Sunday, April 10, 2016
Editing!
The first problem I immediately realized while editing? I hate iMovie. Quite a lot. I'm used to working with Final Cut from my previous short film project, and the downgrade from Final Cut iMovie was slightly degrading.
Another obstacle I quickly came to become aware of was kiind of a major one at first: I lost an entire take of my film. During filming, I ran out of memory on my SD card. To compensate for this meory loss, I had to go into our takes and delete one I didn't think was important/had any solid footage. Unfortunatelly for me ... I didn't choose the right one. It was one of the birds eye high angle shots that I thought, when I deleted it, was just practicing/getting used to the high angle and didn't actually include any takes. However, it was the only take of some of the lines I had - the ones that began the shift from scuba diving to driving lessons (beginnign when Cassie's character asks for a ride to the scuba diving lessons).
Although this loss of footage at first plaugyed me (I first discovered it right before I had to work an eight hour shift at my job and I mourned over it the whole time), I soon came to realize that my footage was too long. I was forced to cut down the film, and that included the driving portion of the script. I had to make executive decisions on what was most and least important, and whenever I had people read my script and give feedback they always liked the beginning and end best. So, those are the two areas I attempted to keep both intact (scuba diving and factory metaphors).
One of the major interesting editing decisions I made was for the sequence towards the end of the introduction surrounding the factory metaphor. I filmed that dialogue sequence the whole way through from both characters' perspectives, so in editing I decided to bounce the shots back and forth between the two characters. This is to establush the flow and tone of the film, that of which is quick, strange, confounding humor that you need to be quick to catch. Otherwise, you'll get caught up in the flow and miss the point.
In additon to the two shot editing technique, the score in the background also helps set the tone. It's quick, fast-paced, minimalistic, quirky, sort of strange, and sort of almost ominous/eerie. All of these tones underscore the essence of the film, capturing the flow of the comedy as well as the more serious undertones/messages/themes.
Another obstacle I quickly came to become aware of was kiind of a major one at first: I lost an entire take of my film. During filming, I ran out of memory on my SD card. To compensate for this meory loss, I had to go into our takes and delete one I didn't think was important/had any solid footage. Unfortunatelly for me ... I didn't choose the right one. It was one of the birds eye high angle shots that I thought, when I deleted it, was just practicing/getting used to the high angle and didn't actually include any takes. However, it was the only take of some of the lines I had - the ones that began the shift from scuba diving to driving lessons (beginnign when Cassie's character asks for a ride to the scuba diving lessons).
Although this loss of footage at first plaugyed me (I first discovered it right before I had to work an eight hour shift at my job and I mourned over it the whole time), I soon came to realize that my footage was too long. I was forced to cut down the film, and that included the driving portion of the script. I had to make executive decisions on what was most and least important, and whenever I had people read my script and give feedback they always liked the beginning and end best. So, those are the two areas I attempted to keep both intact (scuba diving and factory metaphors).
One of the major interesting editing decisions I made was for the sequence towards the end of the introduction surrounding the factory metaphor. I filmed that dialogue sequence the whole way through from both characters' perspectives, so in editing I decided to bounce the shots back and forth between the two characters. This is to establush the flow and tone of the film, that of which is quick, strange, confounding humor that you need to be quick to catch. Otherwise, you'll get caught up in the flow and miss the point.
In additon to the two shot editing technique, the score in the background also helps set the tone. It's quick, fast-paced, minimalistic, quirky, sort of strange, and sort of almost ominous/eerie. All of these tones underscore the essence of the film, capturing the flow of the comedy as well as the more serious undertones/messages/themes.
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
... Title?!?
Oh boy, we're really far into this project and I've only just now come to the realization that I still don't have a title for my film! I'm not at all good with being clever, so I'm sorta stressing about what the name could possibly be. Maybe I'll ask around - my friend Cherry prides himself in being an expert at puns - but for now, I'll keep brainstorming.
