Congratulations! Your Prize for Finishing Is.... More Writing!

Hello! After a few days spent trying to blur a video (I told you I was hopeless at editing), I finally added the extra bits that I wanted to complete the image I had for the opening. So the good news is: Editing is over! No more torture!

    The blurring of the walking video was a nightmare. I tried fiddling with settings and effects on Openshot to see if I could have the video gradually blur, to show Martin getting unconcentrated, but no matter what I did, the blurring on Openshot was not easy to work with. Either the blurring took too long to get put into effect, or the image wasn't blurry enough, it eventually got to the point where I would save a "blurry" version of the video then run it through Openshot again in an attempt to double-blur it. 

    These efforts were in vain however, and it left me stumped for the better part of Monday. In order to distract myself from this failure, I added the nighttime ambient sounds and the internal ringtone, which made me feel better about how the opening was tied together, albeit somewhat haphazardly.

The preview for my OUTLINE of the CCR script.

    On Tuesday, I looked at a few video tutorials on my phone about how to get the level of blur I wanted, but nearly all of them involved reshooting the scene again, which wasn't an option for me since Danny's actor had since shaved, and would ruin what little continuity I still had. So instead, I tried animating the title card. Note for future reference: Not a good animator. I ended up making a animated title sequence on PowerPoint of all things, which will now haunt me forever.

    I also started some work on my CCR on Tuesday, since I figured I was pretty much done with the brunt of the workload for this project and could relax a little bit with some light script writing. I was very much mistaken. When I laid out the list of all topics I wanted to touch upon in my CCR video, it dawned on me that this would not be a walk in the park. Merely listing the topics had taken up a whole page of paper, which set up how daunting the task was. I ended up writing a rough draft for about half of all of the topics last night, and I plan on finishing writing my first draft tonight. No spoilers on the script though!

WHAT DOES ANY OF THIS MEAN???

    Today, after I got home from school, I decided it was time to stop dragging this on and finally blur out the video. But how? I was forced to use an old enemy of mine, something I swore never to touch again... Adobe Premiere. Even after spending 30 minutes exploring the settings and effects on Adobe, I refused to ask my peers for help out of stubbornness, but miraculously found a setting on Adobe to reduce sharpness and make everything blurrier.

    However, this STILL wasn't blurry enough, even after running it through the old double-blur method, so I figured I'd try to illustrate this "out of focus" experience in a different way, which ended up being messing with the coloring of the video as well as adding a vignette around the edges of the frame to make it feel like he's zeroing in on his target. This ended up being satisfactory enough, but I still have no idea how to use Adobe.

    As I write this blog, I'm uploading what I have for the opening onto a private youtube channel to send to a few friends for some peer review. I'll most likely use their criticisms for a blog post, and to fix any mistakes that have slipped past my very tired eyes. Until then, however, I need to go take a nap.

Maybe Sorta Kinda Finished?

 Hello again! It's been a few days since I've been able to write on this blog, since I was on a family road trip for the latter half of this week, as I mentioned in the previous blog post. While it was nice being on the open road and touring various colleges, it felt like all I could think about was editing this opening, and how I was feeling less and less secure about the state of it. However, these feelings pretty much dissipated once I got home and looked at its current state.

I had spent Friday night and some of Saturday afternoon working on editing the opening, which mostly involved cutting it down from its three minute runtime into fitting into the two minute timeframe. It was a daunting task to cut out so much footage, but when I sat down and really looked at it, it wasn't so bad.

After working on it over the past two days, this is pretty much what its looking like as of right now.

Major changes to the video include the splicing together of two shots that I needed to be mixed together (One shot where Danny is monologuing about some random game and another where Martin is focused on his next victim), which was crucial to blend together because I needed to illustrate that  Martin was zoning out and thinking about killing the person he's watching without spoon-feeding it to the audience.

The way I dealt with this was by cutting out almost all of the footage of Danny monologuing and layering the audio recording of his rant over the video of the camera following the victim, which saved me a lot of extra seconds on the runtime and overall makes the sequence flow more smoothly than if it were two separate videos. To further connect the two videos, I added a ear ringing sound effect that I found off of YouTube, which faintly starts when Danny starts talking about videogames and persists, getting uncomfortably loud while the video of the victim walking is playing. I also added a fading out effect to Danny's speech to work in tandem with the ringing SFX to illustrate the idea of zoning out.

Another idea I had was to have the visuals for the scene slowly start to blur and get out of focus, but I was unable to do this because of limitations on the editing system (it only blurs entire scenes, there's no option to apply the effect gradually), which was an oversight on my part. Another way to accomplish this effect would've been to pull out of focus on my phone when we were filming the scene, but this idea hadn't come to me at that moment, and it's too late to refilm and reschedule with all actors involved. I'll continue to look into implementing this effect by experimenting with settings on Openshot or by using another editing app (I might deign to use Premiere for this), but only if time allows for it.

I also messed around with the final sequence of the opening, which consists of Danny waiting outside of the gas station as well as the slow reveal of the murder. I realized that this section of the opening was abnormally quiet, since there is almost no dialogue in this part, and the notes in the score are few and far between, so the silence is deafening. While I initially considered this to be a good thing, since it illustrated a definitive tonal shift from the more casual comedic start of the opening, I ended up deeming it as awkward and sounding unfinished. 

