Re-shoot Blog: Day One

Today, Friday, March 20, 2020, my group members and I began to reshoot our film. We decided to film on this day because this day was the best for about all of us including one actor. The only people missing were my group member Anishkaneel and one of the actors, Bobby. However, this was not detrimental. We still had the two main characters. During this reshoot we were very productive. We only have a couple of n reshoot. In this reshoot we added and improved many different parts of the film. For instance, we reshot scenes that weren’t properly shot before. These scenes were scenes that were rushed and last minute. We also filmed scenes that weren’t shot before. In some of these scenes that were reshot the whole setting changed to make the scenes line up better. Another thing we approved was the sound. As previously mentioned in my past peer review blogs, one of the critiques that was given to us about our film was that the sound was awful. As a result, during this reshoot all of the actors made sure that they were louder. After we finished shooting everything, we decided to plan to plan for our next day reshooting. We plan on having everyone there to shoot whatever we have left to shoot. We predicted that this will be quick and we’ll have enough time to re-edit together. Overall, we were very satisfied with how today turned out and we have high hopes for the next day. Though, things may change due to the Corona Virus; all we can do is take it one step at a time.

Reshoot Blog: The Plan

Now that the peer review is over with, it is now time to reshoot. My group members and I planned to reshoot the week of the 15th, however the unexpected happened. Due to the Covid-19, commonly known as the Corona Virus, epidemic, school closed for that week. When first hearing this news my group members and I thought that it would be even better if we filmed during this week, but unfortunately we were given false hope. The government issued a state of emergency. As a result, we had to self quarantine ourselves, limit our time out, and not be around big groups. Even though it became a bit more difficult, we didn’t let this stop us. On Monday, March 16, 2020, we received a notification from our teacher. This notification said that, we should remain on schedule, in terms of our blog due dates, film submission, and Creative Critical Reflection (CCR), just in case since there wasn’t any word from Cambridge as of yet. On Tuesday, March 17, 2020, we planned to film on Thursday, March 19, 2020, and try to get as many scenes shot as possible. However, we got the news on Tuesday that school will be closed until April 15, 2020. Following this was another notification that said, all state wide tests we canceled and any requirements that are needed to be met in order for us to advance to the next grade or graduate will not be taken into account. My group members and I all had one question. What does this mean for our AICE classes and their exams?  We were confused and left in the dark. One thought that occurred was that we’re were pretty much done with the movie and everything else. Though, later that day we received a notification from our teacher that everything will go as planned according to the due dates and exam dates. Upon hearing this, my group members and I made a plan to film Friday, March 20, 2020. We suddenly became more optimistic. We have high hopes that everything will go as planned.

Editing Blog: The Re-edit

On Tuesday March 10, 2020, and Today, Thursday March 12, 2020, my group members and I decided to begin to re-edit our film. It was done using one of my group members’, Lauren, MacBook laptop. This same device was used to initially edit our film. The person assigned to edit was Lauren herself. She decided to begin in class since we were all there, and it was overall more convenient and efficient. The reason that prompted us to re-edit our film was the results of the peer review. As previously mentioned in my last two blogs, the class participated in a peer review. This allowed the film to be seen with a fresh set of eyes, and bring to light something that we might have missed. In the peer review sheet the other group states, in terms of editing, that we didn’t haven the necessary 10 titles. They also stated that the titles weren’t in the correct order. Although, this isn’t all that we did.

In class we also took our music into more consideration. We already had a plan for the music. However, the music we found didn’t fully fit the film’s mood in our opinion. As a result, Lauren and Anishkaneel began to search the internet using the search engine “Google” which led us to the website “Premium Beats”. This process wasn’t too nerve-racking, but it did take longer than expected. Fortunately, we never planned to use a copyrighted song. Instead we searched for royalty-free ominous music. Throughout this process there was one problem that we did run into. The people that made and provided the music for a website the search engine led us to, had their producer tag in it. This was a bit challenging since it wasn’t ideal, but we have not given up hope.

