More filming and editing

 Guys our film is finally starting to come together. Today I focused on two things, the filming and editing aspect of our movie. My family helped me film more of the interrogation scenes for about a hour or two. I didn't want to start filming the end just yet. I used iMovie to edit again. It was kind of hard to figure out but eventually I got the hang of it. I dumped all of the footage. It took a while because we had many takes for each scene. After I did this I had to narrow it down. I watched all the takes and only kept the ones that I thought looked the best. The transitions from each scene to the next was like a swipe kind of motion. This somewhat bothered me. I wanted to try and fix it but for today I just left it alone. I also wanted to add in music but Jasmine and I didn't find any free music yet. So over these next few days that is on my list of things to get done. While editing I noticed that the dialogue was heard but it could've been higher. Luckily iMovie has a feature where you can increase the sound of a take. I ended up having to do this for most of the takes that included dialogue. I sent some of the edited footage to my friends to get their opinions. So far they seem to think everything looks good which is great!

Re-filming the beginning of the movie

 Hey guys I had another successful day of filming. This time I re-filmed the beginning of the movie and also started to film the middle. My dad was actually excited to film today because he barely had any lines. So before I started to film I had my younger sister make fake blood. She used corn syrup and red food coloring. It took her a total of 20 minutes. I found some of my dressy clothes that I didn't mind messing up and put them on. Then I smeared the fake blood all over my parents bathtub. I used a paintbrush and my hands for this. I also put some of the blood on my clothes. After doing all of this I got in the tub and laid down in a position that i made it look as if I was murdered. My sister started filming my bod from top to bottom. At first she did a close up and then switched to an establishing shot. My dad, who plays the victim was standing over me holding a large knife covered in blood. Eventually we finished shooting this scene and started to film the flashback scenes from earlier that week. I also played the role of Briana, Stephanie's (the victim) bestfriend. My mom played the detective interrogating me. While filming I noticed how bright my kitchen lighting was so I realized I had to darken the lighting while editing. My sister played the role of a random person in Stephanie's life. My dad played the role of a man that was just released on probation. My mom interrogated us all. We had to record many takes because there were several mess ups. Overall, today was a productive day!

Change of plans

 Hey guys I have a new update for you. So as you can see by the title of this blog there has been a change of plans. As you know I've been filming this week. Well today I decided to start editing the footage that I've recorded to get an idea of what it would look like. All of the footage rounded up to 2 minutes total. This was only the beginning of the movie, we didn't even get to the middle yet. Once I realized how long the beginning was I decided that something had to be changed. After texting Jasmine we decided to cut the beginning. Now we will start the movie off straight from the murder scene. After that scene then the flashbacks will occur. I think this would be the best thing for our film. I didn't delete the footage that we already have because I wanted to keep it as a backup. Also, I realized there was an error in our storyline. Since the name of our movie is "Who did it?" I realized that the audience isn't supposed to figure out who did it. But in our storyboard we made it to where the killer would be revealed. To fix this issue I decided to do a black screen with a voice over of the killer on the phone with a voice disguiser. This way the killers real face or voice won't be seen. Hopefully, jasmine and I can figure out a way to properly edit that part and make it look good in our film. Today I was going to film but I decided not to. Tomorrow I will get back to filming and hopefully I'll have everything filmed by the end of this week.

Another day of filming

Hey guys today I continued filming some more. Today I had help from both of my parents. I had my dad dress in all black and a hat. He was supposed to be portrayed as a robber. For this part I had to use a long shot. Since this scene was mainly focused on him I was able to record these takes. It only took us a couple of takes. While my dad was walking around the house looking for me (Stephanie) I used a high angle. I bet you're wondering how. Well I stood on the top of my stairs and stretched my arms as far as possible. This made it look like a high angle which was the goal I was aiming for. My dad forgot some of his lines so we had to film many takes until he got it right. After we did that I switched back into my clothes and started filming the next scene. In this scene I was in my room listening to music while packing my luggage. For this scene there was no dialogue which made it easier to film. I used a long shot and a mid shot for this scene because I wanted the luggage to be shown but not at all times. My mom assisted during this scene as well. I had her call our house phone. She did this so that it would ring and I would pick it up. This is where the suspense started to build up. After picking up the phone several times I heard nothing, this happened a few times before the climax was set into motion. When I grab a knife I make sure to get a close up of this to add emphasis. Eventually the action scene takes place. I used a zoom shot and a tracking shot for this. When I saw my killers face that's when the zoom shot was used. After this the camera was extremely shaky. Due to the tracking shot. I had to run downstairs and my sister was filming so she did also. When running I also used a hand held shot. I did this to show my face while running. After this another action scene will occur between my dad and I. In the end he will kill me and flee the scene.

Second day of filming

 Hey guys I’m back again with another update. I’m slowly making progress with the film. Today I filmed the 2 scenes. The scenes that I filmed were the scenes where I was entering my home and began to walk upstairs. Last time I filmed I left off filming right at my front door. I used a close up shot for this to show my hand movements as I opened the door. I forgot to mention that I have new filming equipment. Today was Christmas and I got a new ring light. I also got a small tripod. I used the tripod for many close up scenes or scenes with me walking. Anyways, back to what I was saying. Today I had to film many scenes using a tracking shot. This was because I kept walking in many scenes today. For example, when I was walking in my hallway and the stairs I had to use a tracking shot to track my movements. When we finally began to film me entering my room that's where it started to get difficult. The angles were kind of hard to get but we made it work. I had my sister stand in a far corner in my room to record me entering. It looked as if we filmed this part using a wide shot. When I opened my closet I used an over the shoulder angle which switched to a trunk shot. I wanted the audience to see two different perspectives and I have a good feeling we achieved this. I've decided to film certain scenes on my younger sisters ipad pro. I made this decision because it carries more storage than my phone and it also had a great camera. For scenes that require hand held shots then of course I'll use my phone. I can't believe I spent Christmas afternoon filming, however it was a very productive day.