To fix this awkward silence, I decided to add some ambient nighttime sounds, like crickets chirping and slight winds, making the space feel more real and alive, showing that the world moves on in spite of the death that occurred moments ago. While this change was minimal, I felt happier and more comfortable with the scene than I did before. I made sure to also muffle these nighttime sounds when showing Danny inside the car, to establish that I'm using synchronous sound, further grounding the story in realism.

In addition to the ambient sounds, I also plan on adding an internal ringing phone sound effect to bridge the scene with Danny calling Martin on the phone to the ending of the opening, all the way through to the last scene with Martin cleaning his hands after killing someone. This also fills in the awkward silence I had worried about, but what I liked about it is that it establishes a concrete link between Martin and the killer, clearing up any confusion about who's the person standing over the body in the last shot.

As of now, however, that's all I have. Though when I really think about it, it's pretty much finished, while missing a few nitpicks and edits I have yet to implement. It is currently a functional opening that could be the final product, if I didn't have a few ideas on how to improve it. I also need to add the credits and the title card to the opening, though they're pretty easy to implement. In fact, tomorrow I plan on seeing if I can somewhat animate the title screen to look more professional and similar to a real title card for a film.

But until then, I'll see you later!

Putting Together The Pieces

 Hello! As I'm typing this, I'm currently packing my bags to go on a 3 day road trip with my family tomorrow morning, so this might not be the most quality blog that I've posted. Additionally, there isn't a whole lot of stuff to discuss today, since all it consisted of was picking out my favorite cuts of each shot, downloading them all onto my computer, ordering them, and shuffling them around to see what works best.

    That being said, I feel pretty good about today's progress! I had been feeling a little overwhelmed and unmotivated these past few days, but after seeing an idea of what the project put together (roughly, unedited, but still complete in a way), my passion for the project had been reinvigorated, providing a much-needed moment of refreshment that was missing lately. 

        Getting into the editing side of things, I will admit that editing is decidedly not my forte, so I will avoid using some of the more complicated vernacular for fear of making a fool of myself. Anyways, the operating system that I used to stitch together the first draft of the opening was Openshot Video Editor, and this was for a few reasons. 

First off, it's a free application, so I didn't have to worry about free trials or renewing licenses. My school had provided me with a free version of Adobe Premiere, but I haven't really touched it because it's unfamiliar to me, and I know that if I warm up to it, I'll be locked into a trial renewal scandal or something, which is a situation I'm disinterested in experiencing.

   Secondly, I've worked with Openshot before. In fact, I use Openshot for all of my own personal projects, like editing funny videos of my friends or stitching together compilations of video game footage. My experience with other editing applications is somewhat rudimentary, but in Openshot I am well-versed in its ways, as I've had time to grow into the quirks and conventions of Openshot.

    Lastly, the user interface for Openshot (at least, in my experience) has been much more user-friendly than the super-complex Premiere. I'm a very simple editor, so being barraged with so many options and features that I had no clue how to use made Premiere and other OS's kind of daunting to use, whereas Openshot is very simple and direct, possessing those same features but making them options that you have to actively seek out, rather than have everything offered at once.

This clip is 20 seconds long, but could be shortened 
into fitting the same information into a 5 or 6
second long clip.

    Using Openshot as my editing app, I organized the shots into order, and played around with some of the timing in certain scenes, while experimenting with voice-overs during quiet areas in my opening (which there were a couple of). As of right now, the project is sitting at about three and a half minutes in length, which would be a problem if I knew that a solid minute of it has to be cut down and mixed together, easily shaving off about 40 seconds. To reach my goal of having it be slightly over 2 minutes, all I'd have to do is shorten some of the shot lengths, which may mess up the pacing a little    bit, but it's a necessary evil.
    

Besides this though, there isn't a whole lot to report about, plus I'm very tired (writing at 1.40 AM will do that to you), especially since I have to wake up early tomorrow (today?). I'll be gone for a few days on my trip, but when I get back, I plan on finishing what I've started today... Until then...

Day 5 of Shooting Clean Kill: Finally.. Footage Finished...

 Hello! I'm typing this a little late at night, but I finally got the loose ends tied up from my list I mentioned in my last blog. These loose ends were a missing gas station scene, the murder scene, and Danny's late night car scene.

 I started off the day by going to my local grocery store and getting the materials needed for my fake blood mix, which I then put together after lunch (mixing corn syrup and red food dye) and put into a little bottle for easy transport and application. The mixing process is shown to the right.

    After getting my blood bottle, my filming equipment, and some cleaning supplies ready, I picked up my two actors and headed over to our Dunkin Donuts, which had already approved of our filming in their bathroom for a bit. The filming of the murder went surprisingly smoothly and quickly: my actors instantly knew what they had to do and aided me in setting up for the scene.

 We took a couple of different takes of the scene (one with no blood, one with blood, and one with A LOT of blood). I haven't compared the two last versions in detail yet so I can't choose which will be the official shot.

After filming the murder, we cleaned up the restroom, packed our gear, and bought some donuts to support our doughy benefactors, recharging after the shoot. We would later go to the same gas station that we had shot at a few days ago and shot the one scene that we had inadvertently skipped.

    Danny's late night car scene took place much later at night than I wanted it to be, but it got done. I met up with Cesar at around 11-11.30pm and parked by the gas station. Note for future consideration: filming at gas stations in the middle of the night- not a fun experience. We got it all done as fast as possible and parted ways, and when I got home, I collapsed from exhaustion after a busy day running around town shooting.

