Final Group Meeting!

In class today we met with groups one final time before we were to submit our projects next week. In my group were Camila, Mari, Daniel, and Ace. If you recall, Daniel and Ace were in my group during our last meeting. We each took turns talking about each of our projects and where we were at with our progress. After that, I watched Camila and Ace’s projects. Both of which were fantastic. They were so cool, and engaging, and shot very well. I saw some of what Daniel did and it was pretty good. I wish I could’ve seen more of it, but it wasn’t complete. I wasn’t able to watch Mari’s because it was on her partner’s home computer but the clips she showed me were good. 

The Final Group! (Camila is on the left, Daniel is behind her, Mari is in the front, Ace is in the back and I’m on the right)

I then showed my film opening to everyone and got some feedback. Most of it was generally positive which was good, but I did get constructive criticism, which was honestly even better. A general critique was with the alarm sound. It was too loud and didn’t feel like it was the diegetic sound that I wanted it to come across as. Camila suggested recording an alarm sound with my phone and putting the sound a bit farther from the microphone to make it sound more realistic. Mari told me that the sound was a bit off when the alarm goes off and stops. Ace mentioned the cut when I grab the book that shows the title was a bit obvious and that I should maybe speed up the clip instead of doing a cut. Daniel mentioned that some of the credits were a bit hard to read because they were moving quickly. These are all good and fair critiques from my peers. I am going to incorporate them and fix what is necessary to make my project even better.

My entire project is almost complete. Once I make these changes, my film opening will be officially done and I am currently working on my CCR. Once I am done with that, I will be completely finished! I am really happy with the work I’ve created and I can’t wait to post the final product. 

CCR Approach

 Now that I have finished filming, editing, and reflecting on the opening for my film, Lost in the Pages, it is now time to focus on my CCR. 

The CCR, or Creative Critical Reflection, is, as the title states, a reflection of my project process through two different creative mediums by answering previously provided questions. The previously provided questions are as follows:

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

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

3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

4. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware, and online – in this project?

For my CCR, I am going to split these questions in half for my two different creative mediums. After looking at some examples provided by my teacher, I have decided how I am going to approach these split questions. The first two questions are going to be answered by me just talking about them in front of a camera, presenting research, and showing clips of not only my film but, others that have inspired it as well. I chose this method because it is simple, informative, and can allow me to provide my answers in a very clear and concise way. The last two questions are going to be answered in a talk show format. A friend of mine is going to be reading the questions and I am going to be answering them as if I were promoting the movie on TV. I chose this format because it's a fun way for me to answer my questions and incorporate my friends in the process. 

Creating the CCR is going to be a great way for me to summarize my thoughts and experiences of working on this project in a fun and experimental way.

Production Reflection

 My production process is complete! It was a long process but I really like what I have created. In this post, I am going to reflect on what I have done and highlight some of the key moments in my process. 

It started with an idea (that sounds so cheesy). I knew I wanted to create a fantasy film, so I began my research. One of the first blog posts I had done was research on the fantasy genre, so that became useful because I could build on it and elaborate further. As I was doing research, I realized what I wanted my film's opening to be about and how it wanted to be portrayed. I looked at some film openings for films I love that were in the same genre to have a good reference and sense of inspiration that I could use in my project. Once I knew exactly what I was going to do, It was time to plan everything out. 

When planning, I started with the plot. I developed what the plot for the entire movie would be if I was to film and write it all. As someone who loves creative writing, this was really fun. I also developed the main character, Delilah, which was just as fun. I love creating and developing characters, especially through mediums like Pinterest and Spotify. My favorite part of planning however was creating the mise-en-scene elements in my film opening. Although it was time-consuming, I thought it was so fun to create the little details that don't usually cross people's minds but are essential in making a film what it is. Although I'm upset I never got a response from the music artists I liked with permission to use their song, the song I chose ended up working perfectly with my opening, so I don't regret a thing. I did the screenplay, storyboard, and shot list to finish up my preparations and know exactly what I wanted to do shot by shot, then I was able to film. 

Filming, aside from the rough start, went very well. When I wasn't able to begin filming on the day I anticipated, I'm not going to lie, I panicked. After evaluating my options and dressing the set, I filmed with minimal issues the next day. I was able to finish filming everything in one day which was great because allowed me more time to edit. Editing was a bit different. Editing was a bit more stressful, mostly due to time constraints. I didn't have as much time as I thought. As mentioned in other posts, editing took longer than expected and was the part of the project where I made the most changes. I cut parts of my project down, added more footage to the end, and changed the main effects. I was surprised I changed anything but, I realized through the process that change was important and required for the project to meet certain requirements. 

