Editing!

 I began editing yesterday, and today I added the footage we got today. It was a pretty easy process however I did have a hard time trying to decipher the casino shots that show him winning because personally, I do not know blackjack. Because I am a pretty experienced editor and for time, I did most of the editing for our project, however, I consulted Marcello tons, and he was a huge help in my lack of decision-making. 

The one technique I had been really excited to use, I ended up scrapping. It was the flicker effect that I talked about in an earlier blog. I tried it, spent an hour adding it, and then took it out. I realized that if I put it over the whole sequence, it was a lot and just painful to watch, but if I used it at parts it just looked off. I was a little disappointed, but hey! I still learned a new thing so I am sure I can use it in something upcoming.

I don't really have much else to say about the editing process, it is pretty standard for me and my favorite most relaxing part of a production. I hope to have it finished soon. 

Filming Day 2 plus extra

 So Thursday was way easier because as I mentioned, we had already set everything up and replanned many things. 

However, we were also filming with other people this day which is difficult to coordinate. We also had one person who I guess knew the game of blackjack a little better than us and tried convincing us to refilm an entire scene for it to be more accurate haha. However, we did not, as it was not super important to the purpose of this film.

We had a lot of fun with our friends shooting this, they helped us out tons by being actors and not being too offended by my stressed director comments... oops! 

One big issue we had was still lightning, on Wednesday we had been blessed with gray skies, however on Thursday the sun was gleaming through the windows in an orange glow, and considering we were working with just the red light this made my life so hard Thankfully, our friend Ceph was able to help me figure out the best ISO and aperture settings to make do, and it turned our pretty okay, but it's definitly my least favorite shot.

On this day we also had an epiphany that we needed something leading up to the casino scene, and that we didn't really want to start off with that. And that formed, filming day 3. 

On Friday, we took a lot of sequential shots representing his character while waking up and heading out. we only used a few of the shots we took that day but it made a HUGE difference. I had started editing Thursday night with what we had but once I added the stuff from today I loved it so much more. 

Filming Day 1 Overview

 Hey! Posting this a day late but thats because I got home super tired after yesterday's filming. Thankfully, today was a little less tiring. 

More than anything else, day 1 was spent breaking a part of my partner's, Marcello, house and setting up, as well as figuring out what we would have to rethink based on the space we were working with. We could not do the original pan that we had planned simply due to the set we were working with.

I wish I had a better photo, detailing how taken apart this room was but this was all I could find.

Dont worry! After filming today we put everything back lol. 

This day was a little frustrating but because we were filming the scenes with other people on Thursday, we spent a lot of time on the close-up shots and perfected those.

LIGHTNING!

 Hey, blog!! The final days of this project are super exciting. 

While planning to film I had the idea to use a harsh red light. One for the look of the casino, but also because I thought it would portray a feeling of stress and intensity. This was what called for the decision for an RGB light kit rather than just a regular one. 

Now, unfortunately, this equipment is used by tons of people, meaning a lot of it is getting old. The kit only had one actual RGB light, and only one working wire meaning we could only use one light. However, we made it work with a very specific and weird position of the light haha and I LOVED how it turned out.

Picture of the setup in one scene. Also wanted to say, we owe a huge thank you to our friend Ceph for taking a ton of these behind-the-scenes pictures for us during filming.

Lightning is not something I have really played with before and it was definitely. a learning experience and opened by eyes to something I want to explore much further. Looking back, I would have had it be much more subtly, but for what I was working with and not really knowing how to use coloring, I'm still proud of how it came out.

Character Planning

 Okay so another blog on stuff that we talked about, but that I never made a post on. Our characters. We only really focus in our opening on one character, so we only really planned out him. 

My partner is starring in the film, so we based our designs around him. 

This is the outfit we had him in. 

While in the casino he wore a suit and tie, but in many scenes, he is shown in a disheveled version of this outfit. This was to represent that he not going home, not changing, not showering and essentially breaking apart. 

