Wrapping Things Up

     Today, I focused on editing my CCR and doing a few finishing touches on my film opening. I put together the clips that I filmed for my CCR in Premiere. What took a lot of my time while editing is inserting pictures and videos from websites that I used for my research, clips from my film opening, and clips from other sci-fi films. My CCR was a bit shorter than I had expected it to be, so editing didn't take as long as I thought it would. I may go back to edit in some music or sound if I have time. After that, I went back and tweaked a few things with my film opening. I slightly edited the title and credits, and I played around a bit more with the dialogue and other sounds within the opening. 

    So, this is pretty much the end of my project. I'm relieved to have finally reached the end, and pretty proud of how my project came out overall. I may still tweak small things, but I'm ready to finally conclude. I've faced a couple obstacles throughout, like not getting the exact costume I wanted or having to push back my film date. At the time, these really stressed me out, but it thankfully didn't affect my project too much in the long run. 

Filming my CCR

     This week, I began working on my CCR more. I started out by reviewing the four questions that I had to answer and thinking about how I could answer them. I went back to my blog to see things that I had already researched, like general information about the genre and who my target audience is. I also researched a bit more on parts of the questions I wasn't already sure about, like how my film would realistically be distributed. I also brainstormed what exactly I was going to do for the videos. I had already made a brainstorming list of ideas a little while ago, but I didn't really like most of the ideas, or I thought they would take too much time or effort that I didn't really have. I ended up deciding what I would do pretty last minute because I spent a lot of time thinking about both the questions and what I would do for the actual videos.

    I then wrote my script for my CCR. I mostly wrote down things that I had to mention and a general outline of what I should say. I was also able to get my friend Jessica to help me film one of the videos today. It took a bit longer than I expected, because we kept laughing and messing up our lines. But overall, filming went pretty well. Tomorrow, I plan to finish editing both videos for my CCR, since this is the last bit of my project that needs to be completed. 

Sound Editing

    This week, I finished editing in the sound for my film opening. The first thing I did was work on the dialogue. There are three separate clips in the opening that include dialogue. While filming, I somehow didn't think of using a mic, which made the audio kind of unclear. Luckily, I found a way to isolate the audio in Premiere. This technique worked really well to enhance the dialogue. For this feature, there's a setting called the mix amount, which determines how much or how little the audio is enhanced. The lower the amount is, the closer the audio sounds to its original, un-enhanced form. One thing I noticed is that the higher I put the amount, the more robotic Nidhi's voice sounded. It was a bit of an obstacle trying to have the right amount to where the ambient sounds weren't too loud, but her voice didn't sound too robotic. Also, I was not able to use this feature to enhance the dialogue on one of the clips, because the audio began to glitch and I couldn't fix it. It doesn't sound ideal, but not horrible at the same time. 

    After I finished working on the dialogue, I began searching for sound effects to use. I used a website called FreeSound, which I also used for a previous project where I needed to find various sounds. I spent some time searching for the right effects. I mostly searched through a lot of siren sound effects, because there is a siren audible throughout the scene, and a different siren used at the very end. I had to find some that fit the tone I was going for, since some of the siren sounds I found were too eerie. I also had to find some that weren't too annoying, since the siren would be playing throughout the scene. I also found sound effects for small actions, like opening a pill bottle and drinking water. After I took the time to find all of these sounds, I sent them from my phone to laptop to edit them in.

    As I edited the sounds in, I played around a lot with the volume of different sounds. I tried to make the audio pretty balanced, and made sure each was at an appropriate volume. For example, I wanted the sound of opening the pill bottle to bo slightly louder than the sound of gulping down a sip of water. I also didn't want the dialogue to be too much louder than the rest of the sound throughout the scene. A lot of time was spent with this, along with making sure each of the sounds was played at the perfect time. During this process, I also learned how to unlink the video and audio of a clip, which was very useful for adding in so many sounds and deleting the original audios of the footage. After finishing this, I went back and tweaked the enhanced dialogue a bit more. 

    Editing in sound was a bit daunting at first. Even though I had done it before, I wasn't looking forward to having to find and edit in every little sound, especially because this scene for my film opening is relatively quiet and these sounds would realistically be very easy to hear. But, I'm glad that this part of my project is finally finished. Sound editing was the last major thing I needed to do during the editing process of my film opening. I may go back and do a few finishing touches, but I'm pretty much done with editing!

