Now, for the CCR. PP# 21

 It is time to focus on my CCR. In class we took many notes on what to have on it, and we say examples. Here are the notes I took. 

From the examples we saw, all of the videos are very personalized to either the person making them or the film. Upon thinking, I've decided that I will make my CCR a talking head video of me, with shots and pictures of the intro and other sources. I additionally will be creating graphics, either on CANVA, or After effects to depict my research, which is mostly genre conventions and intended audiences, and the sources. In the next blog I will be posting my script for my CCR which is almost completed.  

Editing. PP#20

 We completed filming and it went pretty smoothly. We had obvious issues, such as it was too hot, too humid, we obviously did not bring water, but alas, we persevered. I realized at one point we needed more people to help us film, since there where a couple of shots where I'm included and I simply could not hold the boom and man the camera at the same time. Hence, I asked my boyfriend Michael and best friend Lauren to help me with those shots, simply tilt the camera, hold the boom, minute things.

MUSIC

The editing process went smoothly. I decided I would add classical music as the score for the following reasons- 

1- it is my personal style. I've noticed with classical music you can really take advantage of the pacing of the music to further highlight the pacing of the film. I can use crescendoes, decrescendos, and the speed of a piece to match our film. 

2- It adds an odd sense of grandiosity to the film, that matches our genre in a way. Although it could be considered a way in which we broke genre conventions since most scary movies have "creepy" music, many directors such as Darren Aronofsky, utilize classical music in horror films since it adds a creepy sense of grandiosity. It is also creates a juxtaposition, since the film takes place in a field, and there are sort of "jumpscares", and it is matched with classical music. Additionally, there is just so many different pieces that convey different feelings, and it overall fits the pacing of the film. 

3- Very simple, these composers have been dead for a bit, so they're all copyright free and easy to find. I got all of the pieces from one youtube playlist which I have saved since it has come in handy for all of my projects. 

These are the pieces I used.

 Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3 in A minor (Scottish), MOVEMENT III, Op. 56

I started off with this piece. It flows well with the protagonist's initial waltzing and meandering and it helps the flow of the dialogue. Although some parts crescendo weirdly, I actually liked it, since it crescendoes when the protagonist begins acting weirdly towards Dainty. 

Mendelssohn's The Hebrides Overture, Op. 26

I used this piece at the end, mostly because I wanted to better pace Maria's dialogue and because I wanted a big impact on Steve's last piece of dialogue, since it's supposed to have impact. 

Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4 in A Major (Italian), MOVEMENT I, Op. 90

I used this one for the title because it has the exact feeling I wanted there to be. An intense contrast that quickly gets shut off. I took inspiration from fleabag's title's. 

No I did not plan for all of them to be Mendelssohn's,  I guess I subconsciously like him. 

COLOR
Now for color. I decided to divide the film on thirds and will be talking about them individually. 

I utilized two tabs in Adobe Premier's color grading and correcting section. The Basic corrections, and the creative. 

First third- 

This is when the protagonist wakes up and meanders around the field. I wanted to make sure the audience understood that he wasn't in a normal field, that something was off. The green is highlighted, and the temperature of the shots are cold. It is also overexposed. It gives it a very dream-like feeling. 

 Second Third- 

Dainty and the protagonist conversation. The temperature is much warmer in here, to signify that the protagonist (Steve) and Dainty have had a close relationship, and he sees her in a more dream like, fantasy like state. There are also glares and the shadow is very intense on the protagonist, which also adds to this. 

Third Third- 

This is the conversation between the three characters, but it focuses on Maria. Not only has the blocking of the characters changed, but also the coloring and lighting. Now, Maria is seen at the same level of Steve, as he does not have that much power over her. Additionally, the scene has a more normal lighting, and the color is darker, in comparison from the first third. 

I Went To a Film Festival! PP#19

 Ok so, for starters, the surgery went well. She has to rest, but she is fine and healthy. She will be able to film, hooray!

But, now something different. I went yesterday, to the Columbus Film showcase, a showcase of Columbus All Boys School films. We submitted ours, thinking it was a festival, and due to Nicole's connections, they played Critique and Toby has Friends. 

