The grueling editing process

Editing time!!! Now that we finished filming everything for our opening and are happy with all of our shots, it's time to review all of the clips and put them all together. We used the editing program I Movie on Alexa's Apple Macbook computer, and added every clip that we approved of beforehand. Once all of the clips were added, we added in transitions. For the first few clips we just chose transitions that looked well once inserted like: fade to white, fade to black, or dissolve. However, when the kidnapper is picking up the knives, putting on the gloves, grabbing the finger and putting it in a jar we aslo did jump cuts to show that it was all happening within the exact same time period, one after the other. Then, we did a fade to white transition to show that the man is done with jarring the finger and is now walking towards Annie, who is strapped onto a bed. Then a jump cut to the man putting tape over Annie's mouth followed by another jump cut to Annie's hand being grabbed and her finger being dipped in blood. There was still more transitions to be added but we decided to stop if what we had already. During class, we asked our peers to watch what we had so far; they thought it was really good but that it was missing something! One person suggested that we add an edit to the colors of the film, perhaps adding a darker tone to create a more scary/creepy vibe. Which is exactly what we needed! I actually researched online that in horror films it is recommended to use dark color contrast to add to the mystery, and creepiness. Therefore, color does make a hu(e)ge difference! Hahahaha...see what I did there ;) Anyways, adding the cooler, darker tones to the film was very good advice for our peers, and I feel it really improved our opening.

Sources: "Cinematography Tips For Horror Filmmakers." The Beat: A Blog by PremiumBeat. N.p., 09 June 2015. Web. 02 Apr. 2017

Shooting Day!

So, the day finally came: shooting day! Alexa and I were actually pretty excited to see how we were going to create our set design with all of our amazing props. It started with us having to clean out the guest bedroom in Alexa's house of all furniture and items that would not tie into the mise-en-scene for our film opening, a creepy homemade torture room. We then found other props we could use in Alexa's house like the wooden board that held all of the kidnapper's knives. After setting everything up we officially started shooting. First scene was the zoom out of the radio clock to then the shot of just the kidnapper's big black boots walking towards a table at a dutch angle, to add an uneasy sort of feeling. Next, the high angle shot of the man's "butcher table" and him picking up his knives and stowing a way a person's finger in a jar. The purpose of this scene was to show how the man is very creepy and has an odd fascination, or is keeping random body parts in jars for a reason. Then we shot the man walking over to the bed where Annie is laying on, and from this point until the rest of the film i passed the camera onto Alexa as I am in the following scenes so I obviously couldn't film. We filmed all the scenes of the man taping my mouth shut, me screaming for help, him grabbing my hand and dipping it in blood,  and then putting my fingerprint on paper that also says the name of our "production company." Then we did a extreme close-up shot of my face, that's filled with terror, and zoomed in so that it's black and then the next scene is a zoom out of a blank piece of paper hanging on a wall that has the number 5 written on it. The purpose of this transition was to show that Annie is the 5th girl to be kidnapped by the man. Next, we filmed a scene of the kidnapper going over to a body on the floor to show that he has indeed killed the last girl that was kidnapend. We also were going to add another scene after that of him going to the bathroom to wash his hands of the blood, and when he walked away the number 5 would be written on the mirror in blood, but it didn't turn out the way we wanted it to; the angles and the lighting were just not cutting it. But, here's a pic of me and Lex in that mirror! Enjoy :)

Give us props for our props

Hey guys! Today Alexa and I  went on a fun little adventure exploring the vast outskirts of the Davie, Florida Tower Shoppes Plaza. We went to stores like Party City and Hobby Lobby to find the props that were listed in the last blog. We went to party city first and we found fake blood, for REALLY CHEAP!!!!! Sorry I just get excited when it comes to deals and not spending a lot of money lol. Then, we made our way to the wonderful Hobby Lobby, recently became my new favorite place to go, where we basically found everything we needed. We got the glass jars that we are going to use to put the fake body parts in, we got the big white t-shirt, we got the white sheets that we'll use to decorate the lair, and we even got the fake blonde hair! The only prop that we could not find in ANY store because it's not really the season for stores to be selling this, was the fake body parts. However, we took advantage of our resources and turned to good ol' Amazon to order the fake body parts online. They were not too costly, within our budget, and would arrive just in time for film day.
 Here are some cool pics we snapped of our props:

Getting feedback and staying organized

Hey everyone! So today in class we participated in a peer review/discussion of our individual portfolios. We were split up into groups of 4 or 5 and we all shared our ideas about our projects and how our progress is going. I really enjoyed this because it allowed us to get feedback from others and tips that could really help out our opening. After this activity Alexa and I got together and we basically planned out our shooting schedule:

Thursday- Go out and get everything we need for the film: fake blood, fake body parts, white sheets, fake blonde hair, glass jars, big white t-shirt

Sunday- We do set design basically and then film the kidnapper's lair scene

Next week- Film the car scene opening

We figured that planning out what we are going to do each day will keep us organized and on track, so we won't fall behind and be all over the place. We also decided to start filming early because then we will have a boat load of time to edit the video so it will be the best darn film opening you'll ever see( well at least the best one you've seen made by two 16/17 year old girls with no real raw talent). I also researched some benefits of planning out a shooting schedule online and found that creating a calendar when filming is basically your best friend because it allows you to see visually what day your doing what and it is just another way to be organized.

Sources:
"The Art of Scheduling a Film." Dummies. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2017

Putting our vision on paper

Hey-ooo! Today, we began actually physically planning out our vision for the opening by drawing a storyboard. It was decided that we do not want to begin the movie right away with the credits on the lab tools. Instead, we want the first scene to be less, well I don't know...creepy! We chose to have the beginning be of a mother driving with her child in the front seat. The camera angle will be a two-person shot,which is known to be used to showcase dialogue, from the backseat of the car where you can see both characters. The son will be complaining about the radio station and ask for it to be changed. The mom says okay, and then a cut to a close-up shot of the mom changing the nob of the radio will occur. The shot will be a close-up because it will draw attention to the changing of the station and will lead into the next scene.  Audio of the radio changing between stations will be inserted, and the camera will slowly zoom into the nob turning, eventually to the point where the screen is black. Then, the camera will slowly zoom out, yet the setting will be different; it will be of a radio sitting in the scary lab. As this transition is occurring the beginning of the news report will begin. I attempted to draw out this vision onto a story board, and here is what I have so far. Please do not judge, I clearly was not born to be a talented artist.

Sources: http://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/9934/how-is-dialog-between-two-people-filmed

Figuring out the details

Hiya folks! I said in my last blog how I wanted to put our credits in objects that would be in a scientific lab, so today I actually researched what objects would be. I had to dig deep because there isn't a lot of useful information on the internet about this topic. Most of the items that kept coming up were things like test tubes, flasks, weight scales, and weird, brightly colored substances in test tubes. I realized that these are things you would also find in a science classroom at school...which is not the kind of lab we are going for. So, I changed my search to more experimental lab tools that involve people, and that is where I got results that pertain better to our setting.        

Then, Alexa and I realized that we might need to purchase items just like these in order for our opening to work. We decided that we will search for the cheapest replicas of these items, and even dedicate hours to surfing the web or walking in and our of stores if we have to! I'm most definitely the kind of gal that will put effort into bargaining and finding steals since I really don't enjoy having to use money from own pocket lol. 

Sources: http://surgical-instrument-pictures.com/

Getting Closer

Hey! Ellie here, back with some updates on how our long project ahead of us is going. We started to plan out in our heads how the opening to our film opening is actually going to look like, realistically. By realistically I mean how we are actually going to execute our crazy ideas. One of these ideas was drawn from the beginning of the film, Napoleon Dynamite. 

Where our opening credits will be written on items that tie into the movie; these items would be utensils you would find in a scientific lab or even personal items belonging to the missing girl, like a backpack for say since we decided that it will be revealed in the news report that she was taken walking home from school. This opening would take place while the audio only news report is playing in the background, just like how the music in Napoleon Dynamite is played. However, we would like our items to be scattered around the lab and have the camera slowly pan through all of them instead of having a direct high angle view of the items in a series of jump cuts. We also realized that since our movie is taking place during the 1970's we would have to make our "set" look like a lab in the 70's which we obviously had no clue how to do especially with absolutely no budget whatsoever. So, we came to the conclusion that we'll just cancel the whole 70's time period, and just have the film take place in the present time period. This way we will actually be able to, HOPEFULLY, execute our opening with ease.  Notice how I wrote hopefully in all caps? That is because I hope everything goes with ease, but I honestly doubt it will. I will for sure be writing about our plentiful mess ups in my future blogs. ;)