Day 19

 Obstacles

So, while I was trying to obtain a photo of my progress for editing today Adobe Premiere Pro told me that my media was offline. Which is a situation I have to take care of tomorrow. I got nervous at first but realized what the problem was. It says media offline because I transferred the files to my USB so the files are no longer on the computer where I have Adobe on. So my mistake. I didn't really think of that since I'm kind of a newbie, but now I know for next time! 

Another obstacle that's kind of stressing me out is that Alec has yet to send me the audio he wants to use for the morning montage. I desperately need it to finish the editing process so I can export. All I need is that and to edit in the credits. My plan is to completely finish editing tomorrow and start my CCR tomorrow. Then, on Tuesday I'll finish editing and export both projects and submit successfully. It can definitely be done. I just actually have to put in the work to finish. I really hope there aren't any more problems in that span of time so that my plan can run smoothly.

Day 18

 Editing 

Today I started editing! I tried my best to include all the scenes we took in the two minute span that we're provided. However, while I was editing I realized that we had too much footage. Originally there was supposed to be scenes shot in the outside area of my house in the film opening.

All outside scenes

But, the two minute mark caught up to me when I hadn't really gotten to one of our important shots. So, in order to make it work I had to cut some shots shorter than they were originally intended to be. For example, I had to cut the very first scene short by removing the part where our actor is walking up the stage because it took away valuable seconds that could be used on other shots we took.

Scene I had to cut short

When I first started editing I did have some trouble importing my files. I made sure that they were all already in MP4 file format. Luckily, I downloaded them from my google photos account so they were automatically converted into MP4 files. So that definitely made my life easier. When they were put into MP4 files they were automatically placed in a compressed file, and I tried moving that file into a USB I have where I keep all my online projects. I returned to Adobe to try to import but the files were no where to be found. So at that point I started stressing, but eventually I realized that the only way I could successfully import them from my USB would be by individually taking each download and placing into the USB file. It took me a bit, but I eventually got all 24 shots imported into Adobe. It always takes me a couple minutes to rediscover how to use Adobe Premiere Pro, but I usually get a hang of it. Which is exactly what I did! In the span of about two hours I placed all the scenes I could fit into a two minute sequence. I kept the sound for the speech part of the film opening but I removed the sound for the rest. Because me and Alec agreed to play some music over that part while the credits are playing on the screen during the morning montage.

I think I did a good job at organizing the files and keeping them in one place, and at successfully cutting and putting all the shots we did together. Editing is pretty easy once you understand how Adobe works. I do wish that I had already gotten a hang of Adobe beforehand so I could have worked faster on bringing the film opening together.

Day 17

 Obstacles

    We had set the date for filming on Tuesday at 2:00 pm. However, the day of my mom had told me that my aunt was coming to visit so, we had to reschedule to Wednesday at 4:00 pm. On Wednesday we successfully finished all of the scenes. Which makes me so relieved because we're running out of time to finish. We used my sister, a JROTC cadet, for our main character. So, we basically changed the gender of our character last minute. I was in charge of helping with mis-en-scene and a little bit of costume design. For the mis-en-scene I fixed up my bedroom to look less girly and more serious in a way. Because my room had lego figures of cats and a lot of plushies on the bed. So, to match the personality of our character I removed all of that stuff and made everything look more simpler and less exciting:

Before, and After

We filmed the whole montage of our main character getting ready in my room, in the upstairs part of my house. For the rest of the scenes we used the cul de sac that's right in front of my house and my staircase. As for the costume design I picked out what pajamas my sister would be wearing for the morning scene. I picked out a matching set of blue pajamas on purpose. Blue is meant to represent intelligence, loyalty, and sadness. Which displays what our character normally feels. For the next outfit, I had to pick out something that would allow for her to look as if she had actually just gone out of the shower. 

Outfit for towel scene

So, when she wrapped the towel around herself it looked legit. I also made sure that the tube top wasn't showing on her back. I think I did a decent job at costume design and mis-en-scene. It helped develop the scenes pretty nicely. I'm very happy with the outcome!

Day 16

 Schedule

    This week is the final week before submission of the portfolio project. So I have prepared a schedule for myself to stay organized to successfully develop this project of ours for submission.

