Editing Again?

   Hello! So I was finally able to do some editing  for my movie project. This has been such a difficult thing to do for my group and I since the school closed due to quarantine. Since then, we have tried to use many different editing sites but none of them seemed to work. We started talking o use Pinnacle Studios at our school but then the school closed. From their we tried to use iMovie but it didn’t have the fonts that we needed and none of us had and advanced version of it. Another editing software that we tried to use was Wondershare Filmora. The reason that we didn’t use this is because in order to get a video without a watermark, we had to make a subscription to Filmora but that was a lot of money. Then, I later found out that my older brother already had a subscription with Filmora and he let edit my project on it. I wasn’t able to work with my group when using this software because we were all social distancing. I was able to video chat with them and get their feedback while I edited the movie. The first thing I did with this new software was to start from scratch. I got rid of the original movie that we edited and just imported all of the shots separately onto Filmora. I then placed the clips in the correct order and began to cut some stuff out so that I could reach the time limit of five minutes. When I was finished with that, I put in the opening titles. I changed the font that we were originally gonna use because it looked more playful than scary and I wanted the movie to have a more serious tone. After that I added in some creepy music and then sound effects. The sound effects that I used were ambient nighttime sounds, a scream, and a power shutting off. I had a great time editing this film and I am so happy with the way it turned out. These re-edits have made my movie so much better!  

 

Our Editing Plan - Titles

     Hello! Today, I will be discussing the titles for my movie. There is a lot of thought and consideration that goes into creating titles for a film. We need to thing of the font and color of the titles. We have yet to choose an official font but we want to do something that is creepy and spooky. Last year, we wanted a font that was similar to permanent marker writing. We wanted this because the plot of the film was focused around a creepy handwritten letter that a group of friends receive. The title font of the movie matched with the important handwritten style of the letter that was in the film. We want to try and do this again but our film does not have any element to it that can correlate to the font of the titles. We are still searching through fonts at the moment but we are looking for one that has a more soft tone to it. Along with the font of the titles, we also have to consider the color of the titles. We want to do a darker color like black but the issue with that is that black may not show up well in the dark setting of the film. We might just add a white or lighter color to outline the titles. We did something similar to this last year and it worked very well. Another important thing to consider is the pacing that the titles appear on the screen. We don't want the titles to be on the screen for a short amount of time but we also don't want titles to be shown throughout the entire movie. We want to have completed the opening titles at the two minute mark of the film. The transitions of the titles is also a very important element to the film. The type of transition that my group and I want is one that signifies a reflection. We want the titles to look as if they are being reflected across something. We want to create this effect because it will help create a connection to the plot of the film. One of the most important props of the film is the haunted mirror that gets Ava possessed. The reflective effect with connect with the mirror and and give more stability to the overall plot. This is our plan for editing our titles. Some things will most likely change but for now, I think it sounds like a pretty good plan for now!

Our Editing Plan - What We Need To Fix

     Hello! In this blog, I will be going over what my group and I need to fix for our movie. The first major thing that we need to fix is the length of our movie. Our movie was way too long and we needed to find a way to shorten it to it's appropriate length. We had to go through the scenes and figure out what scenes we can cut that will not effect the story too much. We figured that we may cut some of the beginning scenes that we shot outside because they are not that relevant. We also may cut some of the unnecessary scenes of dialogue that are in the film because that just wastes time. We also need to add some music to the scenes. The music that we want to add are creepy and ominous sounds. We want to create different tones between certain scenes in the movie through the music. By this I mean that we want to have a more fast paced and fun music in the beginning of the film when the characters are having fun. In these scenes, we want to create a more care free and silly tone. Then, later in the film, we want to create a more serious tone for when things become more spooky. The type of music that we want to use for these scenes are more high pitched piano and violin sounds. We also need to add some sounds within the movie. These sounds are just things that we can't get naturally such as doors screeching when they are opening. We also want more ambient noises for the outside scenes instead of the wind that was picked up. The last thing that we need to fix in the movie is the how choppy it is. The movie is insanely choppy and we can fix that by adding a better transitions. Some scenes look good when they are cut apart from each other, but some just look messy. In order to fix some of these scenes, we will most likely have to reshoot a couple of scenes. With reshoots, we will be able to shorten some scenes that were too long and we will be able make the scenes flow together more smoothly.