Logisitcs of filming

To our advantage, I am in the tv production program at our school, meaning we have access to tons of camera equipment. I am going to check out a Canon DSLR T8I camera, with a 50mm lens and also a zoom lens, along with a tripod, Rhode mic, LOV mic, and  hopefully an RGB lighting kit if my teacher is okay with me taking it out (we have a limited amount of these so sometimes its an issue.) In case we can not get the lighting kit, our media studies teacher has a mini one that we will make do with I'm really hoping we can check out the fancy one, but we should be able to. 

We have also been asking around this past week for people who had props we needed. We are filming at my partner's house. I am bringing a table that we need for the poker scenes, unfortunately, we couldn't find anything better suited so we are just using one of those generic folding tables but we're gonna dress it up and make it work. We also are borrowing a vintage poker set from one of my partner's friends, which is super cool. Anddddd we are going to use some furniture at the house and basically rearrange his entire house. 

I am so relieved that everything is finally coming together and I can't wait to film today!!

We are also going to film tomorrow, as for some shots we need extras and thats when our friends our available.  However, we are going to get most stuff done today.  I will keep you guys updated!!

Full Storyboard!!

 We had this finished over break, but to be quite honest it's
the blogs that I've been falling behind with more than the actual work so Im just putting it up here now. I used a template from online and drew it up on my iPad, oh yea, by the way, please ignore my terrible drawing skills haha. 

Anyways, part of it I included in an earlier blog post, but this is it all together, some of it makes more sense in my head than on the paper but I'm confident that these shots are gonna turn out well.  The only part that is still a little blurry is the last few shots because I feel like it needs a little more. If we do this successfully and the way I am imagining it will really effectively show what's going through the main character's head. We are filming today FINALLY! And I am so excited about it. I honestly didn't love our idea at first but after planning it out it has grown on me so much. 

Group meeting!

Hey, blog! Short break in all the talk about the actual project, just to talk about the Creative Critical Reflections. Last class we had group meetings, and obviously, most people are farther along than I am so that's what we were talking about. Although I've been pretty busy getting caught up on the actual project, I have been thinking about what I'll do for my CCR and what I have to say. 

I definitely want to do a Directors' Commentary for one of them, I did something similar in the past and I think it's one the best ways for me that I can share what I've learned.  For the second one, I wasn't really sure yet what I would do but I was listening to some ideas other people had and I really liked them. Some people from my class are doing those google most asked questions videos with the peel-off board and I think that's so cute and such a fun way to answer these questions. I kinda wanted to do something like that, but as we know I'm short on time so I think for my other video I am probably going to do, some sort of interview which I'm hoping I can convince my brother to act in haha. 

I have also been thinking a lot about how to answer the questions. Of course for how my production skills have developed, I definitely want to talk about the huge lesson this project has given me on time management with long-term projects like this, a lesson I am definitely going to remember if I take A-level next year. 

For the representation, we are representing our character's addiction in an abnormal way. Usually, movies like these show gamblers as cunning, professional, or low lives and wasting away. The approach we are taking forever represents the actual impulse control disorder that is gambling addiction. I really think that we will be able to shed light on the psychological side of this issue and enlighten people on the emotional impact this has on a person. Our film is aiming to show the inner workings of our character's mind and how he is affected. Once we film it that is... 

Back to that!  

Editing Techniques

As I have mentioned, my partner and I really want to include a lot of cool, and post-modernist style techniques. One thing we really liked was the opening credits in the movie Enter the Void. You can watch it here.

Enter the Void Intro on Youtube

Now, in our project we aren't going to have an opening credit sequence, however, I like how the flashing, done in editing along with the music creates a certain tension and almost anxiety. This is definitely something I could learn to do if I want to use it exactly but I'm, not 100% sure yet. 

I kinda pulled on this for one scene I want to include in our film opening. To show the overwhelming stress the main character is going through, I had an idea where we see an extreme close-up of his eyes, and as he blinks there are mini flashbacks showing kind of the "consequences" he faces due to this addiction, and this happens while he is debating playing another hand in the casino. I roughly storyboarded some of this but please excuse my terrible drawing skills haha. 

I kinda tried to show how it would be a similar type of very flashy scene to build tension in the moment.

In case I do decide to use this exact effect, shown in Enter to the void, I found this youtube tutorial, and it's actually a fairly easy thing to do so I can definitely play around with it and see what looks better in post. 

