Filming blog— Bad timing

My group did get to film today. They filmed the beach scenes and took the pictures for the fame on the wall. The process was very productive. However, I was not able to attend. This was not my intention, and when I wrote my last blog I had anticipated being there. Between the last blog and the filming date, I had realized that a fatal issue had arisen. Weeks prior, it was requested that I sing the National Anthem. I accepted, thinking that the date was for Friday. I didn’t realize that the date was Thursday until the night before the event. I couldn’t cancel on my school, so I didn’t attend. Fortunately, my attendance wasn’t mandatory. Me not being there did not impact the process and my group was still able to film. As for the inconvenience with the male lead, Lauren’s friend, Bobby, offered assistance. It was because of this why are group was able to succeed. Plans intended for Saturday will still resume as intended. We will have to record all the house scenes in the morning. This is stressful because they all have to be recorded before Lauren’s birthday party in the early afternoon. After this, we will do the editing on Sunday and Monday. I will put in effort to atone for my absence.

Filming Blog- again

As seen in the title, today was yet another unproductive day. In the previous blog, I explained how today, Tuesday and Saturday were our anticipated days. Today began as planned. There were a few discrepancies, as the person we intended to play Autumn’s spouse was no longer available. Additionally, Aaliyah’s sister, who’d play Summer, was also unable to attend. Despite this, we still decided to film. This is because we have ample scenes that are individual moments with Autumn. Issues began with transportation. My bus, which Lauren and I share, is extremely crowded. Additionally, we have a very strict driver who is extremely particular about who enters her bus. Because of this, Jahrvia was unable to get a ride to be at Lauren’s house by the expected time. However, this merely meant a delay in filming, so we chose to proceed. Aaliyah also had an issue. Today was the day she anticipated to get her drivers permit (taking the test). As a result, she also intended to be tardy. Thus, I took the bus with Lauren and decided to get off at her stop. Around an hour after my arrival, we discover that Aaliyah is unable to attend because of the short notice. Additionally, the schedule has been completely altered. The majority of the group cannot make it to the filming on Tuesday. Thus, we have moved it to Thursday, but the Saturday filming remains. Rather than letting the day completely go to waste, Lauren and I recorded some sample shots of the scenes to show to see ur members. If all goes as planned, the next filming date will be on Thursday.

Filming Blog- No content

Unfortunately, the blog for this week will not contain much content. The original intention of this blog was to detail our first filming experience. However, my group did not film last week, nor do we have any intention of filming this week. Because of our schedules, our group is forced to push our filming to next week. Our intention is to film everything between Monday and Saturday.

A lot of our schedules couldn’t blend in with this week to film: for starters, this week is your standard school week, so we didn’t have much of an option as far as time was concerned. The weekends are also optional, but it was set in stone from the week prior that we would not film this past weekend. As for this upcoming weekend, it will be strenuous on my group to do anything on the next available filming period (Friday and Saturday). My group (excluding me) is all a part of the FLHS auxiliary, and they will be having MPA on Friday, something that is a great hindrance from filming. Family matters also come into play, as one of our group members also have a family member coming over on Saturday.

Another thing that causes this to be a text of minimal context is issues with our script. Previously we had agreed to do our final project as a thriller about someone who murders people he suspects of committing the seven deadly sins. We had believed that the plot was interesting and it left a lot of room for creativity. However, after doing our research, it was brought to our attention that this idea has already been executed. This resulted (as seen in the storyboard) to a change in plots. This inconvenience may have also contributed to the delaying of our filming.

Despite these hindrances, our group has a plan in order to record and edit by the given deadline. Our group has diligently broken down our week in order to find three days that are best to film and then edit afterwards. Monday and Tuesday are the most available days, so we will record then. Lauren’s birthday is on Wednesday and Thursday won’t be a good day, so we’ve decided to either stay Friday for Saturday or go to Lauren’s house early Saturday morning. The reason being because Lauren’s birthday party is on that Saturday and we would like to record all our footage by then.

Planning-storyboard

Today in class we completed our storyboard. In total we used 10 pages to show all of our scenes. My group member Anishkaneel drew out all of the shots because she draws very neat and detailed. While she was drawing my other group members, Aaliyah and Lauren, and I guided her through the process. We were each reading our shooting and sound script to describe to her what was going on on the scenes. However, we ran into some trouble along the way. About half of our storyboard scenes were missing. As a result, we had to divide the first few storyboards amongst Aaliyah and Lauren. Thankfully we were able to finish it on time, and it turned well. We were able to clearly and effectively explain our scenes.

Planning- location, participants, health, schedule

Before we can begin the overall filming process of our movie, we had to finalize some important details to be sure we were all on the same page. In this powerpoint, you will see four different aspects of our planning process. This includes location, participants, health and safety, and schedule. In the location slides, we were sure to include where we were filming along with pictures of the settings. For the participants slides, we included both people who were seen in the movie and people who are going to be behind the scenes. For example, we included each characters' names along with the person who was playing them. We also included our director, filming crew, etc. For health and safety, we included a brief description on the safety regarding elements used in the film. We also added the names of our safety team. Lastly, our schedule. Here, we made a week-by-week plan of what is to be done. This includes filming, editing, re-shooting, etc.

Planning- Title Design

In this powerpoint we explored our options and came to a conclusion on the design of our titles.We explored six different areas. First, we decided what fonts and how many we were using. The fonts a big part of the titles because it feeds into all the other elements. Next, we talked about how the fonts we were using contrast in color and size with one another and what's going on in the scene. Then we explored spacing. This included leading, in between lines, and tracking, in between spaces. Then we came up with a working title for our movie. Right now we are calling it Misconstrued. Then we worked on how the titles will enter and leave the screen along with where they will appear. Lastly, we  said how long the titles will appear on the screen throughout the two minutes.

Planning Blog: shooting script

My group members and I created the script for this PowerPoint by each contributing ideas. We tried to keep everything in chronological order. to make sure that the film looked organized. We each threw in different ideas until we all could agree on the one that would best fit the film. For example, Aaliyah said that instead of starting our film from the beginning of the opening sequence we decided to start it from the ending of the film which includes the ending of the climax. The film will open with Aaliyah (the evil sister) washing blood off of her hands.  In order for us to fill up each scene  Jahrvia came up with the idea to have each scene include a flashback. After an object is touched by the evil twin a flashback of a good memory will occur. Another thing that we did to create the script for the PowerPoint is take a voice recording of everything that we say. We did this so that we could keep a record of good ideas that we might want to add into the film. By doing these things we were able to come up with a detailed PowerPoint of how the scenes in our film will play out.

Planning blog: Sound Script

Our group’s intention was to leave the effect of contrast in the opening. The scenes alternate between the present, after/during the murder, and before. This includes scenes where Summer, the sister, meets her twin’s groom. The key element in this is dialogue. The dialogue is used to show the conversations and events that occur leading up to the murder in present time (i.e. being chased), which is contrasted by the fond and serene conversations prior to it occurring. We also wanted the film to come with an eerie or anxious tone. In order to bring this out, we intend to use a soundtrack throughout the film. The music will include high and sharp notes, intended to be exciting and climatic. There will also be diegetic sound. This will include footsteps, the sounds of Autumn’s body against the wall, as well as the crash of a lamp. We decided to include this in hopes that it would give our film a raw and realistic feel to it, something that is crucial to our genre.