First Day Back Filming

 Hey guys we're finally on winter break which means that my partner and I are back to filming. We decided to split the filming and editing process. I will be filming the entire movie from my home and Jasmine will be editing everything. Of course, I will be assisting with the editing and giving my input. So today I pulled up my storyboard. After reviewing it I decided that I will be filming the first scene. In this scene I will be getting into a car and driving while having a conversation. I don't have my licenses yet, however I do have my permit. While I was driving today I had an adult over the age of 21 in the car with me. Since my character was a lawyer I decided to put on a business casual outfit. I also had my younger sister record everything. I used a tracking shot when I was walking into the car. I had to record several takes for this part because I had to make sure not to get my house in the background. The goal was to make it seem like I was just getting off of work. In the car I used a wide shot so that the entire background could be seen. I drove around my neighborhood rather than the main roads because I'm not a really experienced driver. During this time I was talking to myself. I did this to make it seem like I was having a conversation with Briana, Stephanie's (me) bestfriend. After recording several takes and driving around my neighborhood for a good 5 times I finally pulled into my driveway. For this scene I used an establishing shot from the front and back. I did this because I didn't want the licenses plate in the movie. This was basically everything that I filmed today. Below is a picture of the outfit I wore.

Re-editing

 Hey guys today was another day of us not filming. However, we did manage to get some things done. Before Jasmine and I decided to put a hold on our filming schedule we had already filmed some scenes. We had also started to edit. Even though we started to edit we didn't get as far as we wanted to. So today I had some free time on my hands and decided to review the footage. After I looked over the footage we had I decided to start re editing what was already edited. I normally use iMovie to edit. iMovie is a great editing software on apple devices. However I also wanted to use other editing software as well. So I did some research of my own. I ended up finding an app called "Videoleap Video Editor". It's basically a free video editing app. On this app I'm able to combine different video clips together and add thing such as special effects. I think this is really going to help us when editing. I never planned on using any special effects but now I might want to add some in. I started combining the footage and it looked great. However, I wasn't able to figure out how to insert music with this app. I might have to use iMovie for that. Although, we didn't get any filming done today we still managed to have a somewhat productive day. I can't wait to see the final product of our film!

Another day of not filming

 Hey guys so by the title of this blog you already know what's happening. Unfortunately my partner and I didn't film today. After discussing our options we came to a decision. My partner and I decided to continue filming the rest of our movie over winter break. Winter break is two weeks for us. That should give us more than enough time to film an edit our movie. We decided to do this because we think that it'll give us more time. This way we won't have to rush to film and edit like we are doing now. This is definitely something that causes a lot of complications when filming. This virus has changed the way that I have to do everything. For example, I can't film a movie like I did last year. Last year I was able to use a camera provided by the school as well as a tripod. Now I have to use my own devices. Furthermore, my partner and I reviewed our storyboard. Originally we thought everything fit perfectly. After we reviewed it we decided to change some of our scenes. For example, we chose to tweak our murder scene because we felt like it was too predictable. We want to keep our audience guessing. And we also want to keep the suspense throughout the entire movie. We also changed our interrogation scene. All we really did was switch up the conversation between the characters. Overall I think that we really had a productive day even though we weren't able to film.

Starting the editing process

 Hey guys, we already started filming. We just had to adjust the way we filmed as previously mentioned. Anyways we have started to start editing as well as searching for music. For example, we have been editing and finding music for our film. You're probably wondering how we started editing already if we don't have all of our final footage. Well to answer that question, we started to edit the title page and edit the footage of the scenes that we have already filmed. We've also started to work on adding words in between flashback scenes of our movie. We decided to do this so the viewers won't be confused when time goes back during the film. For example, during a flashback scene we plan to put words such as "earlier this week". Things like that will alert the audience that this particular event occurred before the present scene taking place. While doing this we realized our film needed background music. We wanted music during the suspicious scenes. Another thing that we wanted was music during the ending of the movie. Obviously we would have to get permission from any artist that we choose to use music from. We have to do that unless we're able to find free music that fits our film. We're currently looking for music that have the audience anxious and on edge. I think if we do this it would make our film 10 times better. Our main goal for this movie is to give our viewers a feeling of suspense and excitement mixed together. While the plot is slowly building towards the climax of our movie we want the audience to literally be on the edge of their seats. Hopefully we'll have music picked out by the time we start to put all of our footage together and edit it. 

Starting to film

 Guys guess what!!! We finally started our filming journey. The wait is officially over. I am beyond excited guys. As you all know we are currently still in the middle of an ongoing pandemic. Due to this we had to adjust how we film our movie. Jasmine and I both started to film. However, we filmed at two separate locations. She filmed one scene at her house while I filmed another scene at my house. I decided to film the murder scene. So basically this scene was the climax of our movie. I started filming upstairs in my bedroom. I had my younger sister assist me with holding the camera at certain angles. During this scene there were many different camera angles. I mainly used a high angle and a low angle though. In this scene I played the role of Stephanie, the victim. I kept stumbling over my words when filming so there were many takes. I also used my ring light as a stand to hold my phone. It was also used for better lighting as well. After filming upstairs I went into my parents bathroom. My younger sister created some fake blood for me. I was supposed to pour it into and around the bathtub to stage the crime scene. But I was unable to do this because I had to go somewhere. As of right now that's where I stopped filming guys. Everything went great! I'll be back with another update later.

