Exporting issue, and what to do now?

     For this post, I was planning to start the editing process by sorting through the many many takes Miguel had to do during our filming (about 100 clips total including the ones we intend to use) and find the ones we actually wanted to use to then put them in a coherent order on the Premiere timeline for me to edit. However, a couple of complications came in the way of this, namely the part where I get the clips to start editing. In this post, I will explain those issues and how we were able to fix them, and what we will do going forward. 

Why was it complicated?

    The first issue was that Hayden left his camera at his dad's house so he had to go and get it, delaying getting the clips onto his computer to send to me. He was not able to do this till today and late at that. Once he finally got the camera, he called me, and we got to work on getting the clips onto the computer. However, since Hayden did not have an sd card slot on his PC for any PC in his house he had to use a cable to connect his camera directly to the PC and export the clips onto it like that. However, this gave us some errors as well. The first time directly exporting onto his desktop from the camera did not work and was giving him some errors so he wanted to see if he could export it onto premiere which seemed to work, however, his camera died midway through due to the large string the number of clips had on it. This caused Premiere to struggle to locate the clips meaning that this method was also void. 

An error he got on Premiere when he tried to export through there and his camera died.

    So, after that happened we decided to charge the camera for a few minutes and stick to the thing we knew the best and hope it works this time. We decided to go back and try to export it directly onto the pc and this time it worked. Although it is very annoying that it did not work the first time, we were happy it worked at all. 

Image of the clips exporting. Sadly, they would not finish in time to cover today so we are planning on working on it tomorrow.

Going Forward

    Despite all these issues we are still moving forward to produce something that we hope to be proud of using all the skills we have learned. The good news is the sending of the clips process has begun, bad news, it will take about 3-4 more hours to upload onto the drive.

Image of the upload progress.

    Therefore, it goes without saying that the editing for me will be starting tomorrow. However, since Hayden was able to get the clips onto his pc he has started arranging the clips into the timeline properly. The plan is for him and I to each produce a version of the timeline with the spacing of events and then see which one is better tomorrow. By doing this we hope to get the best possible version of the sequence of events in terms of pacing by comparing our ideas and versions. That will likely be our next blog post. Then whichever one is better will be sent to Hayden for color to have a darker color painted over ti since it was originally shot in the day. Then it will be sent back to me so I can do the final edits and add some of the effects. After this is done we will get feedback from our peers as planned and then we shall start on the CCR questions and maybe film some of it. 

    Conclusion

    Solving these issues is an important part of the learning experience in this class. We were never meant to be perfect (although we wish to be) and these issues help us to hopefully never make these mistakes again. Issues with the computer are always frustrating but getting through them to still try and finish is the important part and that is what we are doing. We will hopefully give great updates on the editing going forward tomorrow, until then stay tuned!

Filming Done!

     For the last post of the week and the last day of the week, we decided to dedicate our time to filming the opening itself. This was a long process taking about 4 hours in total but we were able to capture all the footage we needed and hopefully will not need any reshoots. For the filming process Hayden was manning the camera and me and Miguel we the actor. I was the dark figure while Miguel was the leading actor. If I'm going to be completely honest, he was not the best actor and took way longer than needed, but it was still fun overall. The footage is still on Hayden's camera and he will need time to process them and send them over so I will take about the individual shots themselves in a later post. I was able to get some set photos of our process which I will be showing here which should give some great insight into what we were doing.

Set Photos

The camera setup we used for any shots with movement like the running away sequence. 

The camera stable setup we used for shots that required no movement.

This is the outfit I was in for most of the recording, the picture is of Miguel in it because he swapped over for the reveal.

A shot of Hayden taking the establishing shot of the house.

The recording of the opening sequence on the couch on the phone where we were directing Miguel on what to say and how to act. 

The setup of us recording the hiding shot.

The camera died towards the end so we had to wait for it to recharge to continue. 

Conclusion

    Us, finally getting to record the project was a really great step. It was honestly really fun being able to record with these guys despite the acting disasters we have unfortunately caught on camera. The shots were done in great lighting and Hayden will be messing with the lighting on his own to see if he can get them to look like they were shot at night. Then he will pass it on to me who will take care of more of the special effects parts of what he cannot do. We will start looking through the clips next week and start editing and finalizing CCR thoughts next week. So stay tuned for that!

