Week 8 Post 3

 Today, I finished the final touches on the movie intro and made my CCR.

I started off the day with a very rough draft of the final edit of the film opening. After spending a couple hours putting the finishing touches on the cuts and the sound edits, I had the finished product. Now, the only obstacle was adding in all of the credits. This proved to not be too hard as my group and I had already decided where the title and all of the credits should go. After figuring out how to add text over the video clips on premier, I finally had the final cut of the film opening. I would say it turned out pretty good... as you will see in future blog posts.

The final part of the project however was all that was left for me to do. This was the CCR. It took a few hours but I put together a pretty lengthy script, got together my extra footage, and shot the CCR. I think it came out pretty good... it ended up being just over 7 minutes long which was the goal.

Week 8 Post 2

 Today, I continued editing the film introduction.

After figuring out the whole audio situation, I had all of the clips that I had shot arranged in order. I did run into one last issue though. With everything together, the full video was over 5 minutes long. In planning, I hadn't anticipated for all the time the walking shots would take in order to retain its continuity. That said, I needed to find somewhere else to cut time off. 

Unfortunately, I ended up landing on the trip scene. It actually ended up going on for longer than 2 minutes by itself. I cut out all of the extra shots of the car, all of the changes between the trip, and the normal shots of Donavan walking. This not only got the video to its correct time slot, but it also allowed for more continuity and better quality overall. 

Week 8 Post 1

 Hello Blog! Today I continued editing the film introduction. 

Unfortunately, after finally having all of the clips in order, I realized there was another problem. Since the microphone I was using was so sensitive, there were subtle but noticeable differences in sound between clips. This not only made the edits noticeable but hard to listen to. 

After messing around with adobe premier for a few hours, I eventually tuned the audio to remain at a consistent level between clips. This made the intro much easier to watch and to listen to. 

Week 7 Post 3

 Today, I wanted to continue the editing process. 

In order to attack this opening, I wanted to begin editing the end of the scene first as I knew this would be the hardest to put together. I had the most outtakes from that part as it was very hard to match up the different sequences between David walking normally and crawling on the ground. During filming, I decided to utilize the trees in the park to attempt to transition between these two stages. While editing, I realized that this idea worked out almost perfectly. My group members feared that this would make the scene hard to follow, however, it ended up working out perfectly.

The only issue I ran into while editing this part was that I had the volume on the microphone turned up a tad too much, which meant that the mic was picking up my footsteps over David's. I figured I would deal with this problem later as it probably meant that I would eventually have to re-record the audio for the entire scene and just stitch it over the video.

Week 7 Post 2

 Yesterday, David and I met up at regional park in order to film the project. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted the production to look like, so we were able to get right to filming. As an extra to fill Anthony's spot, we asked our friend Tanish to come out and help us. The only issue that we ended up running into was the crazy amount of construction that was taking place in the spot where we wanted to film the introduction. To remedy this problem, I used a directional microphone to attempt to drown out any background noise from the soundscape. This worked pretty well, especially after considering the fact that some background noise was necessary to keep the scene realistic. In order to produce the sound for the film, I recorded footsteps through the grass, and the sound of wind hitting the leaves and brushing the trees around. After listening to the clips that we recorded, I realized that the audio was almost perfect, but there's nothing a little bit of editing can't fix.

Later in the day I downloaded all of the clips off of the SD card onto my computer in order to begin the editing process. 

Week 7 Post 1

Later this week, my group is planning to meet up and begin filming our opening. As a result, I wanted to make sure I had all of my camera gear in order. I went out and purchased a new memory card so that I would have enough space to shoot the film in 4k on the new camera. Additionally, I wanted to make sure that the screenplay was in order and that everyone knew the job that they were going to have to carry out. 

Later in the day though, news came that covid had struck one of our group members, meaning that we wouldn't be able to all meet up together to film. As a result, David and I decided that we would meet up tomorrow and as one of our friends to play Anthony's role in the film. 