    And so, after waking up from my accidental nap, I'm writing this blog, realizing that 3 AM is not a reasonable time to be writing a blog, meaning this is probably a little shoddy compared to my other blogs. Nevertheless, now that I have my footage compiled, I plan on setting aside some time tomorrow to put it all in order and have a working (but non-edited / bland) version of my film put together before I leave on my family trip. Will update you guys on that tomorrow!

The Pressure is Getting To Me

     Hello! This is a much shorter blog post than I'd like to make but I figured I had to face the music and confront something that's been messing with the production: pressure. Recently I've felt as if the deadline's been creeping up on me, winding its way gradually around me like some terrible snake, slowly but surely starting to squeeze... It's safe to say that I'm a little anxious.

As of writing this blog I've put together about half of the 
opening, though there are gaps where I'm missing voice-overs
or scenes I've had to reshoot.

    I know that this isn't a traditional blogging topic but I think that its one that all other students have thought about making, because stress is a universal disease, especially among high school students. Even with all the planning that I've put into this project, pressure still builds up as schedules go awry and deadlines loom just over the horizon. For the past few days, things have been going a little slowly on the production side of the project. Availability for actors change, locations have conflicting times on when we can shoot, and I've been chipping away at editing the footage that I have- something that is definitely not my forte.

        I have three missing items that I need to have in order to put together everything: Martin's voiceover lines, a few shots of Danny waiting in his car, and finally, the murder scene. Luckily, I'm on track to get the first two of these done tonight, since I'm meeting with my actors for a quick shooting session to knock these minor details out of the way. But the murder scene has been a source of anxiety for me over the past few days, something I've been dreading to shoot. There's many moving parts involved in shooting this scene, such as actor availability, venue availability, the making of the fake blood, doing everything in a tight timeframe so we don't anger the management for taking too long... it's just a lot of stuff I need to keep in mind and account for. It's especially difficult because I won't be able to get any work done Wednesday-Friday because my family is taking me out of town, so I have to get everything done either tomorrow or the day after, and I plan on having some time to edit as well.

I think honesty is important in these blogs, and if I were to present everything as going perfectly fine and according to plan, I'm not only being disingenuous to my audience, but also to myself. I firmly believe that by illustrating some of my struggles through this project, I can shed light on a facet of this project that nobody wants to talk about, while also relieving myself of some of my own pressure by being honest.

I'm taking steps to get over this anxiety, and planning ahead with my team on how to make sure everything goes well- at least as "well" as I can achieve. The plan that I'm sticking to for now is to get all of the missing footage and voice-overs I need done by tomorrow, and to put all of the footage together and in order by Tuesday, leaving me in good shape to finish editing everything in totality by the end of this weekend, which will allow me to focus my work into polishing the end product and working on my critical reflection on my process.

Expect the blogs for next week to be about getting the missing footage, discussing editing and the software I chose to use, and when I get back, finishing the editing on the project. I'll be seeing you in tomorrow's blog!

Day 3 & 4 of Shooting Clean Kill: Reshooting

 Hello! I haven't published a blog post on Wednesday and Thursday because of some bad luck and generally being swamped with work. To put it into straight terms, Day 3 was pretty much a wasted day, but Day 4 made up for its shortcomings and progressed the project considerably. What this means for the project was that I missed my self-imposed deadline of having everything done by Thursday. It is what it is, my own disappointment has been pretty deserved, but I can't just throw in the towel and give up. I'll break down what happened on each day, touching upon Day 3's shortcomings and how we learned from that to fix everything on Day 4.

Day 3: A Disasterous Day for Shooting

The Plan

The plan for Wednesday was, in theory, very simple. I would pick up my friends from school, drive over to the gas station we had scouted, and shoot all gas station scenes there, except for the ones that took place at a darker time and the shots that involved the victim walking in front of Martin. I had imagined the whole process wouldn't take more than 2 hours to shoot, taking into account any problems with remembering lines or moving in case we disturbed a gas station customer with our shooting. However, things didn't go according to plan....

The Problems

The first problem with today's shoot had presented itself the night before, when I was watching the news. The reporters were stating that Wednesday would be a very rainy day, especially from between 3pm to 5pm, which was exactly when I planned on filming. I dreaded the weather ruining my filming day, but I shrugged it off, thinking that there's no point in worrying about weather.

    When I awoke the next morning, I received a text from my buddy Wade stating that he had forgotten to bring the mic to school, so I wasn't able to borrow it for the day. While I initially panicked, I proposed driving him to his home after school so that I could pick it up then. This was the agreed plan for most of the day until it wasn't, when he texted me 30 minutes before leaving school, telling me that he wasn't able to go home because of other commitments, and I was therefore unable to get the microphone. This massively stressed me out, since the scenes I was shooting that day were all dialogue-heavy. I lamented the poor planning of the microphone delivery, but continued anyways with my plans, since I had already scheduled a shoot with my two actors.

    As if the first few obstacles weren't enough, the gas station that I had chosen to shoot in was abysmal for our purpose, since it proved to be much busier than I first thought, which pitted us with disgruntled drivers wondering why a few guys had blocked a gas pump, and in general the level of noise was suffocating, I'm not even sure that the presence of the microphone would've changed the fate of the audio quality of the videos we took. Every shot we had was essentially unusable, but we persisted anyways, determined to get some work done.

