A pretty cool effect!

Throughout my planning and production process, I have repeatedly stated how my group planned to start off the beginning of our film opening through the lens of a security camera. I noted we would achieve this effect either through using the actual security cameras at the filming location or by doing so in post, and since the cameras at the location did not cover the areas we needed, we resorted to getting the shots ourselves. How we did this during production, is we had one member stand at the top of the latter and get a nice wide shot of the area that we later added effects to in post. First we added grain to the shot as security cameras are known for their poor visual quality, then we under saturated the footage in premiere to take away a lot of color from the shot, and we added a time code in the bottom right of the shot to really show case that it was a recording from a separate entity within the world of our film. Also in order to make the shot look as close to a realistic security camera as possible, we researched the frame rate of security cameras and found that the average frame rate for security cameras is 15 fps, so we set our footage to the same frame rate in premiere. We managed to edit a good amount of the rest of the film opening as well, but I wanted to just highlight this one really cool effect before covering the general editing process in my next blog post. Hope you guys found this as cool as I did!

Before 

After

Also one last note! We will be finishing up the editing process tomorrow and plan on adding the number of each camera to the top left corner of each security camera shot, so this is just an example for how it looks now. It may change slightly in the final production but for now I think it looks great and I really wanted to showcase it!

Group meetings 2!

Quick Update!

Today was another group meeting day in class before the break. As I have mentioned time and time again, this project has been worrying me but today was good reassurance that I am on the right track. After talking with my fellow class mates, I realized that not only have I already filmed and three out of the four others in the meeting with me have not, I also planned more than they have and made sure I had a clear vision before filming. My group is essentially taking a break until Friday to work on our project as we want to use the free day to edit our project since we have already filmed and we feel that we need a break to prioritize other work since this is the last week of the quarter. What I did discuss with my class mates in the group meeting was a reminder to us all that our film opening is just an inkling of whats to come. You want your audience to ask what happens next? It would be unnecessary to reveal the full plot so don't. Also my classmates did help me realize how important it is to find music, I thought about it previously but having the discussion really just opened my eyes and I plan on finding a good royalty free score through YouTube audio library or epidemic sound. The reason why I do not feel I should use copyrighted music and reach out to an artist is because I feel that to make sure the score best fits the opening, I want to first line edit the footage together to see if the pacing will match, and because of this I do not feel I would have enough time to reach out to an artist. Anyways, like I said we plan on editing on Friday and if needed Saturday so I will update yall then with how it goes!

Filming!

 Production Day!

Today was both rewarding and absolutely exhausting! Based on my previous blogs, I think many can tell I am a very anxious person and have been during this whole project but filming today was good reassurance for our project. We managed to film everything we needed, but like anyone who has worked on some form of production would know, things will go wrong and you will be forced to adapt. Time was the number one factor we knew we had against us, so while we were filming we cut some shots and scenes we deemed weren't necessary as they didn't flow with the story or add anything to the context of our film. Originally we planned to have a scene where the protagonist goes into a room and finds a knife or some other tool to showcase they are scavenging, however we realized that this was just unnecessary filler and we decided that if we wanted to get done we had to cut it out. The other main issue we faced was lighting. The context of our film opening is our protagonist is exploring an abandoned building for supplies in a post-apocalyptic world where one would assume there is no power anymore, because of this we filmed in low light situations as the lights in the building were off. To work around this we used natural lighting and a light kit as best as we could to still create the low lighting effect of the shot, but also still see our subject. Also we made sure to have our iris as open as possible and bumped the ISO, we didn't want our shots to be too grainy but there is a level of balance between wanting low grain and also wanting to actually see your shot so some shots we just had to deal with it. Also for the shots in which we were filming from the perspective of a security camera, we had one person go to the top of a latter with a camera and another hold them from behind to make sure we were as safe as possible. Sabrina brought make up and fake blood to make herself look dirtied and roughed up, which helped add to the mise-en-scene of our film and our characters look. She added extra shading under her eyes to make herself look tired, messed up her hair, and added fake blood under her nails and to her arm under a bandage to make it as though she has to take care of her self. Lastly, although we did use a tripod for some wider establishing shots, we realized that to get the realistic and intimate effect that we wanted to portray, especially for our genre, we switched to primarily close hand held shots. All in all, I am really happy with the progress we have made and I really think our film opening will come out well. It might not come out how we expected, but that's the fun part, right?! 

Directing!

As I have said before when choosing the roles for our group, myself and Isa would most likely be co-directing/filming the opening. As luck would have it, our adviser has posted a couple informational videos and articles on directing as a way of offering us more tools at our disposal. In order to prepare for filming on Saturday I reviewed the sources my instructor provided and I learned a bit. 