Week 6 Post 4

 Today, I wanted to finish writing the screenplay for the film opening. The final part of the opening is the most important to me as it is the most complicated to pull off. I want to somehow show the main character using the object that he bought, and having an intense reaction to it. The best way to describe it is a representation of the reality of those around him and his reality. In other words, on the inside, he will feel totally normal, however, on the outside, he has lost control of himself. This will be represented through a sequence showing the character walking back to his car. Throughout this sequence, the shots will be edited so that they transfer back and forth between him crawling on the ground, and walking normally as if nothing is wrong. 

Another important aspect of the opening is at the very end, I want to have a random character be running along a path, past where the main character was having his episode. As a result of the episode, the main character will have dropped the drug that he had accidentally taken. This random character will find it, pick it up, examine it, and eventually run away.

Week 6 Post 3

 Today, I am continuing to work on the screenplay for the opening. 

So far, I have chosen a setting for the scene, a park in my city called regional park. In the back of the park, there is a deserted grassland which would be the perfect place to film the main character walking towards his dealer who would be placed out of focus for a large part of the scene. 

After the cinematic shots of the main character exiting his car, walking a ways towards the back of the park and eventually meeting up with the second character, I am imagining a series of extreme close-ups. 

The next task becomes the actual transaction. I don't want the transaction to be representing a drug of sorts, I want it to be disguised as a more mainstream thing, maybe a coke can or an energy drink. That will be decided later. Anyway, there will be a transaction involving a seemingly innocent object, which will later have a huge effect on the main character.

Week 6 Post 2

 Today, I continued my adventure in attempting to write the screenplay for our opening. I had been imagining a confrontation between two men as if to represent a drug deal through implication.  This is proving to be relatively hard as we can't display actual drugs in the film, we are limited to the imagination of the viewer. Anyway, the best way that I can think of to introduce this scene is to display a character walking into a very deserted area, away from human activity. This can either be displayed through a series of extreme close-ups or extreme long shots. 

I enjoy shooting cars as well so I want to take inspiration from the wolf of wall street where the character gets out of an expensive car and has an episode after having taken a bunch of random drugs.

Week 6 Post 1

 Today, we began going over the screenplay for the film opening. This is important as the reactions of the characters to certain events can help display certain character traits of the individual characters which set presidents for the rest of the film. I began putting effort into the script in order to attempt to add in little bits of humor. 

Today, much of my effort was put towards discussing camera angles and the logistics of how the scene should be shot. I pictured the beginning of the scene showcasing a confrontation between two men which eventually leads to the drug deal. Without getting too far ahead of myself, I want to begin figuring out how to introduce the characters visually. As the director, this is a very important job for me to carry out. 

Week 5 Post 4

 Today, I continued my discussion of which camera to purchase, the Canon M50 or the T8I. Much of the last couple of days were spent researching the benefits of using a mirrorless camera compared to a mirrored camera. The general conclusion that I reached was that the mirror is only really useful for professional photography. Plus, I already have my T6 which has a mirror if I was going to be taking professional pictures. 

More importantly, however, the M50 has DPAF (Dual pixel autofocus). This means that the camera has an automatic focus which is one of the fastest mechanisms in the camera world. This is specifically helpful when videoing as I won't have to be constantly manually adjusting the focus of the lens when objects or people enter and exit the frame. On top of that, the M50 also has a superior automatic system for adjusting the ISO, Aperture, and F-Stop in video mode which will make it much easier to use when the lighting scenarios change while filming. 

Overall, I figured the M50 was the better camera to suit my needs. I ended up buying it Sunday night and I have been playing with it ever since, it has definitely lived up to my expectations and I can't wait to film this project with it.

(Attached are some pictures I have been taking)

Week 5 Post 3

 Today, I decided to take some time on my own to figure out how I was planning on shooting the film. I was most likely going to be the person in charge of cinematography during the shooting process, so I had to get this figured out. The camera I typically shoot on is a Canon T6. This is generally a great camera. For a prior project though, I ordered a Rode directional mic to attach to the camera in order to get crisper, clearer audio.

Upon arriving at my house, I realized the mic wouldn't plug into my camera due to the lack of an audio-in jack on the camera. This was rather disappointing as the standard microphone which comes with the camera was rather useless, especially for recording audio in a specific place. Since then, I have been dedicating a lot of time to looking into new cameras to get in order to be able to use the audio jack and just have a more updated, more compact camera.

