Starting the Final Task

   Throughout the media film process, I've grown and learned so much. At the beginning of the film process when I made my first blog, I knew little to nothing about making a film or video. My only knowledge was making sure the camera was focus and steady and cutting or transitioning awkward parts. Now I've learned so much and my love for directing and editing has grown tremendously. I've learned the different editing tools, camera techniques like angles, and what prep goes into a video before it's put out. I'm excited to continue growing in directing and editing because I truly believe it's my passion and maybe one day I will be as big as Jordan Peele and direct amazing movies that push the envelope to get people thinking deeply about a topic, but also entertaining them.
   My group members for this final project is Melshida Durand and Sabrina Mekic. We had a fun time thinking about the plot of the movie. Our process for making a film seems to be to come up with the plot and then work our way to the end, then to the beginning. That way we have all our ideas out there and it doesn't get confused with other ideas and projects. We like to go on the risky sides of making a story and put as much detail in as we can. For this project, we are challenging ourselves by having different ideas based off movies we've seen and trying to make it different and interesting. Our goal is to make an eye-catching movie that will bring recognition like oh I've seen something like this, but it still surprises them. Our film, whatever that is we choose will need to have an element that makes us unique. We are going to take our time with this project and do heavy-duty research to make our film shine.

What is a Pitch? a pitch describes an idea where a film is summarized in 25 words or less. As a group, we came up with three different pitches to contribute to the final task.
Pitch #1: They say together until the end, but I say obsessed forever
Pitch #2: Loyalty is like a knife stab through the heart
Pitch #3: Betrayal is like a bed of thorns... it leaves you bloody

Music Video Filming continued and Editing

My group filmed over the weekend. I didn't film because we decided to split up the roles. My role is editing and theirs is filming different scenes. We thought it was a good idea since some members won't be around on certain days. Monday, I got the flash drive and SD card that had the scenes they filmed and dumped them onto my computer. I deleted clips from the last project and added the new clips into a folder and changed the name to Music Video This is so I can easily know where the clips for the music video are. Then I started editing.

Transcription of Video:
Here's the music video that I'll be editing. So, I still have some more editing to do. Right now all I did was add some clips in. I still have to add more clips in later. And I also need to add in the transitions and the actual song for the music video. So, this scene over here is the popcorn scene, which is a flashback in the main character's POV. Then over here is still a flashback, but the main character will be watching a movie and it's still in the main character's POV.  Then over here, this is the ending of the music video where it will go from the flashbacks all the way to the present which is where the music video starts. So this is how it looks. I decided to make the beginning also the ending because I thought it would look nice and also be a recap of the events that happened in the music video. I always thought that the reverse concept in any type of video whether it was a music video or film was really amazing. And the reason why that these are POV shots is because when this was filmed one of my  group members thought it would be a great idea that instead of showing the main character, we should also try adding a new element in a music video, which is a POV shot because not many music videos do POV shots. It's usually a one-shot or a two-shot, so we decided why not try something new and different and hopefully it turns out great.

The process of editing will hopefully go smoothly. I have some great ideas for transitions. I would like for people to understand that certain scenes are flashbacks. The music video will go in and out of the present and past. When the song is added I pray that the scenes fit just like I imagined it to. When I add the rest of the clips in, the music video should meet the length requirements. We can't go over a minute and fifteen seconds. Nor can we be under a minute and five seconds. This shouldn't be a problem. My group members made long clips just in case we were under. I should be able to cut it down to meet the time frame.

Music Video Filming

This weekend my group members and I did not film. Almost everything was ready to start filming.  I picked out a song on the very first day the new project was mentioned.  It took two days to plan out the music video. Everything needed to be detailed before moving on. The music video had a scene every few seconds. Some of the scenes matched the lyrics. The video would take place in the present and flashbacks. It would mainly be flashbacks. The music video would take place at a park and a bedroom. There would be about five actors. The actors would wear bright colors. After planning came storyboarding. Storyboarding was easy. Now that mistakes were made in the first one, the second storyboard turned out great the first time. What was going to happen in the music video, the camera angles, and the editing features were all put in the storyboard. A schedule was made about filming and editing days. Wednesday, November 27 was chosen because there is no school. Filming is going to take place in a park near the school at around 1p.m. Editing will be done between Wednesday and Saturday, December 7. Saturday is when filming in a bedroom will take place. One of Target's display bedrooms will be used. The manager will be called next week on Monday to make sure he or she will allow filming to be done in their store. During this whole process, the search for actors was frantic. Getting someone willing to act in a project is very difficult. Most people declined because they didn't have the time for it or would not be able to film on the scheduled filming dates. If actors were found for the movie before the weekend, there would've been an extra day to film or edit. The filming would've taken place last Saturday and then this Wednesday. Actors for this music video is still needed. It is now crunch time to get them and start filming to have enough time as possible to edit the video.

Music Video Storyboard

 

In the very beginning, the actor will be thinking about a flashback that will take place in the park. the following scene will be a flashback that will show two actors play fighting followed up by one of the actors spilling water onto the other person. Both scenes are flashbacks of the same moment which will be portrayed within a split-screen. When the scene shifts from flashback to present, the actor will be hallucinating about that person seeing them everywhere and with a touch on the shoulder the actor will snap back to reality. The next scene will show that every person that was being hallucinated about disappear.

