Reflection after production!

    Well hello there everyone. Today you are in for a treat because I wanted to take some time to do some reflection in regards to the production of the video overall before I move on and begin to discuss the process of the CCR (be happy because the is a longer post haha).

    To be completely honest with you, this is my first project in this class where I am actually working on my own for a big project like this which was a little scary at first but as time went by I managed to get more comfortable and feel more confident with my skills. Both of my parents were awesome and I wouldn't have been able to complete basically anything without their help so for that I will always be super grateful. 

   One big challenge we encountered when we began filming was the footage itself. On the first day, as I explained on a previous post, we used an old (relatively professional) camera my dad has but literally never uses. The next day when we downloaded that footage onto the computer, we realized it was honestly way too dark and blurry meaning we had to start over again but this time using the phone camera. Also, the fact that I thought I could only film at night freaked me out a little since at nighttime I didn't really want to bother my parents so much because like, they need to rest too you know, so in order to get rid of that issue my mom came up with one of the smartest ideas in the history of ideas. Wrapping my window with wrapping paper. I even took a picture for you to see how it looks because to this day, I have NOT removed it off the window. My room is too bright in the mornings so I simply refuse to get rid of it.

(yes, the only kind of wrapping paper we had was Christmas themed and when we ran out I had to use a heart themed one. 10/10 would recommend if your room is bright like mine)

   Another big problem we faced, maybe the worst one, was lighting. Yes, figuring out how to get a good and clear shot while dark on an iPhone camera was absolutely HORRIBLE  because if we used the flash of another phone the shadow was too predominant on the shot so, after many emotional breakdowns, I had the idea to find a YouTube video of a white screen that lasts like 24 hours. Perfect, problem fixed. 

   Anyway, after filming for like 3 days straight the real challenge started. EDITING. I had edited things before but never something quite as important as this project so honestly, I was frightened. I spent quite literally HOURS and HOURS and HOURS editing but thankfully it all went quite smoothly. For the foley I just hid inside my parents walk in closet like a weirdo and just sat there in the quietness recording the clicking of a pen repeatedly.  

   Well blog, I think that this is more than enough content for today. Thanks for sticking around and listening. We're on the last stretch now!

Moving On!

    Hello there everyone, I have awesome news today! It is official, the video is completed and fully edited.  I got a really good picture of one of my favorite shots with shadows which I will show you in a little bit but before that, I want to genuinely communicate how much I appreciated both of my parents' help during the process, I wouldn't have been able to do anything without them and for their help I will be always grateful. They were my biggest collaborators and I am so happy with the result. Anyway here is a sneak peak of the video since my last post will include both the CCR and the opening. 

   

   This is pretty much it for now. As soon as I finished editing earlier today (I used iMovie because it is the app I feel the most comfortable with) I began the script of my responses to the four questions. It will be a busy week but so far I feel happy and motivated to keep going!

More info and good details!

    Hey blog! Today I thought it would be nice to take my time and talk a little about the production overall. Before anything though, I do want to let you know that the storyboard is completed and I will post  the rest tomorrow, however, I couldn't finish filming everything. Me and my dad were able to get most of it done but we still need to figure out a way to record the attack scene with only the shadows. Maybe we can use a blanket and put some lights to make it realistic but don't worry, I'll let you know tomorrow because we will finally finish and wrap up everything so I can begin editing. A challenge me and my dad faced was definitely the fact that we had to wait until nighttime to be able to record the videos since everything takes place at night obviously and my dasd gets home late from work. Thankfully, the process has been very smooth and surprisingly quite easy. The location used was my room which sounds easy enough, however, I had to clean a lot of stuff out to get the room more plain and let me tell you I have a lot of stuff in my room. I wanted the space for the props I had made that day. Through research I found that to help with sleep paralysis individuals take anti-depressants since one of the main causes for this sleep condition is anxiety, stress, lack of sleep and you guessed it, depression. Thankfully the websites I saw had names of specific drugs/ medication utilized in these cases so what I did was photoshop a label and tape it onto some pill boxes I have in my house. They look like this:

   I also saw a pill box that aids with depression that was decorated with happy faces (a little weird not gonna lie) but I thought it would be a nice contrast to add overall. To show lack of sleep I put some makeup to imitate baggy eyes and for the costume, I just wore a large hoodie with black sweats, but the color of the hoodie, light blue, was used to symbolize depression and sadness overall. Well here you go blog! A little insight on how it is going. Tomorrow I will finish the last scene I am missing to begin editing and I will provide more pictures and behind the scenes so don't worry!

Behind the scenes with me!

    Hello everyone! I just wanted to stop by to share some pictures I took from filming today. Keep in mind that I am filming in a relatively professional camera (by that I mean my dad's big old camera that we barely use) so the pictures may be a little blurry but I think the shots look very cool. Honestly, props to my dad because he is filming everything while I just try my best to act. We work great together but i know you are more interested in the pictures so without further ado here they are!

Storyboard

    Hey blog what's up! I have great news for you today because I will be sharing with you the storyboard of my film "Trapped" which I will begin filming tomorrow, wish me luck :)

What about the sound??

   Today, out of the many examples of blogs my teacher has shown me and the class I remembered a specific one (I forgot the name of the person, sorry) which talked about a sound library on Youtube where you could easily obtain and look through a variety of copyright free sound effects that can be used for anything and in my case, the opening. Taking the time to actually read other blogs helps so much as it provides so much information on things that I didn't even know existed. I have never done a project like this one before and it is cool to have those other examples on hand with me as a guide. I will definitely be checking out tons of sounds to see what fits best onto my project. 

   The links of the Youtube Channels I found with free sound provided below!

click here and maybe, only if you want also here :) 

Lightning and costumes!

    To establish a more thrilling and tense atmosphere I need to focus on the lightning a lot. It is so important that it could literally make or break my project. Luckily, I actually have a light strip behind my bed which will help provide any color lights I may need without having them be visible to my audience. I am going to use different lights to convey different emotions during the opening which I think adds a really cool touch overall. At the beginning however, before it all goes down, I want the room fully dark, and the computer screen being the only source visible. I found an example and it would look a little bit like this! 

Link here

Link here

   The second picture is really cool and I think a shot like this would be really nice for the opening. Anyway, when it comes to the costume design I am just thinking of wearing normal casual clothes but for the chaotic part maybe wear something black to demonstrate that what is happening is consuming the character completely. That's it for now blog, thanks for reading!

New Idea??

    The other day I was thinking of ways to increase the thrilling points of the opening overall and then I immediately remembered about the movie "Donnie Darko" which I have always really liked a lot. It is a pretty complex movie so the first time I watched it I didn't really understand anything, however, I was so invested that I looked up videos to help me understand better. The video is really helpful, I highly recommend watching it, link here!

   The movie explores a lot of unusual aspects overall, however, the one that stood out to me the most was the possibility of the character "Donnie" progressively traveling to multiple dimensions and ultimately giving up his life to save the whole universe. I was thinking about it and what if for my ending, after the crazy attack while dreaming, my character wakes up the morning after but in a parallel universe that will be shown through different props only the audience will be able to notice. I will talk to my mom about it to see what she thinks but I think this is a great idea overall. 

   Donnie Darko in my opinion is truly an awesome movie that will get you to think hard about what is going on and that is something I want to accomplish with my opening as well. Also, the cover is pretty cool, take a look at it

Link here :)

Blog Analysis in Class!

 Today in class my teacher posted an assignment for us to analyze four blogs which I found great overall. Out of all the four blogs posted I decided to analyze more deeply both Wade and Ryan's blogs as they just really stood out to me overall. What I loved about "Wade's Media Portfolio" is that they utilized tons of references to other films, shows, random pictures, and even a soundtrack on Spotify that related to the content of their opening as well as providing great explanations to everything including how that research would help them in the future. I also found this blog really helpful since I want my opening to have a similar vibe to the one they describe on their blog, meaning I now have more ideas on how to get my final result to be even better. 

