Film Opening

Film opening.mp4

Final CCRs!

And yet another thing that is finally complete! 

My CCRs both took a lot of time to make. It took a lot of retakes and a lot of time and thinking to create the scripts, but again, they are done. As I said it the last post with my final film opening, it feels like I started the project just yesterday, and now I am ready to present it to you. After a while of showing you pictures of the editing process of my CCRs you get to finally see it. So without further ado...

I present to you my first CCR and my second CCR!

I hope you enjoy them!

Final Film Opening!

Wow... it feels like I started this project yesterday, but here I am, presenting it to you guys. 

I have learned a lot these past few weeks about planning, production, editing, etc. I have worked really long and hard on this project, and don't regret a thing. I am extremely happy and proud with how it turned out. After all of these weeks of blogging, and editing, and putting little pieces of my film opening on my blog, it is finally the time to show you guys. So without further ado...

I present my official film opening!

I hope you all enjoy it!

Finished Editing Documentary

This CCR took a while to film and edit. I had to read off of a script, while trying to seem like I was not reading off of a script. It was really hard to do so, which made me take many takes.

I edited a lot of pop ups to show visulas and make my documentary a bit more exciting, while keeping it somewhat professional. All of the information was stated showing B - roll and some of the A-roll as well with the diagetic sounds.

I put the links to all of the things I used in my CCR down below. I used references from my inspirations as well as just images of what I was talking about, and clips of my actual film opening.

I attached screenshots of my editing below, as well as a close up to my workspace.

The next posts will be my final CCRs, and my final film opening. Thank you for keeping up with this journey. I cant wait for you to see my final products!

Sources - 

https://9to5google.com/2018/07/31/youtube-android-testing-swipe-gesture/

https://www.mediaweek.com.au/instagram-unveils-new-ad-surfaces-creative-tools-for-businesses/

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/filmgate-short-film-festival-june-2023-free-for-all-tickets-513152291317?aff=erelexpmlt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MODszj-AuKA&t=2s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTId5N_mxqE&t=112s

CCR Documentary

Today I filmed my CCR that is a documentary. It ended up going really nicely, and I can’t wait to edit it. I already know everything that I am going to edit into my CCR. So I am basically almost done with 1/2 of my CCRs. 

Now my original plan was to do a carpool karaoke, however I don’t believe I have enough time to do it. My wifi had recently not been working at my house, so it has been very hard to do any homework, or edit anything. 

Because of this issue, I only have tomorrow to edit both of my CCR’s. I think that I will end up just making a PowerPoint with a voiceover as my second CCR, and put a lot of work into my first one. Don’t get me wrong, I am still going to put effort into my second one as well.

With that being mentioned, I attached a screenshot of my documentary CCR below.

The resolution looks low, but it is not. I wanted to make the lighting sort of the same as in my film opening to connect my CCR and my opening. I will be using this and combining it with other clips from my opening, and other psychological thrillers as well as some other information that I will state in my documentary.

I am really upset that I do not have time to film the carpool karaoke because I really liked the idea, but I will make the PowerPoint as exciting as I possibly can.

Keep coming back to see my final opening and CCR very very soon!

CCR Script

And we’re down to the final days! This has been a very long and very thought through production, and I have loved every second of it. I am so proud of how my productions came out
and I can’t wait to show you. In the meantime, I will record and edit my CCR, and the whole thing will be done.

The last few days I’ve been making sure that my film opening was fine, and that I had everything that I needed. Now that I have finished checking everything, I made the script for my CCR.

I made two scripts: the carpool script and the documentary script. I will attach pictures of the script for the carpool CCR below.

Elvis is what my dad will say, and Arianna is what I will say. (Sorry for the bad handwriting).

I plan on finishing the whole thing by tomorrow or Sunday maximum. I am excited to show you guys the final project.

Stay tuned to see the project in its entirety!

Just some Ideas

So in the last post I pitched some of my ideas for the creative critical reflection (CCR). I said that some ideas of a CCR were pretending to be in a talk show, making a documentary, doing a carpool talk show, and a twitter Q/A.

I need to make two different type of CCRs. I said the questions that I will be answering in my CCRs in my last post. There are 4 questions which I will be answering 2 in one video, and 2 in the other. I plan to make them both be around 3 minutes long. I will make sure to keep them max under 10 minutes both times combined.

