I am going to post so keep a look out. I took a lot of new fun videos and picture for future uploads and soon I will be uploading the bloopers onto the YouTube channel I created for my short film. Today I decided to treat Sabrina and Allison to breakfast at Panera Bread as a thank you for being and helping me with the film. We were at Panera Bread from 10 to 11 and after we walked to my place as I live 2 minutes away from the shopping plaza. Once we got home we went straight to work and prepared ourselves for filming. We only had about 3 and a half pages of my screenplay to film. I was super ready to finish early and just spend the rest of the time hanging out before I leave at 5 to volunteer and before Allison leaves home at 5 as well. 

    I made sure to take multiple shots so that I have for when I start editing and so I don't have to re-shoot any scenes because it didn't turn out good. Filming was so much fun since it is new years eve we had a dance break in the middle of filming. Once we finished the last scene we all jumped in excitement to be done. When we finished we cleaned up and changed back into our normal attire and took off our make-up since we will be staying at home. As a reward I baked us a pizza for lunch and made my exclusive brownies for dessert. There was only a few times where we had to film outside in the parking lot for only one scene which is when Itai gets an unwelcoming phone call. I played Itai and I tried my best to get the look and act of the character I pictured in my head as much as possible through the filming. Out of all of days we filmed today was my favorite as we had no disagreements since we were all eager to be done. In the past filming days my sister would mainly complain about how long her lines were and kinda rushed us so we can be done early which kinda got on my nerves. In the end we are siblings and we will have disagreements but I made sure we got everything done based on how I wanted it to be filmed. I am wishing everyone a Happy New Year and stay safe.

Editing pictures for social media

     Today I worked on editing the pictures I took from the last three days of filming so that I can post this week. I also logged in all of my social media websites and accepted any requests and followed back any other person that I didn't form the list our teacher provided us. In my previous blog I said that I wouldn't start editing the film until I completely finish filming all the scenes. Today I worked on editing the pictures that I will be posting on all of my social media sites. I also came up with some captions that I will write underneath each post. I did start editing that I wrote about in the previous blogs but it was mainly trimming and organizing it to fit my storyboard. We are going to film this Thursday all the scenes we have left so I can be officially done with the filming process. This whole winter break I was super productive and working on my schoolwork, volunteering, and filming for my movie. In today's teen society it is very important to edit and appeal people and your audience with appealing posts. I want my social media sites to be aesthetically pleasing to the eyes and a page that will have the audience coming back for more. 

    I am trying out a bunch of different editing apps especially for pictures and videos so I can make my posts appealing. I even watched YouTube videos of how to edit posts and make it look all fancy and pretty. Today was mainly a fun break day from all the work I have left to finish my film, since social media for me is like a break for my mind from work. To be honest I don't really know how to work social media as much as most of my friends do since I only really use Instagram to check updates on my family, friends, and even news with celebrities. The second most social media app I use is Snapchat so I really don't know how to work Facebook since I never had one and not even Twitter. I am learning and always asking my friends how to work it especially Amy since she is like the queen of social media based on my friend group. I am going to do most of my updates and posts through my Chromebook as it is much easier to just login in through here than it is on my phone. I hope through this experience that I learn a lot more techniques and new features to use. I can't wait to other students from my class to post so it can really feel like our movies are real one's. Although this isn't much of an update I will be back with a filming blog in the next one. 

Filming on a Monday?

     This morning my sister and I headed off to the clubhouse near Allison's apartment to in hopes finish filming so that I can be officially done and that I can start editing my film. Once we got there we went straight to work and Sabrina was first to get ready as I quickly wanted to record her phone call scenes that were quick and short. Once we finished with her I went and got changed into my first outfit and we finished all my phone call speaking scenes that we needed to film. Throughout the time we were recording we did as many shots and re-shoots so that I have a variety to choose from when I actually start editing. The only major problem we started to have was that the camera battery was running low rather quickly and I had to put it to charge five times when we were getting ready. The camera's battery went from having 29 minutes to 5 minutes in 10 minutes so we tried to get as much done with the amount of battery left on the camera. After filming all of Ace's and Rish's talking scene we all changed into the outfits for the office break-in scene and got our hair done. While the camera was charging I took head-shots and selfie's so I can have for the social media sites which I will be updating this week. Allison and I also took multiple fun videos that I can use as well for the socials. After we started recording all of the scenes for the break-in and office clip and managed to have fun and finish it rather quickly, although Allison kept messing up her lines in a good and funny way. 

