Reshooting

     Reshooting is something that's part of most projects, me and my partner accepted that last week when we realized that some of the filming was improperly done. We didn't stress out and rolled with it. We chose to film someday at the beginning of this week since that's when my partner got back from spring break.

    We decided to reshoot for various reasons. The most important one being for the fact that we needed continuity, and they way some of our clips were put together by the lighting wasn't very normal or natural. Plus we also had the struggle of running out of battery on both of our phones, while not being close to my friends house. All of this in combination with other factors lead for us to schedule some reshooting. 

    Despite our problems we still aren't stressed since we know we have a small amount of clips left to retouch and refilm. We feel confident with our available time.

week 2 of filming day 2

    Filming day two was most definitely less eventful than day one. We ended up changing a couple scenes due to the fact that for some odd reason my friends dog hates me, probably due to my cats. This was the least of problems considering what happened next.

    

    It was all going ok until we realized that the audio was going to be an issue, we managed to figure out ways to record the audio but it wasn't perfect. The sun started to get low which meant we had to finish recording quick, not only that, we weren't close to his house so it wasn't like we could do any pit stops to quickly change things up or look for anything.

    I then realized how low my phone battery had gotten to from filming for the CCR plus filming the entire day, I ended up running out of battery which led to us filming with my friends phone, this was bad because it would cause problems with continuity since I had been using his phone as a "prop" through the whole film opening.

    Shortly after we also ran out of battery on his phone too, fun.

    We quickly ran home and charged up in hopes of finishing the last clips, we recorded for about another hour, to then realize that it had gotten too dark on the last clip, so the sequence of events wouldn't make any sense. 

    To conclude the filming day we gave up and decided to meet up on Tuesday or Monday when he gets back to finish off the last clips and details we missed.

    

week 2 of filming day 1

    We started our second week of filming strong on day one, we got a lot of work done quickly, we managed to finish all the shots inside of my friends room, which helped with cleaning up the "set". We ran into absolutely no problems in day one which was great. 

    We managed to finish everything but 8 clips pretty quickly which led to us planning our blog posts and editing ideas earlier. 

    There isn't really much to say except for the fact that I'm looking forward to day two of filming, we have to record the big clips which include the most dialogue and movement.

Scene Development

    In my opinion scene development is a big factor of film openings since they allow this short projection of the film in a decently short amount of time. Me and my partner had this in mind throughout our project brainstorming, which allowed for a great flow and development in between the scenes. 

    Some of those ideas included making sure that the dialogue would flow towards a significant point. We didn't want to have insignificant filler dialogue, this meant that we had to change the script often, making it flow better and sound more natural.

    Most of our scenes followed this pattern which led to the main talk being related to college and future.

    Our main character would mention his underachieving self, as the secondary character developed the talk of the scene to be about college and future. This happens throughout all of our scenes. Not only did the second character develop our dialogue but Peter's dad did too, interrupting him when being lazy with phone calls.

    Judging by our decisions and the look and "feeling" of what we have recorded up to date, we are doing a great job with scene development and the film opening should come out great. 

First Day of shooting

    Today shooting went great and efficiently, I got to Diego's house pretty early into the day and got straight to work. He showed me the plans and storyboard he had printed out, and we got straight to work. We worked on props and planning and started filming.

    To begin with we started with the first clip of scene one. We finished pretty quick and recorded various versions. We recorded variations of the different shots to ensure that we had the perfect arrangement. This also ensures that we don't have to go back and record old clips later into the weeks of filming and editing our film opening.  

    After we finished shooting we took a little break and decided to go for  a walk to find new film locations for our new scenes, we ended up finding two really nice spots for scene 2 of our opening. These two spots allow us to have a more continuous and "relevant" sequence of events.

    Over  all, four our first filming day I think we did pretty well and got done with a decent amount of work. I'm looking forward to filming next week and commenting on our process.

Costume creation and clothing

     Me and my partner brainstormed on the outfits very little, since we knew exactly what we needed.  For our main character we needed a simple generic outfit, and our secondary character needed outfits related to his sport and hobbies.