My two options for cameras were the Canon T8I and the Canon M50. All things considered, the T8I Is the better camera. It is generally capable of much more, than the M50. However, for me personally, it has some downsides. For example, the M50 is mirrorless, meaning it doesn't have a mirror that transfers the picture from the lens directly to the viewfinder. In lieu of a mirror, it does it electronically, meaning that the viewfinder is a screen. 

Week 5 Post 2

 My group and I will now search at precise locations where our shots can look the most professional now that we have a better picture of where we want to shoot. There is plenty of room in the park where we are considering filming for several different styles of shots that might highlight excellent camera technique. We should use the park's fantastic aesthetic to our benefit in order to make the shots look as fine as possible. There is also excellent lighting and a variety of settings.

For example, a dark trail that, when mixed with the required music and shots, can seem to be very disturbing. There are several different trials like this one that allows us to add a suspense element to our film. The trail is also very lovely, and it can be used to film talking scenes that reflect our story's genre. There are even more settings where we can demonstrate our film methodology, such as there are in this experiment.

Week 5 Post 1

 Today, my group and I decided to talk a little about the plot of our film intro. After some heavy consideration, I realized that the whole "comedy horror" ordeal was going to be rather hard to pull off in the way we were going to attempt. As a result, I began to think about how to make it more doable. 

After a couple minutes of putting our heads together, we came up with an idea to have the opening involve a bad reaction to a psychedelic drug such as LSD. My idea was that it should start off as a random kid running around a park from very obscure angles. Every so often though, he would be seen very close up, screaming. This is to display the contrast between reality and nonreality, or the reality of the drug taker. I also added that the last shot of the opening should be a closeup of a pillbox with one of the holes punched. After a couple seconds, a hand will enter the shot, picking up the pillbox and removing it from frame as if to demonstrate that somebody else has found the pill and is going to take it.

Week 4 Post #4

    Today, we went back to the basics in order to discuss some new ideas for how to develop our storyline. We thought it would be a smart idea to incorporate the topic of illegal substances into our film. This is something you see a lot more than you can imagine as a child. We believe that this is an important point to bring up because it will support the premise of our film. For a number of reasons, the substance abuse aspect of our film adds to the storyline. 

    The first is that it simplifies our film's premise. This makes the definition easier to grasp for our audience. For now, our concept is character versus self, but adding a substance component opens the possibility of a character versus character conflict. Although our character will be attending a dance, we should introduce a character who may be an undercover cop. This cop mixes in with the partygoers while keeping an eye out for illegal drugs. This may be the horror portion of our film; we should make it as exciting as possible by making the protagonist gets entangled in a drug. The drug can be seen as a means for the character to escape his struggles and emotional fights. This content issue could demonstrate to the viewer how the character's acts aren't healthy.

    This novel concept may also aid in the development of humor. Things could get embarrassing if we reveal our character when under the influence. We might introduce a twist in which the undercover cop has no suspicions about our character's behavior because he is known for being a good kid. This might contribute to yet more amusing scenes in the film's first act.

While this concept has the potential to be a nice twist and add to the film, it is still novel. We'd have to learn about it more to have other people's opinions. My group is concerned that using this drug issue would not offend anyone or violate any laws. The concept also needs to be fleshed out, but it seems to be appealing. At the end of the day, we want to make a film that inspires the viewer and demonstrates our talent and the capabilities of my group, and my team will choose the best way to achieve this aim.

Week 4 Post #3

    Today, my group sat down in order to analyze some criticism that we had received on prior days. The criticisms covered a variety of topics, including some of the ideas we've had and wanted to incorporate into our film. We started by discussing our genre. We discussed our concepts for the comedy/horror film's opening scene. The genre received positive reviews. We also discovered that some of the other participants were putting on a horror show. The other people, on the other hand, were not attempting to be comedic, and their main issue was character versus character. Character versus self will be the theme of our film, which will make it stand out. We spoke about some of our theories, such as the characters and how we got inspiration from other movies.

