Sunday, April 8, 2018

Everything Coming Together (For The Most Part)

     Hey everyone. Happy Sunday. I hope you had an amazing and relaxing weekend. I dedicated my weekend to filming the film introduction and editing it as well. Next week the project is due! I can't believe time has flown so quickly already. It seems as if yesterday I was picking "AICE Media Studies" on my course selection card, and now I'm just about finishing up the AICE Exam portfolio project!

     After hours and days planning, researching, and making sure every detail was perfect, the film introduction is coming together. It is coming together extremely nicely. I cannot wait to show you guys my finished project, but, for now I've got to grind it out and continue to work and edit and perfect every detail. My phone has been broken for a couple of weeks now and that means that I cannot take pictures or record videos or audio so that made it very difficult to film. However, I worked around the issue by using my friends' and family's phones. There are always bumps in the road, but they are not full cracks that will take your car off of the track! (If that makes any sense). Basically, yes, it made it very difficult that I could not rely on my phone, but it was something that I worked around. Life throws many curveballs at you! (Once again, not even sure if that's how the saying goes).

     Thanks for reading guys. I feel like we've developed a connection and bond these past weeks and blogging my whole experience and journey has really been enjoyable for me, so I thank you for giving me the opportunity to do this. Talk to you guys soon, enjoy the rest of your Sunday! :)


Saturday, April 7, 2018

Finally got to film! Woo!

       Hey everyone! Happy Saturday! Last post I left you guys on a cliff hanger about beginning to film the introduction. It's been such a long journey, and we've come so far, and although it is not over yet, I'm extremely happy that all of my hours and hours of research and planning and thinking were finally able to be put to life. That is what makes film so beautiful. You get to bring your own beautiful creation to life.

     Shooting the film introduction went extremely well. The actress playing Maddie Holburn, who is my soccer teammate and friend, Haley, is such a talented actress and amazing person and working with her was awesome. Honestly, working with her went so smoothly. A couple of my other friends came to watch me and Haley shoot the introduction, because they wanted to see the behind the scenes. They helped keep us from stressing, and they helped us stay positive when we would need to re-shoot certain scenes to make sure that they were perfect. This is an extremely unglamorous behind the scenes picture of me filming Haley.



     Having the opportunity to put this amazing creation together really has opened my eyes to the world of film. I never realized how much work goes in to making a film. I put days and days of work into a two minute film introduction, I cannot even imagine the stress that comes from filming an actual movie. However, although it it stressful, it is also extremely rewarding to see something you've created and to see other people smile from something you've done.

     Thanks for reading guys, this wild journey is coming to a wrap. I need to edit the clips together and then I'm going to be almost done with this project, which is crazy to say, as it has been such a big part of my life for the past month. I'll update you guys on the film! Talk to you all soon. :)

Friday, April 6, 2018

Group Meetings!

     Hey everyone! Happy Friday! I hope you had a fabulous week. I had a great week. I was extremely productive with finalizing my planning and going over all of my work and research in order to ensure that my project is as good as possible. A slight change has been added to the film introduction; it is more of a suspense film with drama as well. It was originally just a drama film, but I wanted to make it a little scarier.

     Last class, we were put in groups and we had to discuss our projects with each other and share our progress. I got lots of extremely helpful feedback from my group and they helped me with minor details and helped me make my project as good as possible. They had lots of extremely creative ideas with certain aspects of the film that I had not even thought of. We shared feedback with each other and overall helped each other a lot, I really enjoyed working with my group. Here is a picture of my group members.




     Thanks for reading everyone! I'll update you on everything tomorrow. I finished shooting but I wanted to save that for the next post to leave you guys on a little bit of a cliffhanger. (dun dun dun!) Talk to you tomorrow! :)


Sunday, April 1, 2018

Turning something bad into something good!

Hey guys. I'm officially done trying. I don't want to do this film introduction anymore, I don't care to. I've deleted all of my planning files and I'm telling my teacher I'm quitting. JUST KIDDING! APRIL FOOLS! Now, what's a blog post without my classic peppy introduction?

Hey everyone! Happy Sunday! I hope you had a spectacular spring break. As you may remember, last post we had a bit of a dilemma with Haley's surprise vacation. With her being gone, that meant that I could not shoot, as I had planned to do. I was stuck in a sticky situation, but I made the best out of it. Instead of using my time to shoot, I used my time to further plan down to every single detail, make arrangements, and make sure everything was in order so that when I do get to shoot next week, it'll be a smooth and easy process.

I was reading this article  about how Director Daniel Espinosa's "Life" opening scene was filmed. I think it was a very unique way of filming and it inspired me and my creativity. Under this text is an image from the film. While shooting, I will remember to stay creative, remember the little details matter, and remember to always stay original and authentic and to have some personal touches shine through my introduction. I look forward to next week, I can't wait to finally begin shooting. Although I was faced with an obstacle, I overcame my issue and turned it into something positive. I've learned never to hope for one thing, because things may not always go as planned, and that is when you'll need a backup plan. I will always stay hopeful and positive and nothing will turn me away from my goal of creating the best film introduction that I can.

Life 3 Sony final

Thanks for reading guys, I hope you had an amazing spring break. Also, Happy Easter! I need to get going because I'm about to participate in a family egg hunt with my mom and my brothers. I can't wait! Talk to you guys soon!

Guerrasio, J. (2017, March 26). How the incredible opening shot of the new sci-fi thriller 'Life' was made. Retrieved April 01, 2018, from http://www.businessinsider.com/life-opening-shot-scene-2017-3

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Uh Oh... Vacation

Hey everyone, I hope you're having a wonderful Wednesday. To be honest, I'm not having such a good Wednesday myself. The plan was to shoot with Haley this spring break, but her parents surprised her with a family vacation, so I won't be able to shoot with her. This makes things more difficult, giving me less time to shoot. This also means that I cannot make as many mistakes when shooting. However, everything will be okay, and I am still extremely hopeful for this film introduction. I can begin shooting with Haley next week and finish up next weekend. That will leave me enough time to edit and fix any mistakes.

There is nothing else I can do except planning and making sure everything is in order. I need to make sure the costume design for Maddie Holburn is perfect, and I need to make sure that the voice messages sound good. I also wanted to have a scene where there is "breaking news" of what Maddie received a voice message about. For example, after she listens to the voice message telling her that someone would have won the lottery, on the TV behind her, there is breaking news that someone had just won the lottery, and Maddie is in shock. This not only gives an extra sense of credibility to the voice messages, but also adds to the effect that they are real. Maddie, of course, will act extremely shocked, and a close-up could be used to emphasize her facial expressions and emotions.

I found this site, http://breakyourownnews.com/, that generates fake news articles and segments for you. I think this could be very useful for the TV segment and make editing a lot easier for me. I'm excited for what's to come. This is what the sample looks like:



Thanks for reading! I'll keep you guys updated on everything, as usual. Have a great rest of your break! Talk to you guys soon. :)

The Breaking News Generator. (n.d.). Retrieved March 28, 2018, from http://breakyourownnews.com/

Final Film Introduction!

Click here for the final film introduction!