Monday:

• Use Canva to produce credits to add into film opening

Tuesday:

• Produce all of missing footage
• Begin editing

Wednesday:

• Begin production of CCR

Throughout the rest of the week:

• Continuously edit until desired result is produced

Canva has been a great tool for us in developing our title screen just as how we wanted it. I think it will also serve a great purpose in developing out credits for the film opening. Alec is in charge of choosing out the sounds for the film opening, he gave himself that role. He seemed pretty excited about it so I trust him with making good decision for sound choice. I think this process is very doable this week. With the use of spring break and no other homework assignments interfering with the process, it'll work more efficiently!

Day 15

 CCR

    Since it's about time that I start thinking about what I'm gonna do for my CCR, I started brainstorming. 

My different ideas:

Interview:

• For this I can use friends to help me out which could be fun
• I would dress up nicely to make it seem like an interview
• I would supply process pictures throughout the interview

Answering questions

• For this I can just answer the questions on my own
• Walking around and changing the background can help out for a change of scenery
• Nice background music would exclude the unnecessary silence
• I'll edit in process pictures for visuals

Talking with friend

• I could be walking with a friend and I could be talking about the questions and telling them my answers for each question.
• I could treat this as a situation similar to a person telling her friend about her dream
• I'm not sure if background music would fit the environment of this one
• I feel that the walking would be necessary to provide a dynamic environment.
• I'll input process pictures
• For the pictures I could pretend to show my friend the pictures and then it'll pop up on the screen

I really like all three of these ideas. I still have yet to decide which one of the three will be the one that pops out the most to me. I think the third one might be my choice to be honest. I feel that it's a fun version of doing my CCR and I would have everything I need to make it a successful one at that too.

Day 14

 Title

    Today I started picking out different fonts that I liked and that I thought would fit well with the theme of the story. I thought bold text would fit the best for out title. After picking out the ones I really liked, I had Alec make the final decision and pick out which one he likes out the ones I had picked. 

These are all the different fonts I asked him to choose from:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/XSpmM51cEf1ZgUcJ6

    He chose the font that's at the top left. Then, we talked about color and symbolism. We decided to make the title the color yellow because it signifies greed and deceit. Which can portray the government and our main character, Ciel. We decided a black background would bring out the words on the screen the best in comparison to a white screen. We thought about making the background yellow and the font black, but we thought the yellow would be too overwhelming. So, we just stuck with the yellow font and the black background.

This is what that design looks like:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Js67xdrKE8yeKwh66

    Next, we talked about how we want the title to pop up on the screen. If we want it to pop on the screen or fade in etc. I used Canva to make the title scene six seconds long, and it'll be slowly getting bigger as the seconds go by. When the title screen pops up in our film opening, the sound in the background will be our actor Aden saying "We need a monarch!". Which I think will work perfectly!

This is the final design:

Monarch Title Screen

All that's left for the title screen is to plug in the sound that's supposed to be in the back and that little excerpt will be completely ready.

Day 12

 Schedule

    Alec and I have decided to start filming this week! We already started a rough draft of our storyboard, by just writing down ideas of what some of the scenes would look like with different types of shots. Alec was also able to get a rough draft of the first scene with the speech and our actor, Aden Brennen. They shot it in the auditorium, and Aden did a great job at acting. However, the footage could be better because I saw that Alec's shadow of his head was on the podium during the scene. That and the fact that Alec didn't use a stabilizer which presented more a handheld shot. Which is not really what we're going for. So, I think those were the two problems with the footage he showed me. For the good stuff, I really liked the spotlight that they were able to give Aden during his speech! It looks really great. 

These are all three shots he was able to start off with:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/m5zfgUP19XGUDXPs5

https://photos.app.goo.gl/3MX3ZfxpfQf3oYjv9

https://photos.app.goo.gl/S2SDsowX2nJZpqgP7

Day 13

 Storyboard

Alec and I are planning to discuss more about our storyboard and actually set down the structure of our film opening through it. Our storyboard is probably gonna be pretty long, now that I think about it. I'll separate it into scenes to organize it better:

• The speech
• Ciel's (main character) bedroom
• Hospital
• Hallway
• Ciel preparing himself to enter a room

This has to get done next class, because I feel like Alec and I are moving at a slow pace, and the due date is getting near. Since Alec already got the chance to start the speech scene, he wasn't really sure how to film it so he just did various angles of the speech just in case. Which is really great, we can use that strategy to pick out the best one. Or, we can use excerpts of each angle to kind of revolve around Aden (our actor for the speech).

First angle

Second angle

Day 11

    In class we learned about all the information that we need to create our CCRs. 

What I learned:

The purpose of the CCR is to reflect on the planning, production, and final product of the portfolio project. In order to successfully complete the CCR, you have to respond to four compulsory in depth through a creative video.

