Filming Blog: At the Park

         Today was our second day filming for our final project. Yesterday we filmed our house scenes, so we could now move on to our next scenes. Today’s location where we filmed was at the park. After school my group members and I went over to my house. We got in my car and then I drove us over to the park. We had to wait a little to make sure that the lighting was the same as yesterday, so that our scenes aline. All of our filming locations are very close which made it convenient for us. Once we arrived to the park, I filmed my group member Leonardo acting like he was getting out of the driver seat. I filmed this scene to act like he just arrived to the park from the previous scene. I then filmed him walked over to the bench that is at the park. 

         Each scene that i filmed, I made sure to take multiple takes of it. Later, we will be able to choose the best scene. I then filmed my group member siting down, and then my other group member walking up and siting next to him. She then handed him an envelope which I filmed. I had brought the envelope which we used as a prop. I then filmed her getting up and zoomed into the main character. After that, I filmed him opening the envelope and I zoomed into the picture he pulled out. Then I videotaped him walking back over to my car. Since we still had some time, we decided to film our next scenes. These took place at our friend Aaron’s house, which is an actor in our film. I drove over to his house and filmed the few scenes we needed. 

Filming Blog: House Scenes

        Today was the first day that we started filming. As I said before in previous blogs, we had many delays which interfered with our filming. After school, we all rode over to my group member Leonardo’s house. This is where we planned our first scenes to take place. Since I am the director, I was telling my group members what to do. I was also the one that filmed these first scenes taking place at his house. The opening scene is the actor grabbing a box and setting in on the bed next to his bookbag. To start the scene off, I decided that a tilt movement would look best. Then, I filmed the actor taking his murderer supplies out of the box and putting it into the bookbag. After this, I filmed his zipping up the bag, then cutting to him walking toward the door. 

             Once I filmed him walking towards the door, I went outside and filmed him walking out of the door. The next part I filmed was him walking to the trunk of the car. I had to film him putting the bag into the trunk. For this scene, I suggested that we do a trunk shot since it would look best. This was my favorite scene that I filmed today and I thought it came out pretty good. Throughout our filming today, I directed and filmed multiple takes of each scene. This will guarantee that we have good footage to choose from. Once I finished filming the trunk scene a couple times, we were done filming for the day. We will be filming the rest of our footage over the next couple days. We plan on splitting it up based on our locations. 

Filming Blog: On Hold

     Once again, my group members and I were not able to film. We were planning to film this past Sunday, but we had some problems. One of our group members was in a car accident and wasn’t feeling good. Due to this, we pushed back our filming schedule. This group member was important for our filming because she is bringing props that we need. In the very beginning of our film, we use props such as a rope, duct tape, and a duffle bag. These items our groups member has, and is responsible for bringing them. Since we didn’t have these very important props, we couldn’t shoot any scenes. She is also in some parts of our opening sequence. Therefore, we couldn’t even film the scenes she wasn’t in due to not having all the props for the other scenes. 

        Even though we couldn’t film, my other group member and I still met up.   We met up at his house to start preparing for our filming. We thought it would be best if we acted out some of the scenes. This would help us so we know exactly what we will do when filming the first scenes at his house. Since we didn’t have the props, we used other items to replace the props for now. We acted out the opening scene of my group member going into his closet to get a box. While he did the scenes, I filmed just to see how everything would look. Then we acted out the scene of him taking the replacement props out of the box. He then put the items into a bag. I filmed this scene as well. Once we filmed what we could, we watched the scenes that I filmed to make sure everything came out how we wanted. Once we film the real scenes, we will be better prepared and know how to do the first scenes. 

Filming Blog: Not Really

         My group and I finished our storyboard and are now ready to film for our final project. However, we have not started filming yet. I’ve been really busy recently and haven’t had much time. My group members and I haven’t had a day where we were all free. In addition to this, we have not been able to go buy our props that we will be using. It was just my birthday so I have had plans for that too. On top of that, I have been working on the weekends. I work at night so it’s harder for us to film since we need to film when it’s dark out. During the week is a difficult time to film since we all have a lot going on in school. Transportation is also a problem during the week since we don’t have rides to get to and from our filming locations. Therefore, filming on the weekend is our best option. 

        We plan on filming this Sunday since one of my group members and I are not busy. We are waiting to find out if our other group member is available. If she is, then we plan on meeting up Sunday. We are filming at a few different locations that are all close to each other. This will make transportation easier for all of us. We are meeting up at my group member Leonardo’s house. We will film a few scenes here. Then we will go to a park near his house and film some there. Once we have all scenes finished from these locations, we will move onto our last location. Our final location will be at a place that looks like an ally. This is where we will film our murder scene and final scenes. 

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.