I loved creating my film opening. It was cool having so much creative liberty over a big project like this and so cool to be able to dictate every single choice that was made. From creating the concept to research to filming to editing, it was awesome. I'll admit, at times working on this project was definitely stressful. Moments that come to my mind are being so busy I barely had time to sleep, filming complications, and editing time, but I was able to overcome all of them and come up with something amazing. 

Production Changes

 Throughout my production process, I have changed several components of my project, have had to cut some things down, and have gone through a lot of trial and error. This post is going to talk about all of them. 

One of the first changes that started from the beginning was scheduling. As shown in a much earlier post, I created a schedule for how I am going to approach my project. Since then, the schedule has shifted several times for numerous reasons. One of the main reasons was evaluating the time it took to do everything. In my schedule, I anticipated for certain tasks to take a shorter amount of time than required. An example of this was developing my mise-en-scene elements. In my original schedule, I anticipated that it would take me a day to develop all of the elements required in my film's opening and blog about it. In reality, it took me about three days to design the bedroom, the costume, the makeup, and the main prop as well as talk about my decisions in my blog post. Another instance where I thought a task would take a shorter amount of time than it did was editing. Editing took me much longer than anticipated due to technical issues and another reason that affected other scheduling aspects of my project, which was my busy schedule. For two weeks, around the time I was going to edit, I was in my school's production of Legally Blonde and, I had family coming from Italy and Arizona. Both of these took time away from me to work on my project thus, It took me longer to start work on certain aspects of the project than others. 

My new and updated schedule

Most of the changes in my production occurred while editing. When I started editing, I put all of my clips on the timeline, uncut, and I realized I had over fourteen minutes of footage. This blew my mind. I failed to realize just how much I had filmed, even though most of the footage was the shot being set up or me leaving the shot. I changed my approach, only putting one clip on the editing timeline at a time. As I was doing that, I realized that some of my shots were too long and drawn out and they would've caused the opening to become longer than two minutes. To resolve this, I cut parts that seemed unnecessary or made the sequence too long but kept certain parts that still showed what was happening. An example of this is when Delilah unpacks her bag and beings taking notes. Unedited, that footage was just under a minute and a half. I quickly realized that wasn't going to work so, I cut spaces in between. I cut Delilah grabbing her pencils, instead, she goes from zipping the pencil case open to zipping it closed with the supplies already in her hand. I do this several times throughout the sequence so the cuts look uniform, rather than out of place. I also trimmed down the shots of Delilah getting on her bed and of Delilah throwing her book on the bed, because it made those sequences feel too long and unnecessary. 

While editing, some of the effects I wanted to achieve in my film opening changed as well. These effects changed due to the way they appeared in the project. I initially wanted a light to come out of the book and engulf the screen, then fade out to reveal that Delilah is no longer there. This effect did not look the way I envisioned it. When I created the effect, I thought it looked cheesy and out of place. I also wanted the book to glow, but because of the way my shots were highlighted, that effect also didn't work the way I wanted it to. Because the comforter was the brightest thing in the frame, that's what would have glowed, and that isn't the effect I wanted to portray. To combat all of this, I did a fade to white, with a blur and a teleportation sound effect. This workaround still gives the illusion that Delilah was transported into her book, even though it wasn't initially in the way I planned.

This is what the 'light coming out of the book' effect was looking like

A final major change that was made to my film's opening was showing the location where Delilah was transported to. A friend of mine suggested I do this, and I always kept that suggestion in the back of my mind. I decided as I was editing, that it was essential to the film's opening and made the plot more clear. I mentioned most of what occurred during my filming process in a previous post, but I'll summarize it in this post as well. I went to a park near my house that had a forest nature trail and I figured that would be the perfect place to film. I took my equipment and drove with my dad to the park. After looking and filming at several locations throughout the forest and overcoming many distractions such as planes, people, motorcycles, and even a wedding, I finally got the shot I wanted. Adding this footage to my film's opening gave my film's opening a more realistic touch, making it seem believable that Delilah was actually transported into this magical world. 

I'm really pleased with all of the changes I made throughout the production process and I feel they have really elevated my film opening as a whole. 