First Day of Editing!

     Hello! Today is an exciting day! My group and I just got done with the first part of the editing process. This was putting all of the clips together and just seeing how the movie plays out with no real editing. The first thing that we did for this step was to watch all of our clips of course. For every scene that we shot, we filmed at least five takes in order to get our best one. After we watched all of the takes for one scene, my group and I would decide which take was the best. We did that to every scene that we had and then moved our favorites to a separate folder. We transferred the clips to the computer and and embedded them into an editing software that we wanted to use. We put the clips together in the correct order and watched it together. In all honesty, it was pretty bad. However, it could have been worse. I remember last year when my group and I finished filming our opening scene and we put all the clips together and it was terrible as well. The final product last year was actually pretty good once all of the editing was finished. Knowing that just doing some basic editing can make the movie ten time better really makes me feel better. The biggest issue that I noticed right off the bat was that our movie was way too long. I was already expecting this to happen since the same thing happened to us last year though. We will be needing to find some music to put into the scenes because as I watch it now, it just seems very awkward. What mu group and I plan on doing is creating a plan for editing. It will be similar to the plan we made for our filming but it will go over the basic stuff that we need to edit. The stuff that we need to plan out are our titles, transitions, music, which scenes we may need to cut. This task does not sound very fun but it is very important for us to do if we want to create a good final film.

Delay in Productivity

     Hello! In this entry I will be discussing a couple of things that have been going on that has been putting a delay on production from my group and I's movie. The first and most major delay is that Morgan just went through a pretty big surgery and she won't be able to do much for a couple of months. Morgan will also be on a lot of medications so she may not fully be aware on what we are doing. We really don't want to do everything for the project without her and leave her lagging behind. We want to hear her ideas and what she contributes to our group is very important. We are waiting for her to heal but it will be a huge delay. Since Morgan won't be able to partake in many physical activities, we may not be able to do reshoots for our film. Since we can't do reshoots, we won't be able to do any official editing for our film. We also don't want to risk getting Morgan sick as she is healing. With the pandemic still in full throttle and new strains of the Coronavirus appearing,  it is very important that we remain health conscious. We especially must be like this with Morgan because she has to take frequent trips to the hospital for check-ups and it would very inconvenient for her if she got sick.

Another delay that we have coming up is the Holidays. In about a week, the holidays are starting and we may not be able to see each other. The first holiday coming up is Christmas and then after that it will be New Years. Since it is the holidays, my group and I will be spending time with our families and will not be able to see each other. Also, a couple of us will be going out of town over the break so we really will not be able to work together in person. We may just be able to facetime or go on a group call together. This way we will be able to share ideas on what we want to do with our film. We still have a lot of planning to do before we start our official editing. I can't wait to finish up my movie and see the finished product!

Our Second Day of Filming

    Hello! As you know from my last blog, my group and I have begun filming for our movie. In our first day of filming, my group and I were able to get a lot of our filming done at my house. The second day of filming was to film the scene where we entered the haunted house. We had to do this at Ava and Morgan’s house and not my house because the foyer of my house has a big Christmas tree right in the middle and it would look a little weird if it was in the movie. We tried a couple of time to get it out of the shot but it was too complicated so we decided to just to film that scene in another location. We had Savanna and Katelyn help with filming and lighting again. When we are at Ava and Morgan's house we wanted to make sure that it blended in with my house. We didn't want it took look like we filmed in two different locations. We also needed to make sure that we filmed at night at their house so that it was dark. In the foyer of their house, there was some furniture. In order to make the house look old and abandoned, we covered the furniture with sheets and turned off the lights. The hardest part of filming was the trying to make our houses look abandoned. Since both of our houses obviously have living occupants in them, there was a lot that we needed to do but few things that we could do to give the illusion at the house had been abandoned. The main thing that we could do was remove some objects out of the room such as vases or other small items from the room we were filming in. The next think that we had to do to make the house look abandoned was to cover all the furniture that we could not move out of the room with sheets. We used large white bedsheets and laid them over chairs and couches that were in the rooms. We also would film at certain angles and directions to avoid items that we couldn't cover such as television sets or electronic clocks on ovens or microwaves. Other than the setting, filming was pretty easy and went smooth. We may have to reshoot a couple of scenes but I think we did a good job. I had a lot of fun filming and I can't wait to start the editing process.