    I plan on wearing a very simple outfits with a green shirt, some shorts, and a pair of black vans. This seems pretty generic to us. On the other hand our secondary character will have sporting wear on, sort of to back up his previously discussed hobbies.

    These are pretty early decisions which  could change the day before filming since like I've mentioned before we are average teens, there isn't much we can do to create costumes.

    Another thing is the fact that this is a drama film opening, its meant to be realistic and relatable, unlike action films, sci fi films, etc.

Prop Creation and Arrangement

    One of the first things we plan on doing when I get to my partners house is to set up the space where we are recording. We plan on adding post its on the wall with different classes and assignments to serve as "reminders" for the main character, and removing some of his posters and personal belongings from the shot.

    Related to the prop subject we have to move around a couple things in his room that could relate to certain hobbies, we did this because one of the main qualities of our main character is that he hasn't dabbled on any hobbies at all and is drifting into college blindly, not knowing who he really is. We'll have to remove things like his guitar, his track posters/other posters. We will also have to ensure that his piano isn't seen in any of the shots.

    That pretty much makes it for most of the props we have to move around, since we are filming in an "average" teens room already it all fits in properly to the subject of our film opening.

    With scene one out of the way in the planning department we still have to figure out the props for the following scenes, but it shouldn't be hard because like I said, we are filming in a generic teens room for the most part, and for the scenes were we aren't we will be filming outside, where the props are naturally everywhere ready to be filmed.

Our plan for editing

     Me and my partner plan on keeping it rather simple with the post processing. We want our film opening to look smooth and continuous. If we over use edits it would deprive the attention from the main idea of our film. I was also planning on maybe messing around with the color schemes of our clips to change the mood.

    As I previously mentioned, we are keeping it simple with our edits and transitions so that the viewers don't diverge from the main idea of our film. The problem with doing this incorrectly is that the clips can look improper and the over all aspect of the film would turn into a rough experience for the viewer. This means that we have to use our own transitions and effects molded into our clips, so that they fit well together. 

    On the topic of the color schemes and tones, I've learned quite a bit about colors throughout class, since it was a previously discussed topic. This gives me a strong standpoint on the color situation, and if properly executed, the mood of said clips can adapt to what the scene is trying to portray.

    In conclusion the post processing of our film opening will be dependent on our understanding of how to use transitions, effects, and colors properly to change and adapt the mood of a scene.

Our choice of shots

 Judging by the films me and my partner have watched recently we decided to stick to a small variety of shots used often in drama films. Some of these shots are, close ups, extreme close ups, medium shots, pov shots, etc. 

Our choice of shots will allows us to keep a close relation to the characters, yet allowing a little room for the background and surroundings to be noticed. For example in scenes were our main character (peter) is having deep thoughts we would most likely chose to use a close up, maybe even a medium shot. This will allow the audience to focus on our characters facial expressions, further connecting the viewer to our film opening. 

For scenes like conversations or just general filler shots we will use pov shots, over the shoulder shots, medium shots etc. This allows the audience to focus on what our character is doing and in a small amount of shots to focus on the mise en scene elements.

To conclude my post, we plan on using these shots to involve the audience, and make sure they are getting the full experience of our drama film opening.

Story Board

 

Although I described our project on my past post we’ve had to do some changes to some scenes, either way, here’s our storyboard.

The scene starts with peter not paying attention to the presenter/ being eager to leave.

He then realizes that he has to change his attitude, as he notices that paying attention would’ve been a better decision.

Peter and Mike see each other while walking their dogs.

They have a conversation about college, as I mentioned before on my previous blog posts, this convo sort of snaps something into peters head.

This conversation is shortly ended after peters dad calls him, wondering as to why he isn’t home doing his schoolwork.

Peter gets home straight to play video games instead of doing as his dad said

Mike goes to Peters house to tell him he should do his work and listen to his dad, he also mentions that he will plan on helping him find his future, and what really loves doing.