Editing Process Pt.2

 I finally finished editing! I'm so happy to have finally finished. It took longer than I had expected and planned, but it's ok; I adapted along the way. This blog is going to detail the second half of my editing process.

Aside from blogging about the first half of my editing process on Wednesday, I researched the visual effects I wanted to include in my project. I had an idea of what I wanted to do, and I found videos that would allow me to portray my vision in my project. I talk about them more in-depth in my last post and how I planned to use them. On Thursday, I put the research I had to use. I edited the scene where Delilah is transported into the book. I started by doing the fade-to-white transition, which was the easiest effect to do. All I did was search for the effect and place it in between the clips. After that, I did the shining light coming out of the book. I followed the video's instructions, but fit it to my needs, and I didn't like the way it turned out. Ironically enough, I thought it looked too unnatural. It looked fake and tacky. I tried adjusting it with different settings to make it look better. I even tried to use the glow effect to salvage it, but even that wasn't working the way I wanted it to, so I scraped that as well. However, the YouTube video that taught me the glow effect did teach me about a gaussian blur effect, which I did apply to the transition to make it more appealing and flow better. I also added a "transportation" sound effect I found online to give a better illusion that it was actually happening. Once I had all the pieces, I just adjusted them to my liking until I felt it was complete. Once I was done with that, I wanted to add the credits. I had my font picked out, charcuterie cursive. This is the font I referenced when designing the title book's cover, so I thought it was fitting for the credits. I struggled a little bit to get the font onto Premiere Pro, however. In order to apply the font to Premiere Pro, it must be activated from Adobe Creative Cloud on the same desktop. The issue arose when my Creative Cloud application wouldn't update due to connection issues. It took a long time for it to update, and when it finally did, it became too late and I became too tired, so I just activated the font and then, went to bed. 

The font I am using for the credits in my film’s opening

The next day, Friday, came and I had to go to the beach and eat dinner with my family from out of town. That took up most of the day but I still wanted to get something done, so I did the credits. The font was downloaded onto Premiere Pro, and I typed out all the credits on the shot they corresponded to. Due to my prior use of the software, I already knew how to add text to my project so I got it done fairly quickly. Saturday, I got a lot done. I was expecting to make little changes here and there and call it a day, but upon further inspection, I realized my friend Ace was right. In my blog post where I detailed a group meeting I had with some of my peers, I mentioned that my friend Ace suggested adding some of the fictional world into the opening. It was something I heavily considered and after reviewing the opening myself, and gaining some feedback from my dad, I filmed Delilah being in the fictional world. I went to a beautiful park with a forest that was about fifteen minutes from my house with a tripod and a ring light. I scouted a few places and did many takes at several locations in the forest, but the second to last location was my favorite, so that was the one I used. My dad came with me and helped me film as well as act as a stand-in for me to frame my shots correctly and let me know where to stand. Once I got what I wanted, I came home and began editing right away. I knew that Delilah needed to be teleported to where she was transported, so I did some research on visual effects that could create that and I found a great YouTube video that detailed everything. It gave me all the information I needed as well as a particle burst file that elevated the effect even more. Because of that video, that effect is one of the parts of the project I am most proud of and I feel like that has really shown my growth with editing projects on Premiere Pro. Once that effect was done, I reviewed the project, made some small edits and cuts, got some feedback from my parents, and I was finished!

The video detailing the teleportation effect

My full and complete editing timeline

I'm setting up a shot in the park I filmed the end of my film's opening at

I am so proud and happy with how this film opening turned out. I learned so much about using Premiere Pro and about filming as well. It was a long process that definitely tested my patience at times, but it was all worth it for the end result. 

Visual Effects

 As mentioned previously, I am going to be using visual effects in my film opening. Even though I know how to use Adobe Premiere Pro (mostly just the basics), I have never attempted to create any type of visual effect with the software. That changes now. In order to create these visual effects, I must do some research. This post is showing that research. 

Visual effects, or VFX, create magic and illusions that could not be shown in real life through editing and post-production techniques. They enhance the story by making unrealistic aspects believable. I have referred to visual effects as special effects previously but, saying that would be incorrect. Special effects have the same purpose as visual effects except they are done practically with real objects or techniques. This is not what I am using in my film's opening. Three common types of visual effect techniques include CGI, which stands for computer-generated imagery, compositing which combines visual elements from separate places to make it seem like they are in the same place, and motion capture which digitally records an actor's movements. I am going to use something similar to CGI, just not as complex. I am going to be creating a white ball of light that emerges from the book and engulfs the screen, then fades away. 

