⋆˚࿔ Editing (pt. 2) ⋆˚࿔

 

Hey guys!! 

So, today I will be talking more about how editing is going for our group!! 

Here are some photos of us editing: 

So far, everything has gone pretty well! Christy, Tiffany, Zadie, and I have all contributed to the editing process. Christy is our main editor, and she has been spending time at home editing our project. We have also spent time editing together as a group. We did this during the past few days when we had Study Hall by planning to meet up in one class so we could edit together and help out with navigating the software. When Chirsty is home editing, we usually FaceTime or text while she's editing if she needs any help. Altogether, this averages out to be a little over 6 hours of editing so far. 

Although we do not plan to do any more filming, in my last post, I talked about how there may be an issue with the sound. The dialogue in our film isn't as clear as we want it to be and we were thinking about doing a voiceover. However, we are a bit worried about it not sounding natural. Our friend Hannah gave us her microphones to borrow but after testing them multiple times, we noticed that they make loud crackling sounds that can be heard throughout the video. Because of this, we are now rethinking doing a voiceover and are looking into alternative ways to improve the sound quality. For instance, we are searching for things that can be done within the Premiere Pro software to enhance the sound in our opener. Our group will look more into this solution during our next Study Hall period.

Stay tuned for more!! ;) 

⋆˚࿔ Sound Mishap ⋆˚࿔

 

Hey guys!! 

So, today I will be talking about the post-production process and some things we need to do during editing!! 

The filming process is complete and we have begun the editing process. Christy is the main editor and she has gone as far as assembling and ordering the clips and editing the transitions. She has gotten way better at navigating Premiere Pro too!! So far, editing has been good with only a few small learning curves. However, there is something in particular we need to work on. While editing, Christy noticed that our dialogue scenes weren't very clear. We can be heard but it's not as clear as we want it to be. 

Ideally, we want our words to be as clear as possible to ensure that everything makes sense and is comprehensible to our audience. After discussing our options, we came up with the idea of doing a voiceover for our lines. One of our friends has small mics that she's going to let us borrow so we can achieve this. Before we started filming, we had thought about doing this for our dialogue but ended up agreeing that we would just try to film without mics and see how it turned out. We also noticed that doing a voiceover for dialogue scenes can sometimes end up looking and sounding unnatural. To avoid this, we plan on watching some videos and tutorials on how to make it sound as natural and authentic as we possibly can. We don't want this to be distracting or take away from the other aspects of our opener. However, if we do end up feeling like the original audio is a better fit, we will most likely keep that instead. 

This may be a challenge, but it's worth a try, and I know we can overcome it with hard work and dedication!! 

Stay tuned for more!! ;) 

⋆˚࿔ Representation ⋆˚࿔

Hey guys!! 

So, today I will be talking about representation in our film opener. 

Representation is another important aspect of film. It is the way in which narratives and characters are presented to represent the identities and experiences of various groups of people. A film's representation of a character leads its audience to think of that character a certain way. It also allows them to develop certain feelings or opinions about that character. Our film opener includes representation through our main character who gets poisoned. She represents a victim with innocence and vulnerability. 

The representation of this character is fair, as it portrays a real-life experience that not many people talk about. There are a number of people who may have gone through the same situation, if not a similar one, who are not able to speak about it or just don't know exactly how. Putting this out on screen to show others may bring awareness and show that these things can actually happen. The representation of our character is also stereotypical. I say this because it highlights the helplessness that is typically shown in characters in other films. Additionally, since our character doesn't necessarily go against the traditional beliefs of that specific stereotype, it doesn't really defy representation in this way. However, I've  noticed that a lot of films I've seen display Black people as being "loud and obnoxious". Our film actually challenges this stereotype through our main character, who is pretty calm and quiet throughout our opener before the disaster. Race and ethnicity is also a way in which our film displays representation. For example, I am a Black female who plays the main character in our film, showing that other people like me are important and can play big roles in the film industry. Additionally, Christy and Tiffany are both Chinese, representing their culture and other viewers who are also Chinese and part of Asian communities. Zadie is Hispanic and represents the Hispanic community. Not to mention, our cast consists of teenage girls only, which represents younger teens and adults who are female. That being said, I also don't think it's needed to make any edits to our characters. They each create a sensible balance and complement each other well, which helps to unite the story and drive the plot. 

Stay tuned for more!! ;) 

⋆˚࿔ Updated Storyboard ⋆˚࿔

 

Hey guys!! 

So, today I will be talking about our updated storyboard!! 

Before we filmed, we created a storyboard to plan out our shots for our opener. However, before and while we filmed, we made a few changes that we thought would be best for our film. Tiffany went through each of the shots we filmed and drew them out. 