How we didn’t film

 Hey guys I can’t believe we’re in December already. We just came back from a week long Thanksgiving break. Although we wanted to film over the break unfortunately we couldn’t. We both had busy schedules. Also I had friends and family stay with me during the break. Even though we weren’t able to film we did get some things done a couple of days before the break started. For example, we finally launched the website for our film “Who did it?”. Our website has several things on it. It has information on the movie. It also has social media links to our film. We did this to give our fans the option to keep up with the making of our movie by following our social media accounts. Moreover, we plan to film during winter break because that would work best for the both of us. We have midterms coming up. Because of this we decided to prioritize studying for our exams first and then filming. We also plan to edit over the break as well. I think our biggest issue is figuring out how to film. COVID cases have recently been rising again. Due to this are parents want us to social distance as much as possible. Hopefully we’ll be able to meet up and film while following the social distancing rules. If not then we know how to accommodate. We will just film different scene separately. Afterwards we’ll just edit everything over the phone. Hopefully we’ll have a better update next time. 

Creating website

 Hey guys we finally started opening our social media accounts. We also created our website. In order to create our website we used wix.com. It's basically a website that allows you to create and personalize your own website. We had to create social media accounts to link to our websites. We now have a Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube account for our movie. Oh by the way we decided to title our movie "Who did it?". On the website we were required to put different information about the film. For example, its release date. When you first open our website you will see the movie title. Below that the directors names are stated as well as the movies release date. The release date is set to be on 1/11/2021. That's approximately 2 months from now guys. We're so ready to start filming! Furthermore, you will see what our movie is about and also some critic remarks. Some of the remarks say things such as "the movie held my attention the whole time". On our website you'll also be able to find links that lead to all of our social media accounts. We will use these accounts to keep people updated on the movie until it is released. We decided to have our film premier at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival. On our website we needed to include pictures of the cast and crew. We used our school ID photos for this. This is basically most of the things that we incorporated into our website when creating it.

Storyboard for short film

 Hey guys, we finally started to draw our storyboard. I can definitely say it's been fun but the drawing has been kind of difficult. We drew our storyboard according to the order of events in our script. The first three boxes show Stephanie making her way home from work. In the first scene she is in the car speaking to her friend Briana. Once we make it to the second box it shows Stephanie making it home and walking into her home. The following boxes show Stephanie walking into her home and heading upstairs. In the fourth box on the storyboard that's when Stephanie starts to hear the phone ring. Throughout the next few boxes Stephanie will be very cautious and paranoid because of the suspicious phone calls. In box 5 Stephanie answers the phone and holds a short conversation that will leave her in a state of confusion. In box 6 Stephanie grabs a knife. Even though she does this she is completely unaware of the killer being inside of her bathroom. In the next box the phone will ring again and Stephanie answers it. Except this time the killer is standing right behind her. The next few boxes are the action scenes. After realizing that someone is trying to kill her Stephanie fights back. As seen in the boxes she kicks the killer down the stairs and goes to hide. Even though Stephanie is hidden the killer finds her and murders her. In the boxes after that scene you will see the killer calling Briana to notify her that Stephanie is dead. After this scene the next scene shows Briana comin to Stephanie's home trying to make it seem like all of this is news to her. In the next boxes the police arrive and conversate with Briana. After this the flash backs from earlier that week will begin to happen.

Planning for short film

 Hey guys we're so close to getting ready to film. But before we an do that we have to plan. We decided to start planning by coming up with a filming and editing schedule. Due to the current circumstances that we're under because of covid 19 our filming process is going to be slightly different. We will both be filming different scenes from our own homes every other day of the week (Mon, Wed, Fri). We haven't decided who will get what scenes yet but we will figure that out sometime soon. After we gather all of the footage from those three days we will work together to put the footage together and edit it. There will be two filming locations throughout the whole movie, my house and Jasmines house. During the movie different parts of the homes will be used for different things. For example, my bathroom will be used as to portray the crime scene. There will be several participants. We will be in the film as well as our family members and some friends that we've reached out to. In our film a knife will be used as a weapon which will fall into the health and safety category. The knife will be real but there will be adult supervision the whole time. Some props that we plan on using are knives, guns, and a face mask. These props will most likely only be used during the beginning of the movie when Stephanie (the victim) is murdered. There will multiple costumes featured in the movie. One will be a police uniform. Another costume will be the killers outfit. The killer will be dressed in all black with a scary mask as a disguise. Other costumes that will be featured will be casual clothing that the suspects will be wearing. We're so ready to start filming!!!

Research 9, the short

 Hey guys I'm back blogging again. This time my class was assigned to watch the short film titled "9". It was a film created by Shane Acker and it was released in September of 2009. Honestly I wasn't too impressed with the film. I say this because I was sort of expecting more. There was no dialogue in the film which automatically made me lose some interest. Although there was no from of dialogue I still was able to understand what was happening. I was able to understand what was happening through the actions of the characters. There was a small action scene. The action scene did spark my attention. It sparked my attention mainly because of the special effects used and the camera angles. The director used plenty of high angles and low angles during the action scene. Other shots such as a zoom shot and an eye line match was used. This film also had diegetic sound. For example, the audience was able to hear 9's footsteps when running away from the machine that was attacking him. There was also some non diegetic sound added. The sound was added when the machine was making noise. There was also character development in 9. After his friend died he learned to be brave and step up to the plate. After he did this he was able to out smart the machine and defeat it.

Research 9, the feature film

 Originally Shane Acker created a short film called 9 that was 7 minutes long. The short film did so well that it got it extended to be a hour and 19 minute long feature film. I watched the feature film last night and I was beyond impressed. The plot of the film was perfect. Basically the story was about the world being destroyed in a war that happened. This war was between humans and machines. I know that sounds impossible but in the movie it happened. 9 was a doll created by a doctor and at first he thought he was alone. After that he was lost for a while until he discovered that there were others like him. After him and the others teamed up they decided to fight back against the machines. Throughout the movie the main character, 9 had a ton of character development. In the beginning of the movie he was extremely shy and fragile. Over time he started to become braver and more independent. The film used several different camera angles. One angle that was used quite frequently was the two shot. I saw this shot during many of the dialogue scenes of the film. For example, when 2 and 9 were talking about what happened to the world that they were in. Some other angles that were used were a long shot, a close up, and also a high and low angle. Visual special effects were also used frequently throughout the feature film. There was a ton of animation in the film also. Overall this film was executed perfectly and I would definitely recommend it to to others. 

