MORE POSTCARDS AND MAYBE FINAL ONE?

Ah, a new week and less than three weeks until the project is due and so far so good, there have been some complications with the filming schedule but we are pretty much done with filming aside from a few shots left over. Now I know I talked about our postcards last blog but the thing is, we made so much progress yesterday in class that I think you deserve to see it plus we need help deciding on which one to actually chose from. We narrowed it down to two options... 

front

back 

This is the first option, the colors in the pictures are very alive and vibrant in a way and a lot is going on on the front but on the back is simple with all the information needed and easy to read. Now the only problem with this is the color of the font on the front because I don't know which one is easier to read the black font or the white font which is why I left it two different colors so you could help me with that. But nonetheless, this is option one!

front 1 

front 2 

back 

This is the second option and as you can see it has a lot of a different vibe to it, the colors are darker and it emphasizes the pain of the sport which is what we're focusing on for the film. Now we are having the same problem as the first option with the color of the font for the front because black looks good but can you read it well? and white is a little clearer but does it take away from the color scheme and the whole effect? Those are the issues that we are trying to deal with but I love the back on this one it truly speaks to the heart of the film. Now we were thinking of adding this as a story for our Instagram as an audience interactive post which we can use so out followers could help us pick the postcard but we will see!

Tim is flying by and the next thing you know it is time to turn in the project. For the next few weeks, our only focus is going to be editing so stay tuned for that!. 

POSTCARD

 Guys, I am stuck... I don't know where to begin for this postcard but to get out of this creative blank I just had to get myself to work you know? So this is what I came up with. 

Now I only did the front because I actually had no idea what I wanted to do for the back I was completely blank on that one so I did the front part first. Moreover, we haven't figured out the logistics of where the film Is going to be released, like at what film festival which is why we don't have a date yet but those are little details that can get resolved in no time, like the next time we see each other in class. Now we just have to pick one of these options for the front or come up with new ones and figure out what is best for the back because I don't know if I should use the same picture or a different one that matches with the whole brand you know? We just kinda need help on that part but nonetheless, it is another step closer to the project. I did the letters red because it matches the logo that we did for the Instagram account and the whole color scheme of everything is red so it matches the whole brand. 

Now we only have like three weeks left of the project and the only thing we have to do is edit the film and come up with more content for the social media, as well as, finish the postcard of course we can't forget about that but I think we are doing really good with the progress of everything, 

EVEN MORE FILMING!

 We meet again! Like I said in my last blog post this week has been a littleeeee crazy but nonetheless, we are still keeping productive because this is no time to slack. That is why this blog post is about more filming and more shots because even on spring break we do not slack. 

So we had to film more dialogue this week as well, but we had a few troubles with it. The first thing was that again we don't have a microphone so sometimes you can't hear what they are saying. Then there was music playing in the background so we obviously had to turn it off because we don't want to get copyrighted and we want to hear what they are saying. 

 

These are some sneak peeks of what I filmed because I don't want to show you too much because you have to wait for the final project so this is all you get. 

Alright, we have made progress on Instagram, we have a few shots left to film plus more B-roll just in case but you know what we haven't had progress on? the postcard which is why it is the next item on the list. 

STAY TUNED!!

PROGRESS ON INSTAGRAM

 Welcome Back! This week has been hectic because it is spring break and we have a huge competition this weekend so filming has been a little hard but nonetheless, we have gotten some filming done. However, for this blog post, I want to show you the progress we've made on our Instagram. 

This is what our Instagram looks like, we posted a couple of posts that are 'Meet the cast' and the caption is everything that our protagonist Briana likes that way the audience feels some type of connection with her. Then we posted a couple of videos of gymnastics just to get the audience to feel the atmosphere of what it's like to be in the gym and what it's like doing gymnastics as well. Then I posted some stories that have a behind-the-scenes picture and one of the bloopers with a poll that allows the audience to interact. 

This is exactly how Instagram is looking like, now we definitely need more followers and I want to start adding pictures or posts that have a countdown or ones that have the date of when the film is coming out you know? Now, the bio definitely needs more work we just haven't figured out what to put on it, we need a little bit of help in that area, nevertheless, as you can see that is the picture we posted of Briana and everything she likes and we added the part of 'Let us know in the comments that way the audience can participate on the post. 