Here's our updated storyboard: 

The first shot is a static close-up shot displaying an Elf on the Christmas Tree. There will then be a cut to shot number two, which is a static close-up that shows a penguin ornament, and then a cut to shot three, also a static close-up, that shows a dog ornament. This will then cut to another static close-up showing a Santa decoration. These four shots will have warm lighting and no sound except the Christmas instrumental music we chose in the background. Next is a cut to shot five, which shows a close-up of Christy turning the doorknob. This shot will have the same lighting and sound as the first four. The next three shots cut to each other, showing an over-the-shoulder shot of Christy opening the door and letting each person inside. These shots will have natural daylight and the music is continued. There is also some dialogue in shots seven and eight, where Zadie says "Merry Christmas!" and Tiffany says "Hi!" There is then a cut to shot number nine, which is a mid-shot showing us opening the oven and looking inside at the chicken. This will have high-key lighting and the same music. 

There is then a cut to shot ten, which is a static, overhead shot that shows Christy placing the chicken on the counter. A cut to shot eleven shows an overhead shot of Zadie preparing the salad and a cut to shot twelve shows a close-up of the chicken being cut. These shots will all have high-key lighting and the same Christmas music will continue on. A cut to shot thirteen is a static close-up shot showing the food being plated with high-key lighting. A cut to shot fourteen then displays a shift as a POV shot. The lighting changes to low-key lighting and the music goes a bit quiet. The story then cuts to a wide shot of the dinner table where everyone walks into the frame and takes their seats in shot fifteen. The lighting reverts back to high-key and the music to its original volume. Shot sixteen is another wide shot showing us conversing at the table with the same high-key lighting and music. Shot seventeen is a close-up of Tiffany telling Tatyana to try the chicken. This then cuts to a close-up of Zadie as she says her dialogue. A cut to shot nineteen shows a close-up of my character taking a bite of the chicken, coughing, and fainting afterward. A cut to the next shot shows Tiffany and Zadie arguing, going from person to person with whip pans. Next is a cut to a close-up of Christy as she gets off the pone with the police. There is then a cut to Christy slipping her phone in her back pocket which transitions to her pushing down the poison in her front pocket. The lighting in these two scenes changes to low-key lighting and the Christmas music is slowed-down and muffled. 

                                                                                                       

We believe that our story board is a good representation of our opener!! We still aren't completely finished with editing so there still may be some changes but we'll see. 

Stay tuned for more!! ;) 

⋆˚࿔ Preparing Our Props ⋆˚࿔

Hey guys!! 

So, today I'm going to be talking about how we prepped our props to film our opener!! 

A Christmas-themed movie obviously needs Christmas-themed props! Food is super important in our film, so we needed to get some! Tiffany was in charge of getting the chicken, but because of the whole sleep debacle, she wasn't able to get it prior to her arrival at Christy's house. Good thing we agreed to get there a few hours before filming, because this gave us time to retrieve the chicken!! Once Tiffany arrived and we finished going over our new ideas and changes, we took a little field trip to Winn-Dixie! Christy's brother was very kind and helpful, and he drove us there to get it. We headed straight to the rotisserie chicken and had to make a decision between two flavors. "Lemon-pepper or Barbeque?" was the question! We ended up choosing BBQ! This was important because this chicken would not be going to waste! We wanted to make sure we got something we would definitely eat. We then went to the self-checkout, paid for our chicken, and headed back to Christy's house to prepare everything else! 

When we got back, we went straight to work! Christy still had a few Christmas decorations up in her house, so we grabbed those and used them to decorate the table! Some things we used were a Santa-themed countdown and some elegant flowers! I changed the countdown to say 0 days until Christmas since the dinner takes place on Christmas Day! This is a really small detail that many people probably wouldn't notice anyway, but it's the small things that can make the biggest differences! Additionally, a lot of the props we used were red, green, and white to portray the Christmas holiday. After setting up the table, we went into the kitchen to prepare for the rest of the dinner! We went through Christy's cabinets and picked out some elegant white plates for the food. Zadie, Christy, and Tiffany also took out some other food items, like tomatoes and limes, to decorate the background of a few scenes we planned to film! We then took a quick snack break, and just like that, we were ready to film! 

The preparation process was so fun! Pulling our props together and working with each other to build a set was such a bonding experience and allowed us to collaborate on our skills and creativity! 

Stay tuned for more!! ;) 

⋆˚࿔ Group Dynamics ⋆˚࿔

 

Hey guys!! 

So, today I will be discussing the group dynamics!! 

Christy, Zadie, Tiffany, and I are all working on this project together. Everything has been going really well so far! We have been trying our best to divide the work as evenly as possible amongst our group. Even though some of our group members have had some more responsibilities than others, due to specific circumstances, there have not been any complaints. An example of what I mean when I say this is our group using Christy's house and camera to film. These are larger responsibilities on her, however we all agreed that those choices would be the best options for our project. We also made sure that these decisions were okay with her and she was very approving and willing.

