Re-editing blog: Re-editing Any New Footage Filmed

I finally finished editing my video. I finalized my script for my voiceover and timed it so that it would start right after the title sequence and end when the trunk closes. The voiceover definitely solved any issues with timing and the different sounds I am supposed to include in my film. The new clips I filmed were also inserted at this time. Since there were only a few this was very simple. As I was editing, I realized that I did not have the required shots and angles I needed. Because I am missing just a few, I think I will do another day of re filming my movie. I want to make sure it is truly perfect and meets all requirements. I think I will have Mario, the other actor in the film, peer review my film. I was at a disadvantage because the person who was supposed to peer review my film did not show up. I am very proud of my editing so far. I think I have come a long way since our commercial as far as using the software. This is good because I can apply this to real life. There are a lot of things I can use these skills for, even if I am not making films. Using software like iMovie  can help me use other softwares like PowerPoint. I have progressed by learning through my errors. The difference between my editing now and before is immense. My film now is very clean. My edits are smooth and make sense. It looks a lot more professional and well done than my other works. I think my film is going very well and I’m getting close to finishing!

Re-Shoot blog: Re-shooting My Film

I have not been able to re-shoot some parts of my film. Because of how busy I have been, and my actor, we haven't been able to find a time. On Tuesday, we have a day off of school. I plan on re-shooting the kidnapping scenes using my camera instead of my phone this time. The quality on my phone camera was not very good because of how dark it was outside. This time I plan on filming during the day now that I know how to turn down the brightness. Hopefully this won't take long as I only have a few shots to film. The first one I have to re-shoot is the scene where I kidnap "Mateo". Because I filmed it on my phone, it came out vertical, but the rest of my film was on my camera and those shots are all horizontal. The next one is where I'm dragging him to the car. This part was really shaky because my 7 year old brother was holding my phone to film. The last thing to re-shot is me putting him in the trunk. This was also shaky and dark. Additionally, I will have my acting partner peer review my film to see if I am missing anything in my film. Based on this, I will see if I have to add any more shots and angles as well. If I am missing anything, I will have to re-shot again. Once I am done re-shooting is when I will do my voiceover. I wrote out a script for it and timed it well enough that it will fit the timing of the film without going over the title sequence. I will do this later on next week, around Wednesday or Friday. After that, I will be completely done with my film.

Peer Review: Watching Another Group’s Film

One thing I liked about the other group’s film was the storyline. The film is about a guy who gets robbed and has to find a way to get back all the money he lost in the robbery. I think it is a good idea for a movie and could be good as a mystery or comedy film. Their film was not finished, so I only got to see the second half. Because of this I feel like I can’t accurately judge their film fully. That being said, from what I can see, I think it would be beneficial to add some background music because right now with just dialogue, it sounds dry. My biggest suggestion would be to work on the editing more. In one scene, the main character is filming a pov but when he looks at the mirror you can see him holding the camera. I don't think this was intentional considering it isn't supposed to be a documentary where that would be a normal sight. Also another big issue is that of the titles. I realize that I only watched the second half of their film, but working on the titles would definitely be beneficial. Another concern of mine is that their second part is about 48 seconds. I worry that they may not be able to reach the 2 minute mark. Overall, I think the acting was not bad. It was a little stiff, but none of us are professional actors so I can't be too harsh on that. They also did not meet around five of the required shots and angles, but maybe they will include these in the other half. On the bright side, the transitions are clean, not choppy or immature looking. Also the lighting and sound were very good. The lighting matched the tone of the film and we are able to see everything clearly. The sound is great, you can hear everything clearly. However, there was only dialogue in what I saw, so no background music had been out in yet.

Editing blog: Finalizing My Editing

I've been running into a few issues with my film. My biggest issue is the time. My movie is currently about 3 minutes long, which is almost a minute over the cutoff. However, I can't find anything to get rid off without botching the storyline. I was considering getting rid of the scenes in the garage, but I feel like the movie will lose structure if I do this. There are some clips here and there that I might be able to cut, but the movie won't make a lot of sense. One idea I came up with was doing a voiceover for the movie and getting rid of the garage scene. If I do this, I can establish the "catfishing" plot and go into even more detail. This is, however, going to mess up my timeline and maybe put me behind schedule. I may be able to get it done by this Thursday, but most likely Friday or Saturday. In order to do this I would also have to come up with a script and take into consideration music, which I have also not done. The next few days will be focused on the different sounds I'll incorporate into my film. I have to work on adding my diegetic, non-diegetic, and ambient sound in addition to my voiceover. I'm beginning to worry about my film. Hopefully I can figure out the voiceover and time issue. My plan, once I'm done, is to do some peer review and see how else I can improve my film. I think that with a few more weeks work I can my film to where I really need it to be. Today I will work on finalizing my editing as much as I can. My biggest concern at this point is keeping my storyline and finding a way to to show the viewer what's happening. I might turn my speech in the garage into the voiceover and change the words.

