Sunday, April 10, 2016
Thursday, April 7, 2016
Peer criticism is much needed.
After creating the "rough draft", I showed it to a few of my peers in class. They said I needed to trim the clips a bit more and let me know how I could fix the visuals. I then reviewed the film myself and realized it wasn't exactly how I wanted to be. One of the biggest problems was the sound. I wanted to find a song that could match up with the high-pitched sound when the opening makes the parallel quote. After searching for a while, I found one that kind of matched up and stayed with the tone of the film. I had to fix some transitions because they were either a bit too jumpy or too slow. Once I solved those 2 problems the film really started coming together. I also thought of the name I wanted to title it: "The Loud Things We See." It took me a while to find the right font since I wanted something very light, but I eventually came across the perfect one. Lastly, I created the very beginning of the opening by creating a graphic on a website called Canva. On the graphic I established my own production company called I.Q. Productions. This gave the film more of a professional tone. After the creation of the graphic, I reviewed everything and was happy with it. I am now finally done with my opening, and although it's not perfect, I feel as though I did very well in the time allotted, especially for a beginner film-maker. I hope this will lead to many great things in the future!
After creating the "rough draft", I showed it to a few of my peers in class. They said I needed to trim the clips a bit more and let me know how I could fix the visuals. I then reviewed the film myself and realized it wasn't exactly how I wanted to be. One of the biggest problems was the sound. I wanted to find a song that could match up with the high-pitched sound when the opening makes the parallel quote. After searching for a while, I found one that kind of matched up and stayed with the tone of the film. I had to fix some transitions because they were either a bit too jumpy or too slow. Once I solved those 2 problems the film really started coming together. I also thought of the name I wanted to title it: "The Loud Things We See." It took me a while to find the right font since I wanted something very light, but I eventually came across the perfect one. Lastly, I created the very beginning of the opening by creating a graphic on a website called Canva. On the graphic I established my own production company called I.Q. Productions. This gave the film more of a professional tone. After the creation of the graphic, I reviewed everything and was happy with it. I am now finally done with my opening, and although it's not perfect, I feel as though I did very well in the time allotted, especially for a beginner film-maker. I hope this will lead to many great things in the future!
Sleepy editing.
After finally filming everything I needed, it was time to get editing. The day after I filmed I spent the whole night putting shots together and adjusting them. Through the editing process, I wanted to get the whole beginning of the sequence to be overexposed, as if it were a dream. This effect will be to try to emphasize the fact that it is not in the present (the foreshadowing I wanted). I also had to crop clips and make them smoother. All these adjustments took a very long time since my computer is a bit old for the software, but I wanted to finish. Once I get in the editing zone, it's hard to get out, and I wanted to finish as much as possible to get it out of the way with and have some peers review it. I was very happy with how it was turning out, especially in comparison to the previous edit. I added transitions, and tried to keep trimming to get under 2 minutes. Sound was also a huge deal since it played such an important role in an opening about a blind girl. I had to constantly adjust the volume and make sure everything flowed smoothly, while still allowing the audience to understand her sensitivity to these sounds. I looked for sound effects all over, but the most useful was Youtube Audio Library, where they have royalty free music, and LOTS of it. I was very thankful for the friend who recommended the website to me, for if not I would have had trouble getting everything right. I finally reached my goal around 2 am, and although I knew it was still a rough draft, everything was coming into place.
After finally filming everything I needed, it was time to get editing. The day after I filmed I spent the whole night putting shots together and adjusting them. Through the editing process, I wanted to get the whole beginning of the sequence to be overexposed, as if it were a dream. This effect will be to try to emphasize the fact that it is not in the present (the foreshadowing I wanted). I also had to crop clips and make them smoother. All these adjustments took a very long time since my computer is a bit old for the software, but I wanted to finish. Once I get in the editing zone, it's hard to get out, and I wanted to finish as much as possible to get it out of the way with and have some peers review it. I was very happy with how it was turning out, especially in comparison to the previous edit. I added transitions, and tried to keep trimming to get under 2 minutes. Sound was also a huge deal since it played such an important role in an opening about a blind girl. I had to constantly adjust the volume and make sure everything flowed smoothly, while still allowing the audience to understand her sensitivity to these sounds. I looked for sound effects all over, but the most useful was Youtube Audio Library, where they have royalty free music, and LOTS of it. I was very thankful for the friend who recommended the website to me, for if not I would have had trouble getting everything right. I finally reached my goal around 2 am, and although I knew it was still a rough draft, everything was coming into place.
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
DONE FILMING!!!
So over the weekend I finally finished filming. This was a huge accomplishment because we basically had to start from scratch with the process. This time I tried getting her to close her eyes so the blind acting could be more realistic. I also put in less clips of her walking to make it less obvious she wasn't blind. The conditions were a bit gloomy which is good because that's what I needed. After filming in the forest we went back to her house to film the last portion of the opening in which she is in her room. This part was much easier. To get around the room I made her utilize a technique I saw in the film The Way He Looks where the blind boy knew his way around the house through touch. He would touch the walls to navigate around the house since he knew it so well. I made my actress do so to find her way out of the room. I really hope everything comes together now, because I know editing will be quite tedious. Time to wrap this project up!
