Filming Blog: Filming the Kidnapping Scene

On Tuesday, February 25th, my group and started the filming process for our movie. After school we all went to eat at iHop and we got free pancakes since it was National Pancakes Day. We didn't just eat and hung out, we also talked a lot about the plan for the day for example what we were going to start recording from and all the props we needed to in order to make our film more realistic and more professional. After eating at iHop we drove to the park which was pretty close to the iHop. The weather was perfect yesterday, it was a very nice sunny day which helped us having an excellent lighting for our film. As soon as we got to the park we took and establishing shot that will probably be the first scene of the flashback. We started having a little bit of trouble when we started acting because at first we would always start laughing and messing around. I am not the director of our film but I am the leader of the group so I needed to get everyone to work on it and be serious. 

We finally started working seriously after we had some fun and we recorded most of it. We made a little campfire where we toasted the marshmallows and recorded the scene that we all hang out around the fire and talk. We had to retake this scene a couple of times because the fire kept turning off. I took care of it and took some branches and poured some more rubbing alcohol that we had just bought. After we were done recording this scene we started recording the kidnapping scene and it came up pretty good. We just needed to record it a few times to make sure everything was good and there weren't any mistakes. For example in the first kidnapping shot we took, everything seemed perfect but when we rewatched it you could hear some of us talking in the background. We finished basically most of it, we were just missing a scene, but we ran out of time because it got dark outside and the shots started looking bad so we just decided to call it a day, we will go back to finish it on Friday and we'll make sure to wear the same clothes and have the same things as last time. We had something we had to change from our original plan that we wrote down in the story board and that was the amount of people we brought to help us record and to be part of our film. We originally thought we were going to have around ten people coming but only six ended up coming which actually was better because it was easier to keep under control and it was also easier to stay focused.

Filming Blog: Challenges of Filming

Although I really thought my group and I were going to film this weekend, we didn't even have the opportunity to meet up. Our original plan was to film on Saturday morning and Sunday night. We had everything ready to film, we had the permission from the cemetery to film there Saturday morning and also Ryan's mom was going to let us use her car for the day. Unfortunately, we ended up not meeting up because it rained very hard all day and Ryan's mom wouldn't let her drive under that rain. Saturday morning we all face-timed and tried to come up with a solution, for example to film later that day if it stopped raining, but we couldn't because the cemetery would've been very busy for a big funeral they were hosting. We had to cancel the plans for Saturday, and tell the other people we asked to come to be a part of our film, to stay home because we weren't filming anymore. My group and I agreed that we were still going to meet up on Sunday to get the other part of the movie filmed.
Sunday we were supposed to meet around 19:00 and film the part of the movie where I get kidnapped while we are camping. This time we had to face some new problems that prevented us from filming again. Camilo was called up by his team to play a game at 17:00 so he would've came later but we needed him for basically the whole thing. Another problem we had to face was that some of the outside people coming to help us and to be a part of our movie ditched us last minute. We started looking for new people to help us out with the movie but almost no one could come. We only found one person that was available to come and stay for the whole thing. Our group made the decision that we weren't going to film on Sunday anymore because it was very difficult making a plan that actually worked and we also started to get annoyed by the fact that some people cancelled last minute. Camilo, Ryan, and I all agreed that since we didn't film two weekends in a row, we will film during this week and meet up during the weekend to edit everything.

Filming Blog: Beginning the Filming Process

Our group has been facing many challenges lately. We are having troubles with finding a date where we can all go out and film. All three of us play sports, so we have very busy schedules both during the week and over the weekend. Last weekend, although we had a four days weekend, we didn't find a day where we could all go to film. I had a tournament Saturday and Sunday, the other group member had a volleyball game on Friday and on Monday, Camilo and I had a birthday party for our friend. We decided that we will work on our film this weekend and get most of it done. We will be recording at the cemetery first thing in the morning so we can get good lighting and then later that night we will film in the woods so it can be more suspenseful.