Beginning to Edit

    This week, I've begun editing my film opening. The process of editing so far had been pretty straightforward. I started by finding the clips that I planned to use out of the footage I had. I then put these clips in order and slightly edited a few of them (mostly those with dialogue). After I had the clips in order, I tried to work a bit more with the credits. I played around with different fonts to see which specific ones I wanted for the title and credits, including the color of the fonts and the alignment of the credits. I also researched which order film credits usually go in, and mapped out which specific credits would go in which clip.

    

    One thing that took a bit more time was the editing of one scene where the character is talking directly into a digital camera. This shot is from the perspective of the camera, so I wanted to use editing to make it seem like the footage is filmed from the camera she's holding. I had to play around with different effects on Premiere, which took a while because there were so many effects available to achieve this specific look. I wanted to find one that didn't look too vintage, but also didn't look too vivid or modern. I finally settled on one that I think is pretty good. I might decide to change it later, but I think it'll be fine for now. 

    Next, I plan to edit in sound. It was a bit weird having no sound in my project so far (except for dialogue), because I think the sound editing is what will really make this opening more interesting. I've already started planning out which sounds I have to find from an online database, and I plan to finish editing in these sounds within the next few days. 

Learning about Editing

     Earlier this week, I began playing around with different editing softwares. For part of my project, I wanted to make the sky/landscape look different, without making it look like there was a filter over the scene. I wanted to test out making the grass less saturated and making the sky a slightly different hue. I first tried Adobe After Effects, and played around with it a bit. It was a bit hard for me because I didn't really watch any tutorials or anything to help me out. I then tried Photoshop, because I figured it would help achieve my goal easier and I found it more simple than After Effects. I ended up watching a short tutorial on YouTube and using the tutorials within the software itself to help me out. The YouTube video gave me a brief introduction to Photoshop, while the tutorials within Photoshop helped me figure out how to change the hues and saturations of different parts of a photo/video. 

 

    I also tried to learn more about Premiere Pro, since that's the primary editing software I'm using. I've used Premiere twice before for past video projects, but it felt quite clunky to use and I knew there was an easier way to use it. I ended up using tutorials to help guide me, since the first two times I used it, I just did what I could without help from other sources. I really want to edit my project well, so I wanted to make sure I could use Premiere as best as possible without taking more time than it should. 

Photoshop Tutorial for Beginners 2022 | Everything You NEED to KNOW! (n.d.). Www.youtube.com. Retrieved March 24, 2024, from https://youtu.be/61mkx_OV61s?si=fy999ptcYfK8MnA4

Filming!

     On Monday, I was finally able to film my project. I was supposed to film on Saturday, but I ended up getting really sick. Luckily my friend Nidhi, who's helping me with this project, was available after school on Monday. I was honestly so lucky that I was able to successfully film everything on Monday, because I was scared that I would have to postpone filming once again.

 

    Planning for filming took a lot of thought for me, especially mise-en-scene elements. In my film opening, the protagonist is wearing a plain, baggy, black jumpsuit. I ordered this off of Amazon two weeks ago, when I initially thought I would film. I originally going to order a blue one, but I couldn't find one that would come in time. I still regret not having the blue one, but I think the black jumpsuit still achieved its purpose. 

    Additionally, during the film opening, there are a row of pills, and the character takes one of the pills. Some of them were random over-the-counter pills and others were prescription. Obviously, I wasn't going to have my friend swallow real pills. I filled a pill bottle with white Tic Tacs temporarily and made sure that was the only bottle that was opened during filming. Also, since some of the bottles were real prescriptions, I tried to scribble some personal information out and tried to not to get it in frame, at least not to a degree where it was legible. For makeup, I wanted to use makeup to make Nidhi's character look sick. She said she was able to do it, which I trusted her with because she had done pretty great Halloween makeup. She ended up making her under-eyes look more grey, and other techniques to make herself look less lively. She generally tried to recreate how she looks when she's sick so it would look believable. 

    I was surprised that filming was actually pretty quick. It only took about an hour, and that included preparing the costume and set. It also included going over the script with Nidhi multiple times to make sure she knew exactly what to do so we wouldn't have to do too many takes. I had gone over the script and storyboard with her two weeks ago to make sure it made sense to her and to give her a general understanding of her character and the plot. I had sent the script to her a few days before we filmed to give her a chance to prepare and memorize it. Overall, filming went really well. Though she had no prior acting experience, I think Nidhi did pretty well with the acting. I think I got good footage to work with, and I think everything came together great. I'm pretty excited, since now I feel like my project can finally move forward.