Short Film vs. Feature Length Film

 I recently watched the short film 9, by Shane Acker. I also watched the extended feature film 9. Both of these films had many similarities as well as many differences. Both films main similarity was defeating the machines that were trying to kill off 9's kind. One of the major differences I noticed was the plot of both films. In the feature film, 9 and the members of the group come together to fight back against the machines. These machines looked like large robot animals made out of mechanical parts. These machines would hunt 9's kind and kill them by zapping them with a green colored light. However, in the short film 9 was fighting against one machine by himself because that one machine killed off the only other person he knew. Another difference that I pointed out was that in the short there wasn't any dialogue but in the feature film there was dialogue throughout the entire film. Although there was no dialogue in the short film viewers were still able to understand what was going on. This was due to the characters actions and facial expressions. In the feature the film the film started off with the character 9 being created by the doctor. After the doctor created 9 he died shortly after and left 9 by himself with no understanding of what was going on. In the short film it started off with 9 being in the outside world rather than starting off with the way he was made. That part was skipped due to the fact that the short film got straight to the point. In my opinion, I enjoyed the feature film more. I feel this way because the feature film had more action as well as dialogue. The short film didn't keep my attention for long because there was no dialogue which made it harder for me to focus. I also liked the feature film more because of the character development with 9. In the beginning of the movie he was very fragile and scared and throughout the movie he finds his voice and becomes stronger and more brave.

Genre Choice for Film

 My partner and I had three genre options to choose for our short film. The three genres were crime, thriller, and drama. While discussing which one we wanted to pick we decided not to do drama. We didn't want to do drama because it didn't really focus on our pitch. After talking to my partner for some time we were stuck between picking  thriller or crime to be the genre that represents our short film. We both agreed that the genres had many similarities that could be used. After discussing it the genre that we choose to go with was crime. We choose this specific genre because our pitch is mainly about a crime being committed. Due to the fact that the genres are so similar we thought it would be a great idea to go with crime because with the crime genre we'll be able to include the features of a thriller movie on our film. For example, we expect our film to give off a suspenseful mood to the audience. We also expect it to keep the veiwers excited and keep their anticipation level extremely high throughout the entire film. While researching we found that a sub genre of the crime genre is a "legal thriller". We were inspired to choose the crime genre out of all three options because we realized that that would be the genre that would best be portrayed in our film. Our pitch was "A lady supposedly goes on vacation and when her house is broken into her body is found floating in the pool". At the time we thought the pool would be the best place for the lady to be found. Now we realized we most likely will have to change that part of our pitch. Neither of us have access to a pool right now. Since we don't have access to a pool we decided to say that the womans lifeless body will be found in a bathtub. This is not a big tweak so it shouldn't affect our pitch too much. If we are able to gain access to a pool when it comes time to film we'll make sure to keep a note of that. 

Genre Research (Thriller, Crime, Drama)

 A genre were going to explore is the crime or criminal genre. Common CAMS in the criminal genre include high and low angled shots, close-ups, extreme close ups, dolly zooms, dolly movement, and handheld shots. Common sounds in criminal thriller genre include soundtracks, diegetic sounds, non-diegetic sounds, ambient sounds, sound bridges, dialogue, and incidental music. Common Mis en scene in this genre include, lighting, actors, make-up, props, and settings (in mysterious places).  Common editing technical used in this genre consist of dissolve transitions, montages, fade outs/ins, cut aways, and jump cuts. Example Films include the movies “Rope”, “Dial M for murder”, and “The silence of the lambs”. Elements of the genre I like is the suspense thats comes from the conflict, the foreshadowing, and when the crimes are solved.

Elements of the genre that do not appeal to me are the fact that you can sometimes tell how the story will

end. I like to be surprised, and these type of films aren’t really suspenseful.
The second genre we’re going to explore is the thriller genre. A thriller is a suspense film the evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. Lightings used in thriller movies are key lighting, under lighting, and filler light. Common camera angles and shots in thrillers are high angle shots, low angle shots, canted angles, wide shots, and panning shots. Characteristics of common sounds found in the thriller genre, is dark and eerie sounds. The music starts in a slow pace at first whilst gradually speeding up the pace helping to create the tension and build climax.  Common Mis En Scene in thriller, weapons art the common props in fight scenes, which are commonly used to create tension. The thriller genre uses the elements of story(action), plot, character and setting. The story in thrillers uses tension and excitement to stimulate the viewers moods. Examples of this genre consist of Get Out, Taken, Seven, and Unknown. Thriller films are enjoyed because it keeps the audience at the end of their seats and build suspense and tension, it entertains the audience and engages them through the film.
Finally the last genre we're going to research is the drama genre. Common camera angles, and shots in this genre are long shots, close-ups, two-shots, and over-the shoulder shots. Continually, common camera movements include tilts, zooms, and dolly's. Characteristics of common sounds found in this genre are dialogue, sound effects, diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. Common Mis En Scene in the drama genre include, costumes, lighting, actors of course, make-up and props. Common editing skills used in this genre, to elaborate its stories are jump cuts, split screens, cut aways, and fade outs. Examples of drama films include, “The Godfather”, “Boogie Nights”, and “12 Angry Men”. Elements from this genre I find appealing are the serious presentations the movies are presented in. An element that does not appeal to me is the fact that throughout the film we have to worry about the main characters mental state. It’s not something I personally find interesting.