Zadie and I have also worked together a lot on this project in terms of planning. For instance, we discussed the ideas we had for the main plot of our opener, the title, and some of the props we may have needed. After coming up with a plethora of ideas, we brought them to the rest of our group members in our group chat we made to keep track of dates, times, and ideas, to see if they wanted to make any changes or had any ideas of their own. This group chat is our main source of communication outside of school and on days were we did not meet up. It allowed for effective and healthy communication between our group. Additionally, Tiffany willingly purchased any extra props we needed and provided some insight on the ideas Zadie and I discussed during class. Also, all of us are pitching in for the editing process by distributing a part of the editing procedure among each person.  

Working this way was very efficient for us and helped us to stay organized. It also helped our opener develop into what it is today. Each of us have a strong work ethic and different talents and abilities that all mesh well together. What we created is all our ideas, hard work, and dedication combined into one and I feel that we made something amazing! I can't wait for you guys to see it!! 

Stay tuned for more!! 

⋆˚࿔ Re-shooting Day (filming day 2) ⋆˚࿔

 

Hey guys!!

So, today I will be talking about our second attempt at filming!! In my "Day 1 of Shooting" blog, I talked about how my group and were planning on refilming our opener because of a few things we could have done better. A few days ago we met up and did a way better job!! 

Here's how it went: 

To start, our group was much more prepared this time. We made sure to plan in advance in our group chat, discussing the day we would be meeting up and exactly all the things we needed to film. We planned to film again on January 18th and talked about who would bring what props. We also all met up during our study hall to confirm everything and make sure everyone was on board, while also discussing little details about our opener itself. 

On filming day, Zadie and I showed up at Christy's house earlier than last time, at around 2:00 pm. We planned to do this so that we could go shot by shot on our storyboard, make any changes, and present more ideas to each other. We also picked out our music and figured out which shots we would film first.  This was very beneficial for us and helped us to make some really good alterations that we think improved our opener. Tiffany arrived a couple hours later, around 4:00 pm. She actually went to Christy's early in the morning but had to go back home since Christy accidentally slept in. It all worked out though, since Tiffany was able to get a ride later on. When she got there we filled her in on the changes and made sure she was okay with them. We also asked if she had any ideas or feedback she wanted to give. 

We started filming around 5:00 pm and wrapped at around 7:45. We had a great time filming and the whole process went by quickly and smoothly. Once we were done, we downloaded the clips onto Christy's computer, and I set it up for her to use Premiere Pro to edit later on. Then, Zadie and I left at around 8:30 pm, and that concluded our re-shooting day! 

This day was honestly so much fun and less stressful. We were well prepared and organized, and we feel so much more proud of what we created this time. I'm glad we realized that our first attempt wasn't our best and we made sure to strive for better!! 

Stay tuned for more!! ;) 

⋆˚࿔ Lighting ⋆˚࿔

Hey guys!! 

So, today I will be talking about lighting in our film opener! 

Lighting is another crucial aspect of film. It helps do things such as setting the mood and telling the audience what to look at. There are many different types of lighting but the main ones we used were high-key, low-key, artificial, and natural lighting. The lighting sources we decided to use actually ended up contributing to the feel of our opener, even though did not have any professional lighting. This was not an issue though, considering the fact that this style of lighting paired well with the concept, supported the mise-en-scene, and made the most sense in our opinion. It also allowed us to use our creativity and become innovative in finding alternative methods we could use for lighting. 

The first part of our opener uses high-key lighting, which is very soft and bright. It provides a sense of cheer and joy. This is the mood we wanted that part of our opener to reflect since it's Christmas time and it should be cheerful and cozy. It also represents the calm before the storm. Additionally, the artificial lighting comes from the lights in Christy's house, and the natural light comes from the sun in the shots where we open the door for each person to enter the house. Later on in the film, the soft, cozy artificial lighting continues but later on changes to low-key lighting. To achieve this, we turned off the lights in the house and used our flashlights on our phones. 

It was very important to us that our lighting was good so we could convey each part of our opener a certain way, and I think we did a pretty good job of doing that!! 

Stay tuned for more!! ;) 

⋆˚࿔ Editing ⋆˚࿔

 

Hey guys!! 

So, today I will be walking you guys through the editing process of our opener!! 

Software: 

The software we will be using to edit is Adobe Premiere Pro. I am currently in a class where I am working to receive my certification in Premiere Pro which provides access to each Adobe Software. I gave Christy my login so she could also access it. Zadie and I also helped Christy download the software onto her computer.

Video effects: 

For video effects, we added a blur to the poisoning scene right before the main character collapses. We also added a slow blinking effect. The original shot is a POV shot so we wanted to capture the feeling and appearance of blurry vision before hitting the floor.