For the carpool talk show idea,  I want to do something like James Corden. James grabs artists and sings karaoke with them, but every now and then, he interviews them and asks them questions. That is what I plan on doing. I attached a picture below showing how I would like the shot to look while I get asked the questions and answer them.

The second idea is the documentary. For this idea, I will get asked the questions and I will answer them in a serious way. I will also be giving behind the scenes information while showing clips of the actual film opening. I will add videos and photos of the clip and also of things where I got information. An example of the angle would be in the documentary for Demi Lovato, which I attached below.

These are some of my ideas for the CCR. Keep coming back to see my final film opening and CCR!

Sources:

Picture 1 - https://www.spin.com/2016/12/bruno-mars-carpool-karaoke-video/

Picture 2 - https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/demi-lovatos-abusive-father-sparked-12976666

Creative Critical Reflection

Although I am looking at some alternatives of my film opening, I would consider myself done with that part of the project.

The next step is my CCR (Creative Critical Reflection)! For my reflection, I will be doing two different ideas to answer these 4 questions.

CCR Questions

- How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

- How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

- How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

- How did you integrate technologies - software, hardware and online - in this project?

Different CCR Ideas

These CCRs cannot be boring. There are many ways in which I can make my CCR interesting and creative. Adding pictures, knowing my information, making it funny, etc. Some of the different things I could do will be listed below.

- I can pretend to be in a talk show. I can have one of my siblings interview me about my production.

- It can be a documentary. I can use some of the behind the scenes and actual footage from my film as B-Roll and talk to the side of the camera as if I was answering questions to someone off screen.

- Carpool talk show. One of my family members can interview me in the car. (Sort of like carpool karaoke with James Corden, except only the part where he asks questions).

- I can do sort of a twitter/ social media Q/A answering the questions.

I like all of these ideas, but if I have to pick 2, I think I will do the carpool talk show and the documentary, since I feel like they are the most creative ones.

Stay tuned to see my final project and CCR!

Done!

After a lot of time taken into making the film opening, I believe that I am finally done! This whole week I have rewatched and rewatched my film opening, and revised some things. I also showed some of my family members including my dad, brothers, sister, etc, to ask if there should be any revisions.

Some of the changes that I have made was to finish adding the titles/ names of the production team. I also added the sound effect that I mentioned last post to make the ending seem more powerful. I think that this really helped the ending be more definitive. I added the same sound effect to the title as well.

I attached a screenshot of the title, where you could see the layered audio and the audio levels.

The overall lenght of the film opening from beginning to end is 2 minutes and 7 seconds. I tried to get the length to be as close to 2 minutes as possible; I wanted to make sure to incorporate a few seconds of what would happen after the film opening ended, going into the actual film, which added a few more seconds to my overall project. I attached a screenshot of the workspace below so you could see it better.

Although I have finished my editing process, I will be trying some of my alternative ideas out, as well as starting my CCR (Craetive Critical Reflection). Stay tuned to see the final product!

The Titles

And yet another day of editing! Today I was making sure that this was the official order of my film opening. I showed it to my dad and he said that he liked it. We were trying to tamper with the title because it still feels off to us; it feels like something is missing. After changing the font many times and changing the way that the title is shown, nothing seemed to feel just right. I think that the audio is the thing that makes the title seem less fitting. I think that the audio just needs to be a bit more powerful.

I started looking for build up sound effects that I could add to make the title seem more powerful in a way. I ended up finding this royalty free sound which I attached below.

Another thing I started to do was work on the actual titles. (The names of the writer, producer, main actors, music, editor, cinematographer, and director.) I was deciding where to put them so that they didn't interfere with the jump cuts or they just didn't take away the center of attention of the video. I also made them have a little shakey effect so that they didn't seem off just being there still. I attached a screenshot below.

This is what i've done so far in my editing process, I am slowly getting closer to finishing. Keep passing by to see the final product real soon!

Source: 

(Build up sound effect) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo6usxXtdFo

Another Day of Editing

And another day of editing! Today I basically finished putting all of the clips together. I am not 100% sure if I will use these clips in this exact order since the majority of the opening should not make sense. But for now, this is the order that I will keep in.

The title was another thing that I edited today. In a post I made a while ago, I attached a video of a title playing picture in picture. At first, when I did it, I thought that it didn't match the rest of my film opening. I tried to change the font, but all of the fonts seemed too pretty in a way, and the thriller fonts felt too extra/ overused. I decided to use Times New Roman and make some of the letters in the word bigger, and Italic others to make the word look sort of crooked; I was trying to reference the perfectionist in a way while keeping the thriller feel.