I did come to one epiphany during my shower a bit earlier: Trapped In the Box ... instead of Jack In the Box? I don't know, I thought it wasn't bad and got the message of the film pretty across. Plus, when you think of Jack In the Box, you think of kids (students) and playfulness (the quirky nature of the film). I'm not sure yet ... I'm worried both that audiences won't get the reference to Jack In the Box, and that the message is too in-your-face through the title. I think more interpretation = more powerful.
---- LATER ----
I asked sme friends if they understood the Trapped In the Box reference ... and they didn't. So! What I instead came up with is: Cardboard. Simple. Simplistic. To the point. Students are put into boxes. The characters are "literally trapped in a box." I think it's fitting.
I did come to one epiphany during my shower a bit earlier: Trapped In the Box ... instead of Jack In the Box? I don't know, I thought it wasn't bad and got the message of the film pretty across. Plus, when you think of Jack In the Box, you think of kids (students) and playfulness (the quirky nature of the film). I'm not sure yet ... I'm worried both that audiences won't get the reference to Jack In the Box, and that the message is too in-your-face through the title. I think more interpretation = more powerful.
---- LATER ----
I asked sme friends if they understood the Trapped In the Box reference ... and they didn't. So! What I instead came up with is: Cardboard. Simple. Simplistic. To the point. Students are put into boxes. The characters are "literally trapped in a box." I think it's fitting.
Searching for a sound
I'm currently in school, and can't edit on the school computer because I don't have my footage on me (since I can't edit iMovie files before exporting them). So, I'm going to start looking for some music for my opening. What I'm looking for is something upbeat and quirky/strange, but not happy/pretty. Something that will put viewers on edge, but also acknowledge that other than satire, the primary genre of the piece is comedy and it's important to enjoy the piece and not take it too seriously. Another thing I want to look for is some kind of sound effect/noise/chime to use whenever a credit appears onscreen.
---- LATER ----
While looking through royalty free music, I wasn't able to find anything that I like for the film. I'm not sure yet whether I'll have to compromise on something that I find, or if I may try and create the sounds myself. What I'm imagining in my head isn't so much of a score so much as a beat. In addition, I have two other options: I'm going to text a friend I met at my filmmaking camp over the summer (she was an instructor) and ask her for any recommended royalty free music sources; or I can call up my cousin and ask him to whip something up for me, because he's a DJ and makes beats all the time. Ideally I would get my cousin to do it, but considering deadline is close and he doesn't have all the time in the world, that may take too long to accomplish in the time that I have.
---- LATER ----
I finally found a sound that fits! It's a song called Rafters, found on a site called Free Music Archive (it's royalty free) that was recommended by my friend Kiara. It adorable and catchy and strange and interesting and I like it a lot. Now I just have to make sure it works well in editing ... Stay tuned.
---- LATER ----
I finally found a sound that fits! It's a song called Rafters, found on a site called Free Music Archive (it's royalty free) that was recommended by my friend Kiara. It adorable and catchy and strange and interesting and I like it a lot. Now I just have to make sure it works well in editing ... Stay tuned.
Drafting my critical reflection!
I'm now starting to work on the critical reflection because I take the lessons learned and overall outcome of the product to be supremely more important than the product itself. I am beginning to think about which medium I'd like to use, and I immediately decided on a podcast. Quite frankly, it's the medium with which I am most comfortable with, and it encompasses the way in which my film primarily shouts its message: through words. Words are powerful, and there's a lot I can do with sound. It's more difficult to get creative without picture, yes, but that just continues to correlate with the entire purpose of creating such a minimalistic story in such a confined setting: take something condensed and make it into something. And that's what I intend to do.
I decided to make my podcast a stream of consciousness because that's what I'm good at and comfortable with when reflecting upon things. When I just talk or write without any end destination in mind I tend to subliminally take the best course. It's also very raw and minimal and personal, all correlating to themes and tones of my film, so I think it's a good match.
Saturday, April 2, 2016
That's A Wrap!