We definitely work more on it but as of right now, I love how it's coming out. We only have a few weeks left of the project and we still have a lot to do!! But the good thing is that we are almost done filming but with all the shots that we have we can start editing!

SEE YOU SOON!!

MORE FILMING!!

 Welcome back!! for the last post of this week I am here to tell you that we filmed some more this week but this time we finally got some dialogue!!

Naturally, we started from the beginning so we filmed the mini stars saying the dialogue that we came up with a long time ago but ill show you it again.

This is what they had to say now it's not a lot, and we had to modify it a little because at the moment there was a class on the beam so we couldn't use them but we used the floor instead. Now, two girls that we used are 10 years old (Dont worry we asked the parents first) so it was a little difficult to get them to focus but nonetheless, we did it even if it took many 

Now I know what you are going to say and on one of the videos it is really loud since we don't have a microphone, we had a little trouble because we kept telling Maya to speak louder but she struggled LOL. Nonetheless, it is something that we can hopefully fix while we edit. Talking about editing, I think we are going to start editing next week which is spring break that way when we go back to school we are a little ahead. 

 

TO-DO LIST FOR SPRING BREAK:

1. keep filming

2. Post on the Instagram 

3. Work on the postcard.

4. Start editing. 

MORE AND MORE INSTA

 As we all know, the social media component plays a big part in this project, therefore, we had to prepare for the posts that we want to publish. Now, this really shouldn’t be that hard because you would just take pictures or videos and just post them right? Well, we decided to make our Instagram account more aesthetic and actually spend some time on it. This was our first post 

And this is the kind of posts that I’m working on… 

Alright, for the second one, I haven't figured out the right transition or the video in general, I feel like it needs more but you get the idea for the Instagram post or videos. We also took pictures of the cast as well and were going to post them as a 'Meet the cast' kinda post so the audience can relate. I had forgotten that we had to add audience interaction posts so we will focus on that as well, but that will mostly come from Instagram stories. 

FILMING PT 2

 Alright let’s get to filming pt two, so on the blog post before this one I talked about out first day of filming and how we go footage for the end of our short film. Well this time I’m gonna talk about how we go footage for the beginning of the film just not enough because if you remember it was really noisy in the gym so anything that had to do with dialogue we couldn’t so we have to go back either this week again or next week. 

If you have been keeping up with my blog the you know that we are going through the stages of life but in gymnastics like young and then the process of growing up, therefore, we got some footage of little main girl who still doesn’t have a name lol here are some takes that I liked. 

 

That is all that I will show you for right now because I don’t want to spoil the whole thing. But just so you know we have many many more shots and many many more to film so I recommend you stay tuned for what is coming next !!!

I think the next step is to start editing with the footage that we have that way we can get a head start and we dont take too long editing after. Nonetheless, we still have so much filming to do especially for the social media page but dont worry i have something fun to show you about that and lastly we have to get started on the postcard so those are the things we have to get done in the next few weeks. 

FILMING PT 1

WELCOME BACK!! During this week, we have a lot to do because we have five weeks left of the project so it is time to get to work!

But to begin with some good news, we started filming yesterday 🥳 and it went great, however, we couldn’t get all the footage that we wanted because we have a huge competition next week so tensions are high and we couldn’t disturb that much plus it was really noisy as well so we just got shots that didn't require dialogue. In the end, we mainly got all the shots we needed for the end of the film and some for the beginning so I thought this was a good process. 

Here are some of my favorite shots we got. 

Now the idea behind this is that we got some inspiration from the gymnastics movie ‘Stick it’ where there is a scene where she keeps falling and it looks really cool so we tried to recreate that and we shot many shots of our main girl falling from different angles as well but I’ll show you what it is hopefully going to look like. 

Alright, let's keep going, I’m going to show you some really nice shots that we got from our main girl (who doesn’t have a name yet) 

We had so much fun filming and we really liked the shots that we got but don't worry that is only a sneak peek of what we got. And obviously, I couldn't let you go without any bloopers, could I? 

EDITING TECHNIQUES

 I don't know if I've mentioned this before but when we did our group meetings Ana got a really good suggestion. As you may know, we plan on playing with color in a way that as the movie begins everything is bright and colorful but as the movie progresses and as the mood changes the color will lower and it would end in almost black and white. Now, the student that made the suggestion said that we could play with the saturation of the footage to make that happen. Naturally, I had to research how to do this editing technique that takes place post-production. 