    Once we finished the office and break-in scene we changed back into our normal clothes because we decided to set another date to film which is this Thursday we agreed on. When I was looking over the screenplay that I printed out I realized that we only have 4 scenes left to film which is the last 3 and a half pages of the screenplay. Once we agreed on the hopefully last filming date of Thursday we started to clean up the huge mess of all the stuff scattered around that we brought whether it be clothes, makeup, and props. While me and Sabrina was waiting for our dad to pick us up we all sat down on the couch in the clubhouse and watched back all the shots we recorded whether they be bloopers or perfect one's. I would have liked to finish all the filming today but there was too much and plus Allison cousin was visiting her even though she said it was fine to record and be late I didn't want to hold her up. We also had to babysit kids that go to our synagogue so we also had to manage watching them and film. Behind the clubhouse there are multiple tennis courts so the kids were playing while we filmed. We had so much fun and I have a lot of content to give since I took pictures and videos throughout each filming day's so I can't wait to share them through social media. I am going to dump more footage onto my sister's mac book so I can have a clear SD card when I film on Thursday. I have decided that I am going to start fully editing once all the filming is done and I know for sure that we are done by re-watching all that I have so far. I can't wait to see my 5 minute film be completed once and for all. 

Editing for the first time this year!

     All day today I have been working on editing everything that I have so far for my short movie film. I also have been packing what I need to bring for tomorrow's filming since we will film at a clubhouse near Allison's apartment and won't have easy access to the things we need if I were to forget them. I had so much fun editing today especially when I started after going shopping with my mom as a little break. I have two different laptops one is my new one I got for the holidays for school since my old computer is really old and slow. I decided to edit on my sisters computer as my Chromebook doesn't feel equipped to edit in a way. I got permission from Sabrina to use her computer since she has a mac-book and has the app IMovie that I can use to edit my film. I already exported the shots from the SD card onto her computer and I already sorted out between the clips I will use and which one's I saved for the bloopers. On IMovie I played around with some of the features and messed around a little before I actually started working on editing my film. I have worked before with IMovie so for me it was very simple to get the handling of it rather quickly. I popped on my headphones and played some music while I was editing it because I just focused on cutting or trimming some shots that were too long or needed to be. I also focused on organizing the shots I already have so that when I import the new one's after filming tomorrow it will be easy to organize it like my storyboard.

    After an hour of just moving and organizing my scenes and trimming it I also focused on the lighting making sure that it was clean and visible. I also practiced making a split screen as there will be multiple split screens regarding the scenes where the three main female characters are talking on the phone. I really want to show how much I have improved on my editing skills as I never liked sitting and editing it as most software's were so confusing and hard to use. I want this movie for be perfect and really show case my potential and hard work. My sister Sabrina also has requested to give me critique's and ways that I can improve some scenes, but for now my goal is to finish filming completely and be done with that section so I don't to constantly think about getting it done. I am also working on the pictures for the social media links as I have been taking pictures every time we film so I can have updates for my followers. I have the pictures that I want to post in a separate folder on my phone so some time this week I will be uploading them. Once I finish filming I also will have the time to work on my social media pages and really make it lively and active since I haven't been on it recently because of filming. I can't wait to see how my followers will react and can't wait to full throttle ahead and edit completely my film. I am super excited for tomorrow and can't wait to finally finish filming and focus my mind on one thing which is to continue editing. 

Filming and Re-shooting

     Today me and my sister Sabrina did a lot of re-shooting and filming for our phone call scenes in the movie. We also recorded the scenes that required me to play Itai in the parking lot and confrontation scene of the film. I already had the outfit for Itai planned out as I was going to borrow my father's button down shirt and wear formal dress pants that I own. The only thing that was difficult for me was getting my hair done for Itai as I had no clue how to style it at first. Since Allison was not here for the filming I had to style my sister's hair and do the makeup for her look for the specific outfit and scene. As for my character Rish all I had to do was style my hair since Rish will be wearing sunglasses in the scene. we also filmed Ace's phone call scenes in the narrow alley which we recorded quickly so we don't get into the people's way that live in our apartment. We didn't record my scenes which require me to be outside because I wanted to save it for Monday when we will officially be done with filming. Today we had so much filming and even do we had to re-shoot some scenes they were very minor. When I was exporting the video from the SD card onto the computer I noticed that the celebration scene we recorded on Christmas Eve was missing a few lines and rushed in my opinion. 

    I decided after discussing with Allison and Sabrina that we will be re-shooting that scene on Monday as well since we will have all day to film. After reviewing the screenplay script that I printed out I realized that we were missing a chunk of our lines. I also realized after watching the clips on my laptop that the celebration scene was rushed and too short and didn't like how it turned out. On the bright side I did manage to get a lot of blooper reels that I saved on a separate file. Looking back on the bloopers they were so funny and lightened my mood after watching. For Monday filming we will need to bring lots of outfits, shoes, makeup, and props for filming. I honestly can't wait to completely be done with filming as I want to just focus on editing. I want to be done with all that outfits and makeup changes, even though we have fun I feel a lot of pressure to get it done but then again I waited to record over Christmas break. I already started packing everything I need for Monday into my big bag to bring with us and I have to see what to bring as props to make the clubhouse we will be filming to look more like an office. I also have to print out fake business papers has a prop to have. The office break-in scene is honestly my favorite scene and I actually am excited to film as Rish for the main action scene of my film.

