Filming blog: The Shoot

We finally began the actual shooting of the short film. We had to make some major changes to the overall film, however. What we did is that we had to remove the father from the film completely due to schedule contrast. We out the spots with the mother and a little brother instead.
 We began filming with a handheld camera and a tripod which was working perfectly. We were able to shoot about half of the scenes in the movie with it. Then, out of nowhere the camera did not allow us to record. It was super weird because we would start recording and then it said that it couldn’t. We were able to find a temporary result, which proved quite ineffective. We deleted some of the extra scenes off of the camera and it actually filmed pretty well. Then the same problem arose again about 20 minutes later. Luckily, we had an extra camera on deck to film. We were very fortunate because the Tripp’s stand was able to connect to this camera, which was so helpful. When we inserted the SD card; however, the original shots from the other camera did not show up at all. This was pretty devastating as we had filmed so much of the film. Since we had already shot the previous shots we shot most of the scenes first try, which was pretty helpful. This turn of events actually helped us out better in the long run, all lost everything was different tech wise. The quality was much improved and the microphone on this camera picked up much more sound than the handheld did. The contrast is quite amazing when you look at the film. I’m pretty sure now the movie will come out better than we first thought it would.

Filming blog: The Wait

This is the first filming blog of the production process. My partner and I have still not begun filming. This is because we want to sort out all the kinks so that we can have a smooth film. One of these kinks is in the picture above. This is a screenshot of the email I sent to Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood International Airport (FLL). This email requests permission to film at the airport so if we went without their knowledge we wouldn’t be kicked out. They soon responded asking for more details into what we would be doing at the airport so that we could be approved. This makes sense as I was not very descriptive in what my group would be doing. So we responded with this:
 “ Good morning Ms. Arlene,

Our project is a 2 minute movie that is completely made by us. We have to film a short scene ( around 10-20 seconds) outside and inside of the airport. We won’t be filming with any big cameras or heavy equipment. We will just be filming with our phones. All we will be doing is filming a scene of a person taking out some bags and walking into the airport. Thank you,                       Xavier.”
I believe that we could get an email back to be a little more descriptive of what we’re doing. There is a chance though, that we could be approved by the airport very soon. There is also a chance that they would be redirected to FXE, or Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport. This would be a pretty big problem as they were our first choice for an airport because they are smaller and our school has a good relationship with them. However, when we emailed them, we didn’t receive a response for a few days, so we emailed FLL. FLL responded in the same day, but FXE still haven’t responded. 

Planning Blog: Storyboard

The storyboard is one of the most important things a studio needs to do before filming their movie. It is a process that needs to happen, and to be done with care and attention because what is on that paper should be what will happen in the movie. Making this story board was quite difficult. Me and my partner are not very good at drawing but I believe that what we have down on the paper can be easily understood. This was a very long story board, I took us about 10 pages to complete it. That was one of the hardest parts because we needed to capture every detail that we had memorized in our heads and try to put everything down into the paper. The storyboard will help me and my partner a lot during our filming because we will probably forget some essential details and looking at the storyboard will help us remember to film them. I really enjoy storyboarding because it gives you a feel that your whole movie is coming together and it is actually happening. Me and my partner will try to film as soon as possible to avoid any inconveniences. I am really excited to start filming to see how it will look in the camera.

Planning Blog: The Safety, Setting, and actors

This is my presentation. It talks about many steps we have to take before we are completely done with our movie project. This presentation has all the information that we need to finish our project. It contains all the due dates for every part of our project including blogs. Some of the last due dates are estimated because we don’t have a correct one yet but most of them are accurate. I have tried to capture the best picture I could to show more of the location me and my partner will be filming on. For Participants we will be using the help of a friend that is not in our group but she will be playing a role in our movie. Me and my partner are both males and we needed someone to play a female and she offered to help us. We will also be playing a role in her movie as well. At the health and safety section we tried to write everything that could be dangerous in our filming process. It quite hard because we will be filming mainly indoors but we figured it out eventually.

Planning Blog: Titles

This is my presentation. It talks about the exact placement of each of the titles. It also talks about eh font, size, color, and insertion of each of these titles. These titles can be the silent killers of the project because if there is a poor transition, then it could break the flow of the movie. The viewer never notices how well the titles are inserted, they only focus on it if it obstructed their viewing ability. In this presentation I talk about how and when the transitions will be inputed. One example of this is when Recruit gets out of his car and opens the mailbox, this is a common title insertion as it is introducing the setting. This is probably the most important portion of the whole project, the titles.

Planning Blog: Sound script

This is my sound script. Sound is a really important part 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 war and 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 Diegetic Sounds, Non-Diegetic sounds, voice overs, dialogues and a background music. Our group will be very careful when selecting sounds and music because most of the time they get copyrighted. I realized that writing a sound script is not hard and it is really fun to create ideas and implement them in your movie. I have also learned that you can’t write a sound script before you write your shooting script. Me and my partner will meet up tomorrow and email some music companies to ask their permission for the use of their music. Hopefully we will be getting a positive response and be able to add a good song to the background of our movie without getting copyrighted.

Planning Blog : Shooting Script

This is my Shooting script. This script plays a very large role in the way we plan and execute the movie. this is essentially the ground work of our entire clip. The selection of each of the shots can make or break your entire movie. I decided to choose certain shots that really make sure that the viewer can connect emotionally. Like when the sad music is playing and he sits down his parents to tell them about the letter. Or when he first sees the letter and the is a close up on his eyes to show his true emotion. In the script you can see how we also have a few shots that introduce you to who Recruit is and his position in the world. Recruit is a caring student that was devastated when being drafted to the war. These shots can tell you who the character is, how he is affected by his surroundings, and his emotions.