So what is color grading? color grading is when you stylize the color scheme of the footage. In addition, this also happens after color corrections and the purpose of this technique is to emphasize the visual tone and to make it look a little more cinematic. But then the question becomes how do you make this color grading happen? Well, I found an article that had a couple of tips to do so and here they are: 

The first thing you should do is look at the genre of your film because certain genres have developed a certain color wheel that could be a good starting point. The second step is to think about the mood you are going for, and the emotions you want to evoke and use color to support it. The third step is to use the color wheel to show contrast, tranquility, or claustrophobia. There are the tips I found useful when it is time to edit and get this done. 

But that is not everything, I also found an article with a video that tells you how color grading works and what your footage looks like once you get the color grading. 

The video is really useful because it tells you what to do and what it would look like after you accomplish the color grading. it explains in detail everything you need to know about color grading and all the techniques that they use such as log, raw, creative LUTs, etc. But that is not all about the article that shows you this video, the article also talks about the difference between color correction and color grading and they show you the different of what it looks like. 

We see that the first thing that takes place is the color correction, and this is to correct the color of your footage which will lead you to color grading that will change the colors of the footage for aesthetic reasons. But don't think this ends here because I found even more useful information about this editing technique in a new article. The article talks about the 5 steps that you need to take to make color grading happen. 

But then the cool thing about this article is that it shows you a video of the same footage but with different color grading and how the color grading is used to create an entirely different mood making it seem like it is coming from an entirely different movie. This the reason we want to use this technique because as you know the movie is about struggling in a sport which is why we want to lower the saturation as it goes that way the audience sees that the mood is changing and as the stages of life happen and the stages of the girl growing up in the sport happen the tone and mood kinda lower because she is struggling and we thought that using this technique to show that important part of the film was appropriate. 

But nonetheless, we still have so much work to do, hopefully, we can start filming this week and get some things going!!

ARTICLES: 

https://vimeo.com/blog/post/color-grading-vs-color-correction-explained/#:~:text=Color%20grading%20is%20the%20process%20of%20editing%20film%20or%20video,is%20meant%20to%20see%20it.

https://nofilmschool.com/color-grading-guide-2022

TIKTOK POSTS

Welcome back! As you all know and as I've said before in past posts, we planned to open an Instagram account and a TikTok account for our social media component for this project because we feel like it works best for our target audience. Now, I know what you may be thinking, it may sound like a lot of work but in reality, it's not because of all the challenges or TikTok videos we do we can also post them on Instagram so it is a win-win situation. Now, why am I talking about this? Well, because like everything in this project, it is time to do some research to analyze and get inspired for the kind of posts we would like to do.

I researched the shows “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Abbott Elementary” becase they have really nice TikTok posts that I feel like match perfectly to our target audience. The first thing i noticed about both of these pages is that they post a lot of scenes from the show which i thought we opulent do until we start filming, therefore, i decided to focus more on posts that were a little more audience interactive in a way and something we could record any day of the week. I came across this post from the Grey’s anatomy’s TikTok that I really liked. 

The post is basically asking the cast what they listen to, this way the audience or the people watching may relate to the cast this way and you are creating a connection since the person feels like they have something in common with the person they are watching on TV and if they haven’t seen it and it appears on their ‘For You’ page then it may intrigue them to watch the show. 

For this TikTok they focused on one main character of the show n which he was doing a social media take over and this video he did a TikTok ‘trend’or ‘challenge’ that was going viral at the time, and again it gives everyone a sense of relationship and connection and the people are seeing them as them not just these famous TV stars on a big show. 

Then I checked out Abbott Elementary…

This is a series of TikTok’s that is encouraging people to go watch the show and they do it in a very clever manner. First they did a video on each main protagonist in the show and they did it adding TikTok language trends and the characters personality so it is a combination of the TikTok’s trend and slang and the characters personality which is what makes the show funny. I think this is a really nice way to promote the show because the people that will watch t he TikTok will hopefully be intrigued and interested enough on the show to watch it, so I think we could try to do this for our TikTok account as well as the other posts. 

Well that is it for this blog post, stay tuned for many many more information and progress on our project, time is flying by!!!! 