So over the weekend I finally finished filming. This was a huge accomplishment because we basically had to start from scratch with the process. This time I tried getting her to close her eyes so the blind acting could be more realistic. I also put in less clips of her walking to make it less obvious she wasn't blind. The conditions were a bit gloomy which is good because that's what I needed. After filming in the forest we went back to her house to film the last portion of the opening in which she is in her room. This part was much easier. To get around the room I made her utilize a technique I saw in the film The Way He Looks where the blind boy knew his way around the house through touch. He would touch the walls to navigate around the house since he knew it so well. I made my actress do so to find her way out of the room. I really hope everything comes together now, because I know editing will be quite tedious. Time to wrap this project up!
Saturday, April 2, 2016
Need to catch up, research in the mean time.
I've been wanting to film these past few days, the problem is my actress has had something come up every time we plan to film, so it hasn't happened. This is a huge problem because I basically need to reshoot everything I did beforehand since I did not like how they came out at all. There was no continuity in the sequence and my actress did not look blind at all. The situation is not looking good because I know editing will be a huge hassle and will take some time. Plus I still need to do the critical reflection, which will also take time. All this needs to get done in the next few days because the project's due in about a week.
Trying not to think about all of this, I decided to take the recommendation of a friend of mine and see a Brazilian film called "The Way He Looks". The film is about a blind kid who struggles with finding out who he is, which is great because in my opening I need to show a bit of this struggle. This also helped me with the look of a blind person and how he/she must walk. I will need to tell my actress these techniques to make it look as realistic as possible. Lastly, I watched this video on In-Camera Color Correcting, which I will incorporate to make the beginning of my opening seem surreal. The person in the video talks about how you can adjust contrast, color, and other factors to make the film look the way you want and not have to do it when editing, which is very useful. I will try to make use of this, that is, if I actually manage to film...
Devingraham. "Color Correcting In Camera Tutorial! Picture Style!" YouTube. March 30, 2016. Accessed April 03, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md3m_QbuSc0.
I've been wanting to film these past few days, the problem is my actress has had something come up every time we plan to film, so it hasn't happened. This is a huge problem because I basically need to reshoot everything I did beforehand since I did not like how they came out at all. There was no continuity in the sequence and my actress did not look blind at all. The situation is not looking good because I know editing will be a huge hassle and will take some time. Plus I still need to do the critical reflection, which will also take time. All this needs to get done in the next few days because the project's due in about a week.
Trying not to think about all of this, I decided to take the recommendation of a friend of mine and see a Brazilian film called "The Way He Looks". The film is about a blind kid who struggles with finding out who he is, which is great because in my opening I need to show a bit of this struggle. This also helped me with the look of a blind person and how he/she must walk. I will need to tell my actress these techniques to make it look as realistic as possible. Lastly, I watched this video on In-Camera Color Correcting, which I will incorporate to make the beginning of my opening seem surreal. The person in the video talks about how you can adjust contrast, color, and other factors to make the film look the way you want and not have to do it when editing, which is very useful. I will try to make use of this, that is, if I actually manage to film...
Devingraham. "Color Correcting In Camera Tutorial! Picture Style!" YouTube. March 30, 2016. Accessed April 03, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md3m_QbuSc0.
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Editing is such a pain!
Now that I have some usable footage, I tried putting it together. I knew I had been using the old imovie software, s I decided to buy the latest on off the app store. There are many more features, however theres one big problem; the playback lags so much I can't edit properly! I've tried everything from cleaning my laptop out to restarting, but I guess my computer is too old to handle the software... This is very disappointing seeing that I had to pay for the latest imovie and I was going to rely on some of these features. It has become very annoying to try to edit, so I might just revert to the old imovie. In other news, as I sift through some of my footage, I realize I need smoother shots and more of them, so I scheduled to film tomorrow with my actress to see if maybe I can get all the footage I need. I am very lucky to have such a good friend as an actress because she is very willing to participate in the film, which is what is needed when on a deadline. I feel as though the thing I am going to struggle most with is sound, especially because my opening relies on the aspect of film so heavily. I need to record more sounds with the actress herself and just get the last shots. I still need the second part of the film, so I will also try to get this done tomorrow. Hopefully everything works out so that I do not have to call upon her again and I can just focus on editing and the looming critical reflection.
Now that I have some usable footage, I tried putting it together. I knew I had been using the old imovie software, s I decided to buy the latest on off the app store. There are many more features, however theres one big problem; the playback lags so much I can't edit properly! I've tried everything from cleaning my laptop out to restarting, but I guess my computer is too old to handle the software... This is very disappointing seeing that I had to pay for the latest imovie and I was going to rely on some of these features. It has become very annoying to try to edit, so I might just revert to the old imovie. In other news, as I sift through some of my footage, I realize I need smoother shots and more of them, so I scheduled to film tomorrow with my actress to see if maybe I can get all the footage I need. I am very lucky to have such a good friend as an actress because she is very willing to participate in the film, which is what is needed when on a deadline. I feel as though the thing I am going to struggle most with is sound, especially because my opening relies on the aspect of film so heavily. I need to record more sounds with the actress herself and just get the last shots. I still need the second part of the film, so I will also try to get this done tomorrow. Hopefully everything works out so that I do not have to call upon her again and I can just focus on editing and the looming critical reflection.
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