I still feel like something is missing. I'm starting to believe that it doesn't have to do with the title, so I think it might have to do with the order of the clips/ where the title is located. I don't want to put it at the beginning or end, so I will have to see if I will keep it or change where the title occurs.

I attached screenshots of the title and a screenshot of just the editing below.

I think that the editing process is going by sort of quickly and very smoothly. I can't wait to see the final product, so stay tuned for it!

Let The Editing Begin!

And so the editing process begins! We are in step 3 of 4 of completing my film opening. The last step is to review and revise. I started editing all of the clips together. As I stated in the previous posts, I will be using Adobe Premiere Pro to edit my film opening. I also edited the audio together with the clips. 

I was having a bit of trouble knowing how to add the extra scenes that will only last 1-2 seconds. I did not know how to tamper with the music so that the clips could fit in. I searched for sound effects but none of them worked out for me. Then I remembered that the music that I am using comes from a 1 hour video with different horror songs, so I decided to take out one part that has a woosh sound and add it to see if it works, and so far I think that it works.

Another thing that I am doing is editing the videos to the notes of the song. I believe it is a piano with notes being pressed every few seconds, since the notes are a perfect length for the videos to play within them, I will be cutting to a different clip every new note.

I took some screenshots of my editing porocess so far, and have attached them below. In the first picture, I am showing one of the normal clips being edited to the notes of the song. Although it may be a bit hard to see in the picture, everytime a clip starts it is right above a loud part of the audio, which is the note. The only exceptions can be seen in the second picture where there is a second layer of audio. That second layer is the woosh sound effect. And that clip with the bottle appears for barely a second.

My editing process so far has gone smoothly, come back tommorow to see what I have done furthermore with my editing process!

And We're Done!

I am so happy to finally say that I have completed the production process of my film opening! Today, the ink arrived, and I quickly filmed the last few shots of my film opening. The shots came out wonderful, and the whole process ended up really well, with my scenes looking exactly how I envisioned them to look.

I started the editing process of my film opening this morning while I was waiting for the ink to arrive. Since I edited the clips with Videoshop and added the effect called Chaplin, all I have to do is edit the music and clips together and add the legacy titles with the important names. As I mentioned in my previous posts, I will be editing in Adobe Premiere.

Here are some screenshots of the last videos that I filmed today, ending my production process!

I am officially done with the production process. All of my shots turned out just how I wanted them: tight shots, low lighting, creepy, etc. I am very happy with how they turned out, and I can't wait to make the official video come to life. Stay tuned to see my editing process!

And the filming goes on!

Today, I was able to complete most of my filming. I am missing a few shots because I realized that I did not have any more ink which I could use for the scene where I write on the label and attach it to the "poison". We ordered the ink and it arrives tomorrow. If everything goes as planned, tomorrow I will finish filming and will have everything ready to edit. I am extremely happy with how these scenes turned out, and I cannot wait to bring this piece to life when I edit everything together.

Not only did I almost finish filming, but I have also chosen the song I will be using for my film opening. It is a royalty-free song that I found on YouTube. The actual video has multiple songs, but I felt that the first one, called Deafening Silence, will suit my film opening the best. You can hear the song on this website or on the YouTube video which I attached below. It is not the whole hour of course, just the first song.

Below, I have also attached some screenshots of the things that we filmed today. The shot of the polaroids are blurry on purpose to add suspicion to the scene. We also felt that it looked better if the pictures were undefined.

We are so close to being done with the filming. Stay tuned to see my editing process begin!

Time, Time, Time...

Who knew filming could take so much time? Since I want every single scene to be perfect, I have had to refilm every shot at least 5 times to make sure that I got the perfect one. This has been very stressful and time-consuming. I usually do not pay as much attention to detail in my shots as much as I am doing so right now.

The past few days I have been finishing filming the little shots that will appear every once in a while to be a sudden shock. Today I started filming the actual story. Since I have had to retake a lot of the shots, I have not been able to get them all done. I am planning on finishing filming by this weekend since this has taken a lot longer than expected to film. While I was filming, I also used the app Videoshop to add filters and effects to my shots, so that all I have to do is attach the shots together and add the titles and music when I edit in Adobe Premiere Pro. Another thing I did was look for music that I could incorporate in my film opening.