KEY ART RESEARCH

 So earlier this week Ms. Stoklosa gave us a lesson on the third component of the project which is the key art component. Since we are doing a short film we have to make a postcard that advertises the film at ill festivals (hypothetically). Now the post card needs to be double sided and needs to include the title, key art, directors name, date, time, location, and social media info which is a lot of information. Naturally, i did some research to analyze and to get some inspiration in order to succeed on this part of the project. 

Now, I had a hard time researching profesional short film postcards so i went to Ms. Stoklosa’s website and checked out past projects. This is what I found: 

This person did a really good job with the postcard , you can see it h everything they need to have and even more. The front of the postcard is incredibly simple but it does the job, it is not overwhelming you right away, there is not a lot going on, yet, it speaks for itself. Now, the back of it has a little more than the front and it should because the point is for the person to turn the card around and see all the information about the film. Isabella, has again the title and directos name written in the back as well as in the front which adds to the whole constant branding. After that, she has a one sentence summary of the film kinda like the main idea which i would love to add that way people can know what the film is about in a general way but something hat still intrigues them to make them watch. Then she added the cinematographer’s name, the people that are starring on the film, and the editions name, now this I really liked because this isa way to credit everyone that participated in the film not only the director, this is something I would like to add. And lastly, at the bottom she has her information and the QR code for the film’s social media. The only thing I wouldn’t take away from this postcard is her information that she added because I don’t see the point of that. 

The next one i saw was this project done by Paola Sirignano, 

The thing about this one is I don’t think the colors and branding match, on the front side it is black and white and on the back isa mix of black and reds and they are in different directions which I dont match. While doing my postcard I would have to take into consideration the direction fact and that it has to match with the color branding and the whole branding of the project t create consistency. Nonetheless, I feel like for our postcard we could play with the whole and black shade since we plan on using color degrading on our film so maybe we could try and play with that on our postcard which i think she did a really good job on the front side with the black and white. 

NEXT… 

This project was also really good even though it was more on the simple side it accomplished everything a post card should do. To begin with, the colors match and stay consistent which is the way I would like to go, something that stays consistent, yet, they are inferential pictures im guessing from the film which created consistency throughout the whole project and not only the post card. I liked the addition of the taglines on the front and backside because I feel like it tells the person looking at it about what the film is about but at th same time it doesn’t. Kinda like a little bite of something and then they take it away, if that makes sense. 

Lastly, I was able to find one profesional postcard, 

The thing I liked the most about this postcard was the imagining of the front, I think it adds a touch of texture and feeling, something that would catch the viewers attention right away, I would love to do something like this for my postcard but we will see if it happens. Lastly, I love how everything matches and the little summary of the film which I keep seeing a lot as a good thing because I think it is necessary attention to it to hook the reader.

To conclude this blog post, this is another thing we have to do and I feel better after this research post to create this postcard because I feel like I gained more knowledge and a lot of inspiration for this part so I feel good, hopefully, it turns out good. I’m excited :))

NEW WEEK, NEW CHALLENGES!

 WELCOME BACK!! We are in a new week which means there are lots of things to get done. Yesterday in class we decided to start working on our script and our shot list since we film in a week. This is how we did it: first we decided on the type of shot we wanted and then we thought of the script or the line that would match the shot. So far we only got the beginning done, let me show you. 

With this script and shot list of the types of shots we want to shoot and the storyboard we came up earlier we are ready to shoot next week!! The good thing about having these documents we are extremely organized to shoot that way when we shoot we can get it done fast since we already have an idea of what we want to do. Now, the only issue that we have is that the script is probably not enough for 5minutes, same goes for the shots, we would have to see if we have enough for five minutes, that is why we are planning on recording some other extra shots in case that happens. 

Well that is enough for this blog, stay tuned for the more and more progress and hopefully this project turns out amazing. 
 

INSTAGRAM!!

 Since last post, we came up with a title and logo or profile picture to finally open up the instagram account and we finally did. 

Now, I know what it looks like but patience we just opened it we still have to add to our bio. When we did this we honestly had no idea what to put on the bio but after checking out other media films Instagram we realized that they just put where you can watch the movie and a link to something. Now, we haven’t had the conversation of where we want to stream the short film or if that is really what we are going to put on the bio but that just means checking out our notes from our social media lesson and other Instagrams to see. 

On the last blog I mentioned recording a couple of videos from practice for the Instagram and I decided to put them together as like a “teaser” if you could say as the first post. 

