Filming blog: starting the process of editing

    After finishing our filming process, as I said we did in our last blog, our immediate next thought was finalizing the film as a whole. This would include everything we've already put into the movie plus editing and anything else we may need to call this the movie clip that we would turn into Cambridge.
We finished our filming now around a week ago which puts us around the time that we should start worrying about editing. We technically aren't at any risk of missing the due date because we are ahead of schedule, but we don't want to waist this extra time we built for ourselves sitting around and doing nothing. We haven't started filming yet, but we plan on beginning during our next class period. This editing phase may be more important then the actual film. This will most likely take a lot more time than filming ad it will for sure be more strenuous on our group as a whole. We all, at the same time, will develop our individual ideas on how to edit this film but the main challenge will be finding a way to make our film stand out from the rest, giving us that high grade that we've been working towards from the beginning.  It will take long periods of time between all four of us to tweak any parts of the film and editing. I think one of the most important things during this is having us all get along and be on the same page. As soon as one of us have a difference of opinion on the editing should be, all advancements stop for some period until agreement. One thing we for sure don't  want to waist time on is arguments.
    While editing, some of the main things we will focus on is cutting, inserts of any kind, and some sound overs. We need spend some time last class picking out the clips we were going to use and discarding any ones we weren't on our phones. That was simple enough and we made sure to put them in order so when editing comes, it will be as simple as cut and insert. We've already decided where we would be putting our titles as well so that again will be straight forward. Some of the inserts may bring some trouble judging on how different our opinions are but i'm sure we will get through it. Hopefully this wont take us to long and we will be able to bang this out just like we did our filming. We want to work quickly and efficiently but at the same time, make this the best film we've done in this class so far. I am very confident that our grade will be high and that prediction came from just the film shots. I can't wait to see how the film will come out after some good editing involved as well.

filming blog: Starting to film

  Starting this film, the fact that this is the most important project of the year in this class never left our head. That's why throughout, we stayed focused and kept our progress constantly flowing. We started to film last weekend which we agreed on before was the best time for all of us. We met at Paige's being that we thought her alley would be best to film in. My dad drove me there and I prepped him on what he would be doing with his truck during it. We started from the top of our story board and worked our way down. Each scene that we did, we made sure to look over on the spot and make sure we didn't have to re-film that part later. This proved useful later because we technically don't need to shoot anything else unless during the peer review something negative stood out. Moving further through the film, my dad was very compliant and did as we said with no issue. The shots with the truck came out great in and out of it. After the trucks scene, we brought in a few props that we mentioned in the story board. These included a baseball bat, some rope, and a pillow case. We followed the story board exactly and the kidnapping scene went smoothly. Me being the main character, I can say my peers handled my acting limp body very well and after watching it again, it really looked like I was knocked out cold. We were done with filming outside so we switched our setting to the inside of Paige's house where we used the darkest room as the place where "Johnny" would be tied up. This scene I can easily say was the most irritating and difficult. It was supposed to be as simple as the kidnappers put Johnny into the chair and tie him up. They go got me in the chair but for some strange reason for the life of them they could not tie me up correctly. I had to explain how to tie me up more than twice. Other than that though, everything went smoothly and as planned. We are completely ready for any feedback our peers may give and will be prepared to fix anything they suggest.

Filming blog: agreement on date of filming

     After finishing all of the work, and blogs that go with it, building up to the actual filming of this commercial, we can safely say that filming is right around the corner. We are working on a strict deadline right ow but we have not started the filming as early as I would have wanted to. One of my partners and I were away on a school trip for the week which took away and plans of us being ahead of the game with this project. We are still, however, on track and plan on filming soon. This weekend to be exact. The day we leave school coming into the weekend is an "A" day meaning that after today, we won't be back to class before filming. It was clear that any questions we had for Ms. Katz had to be asked today or they will be left unanswered. This also meant that if we were to check out cameras, it would have to be today and that we would have to hold them till the weekend. As a group, we decided that for this film, a camera really wasn't necessary and would essentially add more stress. We thought that if we didn't need to use a tripod at all, why would we use the camera if our phone cameras looked just as good. The whole memory chip also just adds more work because, with our phones, we can upload straightly to the computer through our personal emails. Moving on to the more exact time of when we plan on filming this. We discussed as a group and came to the understanding that we didn't want it to be to light outside so we cant do it early in the morning, but we don't want it so dark that we can't see anything so we can't do it late at night. Sometime around 6:00 should be best. We already established as well that we cant film on Friday after school so we would have to do it Saturday. Being that we are doing Saturday, we also cleared any plans we had on Sunday just in case something went wrong and we need more than the day. With this plan, we will have the perfect lighting and the best days that also gives us some emergency room of mistakes if needed. Now that we have everything in place, we can begin filming on schedule without worrying about other past due dates of other blogs. We can focus solely on making this film the best we can. We will be mentally prepared as well as physically even with the room of mistakes. Now its a matter of how good this film is going to be.

