Filming for the beginning Scenes

Hello! This past weekend my group and were able to finish filming for our final project. The scenes that we filmed that day were the opening scenes of the film, scenes 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6. We shot these scenes at a different house than where we shot the day before. We did this because both of the houses alone wouldn’t be a good fit for us to film. We needed to have a specific layout of furniture and we figured that if we shoot in both houses together, we could just edit it to make it look like one house. We shot the scenes in chronological order because we believe that that would be easier, and it would help us to stay organized. 

In scene 1, we shot the establishing shot of one of the houses that we filmed in. We also shot the scenes of one of the characters scaring the friend group as a joke. This was a pretty short scene to shoot so it didn’t take too long to make. The next scene we shot was the scene where group notices that one of their friends was missing and they decide to go look for her. This scene was also very easy to shoot. The scene that we shot after that was the scene where the character Hannah goes to search for her missing friend in the kitchen. This scene was fun to shoot because it was the first moment of the film where things start to get a little scary. We used a couple of cool techniques while filming this scene such as a tracking shot, eyeline match, and different angles for shooting. The next scene was the scene where Hannah confronts the other character, Thomas, about the note in the kitchen. This scene took us a while to shoot because my group and I could not get our lines right and at the times we did get them right, something in the background such as a dog barking or a phone ringing would ruin the shot. Once we got that scene down, we moved on to the final scene for the night and the last scene that we needed to film. This scene was the scene where one of the friends goes up to Hannah and Thomas and tells them to stop arguing and to help her look for the missing friend. This scene was nice to shoot because all of the angles looked really well-done and professional. 

Today was so much easier than the first day of filming was. All of the scenes were pretty short, and they didn’t require too much work to make them look good. My role for this day of filming was as an actor and as a cameraman. All of my group members helped in creating the atmosphere and mood of the film and we all put in our own ideas. Now that the filming is all over, it is time to move on to the editing process. I’m both excited and nervous for this part of the project because editing can be very fun and cool but when editing as a group, it can become a little stressful when two people have completely different ideas,  

Filming For The Ending Scenes

     Hello, over this weekend my group and I were able to get all of our filming done for the final project. We split the filming up between two days. On the first day, we filmed the second half of our movie’s story. We had to film the second scenes first because it was the only day that the location we needed was available. We filmed these scenes at my house. After school, my group and I went over to my house and started to plan everything out. We had to wait a little while before we could start filming because we needed it to be nighttime. We didn’t film these scenes in chronological order because some of the actresses that were in the film had to leave soon so we wanted to get all of the scenes with them in it over before they leave.
     The first scenes we filmed was scene 7. In this scene it shows “the watchers” feet walking slowly and then a weapon appears on the screen. This was also the murder scene of the film. This scene took a lot of time to create because we had to find the rig hit angles and and positions to hold the camera at so that we didn’t reveal one of the actors faces but did show the other actors facial reaction. The next scene we shot was scene 5 which was just of one of the characters searching for their missing friend. This scene was relatively easy to make because there weren’t too many creative camera angles or anything because the scene was meant to be pretty short. The next scene we shot was scene 8. In this scene it shows the group searching for their missing friend and then they hear a scream come from the bathroom. When the group goes to look in the bathroom they see blood on the floor and we used an eye-line match effect to show the groups reaction to finding their friends dead body. The next scene is scene 9. This seen was when the characters read a note left in the dead body that basically tells them that they someone knows their secret and they will pay. This scene is pretty short but it is very important to the plot of the film. The last scene that we shot that day was scene 10, the final scene. This scene shows the group of friends exit the bathroom in a state of shock and horror. It shows them wonder who could have murdered their friend.  The next thing that is shown in this scene is an open window to which the murder/watcher escaped from. The final shot of the scene is a slow tracking shot of the barge room that stops and tilts down to the dead body and then up to the open window. Then as the camera is stilled at the open window, the lights shut off and the group of friends all scream.
     This is all we filmed for that day and it was a lot of work! My main role in the filming for those scenes was as an actor but the entire group helped in finding the best angles to shoot from. A couple things changed from our storyboard mainly because the location we shot at was a little to small for us to be able to shoot some of the scenes so we had to change the angles we shot in. We made sure to stay safe and to use fake weapons when needed. We also wanted to be careful with the fake blood that we used because we knew that it would stain clothes, knowing this we had a specific outfit for Ava (the actor who gets “murdered” in the film) to wear so that we didn’t stain her actual good clothes. Along with using the fake blood we tested it on all of our skins to make sure that none of us had any sort of allergic reaction to it and to make sure that it didn’t stain our skin. We made sure to shoot all of the all of the shots as many times as we needed until we got at least three shots that we liked, from then we’ll just have to look through all the footage and pick out the ones we like the most. Overall, filming was very good for that day, we got a lot of work finished and it was really fun.