Transitions used: 

Our opener includes a few transitions. The first one is a match-cut transition that begins with Christy turning the knob of the oven and cuts midway into her turning the doorknob when the guests arrive. The next transition includes jump cuts. We incorporated jump cuts between each time Christy opened the door for each person who arrived, and also throughout other scenes in the film. 

Problems encountered during editing: 

Premiere Pro can be a little difficult to navigate at times so there were a few issues during the editing process. For example, when christy imported the music into the software, she could not hear it. Additionally, there were also some problems with accessing the clips. The clips we filmed weren't appearing when Christy clicked on them while trying to import them into the software. Also, the clips that did show up were very minuscule, even though the clip was actually a few minutes long. This made it hard for Christy to move the clips around. 

Solutions to problems encountered during editing: 

Although we experienced these issues, we were able to overcome them smoothly. We figured out that the reason the clips were not appearing was due the the fact that Christy did not have enough space on her computer.  To fix this, Christy deleted some unneeded files and videos to make more space. For the music issue, we came up with an alternative. Instead of adding the music into Premiere Pro, we used a different editing software, CapCut, to add in the sound once the entire video was edited. Doing so actually made it more convenient to change the speed and pitch of the music.  

Primary editor: 

Christy will be the main editor on our project, while Zadie, Tiffany, and I will help by giving tips and suggestions. Christy is fairly new to Premiere Pro but she is a very quick learner and has experience with other editing software. However,  Zadie and I have some experience with Premiere Pro we were able to assist her and help with any issues. 

The editing process was so fun and we are so happy with how our opener looks!! 

Stay tuned for more!! ;) 

⋆˚࿔ Title Sequence ⋆˚࿔

Hey guys!! 

So, after discussing with my group for a while, we finally came up with a title for our film opener!! 

Our opener is set during the holidays but it also includes some drama and thriller aspects. We came up with quite a few names such as "Cold Supper" and "Bitter Bite." But in the end, we agreed on one in particular. The title of our opener is called, "A Red Christmas". We thought this title fit the most because it was mysterious and didn't give away too much information. We wanted to make sure it captured our audience's attention and created suspense. The other titles were too direct and just didn't sound the best in our opinion. 

Next, we began to work on how our title would look. We have not agreed on where exactly to place the title in our opener since we have not started the editing process yet, but we did choose the overall appearance of it. Zadie used Picart to create the title, as it had a lot of options to choose from. For the color, we all decided on a bright red. Red is one of the main colors associated with Christmas but it is also associated with danger and intensity. We thought this would be a perfect color, considering the plot of our opener. Red is also an eye-catching color. It is also said that red is known for being extremely noticeable! 

We then decided on the font of the title. This was a bit more tricky since there were so many options to choose from. Eventually, we narrowed it down to 5 options and chose from those. 

Here's what they looked like: 

Option 1: 

Option 2: 

Option 3: 

Option 4: 

Option 5: 

After further discussion, my group and I agreed to use option number 4!! We felt that the font had an edge to it that just fit our opener perfectly! It's nice and bold, while also having a little twist. We are so happy with how our project is coming together so far and super excited to continue this process!! 

Stay tuned for more!! ;) 

⋆˚࿔ Sound ⋆˚࿔

 

Hey guys!! 

So today, I will be talking about sound in our film opener!! 

Sound in film is an extremely important aspect. Sound and visuals go hand in hand but I also like to think of sound as another way to tell a story. When combined, sound and visuals form a connection and enhance a storyline. 

We have not gotten to editing our opener yet but have a plan for when we approach the editing process. To start, since our opener is Christmas-themed, we thought it would be most appropriate to add Christmas music. We knew we wanted something comforting, so this was a big consideration when we looked online. We chose to use non-copyrighted instrumental music, as the other option was to seek proper permission for copyrighted music. However, we all agreed that doing so would most likely take a long time to receive consent and just was not a realistic option. The instrumental we settled for is called "Canon and Variation".  Since our opener also involves drama and thriller, we plan to slow down the music at the part where the main event occurs. This way, it adds suspense and gives our opener a more unsettling feeling. 

Our opener also includes some diegetic sound. Diegetic sound is sound that is created during the actual filming process. Our main source of digetic sound is the dialogue between the characters. We are also planning to include some sound effects in our opener. For instance, in the last scene, we want to add faint sirens in the background in the shots where the food is being prepared, we want to add cooking sounds. As for how we captured sound in our opener, we captured it directly into the camera, also known as single system audio capture. We thought this would be a good option so we did not have to sync the audio later on. 

Overall, I feel like my group and I had some great ideas for sound in our project. These are the plans for now but there may be some changes later on when we actually edit. 

Stay tuned for more!! ;)