The Production

    After dealing with all of these problems, Cesar, Blake, and I all were frustrated with the apparent waste of time that we had just invested in. Despite this, we tried to work around the obstacles in our production and so we settled on a solution, which was admittedly tacky and would've been a nightmare to edit, but still allowing us to have something to do that day.

One of the unusable shots I took this accursed day

    After realizing the audio quality was essentially a dumpster fire, what with all the wind, rain, engines running, and speech of other gas station visitors, we came to the idea that maybe we could do the audio separately. And so, they began to act out the script I had provided them with, exaggerating the movements of their lips and expressions since we were essentially shooting a silent film. After this, we got inside my car and did a read-through of the entire script, which was all recorded. The idea was that I could just dub the dialogue over all of the scenes, but in reality this was just a coping mechanism to feel like I didn't waste my day.

Day 4: A Much-Needed Good Day

The Plan

After learning from the train crash that was Wednesday, I was ready to rectify my past mistakes. First, I made sure to text Wade ahead of time to remind him about the microphone (which worked). After that, I checked the weather report, which, much to my pleasure, forecasted clear skies the whole day. And lastly, in an admittedly risky move, decided to move shooting locations to be in a completely different gas station than the ones I had originally scouted, one which was much closer to home, was quieter, and was near Cesar's workplace (in case the shooting took too long).

A BTS look at us conducting a mic check

    An important addition to the group on Thursday was Sebastian, who portrays the Gas Station Victim, tagging along with us, allowing for me to get more of the shots done overall, as well as having an extra hand around to help me manage the microphone and camera (to avoid having the mic show in frame, Sebi would hold it up and crouch out of frame in increasingly uncomfortable positions, which was unexpectedly efficient and hilarious).

 

The Production

 When we showed up at the gas station, immediately there was a notable change in our process for shooting. Now, I wasn't juggling the microphone and camera by myself, we had less environmental pressure from customers and weather, and the mood at the set was generally more relaxed and upbeat, as we were all determined to fix yesterday's shoot, and get as much done as possible. We spent the full two hours shooting each scene with a precision and efficiency I couldn't have dreamed of, now that the actors were familiar with their lines, leading to less takes of each shot.

Sebi's hand makes a cameo in an outtake

In summary, these past two days have been full of learning experiences and progress for this project, and while I did have my moments of self-doubt, I was able to push past them in order to get my work done.  Since I'm going on vacation for the later half of next week, I'll try to squeeze in as many blog posts before I leave. See you next week!

Day 2 of Shooting Clean Kill: An Unfortunate Series of Events

 Hello again! This will be a much shorter update blog post (and I really mean it this time, there isn't much to say) that will discuss how shooting was with all of my minor characters. As you can probably tell from the title, things didn't go particularly well.

The biggest issue for today was the pressure of running out of time, from all kinds of factors (Sam had to be done by 4, we started at 3.30, Martina had to go to work, Wade had to study for a test, and even nature seemed to rebel against me- it appeared as if it would rain soon). But as if the time pressure wasn't enough, I had organized this to start at 3 pm, about 15 minutes after school. However, the traffic to get out of the school parking lot was atrocious, made even worse by the fact that I had gotten to school late this morning, meaning I was parked in the very back. This turned a tight window to escape the parking lot into a death sentence, trapping me in the car line for 20 minutes, making me late to my own production...

    Needless to say, I was frustrated, the actors were frustrated, and the clock continued ticking. But my troubles weren't over yet. I had forgotten to mark where my car was parked the first time we shot film, meaning that the background was different and didn't match up. After 15 minutes of trying to guess the exact location I parked, I realized I had only 10 minutes with the actors before they had to leave, and I had shot nothing.

    Tired, frustrated, and a little desperate, I called them over to the spot I was, and just did one take of the scene. They acted perfectly, but they were victims of my bad luck in the day, and poor planning. I take full responsibility of this, and am embarrassed to have been thwarted by such a silly mistake as not remembering where I parked.  We did the one take, after an hour of waiting and setting up, and regardless of how it turned out, I knew it was the footage I had to work with.

This stretch of bad luck 
had me VERY stressed..

I thanked Sam and Martina for their time and apologized profusely about the circumstances, and then I shot Wade's scene, which I think turned out much better, mostly because it didn't rely on any background scenery that was already established. I mulled some things over with him afterwards, and fooled around a little after getting the shot to lift our spirits, and then I drove him home.

Overall, this has been a learning experience. First of all, I should always be the first one on the set, I never want a repeat of what the actors had to wait through as I ran late to my own event, especially after stressing the time limit we were working with. Second, if I plan to shoot in a location more than once, I should document everything about the environment to maintain consistency. And finally, I need to get a better parking spot... that was my true Achilles' heel today.

I'm going to shoot again with Cesar and Blake on Wednesday, which is when we plan to tackle filming the gas station scenes (which should be much easier, considering that it mostly consists of two shots and countershots to illustrate their conversation). All I have to worry about on Wednesday is getting my actors to remember their lines, and we'll be set for Thursday, when we'll film the murder bathroom scene and finish up any loose ends. Until then, I'll see you around!

Day 1 of Shooting Clean Kill

Can you tell that I'm excited to start shooting?

 Hello! I'm glad to say that everything worked out perfectly for today's shooting! While I did undergo a little bit of stress last night when I tried coordinating a time to meet up, we ended up shooting at an appropriate time, leaving us with plenty of time to get the footage I wanted done today completed. The entire process for today took about 90 minutes, give or take some goofing off (this was to be expected, and was accounted for by my padding of the timeslot for shooting). At the end of the day, I ended up being able to tick off a box in my checklist of scenes I need to have, and left the shooting                                                                                                     location satisfied with a day's work.