Between the scenes going from flashback to present or vice versa, the transition will be jump cuts. Having the scenes go from a flashback to a flashback will be followed by a burn transition. Both the first and last scenes are gonna be recorded at War field Park. The first scene will be in the present showing how the actor is feeling by singing to the main song. The next scene is set up as a flashback which will show two actors having fun together while making popcorn in the kitchen. Followed by the scene will reverse back to the present showing a slumber party scene that will have a bedroom setting. After filming the slumber party scene, the next setting will jump right into the schoolyard where the actor will be located right in front of the stairs for building 5 of Fort Lauderdale High. The scene will be a flashback showing how the actor trips and drops all of their books. Finally, the last scene will be in the present within the park which will show the actor thinking alluding back to the very first scene of the music video. 

Within the last two scenes of the music video, our group decided to make the scene play out as if it was right back at the beginning, reversing all the way back to the point where the actor will be seen walking forward again. The ending scenes will take place in the present with the transition being a jump cut. The last two scenes will also take place at War Field Park.

Planning Blog

Location: There will be a scene shot right in front of the stairs for building 5 inside Fort Lauderdale High school. Another scene that will be incorporated within the music video is a slumber party which will be recorded at our local Target (with permission) or IKEA furniture store. For the bulk of the music video, scenes will be recorded at War field Park in the city of Fort Lauderdale since it is the park closest to all group members.



Health and Safety: For a scene where the actor will trip in the schoolyard, cushioning will be provided so that the actor doesn't get hurt. When driving to our meeting point, each group member will comply with the rule of traffic and wear seat belts. When recording our slumber party scene, our group will ask permission to record in either Target, IKEA or Rooms-To-Go so that we don't break any rules. For the scenes that will be shot in War field Park, mosquito spray will be brought in case anyone is getting bitten easily. 



Props: Our team thought about using flyers for a scene where the actor will be hallucinating about a person in their flashbacks. Books will be used during the scene where the actor will trip and drop all of their books in a flashback scene. Snacks, more specifically popcorn, will be used during a flashback where two actors will be seen making popcorn together in a kitchen. Lastly, park equipment, such as a Frisbee and ball will be used to make the park scene more joyful and natural. 



Costumes: Regular shirt and pants that are brightly colored or pastel for all the scenes



Schedule: -11/18/19 to 11/22/19 our group was planning out how each scene will play out

                 -11/23/19 to 11/26/19 our group is gathering props and finding actors to be in our music video

                 -11/27/19 our team is recording inside War  field Park

                 -11/28/19 Thanksgiving no one is recording

                 -11/29/19 to 12/01/19 our team will edit scenes that we already have

                 -12/02/19 our team will call Target in advance to see if we could record inside

                 -12/07/19 our team is editing 

                 -12/09/19 Music Video is due

Music Video

The commercial project was a good starter project because it taught us how the filming process works. The storyboarding and filming were the easiest parts of the project because we already had an idea of what we wanted our commercial to look like. Once it was storyboarded, capturing it was a breeze because we didn't need to include sound. The hardest part was editing. Cutting down a video to a certain time frame is hard. It makes the editing process difficult.

As of today, our class was assigned to work on filming our first music video. For the music video, our group agreed to do the song “I forgot you existed” by Taylor Swift after all group members heard the song for the first time. Our team mainly picked the song for the reason being that I gave the idea of filming flashbacks and present scenes for the music video. 

C- Our team hasn’t specified the article of clothing the actors will be wearing, but we have settled on wearing only bright/ pastel colors.

L- Our team decided to conduct fluorescent lighting for a particular scene and mainly use natural lighting cast from the sun.

A- Our team wanted to include mainly two actors with the inclusion of background.

M- No specific makeup would be used for the entirety of the music video just natural face.

P-  For props, our team settled with using books, popcorn, flyers, and park equipment (frisbees, ball).

S- Our team settled on filming scenes taking place in a park, the school, and in one of the group member’s house.

Our music video as a whole will be under the pop genre with music that will take its place as the main sound. The main camera movement our team wants to include was a flash pan for a particular scene that will take place in the music video.

Editing pt.2

My group and I continued editing our commercial. I cut some parts of the video so that it would thirty seconds. I decided to wait to add the voiceover before cutting more of the video. I added inserts of the school and course catalogs my group member found. Some inserts were impossible to find. A picture of building 21 cannot be found online. No matter how hard anyone looks. I felt frustrated because I need the course catalog for the commercial. I don 't understand how we can find other pictures of the school, but not building 21. I decided, for now, there will be no photo of building 21. I used a different picture of a room inside of building 21.

The editing part of the commercial is stressful. Especially if there is a time limit. It is hard for me to cut the commercial down to thirty seconds. Once I added the voiceover and cut down the spaces in the voiceover, the video was still over time. I would add inserts to fix spacing issues. The inserts also helped with the timing of the voiceovers. Some scenes we shot could not be extended. Which is where the inserts came into play. After inserts were added, I started cutting the inserts. The inserts helped a lot with timing.

When playing the video as a whole, I noticed there was a weird jumpcut even with a transition. It took a while to figure out what the problem was. I realized that on transition was shorter than the other. Fixing the timing was hard, but I did it. A voiceover clip sounded choppy. I had to extend one part at the end. Playing the part over it sounded better. I couldn't hear the jumpcut. However, there was still a problem. The video was thirty-four seconds long and needed to be cut by four seconds.