Short film: Putting everything together

   

  I am now at the last bit of editing! The only thing to do now is add the music and sounds. The music was chosen during the planning process. I learned a lot when I worked on the opening scene of a movie project last year. One of the things that project taught me was how to search for the best instrumental. I typed in intense instrumental with a crescendo and no copy right. I found several songs that I felt could work! I sent all of my findings to my group so we could decide which one we thought was the right fit. We eventually settled on one. Although finding the perfect song can take a while, we figured it out and are happy with our decision. This intense music will help amplify our scenes.

      After having put the music, I just had to level out the sounds. Leveling out the sounds makes it so both the music and dialogue can be heard clearly. Once that was done, I sent what was done so far to my group mates. We all felt the movie was complete! There are some more marketing things we have to do for this project but as for the filming and editing, everything was complete. This whole process definitely took time. It taught me how many details go into making a movie and what things would be like if this were a major film production. I also had fun during this project because I got to play as if it were a professional movie! My group mates and I worked well together and got everything done smoothly. 

Short Film: Editing day 3

       I started to get a gist of our movie so far through the editing process. Today I started by putting all of the footage into chronological order. When I say footage, I mean the shots that my group and I decided were the best out of all takes. Once the footage has been put in chronological order, it is time to cut each video. The cutting process can take a very long time. For this project, cutting the scenes wasn’t too bad.  However, I did encounter some challenges. One of the challenges I faced was trying to make sure all of the shots that were supposed to happen simultaneously flowed smoothly together. Sometimes getting different shots to align perfectly takes tedious work. Eventually, the shots came together and flowed smoothly. 

      The editing stage is also where you can see which scenes are needed and which scenes aren’t. While editing, I noticed our film was too long. Because it was too long, I had to go back and review every scene to see which ones were absolutely necessary and which ones could be removed. There were a few scenes near the beginning of the film that I had to cut out. Although, originally those scenes seemed like a good idea, they are not necessities. The scenes in the beginning were apart of the montage. I made the montage shorter but still kept it in. This will allow the audience to still see the girls being happy together but also allow more time for the in depth looks into their lives throughout the rest of the film. The one thing about editing is that it takes a very long time. Although it is very time consuming, I still really enjoy the editing process! 

Short Film: Day 2 of editing

       The next step of editing was to start going through the clips. When filming, we took three separate shots of the same scene. Since we did that my group and I had to go through all of the footage and choose which one of the shots we would use in our film. It’s good to film the same scene a few times just in case something happened in the first recording. While going through the footage, I figured out a method that could help me better put the movie together. I put all of Sophia‘s scenes in one photo album. I did this same thing for me and Lauren’s scenes. Once I did that, it was time to look at the storyboard for reference. Most things stayed according to the storyboard. This helps the editing process because the whole layout of how we want our film to look is already planned out. 

      I started with the very beginning. These were the outside scenes. We decided on doing a mini montage of the girls enjoying their day for the opening scene. This would introduce the characters and the idea that their lives are happy from the outside. Editing the montage was a little bit tricky only because we wanted everything to be perfect and precise. That means that the clips needed to flow end seem almost dreamy. The idea for these scenes was to emphasize on the fact that the girls seem like they have perfect lives. Their struggles are only revealed when they enter their homes. This part needed music to really create the mood of the scene. Adding music will help the audience feel the things we want them to be feeling throughout certain parts of our movie. 

Short Film: Day 1 of editing

  

      Now that the filming process is done, it is time to start editing! Editing is what makes a movie. It presents the tone as well as the mood. It also plays a major factor in things like creating drama. Editing is especially important in our drama film. Since there are three separate storylines going on in our film that will all come together in the end, a lot of editing will be involved. My group and I got on a call to discuss the next step. We all feel that we needed to brighten up some of the clips. Lighting is another factor that plays into editing. By brightening up some of the original clips, we can amplify our movie and make it even better. We also noticed the sound in some of our clips needed to be adjusted. Leveling out sounds like our voices or cancelling out background noise is very beneficial. 

      Covid-19 has once again affected our lives and this project. Normally our teachers would provide an editing software for us to use for this project. However, since my group mates and I are learning from home, these sources are not available to us. This meant we had to do research and come up with some alternatives. Luckily, each one of my group members and I are familiar with the same editing app. We decided on using iMovie to edit our movie. This app has everything we need to make this movie great. Working together, we can bring the vision of our short film to life. 

Short Film: Wrapping up filming

       We had almost all of our footage and were so close to wrapping up on filming! The last few scenes we had to shoot were Sophia’s character’s scenes. We started by first getting to room set up. There wasn’t much to this part, all we had to do was put the pregnancy test a in a drawer. Once she made her bed and everything was cleared for filming, we started to shoot the scenes. Filming in the bedroom was not hard but getting the right lighting was. Lighting a crucial in film because it creates the mood of the scene and also lets the audience see what’s happening. Since the sun was setting, we didn’t want to rely only on sunlight. We set up two light fixtures in the corner of the room. This would show that it was still close to night time but Sophia and the props would still be very visible. 