Scheduling the Night Before

    Last night, I wanted to make sure that the plans for shooting today were still in place, and so I texted both Cesar and Blake to confirm the time set. Unfortunately, disaster struck when Cesar told me that he had mistaken his Saturday's schedule with his Sunday schedule, and was actually assigned to work a shift in a liquor store from 10 am to 5 pm. My heart sank as I read the news: this meant that it would be impossible to shoot throughout the day as I had originally planned. With time running out and my anxiety rising, I hastily offered a compromise: shooting earlier in the morning, from 8 am to 10 in the morning. He agreed to this, and I was given a brief moment of reprieve, as I thought that I had saved my production from a significant delay.

How I felt making the third change to my schedule

    Alas, this was when I got a text from Blake, saying that he had a mandatory practice event for his lacrosse team taking place from 9 am to 10 am, once again launching the fate of the shooting day into calamity. Through frayed nerves and a rapidly decreasing patience, I asked him if waking up even earlier would be possible, and to my surprise he said it was a possibility. The new timeframe to shoot was now 7 am to 9 am. When I updated Cesar on the new schedule, I dreaded a negative response, but to my delight he was also okay with it.

    And so, with my actors now locked into a committed timeframe to shoot, I had to make one final call: one to my ol' buddy Wade. Since he works and participates in professional level competitions in TV production for the school, I knew he was bound to have some tech to help me out on my production. I inquired whether he had a clip-on microphone he was willing to lend me for the morning, and much to my pleasure, he allowed me to pick it up the morning I needed it.

That's right. I woke up at 5 in the morning on a weekend for this project. This project may not have my blood, sweat, or tears, but it most definitely has stolen hours away from my deserved slumber.

Getting the Footage

        I got to the shooting location a little earlier than the others, partly due to my excitement, and partly because I couldn't sleep well. Blake was the first of the actors to get there, so instead of starting to shoot his individual scenes, I instead opted to summarize the story of the scene we were shooting, how his character should behave during the filming, and giving him a brief run-through of the storyboarded shots I had brought along.

     When Cesar got there, we jumped straight into shooting the scenes, which led to quite a few takes of him messing up his lines, contrasting the prepared and well-read Blake. However, what Cesar lacked in readiness, he more than made up for with the passion and energy he brought to his character. I knew I had written Danny's personality and way of speech around Cesar's real-life mannerisms, but I had never expected to see Danny performed so accurately to the vision I had in my mind.

    It took a few hours of line-feeding, awkward camera positioning, laughs at bad takes, and many, many reshoots, but after the 90 minute mark, we had finished shooting the scenes I had set aside to shoot for today, leaving us with a narrow 10 minutes to review the footage and discuss when to shoot next. Both Blake and Cesar expressed a desire to continue working on the film, but were sadly called back to their respective commitments.

Celebratory Sandwiches!

        There is very little to elaborate upon this. We got sandwiches after shooting because we were starving, and it was much earlier than an a time any of us would like to be getting lunch at. Therefore: celebratory sandwiches.

Regarding my next days of shooting, I'm starting to doubt the possibility of shooting tomorrow, since I'll be out of town for the majority of the morning and afternoon hours, and my actors likely have plans for the evening. So my production will continue during the week! Until then, I'll see you around!

Shooting Schedule!

 Hello again! I'm making this a very brief blog post because content-wise, I'll have lots to write about tomorrow, considering that I plan to have my first day of shooting the opening then. I have already mentioned my self-imposed footage deadline of next Thursday (March 17th), and have whittled down my shooting days to four meetups, max.

    The first group I plan to shoot with tomorrow consists of the actors for Martin and Danny, since the plan for tomorrow is to film the initial car conversation, and if all goes to plan, also include the bit about the suspicious fellow walking away from the parking lot, which is the catalyst for the murderer conversation that makes up the majority of the opening. However, this depends on my buddy Alex, who plans on shooting his own AICE Media opening tomorrow as well, and how available he is. Ideally, I'd only need to borrow him for a few minutes, since all he does is walk away from the camera, but I will only shoot with him if he is done/ taking a break from his own endeavors.

Depending on how much time we spend shooting the car conversation, we might be able to also squeeze in the bit at the gas station, which involves the two main actors conversing over a gas pump, only for Martin's gaze to trail off while watching the eventual Gas Station Victim enter the gas station. Shooting this portion of the opening will likely take the most time, so I'd want to gauge how much time we spend on the relatively simple car conversation before deciding if I set aside another day specifically for the gas station scene. I'd also have to pick up the actor for the victim to shoot here, meaning that it will be a busy few hours as I shoot. 

The second day of shooting that I've planned for is incidentally the first scene chronologically in the opening, where the Crypto Guy and Dog Girl walk past the car while its parked. It's a pretty simple scene to shoot, so I'll likely be doing it after school either Monday or Tuesday (depends on Martina's job schedule). The main issue with shooting this scene will be driving home to get a dog for Dog Girl, but ultimately I can't see this process taking more than an hour, taking into account time spent driving between school, home, and the shooting location.