Reshoot Blog: Considering the Peer Review Notes

As I previously mentioned in my past blog, on Tuesday March 3,2020, the class participated in a peer review. In this peer review groups viewed each other’s films. This was done to provide a feedback on what they thought about it. On Friday March 5, 2020, we exchanged sheets. Each group now has the feedback on their film. This feedback will help us in the reshooting process. We will know what to change, what to add, and what to remove. So when it comes time for the reshoot we will be mindful of what we need to do to make our film more appealing. It will also allow us to be more confident in our film.

Unfortunately, my group members and I were not able to reshoot any of our scenes. The reason being was that we were all far too busy to do so. However, this time was not wasted. Instead we analyzed our feedback and talked about how we are going to make the film better. As I inferred from the peer review sheet, the group that reviewed us did not completely figure out the plot. This means that in the reshoot we need to make the story of the film more clear. We also didn't include the “Directed By” title at the end of the opening, didn’t place the titles in the correct order, and didn’t include a pan and diegetic sound.  To add on, according to the sheet, the dialogue was hard to hear in certain parts of the film. There were some positives in the film as well. These were good lighting, good sound quality, providing the necessary titles (with the exception of one), clean transitions, the necessary elements of C.A.M.S. (with the exception of two), and good acting. Upon reading this review, my group members and I figured out ways to implement these into our film during the reshoot.

Filming: Peer Review

On Tuesday, March 3, 2020, the class participated in a peer review. In this peer review we had to first import our films onto a flash drive. Then we had to give our flash drive to the group that was assigned to review our film. The point of this peer review is to have our film be seen with a pair of fresh eyes. In other words, be seen by someone who has never seen it before. This allows anything that we might have missed to come to light. It also allows for feedback that can aid you in the future. For instance, if a group of people in your target audience watches your film before it premieres, they can tell you what they liked and didn’t like about the movie so that once it premieres it doesn’t flop in the box office. As a result, when it comes time for the reshoot, we will know what we need to change or add to make our film more appealing and overall better.

Once importing our film onto a flash drive and giving it to the other group that was peer reviewing us, my group members, Aaliyah, Lauren, Anishka, and I were ready to peer review. My group was group 6, and the group we had to peer review was group 3. Their film was a thriller. My first impression of the film was that it was well structured; it was not choppy at all. All of the transitions were extremely smooth. To add on, it didn’t take long for me to understand the plot of the film. For a film with no dialogue, that to me was really impressive. This group’s film also kept me entertained throughout the duration of the film. The only thing that I felt could’ve been changed is their lighting. The lighting wasn’t bad, I just feel as though it could’ve been brighter so that all of the aspects or features of the film can be fully seen. Another thing that I can say about the film is, that it would’ve benefited a bit more if it had dialogue to make it seem less like a trailer. Overall, this film was amazing and if it were real, I would look forward to watching it in the movie theater.

Filming: The End

Today my group members and I completed our filming. All of us, with this exception of one, went to Lauren’s house to continue and finish filming. We had to finish 7 more scenes. These scenes were the hallway scene, the bedroom scene, the stairs scene, the dinner scene, and the trash can scene. Unfortunately, we could not get to shoot the proposal scene. For the scenes that were shot we finished shooting them all, but there were a few problems along the way. One problem was that we were behind schedule on this day. This means that the scenes that we filmed today were rushed. A scene that was really affected by this was the last scene, the bedroom scene. The main actors that were present, Aaliyah and Taliyah, had to leave once their ride came for them. This scene didn’t even get finished and was left out of the movie. We also didn’t have some of the necessary props to film in some scenes. We worked around not having these props, but they would’ve made the ambiance of the movie more impactful or expressed. Another problem was that we were missing the necessary actors. Bobby wasn’t available so we couldn’t do the proposal scene, and as I previously mentioned Aaliyah and Taliyah has to leave before we could finish the last scene. The final snag during filming was that we had to do many takes of the same scene. We did this because the actor(s) didn’t act out the scene the way that’s in the storyboard, or how we pictured it in our minds. To do all of these takes took about 30 minutes to 1 hour of our time. After we all went home Lauren began to edit, and ran into another problem. The film was too short. Upon hearing this news, my group members and I gave her tips and ideas to make the film longer and they worked. Unfortunately, our film didn’t turn out the way we envisioned, but we plan on fixing that during reshoots.