Filming Day 1 Vlog

As we were filming our opening scene for the first day, I made a vlog! I thought it would be fun to watch and track our progress throughout, so what better way than to film my own experiences. The video below tracks our progress as we filmed the first night, and at the end discusses the difficulties and overall progress we had. We talk on the issue of how we thought we were going to get in trouble due to the fact of looking suspicious as we walked into a public park with a shovel and dirt. Callie and I also spoke on our filming, talking on how we are off to a good start and overall had no issues. If time permits, I want to make a vlog for every portion we do. Enjoy!

Reviewing scenes in class

Today in class we spent the time looking over the footage from last night. With the way the lights were compared to the darkness outside, we got some great clips! The shots look amazing, with a variety showing different angles of all the actions I did. We spent the class period looking over these shots in order to see how we can improve for the next day.

Callie wants to have the video edited by next week. I think this is a great idea. We put all the clips that were filmed well into a folder on her computer, so we had them organized and ready to go. I am not sure what program we will use yet to edit the film opening, but when we decide it will be noted. We looked into royalty free music and sound effects today, in order to see which would fit well into the clips we had taken. Similarly, we came up with a filming plan for this weekend.

Since we only have the camera until Monday, we need everything to be filmed before Sunday night. Christian has agreed to film today after school, and we will film the rest Sunday morning. Of course the one weekend I have so much going on we have to film a million shots, so I think it may be an issue with timing to work. Right after school we are meeting at Callies house, in order to film the scenes of me stalking Christian. We will have three parts of this:
-me stalking him as he plays basketball with a friend
-me stalking him from an upstairs window as he rides his longboard
-me stalking him as he plays pool/video games at the community clubhouse

On Sunday, we are going to film the shrine parts as well as the singular parts that are just me. Then, next week in class we can spend it putting together the opening so it is done before spring break! We are all going away, so we can not have group progress. That is why it needs to be done now! We overall have been very productive these last few days and it is going great.

Filming Day 1

Hi blog! So today, Callie and I began filming our project. Sara is sick, so she took the day off to rest. After school, Callie drove to get a professional video camera and a few lights from BECON TV, a company in which allows us to "check them out" for filming. We have used cameras from them before, and these allow us to film with great quality!

To prepare for this, Callie and I worked on a shot list and materials list for this specific scene. Callie made a list of a bunch of different shots she wanted to film in order to ensure we had enough. I made a materials list of what would be needed to ensure success. These included:
-shovel
-dirt
-white dress
-camera and supplies
-missing poster x3

It was necessary to gather the supplies the day of, in order to allow us the greatest amount of filming time possible. I created a missing poster in class the day off. The poster is essential for the graphic matching that will be done between the pictures in the scenes. It also alludes to the boy who is being stalked. Since Callie drove to get the camera, I was in charge of getting the supplies. I bought a big white tee shirt from AC Moore and a bag of dirt from Home Depot. I had already owned a shovel, so I just grabbed it from my garage. When I got home, I spent around an hour getting ready. I had to do my makeup to look like a "killer", so I did heavy eye makeup to make it appear as if I had been crying and running around. It was all messed up to emphasize the plot. I also left my hair messy, in order for it to create a tone for the piece. My mom and I cut holes into the dress, and put dirt on it in order to create an appeal as if I had been dragging a body around in the woods. It was important for the costume to be this, because it creates the tone for the entire scene.

After I had gotten ready, we went to Regional Park to film. It is close to our house, so it is easy to film at. Since it was a Thursday night, we didn't want to take that long since we had a lot of homework. However, we only have the camera for the weekend, so we do not have much time and had to make it work. I skipped lacrosse practice in order to prepare, so we decided that it would be good to film it close to where we live. We asked my friend Sebastian to take Christian's spot for the night, because he was busy. When we first got there, Sebastian and Callie set up the camera and lights  while I made a plot with the dirt for the body. Then, we filmed each part multiple times to ensure that we had enough clips to create the first thirty seconds of the film. We took about an hour and a half, and I think we got some really good shots. We are going to review them in class tomorrow to see how we did!

This shows what the end product of my costume/look was!

Materials List

Hey blog! Today my group members and I are making a materials list in order to be more prepared for the project. We have really pushed off working on it a lot, because we have all been super busy with school and extracurriculars. However, we didn't realize how fast the due date is approaching and want to film this weekend. They looked at me crazy when I said that because it is so soon, but I think we can do it. 

Today we went scene by scene in order to see what supplies we need to get. We want to divide them up so we each can get a few, and in the end have them all ready by the weekend. The prop list we came up with is below! 

Props for media studies:

Opening Scene (burying the body):

Shovel- lauren

Dirt- home depot - tomorrow

Missing poster- lauren making

Second part:

Photo camera- lauren

Christian outfit 1: work out clothes

Christian outfit 2: normal clothes

Christian outfit 3: whatever he wears to play basketball

Hoodie for girl

Duffle

Photos for shrine

Sticky notes

Similarly, we made an outline list for what shots we want each to be. It is below!

Opening Outline:

Shot of forest

Hear someone running- more shots of forest

See feet running

-silent shot of forest

-heart pounding

-see digging

-shovel in dirt

-dirt pile covering

-close up of her face breathing heavily

-after it shows the guy is copletely buried

-shot of her standing over the body

-pulls out missing poster

-close up of the missing poster

-shot of her saying “It didn’t have to be this way.”