Font Research

    Fonts are a very important part of conveying a certain message, so I've researched font psychology for the creation of my film's title. The three main types of fonts (serif, sans, and script) all have varying purposes. Serif fonts evoke a sense of respect and trust from the audience. Sans fonts are straightforward and modern, used to convey a direct message. Script fonts are used for more creative purposes and are often seen as elegant. While researching fonts, I had to keep in mind what feeling I wanted to evoke from the audience from my film. I wanted to create a sense of curiosity and slight unease. Through my research, I made not to use a more rounded or soft font, because it would create a sense of warmth, which is the opposite of what I'm going for. 

    

   Certain fonts will not attract my target audience. Since my film is within the sci-fi genre, it was a good idea for me too look at fonts used in the titles of other films within the genre. The majority of sci-fi films use sans serif fonts. Moon, Inception, and High Life are all examples of this. Though, there are some sci-fi films, such as Interstellar and The Creator, that use serif fonts. Most films within this genre likely use sans serif fonts due to their straight-forward nature. They are also used in modern and tech-focused settings, which is fitting for films with a major focus on science and tech. And since sans serif fonts are so straight-forward, they're also successful at creating a sense of unease and coldness, which is the tone that most science fiction movies carry.  

Edwards, G., Edwards, G., Weitz, C., Washington, J. D., Voyles, M. Y., & Chan, G. (2023, September 29). The Creator. IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11858890/

High Life - Rotten Tomatoes. (n.d.). Www.rottentomatoes.com. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/high_life_2019

CCR Brainstorming

     Yesterday, I began brainstorming my creative critical reflection. I learned more about the questions that need to be answered through my CCR, and started thinking more about it. I've been considering who exactly who my specific target audience of my film would be, and how I'm developing representation. I think keeping these questions in consideration will help me with the rest of the production process, as keeping them in mind will allow me to create a film opening that really represents its intended purpose. I'm also brainstorming ways to answer these questions creatively, and I've started to jot down a list of ideas that I could use. 

    I plan to continue to brainstorm how exactly I'll do my CCR during the next couple of days. Since I haven't yet filmed my project (I'm planning to film this weekend), I'll really try to work on this project as much as possible during the next week and the week following. Next week, I'll focus on editing my project. Then, during spring break, I'll focus more on doing my CCR. During this week and next week, I'll just be brainstorming my CCR and planning (like writing a script), but I'll film and edit it during spring break. I have quite a bit of work ahead of me, but at least I'll have more time during spring break to work on this project without the stresses of my other classes.

Postponing filming

     So, today I was supposed to film my project with my friend Nidhi, but that didn't end up happening. Last night, she texted me that she couldn't come because she realized she had already planned to hangout with another one of her friends. To be honest, I was a little bit upset because we had already planned out everything on Thursday, so she had time to tell me this earlier than she did. But I understand why she couldn't come, because she had already made plans with her other friend before she made plans with me. Earlier in my project, I had already talked to two of my other friends who were willing to help me if I needed them to. Neither of them were available this weekend, because on was on a school trip and the other was at the beach for the weekend. The rest of my friends had no idea about this project, so it would've been a bit unfair for me to drop something like this on them so last-minute. So that left me with no one else to film with this weekend.

    The reason this is pretty upsetting is because I really didn't want to wait an entire additional week to film my project. I wanted to have as much time to edit as possible. But now, I have no choice but to wait until next weekend to film. I even asked Nidhi if she was available any day after school as a last resort. But as I expected, she's busy after school. Honestly, even if she was available, I'm not sure if I would go through with it because I'm usually tired and busy after school as well. Overall, I'm not too happy about having to wait another week to film, but I guess it'll give me more time to think about my props more, since that's one part of my project I was a bit unsure about. 

Planning to film

     I finally think I'm ready to film. Today, I went over my script and overall story with my friend Nidhi, who agreed a small while back to act the main character in my film opening. I showed her my storyboard and script, and I explained the backstory of her character. I asked her a bit of feedback to make sure that my storyboard and script made sense, because if it didn't make sense to her, it more than likely wouldn't make sense to the audience watching the film opening. And while I thought my script was a tad bit rough (since I don't have any experience at all), she said it was good. I made sure she was aware of exactly how I plan to film, which includes costume and makeup, and she thankfully agreed to it.