Font Selection

    For my 2nd to last post of this week I wanted to take some time and consider some fonts for the opening of our film opening. We are set to record tomorrow and I think now is about the right time to be thinking of the more minute details of the opening that are still highly important to set it up well. 

Font Selection

    For the font of the opening, I feel like it would be best to choose something that can emulate the mysterious feel that our opening hopes to achieve. For our overall plot as I said in our earlier posts we took heavy inspiration from works like scream with an unassuming at-home murder. So, for my research, I started there. 

The Scream Font

    

    The scream font seems to give pretty much nothing away in its font. It seems to be a big bold text face that seems quite mundane while still in your face and demanding attention due to its all-caps nature and boldface. The other interesting part of it is the changes in the way the M's and W's look which gives a kind of flair to the mundaneness of the font overall which is used at the end of the title. Although I like this font it is a bit too boring for what we want to do. Since Scream's antagonist is a regular human I think the font works but since we want to create a mystery surrounding a supernatural force I think I want to retain some of the mundaneness but leave more flair in the texts that hint at something more.

    From there I decided to go and look through a long list of fonts (link here) and while scrolling 2 fonts specifically stood out to me as fitting the bill for the mundane font with that bit of ominous flair that I was looking for. Those fonts were called Living Hell Regular and Funkrocker.

Image of Living Hell Regular font (link here)

    This font has all the aspects of Scream but with that added something extra that helps to establish that there is something more under the surface of our opening. The first letters being these ink-blotched kinda distorted-looking characters fit the opening's connection to the doppelganger that also is a bit distorted and different himself. It also keeps the mundaneness with mostly boldface all-caps text but the added flair helps to keep the watcher's attention. 

Image of Funkrocker font (link here)

    This font is very similar to the other one but loses the mundaneness that made the scream one so great. I feel like this one is a less likely choice for the final option due to its more in-your-face nature but when it comes down to it I will see if it works better than living hell. The juxtaposition between the font's look and the feel of the movie may also add to the feeling that something is wrong so it might just work. 

Conclusion

    After looking at the various fonts that can be used for the opening as well as considering what I actually want the font to bring into the opening when I go to do it I believe I have found some options that fit the bill quite nicely. Finding these fonts will help me when the editing process begins leaving one less step to do when the time comes. Although I will have to experiment with which one I think works best I still think that is the least of my worries. Tomorrow we will be filming the shots for our opening so stay tuned for that!

Editing Practice

     For the first post of this week, I wanted to test out some effect editing techniques I researched in my last post of week 4. The techniques I will try out are the making day-into-night effect and the blackout of the eyes effect. I also talked with my group today on the new filming date and we are planning to record it on Sunday and hopefully start the editing process next week. Without further ado this is how it went: 

Blackout eyes

Before and After Blacking Out the Eyes

   

    After watching this helpful video (link here) I was able to manage to get the blackout eyes to look pretty good despite it being my first time working with masks. The process overall was pretty fun. THe hardest part was making the mask on the eyes perfect to make ie seem like it doesn't go over the eyelid which I think I managed. The auto-masking tool for video is also a really good part of this because it would be a nightmare to mask every frame on a video. So, after experimenting with this, I think it is for sure possible to do in our opening for the mysterious figure. 

Day to Night

Before turning to night

After turning to night

    After messing with the day-to-night effect process (link here) I can safely say it is not too bad in the editing for still shots because a similar masking technique is used as the eyes just with a lot more color adjustments. The tracking mask feature should help make a lot of the still shots easy to code the colors but the moving ones may be more difficult but will have to have the added difficulty of having to check the mask for the whole sequence but I am up for the challenge if it means we can maybe film in the light and change it later for better shots. We will experiment with dark natural shots first but if they do not look good we will be opting for this. 

Conclusion

    Overall, after practicing with the effects I have learned a lot about masks and how they can be used. I found out they're a bit of a pain but once you get them down they are really useful for color coding. I plan to use at least the eye color coding for the project and as stated above I am deciding on the day-to-night effect. In my next post, I will likely cover the fonts we will be considering using in our opening for the title and the credits. So until then stay tuned!