Talking about music, I have found some songs that could work for my film opening. This has also taken a while because I want it to match my expectations as perfectly as possible, while also remaining copyright free. I have found quite a few songs that I loved but were copyrighted. I do not want to use a copyrighted song, so I had to keep looking. I have narrowed it down to two songs and will inform you in the next post tomorrow about the one I ended up choosing.

For now, here are a few screenshots of some of the shots that I have taken of my videos for the film opening. There is a grainy effect that will be more visible in the final video because it will be moving; sort of like an old film.

The filming process is taking a lot longer than I would have liked, but hopefully, by the end of this weekend or the start of next week, we will be done with the production process and move on to the editing. The clock is ticking. Keep checking in to see my progress until the final product!

They're Here!

My props arrived! I was very pleased to wake up to a message saying that my props arrived. This meant that I could finally start shooting some of the original clips for my film opening. Since the room where I have to film has to be completely black (apart from the lights), I had to wait until it became nighttime to start filming.

We decided to film the beginning of the film opening, and some of the in-between cuts to add suspicion to the film. Some of the props that we used were the glass bottles with poison in them (water and food coloring), the razors, the blades, some gloves, electric tape, etc. These shots ended up looking really cool. We also added some effects to the scenes with the app Videoshop which added a cool grainy effect. We also blurred some of the scenes so that they become less defined/ clear. I attached screenshots of the clips that we filmed today below.

The production process today went by really smoothly. We took at least 5 takes of each of the shots shown above to make sure that we got the perfect take. There are still many more shots/ scenes to come, so make sure to stay tuned!

Problem and Solution

Ok so we have a slight issue... I was supposed to start filming today/ this week, but the props are arriving late. I will be extending the production portion of the project until half of next week. The rest of the props should be arriving by then in time to film and not tamper with my schedule too much. Since I did not have all of my props to start filming, I have decided to keep practice shooting and deciding how I like my scenes. I also took this extra time to find some of the songs that could fit with my opening. This time, I actually made the grid and placed the razor blades in the grid, along with substitute bottles.

Obviously, the grid wasn't made perfectly since these shots were just to see what it would look like, but I do believe that the shot looks very nice. It also has the creepy feel that I was very much hoping to see. I also did one of the other scenes in my storyboard which had the one razor out of place, and then it gets fixed. I decided to make these two separate angles because I thought it looked creepier than just keeping it in one take. In my actual film opening, the grid will be bigger to show all of the items altogether. I also kept the same lighting as the last time because I think that I made it perfect for the actual film.

I am ready to begin filming the official scenes for my film opening. I hope that the props arrive soon. Thankfully, this will not be a major issue because I gave myself extra time in every process just in case an issue like this occurred. Keep stopping by to see the process of my production for my film opening!

Start of Production!

I officially started the production process of my film opening! I have decided to make some slight changes in my schedule, changing the production process to 1 week, and the editing process to 2 weeks because I have found that a lot of the work is going to come from the editing process.

The things that we have done so far were to measure the lengths of each scene, see the lighting techniques, see how the exposure needs to be handled, etc. I started by getting a lamp to highlight one specific portion of the desk I will film in. The first lamp turned out to be too bright, and I felt like the white light was too much. So we grabbed a different lamp which was softer but still clear, and the lighting is also yellowish and orange. This made the shot feel creepier. The phone we were using to film started to make the practice shots too bright, so we lowered the exposure all the way, which ended up having a cool effect as seen below. We also placed random objects in the frame to see if the objects were clear or not.

This shot turned out very nicely and how I pictured it. As I said before, these were just practice shots to see how everything was going to look and how we needed to arrange the equipment for the production. These clips looked very well made without having a filter on or anything, which made me feel good about the editing, which will just make the shots look even creepier and cooler. We decided to film from all different angles to see what the shots would look like. Another thing we did was try out different motions to see which one looked the best and most realistic out of all of the movements.

Another thing that we did was put some of the clips into the app Videoshop which had really cool filters to add an even more dramatic/creepy effect to our video. The app had many filters changing the color to make the scenes darker, adding noise effects to the scenes, adding glitches to the scenes, etc. Some of the effects that we really liked were called Darko and Delta, which both were monotone and made the colors less pronounced and more black and white. However, it still had a hint of the original color.

