Last Moments!

 Today in class we finally added the last touches to our film opening! After Victoria edited the whole thing our opening was at two minutes and thirty seconds which was way longer than the maximum time which was two minutes so we had to cut quite a bit of some of the shots. Nonetheless, our project ended up being two minutes and seven seconds in which Ms. Stoklosa said it was fine, so we had one little thing to do in order to finish this long project which was add the credits. We struggled figuring out in what part of the film opening we wanted them to be, but we decided to put them throughout the film. Here is a picture of our film opening entirely edited it and finished!

At last we finished the film opening and it is time to focus on our CCR! Cant wait for you to see it. 

Recording the Voiceover!!

 Now that we got everything filmed it was time to record the voiceover and once again, we used Victoria’s aunt to do so because we felt like she would be best at it. Victoria’s aunt has a recording studio in which they recorded the voiceover, unfortunately I wasn’t there but Victoria and I had talked about it before of what we were going to do and so I already knew what was happening. However, Victoria sent me pictures of what they did and here there are

As you can see there is the home studio Victoria’s aunt has and in my opinion it is pretty cool to have. A few more thing to done but we’re nearing the end of this project! 

The last of filming

 The rest of the filming

Since we filmed most of the film opening at Markham Park and at Victoria’s house which is where we did the crime-solving board, we were missing the part of the therapist’s office. Now we chose Victoria’s Aunt to play the role because Victoria said she was a fantastic actress, and her job has something to do with the film industry. This was crucial to us because this was the only part of our film that has dialogue so we needed someone who would be good at it so the film would look professional.

Here is a picture that Victoria shared with me when they were filming. 

We wanted the setting to look as close as a therapist's office as we could, so by the picture you can see the white walls that correlate withe a therapist and her sitting on a chair is the typical look for a therapist.  

We are getting close to finishing our film opening, now that all parts are filmed we need to record the voiceover, finish editing, and add the finishing touches!!

Time to decide fonts

 New week which means new things to do. The first thing is to figure out what type of font we are going to use for the credits. I decided to do some research on what type of fonts they would usually use for thriller movies, and these are the options... 

Now it's just a matter of deciding which one looks best in which we’re going to try all three of them and then decide but which you do you think looks best? All the fonts add like a mysterious vibe which is what the whole film opening is about. 

Finalizing the dialogue

As I talked about it before we decided not to go through with the dialogue of the conversation between the two sisters but instead have Maddie be doing a voiceover narrating what happened. We waited until the last day in class before spring break to do it because we needed the beginning part of the film opening to be edited so we could recall what happens and write the monologue as it should be. This is what we came up with 

The next things in our agenda and the finishing touches to our film opening are to figure out what type of font we want to use for the credits, finish editing, and film the last little bit of the opening. 

More Sounds!!

 Like I said in the post before the group meetings helped us figure out the sound that we were missing. I found some sounds that fit the scene perfectly, here take a listen…

sound #1 - This sound contains birds chirping and like they would be in a narrative world in nature. 

Sound #2- This one is like leaves crunching like someone is walking through the woods, which can be used to demonstrate that there were other people around in the beginning. 

Thanks to these sounds we’re able to establish the setting and the diegetic sounds that come with it. Now it is just a matter of picking which one fits better with the film opening and the editing. I think mostly we’re done with the sound part of our film opening, now we just have to plug them in into the editing software and pray that they all sound good. I made sure to find multiple options for each sound in case one of them doesn’t sound very good. The next thing on our to-do list is to finish the monologue or the voiceover, find the right font for the credits and title, finish the editing and film the one tiny part we have missing, and lastly, create a production company for the film.

Stay tuned for more to come!!

Group Meetings!!

 Today in class we got to get together in groups and talk about our projects and get some feedback on it. I loved listening to everybody’s ideas, and I got some really good insight for my film opening as well. This is a picture of my group.

This is a picture of my group

Like I said in a couple of blog posts ago we are stuck on what sound or what song to use for the very beginning, I brought this up tp my group and Berkley had a great idea for what to do that I hadn't even considered. She suggested we do nature sounds or people walking on the ground and people talking as they are walking to show that there is, other people around. However, the sound will decrease as they get farther into the trail, and it will demonstrate that they are alone and there is no one around anymore. I thought this was a great idea that me or my partner hadn’t thought of. We were so focused on a specific sound or a song that we never even thought about including the nature sound of our setting.

Overall it was a great way to help my peers and them help me and our film opening, it was incredibly helpful! The next few things in our agenda are to finish the editing, write the monologue, fonts, and production company. We still have many things to do, time for another busy week!!