This technique may be difficult, and that's why I am going to research how to do it. I looked online and found YouTube videos that would help me get the effect I want. 

This YouTube video tells me how to do a fade-to-white transition between clips. This technique will provide a good transition between clips of Delilah getting transported into the book and her disappearing. This will also make her disappearance appear more believable, as well as, make my editing process a little easier. Based on the video, the transition is very easy to do and would be very effective. This transition is essential to my project and likely the easiest, but most effective visual effect I am using in my film's opening. 

This YouTube video details how I could do a metal shining effect on text. Although I am not using this particular effect in my project, I believe I can use this technique to create the light coming from the book. This video taught me how to add a lighting effect. With this lighting effect, I can shape it however I want. Instead of making it a line that goes from left to right on the screen, I am going to make it a circle that becomes bigger, and bigger until it engulfs the screen. It also taught me how to use keyframes which is helpful, not only for this effect, but for future projects as well. 

This YouTube video details how to create a glow effect. I will use this effect to make the book glow. This effect will enhance my film's opening by making the book appear more magical and like it's coming to life. It will add layers to the project and will make it look more appealing by enhancing the other effects in the opening. This video showed me how to create different types of glow effects as well as add different colors to the glow, which I am going to use to create the fantastical feel that fits the genre.

All of these effects are fairly simple to do, which benefits me because, as mentioned, I have never created visual effects with Premiere Pro. This is a good way for me to start off and learn to use these type of effects. I can't wait to implement these techniques into my project and make my film's opening look even better. 

Sources:

Sorkin, Aaron. “How Visual Effects Work in Film: A Guide to the 4 Types of VFX - 2023.” MasterClass, 21 June 2021, https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-visual-effects-work-in-film.

D'Anjou, Darion, and Steven Bernstein. “Special Effects (SFX) and Visual Effects (VFX) | Adobe.” , Adobe, Adobe, https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/video/discover/a-guide-to-special-effects-in-movies.html.

5 Minute Solutions. “Light Shining Animation Effect in Premiere pro 2022.” YouTube, YouTube, 29 Nov. 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sVcA0A3BkI.

Adobe in a Minute. “Premiere Pro CC : How to Fade to White.” YouTube, YouTube, 22 Mar. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc9DV-0hdsM.

Adobe in a Minute. “Easy & Quick Glow Effect in Premiere Pro.” YouTube, YouTube, 5 July 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iXkAd67GUs.

Editing Process Pt. 1

 I finally started editing my film opening! It took a while to actually start, and there were some complications, but I got through them. In this post, I am going to talk about everything that’s happened thus far with my editing process. 

My initial plan was to start editing on Saturday, but after exhaustion from being in my school’s production of Legally Blonde combined with other work I had to do, I pushed it off. On Sunday, I had family visiting from Italy for the first time so, they preoccupied me for most of the day. When they left, I overcame my tiredness and began the editing process. I intended on editing my project but, all I managed to do was import the footage from my phone to a google drive and then to my flash drive. By Sunday, I was already behind and knew I had to work hard to catch up. 

On Monday, I began to actually edit, well I tried to. I imported all of my footage from the flash drive to Adobe Premiere Pro. As I was putting the footage on the timeline, they looked really bad. The shots were too bright, the color was really off, and the frame rate while watching the playback was horrendous. I didn’t know what was wrong or how that happened. I figured it had to do with the clips, but I wasn’t entirely sure. Everything looked fine on my phone and on google drive; It was really confusing. The awful quality of the clips caused nothing to play right and it took them an extremely long time to render. These factors interfered with the editing process, and because of it, I couldn’t edit anymore on Monday. I was a little bit stressed out because I was even more behind, but I knew I had to fix it all the next day.

A screenshot of my editing timeline showing a bad-quality close-up shot of the books.