      The last scenes we had to shoot took place in the bathroom. This room was harder to set up and film in because it was much smaller. There is also a huge mirror displayed over the sink so we had to make sure me and the camera were not getting in the shot. Filming the exterior bathroom scene was pretty cool because it turned out how we all had visioned  it. The light seeping through the crack of the closed door really helped tie those scenes together! Once we had filmed the bathroom scenes we were all done! After a long process, we had everything we needed. We made sure to take multiple takes of each shot just incase something were to happen. Overall, filming went pretty smoothly. We’re very excited to start editing and see how our film turns out. 

Short Film: Filming and Props

     The beginning outside scenes were done along with all of mine and Lauren's scenes. Before we could start filming Sophia's scenes, we needed to get a pregnancy test. The pregnancy test plays a major part in Salem's (Sophia's character) story because it is her main focus and the main struggle she is dealing with. We decided that since we were going to have to take a trip to the store anyway, we could film our ending scene while we were out of the house. The ending scene takes place outside the next day. We couldn't film the last scene when we filmed the opening of our movie because it was supposed to be an entire different day and we would have been wearing the same outfits, which would be unrealistic and slightly confusing. Before we left for the store, Sophia and I changed our cloths. We followed the same conventions when it came to our outfits to keep in touch with who our characters are. Only Sophia and I changed because Lauren's character is not in the closing outside scenes. Although Lauren wasn't going to be on camera, she was there to record and make sure we got all of the footage we need. 

    Both Sophia and Lauren can drive so we just rode in Sophia's car. We made sure to bring facial masks so we would be following Covid-19 guidelines and keep everyone safe. We walked into the store and the place was packed! After getting the prop and waiting in line for ten minutes we contemplated going to a different store. We still had to film our closing outside scene before dark. Since we wanted to stay on schedule, we chose to leave and head to a different store. It had been about 20 minutes since we had originally left the house before we got to the other store. Luckily, it was pretty empty and they still had exactly what we needed. Before going back to the house, we went to a resting outside area that seemed just right for the ending scenes. Lauren filmed Sophia and I and we got the scenes done fairly quick. We finished those scenes and started heading back to the house to film Sophia's scenes.

Short Film: Filming (Chloe and Grace)

     After all of the outside scenes were filmed, it was time to move on. Rather than each one of my group mates and I filming ourselves individually in our own homes, we decided to film at one person's house. Since Sophia had the biggest house with the most rooms, we decided to film there. Although we filmed at one house, our movie states our characters all live separate from each other. This meant we had to make each section of Sophia's house and each separate room feel like its own location. Conveniently, her home has three separate doors to enter her house. This meant that each character could enter from a different way and truly make it seem as though these were filmed at different houses. We used the kitchen and Sophia's moms bedroom to film all of Lauren's scenes. The guest bedroom and TV room were used for my character's scenes. Sophia used her bedroom and the main bathroom to film her scenes. 

    Once we had figured out the designated spaces for each of our characters, we could began filming. We started by filming each of us enter the house through the different entryways. Grace, my character, entered through the side door, while Lauren entered through the garage door. Sophia entered through the main entry way. We decided the best way to go about filming our scenes would be to choose one of the characters and film all of their scenes first, and then move on to the next character and do all of their scenes. This felt like the best method because of how frequently our movie jumps from one character to another. We chose to film Lauren's scenes first because her character, Chloe, has the most scenes to film. We started with filming the kitchen scenes and then the bedroom scenes. Those were the easiest to film so we filmed those first. The most intricate scenes to film were going to be the bathroom scenes so we filmed those last. 

Short Film: Filming Outside

     This past Sunday, my group and I put our movie into action. Although we filmed on a different day than we had originally planned, we still followed the timing schedule. We met up at around 12 and then went to the park. We started with the outside scenes first because that is where the film begins. It also the location where we spend the least time filming. All of the other scenes take place indoors so we wanted to get the outside scenes done first. We made sure to bring all of our props with us. Sophia and I were in charge of brining picnic blankets. Lauren had to make sure she brought a towel to lay on as well. Luckily we all came prepared and were set to start filming.

    We set up for our scene by laying our blankets and towels down to make it look like we were hanging out and having a picnic. Any time we were walking out of our filming location, we made sure to keep our masks on. We also made sure to set everything up in an area that was not close to anyone and definitely followed the guidelines for social distancing. The footage was filmed on my iPhone 11. Due to Covid, cameras were not distributed. However, this was no big deal for my group and I because luckily we are all familiar with filming and editing on our phones. An obstacle we encountered while filming our outside scenes was a baseball game happening at the park. Because we only had a few scenes to shoot there, all we had to do was wait for the teams to go on time out. We got the outside scenes done and made sure to have multiple takes of each scene just incase something comes up when we watch the clips later. When we finished filming the park scenes, we cleaned up and cleared out our set and went to our next location to film the indoor scenes.