Planning blog: Story Board

Moving forward to this step in our experience of making a film, it was time for us as a group to come together and really visualize the entirety of it and everything that will be included. This story board that we've made has come together with all of us putting in work. We all had the same vision at the beginning when deciding on this topic, but now that we needed to think of the extremes and every detail put into it, it was much harder for us to agree. After many disagreements, we finally made a story board that we can all agree is perfect and high grade work. In this story board, we've drawn the exact layout of the film and how it's going to go down in terms of looks. The descriptions under each picture tell us the more extreme details including whats going on in the scene, camera angles, camera movements, and what titles will go where. The drawing and descriptions were not perfect, but they're more than enough to give us a sort of guideline when we actually start to film. We plan to follow the storyboard exactly as written but if it doesn't turn out that way, we will make a few adjustments. Being that this is only the blueprint of the film, it's okay for us to stray away a little if we have to or if we have a better idea. We are now just a few days away from picking up a camera and starting our first scenes to this project.

title design

Today, our group finished working on how the titles will be. We decided again to use google slides to create our presentation. It has benefited us in many ways because of its various capabilities. We decided on our titles by watching many titles on artofthetitle.com and seeing how they work. This helped a lot because it gave us a rough draft of how ours is supposed to look. While working on how the titles would look we came across a problem. The problem was whether we should just randomly put the titles on the screen or let them fade on when something happens. Paige and Roscoe thought the random idea was better because it would be easier to do, but Zeke and I thought that the other way was more visually appealing and fit the genre more. Eventually, we decided on putting the titles on the screen as something happens because it would fit the thriller theme we were looking for more. Besides that, we feel like the titles will come out great and we are glad we came to an agreement.

planning blog: location, participants, health and schedule

Today, our group completed our schedule and decided on our locations, participants and a health and safety plan. We used a google slides presentation because we believe it is the best way to put all of these important things together. Google slides is a good way to put together many different elements of our film and to add photos. We decided on our locations based on proximity and environment. There was an issue amongst our group about where to film. The issue arose because the group was divided as to whether a more populated area was better or worse. In the end our group came to the conclusion that a less populated area was better and if necessary we will get extras. We had no disagreements about the participants because we have enough with just us and can use any more volunteers that wish to participate. Our safety and health plan was also easy to create because we all agree that safety is our top priority. Overall we have completed our schedule and decided on other important details to make our film the best possible.

Planning blog:shooting script

Today we finally got to write our shooting script, which is one of the most important parts of the paling stage.  We finally got to flesh out our ideas for our movie and really figure out what's going to happen in each scene.  Even though we were excited on the idea side, it was hard to fit every single idea in and what direction should we take some scenes in. We all had some different takes on what the story should be and how it was presented. some of us wanted toe interrogation scene, whit is at the end of the shooting script to be at the beginning, while others didn't want that at all. As a group we decided on our final shooting script, not as one of our group members ideas, we decided to make a compromise between all of us. We think that all of the ideas that we implemented work smoothly and that balance each other out. The plot that we created, is very interesting to all of us and is pretty good. We have a lot of intriguing details that we would like to add to this shooting script, but were on a time limit. All in all we all think that we made a good shooting script.

Planning blog: sound script

In this blog, we'll be going over what we will actually say as actors in this film. There won't be a lot of dialogue because the only time the main character reacts with people is when he is hit upside his head and thrown into the back of the car. There will be however some dialogue between the antagonists of the film before they plan to execute their task of taking the boy. We plan on having these kidnappers communicate through phone call to their colleagues before the next scene takes place. Also in the vehicle we are using there will be some short speaking here and there. In this blog, we will be including the short google slide show of what exactly will be said. In each slide, we have a new time someone speaks either the main character or the kidnappers. The speech will be short and not have much elaboration at all. It will also be specified whether the conversation is in person or through cell phone. When we start to film, we plan on following this script to the exact so the last minute changes isn't something we need to necessarily worry about. If forever reason we are forced to make a slight change to the dialogue, we will do so. This dialogue should be one of the last pieces towards starting the filming of this clip.