The last day of shooting hasn't been determined, but it has been planned out extensively. During the afternoon hours, I will go with my actors and whichever of my friends will guard  the door for food to our local Dunkin' Donuts, my former place of employment. I have already gotten permission to shoot in their bathrooms from the ever-generous shift manager Sam, but just to make sure, I will pay another visit to them after shooting on Monday/Tuesday, just to make sure that they're still okay with it, and to schedule a time where they can lend us the bathroom, free of customer intervention. This will likely transpire on Wednesday/Thursday, which allows me to narrowly meet my own deadline of Thursday night.

Through the power of planning, I have now whittled down the time I need to spend shooting for the opening to a measly three days! Which leaves me with plenty of time to edit, reshoot (if necessary), and work out any other hiccups in the final product's quality. See you tomorrow for an exciting day of shooting!

A Casting Call to Action

     Hello! As I put the final preparations in place for my shooting schedule and whatnot for the opening, I came to the sudden realization that while I had cast the actors I wanted for the roles in my mind, I hadn't actually asked them if they'd be alright with being a part of the production (some say I had tunnel vision, I say I was focusing on bigger problems). 

        After texting each person I had in mind if they were available for the shooting schedule (Ideally, I want all of my footage done by next Thursday), I was happy to hear that everyone was ready and enthusiastic about helping me out! So without further ado, let me introduce my esteemed actors, starring in the opening for Clean Kill.

Martin- Blake Crawford

    Playing a starring role as the germophobic murderer is my good friend Blake Crawford, who I've known for years. I first met Blake when I moved into my house, as he was (and still is) my next door neighbor, and we've maintained a healthy and strong bond throughout the years. I approached Blake with a request to play this role because the character of Martin shares some similarities with his real life personality, namely his cleanliness and more grounded thinking process. 

    When writing the script, I based much of Martin and Danny's relationship off of our own, as we have spent countless evenings sitting around, whipping up outlandish stories, much like how the two in the film enjoy doing. While I'm grateful that he's taking part in this project, a small worry of mine is how having him play a starring role might affect my shooting schedule, as he is a very busy person, playing in a lacrosse team as well as participating in challenging academic endeavors.

Danny- Cesar Rivera

Playing Martin's best friend Danny is my other good friend, Cesar Rivera. I first met Cesar just under a year ago, but during that year of knowing him, we've grown together very closely and always get into some mischief together.

I was especially glad to hear that Cesar was open to play Danny's part in the opening, because I had actually modeled his energetic, loud personality after Cesar himself.  It was great news, since now Danny will be portrayed exactly as I envisioned his character behaving, mirroring Cesar's normal behavior.

However, this is not without its drawbacks. Cesar has recently gotten a job working at a store, and is working almost every day, which will be a challenge to organize around, especially when considering his co-star's own demanding schedule.

Crypto Guy- Samuel Medina

Now that I've casted the main duo, I had to fill in the smaller roles, those that only have 5 seconds or so of screen time.

    Samuel Medina, another neighbor of mine, was my choice to cast in the role of the "Crypto Guy", not necessarily because he invests in cryptocurrency, but because of my opinion that he looks like the kind of guy to buy crypto.

Of course, he could also double as the captain of a chess team, with his intelligent demeanor and calm way of carrying himself. Most importantly to me, his schedule isn't particularly demanding, so I can shoot with him whenever I need.

Dog Girl- Martina Schmied

For the other small part in the first few seconds of the opening, I opted to cast my friend and fellow AICE Media student Martina Schmied as the "Dog Girl".

The reasoning behind this decision isn't deep. She is a girl. And she has a dog. Of course, since she takes the same class as me, she is more sympathetic to what I'm aiming for than any random dog-owning person, and I hope to gain some feedback from her during shooting her scene.

Her schedule is a little complicated, since she works at a restaurant, but since her part will likely take under 20 minutes to shoot, the schedule shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Suspicious Fella- Alex 'Wade' Duque

    For the role of the suspicious guy walking in the parking lot who prompts the discussion of murderers between Martin and Danny, I chose my good friend Alex Duque, though I call him Wade.

I chose Wade for this role for a couple of reasons. First of all, out of all of the people I casted, he has the most experience acting (as he is a member of our school television program), so therefore I wanted someone with a good acting background to play the suspicious guy, as he has to sell a certain demeanor without any dialogue. Additionally, since he is vastly more experienced in the realm of video production, he can offer advice with how I'm shooting things, or answer any questions that I have on camera settings.

But really, I'd just like for him to be a part of the story that I came up with while on a call with him, all those nights ago. :)

Gas Station Victim- Sebastian Crovetto

Last but certainly not least, I chose my good friend and neighbor (seriously, am I friends with all my neighbors??) Sebastian Crovetto.

He plays the unfortunate soul who catches Martin's eye at the gas station, eventually resulting in his untimely demise within a gas station restroom. Though in actuality, I'll be shooting his scene in the bathroom of a Dunkin Donuts, which is much cleaner and less likely to bother anyone.

We are currently in the process of deciding how to make him look like a murder victim. While I do know someone experienced with making fake blood (don't ask), when I discussed it with Sebastian, he showed discomfort at the idea of potentially ruining clothes. So I will continue looking for alternatives avoid any of his discomfort with the role.

And that's it! After gathering my troupe of actors and confirming with them that everything is ensured, all that's left is scheduling my shooting days! When I broke up the scenes into possible shooting segments, I found that, at least, I'd have to have four shooting sessions, not taking into account that we might have to reshoot. This will be difficult to achieve, especially because of my self-imposed deadline of having all footage by next Thursday, but I have faith in my ability to coordinate with people. I'll update you next time, either on my concrete shooting schedule, or if I'm lucky, my first day of filming! 

