A Small Setback in Filming

 Over the past week, my group and I had planned to begin filming our short film. However, we had a small delay if plans. As American students, we had November 23rd to 27th to take a break from school and celebrate Thanksgiving with family. This break was also an opportunity to have some free time away from schoolwork. A few days prior to the break, I was told that I needed to make a trip to Colorado to visit my grandmother and deal with a family loss. I left before break and continued my virtual learning from Colorado. Although it was nice to visit my family, there was still the matter of filming. We needed to decide how filming would work with me being in another state. It wouldn't be a good idea for me to film by myself at my grandmother's house because if we needed to do re-shoots, I wouldn't be in the same setting. As a group, we decided it would be best to hold off on filming and do it after the break. This way we would be able to have consistent settings. Not only would the setting be different, but we wouldn't be able to collaboratively film together. This element was extremely important to us because all of our ideas went into making this film and it would only make sense if we all helped with directing, videography, etc. Branching off of one another's ideas is exactly how we created our story and completed our process up to this point. With that being said, my team and I are preparing to begin filming as soon as possible. Tomorrow is already the start of December and we planned on completing this  project around January. We have gathered materials and hope to start in the coming week. We have followed CDC guidelines and have tested negative and/or quarantined for 2 weeks. We plan on checking temperature before coming in contact with each other and are keeping masks, sanitizer, and wipes with us. All three of us have been so excited about this movie and it's finally time to begin!

Music Choice for our Short Film

Music is extremely important when it comes to conveying the mood and tone of a specific scene or entire film. The score of a film can be a symbol for many years to come. Audiences still hum the tune of the work of John Williams in Star Wars, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, etc. Scores help to establish a movie or even a movie franchise because of how recognizable they are. John Williams' scores have shaped generations by allowing a way for the audience to connect and engage in the movie and with others.  Often times, directors use music to make the audience feel something during a scene that may not be emotional enough with words. For example, in a horror film, intense music may be used to identify that there is a threat. In an action film, the score would have a quick tempo and likely be loud.

In the case of our film, we wanted to find music that would be dramatic. We don't have much dialogue so we needed a way to portray emotion besides our expressions. In the beginning of our film, after the girls part ways, the music would be emotional but would be slower and quieter. As the film progresses, the music will build until the moment when the girls put their headphones in. As each girl listens to their music, the movie will be silent. When they remove their headphones, the music will return to the tempo it was before and start to build again. Through each scene, the music will become more intense until Grace and Salem meet up at the end. The music will then be softer, allowing the audience to hear the dialogue. When Chloe's phone is ringing at the end, the music will no longer be playing. 

As a team, we decided to use non-copyright music in the score of our film. This is because we didn't feel that we needed an exact piece by a specific artist for the film. Instead of researching and emailing artists about copyright, we thought it would give us more options if we explored non-copyright music.

Creating our Media Platforms

The next step in preparing for our short film was to create media for marketing. In doing this, we will be able to share extra details that may not be included in the movie. My group and I needed to create a Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. We also set up a website to add the links to all of these platforms. We decided it would be best if one person created the website, and the other two people each made two social medias. I was in charge of creating the YouTube and Facebook accounts for the film. Before we could create our accounts, we decided to come up with a title that would be the usernames for everything. Currently, the title of our movie is Perception. We decided on this because perception means the state of being aware or becoming aware of something. The entire movie the audience is aware of the character's problems but they don't become aware till the end of the film (see storyboard). It's seems ironic that the title is more about the audience than the character's.

I started with creating a gmail for the movie because it would be needed to create a YouTube account. After that, it was simple to set up the account and make it live. The Facebook was a bit more difficult because of the username. Facebook does't allow its users to create an account with words that aren't a name. Even after trying to create an account and change the name, Facebook wouldn't budge. Instead of creating an account for the movie, I had to create a personal account for my group and then create a page for the movie. Then I had to add few details such as what the page is for. Lastly, I was able to activate the page and send the link to a teammate to add to our website. We can't wait to post some behind the scenes!

Storyboard Blog: Visualizing our Short Film

Storyboarding was the next part in getting our short film planned. Storyboarding is very important because of its visualization. My group mates and I made sure to talk about our vision as a whole for the film before making our storyboard. We split the drawings up for different scenes to make sure each one of us got the chance to be creative. Although drawing is very clearly not our strong suit, we tried our best to share our vision. Storyboarding will save us a lot of time in the long run because it helps plan out our entire film. Although this process can be long, carefully planning out each scene is very necessary. The storyboard is also a good way to see our film fully through before we start filming. The pictures help us see what each scene will hopefully look like. The sentences below each box are also very useful because they tell anyone reading what kind of shot and camera movements each scene will have. 

      This step is also useful because no time will be wasted on the actual day of filming. Storyboarding gives everyone in our group and out of our group a clear idea of what shots we want. An advantage of storyboarding is that we can find out what ideas we may have had that would work and what may not work. For example, we can try out multiple ideas or shots using the story boards and then see what we like best. Another advantage of this is that it can be easily changed depending on any new ideas we may have. Storyboards allow us to work out problems at an early stage before actual production takes place. This storyboard also helped give us an overview of the timing and rhythm of our short film. I think this part of planning is really tedious yet beneficial. Storyboarding has many advantages and will help our film in the long run! We are very excited to continue this project.

Planning Blog: Preparing for our Short Film

 1. Location- We will be filming at four different settings throughout the short film. The first setting is at a park. This is where the opening scene takes place, all the characters are introduced here. The next three settings are at each of the character's homes. There are three characters, Grace, Salem, and Chloe. These locations will be used to get an insight into each of the girls' personal lives. This location is actually huge for the plot of our story since each home is filled with the character's individual issues they face. 

2. Health and Safety- COVID-19 is still a problem so we will need to take extra safety precautions to ensure everyone is safe. We will do this by social distancing when we are at the park and wearing mask anytime we are not filming. As for the scenes that take place in homes, we will all quarantine on our own so there is no risk of us having the virus and transmitting it to each other. A parent will also be around incase of any sort of emergency.

3. Props: We will need a pregnancy test, a plate of food, dietician pills and headphones for each of the girls.

4. Costumes- When we are filming at the park, we will be dressed casually in jeans/shorts and a t-shirt. These costumes will remain the same for each of the characters throughout the short film.

5. Schedule:

November 9- November 13, 2020

Planning/Storyboarding

November 23rd, 2020

Filming

11:30 am- All of us will meet up at the park. We will shoot there from 11:30 am to around 12:30 pm.

12:30 pm- We will make our way to Sophia's home to film the scenes taking place in homes.

1:00 pm to 2:00 pm- We will go over all of the scenes for Salem's character and film them.

2:30 pm to 3:30 pm - We will go over all of the scenes for Chloe's character and film them.

3:45 pm to 4:45pm - Film all of Grace's scenes and go over them.

November 27th- December 4th, 2020

Edit short film

December 5th, 2020: Re-film

December 6th, 2020: Re-edit