Thanksgiving Break Update

        Thanksgiving break had now ended and it’s time to talk about the steps my group and I made filming wise. That being that we didn’t film! This wasn’t much of a surprise fo us seeing that we wanted to enjoy this break. This was a time for us to get a breather from school and to spend time with our family. I am so thankful for being able to do this short film but family is something i’m more thankful for. Even if we were willing to film during this break it just wouldn’t have been convenient. I was personally busy most of those days. I was helping my mom with my sister, relaxing with some friends, and preparing for Thanksgiving. Just because filming wasn’t an option doesn’t mean nothing was done to further our journey. The social media campaign was started and we talked about it more. Who would run the social media campaign was decided and we agreed that all of us would be incorporated with it. We don’t want one person to have all the stress of running all four pages. Music choice for the short film was also discussed. It was decided that we would use non-copyrighted music and I personally started looking at some possible choices. Those were two crucial steps that will be involved during our filming and editing process. We plan on filming as soon as this upcoming week. Precautions will be taken seeing that we’re in the midst of a pandemic. We have about a month to do our filming and editing and I believe that’s just enough time to make the product we want to make. Filming will be different this year seeing that we’ll be filming much more and we’ll have to work around time constraints. Some days will be a hassle but everything has led us to this moment.

Music Choice for Short Film

         The closer and closer we get to the filming and editing process means the more we have to start going through these crucial steps. One of those being the music choice for our film. This is going to be put in when we start editing but we should have a general idea of what music we’re going to use in advance. Which is why we’re starting the planning for music right now. When it comes to music we can’t just randomly use copyrighted music. In order to use copyrighted music we must seek permission from the creator. That involves a process of emailing them and their team and seeking approval. That may take weeks so for now we have decided to use free non-copyrighted music. However, if we change our mind we will go through the process of gaining approval for use of copyrighted music. Using non-copyrighted music is a much simpler process and there’s a lot of variety available for use. Last year we used non-copyrighted music for our intro to a film so we’re quite familiar with it. Seeing that our movie is a thriller we plan on using suspenseful music and noises in our film. We’ll search for these on YouTube and come up with what we think is the best choice for the film. Our first priority is figuring out what type of tone we want to set in the beginning of the film. The music choice will be key here seeing that will be the audiences first taste as to what they’re going to experience. The music choice is vital because it can enhance a scene to its full extent. It’ll be used during key scenes such as the climax and at the end. You don’t want to overdue it because it has to flow naturally. The editing process won’t be for a while so we have time but we now have a general idea of what we’ll be doing when it comes to music. I’m quite excited to start picking out the music!

Social Media for Short Film

         Right before Thanksgiving break our group was given the assignment of starting our social media campaign for the short film. I was and am personally very excited to go through this journey. First our teacher talked to us about opening up a website. We would do this by using the website builder known as Wix. The website builder gives us a template that allows our creativity to flourish. I found that great seeing that it truly make us feel like we’re in the process of a professional film. We then went over what we’d need to have apart of our marketing campaign. Our first real step towards this goal was starting up our social media pages. The four social media accounts we were tasked with making were Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Most of these sights we’re familiar with seeing that we’re teenagers and actively use them. This made the process of making the accounts quite smoothly. We as a group decided to make a separate email that would be used for these accounts. That email was made and then it was time to make the social media accounts. The Instagram and Twitter accounts were made quite quickly. The Youtube account was then made. Afterwards those 3 accounts were linked to the website we made for the short film. There were some issues with Facebook when it came to setting up the account. We figured it out and made a business page under a new account we created and then linked it to the website. Finally we made the bio and added a profile pic for each of these pages. We will be using these pages to post about our film and generate a following for the movie.

Storyboard for short film

 

        

        This week our group worked on our storyboard. Before we started we wanted to decide whether we should meet up in person or do it over FaceTime. Meeting up would’ve made the process easier since we’d all be together and could work on it in one session. However, meeting up would’ve been a hassle so we ultimately decided to talk about it through FaceTime. We all got on FaceTime and first planned how we would approach doing the storyboard. Our group didn’t want one person having to do all of the actual storyboarding so we decided against that. Our final decision was that we would split the storyboard 3 ways so that everyone could do equal work. This was also a efficient way in our eyes. Brooke would do the storyboard for the first two scenes, Kelly would do the third and fourth scenes, and Leo would do the last two scenes. We gave each other creative freedom but made sure it followed our screenplay and it had the necessary criteria. That criteria being the drawings of what’s going on and the description for each box with what type of angle/shot is being used. Once that was made clear we split off and worked at our own pace. We also made it clear that if anyone needed help just to call and we’d be there to help the most we could. Once we finished the storyboard we all sent them to each other and reviewed them. We reviewed them to make sure nothing was missed. This is essentially our guide for when we start filming so it was key that everything was right. Now that we have the storyboard finished we’re one step closer to filming. We now have a vision of how our film will look. The storyboard will help navigate through the process and make sure we’re on the right track. Overall, the storyboard process went pretty smoothly and we think we approached this the best way possible.

Planning for short film

 

• Schedule: 

11/11- storyboard 

11/14- shopping for props and anything else we need for filming 

11/21- filming 

11/28- filming

12/5- editing 

12/12- editing 

12/19- re-shoot

12/27- re-edit

1/3- final touches 

• Location: The locations we are going to film at consists of only two places. The main location will be the main characters house which will be where the majority of the scenes are shot at. We will be filming both inside and outside of the house. The other location we are filming at is the neighbors house. There are a few scenes that we will need to shoot at this location. These scenes will only be on the outside of the house.
• Participants: As of right now we plan on Leo playing the “creepy” neighbor. One of Brooke’s friends will be playing our main character. If something comes up where she can’t anymore then Brooke or Kelly will play the main character. As for the stalker who only shows up in the photo and at the end we’ll have one of Brooke/Kelly play them. 
• Health and Safety: Seeing that we’re still in a pandemic that affects how we’ll make sure we’re safe. Everyone will have a mask on unless they’re acting in a scene. Hand sanitizer will be present incase it is needed. We will get tested for the virus before we begin filming. If someone becomes infected with Covid-19 during the filming process they will quarantine for 2 weeks and the others will get tested. 

• Props: For our short film we will have a variety of props. 

-For scenes 1 & 2 props consist of a car, moving boxes, picture(s), house key and a letter. 

-For scenes 3 & 4 props include a security camera, drill (?), and another letter. 

-5 & 6 props are a cell phone, and a stack of letters. 

• Costumes: 

-Scene 1: Protagonist is wearing causal clothing, suitable for a day of moving in. Possibly some jeans, a casual top and accessorize with some sunglasses. Neighbor is also wearing causal clothing and could consist of cargos. 

-Scene 2: Protagonist is wearing clothing for working out. Spandex, running shoes, and her hair will be up. Neighbor is wearing casual clothing.

-Scene 3: Protagonist is wearing casual clothing once again. Leggings and a simple top. Neighbor is wearing shorts and a top.

-Scene 4: For this scene the protagonist can wear anything. (Will be decided when filming) -Scene 5: Protagonist is wearing comfortable clothing. Could consist of pajamas or sleepwear. 

-Scene 6: Protagonist is wearing comfortable clothing and casual clothing. The neighbor is wearing athletic wear such as basketball shorts etc.