Their teacher put on a speech. A speech about how you need to take your time and not be ashamed of re-filming. That art takes a village. So you might imagine my disappointment when Critique, a film I made with just one other person in 20 hours, was the best film of the night. A two minute film. None of these men, with all the money and resources in the world compared. And it gave me confidence. Confidence that I am the filmmaker that I think I am and I cannot let myself be intimidated by men, since, I probably intimidate them. Confidence to do things at my pace, that being, 200 miles an hour. Fast. Pressured. That is how I like doing it. I simply do. And, most importantly it gave me confidence in my writing. All of those films had ok cinematography, ok light, ok editing. But you know what none of them had? Good writing. Not a single one of them. And that is the one thing we did have. Our dialogue was concise and strong. It was designed particularly to be spoken by our specific character. And the same goes for Steve. Dainty is cynical, but she does not curse. Maria curses. She has more anger in her. She has to curse, all of her stress is eating her up and she just has to. Dainty's sentences are short. She says only what is needed to be said. She does not expand on what Steve did, while Maria goes on detail. God I'm good. 

Rewrite. PP#18

 STEVE 2

Here is the updated script with Dainty having a cast. The changes are bolded.  I think it is an OK addition, it adds more room to expand on the Dainty character, and I changed my mind and made it something Steve did but she is embarrassed to admit. I do not know what this would be but I like the mystery behind it. 

Update. PP#17

 So nicole went into surgery today. My dear blog I am sorry I do not have any updates of our filming process but we are currently on a break, making sure Nicole is ok. Currently there are not more updates besides the fact that I am working on re-writing the script. Additionally, tomorrow I am going to the Columbus High School film showcase, so I will see if that changes my perspective on how I feel about this. Goodbye dear blog, sorry I cannot tell you much more. 

Location adjustments. PP#16

 So the location. What an issue. as far as the white room, I simply do not think it's going to happen. I am still pushing for doing it at Kim's house since it would complete my vision, and be easy on Nicole. However, I think it is more realistic to do it on a field. I am thinking Markham. Now, our teacher Ms. Stoklosa, has advised us to not film in the place I am thinking, a location that is far away from the park and under a highway. It is beautiful, and incredible, but it is replete with bottles, trash, and homeless people tend to live there. I can tell you first hand this is true. I have filmed there twice, and both time homeless people have been an issue. However, there is a place in Markham that is part of the part and it is just grass, and behind there are these beautiful trees we can hang the pictures in. I think this place could work nicely. 

Our plans. PP#15

 So another big issue we have is our equipment. A lot of people have discovered BECON and they simply ran out of equipment. Also we cannot check out equipment during break from the tv room, so simply we cannot film because I refuse to just use my phone and not have a boom mic. So what we decided upon is we're filming the Wednesday after school starts, the 30th. This would give us 4 days to finish, to film and edit. Any other sane person would be freaking out, but the countless film competitions with ridiculous time limits have taught me that I love nothing more than doing things in a small amount of time. I am not as nervous as I should be. I am not going to punch myself, because we planned everything. Nicole was going to get equipment, we were going to film during break, and then the absolute unexpected happened. We simply had to postpone it, and that is ok. I'm am not going to give up because I know that 4 days is all I need to make something excellent. I will work with what I have. 

Nicole. PP#14

 So we have major issues. 

Nicole, who is set to play dainty, was in a car accident. Right before break. She broke her wrist and might go into surgery, we're not sure yet. We have to see how this will affect our filming process but right now I do not want to disturb her since she's preoccupied being in a hospital. We'll see what happens.

My solution is to do one of two things. 

Recast Dainty. This would be an issue since it is Nicole's main contribution to the project and considering her state, I'm not sure what else she will do since her work was mostly going to come in handy during production and post. But if that where to happen, I have my friend Samantha in mind, she fits the role and is a Tv kid and would most likely be willing to help. 

Second option, and probably the route we'll be taking, is re-write Dainty to have a cast. I like this a lot, I think it would even elevate it a bit since kids have casts a lot of the time, and it would add to the ambiguity of how Steve hurt Dainty.

We'll see. 

Characters 2. PP#14

 These are the character posters Nicole made. These are not necessarily how we plan to dress our characters, but rather a physical representation of who they are and what they represent. 