In total, I will have to create two productions: my two minute portfolio project, and my ten minute CCR production. My different options for the CCR are: 

•  a presentation with voice-over and export as a movie.
• Director commentary-combination of director speaking on camera and examples from production.
• Talk show-"host" interviews director

The four questions that need to be answered:

• How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
• How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
• How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
• How did you integrate technologies-software, hardware and online- in this project?

The CCR should be a reflection ont he project as a whole. I must discuss what I have learned, what I would do differently if provided the chance, and how could I improve next time.

Overall tips

• Create script
• Present info clearly
• Incorporate research

Don't do tips

• No talking head: a video of just constant talking and nothing else.
• Don't wing it: make sure to plan throroughly.
• Don't provide general responses: responses must be thorough and accurate.

Day 10

 Screenplay

Alec designed a screenplay on Celtx but the link wasn't working for me for some reason, but I'll still link it down here just in case. 

https://www.celtx.com/auth/public/resource/irqf5xy6

Here are pictures just in case it doesn't work.

I think the script is pretty cool, I really like the speech. The formality of it captures what the speaker should most definitely speak like. It was exactly as I imagined. I think it'll work perfectly for the beginning of our film opening. I also really like the flinch that Ciel does at the mention of his father. It simulates the trauma and history that he has between the government and his father. When I was reading through the script I was imagining how they would sound like in my head and to me they each speak a little formally in their on way. Which is good, since they are people who are in the military. It mirrors the respect that I usually see in military movies between soldiers and their superiors. I especially like the beginning of the script after the speech. The part where Ciel silently and solemnly goes about his mornings contrasts with him happily greeting people down the street. I feel like that really brings out a big aspect of his character, which is that he's basically broken on the inside. It simulates how he hasn't been normal since the incident between his family and the government. I really love the script! It captures what Alec and I wanted it to be. 

Day 9

 Research/Analysis

    Today I had watched the film "Her" on the media platform Max. Throughout the film I realized the abundant use of color. The main character is often associated with shades of red to illustrate how he yearns for love. I also read an article and a video embedded in it to learn more about it. I remember that during a few scenes of the movie, the color red is completely absent. Which is trying to illustrate the absence of love. They also try not to overuse the color very much by spacing out red objects or just the color in general throughout the movie. They also use different colors such as yellow to demonstrate the mood. 

This thumbnail completely surrounds the main character with red which shows his desire for love.
    

    This research has inspired me to think more about color scheme for our film opening. I feel like using shades of blue at some point can help illustrate the sadness that our main character has towards his parents. Dark colors like black and maybe a dark red could also help demonstrate the hatred he has for the government and his evil intentions. I think that this could really help bring the setting and story to life. However, in order to do this successfully we'd probably need to maybe find walls that are colored to our liking to create some scenes. Or the color of the clothing could be a great tool in portraying emotions. Lighting would also serve as a great tool to portray the mood of certain scenes. For example, during the scene where our main character attempts to visit his parents but doesn't succeed, we can use dim lighting and maybe some soft blues to contract the sad atmosphere. Which I think would be great to bring out the emotions of the scene out more clearly.

Day 8

  Casting

    Alec and I were discussing our casting situation. Alec has decided to be the main character, and I think it would be great because he has a good vision of what the character should act like. Plus, he has his JROTC uniform which will serve a great purpose for our opening. As for the rest of the characters, we're trying to recruit actors that are also in the JROTC program so that we can use their uniforms and acting in the film opening. We already successfully recruited Aden Brennen to be the one who is in charge of saying the speech at the beginning of our film opening.

    Other people that I would want to recruit is my sister since she is also a JROTC cadet at Cypress. So, we're mainly recruiting JROTC enrolled students to be in our film opening. That way we don't really have to stress about costume design. I think these are really good decisions for out film opening because it saves us time from really thinking about what our characters would be wearing in every shot. As for out actors, Aden Brennen is known to be a very outgoing person and very expressive of his emotions, and so is my sister. So, I think they'd do great as two of our characters. The people typically enrolled in the JROTC program aren't really shy people in my opinion. So hopefully acting will be a fun activity for them!

    Even though the JROTC uniforms are basically all we really need for almost every scene in the film opening, there is gonna be a scene where see our main character is getting into uniform after waking up. So, deciding what he wears to sleep will most likely represent his mental health or what he feels comfortable with. I'm really into symbolism so I'm gonna explain to Alec about us portraying our characters through symbolism.