    The next step I plan to take is ordering the costumes. I already planned for her to be wearing a plain, slightly dirty jumpsuit, which I could just order off of Amazon. For her role, I also wanted to utilize makeup to make her look more sick/tired, and she agreed to do the makeup herself. So, I'll probably just send her reference pictures of how I want to makeup to look. We already discussed ideas on how we could achieve the look I'm aiming for. I also need to make sure the location (my garage) is clear enough for us to film, and make sure I have all my props (mainly just the camera) prepared. We agreed to film this Sunday, which I'm happy about. I was afraid I would have to wait until later, maybe even the following weekend, to film incase she wasn't available this weekend. Overall, I hope everything goes well with filming, and that we're able to finish in a relatively short amount of time.

Finishing my Script

     Yesterday, I finished writing my script. It took me a while because I really wanted to develop my protagonist well before I wrote dialogue. Since I'm doing science fiction, I worked on building the context for the world in which my story takes place in. I went through a lot of brainstorming to figure out the "history" of this world, which directly affects the backstory of my main character. I already had an idea of how things played out, but I started to go into deeper details about how much Earth has changed, when it changed, and how that affects the character. Though the viewer won't be aware of all of this history simply through the 2-minute opening, I still wanted to put effort into world building because it ultimately influences the protagonist, her life, and how she acts. For example, obstacles in the past caused her family to leave Earth, making her very lonely, but she has gotten used to this loneliness. This can be reflected in her optimism, which I made apparent through the script. 

    After world building, I focused on building her own personality. Again, the audience won't be aware of some parts of her personality (like her interests) through the opening alone, but it does influence the way she acts, which is important for the script. I already had a clear idea of her motivations, but I brainstormed her interests, social life, personality traits, and even things like her age and if she had siblings. I really wanted to flesh out this character because I really wanted the script to reflect her personality. I just didn't want the script to feel too stale, I guess. I actually think I put more time into brainstorming this than writing the script itself.

    Finally, I wrote my script. I used examples of real scripts, specifically from other sci-fi films, to help me write my own. One script that I referenced the most was from the film "Gattaca". I had already watched this movie a few months back, so as I read the script, I also imagined how that specific scene played out in the film, so I could see how the scene was reflected in writing. One thing I took note of is how the script relayed important information while having the feeling of a natural conversation. When writing my own script, I tried to imagine how I would say the line myself so that it sounded like it was naturally coming out of someone's mouth and didn't feel like a script. 

Niccol, A. (n.d.). UNTITLED A Screen Play. Retrieved March 7, 2024, from https://screencraft.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Gattaca.pdf

Updating my storyboard

     After my group meeting, I decided to change my storyboard a bit because of the great suggestions I received during the meeting. My story will stay the same, but the way my opening will play out is changed. Before, I planned for there to be two characters that talk to each other while watching TV. I wanted to use dialogue from the TV to help establish context, which I knew would probably be hard. I changed this to only one character who decides to vlog her current condition alone. With this idea, I would only have to write dialogue for one character in my script and only requires me to have one actor. Having one actor is also a lot more beneficial for me, because if I had two characters talking to each other, I'm not sure how well my actors (my friends with no experience in acting) would be able to carry off each other's dialogue. I also like how now, my project can rely less on dialogue to tell the story. Since I'm now only having one character, I've found other ways to establish the context of the story, which is great because I was worried about my opening having too much dialogue. 

    As I mentioned in my post about the group meeting, having one character makes more sense for the plot itself. My film takes place in the future when Earth is a lot less populated, so it would make sense for my protagonist to be lonelier. I can also use this loneliness to help develop her character. One thing I'm not sure about is my props. Since my character will be vlogging, I'll need to use a camera as a prop. I'm not entirely sure, but I think my dad has a camera that I can use for this. If not, I can probably borrow one from a friend. But, my story takes place well into the future, and I think a camera from 2024 may look pretty unrealistic. To an extent, this could make sense, since my character lives somewhere that is a lot less technologically advanced. But I'm still unsure how I'm going to go about this, but I know I can find a solution.