    We listened to feedback after my group finished discussing our thoughts. While the majority of the feedback was constructive, we did receive some useful advice. One of the suggestions was for the opening scene. The opening scene will take place at a beach event attended by high school students. The response to this opening was positive, but they advised us to make sure we accurately represented the reason for the highschoolers' gathering at the beach. We must make certain that we do this well so that the viewer is not confused or perplexed by the events of our film's opening. My group thought about it for a long time and discussed it extensively. We decided that starting the film with the beach party plan would be a good way to portray it. Our protagonist will receive a call from a friend asking him to participate in this scheme. This is where the character's panic begins. This fear is portrayed in the rest of the movie. As a result, the call incorporates some key elements of our film and gives the viewer plenty to anticipate. This will demonstrate the expertise we as a group provided and how it develops meaning through our film's opening.

Week 4 Post #2

     Today, my group and I were beginning to delve deeper into one of the most important aspects of our story; our main character. We'd like our protagonist to be a teen boy because it's something we can relate to. Our protagonist still has some emotional issues from which he suffers. As previously mentioned, the film's premise revolves around mental health issues. While black comedy has subjective aspects similar to Burlesque, we can introduce awkward circumstances due to the horror element of our film, which can contribute to the "Black comedy" debate. We can transform a frightening scenario into one that amuses and engages the audience. Next, we should consider "satire." This form of humor does not work in our film because it could be frustrating to certain audience members due to their level of comprehension. Next is "romantic comedy." 

    We may use certain elements of this style of comedy, but we wouldn't strictly adhere to its rules. We will certainly build some uncomfortable moments in romantic situations since our opening is about a teenager. We will certainly use "slapstick" as a form of comedy. The film's horror element can be very effective in this regard. We can place our character in unfortunate circumstances that can cause physical distress as a result of the issue he is dealing with. Screwball wouldn't work because none of our characters are insane, but we might try to include a character who can have this type of humor. Because of their subjective nature, political comedy, satire, and musical comedy will not perform. 

    Farce, on the other hand, could succeed and might add to audience interest because the audience would never know what to expect next. My group and I will take advantage of this weak spot by reinforcing the bond between our audience and the characters. Overall, my community and I are still brainstorming ways to make our character as likable as possible. The topic of characters seems to be one that we will revisit in the near future.

Week 4 Post #1

    Today, my group discussed the different types of comedy we could incorporate into our opening. One important consideration my group and I must make is the type of comedy we want to include in our film's opening. Comedy can be divided into a variety of subgenres. Because comedy can be subjective, my group must create objective jokes for the enjoyment of the entire audience. Black comedy is one of the subgenres. Burlesque, Romantic comedy, Satire, slapstick, Political Comedy, screwball comedy, Farce, Musical comedy, and Parody are the following categories.

    "Black comedy" is one of the subgenres (audience feel uncomfortable and drawing laughter through controversial, "taboo", subjects). "Burlesque" (sexual jokes), "Romantic comedy" (set on a love story), "Satire" (sophisticated humor), "slapstick" (physical pain), "Political Comedy", "screwball comedy" (ridiculous characters), "Farce" (implausible plot), "Musical comedy," and "Parody" are the following categories. While black comedy has subjective aspects similar to Burlesque, we can introduce awkward circumstances due to the horror element of our film, which can contribute to the "Black comedy" debate. We can transform a frightening scenario into one that amuses and engages the audience. Next, we should consider "satire." This form of humor does not work in our film because it could be frustrating to certain audience members due to their level of comprehension. Next is "romantic comedy." We may use certain elements of this style of comedy, but we wouldn't strictly adhere to its rules. We will certainly build some uncomfortable moments in romantic situations since our opening is about a teenager. We will certainly use "slapstick" as a form of comedy. The film's horror element can be very effective in this regard. We can place our character in unfortunate circumstances that can cause physical distress as a result of the issue he is dealing with. Screwball wouldn't work because none of our characters are insane, but we might try to include a character who can have this type of humor. Because of their subjective nature, political comedy, satire, and musical comedy will not perform. Farce, on the other hand, could succeed and might add to audience interest because the audience would never know what to expect next.