Filming on Christmas Eve? 🎄

    Today is Christmas Eve but doesn't mean we can't film for my movie. My friend Allison arrived at 12:30 at our house to film the last scene of our movie which is the celebration scene. Allison doesn't celebrate Christmas so it was perfect for her to come,plus she didn't mind and neither did my parents. As my parents were preparing dinner for later in the evening we all went straight to work to finish filming and take pictures so I have for the blogs and social media sites. It took us a while to get ready and film as at first we talked and relaxed before actually getting to work but then we knew we had to get it out of the way and film before it gets too late. Allison was especially panicky as originally my mom told me that we will be having dinner on Christmas day but then plans changed and it ended up being on the day we wanted to film. The camera was already half way charged but I still plugged it into the outlet so that it can be fully charged. After getting dressed and having our makeup and hair done we went to my balcony as the lighting was the best in there. I then got the props ready which was just three glasses full of juice and one with water for my sister Sabrina. We had multiple outtakes which I will use in the bloopers reel but we ended up getting a perfect shot on the last recording.

    Once we finished shooting that scene I cleaned up the camera and tripod and went outside with them so we can take pictures in our outfits. We took group shots on Allison's phone and head-shots and selfie's on my phone. When we got back inside we quickly changed out of our clothes and into more comfortable casual clothing and we took off our makeup and cleaned up the mess that was in my room. Once order has been restored in my room we decided to send each other the photos through our group chat on Whats App. For our second filming day we basically only recorded one scene and decided that me and Sabrina are going to record the scenes with Itai on Sunday as it does not require Allison to be in the shot or even at our house on that day.  On Monday which will be our fourth filming day we will record all the other scenes from Rish and Ace talking scene and from the office scene will be recorded and complete on that day. I am going to try and start editing over the weekend so I can import all the recorded shots from the SD card onto my laptop so it can be fresh for Sunday and Monday filming. I also want to start editing so I can save the bloopers onto a separate folder so I can edit that as well and upload all the mistakes and fun we had behind the scenes. I feel like the biggest challenge for me will be to edit the film as I want everything to be perfect so far filming as been so much fun and I don't mind having to re-shoot any scenes again. We had so much filming and I am going to sign off now and enjoy Christmas with my family and everyone have a Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

Filming for short film 📸

    This winter break I needed to film for my short film as I wasn't able to during the Thanksgiving break. In my last blog I stated that I was going to have my friend Amy to play the Assistant and maybe ask Ben my other friend to play Itai in my movie. Plans changed and I decided that Sabrina is going to play the Assistant as she was begging me to cast her and I am going to play Itai based on my dads suggestion as he didn't want to be filmed.  On the first day of filming we filmed mainly the scenes that required us to be inside the apartment such as the meeting in one of the scenes and multiple mini phone call scenes. Allison came to our apartment around 3 in the afternoon and after eating lunch we right away went into my room to prepare our outfits and start doing hair and makeup. The first thing I did was put the camera to charge while we figured out the outfits for each scene and when we needed an outfit change. Allison brought a whole box full of different outfits, jewelry, makeup, and even a hand held steamer for the clothes. We went through each scene and tried on the outfits and labeled them and placed them in my closet so we know each outfit and who they belong to. Once we finished the whole clothing ordeal I sat everyone down and we did a run through of the script and made any changes along the way to make it more comfortable when speaking and acting. Once we finished the run through it was time to get everyone ready which I am thankful for Allison who I made makeup artist for our film for getting us looking good in less than an hour. I also was in charge of doing my sister's hair as she didn't know how to style it.

    We ended up finishing filming around 8 in the night which I was very proud of what we accomplished in the time we had to film. After we finished filming we quickly discussed what scenes we were going to film on the second day of filming. I want to get every other scene completed except for the office scene which we will film on Monday next week. Our filming location for the first day of filming was in my apartment and so is the second day of filming. The third day of filming will be at the location near Allison's apartment since they have a clubhouse that she believes will be perfect for the office break-in. In the outfits when you see I wanted them to be bold, fashionable, and completely different than what we normally would wear. Rish, Ice-T, and Ace all have a different style and personality that will be captured in the film. There is also an important message near the end of the film that I wanted to bring to light especially with empowering woman. I can't wait to edit the film and bring the film into light and actually make this into a 5 minute short movie. I also will be updating my social media sites which can be located on the film's website https://hiddenbehindawoman.wixsite.com/mysite