Difficulties and Minor Step Backs

 

Tuesday during class Victoria and I started editing the film because we already have all the footage for the beginning scene of the storyline so it was time to edit it and this would help us figure out the dialogue for the voiceover. However, we had technical difficulties, Thursday in class we planned on doing the dialogue since we edited most of the video, so we had a good timeline to go by nevertheless, the video that we started editing was gone. So, we spent most of the class trying to get it back but in the end, we couldn’t, so we had to edit it all over again.

This was a step back in our schedule but not a huge one because we filmed our stuff with plenty of time, so it wasn’t something to worry about despite that, it was frustrating and it sent us a little back in the process. We decided to start the editing process again because without it we can’t write the voiceover for Maddie. So the next thing on our agenda for this weekend and next week is to finish filming the last couple of shots, editing the beginning scene of the film, and writing the voiceover. Needless to say, this week is going to be a busy one and full of updates!

Decisions Decisions...

One thing we needed to do was find sound, now what makes a thriller/mystery movie is the sound you hear, when you know something bad is about to happen yet you don’t know what exactly is going to happen. Sound in these types of movies are crucial because it engages your ears as well as your eyes and makes your heart race. According to this article by Studio Binder and written by Patrick Regan “There’s an art to using suspense music to create terror, dread, and fear”. This is why sound is so important in our film and we need to pick the right one.

ARTICLE

ARTICLE 2

These two articles by Studio Binder helped me figure out the right sounds for our film, like when the moment the wall with all the pictures is revealed. 

I’ve been looking for sound for our film and it is difficult. We want the sound that we pick to create that anxiety to the audience and make them want more like wondering what is going to happen. Here is the link for some of the sounds I found for specific parts of the film. SOUNDS!

We are having a difficult time trying to find a perfect sound though when Maddie and Sarah are on the hike because that is the memory that Maddie is having so what kind of sound do we put? The one that kinds foreshadows that something bad is going to happen or a sound that shows that everything is great and that nothing is about to happen, yet it does? This is something we are still struggling to decide because we have no idea what kind of sound will fit perfectly in that part of the scene.

We need some feedback and opinions in which sound is better ad what sound we could put at the beginning of the film when they are hiking the trail before the whole tragedy happens. 

Filming time!!

 On Sunday Victoria and I recorded the first half of our opening scene and sometime this week we are recording the second half. The first half is all about the hike and when Sarah goes missing. We decided to record in Markham Park since we thought it was the perfect setting for our film because it has that forest vibe to it.

This is some of the raw footage from that day.

Now as you can see there is no dialogue in the videos and this was a major change, we decided to do it because many reasons, number one we didn't have microphones so we realized the audio was going to be bad, and number two we also thought it was going to be awkward and it was going to look deficient so we came to the conclusion that the hiking part of the film will be Maddie telling the story as a flashback with voiceover. However, now we have to change the script and decide what the voiceover will say. 

Next thing on our agenda: find sound and change the script!

 

Time to get filming...

 Today Victoria and I recorded most of our shots for the film opening and let me just tell you it was pretty successful. But first, we did some planning because we had to figure out where we were going to shoot the shots since the storyline is that Sarah goes missing while they go hiking so we had to pick a wooded area in which we picked Markham Park. Moreover, in the film opening, there is a board that Maddie does to solve the kidnapping of Sarah so we had to build that from scratch and this is what we did. 

This is how we started the process by just post it with key information about the case.

Then we added some pictures, like a missing person flyer and a map with the place where Sarah went missing circled in red. 

Now, at first, we planned on doing a board with pictures and red strings and all that but then we decided to do it on a plain white wall because we had a chance to make it as big as we wanted and add as many pictures as we felt that fit with the wall. This was the end result. 

We added pictures of "Sarah" and pictures with "Sarah" and her friends to make them seem like suspects and to make it seem more realistic. We also got some inspiration from the show 'Criminal Minds since it is a crime-solving show. 

This are some of the inspiration pictures we found. 

The next blog will be all about what we filmed, how we filmed it, and what challenges we had while filming. 

Costume Design

In class, we also talked about the costumes for our characters and this is what we decided on.

SARAH

MADDIE

As you can see Sarah’s outfit has bright colors and is more modern or stylish. On the other hand, Maddie’s outfit has more dull colors or is not as bright as Sarah’s. We did this to demonstrate the contrast of their personalities. As shown in the past blog post and the mood board Sarah has a more outgoing personality which is why we chose to represent her with bright colors, while Maddy has a more serious or introverted personality which is why we picked a darker shade of colors. And the clothing items show how Sarah is into fashion trends while Maddy dresses more for comfort.

Next stop the planning for recording the film opening plus production process!