Filming Blog: First Day of Filming

Although my group members and I had many set backs, we finally began to film today. After school two of my group members, Aaliyah and Lauren, and I filmed one of our scenes today. We did this with the help of two of our friends Taliyah and Bobby. The scene that we filmed took place on the beach. The beach we went to was the one closest to our school: Fort Lauderdale Beach. After school ended Lauren’s mother picked us up and took us to the beach. Once we arrived at the beach, Lauren and I set up the camera and tripod in the perfect spot to begin filming. This segment of the scene was an establishing shot of the beach. While we were doing this, Aaliyah, Taliyah, and Bobby we’re preparing themselves for the scene. After this was  done, Lauren took a picture of the actors in two different positions. One position was the soon to be husband (Bobby) with his arms around both girls. The other position was the fiancés (Aaliyah and Bobby) posing as a couple while the bad sister (Taliyah) was off to the side doing something fun. In both pictures the actors were made to look like they were enjoying themselves. Afterwards, we took the camera off of the tripod and decided to do a hand-held shot. The person shooting with the camera was me. Once I had the camera in my hand, I began to film the actors walking along the beach. There were two different takes of this scene. In the first take the actors were taking a leisurely stroll alongside the beach shore side by side. In the second take the happy couple was walking together, holding hands, and conversing with each other while the bad sister was enviously watching them from behind. Once we did this we left the beach and headed to Lauren’s house. Unfortunately, Aaliyah and Taliyah has to leave early so we couldn’t film the rest of our scenes, but we were just greatfull to finally start filming. Anishkaneel also could not make it due to important personal reasons. Though, my group members and I, along with the two other actors, made a plan to continue and end filming Saturday morning.

Filming Blog: The Initiation

As I mentioned in my previous blog, my group members and I plan to begin filming on Thursday, February 27. The scenes that will be filmed are all of the ones that involve the beach, and a few of the house scenes. However, since we are running short on time, we tried to see if we could arrange a time to film today. The filming would’ve taken place at Lauren’s house. All of the scenes that involved only the character Autumn would’ve been shot. We planned to do this after school from about 5:00 or 5:30 to no later than 8:00 at night. Unfortunately, something came up with one of my group members, Aaliyah, who also happens to be playing Autumn. She could no longer get a ride to Lauren’s house. As a result, we could no longer film on this day. Though, the day did not go wasted.

Another group member, Anishkaneel, already made it to Lauren’s house when she found out that we could no longer film. Upon hearing this news, Lauren and Anishkaneel took the initiative to show a video as to how our scenes would look in the house. They took videos off of Lauren’s phone to show Aaliyah and I how they we visioning the house scenes. After recording all of the videos, they sent them to Aaliyah and I and awaited our feedback. We both loved the videos and how it would look in her house. In response, I personally said that we should include more different shots in our scenes, and everyone agreed. Throughout the rest of the time, we discussed what date we were available to film. We all agreed that Thursday and Saturday would be the best days. More specifically, after school on Thursday and early Saturday morning. During these days all of the actors will be available so that we can shoot all of the scenes.

Filming Blog: The Reschedule

When initially planning out our schedule, my group members and I tried to see if we could film over the weekend. We thought that weekend was ideal because, due to President’s Day, we had Monday off. However, things didn’t go as planned. One of my group members was busy every day except for Sunday after noon. Another one of my group members was busy Saturday and before noon on Sunday. I was available all days. We became excited thinking that we figured out the day we can film, Sunday. Unfortunately, we were disappointed because we found out that the other group member is busy all day Sunday. As a result, we didn’t film over the weekend. Though, we did plan to film the following weekend, but that didn’t work out because everyone, not including myself, had plans the whole weekend. When we came into class today, we discussed when we could begin to film. That date will be Thursday, February 27th.