Even though we haven't started filming yet, we still did work that we needed to do in order to start filming. I emailed the cemetery to ask for permission to film. We also needed to email Broward County because we needed permission to film in the second location, the woods. Luckily, they both answered very quickly and they were very kind and they gave us full availability any day of the week. The only limit we have is time, we can't go to the cemetery or the park before 8 a.m. and we have to leave before 10 p.m. I'm sure that by next week, we will be done with all the filming, so we will have plenty of time to work on editing.

Planning Blog: Storyboard

In the last two classes our group has been working on story boarding. Story boarding is one of the most fun things in the filming process. We all worked together and got our ideas down and drew them as good as we could. While we were story boarding, we thought about all the camera angles we were going to use, like for example we will use an aerial shot using Camilo's drone. Story boarding helped our group to organize the ideas we had in our minds and improve them while we were drawing them down. This will help us a lot when we will be filming because it will keep us on the right track as we will just be following the things we drew on the story board papers. Lastly I think that working on this part all together made us come together as a group and build more chemistry in between us, which is very important because it will help to keep a professional and a cooperative mood in the group.

Planning Blog: Title Design

A lot of work went into this power point, because of its importance. This helped us really devote the movie, because it made us think about what the titles will look like. The titles have to give the audience a certain connotation. There are many things to think of while trying to design your titles. One large thing in our film, for the opening sequence is we do not want tA lot of work went into this power point, because of its importance. This helped us really devote the movie, because it made us think about what the titles will look like. The titles have to give the audience a certain connotation. There are many things to think of while trying to design your titles. One large thing in our film, for the opening sequence is we do not want to make the titles distracting for the auicence. If there is something crucial going on in the scene, and the text is large and bright, and moving, then the audience will be distracted. This is why the opening sequence will look modern, yet sill visible. On the other-hand, the title of the movie will be eye catching. We want this part of this film to be important and to help the viewers understand what they are going watch.The way will will so this is with, bright, mysterious colors, and big, dramatic fount.  o make the titles distracting for the auicence. If there is something crucial going on in the scene, and the text is large and bright, and moving, then the audience will be distracted. This is why the opening sequence will look modern, yet sill visible. On the other-hand, the title of the movie will be eye catching. We want this part of this film to be important and to help the viewers understand what they are going watch.The way will will so this is with, bright, mysterious colors, and big, dramatic fount.  

Planning Blog: Location, Participants, Health, Schedule

Today is Monday, February 10, 2020, and we have been working on all the components which will be of great importance following the filming of our two-minute movie production. Now the importance of these specific components such as location, participants, health, and schedule is that it helps in giving the filming team an idea of what will be occurring, and who will be involved. As well will map out everything which is done, so that we know what to do and not to do, so that it stays in check with the rules of the health and safety conduct. This will ensure a smooth and simple process. Without this planning many ideas would be scattered and uninformed, causing confusion between the group, which is not needed as it is key to keep the chemistry well within a group. In brief, our schedule seems to be very manageable and easy to go with as we discussed times that all of us would be free, as we are very busy with extracurricular activities such as soccer and volleyball. With no doubt I believe we will be concluding with a very unique and creative video which will be shown as we digently work with the schedule we have produced.

Planning Blog: Sound Script

Today is February 6, 2020, and my partners and I have been working diligently on the sound script for our movie. Sound plays a key role when it comes to a drama genre movie. Me and my partner made sure to have in this movie as many different types of sounds as possible because a movie like ours that involves drama needs to have good sound effects and sounds in general like music for example. Depending on what type of sound you choose and in what scene they come can change a viewers entire perspective in a movie. This movie will have both Diegetic Sounds, Non-Diegetic sounds, dialogues and as well background music to accompany the ambiance of the setting. Our group will be very careful when selecting sounds and music because most of the time they will get copyrighted and this will cause altercations. I realized that writing a sound script is really fun and easy. It allows you to create ideas and implement them in your movie. I have also learned that you can not write a sound script before you write your shooting script as you need to know whats going to happen before you know what sound to add. Me and my partners will be coming together tomorrow and email some music companies to ask their permission for the use of their  sounds and music. Hopefully we will be getting a good response and be able to add the songs we want in the background of our 2 minute film.