I filmed on Wednesday, March 30. That day was the only day me and my two actors could all get together to film; however, I had work at 6pm that day, so we didn't have much time to waste. We started filming after school, starting with filming in the elevator. My two actors, Cassie and Jonathan, had been memorizing the script throughout the day. We started in the elevator rather than going in chronological order because there were still students milling around the hall outside of the elevator, and we hoped that by the time we were done with the elevator that there wouldn't be any more students outside of it and that we would have the hall to myself. We began going in chronological order, until we got to the first high angle shot. This is because it was really difficult to set up and shoot, because we had to use a tripod and hold up the tripod to get the camera high enough to look like a birds eye view. So, to get around having to re-set up the tripod every time we got to a high angle shot, we shot all of them back-to-back. Other than that, we pretty much filmed everything in chronological order.
Both of my actors were really perfect for the their roles - and not just because I practically wrote it for the two of them. Technically I didn't write the role for Cassie specifically because I originally wrote it for Kiara (my original actress), but her and Kiara are best friends and super similar to one another, so she was by far the next best thing. Both Jonathan and Cassie's acting was spot on: Cassie perfectly encompassed the absurdity of the content - her quirkiness and aloof line-deliveries was on point; and my brother's snarky sarcasm and realism perfectly captured how the audience should be feeling.
Both of my actors were really perfect for the their roles - and not just because I practically wrote it for the two of them. Technically I didn't write the role for Cassie specifically because I originally wrote it for Kiara (my original actress), but her and Kiara are best friends and super similar to one another, so she was by far the next best thing. Both Jonathan and Cassie's acting was spot on: Cassie perfectly encompassed the absurdity of the content - her quirkiness and aloof line-deliveries was on point; and my brother's snarky sarcasm and realism perfectly captured how the audience should be feeling.
Planning Shots, Part 2
PRE FILMING:
After I planned out the shots for the walk to the elevator, I then had to plan out the shots for inside the elevator. This was infinitely more difficult, because I have a lot less room to work with inside an elevator than outside in a hallway. One shot I knew I wanted to utilize was an overhead shot that would look down on the characters like a birds eye view. To give these shots a purpose, I decided to interject one every time there was a shift in commentary. For example, there's a birds eye shot that separates the dialogue exchange about scuba diving and driving ("Cool, guess I'm screwed then." "[...] Do you think you could give me a ride to the lessons?") and the dialogue between driving and getting a job ("Bro, shut up with your food analogies ..." "[...] But can you drive me?") The elevator mainly utilizes close-ups/medium shots in ways that best show the exchange of dialogue between the characters. I planned to do this in two ways: for shorter exchanges of dialogue, I would use a pan to shift back and forth between the characters; and for longer exchanges of dialogue that would require more editing, I planned to get a medium/close up shot of each character acting out the same lines of dialogue and mesh them together in editing to make a two-shot editing technique. Finally, for the end of the film, I planned on a POV type shot of one of the characters pressing the door open button to illustrate that the door won't open - and that the characters are stuck in the elevator, establishing the conflict of the film. I also plan on recording the sound of the alarm bell in the elevator that I want to sound at the end of the introduction when the title of the film appears. In addition, I want to get a sound bite or two of the characters muttering something in exasperation once they realize they're stuck in the elevator - I'm not sure what yet, I plan on asking the actors to improvise, but I scribbled down some ideas while I was planning the shots.
SHOT LIST, POST FILMING:
(The shots are scribbled out because I scratched out each shot after shooting it in order to keep track of where we were at during production.)
After I planned out the shots for the walk to the elevator, I then had to plan out the shots for inside the elevator. This was infinitely more difficult, because I have a lot less room to work with inside an elevator than outside in a hallway. One shot I knew I wanted to utilize was an overhead shot that would look down on the characters like a birds eye view. To give these shots a purpose, I decided to interject one every time there was a shift in commentary. For example, there's a birds eye shot that separates the dialogue exchange about scuba diving and driving ("Cool, guess I'm screwed then." "[...] Do you think you could give me a ride to the lessons?") and the dialogue between driving and getting a job ("Bro, shut up with your food analogies ..." "[...] But can you drive me?") The elevator mainly utilizes close-ups/medium shots in ways that best show the exchange of dialogue between the characters. I planned to do this in two ways: for shorter exchanges of dialogue, I would use a pan to shift back and forth between the characters; and for longer exchanges of dialogue that would require more editing, I planned to get a medium/close up shot of each character acting out the same lines of dialogue and mesh them together in editing to make a two-shot editing technique. Finally, for the end of the film, I planned on a POV type shot of one of the characters pressing the door open button to illustrate that the door won't open - and that the characters are stuck in the elevator, establishing the conflict of the film. I also plan on recording the sound of the alarm bell in the elevator that I want to sound at the end of the introduction when the title of the film appears. In addition, I want to get a sound bite or two of the characters muttering something in exasperation once they realize they're stuck in the elevator - I'm not sure what yet, I plan on asking the actors to improvise, but I scribbled down some ideas while I was planning the shots.