Saucing with Sil

 Hello there! As I make the final preparations and scheduling with actors for the shooting of the film opening, I find myself more beleaguered by work each day. So to take my mind off of things, I called up my friend Sil Gamboa, who is currently attending the University of Florida, if she would like to get dinner with me and to talk about AICE Media. As a former student of Cypress Bay, she had taken both the AS and A levels of this course, and so I figured talking with her about the class would grant me some insight and tricks of the trade to keep in mind while I work on my own project.

Me, Sil, and my friend Jaime, who
requested he not be pictured.

Meeting at Flannigan's:

After waiting a long period of time outside, we finally got a table and ordered. Initially we discussed colleges and such, and exchanged a few funny anecdotes. However, when the subject of the conversation turned to her time in AICE Media, we had a lengthy discussion about how she managed the workload, how she worked on her project, and some advice for an aspiring student of media communications.

Below are transcribed a few questions I asked her, and her responses. After each question I will include some commentary on each one.

The Interview:

Me: How did you come up with the concept for your project, and how effective would you say the storyboard for [the project] was at facilitating your shooting process?

Sil: "I thought about aesthetics that inspired me and decided that retrofuturism was cool, it was something I was getting into at the time. I did a very basic story board and honestly felt like I should have planned out the shots more because they were a bit boring."

Commentary:

Me: How did you cope with the media blogpost workload? Are there any blog topics you recall as being important to your work process?

Sil: "To be honest, I did not blog enough. I felt like figuring out the look really helped tie my project together and helped make it look intentional rather than a rush job."

Commentary: I asked this question because it was a worry of mine initially that I'd have trouble keeping up with the blog posts. I know that a couple of my friends have been struggling maintaining a schedule with blog posting and I figured that it was worth asking for advice if I ever do fall behind.

Me: How did you schedule shooting days with actors and other people involved? If you could go back and change the way you organized it, what would it be?

Sil: "Unfortunately, COVID ruined my plans for my AS project but for my A project I had one main actress and scheduled around her. I wouldn’t change much."

Commentary: While this offered some insight into how to work around some issues regarding shooting, I don't think this applies to my situation, since I'm working with a multitude of people and will have to make a schedule for myself and then make sure they adhere to it, since I can't just dedicate my time to one actor over everyone else involved in the production.

Me: Are there any camera techniques you used that were particularly tricky to work with? How would you recommend I fix problems involved with cameras?

Sil: "Tracking shots!!! Use a lower frame rate, I recommend 24 fps. Gives a more cinematic look and if you’re steady enough, it’ll get rid of shakiness for you."

Commentary: I'm actually really glad that I asked this question because it provided me with a fascinating tidbit of info that I wasn't aware of previously. The fps advice is useful to me, as it provides a direction to use when working with cameras, which is very helpful to me, a novice in the world of filming and producing. While I won't be using any tracking shots, I will include a dolly shot that would likely benefit from this 24 fps advice.

Me: Was the dialogue in the opening the same as it was written in your script? Was there any improvisation?

Sil: "Dialogue was exactly as scripted, surprisingly. However, improv could benefit your specific situation."

Commentary: This was essentially the answer I was expecting, but it was nice to have some affirmation that I wasn't bound to the script I wrote days ago. I was worried that the script might feel forced and inorganic, especially since it revolves around the vibe of two good friends hanging out, a relationship that is difficult to write convincingly. I will likely end up using the script as a sort of guideline rather than a strict instruction, in order for the two main actors to illustrate their own comradery and deliver the lines in a convincing manner.

Me: Is there any advice you have for me regarding the editing process? what application did you use?

Sil: "Start early. I had a very ambitious idea and did not dedicate enough time to the post production. I used the Adobe Creative Suite for my editing app."

Commentary: This is probably the aspect of this project that scares me the most. I have barely used editing applications in the past, and producing it all myself with no help from my more experienced editor friends will be difficult. That's why the sentiment of starting early haunts me, as it means that I'll already be faced with having to learn editing proficiently in a short span of time.

Me: Any final words of advice / tips I should keep in mind?

Sil: "Start now. Work ahead. 24 fps always!!"

        This dinner was very pleasant to have, not just because of the food, but also thanks to being able to converse and discuss a class that I enjoy with an experienced and talented person who knows what it's like to be in my position. We found ourselves agreeing on a lot of how each of our work process are efficient as well as providing me with many learning experiences thanks to her past enrollment in the course. A massive thank you to Sil, for agreeing to meet up with me and give me advice on how I'm approaching the project!

Location Scouting With A Partner-In-Crime

         Hello again! I've had a pretty busy week today, and after a long week full of homework and studying, I got together with my buddy Wade to watch the new Batman movie to decompress and have fun for the weekend. After watching the movie and discussing the film's setting, villain, and portrayal of characters (phenomenal movie by the way, you absolutely must watch it), Wade and I had some time to kill while we waited for a reasonable time to get dinner.

        I decided to take advantage of this free time (and because of my friend reminding me of my blog posts) to go out and scout locations for where I can shoot the opening! Unfortunately it was getting dark soon and would therefore be inconducive to look at parks and parking lots for the very start of the film, as they'd be too dark and empty to gain an idea of how the setting would look in the context of my opening.