 Directing Tips!

• Every frame is important!
• Being aware of what happens in every frame allows a director to better tell their audience everything that is happening within the scene.
  

• Get to know your actors and adjust to them
• The more you know your actors and their mannerisms, the better you can explain to them how you want them to act in the scene.
• Also since the actor I am working with is one of my friends, we have a level of familiarity and comfortability with each other so it will be easier to explain to each other what we want.
  

• Make use of negative space to showcase isolation
• This tip specifically was very eye opening to me, because although I probably realized it subconsciously, utilizing negative space is a great way to showcase a character is alone through their surroundings.
  

•  Know what you want your audience to feel when they watch your piece
• I have already discussed previously what I want my audience to feel when watching my opening but to summarize I want them to end asking what happens next? I want them to feel intrigue and wonder what the deeper story line is of the film.
  

• Being a good listener as a director is important
• Being a good director allows take in all the info and make a decision based off of it, or take something from one crew member and adjust it so you can say it to another.

•  Be able to adapt, everything rarely goes as planned
• Based on my previous blogs, we can see how plans have already fallen through and we had to adapt such as my storyboard earlier. 
  

•  Small directors wear a bunch of hats, editor, cinematographer, writer, etc 
• This tip is already a very well known aspect of small productions and as someone who has worked on numerous productions I know what its like to do multiple jobs on a production.
  

• See the movie in your mind
• Have an idea of what you will be filming before you film it, have a vision, "watch the movie before you film it."
  

 

Preparation for Filming and CCR

 Filming on Friday!

Since my group and I made our storyboard yesterday and plan on filming on Friday, I feel as though we are in a good place for our opening. Sabrina already has all of the necessary clothing and the backpack for the shoot, however before Saturday we still need to make sure that we get the only other prop we need, the Twinkies! My team has not talked much outside of story boarding and so we are essentially just waiting to film on Saturday before we can do anything really big for the project. We also discussed the roles of each person in our group and what exactly they will be placed as for credits. Obviously I have already stated many times before that my group member Sabrina will be acting as our main character Aria, but for the rest of my group we decided that since our group member Kim is currently in Orlando until April and can not film, that she will take on more of a role during the post-production process. As for myself and Isa, we will both have cameras and we plan on combining both of our knowledge to get the best shots possible. To put a label on it for the credits, however, I will most likely be directing as I want Isa to be the main camera/videographer as I feel she has the best cinematography out of any one in our group. Also I have been in director roles before on other projects and I tend to take on a more leadership role during projects so I feel as though I can help best direct when it comes toward both camera and acting.

Lastly, today in class we went over the creative critical reflection and reviewed exactly how we should approach it and make sure we effectively answer each question and in a creative manner. I found it very helpful as we saw some examples and I also took a good amount of notes to make sure I am prepared. Some useful things I noted from class today are that in order to make an effective CCR, I should write a script so that I am not stumbling over my words and I sound more formal, also part of the CCR is creativity so it was stressed to not just be a talking head but instead include graphics and other forms of stats to help keep the reflection entertaining, and last but not least, the main thing I took from class is to take background photos so that I actually have graphics to put in my CCR.

Story board!

 Today was a huge breath of relief for me as I have been very anxious with our progress due to the various scheduling and communication issues we have been having. Originally we were planning to visit the location of filming and scout it out and take pictures for our story board, however, like always things fall through and we were unable to go that day. This did not stop us through! We put our heads together and got our story board done, real pictures or not. We thought even if the story board does not match one to one of what we see when we get there, it will still be a useful guide and I really really wanted my group to get a little bit of actual scheduling and story boarding done. Also we managed to reschedule to actually film next Saturday and this time we have permission, so hopefully we do not run in to any other issues. With that said here is our storyboard!

Whos Watching?

 Every film has their own target audience which they are trying to reach and specifically shape their films to fit towards. The post-apocalyptic film genre is usually targeted toward older teens or adults (18-44) as the genre features themes and tropes that a more mature audience would be more inclined to. Also this genres specific style of violence and more rough circumstances is usually targeted toward a more male demographic. Due to the frequent scenes of violence often portrayed in these films, the genre is not intended for a younger demographic as it may be seen as scary or difficult to watch for younger viewers.

The target audience for our film specifically, however, will be more aimed toward teens and young adults around the 16 to 24 year old range as the main character of our film is a teen. Also the protagonist of our film is a teen girl, we hope this will help to interest a more female audience, as the story follows her solely. We still stay true to the tropes of post-apocalyptic genre, however, so the film will still attract the 18 to 44 and male demographic.