We're Filming Tomorrow!

    My group is finally filming tomorrow and I can't be more excited. We have had almost two weeks to film and we are finally going to be filming. It is probably irresponsible to be waiting to film this late, but we've all been very busy. Between school, and extracurricular activities like swimming and band, it's hard to find a time to film where everyone can be able to participate and be involved in shooting. Friday is a good time to film because we're all free and available, surprisingly. It was hard enough to find a time to film for the music video. However, this time around, it was an even greater challenge. Another challenge will be trying to edit the entire thing by Tuesday. On Tuesday, our film is due, no matter if it's done or not. This is because we will be doing a peer review. A peer review will be very beneficial to us and our film project. A peer review will allow us to get feedback on what we did right, what we did wrong, and what we could improve on. Ultimately, it will help us perfect it (at least to the best of our ability) and we would be more knowledgeable. My group still decided it was for the best to not check out a camera. They still believe using one of the cameras in unnecessary and that we don't need to use one. Therefore, we will still be using someone's phone to film. All of us have the same phone, which is an iPhone 8. With everybody's camera quality being the same, whoever's phone we use depends on who feels comfortable using their own phone. Additionally, it also depends on who still has storage space available on their phone. Unlike the music video, we will not be filming with my iPhone. I did not enjoy doing that at all and it was too much hassle. I'm still excited to film tomorrow and see how our vision will play out through the footage.

Filming Has Not Started Yet

   In reference to my last blog, we did not film over the weekend. My schedule was clear and I was fine with filming so that was not the issue. The other members in my group said that they had homework from other classes that they needed to do instead. Therefore, this is our reason for not filming over the weekend. Personally I do not think this was a very good excuse, but I do realize that other school work is important. I am not too happy with this though, considering we only have one more weekend to film and then that's it. The final project will be due for peer review and we must have it done by then because I do not want a zero in the grade book. The plan as of right now is to film Friday night. This is because our entire film intro takes place at night. We are also all free on Friday night with no after-school activities such as swimming or band. Honestly, I did not want to film this late because I knew this would cause a lot of stress. It would be stressful because we have to cram in all of our filming, without the possibility of re-shoots. We also have to quickly do all the editing, which is stressful and because the editing is a bit more complicated this time around than it was in previous projects. This time, our camera angles and shots will be more sophisticated and we also have to add in titles. In addition to this, my group still does not want to check out a camera. They still think it's a great idea to film on someone's phone. I know for a fact that my phone will not be used though. As I stated in the previous blog, I did not enjoy filming on my phone for the music video project. I'm still looking forward to filming on Friday, even though this blog may seem like I'm not. I'm mostly excited because the story's idea is something I came up with, so I'm eager to see how my vision will turn out. However, all I know is that our project must be completed in time for the peer review, or we will find ourselves in a tight spot.

Beginning the Filming Process for the Final Task

    In AICE Media Studies, we have began working on our final task. At this point, all of our research has been completed. We researched genres and the titles in introductions in films. We have finished drawing the storyboard and writing a shooting script and sound script. We have until March 2nd to have our intro filmed and edited. It must be done by this day because we will being doing a peer review in class. In this peer review, we will be watching other groups' videos and critiquing them. In class today, we were offered to checkout camera's with tripods and SD cards. My group decided to make a decision I did not agree with. They had decided not to check out a camera. This is because of what happened when we were filming our music video. Back when we filmed our music video, the group member who had our camera happened to be out of town and we needed to shoot soon. Therefore, we ended shooting the music video completely on my phone's camera. So today in class when our teacher called groups up to check out a camera, my group voted not to. They assured me that filming on my phone was way better than filming with the camera. However, what they didn't know was the big struggle I had getting the footage for the music video from my phone to the computer. That was very time consuming and not an enjoyable experience for me. My group still decided to film on somebody's phone. This time though, it will not be my phone because first, I didn't like exporting the footage, and second, I don't have much storage left on my phone. In terms of creating a filming schedule, we are not quite sure what that is going to be yet, however we are going to try to get some filming in this weekend. As far as location, we will be filming at someone's house and there's a chance it could be at mine.

Planning Blog: Storyboard

     In AICE Media Studies we have continued to plan out our final task. We now have our storyboard completed and therefore should not have trouble with the story during filming. This has been a problem for us in prior projects. In prior projects we would create a storyboard, but then not really follow it at all. Due to throwing out the storyboard, the filming process was much longer than it should have been and less efficient than it could have been. This time around is going to be different however. During class time, we worked closely as a group to really think about what we were going to do with this story. We all contributed our own ideas and also took turns drawing. The final storyboard we came up with is something we're proud of. We tried to make it as professional as possible and intend to execute the vision we have created through the storyboard to the best of our abilities. We can't wait to start filming.

Planning blog: Title Design

 Title designs may not seem like the most important factor of a film, however they are probably one of the most important parts of the film. If written and edited right, they can really set the standard for your film from the very beginning. Having a boring and poorly edited title design/designs will make the expectations of the rest of your film very low and will discourage the viewers from watching more. The most important parts of media are satisfying your viewers, which will in turn make money for you and your industry. That is why the title designs are such an important factor. We will have a multitude of different types of title design, while also following the order of titles. Our film will consist of middle screen titles. This will mainly just be the actual title of our film. We will add effects to this to make it less boring and more engaging. We will also have foreground titles which relate with the theme of the film. Finally we will implement titles that are blended in the background. These are meant to be the "less important" titles that the viewers are supposed to try to catch. These will help engage the audience as well.

Planning Blog: Location, Participants, Health, and Schedule

    This blog and google slides presentation are about some of the logistic aspects of our final filming task. This task is a two minute intro to a film in the thriller genre. In order to incorporate the thriller genre, we are using dark and spooky settings. These include a cemetery and a party at night. We will try to use a lot of conventions that thriller movies have and we talk about this in the google slides presentation. We also talk about who is going to be involved in this final task. Of course this includes the four of us in the group. If all of us weren't involved it wouldn't be a true group project. We also go over the safety measures we will be taking during the filming process. We must remember the importance of safety at all times. Last we talked about our filming schedule, which is not yet finalized but we still have a general idea of when we want to film.

Planning blog: Shooting Script

This script describes everything that will be in our final project not including the dialogue and sound. Our shooting script consists of 11 different and unique scenes, each scene having a variety of different camera angles, and lighting effects. This is especially important in our film because our film is a thriller/horror film. One of the most important elements of a thriller is its use of mystery and suspense. The different camera angles will help build suspense. For example, the over-the-shoulder shots will build suspense by concealing the killers identity. The lighting effects will also build suspense. Low key lighting will also help conceal the killers identity, showing him only as a silhouette. This will build tension which should make the viewer scared and tense. This will be backed up by eery sound effects and dialogue to create even more suspense.

Planning Blog: Sound Script

For our sound script, we wrote down all of our noises that we will use for our movie. Thankfully, the noises are all during the scene while we film, so we do not have to add any noises post editing process. Any transitions that we would have to use thankfully only would be jump cuts, further lowering the time it would take to edit. All in all, we will have a very brief and quick editing process so we can focus on filming and making our acting the best it can be. The sounds take very little meaning in this film portion, but it is made up for by the acting. The majority of our film is focused on the angles of the camera and how the characters react to the crazy situation that both of these loveable scamps get into. The driver is silent for most of the film but this adds to his mysterious aura. Tyler and Steive obviously have a past history and the dialogue shows as much. The dialogue will help bring suspense and confusion. We will also add diegetic sound like wind breezing by to create more suspense, because that is the most important element in a thriller.