Genres I Would Like to Research

 Today we’ve chosen 3 genres we want to research. We chose these three by picking ones that are similar with our pitch. We wanted to place our film in a category that made sense. We chose the genres drama, crime, and thriller. We picked the drama genre because it involves a conflict between the characters. In this case this genre would relate to our pitch because the conflict would be between the people who are being suspected of murdering the woman. In our pitch a crime is committed and, it’s going to be solved. The crime genre has multiple sub genres. But most of the films and stories in this drama are about crime investigations. They generally don’t feature or show stuff that happens in the courtroom. The key elements  of this genre include suspense and mystery. This genre relates to our pitch, because it includes a criminal investigation. In order for us to figure out who killed the woman in our pitch a criminal investigation will have to take place. Suspense is also included, as we try to figure out who the killer is. Finally, the  thriller genre. This genre is mainly characterized by the mood it gives off. Known for the suspense it creates, excitement, surprise and anticipation. This goes with our pitch because my part and I would also like to create some sort of tension while telling the story. We don’t want viewers bored while the crime is being figure out, or when we found out the ladies dead . We want that little spin of suspense, And anticipation.

I think picking one genre to put our film under is going to be quite a challenge.

We have our pitch?

 

A lady supposedly goes on vacation and when her house is broken into her body is found floating in her pool.

Partnering Up

 Hey guys I'm back at it again. So today's blog is basically going to be about who I decided to work with. My teachers gave us the option to work by ourselves or work with a partner or group of people. Normally I would've automatically joined a group. However, due to covid 19 that wasn't the case. At first I was considering working by myself for obvious safety reasons. Then my teachers put out a list for all A level students to see to choose if they would like to work with anyone on the list. I was still leaning more towards working by myself until I saw someone's name that I knew. I saw the name Jasmine and I remembered I had a class with her freshman year and we worked together before. She was a good partner to work with so I decided to text her. After communicating with her the two of us decided we would work together. Instead of doing a group of 4 we decided to just stick to two people. With two people in a group we'll still be able to split the work. For example, since were at home one person will film at their house with their family members or friends as our film actors and the other person would edit and write the blogs. If we the covid 19 cases continue to decline then of course we will try to meet up with each other in person to film. Jasmine and I plan on brain storming ideas of what we want our film to be about this upcoming weekend. So far I've been considering doing a murder mystery or a domestic violence theme. I know I want it to fall in the thriller or horror category for sure. I haven't heard any of Jasmine's ideas yet. When I do hear them I might even have a change of heart. Nothing has been finalized yet but it will be soon. The sooner we choose an idea the sooner we can get started on planning out everything. I'm so excited for this I literally can't wait to get started !

Welcome Back Blog

I guess this is my welcome back to blogging. It's a new school year and I'm now in the A level AICE Media class. I can definitely say it's a big change but I'm ready to take on this new challenge. Last year covid 19 struck the U.S. so schools were permanently closed for the rest of the school year. After the shutting down of schools I had to complete my AICE Media project online. It was a challenge but my group members and I made it work. I ended up passing the class as well as the Cambridge test. My final grade was a B and I scored an E on the exam. I was beyond thankful for that. However, this year I want to do better than I did last year. I expect to have an A in the class every quarter and I expect to score at least a C or higher this time. Today my teacher explained what our final project was. I think this project will teach me many new things. I've never created a website before so I'm extremely excited about that. I've also never used Facebook before so using the app should be an interesting experience for me. I say this because most teens only use Snapchat, Twitter, or Instagram. I'm also excited about filming and editing this year. I haven't figured out whether or not I will be working in a group or not but as of right now I'm planning on working alone. I've had several ideas about what I want my 5 minute film to be on. Although, I have a number of ideas none seem to jump out to me. Hopefully I'll have picked an idea for my film by next week.

Audience and Institution Essay

The area of study that I chose was film. I will be assessing the importance of marketing in the film media area. In my opinion, marketing is an extremely important thing to do for a film to be successful. I feel this way for several reasons. The main reason is because marketing is required in order to attract an audience to come and watch the film. Without appropriate marketing production companies would have no source of income, which would mean that creating the film was a total waste of time.

As previously mentioned, marketing is essential for films in order to attract an audience. With the proper marketing a film will draw in a large crowd which will bring in more revenue for the production company. If a film has bad marketing, it won’t do well because if the audience doesn’t like how the film is being portrayed or how it’s being talked about then they won’t want to spend their money or their time watching the film. For example, the Marvel production company marketed the movie “Blank Panther”, which was directed by Ryan Coogler and produced by Kevin Fiege and David J. Grant, by reaching out to the audiences that lie within African American community. The film made approximately 1.344 billion dollars in box offices after its release. The film was later released on Xfinity on demand, which is a way to watch movies at home. By doing this they also brought in money because people were able to but or rent the film from home. The film was able to gain this much money all because of the way it was marketed.

In addition, the main goal of film marketing is to properly promote the movie. The main way that film companies go about promoting movies is by making short trailers. If the trailer catches the audience’s eye, then they will want to see the movie when it comes out. There are also other ways that film companies endorse their films. Some of these ways include interacting with fans through social media (Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook etc.), making posters, or doing interviews with the actors of the film. Of course, those aren’t all the marketing techniques that are used but those are probably the most frequently used ones. Market campaigns are essential when it comes to drawing in viewers. The campaigns are meant to make the movie seem interesting. For example, in Marvels hit movie “End Game”, which was directed by brothers Anthony and Joe Russo, they created an intriguing trailer which made fans want to watch the movie. The people that were behind the marketing for this film new exactly how to attract a large audience. In the trailer for the movie they included action as well as suspense and mystery which left the viewers in a state of shock and wonder, which is what you want to do. If marketing teams didn’t use any of these techniques, then people probably wouldn’t be interested in seeing the films that they are trying to promote.