Youtube Tutorial

THE PLOT!

 HEY BLOG! 

I just got back from California last night, and today is going to be a day of productivity! We came home with an honorable mention for our team event, as well as placing in many individual events which were awesome! However, I can't say the same for the rest of the trip. A lot happened between everyone on the crew and one situation really had me considering dropping the course for next year, however, the more I thought about it I realized that I shouldn't quit something I love because of people, and then I remembered I had to work on my portfolio project ;D lol...

ANYWAYS... big reveal, we have had this idea for a few weeks now but I was trying to focus on getting out some more content about the research we did and how we came up with this idea but I can no longer keep it in so instead I guess I'll work backward. Our film, for our film opening, is going to be about a man struggling with a gambling addiction. The idea  I know seems fairly basic but I am actually really excited about it.

Recently, in my A-level psychology class, we were learning about gambling addictions and other impulse control disorders. It was pretty interesting to me how this can affect a person and become such an emotional burden. As we were developing this storyline, I had tons of ideas and how we can show the emotional distress he is going through. Representing stress, isolation etc. Still need to work on a name but that's what we have so far!

For a long time, we could not decide what to do and so I am so glad we decided on something we are both actually really excited to film. 

Post Modernism

hey, blog! My team member Marcello is really into post-modernism in films so I wanted to find out more about this as it is something we may incorporate into our own film.

Post-modernism is basically about rejecting societal norms, and a "problematical relationship with any notion of art," as described by Oxford Dictionary. In media, this is often represented by genre-bending, and these films typically create higher expectations of film. The lovers of these types of films are often those very into films, and likely to digest them. 

Some main characteristics of post-modernism include hyperreality, irony, distortion of time, themes of paranoia, and more. As film nerds, me and my partner are really intrigued by how we can incorporate these themes into our film, and the plot that we are working on I believe really allows us to explore these. Aside from pure interest, we also wanted to use post-modernism to show off certain techniques and skills we have learned. 

I read tons of examples on the website linked below, and it gave me tons of fun ideas for our own project. 

I am going out of town tomorrow for a national TV production competition in California, so I can't say I will be posting lots over the next few days but when I'm back I will reveal the plot we have planned so far!!

Bedard, Mike, et al. “What Is Postmodernism? Definition and Examples for Filmmakers.” StudioBinder, 14 Jan. 2021, www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-postmodernism-definition/#:~:text=Postmodern%20movies%20aim%20to%20subvert,our%20expectations%20of%20film%20structure.

More Genre Research!!

 HEY BLOG!

It's been a long time since my last blog post, I know, but I've been majorly procrastinating on my portfolio project, and it's finally time I get some stuff done and get back on track. The next few blog posts are gonna be detailing some other genres we have researched, and then I'm gonna reveal our idea to you guys. It'll be worth the wait I promise. 

Drama is I think one of the broadest film genres, including movies like A Star is a Born, but also Uncut Gems, and even things like The Florida Project. Although these all have their own subgenres such as musical, action, and horror, they all fall under drama because of the underlying stories beneath the plot, such as a character's struggles, personal growth, or two characters falling in love etc. Furhtermore, Dramas are very plot driven, relying on characters in a scene to move the usually intesne plot forward. I thought it was best to research this genre, considering it covers a lot. 

In terms of techniques, dramas often tend to create a sense of conflict, show tragedy, or set a certain tone. This is done in a variety of ways, including the use of close up shots,  that bring the viewer into the emotions and intesity of a scene.

Example from: The Florida Project

Close up shots like these fully immerse the audience into the moment. This is definilty a technique I want to incorperate into my film, as I've noticed how it creates emotion and intensit. 

Thats it for thisn posting, but dont worry I have lots more on the way!!

References

Dramatic/film techniques. HOME. (n.d.). Retrieved March 13, 2023, from https://romeoandjulietuncut.weebly.com/dramaticfilm-techniques.html

How to identify movie genres: Beginner's Guide to 13 film genres - 2023. MasterClass. (n.d.). Retrieved          March 13, 2023, from https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-identify-film-genres