Sets. PP#13

This is what I've thought of for our fully white set. 

 Luckily for us, the set is not very complex, not at all actually, considering it is a white room. However, this poses a bigger problem. It is much harder to get a specific setting rather than just "a bedroom" or "a dark alley", and even more a white room. We can move things around and put up posters, but it would be unrealistic for us to get just a plain white room. This is what we have thought of. 

First of all, Kai thought of putting up poster board around a room, so we can have fake walls. However, there are issues with this, as it would be expensive, hard to work with, and would probably look bad. It would also limit our shots since we need wide angles and we can only afford so many posters. However this is still a standing option. 

Second option would be to contact one of my very clean friends with clean houses. My friend Kim's living room is very white and very easy to empty. We have filmed there before and she had it cleared within minutes. However, she is also working on her media project and other things, and it would fully include her in the project and I do not want to do that to her. 

Third option would be to change the script, which I don't hate. I think it would be equally meaningful and aesthetically pleasing to make it in an empty field. We can get lighting there and all of our equipment. I would have to restructure the script a bit but I'm not upset about this idea.

The short amount of films I've made have taught me that with imagination and camera editing, any room can turn into a whole new world, a whole new decade, so I'm not anxious. I'm actually very excited. 

Graphics. PP#12

Under here, I have inserted the graphics we will be using for our film opening. 

I chose white over black then black over white to show contrast. I think since the room is white it will transition in a cool way. We also flipped some words in the graphics representing heaven and hell. I made these with After Effects, because although it is not animated, I feel more comfortable in that software than in photoshop.  

Softwares. PP#11

 

These are the two softwares I will be using to edit my short. We have decided I will edit since I wrote the shot list. 

PREMIERE PRO

Premiere pro is awesome for many reasons. I have used imovie and Da vicni resolve and premire is my favorite. Premiere allows me to view my media and cut it on a different screen, without having to do it in the time line and it makes editing 100 times easier. Additionally, I love color grading in it, I can make many different looks on just the creative tab. I also love how easy it is to level the audio. 

AFTER EFFECTS

I have been using After effects for a bit now and it is very fun. I will use it to make the graphics. 

Equipment PP#10

 So it is, my tenth blog post for this short. It is with contempt that I'll tell you, my dear reader, that this post will not have any mega inspiration moment, with long paragraphs about our thoughts and ideas. But equipment is, at the end of the day, what makes a film, and damn it can be fun. Here is a breakdown of what we will be using, and where we are getting it from. 

GVM Light Kits 

These light kits are very trustworthy. They come in a kit of three: a key light, a back light, and a fill light. These lights have different temperatures and these temperatures can be lowered. They also have tripods and "horse blinders".  The lights we have at the television program at my school, which I have the privilege of using since I am part of the club, do not come included with batteries, only plugs. Considering the inconsistencies in our setting, and the general pain that finding outlets is, I will be getting the kit from BEACON, a local television production network that focuses on student television. They allow students to rent their equipment, and I have had many good experiences doing so. I will be borrowing the lights from them since their lights come with batteries and that makes them more versatile. 

SONY A73

This camera is AWESOME. I have used this camera for my bigger projects, and it is amazing how at the mere touch of the focus ring the image looks perfect. This camera has transformed my videos from videos to films. The ISO in this camera does not make the shot grainy at all, to the point where, if you need high key lighting, you can jus raise the ISO. It is awesome and I love it. There are some issues though. I am not fluid in it. I would have to have someone teach me how to use it well, which is not an issue. I would get this camera from BEACON, as they do not have it at my school. 

CANON 90-D

    

The Canon 90D has been a trusty camera. I would use this camera as a backup for the Sony just incase we have any issues with it

Some equipment we are getting but do not have specific opinions on-

Lenses- we do not know much about them, just that we need a 50 mil. 

Tripod

Boom 

Props PP#9

 Here is a list of props we need, by when we need them, and how we are going to either get or make them. 

Picture frames with family pictures. We need to make them look as realistic as possible so we will probably get our little siblings to pose in them. I want them to looks like the classic suburban happy family so we're going to dress accordingly. This is a sample of what we want. 

That is practically all we need for props.