These are the clips I am thinking about getting rid of.

Editing blog: Fixing Any Mistakes

Today I started wrapping up my editing. I had some issues with my title sequence. For one, I could not figure out how to move the text, so I was not able to display more than one title at a time. Another issue was that I could not make them any longer than 2 seconds each, even though I wanted to. I think that because of this it looks rushed. I was also thinking about getting rid of the portion in my film where they are in the garage after she kidnaps him. I feel like because of how short our films are supposed to be, I can't develop the story well enough to add the garage scene. I need more specifics when it comes to the parts leading up to his kidnapping. I'm not entirely sure yet if I will delete this part or not. I'm going to finish editing completely, watch it over a few times, and decide at that point if I should get rid of the footage. I began to clean up the editing more today. I had cut a lot of unnecessary footage yesterday and spent my time today going into detail of where clips start and end. I started adding some transitions like fades and crosses. I wanted to keep transitions to a minimum though. I feel like it looks more raw and authentic with hard cuts than the other transitions. I also worked on my action match. This was more difficult than I thought because I had to time it perfectly so that it looked smooth and cohesive. I also got rid of a few clips that seemed random and unorganized. One of them was just a clip of me driving in the dark, but I had another one and I felt that two would be overkill and boring. Another was in my room where I am moving to the other side of my bed. To me this looked sloppy so I scrapped it. The third was a close up of the bag that I put over his head with a dumbbell in it. I got rid of this because I felt it was, again, unnecessary and I also decided to not use a weapon to knock him out, so it would not make sense to show a weapon.

Editing blog: Getting My Footage Ready

Today I took all of the footage from my camera and my phone and dumped it onto my computer. I created a folder specifically for the footage and managed to transfer it all with no difficulty. I opened iMovie and I began creating my film. I went through each clip I had and arranged them in the correct order. Because I filmed out of order, this was pretty difficult and time consuming. I then decided to tackle any lighting issues I had. I was able to make the scenes I filmed on my phone brighter. Now we can actually see what's happening. I also made the garage scenes darker. This was great because I feel like it would not have felt scary without it. I also made up my title sequence. In my storyboard, I had it so that each title would have its own screen and would be on their own. However, because my film was already over 6 minutes once I dumped, I decided to go with my original idea. I had the first 5 titles on their own with a black background. After the title of the movie appeared, I put a fade into the first shot. I then added each additional 6 titles one by one, after each other. They each last about 2 seconds and have half a second in between. As my original plan directed, as one title faded out, a new one would fade in. I really like how my title sequence is looking. I think it gives off a very professional feeling and I hope when I add more effects and music, it will only get better.

Filming blog: Filming My Movie- Second Day

Today I filmed the second part of my movie. This time I filmed the parts that only I was in. I was able to do this on my own because my camera has a tripod, so I did not need anyone to hold it. My process was fairly easy. I only filmed for about 30 to 45 minutes and finished all the scenes left in my storyboard. There were some parts that were difficult to set up. For example, my over the shoulder shot was a hit or miss, and I had to redo it a few times. Also, I realized that when I was filming on Sunday, I forgot to film the other half of my action match: the car door closing. I did it today, even though it was still light out, and I hope I can make it look a little darker. I am definitely worried about the lighting in my film. The issues with the garage lighting may make the movie less creepy if I cannot fix it, as well as the lighting for the action match. Another difficulty I faced was that my family was home. I think they were quiet enough that I should not have to detach the audio when I'm editing. I should be able to just play over it. These were pretty minor issues and nothing I couldn't easily overcome. Luckily, I was able to film everything at home and didn't have to go anywhere. This saved a lot of time and energy. I actually really enjoyed my filming process today. It was definitely easier than Sunday, when I started filming my own movie after being in another movie for almost 5 hours. Based on how today went, I feel pretty confident in the other aspects of my film. Once I add background music and edit, I think it will be a really good horror/thriller film.

This is one insert I am going to put in the movie to make the conversation between the two characters easier to read. These were fabricated for the film specifically.