Planning for the Filming Process

    Hello. It is finally time for my group and I to start the filming process for our final project. Due to our schedules we have not been able to film yet. This blog is going to be about our planning for our planning for when we start filming. There are a couple of factors that we need to think about before we can film. These factors are: the mis en scene, other people’s schedule, time of day, and ability to get around. My group and I still need to organize some parts of our common mis en scene, specifically the props, costumes, and make-up. The props that we still need are a fake knife and the notes that we have to leave around. We also need to get some costumes, mainly the one that Ava will be wearing because that one is going to get blood on it it and we don’t want to ruin any of our actual clothes; we also need to get a costume for the “watcher” character. The last thing we need is fake blood for the dead body that we’re gonna create. We plan on making DIY blood out of corn syrup and food coloring, this is because it’s cheaper and less toxic.
    We also need to take into consideration before we start filming are other group members schedules. Many of us participate in after school clubs and have to go work on the week-ends. This makes it difficult for us to be able to get together to film for our project. We also need to work out the time of day. Since our movie takes place at night, it is very important for us to make the scenes look like it’s nighttime. The time of day is important because the darkness of nighttime helps us to establish the creepy and mysterious mood to our film. The last factor that we need to look into is our ability to get around to where we need to be. It can be very difficult for us to be able to get to the two different locations that we need to be at since we don’t have cars to drive ourselves. We have to rely on others to get to our filming locations which can be a big risk, our main solution to this problem is to just take an Uber or Lyft to the filming locations. This action may cost us some money but it shouldn’t be too much.  We think we’ve found a way to work through all those issues by splitting up the filming dates by location. We are going to film all the scenes we need to as many times as we need to in order to have to limit filming days. With that we are also getting together all our costumes, props, and make-up so that we can start filming.

Film Opening Storyboard

   Hello! This is my group and I’s story board for our movie project in which we titled “Signed The Watcher”. Storyboard for such a big project like this is extremely important and useful. Drawing out and planing how we want every few seconds to look is the perfect guide for our actual filming day. Each box represents around 2-3 seconds and each paper is a scene. We included practically every movement start to finish. We also below it put in details of either what was going on or any dialogue to be more clear and precise. Along with that we stated which camera angle and shot we are using. One of the first of course is a establishing shot of outside the house we are filming in so that the audience understands what the setting is. Through the film peace we incorporated many different angles high and low and shots like wide shot reaction shots and many more. We made sure to make each box as detailed as possible to really bring our vision for the film out.

Movie Title + Title Design

  

Hello, we finally chose a name for our movie! My group and I came up with: “‘Signed, The Watcher’”. This Google slide shows how the opening credits of the film will be displayed in our project. We chose two fonts for the titles. The first font is called “Permanent Marker”. We chose this font because it had a rough and mysterious look to it that matched the aesthetic that we were going for. We chose to space this font out to make it more dramatic. With this font, we also decided to make it a dark crimson red color to add a more negative connotation to it and to add a more symbolic approach because the color that we chose as a strong association to the color of blood. The second font that we chose is called “Shadows into the Light”. We chose this font because it is closely related to our first font. This font also adds to our creepy horror aesthetic. We decided not to space this font out be we will be putting it in all caps to have it create a greater Impact on the audience. We will be keeping this font color white so that it will be able to contrast into our dark scenery. The titles that we want to prioritize are the film title, actors, and the director slide. The decisions that we made are not final because we may come up with better ideas along the road. 

More Planning for Our Movie

   Hello! Within this google slide my group and I have come up with some more planning for our big movie project. The first thing we needed to decide on was our locations. We decided that we will be filming at Avalon/ Morgan's house and Jake's house and picked which scenes will be filmed where. Next, we listed out our participants. The whole group will be acting and on camera crew while Jake will be the director, Alex will be the editor, and Avalon will be on makeup. Our next step in planning was creating our schedule. We collectively decided which days we wanted to do what and are going to try our best to stick to that plan. And last but not least we made sure to include and plan out the safety aspects of our movie making. We will all make sure to remain safe during this process. We are all excited to continue on with this project and create our movie.

Sound Script

Hello! This is our google slides for our sound script. We wrote out the sounds needed to accommodate the actions which were written in the previous shooting script. The sound script includes all the sounds and dialogue in our film. The first scene starts off with eerie music and a sound bridge between the first two shots, accommodated by dialogue between the friend group. Scene two has dialogue between the friends concerning the missing member of the group. Scene three has one member of the group looking for the missing member, then being startled by a "prank" that was done by one of the group members. Throughout this scene there is dialogue concerning the "prank".Scene four is a heated conversation between the two members. Scene five doesn't have any dialogue, it only has diegetic sounds. Scene six has a lot of dialogue and some diegetic sounds. Scene seven has some non diegetic sounds and dialogue. Scene eight has some sound effects and dialogue between characters. Scene nine throughout the scene suspenseful music plays while the character have dialogue. scene ten has dialogue and diegetic/non diegetic sounds.

Shooting Script

    Hello! This is a google slide of my group and I's movie shooting script. In here we have each scene written out play by play including the camera shots and angles we will be using. The first scene is where we will be establishing the setting and characters. Scene two shows a different P.O.V. shot to show that they are being watched which inflicts a sense of fear and mystery. Scene three is the beginning of the conflict and apart of the rising action of the characters starting to realize they're in danger. Scene four is just the back and forth conversations of the friends. Scene 5 cuts to the other friend in search for the missing friend and her over hearing the friends in the kitchen argue. Then scene 6 is about the friend in search of the victim girl going back to her friends explaining they need to stop arguing and just look for their friend. Scene 7 shows more detail about the murderer and their approach to the victim and their encounter before she is killed. Scene 8 is where all of the friends hear a scream and run to the scene of the murder and realize what happened and are all super terrified. Scene 9 is where a note from the murderer is found and read aloud. The final scene is the friends all together right outside of where the girl was murdered where they notice the open window and then the power shuts off and its ended with a big scream. That is our plan for our two minute movie with our shots and angles, however we have not picked a title yet.