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.