Lastly, proper marketing is essential especially when it comes to the release of the film. Market campaigns are essential when it comes to drawing in viewers. The campaigns are meant to make the movie seem interesting. “Bad Boys for Life” recently came out and the marketing campaign for that movie was phenomenal. Posters were made as well as an amazing trailer. The trailer included comedy as well as tons of action. Things like this attracted many viewers which resulted in high numbers in the box office. After being in theaters for about 3 weeks the movie generated approximately 17.7 million dollars. All that money was made in three weeks now just imagine the amount of money that they gained overall, and this was all due to great marketing strategies. You will never actually know how well a film was marketed until the film is released out into theaters. Studies have shown that box office sales from the first week show how well the film was marketed. If box office sales were low, then that means poor marketing was done for the film and if the box office sales are high then that means the marketing for the film was done perfectly.

In conclusion, without film marketing movies wouldn’t be as popular as they are now nor would they generate as much money as they do right now. It is essential that films are strategically marketed, so that money can be made from the films being made. The whole point of marketing is to get people interested in the film which is why it is so important in the media area called “film”.

Question 1: Assess the importance of marketing in the media area you have studied. 

Final Project CCR

Due to the corona virus we had to become creative. We had to make our Creative critical reflection "CCR" from home due to the pandemic. Our original plan was to schedule a day where we would all meet at Laurens house. Once we got to Laurens home Lauren was going to have her friend ask the questions as if we were in an interview. The President of the United States has set a mandatory quarantine for all 50 states. Due to the quarantine everyone has been social distancing. Schools are closed as well as restaurants and malls. We had to get extremely creative when doing our CCR. we decided that each of us will get a question. However, Anishkaneel and I had two parts to answer for the questions that we chose. After we all picked out the questions we wanted to do we had to record a video of us answering then questions. Of course this took us some time because we had to formulate our answers and word them correctly. her friend also had to send in a video of her asking us the questions. After filming our videos we sent them in our groupchat on iMessage. Lauren took all of the recordings and began to edit them, Lauren has to edit because she is the only one of us that access to iMovie. Throughout this project Lauren probably got the best editing experience, which is what she said in the answer to her question. This pandemic has caused us to shift the way we get our work done. Everything is now being done using the internet. Hopefully a cure is made soon. This has definitely been a different experience but a productive one.

Final Project

Our final project was to create the opening sequence to a film. It had to be between one minute and fifty seconds and two minutes. My group and I reached one minute and fifty five seconds. This project was definitely a challenge. I feel that this project was more of a challenge due to the fact that we were all so busy and it was harder to film on the weekends. In class our storyboard was created. Although we had made our storyboard in class we had to change some scenes while filming. For example, we added in a garage scene. In our original storyboard that wasn't in there so we had to change it. We also used props. The props that we used were a knife and a flower bouquet. Editing this film was definitely harder than editing the other films. Mainly because we had to add in titles and get our film peer edited. After receiving feedback from another group we realized that we had a lot to work on. Finishing the re shooting of our video was challenging to the corona virus. The United states has been put on a mandatory quarantine so it was hard for us to leave the house and meet up. Fortunately, we were able to meet at Laurens house one day and film the final footage or the film. After filming Lauren edited our movie and we assisted her over the phone. This pandemic has really effected the way we work but we are still getting it done even with all of the issues that have been arising. I think that we have come a long way with out filming skills and people will be impressed by our movie.

Music Video

The second project that my class was assigned was a music video. Our task was to create a music video that could be up to one minute and 20 seconds. My groups video ended up being one minute and sixteen seconds which was a good time. With this assignment we were told that we couldn't film on school grounds. This assignment required us to plan a way to meet up with each other outside of school. This was slightly challenging due to the fact that we all have different schedules. Eventually  we picked out a Saturday where we were all available. In class we discussed where and how we were going to film our video. We decided to film it at a local mall but we had to make accomodations due to Lauren injuring her ankle. We decided that we could get a shopping cart and push her around. In class we also created a storyboard so that we would have a plan to follow. Eventually it came time for us to film. We filmed the first scenes at Laurens house. After filming those scenes we went to the mall. We ended up not following our storyboard because we had better ideas after we noticed certain things in the mall. For example, we decided to add in a scene where we did a slow motion shot of us trying on clothes. When it came to editing we decided to use iMovie again. This time we had a ton of footage. Due to all of this footage we had to cut a lot of scenes but our commercial turned out very nice. I'd say that this project was much more productive and I learned way more.

Commercial Video

 My class was assigned a commercial project to do. We had options on what our commercial could be about. Some of these options were: a commercial about our school, Nike products, or food places such as McDonalds or Dunkin Donuts. My group and I chose to do a McDonalds commercial. After reviewing our idea we decided to keep the focus on the happy meal. The McDonalds happy meal is basically a kids meal. We decided to make a commercial based on a mother and her children ordering the happy meal from McDonalds. We used barbie dolls as well as  an actual McDonalds happy meal box for our props. We only had 2 real days to film in school. We had 1 hour before lunch started to film the scenes that were on the senior patio. We were only allowed one hour because we weren't allowed to be at another lunch. We did make a storyboard prior to filming our commercial. We actually did follow every scene in our storyboard. Due to us doing this our filming process went much smoother. The only issue that occurred during this process was when it was time to edit. We had trouble using pinnacle studios due to the school laptops running slow. The due date for our commercial came closer so we decided to use Laurens laptop to edit. We edited our film with iMovie and found that is was much easier to use. After editing we turned our film in by using a flash drive and uploading it to my teachers laptop. This was a very good and beneficial learning experience.

