Filming blog: Important scenes

Yesterday my entire group filmed again. We were finally able to decide on a time when we were all free. After school we all rode home with Gavin. Then we had a few minor detours but we all made it to Gavin’s house. Then we all decided how we were going to film over a snack. The main predicament that we came upon was that we didn’t have someone to play the grandma. We discussed all possibilities. Some of which included having Gavin’s mom as the grandma or Maya, another group member, as the grandma. Then we decided we would discuss it after we went to ask Gavin’s neighbor to help. We went to Gavin’s neighbors house and he agreed to help by starting in our film. We decided that we would have nobody play the grandma in the film because we couldn’t find an actress. When filming this time, we tried to consider all the required shots of the project. Some shots we needed were action match, pan, and a tracking shot. We also re filmed the opening scene I discussed last blog. We did this because we were filming at Gavin’s neighbors house not his.
We had trouble deciding what we wanted to include as our action match. Thomas really wanted to do the same scene but different shots and Gavin wanted to do a transition. The transition he wanted to do was a cup being put down and the noise cuts into knocking on the door. Unfortunately I don’t think we ended up filming any action match. Because we didn’t film all of our scenes we will need to film some more this weekend at other locations. We will also need to figure out and film our action match.
Attached below is a screenshot from our footage that we filmed yesterday.

Filming blog: opening scene

This weekend my group and I got together like I discussed last blog. We met up at 1pm at one of our group members Gavin’s house. His house is located about 20-30 minutes away from all of our other group members houses. Unfortunately all of us were later in our arrival time. This means we didn’t all congregate until 2pm. Once we were all together we discussed our plan. The plan for filming that I discussed last blog was that we would film it all in two locations. One location would have a minority of the scenes while the other one would have only once scene filmed in it. We decided to start filming the opening scene. We only ran into one issue...our actors didn’t show up. We had texted actors to see their availability but none of them responded. So we decided to change the characters but not the plot.  The minor change we made was the gender of the character and her relative. The teenager Alex, is now a boy. The aunt, is an uncle, played by one of Gavin’s neighbors. Gavin is now playing Alex. Our group did run into some technical issues as well. We struggled with camera shots without a tripod. Because we didn’t have professional equipment we ended up wasting time on how to film a realistic P.O.V. shot. So my group decided to check out a camera in class today in the hopes it will make filming after our open ending scene easier. Attached is a screenshot from the footage of our opening scene.

Filming blog: filming prep

Unfortunately, our group hasn’t gotten the chance to film yet. Luckily, we have a set date on when to film. We will be filming this Saturday at an already decided upon location. We will film at one of our group members Gavin’s house. In addition to filming at Gavin’s house we will be using our personal cameras. The other option we had as a filming instrument was the school cameras. Our teachers and school are kind enough to let us rent out cameras for filming our movies. While we would like to take advantage of this opportunity, we don’t particularly fancy the school cameras. The battery dies quickly and the quality is subpar. My group believes that by using our cell phone cameras we can achieve better quality and we are planning ahead. Because we plan on filming multiple days at different locations we think it’s more convenient to use our cell phone cameras where we can instantly access footage. The other place we plan on filming at is the cemetery by our group member Maya’s house. I believe we will get a majority of our filming done on the first day but because the cemetery is only one scene. Plus, the cemetery is far we have set a separate date. We also need to call the cemetery once we have a filming date to confirm our authorization of filming at that location. My group has also confirmed the filming date because we manage the film, and especially me as the director, we have more influence on the dates we film. However, we are still waiting on confirmation from some actors. We have reached out to all actors and potential actors for our film. This is important because we need confirmation that they can show up to film our movie or else we have nobody for our film. Attached below you will find an attempt from my group member Maya to contact one of our actors.

Planning blog: Storyboard

This is our storyboard for our final project. This year in AICE media studies was the first time our group was introduced to storyboarding. We have learned all about why they are important to a film. Storyboards help us plan our film ahead of time. Not only does it help with the planing aspect but the visual too. By having to draw every scene we think ahead. This helps us eliminate any issues we might run into for filming. This also helps our group work together. If one person visualizes a scene one way and everyone else is thinking something different then it could cause issues during filming. This way all of our group members are on the same page and we are ready to film.

Planning blog: Location, Sound, Participants, Health, Schedule

This is the planning for the final project. In this power point my group and I go over the planning aspect to our final project. The power-point goes over; the locations that we will use. The music that will be playing and making sure that it cannot be copyrighted. The participants are labeled, positions such as the director, actors, filmer, and editors. It also covers health and safety in the film. Things such as how to prevent injuries and in the event of an injury what we should do. Our schedule is also detailed in the power-point. It is important for a schedule because of all the extra curricular that my group is involved in we need to organizer. That is what we discussed in the power-point.

Planning blog: Title Design

This is our title design for our final project. We decided to make a powerpoint and break up different aspect of our title design sequence to make it more organized. While allowing us to be more organized this also helps us plan ahead. By planning ahead we eliminate any mistakes we could have at the last minute and not be able to fix. We separated our design into font, color, spacing, and transitions. Using google slides also allows our plan to be easily shared with our group members. By using google slides we can also easily embed our slide into our blogs. We have easy access to our information and won’t lose our hard work. We did run into some problems while doing our title design powerpoint. But now those problems are resolved and my group has an idea and plan for what we will be doing for our final task.

Planning blog: Sound script

This is the sound script for final project.We separated our opening sequence by scene and indicated exactly what the audience will be hearing in each scene. We included the dialogue, voice over, any diegetic or non diegetic sound and the music heard in each scene. The importance of making a sound script is to ensure a smooth filming and editing experience. If we neglected this step in the planning process it would almost certainly result in error and many circumstances in which we would need to reshoot or re-edit. Due to a short time frame and a busy schedule we do not have the luxury of filming an abundance of reshoots or much time to re-edit. Another reason we do this is to organize our thoughts. Writing out the script for our opening sequence allows us to discuss wether we feel these sounds make sense in our movie and if the dialogue is clear and understandable for the audience. The sound is a major component in guiding the viewer in how to feel and portraying the emotions of the characters. For these reasons we found it necessary to write out our sound script before starting the filming process.

Planning blog: Shooting script

This is the shooting script for our project. This can also be used as the “directors script”. We created the shooting script as somewhat of a written form of our storyboard. We separated our opening sequence by scene and did a breakdown of what we will film. We included the camera angles, camera movement, shots, and a brief description of what the characters will be doing in each scene. The importance of making a shooting script is to ensure a smooth filming experience. If we neglected this step in the planning process it would almost certainly result in error and many circumstances in which we would need to reshoot. Due to a short time frame and a busy schedule we do not have the luxury of filming an abundance of reshoots. Another reason we do this is to organize our thoughts. Writing out the script for our opening sequence allows us to visualize what the opening sequence and make edits if we feel necessary.