-shot of her ripping the poster

-cut to white

-title come up in red

Outline:

-the street name

-house

- Sees time on her phone and peers out window where hes running

-grabs camera

- takes pic of him jogging

-show her taping the shot of him jogging and panning to other pictures of him

-takes picture of him in line at a store talking to sara

-show her cutting sara out of the pic

-take a picture of him at basketball practice

-show her taping that picture

-shows close ups of the collage of pics of him (include sticky notes of when hes at certain places etc)

-zoom out to lauren staring at the whole shrine

It was good that we made this list because it helped us to stay organized and be more productive. We are going to review it and add to it in the upcoming days in order to be ready for the weekend! Can't wait to start filming!

Location Hunt Part 1

Today we were able to drive around and find some locations for our first scene. Since it is the weekend, we had all day to brainstorm and think of the best park locations to film the burying scene. We checked out a few locations, and wrote down the pros and cons.

At first, we realized that we have a major issue in our storyboard. We are not sure if you can dig in a park. We have a shovel, but we do not want to get in trouble for digging in a national park. We had the idea to bring dirt from Home Depot, to make a pile and attempt to make the same affect as dug up dirt would. This would solve the issue halfway, and may prove to work. Also, we may not be able to film at night because national parks close. We may have to put the lighting down when we edit the video, to give it the effect of nighttime. Callie will try to see if this editing style can be done, and then we will go from there.

We checked out three parks today. Around us, we went to Vista View Park, Markham Park, and Everglades National Park. While all would work, there are massive pros to all of them. Everglades National Park does not close at night, meaning we could film there. However, it does not look like a forest, so it does not give the same vibe. Also, it is not very safe at night, so we do not know how comfortable we feel to film there. Markham Park looks like the woods, so it gives a the effect we are looking for. It is huge so there are so many locations to film, but it closes early. This would all depend on the editing technique. Lastly, we went to Vista View Park. This is a giant hill, so the wood feels was not there. Also, it is very busy and open, not giving many concealed locations to film the scene. I think personally our best bet is to film at Markham Park, if we can figure out how to edit the lighting. This would create the idea we want for the scene.

This week, we are going to create the storyboard for the second part of the scene. I am not sure what else we are going to do yet, but the next class period will be used creating the other storyboard.

Peer Review

Today in class, we did a peer review day. This is where we get into groups of different classmates, and discuss our plan for our projects. In return, we each get advice from different people in order to incorporate it into our project. I worked with a group of five people. At first, I was not looking forward to this event. I did not see this as useful, because we are not that far along into our film. Similarly, I did not think my group would be productive because we are all friends and get off track easily. However, I was surprised to see how helpful the overall day was.

My group and I went one by one in order to hear everyone's ideas for the opening scene. We also reviewed blog posts in order to see how to improve our writing style and make things easier to understand. I went third, telling my group about the ironic stalker theme idea. For feedback, I got some valuable pieces of information I want to incorporate into the piece. I was told to maybe make the beginning scene shorter, in order to allow for the flashback to provide more time to progress the storyline. Similarly, I was also told to not make the storyline too complex, which I think was an issue from the start. We were trying to include too much information in two minutes, making it seem jumbled and confusing. They overall loved the idea and said it was unique. While at first I wanted to work on the storyboard, I think this was productive.

Sara and Callie got good ideas as well. We plan on meeting this weekend in order to review our findings and how we can incorporate it into the film. I enjoyed hearing other people's ideas for their story. I heard some crazy things like boxing and street fights, which I think will be amazing if done correctly. Bouncing ideas off one another was super successful, and in the end made me feel more prepared about our idea. It was well liked, helping to make me feel better.

Storyboard Part 1

Today we worked really hard on getting a story board together! After a lot of discussion, we did end up going with the theme discussed in the previous post. We planned out the first scene of our film opening, which will be around 45 seconds. Below is the attached storyboard our group came up with.




In the story board above, we discuss and layout what will be the first seconds of the clip. We are doing the forest scene, which will be followed by another clip of the flashback. The flashback will explain the entire story. The first part will open with an establishing shot of the forest and town, which may be filmed with a drone. We will then show a mixture of choppy, close up shots of feet being pulled and hands covered in dirt/shoveling. This will create a feeling of suspense when teamed with proper music, establishing the overall tone for the piece. We are also going to show a clip of a mixture of different shots of the girl running, with the sounds of panting and a heartbeat in the back. From here, we assume the scene will be set. We are going to go into a high shot of the girl standing there with the shovel, with the shot circling around her to see all angles and emotions. We want to cut to a face close up, to show emotions. This scene will close with a missing poster of the boy buried, leading to graphic matching of the photos to lead to the flashback. The credits will be in the scene after this, not this one because we think it will destroy the mood.

We struggled with choosing a name for the film. We want to make sure it is perfect before we commit to a title. However, this was our only struggle for the period as I think we were productive and got a lot done.

The cuts will all take place on movement. We want to set a choppy tone, with an overall sense of suspense and chaos. While this is our current plan, the angle and shots may cut or change order. However, as of right now this is what we plan on doing to create the best opening for our idea. We plan on finish the storyboard next class, and then work on perfecting it. As well, we want to begin casting for our roles. Overall, we had a successful period!