Filming Blog: Starting to Film the memory scene

Recently, my group and I began the filming process for our movie. After school we decided to take get some quick good and went to eat at iHop, and got free pancakes since it was the “National Pancakes Day”. We however did not just eat and mess around, we in fact talked a lot about the plan for the day for example what we were going to be recording from and all the props we needed to in order to make our film more realistic and more professional, such as our previous powerpoint had entailed. After eating at iHop, Ryan drove us all to the park which was pretty close to the iHop. The weather was perfect, as it was a very nice sunny day which helped us have good quality lighting in our film. As soon as we got to the park we took and establishing shot that will probably be the first scene of the flashback. We however had some trouble when we started acting due to the fact that at first we could not stop laughing and messing around. I being the director of the film had to try and take charge of my group as they goofed off a good amount. 

Furthermore, we finally started to take our work more seriously, and after we had some fun and we recorded most of it. We made a little campfire where we toasted the marshmallows and recorded the scene that we all hang out around the fire and talk, this was done to truly give a sense of camping. We had to retake this scene a couple of times because the fire kept turning off. Luca took care of it and took some branches and poured some more rubbing alcohol that we had just bought. After we were done recording this scene we started recording the kidnapping scene and it came out just as we had planned for it to look. We just needed to record it a few times to make sure that everything and everyone was good and there were no mistakes. An example of this would be, in the first kidnapping shot we took, everything seemed good, but when we rewatched it you could hear some of us talking in the background. We finished basically most of it, we were just missing a scene, but we ran out of time because it got late and too dark outside. This subsequently made the shots look bad so we just decided to call it a day, we will go back to finish it on Friday and we'll make sure to wear the same clothes and have the same things as last time. We had something we had to change from our original plan that we wrote down in the story board and that was the amount of people we had brought to help us record and to be part of our Movie. We originally thought we were going to have a large group coming, but only six ended up coming which actually was better because it was easier to keep under control and it was also easier to stay focused.

Filming Blog: Setbacks With Filming

 As time comes closer and closer to the due date, we seem to be facing adversity as we struggle to find time to film. This weekend it was decided by our group that we were going to film, and I really thought we were. This however was not the case. In the end wee didn't even have the opportunity to meet up at all. Our original plan was to film on Saturday morning and Sunday night. We had everything ready to film, This including: Permission from the cemetery to film there Saturday morning, Ryan's mom's car, and the outfits which we were going to wear. Unfortunately, we ended up not meeting up because of the heavy rain all day and as well the fact that Ryan's mom would not let her drive under the dangerous weather. Saturday morning we all came together and discussed about the situation and tried to come up with a simple solution. On solution we had was to film later throughout the day as it began to stop raining, but we couldn't because the weather just did not change until it was already to late. We had to cancel the plans for Saturday which was very upsetting, and had to tell the other people we asked to come to be a part of our film, to stay home due to the fact that we were not going to be filming anymore. We still had the plan to work on Sunday to shoot the next scene in the film.

Sunday we were supposed to meet around 7-8 p.m. and film the other scene of the movie, where Luca (one of the main leads in the film) gets kidnapped while everyone is camping. This time we had to face some new problems that prevented us from filming again. I was called up by my team to play a game at 6:00, and this interfered with the time schedule for filming. I told my group I would come later but they needed me for basically the whole thing. Another problem which we had to face was, that some of the outside people coming to help us and to be a part of our movie ditched us last minute. We started looking for replacements to help us out with the movie but everyone seemed so caught up in there own personal situations. We only found one person that was available to come and stay for the whole thing. We sadly again came to a  group decision that we weren't going to film on Sunday anymore because it was very difficult making a plan that actually worked and we also started to get annoyed by the fact that some people cancelled last minute. We all came to a pact that since we didn't film two weekends in a row, we will film during this week and meet up during the weekend to edit everything. Hopefully we still get the results we are aiming for.

