Filming Blog: Alley Scenes!

        Today was our final day of filming. The previous two days we had been filming all the scenes that needed to be shot at my house, are friend Aaron’s house, and at the park. Now that those are all done my group and I needed to film our final scenes, which were the scenes that involved the alley. After school we went to the house of my group member, Brooke, and got in her car. For the alley scenes we needed it to be late due to the timing of our other scenes. Once it got dark we went over to the alley and started filming. I was acting yet again and started off by getting the knife out of the bag that was in the trunk. This scene was shot a couple of times to make sure we could get the best result. This day of filming didn’t involve me being filmed as much due to the fact that it was essentially the climax of our two minutes. Since the other people in my group had to be filmed I had to be more involved in terms of incorporating our storyboard.
        While we were filming I had remembered that there was a criteria we had to follow for certain shots and angles we needed. Luckily, we had already gotten most of the criteria beforehand. However, we did not have an action match so we had to come up with one. While this was going on my friend Aaron was being filmed so we came up with ways to try and improve his scene. I tried coming up with an action match that I thought was pretty good. My group member, Brooke, improved on the idea and we got our favorite shot from the whole movie. The shot of Aaron banging the wall which immediately leads to me stabbing him. I got incredibly excited when this scene was perfected. After this, my group members shot the scenes that they were needed in and I took a little break. We then filmed the final things we need which involved me tripping and banging the road. This took way longer than needed but after that we wrapped up and are officially done filming.

Filming Blog: Park Scenes!

       Today was our second filming day.  Once school ended we went over to my group member Brooke’ house. We got in her car and headed over to our first filming location of the day. My group and I went to the park near our house. I made sure that all our props were present. They were all in the bag that we had placed in the car trunk from yesterday’s filming. After making sure we had all we needed we waited a while and shot some extra house scenes because we had to make sure the time of day aligned with the scenes we shot yesterday. We then went over to the park. Since I’m the main actor I was once again in all the scenes. I made sure that we for the most part stuck to our storyboard.
       The first couple of shots involved me getting out of the car and walking over to th the bench. I made sure my group member shot this multiple times and in different ways to make sure we had a variety of options to choose from during editing. These scenes were easy for me to film. After that I had to film something with my group member Madeline. This involved her giving me and envelope with a photo of who i’m going to kill. Those were essentially all we needed at the park. Since we had time to spare we decided to go film the scenes that involved our friend Aaron’s house. These scenes involved me stalking him and we’re finish pretty quickly. All I had to do for this was send him some text messages so it was simple acting for me. It was getting dark so we’ll hopefully finish the last part of filming tomorrow.

Filming Blog: House Scenes!

        Today was our first official filming day. We weren’t able to film earlier due to numerous delays. After school ended my group and I took a ride to my house and filmed our house scenes. Once i got home I changed intro my clothes for our movie. I’m the main actor for our movie so I’m in a majority of scenes. We had decided early on that I should wear a black hoodie seeing that I’d be “murdering” someone, so i changed into that attire. After that we started filming and I had to start acting. We started following the scenes involving the house and the surrounding areas in chronological order. Our first scene invoked me getting the murder weapons and putting them in my bag. This was shot multiple times so that we can pick the best one out during a later time.
        The thing about filming is that my friends distract me fairly easily. While I was being filmed, I made sure my group member Madeline and my friends Aaron were in another room so that I could be focused. After filming that scene involving the bed we moved onto filming me going to the car. There were multiple takes of me going to the car but I believe we got a good one somewhere in there. After that we decided that we should incorporate a trunk shot. I thought this was a really cold idea and it was executed really well. We made sure this scene was done multiple times because this is what I thought was the most important shot of the day. Luckily the lighting was good seeing that filming took place around the afternoon. The house scenes are all we did for today but we plan on filming our other scenes during the next few days. I’m glad we got a good portion of work done and can’t wait to film more soon!

Filming Blog: Delays, Delays, Delays

        Unfortunately, my group and I weren’t able to film this past weekend. We had planned to film on Sunday and everything seemed to be working out in our favor until a problem came up. Our group member Madeline ran into some issues and couldn’t come due to those issues. This made it so that our filming schedule got pushed back. She had most of our props which is why my other group member and I couldn’t really film without Madeline. The beginning portion of our film involved most of the props such as a duffle bag, rope, a fake knife, which is all needed for most of the film. Madeline is also supposed to be in some scenes for the film, so her not being able to show up would’ve affected that. However, the weekend wasn’t a total failure.
         My other group member, Brooke, decided that me and her should still meet up. This was so we could have a general idea of how our film would look like when we’re finally about to record it.  I decided that it would be best to meet at my house since that is one of the locations we’ll be filming at. Since we couldn’t really record any scenes that could be used for the project we decided it would be best to still act them out. This will be useful for when I actually have to act once we film. Since none of our props were available we decided to just use some random items. I acted out our opening scene of the murderer going into the closet to get his supplies and then emptying it out. My group member filmed it so that we could watch over it. We did this a couple of times just so we’re well prepared for filming. Filming will take place throughout the rest of this week. I’m prepared to act to the best of my abilities once we film. Hopefully, this will all go as planned from here on out.