The production started off well. The practice shots help me get a better idea of what we need for the official shots and help us have more common knowledge about what we need to do in the video as well. Stay tuned to see our progress during the production process!

The Props!

Props are also a very important part of the film opening. Since I will be focusing mainly on props and what they symbolize, it is important to make clear what props I will use and what they will be used for. As you saw in my storyboard and the previous post about location, I have limited space for the props that I will be using for my opening. Since I will be filming in a room where the only thing clear/visible is a desk, most of my props need to be small.

Duct Tape

In my storyboard, the first thing that the protagonist will do is use duct tape to make a grid. The duct tape will be the first prop used in my film opening. The duct tape will be the most important item/ prop that will symbolize and help show that our protagonist is a perfectionist. The grid that will be made by duct tape will help the protagonist perfectly organize his items.

Razors

Razors will be the first props seen to symbolize the psychotic murderer feel and help create the sense of thriller. Since razors are not a very safe item, these props will start creating a sense of suspense. This along with the next props. This prop will also be the one that reassures the sense of perfectionist. As I put in my storyboard, the razors will be placed on the grid perfectly, and one of them will be slightly out of place, which then will be fixed to make it perfect again by the protagonist.

Poison

Poison is also a very important prop for my film opening since my opening will have many scenes connected to the poison. In my storyboard, I showed that the protagonist would write down labels with letters that are unfamiliar. These labels will then be placed on the bottles. The razors and the grid will already have added a creepy effect to the film opening; this will reassure that the poison is most probably not something good, without having to show that it is poison.

Blades

The blades are the last thing that reassures that this protagonist has some bad intentions. Since razor blades are very dangerous and are not common things to just see, this will finalize the idea that this person is bad. The blades will not be a major prop in the film opening, but they are definitely necessary to complete the opening.

Polaroids

The last prop that I will have is the polaroid. The polaroids will be one last prop to add even more suspicion. These polaroids are also going to help make known that something bad happened or will most probably happen to the people in the polaroid. This is important because this prop helps develop the story/gives the whole perfectionist murderer meaning. They also, along with the blades, help complete the whole thriller sense. 

These are all of the props that I will be using for my film opening. I have completed the planning part of my project. Stay alert for the next post where I will be starting my production!

Sources of pictures:

https://www.bestproducts.com/mens-style/g3080/best-razor-for-men/
https://well.ca/products/olivina-men-double-edge-razor_163345.html
https://www.premiumvials.com/4oz-200-count-green-graduated-oval-rx-bottles-with-child-resistant-caps/
https://hearingreview.com/practice-building/practice-management/continuing-education/polaroids-needed
https://www.tapecase.com/products/tc1111-silver-11-mil-industrial-grade-duct-tape

Where to film...?

The location of a film is one of the most important parts of the film. Productions could have the best plot ever but have a bad location to film in. That will make the movie go from a 10 to 5 at least. It is important to have a location that matched the plot perfectly. In my case, as you saw in my storyboards in my previous posts, the location of my film opening will take place somewhere that is very bland. It can either be someone's house or a very bland office.

I found a picture of a low-lighting desk. This picture gives me inspiration and shows my idea of how I would like the location of my film. As you can see, the only thing that is really visible is the desk and chair. The surroundings of the desk and chair are not clear. The only thing that is visible is what the creators of the photo want you to focus on. This is what I would like my film to look like; with the desk being the only thing visible/ clear.

The next two pictures are how I would like the whole film opening to look like. The first photo is similar to the previous photo. They both have one singular light showing a specific part of the room which is what should be focused on. The rest of the room is not clear. These three pictures also have low lighting. This is one of the most important parts of the location where I will film. The second picture also has a specific light coming from the window and is also very dark/ low lighting. 

I would like to merge these three into one for my film opening. For the location of my film opening, I would like to be in a room that is very dark and bland. In the first picture, there is a desk with light only pointing at the desk, making the rest dark, but you can see a bookshelf next to the desk very unclear. In the second and third pictures, the room is completely empty. In my film opening, I would like for there to be a desk, and only a desk, with dim lights pointing at the desk, making the rest of the room dark. Even though the rest of the room is dark, it will be clear that there is nothing else in the room beside the desk. This will be the only location seen in my film opening.

Stay tuned to see how the location will add to the rest of the production in my film opening!

Sources of pictures:

https://stock.adobe.com/search?k=haunted+room

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/34832597106153026/