Our First Day Filming

    Hello. So today was my group and I’s very first day filming for our movie. Today we filmed at my house and we filmed a majority of the movie. We decided to begin filming later in the day since the film takes place at night. My group showed up to my place around 5:00pm and we immediately got started. Along with my group members, two of our friends came so that they could help us with filming and other stuff that we may need from them. We wanted to film the outside scenes first since there was still some daylight left and we needed all the light we could get for those scenes. In these scenes, it was just the characters in the movie finding the abandoned house and deciding to go in it. Eventually it became pretty dark outside so we had to use some artificial lighting from flashlights. We we switched to the inside scenes, it became a bit trickier to create. The house had to look abandoned and empty but since it was my house and people actual live there, it did not look abandoned whatsoever. 

   In order to create the illusion that my house was abandoned, I removed a lot of the furniture and other things from each of the rooms that we filmed in. Along with this, we used white sheets to put over couches and tables that we could not move out of the room. We also filmed at certain angles so that we could avoid getting a television or oven clock in the shot. We were only able to get a couple scenes done in this day because eventually our phones that we were using to film on were dying and it was getting late. We also had a major mishap, the main prop for our film, the mirror, broke and we didn’t have another one that looks spooky that we could film with. In order to fix this issue, we used a regular cosmetic mirror and put paper all around it. After that, we wrote random symbols on it and that was supposed to be our haunted mirror. It looked really stupid and cheap in my opinion, but we had to get our filming done and that was our easiest and quickest solution. Overall, I think my group and I did a great job with filming and making my house look abandoned. I cannot wait to finish filming so I can see how it all looked together!

Planning for Filming

     Hello! This blog is going to be about the planning before my group and I begin filming for our movie "Possessed"! A good way to check off all of the the things that you may need before filing is through the acronym "C.L.A.M.P.S." .CLAMPS is an acronym that I learned from my teacher last year and it stands for costumes, lighting, actors, makeup, props, and setting. The costumes that my group needed were basically just Halloween costumes. Ava and Morgan were able to provide most of the costumes. We had a cat costume for Morgan, a Harry Potter costume for Ava, a hippie costume for Alex, and I wore a pirate costume. The lighting is a little difficult to plan out. In the way beginning of the film, we have to shoot outside in the evening. This means that we have to find a time where we will have enough daylight to film in but also still have it be the evening. Our movie also takes place in an abandoned house at night which means there are supposed to be no working light fixtures in the house. The only solution that I can think of for this is to have the characters in the film use flashlights and make the flashlights works as a prop and a light fixture. The actors are myself, Ava, Morgan, and Alex. I don't think we'll need anymore actors than this. For makeup, we'll be using fake blood for some attack scenes. We may also be using some makeup for the costumes that we are wearing such as a nose and whiskers for Morgan's cat costume. We will be using a couple of props. The main prop that we will be using is a mirror that Ava and Morgan will be providing. We will also be using some other props such as the flashlights and parts to a costume and some sheets that make the houses look abandoned. The last thing that we went over is the setting. The setting is in an abandoned house. In order to create an abandoned illusion to my house, we will be removing a lot of the furniture and other objects from the rooms that we are filming in. We will also be using some white sheets to put over larger pieces of furniture such as couches and desks. We will try to film everything at my house but if we can't we can either film at Ava's or Alex's houses. This is the plan for filming and I can't wait to get started!