Editing Blog: The re edit

Today we re filmed some of the scenes in our movie. Before we filmed we did some re editing as well but not as much as we hoped for. We decided that we would change the filters for the flashback scenes. For example, when a flashback happens the filter will fade into an old time type of filter. We decided to do this in order to let the audience know that it’s a flashback. Another thing that we’re going to input is transitions. We think that the transitions will help with the flashbacks and make our film look better. After Lauren dumps all of our new footage into her laptop we will continue to edit at a later time. Unfortunately, the corona virus has put a hold on everything. Everything from sports to tv production. Film studios are putting a hold on many of their upcoming movies and tv shows. Countries outside of the U.S. such as India are even doing this. One of the biggest shut downs that occurred was the showdown of the movie “The Batman”. Due to this virus being so deadly many production companies have been warning their employees to stay home. The entire country is on a mandatory quarantine and a mandatory curfew. Shows that air on the CW, NBC, and Fox have been put on hold. Hopefully there will be a cure to this virus sooner rather than later. The corona virus has also affected our filming schedule. Our parents are getting extremely cautious so it’s hard for some of us to come out of the house in order to film. We’re trying to work around it and pick our days that work for everyone in our film. We will continue to edit our film and perfect it to the best of our ability.

Filming Blog: Reshooting the film

Today my group and I had to take on the task of reshooting some of the scenes in our film. Due to the corona virus school was canceled. Since school was canceled we were unable to check out a camera like we planned on doing. Instead we had to continue to film on Lauren’s iPhone 11. Today we reshot the bridal shop scene first. We had to reshoot this scene because of the sound issue that occurred the first time. The group that peer edited our film said that during this scene it was hard to understand what was being said because our voices were so low. We also added in dialogue between Autumn and the bridesmaids to let the audience know that her and Summer are sisters. Another scene that we did over today was the scene where Autumn (me) was being chased by Summer (Taliyah). This scene had to be filmed again because in the initial video it looked like I sat in the stairs rather than fall. We also had to add in the scene where Summer was chasing me and she tripped. In this scene dialogue was added. We also filmed some scenes that we were unable to film during the first time we were filming. We recorded the scene where Autumn and Summer were about to kill each other with a knife.  The knife was real but we made sure to handle it with care to prevent anyone from getting seriously injured. The last scene that we filmed during our reshoot was the scene where Autumn was being chased by Summed through the hallway. There was a close up of Autumns face and a hand held shot of her as she was running away from Summer. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and we were unable to reshoot some other scenes. We plan on reshooting the final scenes when we meet up again to record our CCR (creative critical reflection). Our film is slowly coming together piece by piece and I can’t wait to see the final product!

Editing Blog: The re-edit

Today my group and I continued to edit our film. We received feedback from the peer review so we took that feedback and input some of it into our film while editing. Originally we didn't add in all of the titles. The first thing we did was add in the rest of the titles. After doing that we then placed them in different scenes. We did this so that they would appear across the screen at different times. Another thing that we did while editing was slowed down certain scenes. For example, we put the title of the movie in the scene where the ocean was scene. I suggested that we slow this scene down for several reasons. One of the main reasons was to give this scene a more dramatic affect, especially since the name of the movie is "Misconstrued". We also added transitions into our film while editing. By transitions I mean that we added things in to make the scene change smoother. Without the transitions the scene changes wouldn't have been as clean. In our peer review nobody told us to add music into our film but that was the main thing that we forgot to add in. I found free music a while ago but we weren't able to add it into the movie in time. So today in class Lauren tried to figure out how to add it in. The song that was chosen was by Farrell Wooten. The name of the song is "THROWBACKS" and it falls into the peaceful category. Even though it falls into this category this music builds up suspense. I think that it's the best song to be played in the background off our movie to add onto the thriller and suspense that we're going for. Even though we plan on reshooting some scenes we still are editing what we currently have.

Reshoot Blog: What we learned from peer review

Todays blog is a blog that is supposed to be about how we completed a reshooting of our film. Unfortunately my group was unable to reshoot this past weekend. We plan on reshooting another weekend preferable when we're all free. Last week my class did a peer review. After my groups film was viewed by another group we received feedback. The groups gave us extremely helpful feedback. For example, they suggested that we use more lighting during the car scene. After I watched our film again I see what they mean. If there was more lighting it would be easier for the audience to see what's on the screen. They also suggested that we add some voice overs. I do agree with that mainly because I think it would help the film have an easier flow. If the hallway scene or the stair scene have a voiceover from both characters it would build up more suspense. Another group said that we needed to work on projecting our voices. I agree because some parts of our film were hard to hear. The last thing that was suggested by the other group was adding an establishing shot into our film and inputting the rest of the titles. Other than those few critiques we also got some good feedback on the things in our film. We were told that our acting skills were good throughout the entire film, especially during the crying scene. We were also told that our story was easy to follow so the audience wasn't confused. We plan on taking these factors into consideration in order to later reshoot our film and make it ten times better. Hopefully, we will have a new version of the movie sometime this week.

Peer Review

Today in class my group members and I peer reviewed another groups film. Lauren wasn't in class today so we had to email her the video in order for her to complete the peer review activity. We received group 3 and their movie was named "Red Dot". On the peer review worksheet we were supposed to identify if they had certain things in their film. For example, some of these things were : an establishing shot, a high angle, or an over the shoulder shot. The film that we reviewed met every requirement except for four things. The four things that they were missing was an establishing shot, a long shot, a shot reverse shot, and an action match. One thing that I really liked about this film was the fact that it had such a unique story. From watching it I figured out that it was about a girl being quarantined and her friend was trying to help her escape. After I figured that out it helped me understand the name of the movie "Red Dot". In the beginning of the film they had a close up of a red dot on someone's am which is where the title came from.Another thing that I liked about the film was the music selection. The music was suspenseful which kept the audience interested in what was going to happen next. This group also had non diegetic sound and diegetic sound which was really good when it came to certain scenes. Although, this group did have a good film I have some suggestions for them. I think that they should add some dialogue in the film. I feel this way because my group and I had to watch it over a couple of times. We did this because we didn't understand what was happening. I feel that if they add dialogue it will help the audience understand what the story that is happening in their film. I think that this activity really helped me understand how others view my groups film.