Filming Blog: The Part Where We Don’t Film

        My group and I were not able to film this past weekend. Everyone in the group lives at least 10 minutes from each other so we just weren’t prepared to film yet. We also needed one of our friend who is our second actor to be present but he couldn’t film either. The ways our schedules all lined up just wouldn’t allow us to really do that much so we decided to wait until next weekend. Since I knew my group wouldn’t be filming I decided to do some other stuff that could relate to the project. For a certain portion of time I decided to go on Netflix and watch more films relating to our genre. I wanted to do a little more research on the Thriller genre and it was an excuse to watch movies. I watched about 3 movies on Netflix and maintained some notes in my mind about certain shots and angles used. I also payed attention to the opening title sequences for some background knowledge for our title sequences. That was essentially all I did this previous weekend since we couldn’t film.
       We plan on filming for the first time for  this project on February 23 which is a Sunday. This world best for us seeing that one of my group members has a job so she won’t be able to film on Friday or Saturday. Sunday is the next possible day that we are all available so we plan on taking full advantage of it. We’ll be filming at my house and around my neighborhood. I’m the main actor and i have a a basic idea of how I’ll be portraying myself in this small two minute opening. Sunday is also ideal for filming because we need time for editing. For our previous projects I’ve been the primary editor, so having a whole week to edit before we have to peer review will be very useful. Obviously, if we have to film on any other days then we will and I’m sure we’ll figure out any possible hurdles. I looked to make sure weather wouldn’t be an issue on that day and it doesn’t seem like it will be and I’m prepared to properly use my neighborhood during this filming process. If we really try our hardest then I believe we’ll get this done.

Planning Blog: Storyboard

This is the storyboard we’ve done for our final project. In the storyboard is a detailed imagination of how each scene is going to be made and what will be happening in it. Drawings are involved to show what going on and writing is present as well. The writing involved what the drawing is showing and the type of camera shot or angle is involved. Also present in the storyboard is which scenes will have each of our titles. It’s good to plan this out ahead so we have a little guidance when it comes to editing. This storyboard is essentially our guide for filming our final video. The detail of the drawings and the writing telling us what shots to use will make the filming process way easier for us. Without the storyboard we would be pretty lost during the filming and editing stages. This gives us a well thought out plan that we can follow.

Planning Blog: Titles

Now that my group and I finished our planning and schedule, we are ready to start on our titles. To do this, we are mainly focusing on how we are going to design the titles. We discussed the font tone that we will be using, and we decided that we will be using only one font. In addition to this, we also chose what color and size our titles will be. As well as the purpose as to why it is important for the titles to be readable for the audience. We also agreed on the spacing and decided that the leading spacing we will use is going to be 1.5. My group and I came up with a working title for our opening sequence as well. However, we are not completely sure that we will use the one we chose, and we might change it later. We talked about how our titles will enter and leave the screen as well to make it go along with the film. Lastly, we figured out how long each title will be on the screen before it disappears.

Planning Blog: Health, Location, Schedule, and Participants

In our powerpoint, we talk about our schedule, location, actors, and health/safety. The second slide is where we will be filming. We decided to film at our group mates house and near a park. The third slide is our participants. We got a few of our friends to be in the film and help around.  The fourth is our health and safety slide. We will have a parent supervising and fake weapons will be used. Our fifth slide is our schedule, which is when we are filming and editing. February 15th will be the very first day we will start the filming process. Filming will probably go from February 15th to the 23rd, everything after filming will be editing and 'final touches'.

Planning Blog: Sound Script

Below is our Google Slide which contains our sound script. All the sounds we plan on using are described here. The sounds are the only thing discussed while everything else is discussed in our shooting script. This script allows us to think of the sounds that we’ll need for our movie. The sole focus on the sound allows us to fully understand and incorporate them. Our diegetic and non-diegetic sounds should be though of before we film so that’s why we’re coming up with them here. The sound enhances the scenes and incorporating them helps form the scenes together. This plan if the sounds we plan on incorporating helps keep us on track and we don’t plan on diving off of it that much. We don’t plan on incorporating dialogue but rather using the background noises to enhance the experience. Everything is in chronological order to align with our shooting script.

Planning Blog: Shooting Script

The Google Slide below contains my group and I’s shooting script. A basic rundown of events are explained throughout. It’ll cover the events going on and the order that they’ll be happening. All the events are chronological places in each slide from top to bottom. We also include the lighting in some of the scenes. Pretty much everything but the sounds are discussed, but we will talk about them in our Sound script. Everything that’ll occur in the first two minutes of our final exam is gone over in here. The beginning is showing the preparation of our main character gathering his supplies which will end up leading to the eventual murder of the victim. We still have to work on character names which we’ll incorporate once we can figure them out. These are the essential basics of how we want the scenes to go but we won’t go that off from the original material.