 

The second blog I wanted to talk about was Ryan's and what I really found the most engaging was how he was not afraid to go in depth about his concerns such as when he discussed how he needed to get over his fear of other's opinions and just focus on his project, doing the best he possibly could. I truly find these comments very brave because it is not easy to admit to others your true feelings as it is so easy to just lie, especially on a blog, and say everything is fine when it is not. Also, his CCR is so cool and creative. Who thinks about flying a helicopter while reading a script and recording yourself. This definitely motivated me even further to make an engaging and fun CCR that is unique in its own way even if I am not flying a helicopter. 

 

Overall, I think I can add a bit more research to my blog so that I can give those reading better understanding of what I am really trying to do with my opening. I also need to add more images or even a soundtrack just like Wade on their blog and not be afraid to think outside the box like Ryan on his CCR. 

Finally have an ending!! :)

 Today me and my mom had a long discussion about the main issue I had with the opening which was, how do I end it! Anyway, remember how a few weeks ago I did some research on the on the opening of the movie Jaws? well, on that post I talked about how that opening ended very calmly as if nothing had really happened, with the calming sound of the waves and everything and the mystery of what truly brought the woman down because we never get to see that since it's always underwater. For my opening I wanted something with that structure and I finally got it. Since my main concept is a woman going through a sleep paralysis episode, the parts of the opening where I actually show what is going through her head are obviously very chaotic just like when the woman fights back against the unknown creature in Jaws and for the calm part I plan to have some shots of the woman just laying down, eyes open, and not being able to move. I think it is the best way possible because if the character suddenly woke up out of nowhere it would be more like a nightmare and it is not a nightmare but something much worse than that. After coming up with this end to the opening, so many ideas come to my mind about different shots, angles, costumes, and effects I can use to make everything better. That's everything for now blog, so excited for the future.  

Bit of trouble at the moment

    Hello blog! Not going to lie I am having a bit of trouble right now. Don't worry, it's nothing extremely serious, but it has set me back a little on my process. Basically, I thought my parents would be available to help me film this weekend, however, they had important job matters for the whole time and were unable to help me out which is a shame. Them being gone also meant that we had no time to discuss what we wanted the ending to be like. One thing about me is that I find it necessary for me and my parents to kind of agree with me on things because if they don't like my ideas then I immediately discard it since I know for a fact all they want is to see me doing something good and be successful overall. Just a little set back though, nothing extremely serious to worry about :)

CCR lesson day!

    Yesterday in class we had a lesson about the CCR at the end of the project. I had heard about it when we started but I did not think it was as complex as it sounded during the lesson. Thankfully I understood everything from my teacher perfectly as she gave us so many suggestions. Not going to lie though it kind of scared and overwhelmed me a little bit but I know that if I keep working the way that I am right now I will be fine. I definitely think that making a powerpoint with a voiceover to answer the questions may get a little boring so I will definitely pick options where I am recording myself and responding everything clearly and adding many examples from my opening and other films to make it more fun. Honestly I am so excited to keep going as it is going great so far. Can't wait for the results at the end! 

Group Check in Class :)

    Hello blog! Today I wanted to talk about how last class we had a little reunion with a random group of people in my class exclusively to talk about how we were doing so far on the project. I thought it was really helpful and nice to hear people out, give out my opinions, and also receive feedback for mine. In fact this meeting was so helpful that we even helped one of the girls in our group to decide between two concept ideas she had and gave her more ideas that she could work with. In regards to me, when I shared my idea I received a lot of good words and overall no critiques which was extremely encouraging and truly let me know that I am on the right track right now. After the meeting I definitely feel more motivated to keep working. Stay tuned for a storyboard very soon blog!