Tuesday came around and I knew, I had to spend as much time as I could editing. That’s exactly what I did. I talked to my teacher, Mrs. Stoklosa about my problem and she gave me some tips that helped. She suggested downloading the clips from google drive and putting them directly on premiere pro, downloading the clips from my iCloud and putting those directly on premiere pro, and getting rid of the flash drive I used. I tried the second technique of downloading the clips from iCloud and then putting them on premiere pro. I wasn’t sure this was going to work because when I first learned how to use premiere pro, I was told everything always had to be saved on a flash drive, otherwise the footage wouldn’t load but because of this project, I learned that wasn’t true. I was glad to see this method worked. When I saved and left the project, I came back to see all of my footage still there. All of my clips, with the exception of one, were uploaded without issue. The quality of the clips are good but there are some moments when they, for lack of a better word, glitch, and delay which make the opening appear choppy. The one clip that I had an issue with was extremely bright and zoomed in. I was able to fix it by adjusting the exposure and zooming the clip out. It looks good now but, when I thoroughly edit everything, it may become an issue. My goal when editing was to create the cuts and put all of the footage in order. I did this and it took a long time, but just as I finished it, Premiere Pro crashed and I lost some of my progress. This was really annoying but I was able to fix it quickly because not a lot was lost. Once that was fixed, I reviewed what I had, made little changes, then finished for the day.

A screenshot of my editing timeline for my film opening.

Even though there have been delays and bumps in the road, I’m finally back on track with editing. It’s going well and I’m excited to work on the project more.

Filming Equipment

 In this blog post, I am going to be highlighting some of the equipment I used to film my project. I used pretty basic equipment such as a tripod and a ring light, but showing the equipment I used, can provide more insight into my filming process.

This is the tripod I used to film my entire project. Finding a usable tripod was more difficult than I expected. I have quite a few tripods in my house, but they all seemed to be missing a piece that would allow me to put my phone on them. I finally found one where I was able to screw a phone attachment to the tripod, but another issue arose. When I put my phone on the tripod, it moved downwards because my phone was too heavy. I asked my dad for some help and he added tape and rubber bands to keep it straight. This worked perfectly and I was able to begin filming with the tripod. There were some pros and cons to using this tripod. It had a handle that made it easy to tilt up and down, which was good when adjusting shots but would've been even better if I was using those movements throughout my opening. It was good at keeping my shots steady, but it was difficult to get close-up shots because it is much bigger and a bit bulkier. I adjusted it to be smaller and held it, but it took time and patience. Because of its size, it was difficult to get some of the angles I wanted for the film, and some shots, like the one of the photos on the wall, took a while because it wasn't as easy to set up the shot as I envisioned it.

This is the ring light I used to film my opening. It was attached to a tripod, but that tripod wasn't very practical for the purposes of this project but, I still wanted to use the light. I just removed it by unscrewing it. It was attached to a cord that allows it to light up so I just plugged it into a portable charger to make it easier to provide lighting wherever I saw fit. Throughout filming, I mostly just hung the light on the tripod behind the camera but for certain shots, I would have one of my parents hold it behind and above the camera or, I would hold it closer or farther from a subject to achieve the lighting I wanted for a specific shot. A ring light was very helpful and created great, well-lit shots for my film opening. 

Equipment was essential for filming my film opening. As mentioned it was pretty basic, but it was really all I needed. I wasn't recording much dialogue so equipment like a microphone wasn't necessary and using a monitor to see my shots would've been too distracting. I was lucky my parents were able to help me set up my shots to where a monitor wasn't necessary. Now I have talked about my filming process, I am going to start the editing process and document it in my next blog!

Evaluating Footage

 In this blog post, I am going to be evaluating some of the footage I have from filming my project. I am going to be evaluating what I am going to change, what I’m going to keep, how I am going to edit it, and how it fits into my project. 

 

This is a shot of Delilah rummaging through her bag to get her homework. The footage at the top is the one I am going to use in my production. I took me a few tries to get this shot, (One of my other attempts is shown below) but it turned out good in the end. One of my first tries, the footage at the bottom, the shot wasn’t angled correctly and too much of my body is shown. The footage at the top, the one I’m using is angled perfectly. You can perfectly see Delilah looking through her bag and see her put her supplies on the bed. I am likely going to cut a lot of Delilah rummaging through her bag, because it feels unnecessary and unnatural. I am going to cut the first couple seconds until she takes the notebook from her bag and the shot will end when she closes the bag. This shot is followed by Delilah doing her homework and getting interrupted by her alarm. It provides more visuals and angles to the shot to make the film opening more appealing. 

This is a close-up shot of Delilah doing her homework. I had to cut down the clip to fit in the blog but, it originally longer. This is a shot that wasn’t included in the storyboard or screenplay but, I thought it would make my film opening more appealing. It serves a similar purpose to the shot above, to provide more visuals. I am using this shot in tandem with Delilah doing her homework. In my film opening, Delilah is going to be shown sitting on her bed doing homework, then it is going to cut to show what Delilah is writing, then cut back to her writing and getting scared by her alarm. I am going to use the part of the shot in which Delilah is in the middle of writing and then cutting it before she starts erasing her paper. This should create a seamless sequence of shots between the two parts.