Filming Blog: How we did film

Today two of my group members (Lauren & Jahrvia) and I filmed the last scenes of our film. We also filmed with my sister Taliyah. Unfortunately, Anishka wasn't able to make it today so we had to film without her. The original plan was for Laurens mom to pick all of us up after school but things changed due to Laurens mom not being able to make it. We all had to catch the school bus home and later meet up at Laurens house. Thankfully, we had already checked out a camera last week so we didn't have to worry about doing that. After we all made it to Laurens home we continued to film where we left off. The first scene that we filmed was the scene where Autumn (me) was running up the stairs trying to get away from Summer (Taliyah). We used our storyboard to make sure that we filmed the scene correctly. According to the storyboard we had to record a tracking shot and a low shot of me running up the stair and tripping. Due to me not being able to fall properly we had to record many takes of this scene until we had the perfect fall. For the low angle Lauren sat on the flor and placed the ring light across her lap. The rest of the room was pitch black which was supposed to add onto the suspense. While Lauren was sitting on the floor she placed the camera in her hands at a low angle in front of the ring light, which is how we filmed the low angle for this scene. In order to make sure that the audience doesn't know which sister killed who we had Taliyah switch into the wedding dress. After she changed into it she ran up the stairs similar to how I did. This was done to confuse the audience on who is being killed. We later filmed the rest of the scenes. These scenes included the over the shoulder shot of me showing off my ring to Summer (Taliyah) while at a restaurant. Now all we have to do is edit our film and add in the titles for our peer review in class.

Filming Blog: How we did film

Today myself as well as two of my group members filmed today. We also brought along two actors, Taliyah and Bobby. Unfortunately, Anishkaneel wasn't able to film today so we had to film without her. Before school ended I checked out a camera and a tripod. After school ended Lauren's mom picked us up and we headed straight to Fort Lauderdale Beach. There was a lot of traffic but fortunately the beach wasn't as packed as it usually is. once we arrived to the beach the first thing we did was look at our storyboard. In our storyboard we said that we would record a shot of myself (good sister), Taliyah (evil sister), and Bobby (husband) having fun at the beach. Before we shot that scene we decided to shoot an establishing shot of the beach. We did this because we might want to add it into our film while editing; so basically its back up footage just in case we decide to change something while editing. After Lauren filmed the establishing shot we started to film the scene where we were all playing around. Jahrvia suggested that we record a hand held tracking shot of the three of us walking alongside the shoreline. In this shot Taliyah (evil sister) will be standing behind us because she envies the relationship. We recorded this scene from multiple angles. Some of the angles were side angles, front angles, and back angles. In this scene we weren't saying anything because music will be playing in the background. Originally the plan was to head back to Lauren's house and film some more scenes but unfortunately something persona came up and we had to end the filming of our movie earlier than we planned. We will finish filming on Saturday morning but we will begin editing our film in class on Friday. Lauren' birthday is also on Saturday so I'm not sure if we will finish filming that morning. If we aren't able to film then we will most likely film on Monday after school and then begin editing our final video.

Filming Blog: How we didn't film

Today my group and I planed on filming some scenes at Lauren's home after school. Unfortunately, we ran into some problems. After I got off the bus I had to go get my learners permit, after getting it I planned on heading over to Lauren's house. My mother told me that something came up, so today we had to push back our filming date to Thursday and Saturday. Another issue that came up was that my sister wasn't able to get a ride to Lauren's house due to the last minute changes. Normally my group could have filmed without us but we are acting throughout the entire movie. Although, Jahrvia, Taliyah (my sister), and I weren't able to make it Lauren and Anishka still filmed some scenes. They didn't have a camera because we didn't check one out in class. Since they didn't have a camera they used their phones to film drafts of certain scenes. For example, for the tracking shot in the hallway scene they propped one of their phones on top of a skateboard. While the phone was on the skateboard someone slowly pushed it to make it look like a tracking shot. They also filmed the scene where I would be scrubbing blood off of a dress in a bath tub. We plan to start filming on Thursday after school. If we aren't able to film the entire movie then we will most likely have it finished by Saturday morning. We aren't sure about which day we will head to the beach. More than likely it will be Saturday morning. If we go Saturday morning then we'll most likely be able to catch the sunlight. As for the other scenes we just need to find props to add into the scenes. Props such as a fake knife and we also need to buy fake blood. We can also make fake blood by using water and adding red dye. Hopefully, I will have something new to tell you guys by Thursday night.

Filming Blog: How we didn't film

Last week my group was supposed to check out a camera but unfortunately we couldn't do that. We were unable to check out a camera due to us not having our storyboards uploaded yet. We ran into a problem after one of our members left the storyboards at school. We had to redraw everything over at the last minute, but even though we had a minor problem we were able to submit our storyboards. After we turned in our storyboards we had the chance to checkout a camera this week. Unfortunately, we decided not to because we came to the conclusion that we couldn't film this week or this weekend. My group members are all apart of the school band. Due to us being in the band our afterschool schedules are always busy. This week we were all busy afterschool because we all had a practice to attend. After we realized that we wouldn't be able to film anything before February 20th we decided to choose another day to film. We will be filming our film on the morning of February 28th. This is the most convenient day for everyone. Sunday wouldn't work because one of our group members is in church all day. Friday couldn't work because of personal things that I had planned with my family, so after discussing we came to the conclusion that Saturday was the best day to film. My group also had to change our initial idea because we discovered that it was an actual movie. Our initial idea was about people committing seven deadly sins and having someone kill them. After we found out about it we chose to go with my idea. My idea was to have a film about an evil twin sister trying to murder her sister with a shocking plot twist in the end. We made sure that this hadn't been done before and it hasn't so that is our final film idea. Hopefully, our filming goes well next weekend.

Planning Blog: 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 Blog: 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.