When my group members and I were finalizing our planning blogs, it was brought to our attention that our movie pitch, the one we were planning on filming, already exists. The title of this movie is Seven. It was made in 1995. As a result, we decided to go with the pitch that Aaliyah made. Said pitch was a thriller about two sisters. One sister had the ideal life that the other wanted. The other sister will stop at nothing to take that life. Thankfully, the genre for this pitch and the previous one are the same so my group members and I didn’t have to research another genre. We regained our hope and are ready to begin filming.

Planning: Storyboard

Today in class we completed our storyboard. In total we used 10 pages to show all of our scenes. My group member Anishkaneel drew out all of the shots because she draws very neat and detailed. While she was drawing my other group members, Aaliyah and Lauren, and I guided her through the process. We were each reading our shooting and sound script to describe to her what was going on on the scenes. However, we ran into some trouble along the way. About half of our storyboard scenes were missing. As a result, we had to divide the first few storyboards amongst Aaliyah and Lauren. Thankfully we were able to finish it on time, and it turned well. We were able to clearly and effectively explain our scenes.

Planning: Planning Our Movie

Before we can begin the overall filming process of our movie, we had to finalize some important details to be sure we were all on the same page. In this powerpoint, you will see four different aspects of our planning process. This includes location, participants, health and safety, and schedule. In the location slides, we were sure to include where we were filming along with pictures of the settings. For the participants slides, we included both people who were seen in the movie and people who are going to be behind the scenes. For example, we included each characters' names along with the person who was playing them. We also included our director, filming crew, etc. For health and safety, we included a brief description on the safety regarding elements used in the film. We also added the names of our safety team. Lastly, our schedule. Here, we made a week-by-week plan of what is to be done. This includes filming, editing, re-shooting, etc.

Planning: Title Design

In this powerpoint we explored our options and came to a conclusion on the design of our titles.We explored six different areas. First, we decided what fonts and how many we were using. The fonts a big part of the titles because it feeds into all the other elements. Next, we talked about how the fonts we were using contrast in color and size with one another and what's going on in the scene. Then we explored spacing. This included leading, in between lines, and tracking, in between spaces. Then we came up with a working title for our movie. Right now we are calling it Misconstrued. Then we worked on how the titles will enter and leave the screen along with where they will appear. Lastly, we  said how long the titles will appear on the screen throughout the two minutes.

Planning Blog: Dialogue and Sound Script

Our group’s intention was to leave the effect of contrast in the opening. The scenes alternate between the present, after/during the murder, and before. This includes scenes where Summer, the sister, meets her twin’s groom. The key element in this is dialogue. The dialogue is used to show the conversations and events that occur leading up to the murder in present time (i.e. being chased), which is contrasted by the fond and serene conversations prior to it occurring. We also wanted the film to come with an eerie or anxious tone. In order to bring this out, we intend to use a soundtrack throughout the film. The music will include high and sharp notes, intended to be exciting and climatic. There will also be diegetic sound. This will include footsteps, the sounds of Autumn’s body against the wall, as well as the crash of a lamp. We decided to include this in hopes that it would give our film a raw and realistic feel to it, something that is crucial to our genre.

Planning Blog: Shooting Script

My group members and I created the script for this PowerPoint by each contributing ideas. We tried to keep everything in chronological order. to make sure that the film looked organized. We each threw in different ideas until we all could agree on the one that would best fit the film. For example, Aaliyah said that instead of starting our film from the beginning of the opening sequence we decided to start it from the ending of the film which includes the ending of the climax. The film will open with Aaliyah (the evil sister) washing blood off of her hands. In order for us to fill up each scene, Jahrvia came up with the idea to have each scene include a flashback. After an object is touched by the evil twin a flashback of a good memory will occur. Another thing that we did to create the script for the PowerPoint is to take a voice recording of everything that we say. We did this so that we could keep a record of good ideas that we might want to add to the film. By doing these things we were able to come up with a detailed PowerPoint of how the scenes in our film will play out.