This close-up shot depicts Delilah deciding what book she is going to read. As evident from the footage, I did the series of facial expressions twice, to ensure I got the result I wanted, and I did. I will admit, my entire head not being in the frame is problematic, but I think the rest of the film opening will make up for it. This footage starts a sequence of Delilah looking at the books, which cuts to footage of the books, then to Delilah deciding the book she wants to read, to then her grabbing the book. Out of the two sets of facial expressions I did, I am going to use the second one. I feel these expressions better encapsulate the desision that Delilah is making and that she is satisfied with her choice.

I obviously filmed a lot more but I just wanted to highlight some of what I filmed and describe my thought process with shots and filming. I am really excited to start editing and to start putting together my final project!

My Filming Process!

 I finished filming my opening! It didn’t necessarily go as planned but I’m still on schedule which is good. In this blog, I’m going to talk about everything that happened. 

I finished painting my prop on Friday (the last blog post talked about that process) and I was ready to begin filming on Saturday. I got up, albeit later than I should’ve (this was ultimately my downfall), ate breakfast, and started getting ready. I put on my costume and did my makeup but the set wasn’t done yet. I had a poster printed at CVS and while I was getting ready, my dad went to pick it up. When he got it, the formatting was off and it was too small. He came home to show me a size that would work, then went back to CVS and got the poster fixed. I still needed to create the set and it was 5:00pm. This was problematic because I needed light to be shining outside the window. I realized I couldn’t film that day anymore. I panicked a little bit but came up with a new plan of attack. I was going to calm down, eat dinner, then spend the night creating the set. That’s exactly what I did. I look at the design I made for reference and then, designed the set. I took the sheets and pillows from my bed and put them on the set’s bed. I took my stuffed animals and put them on the bed as well. I then took my record player from my room and put it on the table. I grabbed pretty much every single book from my bookshelf and put it on the dresser. I also took figurines that I had in my room and put them next to the books. Then, I took some of my records and put them in the drawer of the dresser with the record player. I put the poster I ordered from CVS up and thought I was done but, I looked at the other wall and thought it looked bare, so I found some photos of my family and friends and extra posters I didn’t use in my room, and put them up. It was finally done! It took much longer than I anticipated so, I’m glad I took the time to do it and not rush. Some of the things like the pictures and the figurines weren’t in the original design but I felt they added more to the set and showed more of Delilah’s character. 

A time-lapse of me creating the set.

After Saturday didn’t go to plan, I knew I had to film everything on Sunday to stay on schedule. I got up earlier (I learned my lesson), ate breakfast, put on my costume, and did my makeup. Makeup took a lot longer than I wanted it to because it wasn’t turning out the way I wanted it to, but after a few tries, I was happy with the result. I also added a few more details to the set such as the fluffy white rug that was originally in my design and a fake plant next to the record player. I grabbed a tripod and my ring light and began filming. It was a long process, making sure I got all my shots right and I made a few mistakes but, I made sure I fixed them and I hope they don’t become noticeable when I’m editing. My parents helped me a lot. My mom was a stand-in for me to set up my shots because we are about the same height and her and my dad helped me hold the ring light and film. I really couldn't have done this without them. I left the set up, just in case I need to refilm anything or something ends up looking off. 

I’m so glad I finished filming! I’m going to do some research on editing techniques and special effects, then start editing. The project is really coming together and I'm really happy with how it's all turning out!

Prop Building (The Book)

In this post, I will explain my process of creating my main prop in Lost in the Pages, the magical book. 

In my mise-en-scene post, I went in-depth about the design of the book and I showed what I wanted the book to look like. I replicated that design, pretty much to a tee. I started by finding an old book I didn't need anymore.

 

                                      

Next, I scrubbed the spine with nail polish remover and q-tips to get rid of the foil to begin painting with a blank book. 

I then took two shades of blue paint that I had, mixed them to get the desired color, and started painting. I did several coats (I lost track) until the paint strokes were no longer visible. I did this for both sides. 

 

I then used the remaining paint to create a darker shade of blue for the spine and the edges of the book. I used several coats of paint and tried to make my lines as precise as possible.