This left us with two more locations to find: the gas station and the bathroom (where there will be a murder).

Location 1: Gas Station #1

This gas station is where I'd shoot scene 2, where Danny and Martin have a conversation over a gas pump.

Location Pros:

-Close to location of where I'll shoot the bathroom.

-The gas station structure is similar to what I had envisioned as the gas station looking like.

 Location Cons:

 - Very crowded, kind of in the way of a lot of people.

-If I were to shoot here, I'd be under pressure and inconveniencing other people, which I don't want to do.

Location 2: Gas Station #2

This gas station is another candidate for the setting of Scene 2.

Location Pros:

-It's a quiet area, with much fewer cars passing by and therefore my presence would be less of an intrusion.

-It's very picturesque, which I never thought I'd say to describe a gas station..

-There's a lot of empty space in the lot around the station, meaning more space to play with during the shooting process, so it doesn't feel cramped. 

Location Cons:

-It's slightly further away from the bathroom I'm shooting in.

-There is a car wash adjacent to the station, which may disrupt shooting temporarily (as it is very loud).

Location #3: A Murder Bathroom

    I didn't want to shoot the murder scene in an actual gas station bathroom, because I've had some pretty nasty experiences at gas stations before and didn't want my setting to get too real...

    So instead I visited Dunkin Donuts, my former place of employment, to inquire whether it would be alright if I were to shoot a scene of a student film in their bathroom.

    Thankfully, I was attended by the working shift manager, a kind man named Sam. His only question was whether I'd be filming something a bit raunchier, and once I answered his concern with a hurried negative, he was completely fine with me moving in some cameras to shoot in it.

The stall is pretty garden-variety, it's exactly what you'd expect from a restroom, though much cleaner and nicer, which I was grateful for, considering the fact that I'd have someone lay down on the floor during the scene. It's a little cramped, but it'll work just fine!

        Between the two gas station options, I think I'm going to end up shooting at location 2, mostly because of its low traffic and general spaciousness,  it'll be perfect to film in without bothering anyone, as long as I scare off anyone who dares wash their car....

Storyboarding and Questioning Life Choices

     Hello again! For the past few days, I've been working on putting together a comprehensive storyboard for my film opening, tracking shot types used, dialogue to follow along with, and small notes about audio and lighting techniques in specific scenes. Though I am a little artistically challenged (I can't draw for my life), I was able to make a somewhat understandable storyboard with illustrations that get my vision across. 

    However, what should've been a one day project soon stretched into a project that spanned four days, due to a busy schedule and studying for my SAT exam (which I just got back from at the time of writing this). Despite this, I have finally completed the full storyboard, and will now briefly explain some of my notes on the board, for each page.

PAGE 1

There isn't too much to touch upon in the first page.

• The first shot is very sudden and offers no explanation on what is happening, it throws the audience right in the middle of the relationship between the two boys. I'm still not sure if I'm a huge fan of this or not.
• 2nd shot, will be challenging fitting a dog in the lower part of the frame.
• 4th shot with a frontal view of them in the front seats will be challenging to have them both in the same frame. Might solve this issue by using a wide camera lens to fit them both in it.
• 8th shot has a slight high angle, not to show inferiority but because it is probably the best way to get both of the actors in the frame comfortably.

          Page 2

• 1st shot- might play a little with the angle and framing of it, I would do a close up but I want to make it clear that it's Martin who has the hand sanitizer habit.
• 2nd and 3rd shots- It's going to be interesting making these shots look similar for the graphic match setting transition. Unsure if I will make the images fade into each other or if I'll jump cut into it.
• 5th shot- Nothing too special, just happy with how I drew the arms crossed :)
• The rest of these shots are made to illustrate a back and forth conversation between Martin and Danny. They are all similar shots so I don't disorientate the viewer with a different angle each time.  (I play with different shots in the next page.)

 Page 3

• 1st shot- I'd have more of the conversation shot like this, but I worry about disturbances in the background, and having audio issues from filming at such a distance. Capturing expressions on actors' faces is also more difficult.
• 3rd shot- eyeline match for 2nd shot, using an OTS shot to connect the two. I like the idea of having the audio taper out, illustrating his zoning out from the conversation, only to be brought back to the present in the 5th shot.
• 6th shot- Will have to play with angles to make it clear that Martin is NOT looking at Danny, but is still focusing on the gas station door.
• 8th shot- Panning up to a darker sky is a nice way to illustrate passage of time, I think. Will be fun to edit into the fade transition :).

 Page 4:

• 1st shot-  Not sure if I want sky to fade directly into this scene or if I want the pan to continue, fading from the dark sky to the dark pavement that the car is parked on.
• 3rd shot- Hopefully lighting through phone will work as well as I have it envisioned, might have to play with other lighting sources to get desired effect.
• Dolly shot- To get a seamless moving around of the camera, I'm considering either getting a camera stabilizer, or using a platform with wheels (rolling chair?) being pushed around by another person.
• 6th shot- will have to contact acquaintances well-versed in makeup to see how realistic and how cheap it is to make someone look dead.
• 8th shot- Might use an audio sting (think of a thud or a boom) when the reveal cuts to the title screen.

And that's all I have for you today! Now that I've got my storyboard and script done, I can cast a few actors and ask for a few production assistants, and I'll be ready to actually shoot the opening! Looking forward to this (and feeling a little nervous) in the very near future!