SHOT LIST, POST FILMING:
(The shots are scribbled out because I scratched out each shot after shooting it in order to keep track of where we were at during production.)
Planning Shots, Part 1
PRE SHOTLIST:
Shooting is getting close, and I have to start really finalizing everything. I'm 100% finished with my script, so now I have to work on planning out the shots. Cinematography isn't exactly my forte, so this is a step to my project I'm not particularly looking forward to. However, I am looking forward to overcoming the obstacle and hopefully getting my film to look nice in a way that makes all of my shots contribute to the meaning of my piece.
POST SHOTLIST:
I first had to think about how I wanted to frame the shots leading up to my two characters heading into the elevator. The very first thing I knew I wanted - before I even started writing my script - is for the very first line of the film to be "I'm gonna start taking scuba diving lessons." - and for that line to be said while the screen is still black. The next line - "What?" - would be when the picture appears, and the shot will be a long shot of the two characters walking down the school hallway towards the elevator.
This is for two reasons: firstly, it also functions as an establishing shot, showing the setting of the schools and generally depicting the two characters; secondly, it also works to set up the pattern of shots I decided the walk to the elevator would be like.
In each shot, the two characters will walk towards the camera, and eventually pass it, leaving the last frame of each shot the back of the characters. The reason for this is that it visually describes how the audience should be feeling: as though they're constantly behind the chain of events/dialogue of the introduction. This is because my film is supposed to confuse viewers - hopefully not so much to the point where they don't understand the commentary, but enough to make them cock their head, knit their eyebrows and go "... Wait what?"
The dialogue is intentionally obfuscatory and confusion-inducing; or, in essence, absurd. This is because it's a primary element of my genre, satire. Absurdity is a necessary feature of any satirical story because it lets the viewer know that the content isn't literal - it's supposed to be funny. We're mocking the vices and folly of humanity and society, hilarious!
Shooting is getting close, and I have to start really finalizing everything. I'm 100% finished with my script, so now I have to work on planning out the shots. Cinematography isn't exactly my forte, so this is a step to my project I'm not particularly looking forward to. However, I am looking forward to overcoming the obstacle and hopefully getting my film to look nice in a way that makes all of my shots contribute to the meaning of my piece.
POST SHOTLIST:
I first had to think about how I wanted to frame the shots leading up to my two characters heading into the elevator. The very first thing I knew I wanted - before I even started writing my script - is for the very first line of the film to be "I'm gonna start taking scuba diving lessons." - and for that line to be said while the screen is still black. The next line - "What?" - would be when the picture appears, and the shot will be a long shot of the two characters walking down the school hallway towards the elevator.
This is for two reasons: firstly, it also functions as an establishing shot, showing the setting of the schools and generally depicting the two characters; secondly, it also works to set up the pattern of shots I decided the walk to the elevator would be like.
In each shot, the two characters will walk towards the camera, and eventually pass it, leaving the last frame of each shot the back of the characters. The reason for this is that it visually describes how the audience should be feeling: as though they're constantly behind the chain of events/dialogue of the introduction. This is because my film is supposed to confuse viewers - hopefully not so much to the point where they don't understand the commentary, but enough to make them cock their head, knit their eyebrows and go "... Wait what?"
The dialogue is intentionally obfuscatory and confusion-inducing; or, in essence, absurd. This is because it's a primary element of my genre, satire. Absurdity is a necessary feature of any satirical story because it lets the viewer know that the content isn't literal - it's supposed to be funny. We're mocking the vices and folly of humanity and society, hilarious!
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