Filming Blog: Starting The Filming Process

Our group has not started the filming process yet. There are many reasons we have not started this process, although we need to. Every member in our group has a busy schedule. Luca and I both play soccer and have games almost every weekend. Ryan has volleyball three times a week along with tournaments every weekend so this as well makes it difficult to have time to work. We do intend on filming this week. This weekend no one has games besides me. However, I have managed to fit filming into my schedule for this weekend. We are going to film on Sunday of this weekend and meet at Ryan’s house. After everyone gets to my house we will drive to Michaels to get supplies and props for our filming process. We will be getting things like sticks for the camp fire and a bag for when Luca gets kidnapped in the movie. Then, afterwards we will go to Publix to get things for s’mores. Then we will drive to rio vista, which is our location for filming. When we arrive there we will start to get things out of the car. Then we will set up all of our props, which we do not have many, for the graveyard sene. When we finish the filming for the funeral, we will move on to the camp site. On the camp site we have many props, so we will set those up. We need to make sure it doesn’t get to late so we can see the film correctly. If it’s not to dark we will hopefully finish the process of filming. This gives us a lot of time to fix it, and to edit.

Planning Blog- Storyboard

In the last two classes our group has been working on story boarding. Story boarding is one of the most fun things in the filming process. We all worked together and got our ideas down and drew them as good as we could. While we were story boarding, we thought about all the camera angles we were going to use, like for example we will use an aerial shot using my drone. Story boarding helped our group to organize the ideas we had in our minds and improve them while we were drawing them down. This will help us a lot when we will be filming because it will keep us on the right track as we will just be following the things we drew on the story board papers. Lastly I think that working on this part all together made us come together as a group and build more chemistry in between us, which is very important because it will help to keep a professional and a cooperative mood in the group.

Planning Blog- Title Design

 Today is Monday, February 10, 2020, a lot of work went into this power point, because of its importance. This helped us really devote the movie, because it made us think about what the titles will look like. The titles have to give the audience a certain connotation. There are many things to think of while trying to design your titles. One large thing in our film, for the opening sequence is we do not want to make the titles distracting for the auicence. If there is something crucial going on in the scene, and the text is large and bright, and moving, then the audience will be distracted. This is why the opening sequence will look modern, yet sill visible. On the other-hand, the title of the movie will be eye catching. We want this part of this film to be important and to help the viewers understand what they are going watch.This way they will be intrigued with, bright, mysterious colors, and big, dramatic fonts.  

Planning Blog- Location, Participants, Health, Schedule

Today is Monday, February 10, 2020, and we have been working on all the components which will be of great importance following the filming of our two-minute movie production. Now the importance of these specific components such as location, participants, health, and schedule is that it helps in giving the filming team an idea of what will be occurring, and who will be involved. As well will map out everything which is done, so that we know what to do and not to do, so that it stays in check with the rules of the health and safety conduct. This will ensure a smooth and simple process. Without this planning many ideas would be scattered and uninformed, causing confusion between the group, which is not needed as it is key to keep the chemistry well within a group. In brief, our schedule seems to be very manageable and easy to go with as we discussed times that all of us would be free, as we are very busy with extracurricular activities such as soccer and volleyball. With no doubt I believe we will be concluding with a very unique and creative video which will be shown as we digently work with the schedule we have produced.

Planning Blog: Sound Script

Today is February 6, 2020, and my partners and I have been working diligently on the sound script for our movie. Sound plays a key role when it comes to a drama genre movie. Me and my partner made sure to have in this movie as many different types of sounds as possible because a movie like ours that involves drama needs to have good sound effects and sounds in general like music for example. Depending on what type of sound you choose and in what scene they come can change a viewers entire perspective in a movie. This movie will have both Diegetic Sounds, Non-Diegetic sounds, dialogues and as well background music to accompany the ambiance of the setting. Our group will be very careful when selecting sounds and music because most of the time they will get copyrighted and this will cause altercations. I realized that writing a sound script is really fun and easy. It allows you to create ideas and implement them in your movie. I have also learned that you can not write a sound script before you write your shooting script as you need to know whats going to happen before you know what sound to add. Me and my partners will be coming together tomorrow and email some music companies to ask their permission for the use of their  sounds and music. Hopefully we will be getting a good response and be able to add the songs we want in the background of our 2 minute film.

Planning Blog: Shooting Script

Our group I believe came together for this blog. We all had an important role to play while creating it. We also all helped each other by facetiming one another for help. This task is very important to the filming process. The reason this is is important is it basalt maps out everything we will do while filming. It one, makes it easier for the actors in the film to know where to go and also what props to being. It benefits the director as well, because he then knows exactly when types of camera angles to do, as well as camera movements. Also the director knows at what time he needs to shoot certin senes. This makes everything for the group easier, so the filming process can go as smooth as possible. We will be sure to reference this powerpoint while in the stage of filming.