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. 

Short Film: Delayed filming

     Last week was Thanksgiving break so we had the entire school week off. My group mates and I originally wanted to film during that time. However, Covid-19 changed up our plans once again. One of the people I was working with ended up visiting family. She went out of state and was gone for half of the break. This meant she was in an airport and around a lot of people at times. Although she followed the safety procedures, we as a group decided it would be safer to wait until she had quarantined for two weeks. Taking an unneeded risk like this could hinder the filming process for the rest of our movie which is the last thing we want. We decided we would film next weekend instead because that will be when it is most safe for everyone! We will also continue to follow Covid-19 safety guidelines during the times we are filming.

    This gave us more time to plan and prepare as much as we can. I went through the storyboard again and wrote down different ideas we might have for a shot. My group mates and I have each spent time reading over our script as well. After reading over everything and looking at the storyboard we communicate any side notes or ideas we have. This process is also how we came up the name for our short film. We decided on the name "Perception" for our movie. We felt that this name fit since people often perceive someone as one way before knowing any details about their lives. Our film is also dramatic so we thought the name should have that same weight. We make sure we are communicating frequently throughout this process to ensure our film comes out as we envision it! When we film, we will be very prepared and everything should go smoothly. 

Short Film: Music

    Music and sound are two very important aspects in film. They can create the feeling an entire scene and add emphasis to certain points in the story. Finding the right music can be difficult since most songs have copy right and we'd need permission to use it. Our solution was to research non copy righted music that we can use in our film. My group mates and I thought a dramatic instrumental would fit best for our short film. The music will be very important in our movie because it will convey the intensity we want the audience to feel. I began my search for the perfect instrumental by looking on google. I had previously learned that some websites include full lists of non copy righted people can use for free. I found a few of those websites and started looking through them. I did find a few potential songs but I thought I should keep looking to make sure I found something that fit our film just right. 

    The next thing I did to find a song was go to youtube. 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. It will also set the atmosphere for our short film since the characters are not interacting with each other directly in every scene. Our next step in this short film is to began filming. I am very excited to see the story come together in our film!

Short Film: Websites and Socials

       The next step in the creation of our short film was to set up our media. This included making a instagram, twitter, facebook, and youtube. Setting up these socials was either really easy, or rather difficult. Sometimes setting up the same username for each of these things was difficult since there may already be users with that name. However, we ended up figuring it out and getting the proper usernames. Facebook in particular gave us some issues. It would not let us make the main name for the account "Perception Film." This made us have to think of different ways to connect our facebook to the movie. We thought about making the name Salem Grace. Salem and Grace are names of two of the characters in our movie so it would still relate. Eventually we figured it out and were able to get our Facebook to work out!

      The hardest part of setting up our media was creating the website. The website was tricky to navigate at first because I had never made a website before. I spent my first day working on it not making much progress. I could not figure out how to link the social accounts to our website. I also signed up with the incorrect email so my website name was incorrect. Luckily by my second day of working on it, everything started to come together. I created an email for the film which fixed my website name problem. I also learned how to correctly link each individual social app directly to our website! Overall, this was a tricky process but I am very pleased with the end result. 

Short Film: Storyboard

      Storyboarding was the next part in getting our short film planned. Storyboarding is very important because of its visualization. My group mates and I made sure to talk about our vision as a whole for the film before making our storyboard. We split the drawings up for different scenes to make sure each one of us got the chance to be creative. Although drawing is very clearly not our strong suit, we tried our best to share our vision. Storyboarding will save us a lot of time in the long run because it helps plan out our entire film. Although this process can be long, carefully planning out each scene is very necessary. The storyboard is also a good way to see our film fully through before we start filming. The pictures help us see what each scene will hopefully look like. The sentences below each box are also very useful because they tell anyone reading what kind of shot and camera movements each scene will have. 

      This step is also useful because no time will be wasted on the actual day of filming. Storyboarding gives everyone in our group and out of our group a clear idea of what shots we want. An advantage of storyboarding is that we can find out what ideas we may have had that would work and what may not work. For example, we can try out multiple ideas or shots using the story boards and then see what we like best. Another advantage of this is that it can be easily changed depending on any new ideas we may have. Storyboards allow us to work out problems at an early stage before actual production takes place. This storyboard also helped give us an overview of the timing and rhythm of our short film. I think this part of planning is really tedious yet beneficial. Storyboarding has many advantages and will help our film in the long run! We are very excited to continue this project. 

Short Film: Planning

1. Location- We will be filming at four different settings throughout the short film. The first setting is at a park. This is where the opening scene takes place, all the characters are introduced here. The next three settings are at each of the character's homes. There are three characters, Grace, Salem, and Chloe. These locations will be used to get an insight into each of the girls' personal lives. This location is actually huge for the plot of our story since each home is filled with the character's individual issues they face. 

2. Health and Safety- COVID-19 is still a problem so we will need to take extra safety precautions to ensure everyone is safe. We will do this by social distancing when we are at the park and wearing mask anytime we are not filming. As for the scenes that take place in homes, we will all quarantine on our own so there is no risk of us having the virus and transmitting it to each other. A parent will also be around incase of any sort of emergency.

3. Props: We will need a pregnancy test, a plate of food, pills/pill bottle, and headphones for each of the girls.

4. Costumes- When we are filming at the park, we will be dressed casually in jeans/shorts and a t-shirt. These costumes will remain the same for each of the characters throughout the short film.

5. Schedule:

November 9- November 13, 2020

Planning/Storyboarding

November 23rd, 2020

Filming

11:30 am- All of us will meet up at the park. We will shoot there from 11:30 am to around 12:30 pm.

12:30 pm- We will make our way to Sophia's home to film the scenes taking place in homes.

1:00 pm to 2:00 pm- We will go over all of the scenes for Salem's character and film them.

2:30 pm to 3:30 pm - We will go over all of the scenes for Chloe's character and film them.

3:45 pm to 4:45pm - Film all of Grace's scenes and go over them.

November 27th- December 4th, 2020

Edit short film

December 5th, 2020: Re-film

December 6th, 2020: Re-edit