These are the videos that I took and here is the final product of what i did when I put a few of them together. 

The only thing left to do is post it and create more content over the next few weeks. Something exciting though is that we are scheduled to film next Monday which means that we have the whole week to prepare for it so everything goes smoothly. 

LOGO AND TITLE

 After talking about what social medias we wanted to post and the type of posts we want to add it was time to get to work on it, however, we realized that before opening up an Instagram account we needed a name and a logo for the profile picture. So this is how the discussion went about the title… we wanted the name to relate to the whole idea of the film obviously and we wanted a gymnastics term on it but it wasn’t necessary. Then Ana said to maybe do it something about the bar since the word as a double meaning because it can interpreted as setting the bar high or something like that and it is an event in gymnastics which where we came up with ‘Reaching the bar’. We liked this name because it can represent reaching a certain goal or reaching that bar that you set for yourself for something in your life and obviously the gymnastics term that ties everything together. 

Now that the first part was over, it was time to make a logo for the profile picture of the instagram. A few days ago while I was at practice I recorded some stuff for the social media and I just took some pictures from those videos to create the profile picture. Here are the pictures… 

In the end we chose the first picture and this is how the logo and the profile picture turned out. This was the end result, although, maybe it might change throughout the weeks but right now we are satisfied with how this turned out. 

So many things to do for the next weeks, but i like how everything is moving along and how we are staying with the schedule. Nexts Week to do list: post on the instagram and create more posts, create a script, and create a shot list for filming! (Btw we already have a filming date!) 

SOCIAL MEDIA TIME

 Like I said in the blog before I had completely forgotten about the whole social media component of the project 😬 oops. That is why today in class we focused and talked a lot about this whole component and guess what that means? More research…

To begin with we decided to promote and share our film through Instagram and TikTok and you might be wondering why. Well, like I said in my target audience blog we plan to target this short film to a younger audience which is why TikTok makes sense because these kids are attracted to TikTok the most and it is where they spend most of their time online. Moreover, it is a great platform to make videos that interact with the audience such as TikTok challenges. In addition, we decided on Instagram because it would reach a greater audience of younger teens and where we can promote the short film, the most and do fun activities. 

Instagram: 

The first thing we did was create an Instagram account for the film and now it was time to post on it but we were a little stuck on where to even begin. What should be your first post? How do you keep building from that first post? So many questions to be answered which is why I went on my phone and searched movies and TV shows with Instagram to get some inspiration. I checked out Free guy, everything everywhere all at once, not okay, and A24. 

The first thing I noticed about the first post for each film was either the trailer or an announcement of when the trailer was coming out. And after that, they are different posts about promoting or interacting with the audience or meeting the cast or behind the scenes, etc. there are a few posts that stood out to me I would love to incorporate on our Instagram. 

For the movie "Free Guy" the thing that I noticed the most about their social media is that they post a lot of videos and not a lot of pictures. They posted the trailers and many teasers many times throughout the movie and special videos with the main protagonist kinda like interviews. Nonetheless, I liked these posts because it highlights some BTS pictures of when they were shooting the movie in addition, to the soundtrack of the movie which is a nice touch that I would love to add to our social media for greater audience interaction. 

Now the movie "not okay" used these really nice graphics to show what critics said about the movie and I honestly loved it, I think it really adds a nice aesthetic vibe to the whole Instagram and it is something different. In addition, they used the same vibe and brand to introduce the cast and the character and their connection in this diary form that shows the cast's script notes and symbols that represents their character which I absolutely loved. 

TikTok: 

TikTok would be mostly used for videos that interact with the audience and in a way to create a platform in which the audience can relate to the casts by posting "TikTok challenges" or "TikTok dances". Nonetheless, it Is also going to be used for gaining a higher following in which the same videos that will be posted on Instagram will be posted on TikTok, that way if we are able to grow TikTok Instagram will immediately get more attention as well. 

I know that is a lot of information but be prepared for that because time is moving fast and so do we. This is where everything gets real but that is all for this social media post and let me tell you this is my favorite part, I think social media for marketing is fascinating which is why I plan to study this in the next chapter of my life. But anyway, the next tasks to finish this week are: creating the Instagram, deciding on a title, begging posting, and lastly, creating a logo or profile picture for it. Stay Tuned!!