Once the base was done, I used a metallic gold marker I bought to write out the title and draw the flowers that were on the cover. 

After that, It was time to add the finishing touches. I added metal book corners to each corner and added a little bit of depth to the gold with a darker gold pen.

It's done! I am really happy with the result and think I replicated the design I created very well. The only difference is that this book doesn't have a dark blue strip on the edge of the cover but it's a small detail that didn't really add much to the cover anyway. With the prop complete, I can finally begin filming!

Film Prep!

 I am almost ready to being filming, so I'm going to create a film schedule, write out my approach for filming, and list the supplies I need to begin. 

A film schedule or, shooting schedule is exactly what it sounds like. It is a to-do list for what is going to be done in a production day by day. It typically includes dates, times, props, shots, locations, supplies, actors needed, and other elements. Because my project is only a film opening and a small production, my schedule is only going to include the basics. A film schedule will help me organize my filming process and make it run smoothly. 

My filming schedule:

My filming approach mostly just explains my schedule. My approach is as follows: on Saturday, I am going to film the beginning until Delilah takes a break. On Sunday, I am going to continue with Delilah looking at her books until the end of the opening. On Monday, I am going to finish shooting, if I haven't done so already, and look over the footage and asses if anything needs to be reshot. 

To begin filming, I need supplies. I am going to be using a tripod to stabilize my shots and a ring light for better lighting, and brighter shots. I don’t have access to a professional filming camera so I am going to be using my iPhone camera to film. Because I have a newer phone model, I don’t think there will be an issue with the quality of shots from my phone compared to a camera. I also need the different set elements, such as books, posters, blankets, pillows, figurines, etc. as well as the props (as shown in my filming schedule above) to convey the story. I have all of them, so they are not difficult to obtain. 

I am going to be playing Delilah in Lost in the Pages. I feel like because I wrote her, I know exactly how I want her to be portrayed and how the character should be approached. Once I create my book prop, I can finally start filming! I can’t wait and I’m really excited and happy with my project’s progress thus far.

Sources:

Matt. “What Is a Shooting Schedule? Definition & Examples • Filmmaking Lifestyle.” Filmmaking Lifestyle, 24 Nov. 2022, https://filmlifestyle.com/what-is-a-shooting-schedule/#:~:text=A%20shooting%20schedule%20or%20script,and%20any%20special%20production%20needs.

Peerspace. “Everything to Know about a Shooting Schedule Template.” Peerspace, 6 Oct. 2021, https://www.peerspace.com/resources/shooting-schedule-template/.

Storyboard and Shot List

 This blog is going to be about the storyboard and shot list for my film opening. The first thing I'm going to be talking about is my storyboard. A storyboard consists of panels of drawings depicting the shots used in a production. Storyboards are helpful in visualizing the shots and how they’re going to be set up before filming begins. They also help to provide a sequence of shots and the structure of a production, in this case, a film. Storyboards are essential to the start of a production and will make the filming process much easier. 

This is the storyboard I created for Lost in the Pages:

My storyboard depicts my film opening shot-by-shot. My art skills are not the best, but I feel it accurately portrays my film opening and what I’m going to do. I created my storyboard using an app called Procreate on my iPad. Procreate is a tool typically used by artists to sketch, and draw and I figured I could make good use of it for my storyboard since I know the basics of it. I used blue to sketch my storyboard to contrast with the black of the border and make it stand out. 

My storyboard also helped me compose my shot list. A shot list, as the name suggests, is a detailed list of all the shots in a production. It includes several elements including, shot number, shot type, descriptions of shots, and angles. There are other elements as well but these are the ones I'm focusing on for my list. Comprising a shot list will help me when filming because I can mark them off as I go to make sure I didn’t miss filming anything. My shot list can be found here.

Storyboards and shot lists help a production move smoothly which is their purpose for my project. From here, I am going to create a filming schedule and approach as well as supplies I might need. This includes the magical book, which I still have to make. I'm going to start filming soon and I can't wait!

Sources:

Sorkin, Aaron. “Film 101: What Is a Shot List? How to Format and Create a Shot List - 2023.” MasterClass, MasterClass, 2 Sept. 2022, https://www.masterclass.com/articles/film-101 what-is-a-shot-list-how-to-format-and-create-a-shot-list.

Maio, Alyssa. “What Is a Shot List? Examples and a Brief Definition.” StudioBinder, 7 July 2021, https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-a-shot-list-example/.