Portfolio Week 4 Post #3 Filming Updates and Editing Research

     For the last post of this week, I wanted to give a rundown of the filming process we wanted to do this week, however, due to scheduling issues with my groupmates we were unable to record it this week and will be pushing it back to next week. So instead I would like to use this post to talk about some editing techniques in horror movies that would be great to use in our film since we will be editing in the coming weeks.

Editing Techniques in Horror Movies

    1. The first and in my opinion most important technique I want to keep in mind for the editing of the opening is the pacing. The pacing is a central component in horror movies and event the opening so that the audience can be introduced to the events of the plot in a way that does not make them too bored nor makes them feel like it was too much too fast and they do not understand anything. In our film, I was thinking of making the opening shots slower-paced and ramping up the speed of the cuts and overall feel of the film as the main character gets closer and closer to dying. In this way, the opening will have slow to fast pacing mirroring the emotions of the main character as his mundane activity of being in his house becomes a scary nightmare that happens all too quickly. This will also aid in making the audience feel fear and suspense.

    2. Another technique I want to use is some special effects. My groupmate Hayden mentioned that we should do something like Nope where they had some shots that were fully lit but then worked to make them dark in post-production along with some camera settings. I will experiment with the effects to see if it is possible and manageable or if we should scrape that idea. Another thing I wanted to do is black out the eyes of our dark figure when he does the reveal as a doppelganger at the end which will give him an inhuman look and I think it should add to the creepiness and mystery we are trying to develop in the film.

Something like this for the blackout effect.

This is a guide on how to make a shot in daylight into the night that I may try and recreate.

    3. Another editing technique I want to use is music inserts. This one is fairly simple but whenever the actions ramp up or something significant is happening I want to play suspenseful music along with it to try and double down on the fear that is being produced.

    4. Another technique we may use is inserting the audio after the events. We may record all the audio separately and then add it later during the editing process. For some shots, this will require good lip syncing but since we have this in mind it should not be that hard. However, if we are able to get a good enough mic to get all the audio since the camera we are going to use does not have a mic we may scratch this idea entirely. 

    5. Finally, for the final scene when the main character dies we want to use a cross-cut back to the living room with the echoes of the main character's scream to imply that he had died but not overly show it. This will help us keep up the pacing while also setting up what happens after our film. 

Conclusion

    Although we were unable to get the filming done this week we are still on track since we are starting the week 5 work now. Thinking about the post-production so early may even help to make the actual production go better since we are consciously thinking about it now. In my next post, I will likely experiment with the special effects mentioned in this post so stay tuned. 

Sources:

https://filmstro.com/blog/horror-movie-editing-how-to-add-the-scare-factor-in-your-film 

Portfolio Week 4 Post #2 CCR Information and Initial Thoughts

     Today in class we learned about the CCR component of the project and what exactly it is. Although I had never intended to make a post about the CCR so soon I think it is important I document what I learned and my initial thoughts regarding it now as they are developing for later reference.

CCR Information

    The purpose of the CCR is to provide a reflection on the development of film opening production and all the aspects that goes into the process. To do this we have to answer 4 questions with elaborate responses that serve as a way for Cambridge to understand our process and our thoughts about it now that we are done overall. However, these questions must not be answered in a boring way such as a "talking head" but instead in an engaging manner like a director's commentary with examples from the production and the research examples. 

DONT DO JUST THIS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, add some cut-in shots to make it visually interesting.

    Each question also requires different information to answer spanning all parts of the production process. The first question asks for genre conventions if you used them, and representation. The second question revolves around the target audience, how you will engage them, and how the opening will be distributed. The third question revolves around how your process of production changed in all steps from pre to post-production and reflects on where you were vs where you are now. The 4th question requires you to discuss the hardware and software used for the project and the difficulties these provided or helped you overcome. Finally, you should end with an overall reflection about what you learned and how you could've improved. These questions will be split into 2 media products that strive to help you answer these questions in a creative and exciting manner.

Initial Thoughts

    For this part of the project, I had a couple of ideas for methods I could present my question answers in a creative manner. One way is like the examples shown where an interviewer style was presented where I would answer the questions as if I was being interviewed. I definitely want to do that but I may also may do it in an interesting way like by doing it in the dark with a light shining in my face to align with my dark setting in the opening I plan to have. I also may do it while wearing the mask which is also tied to the opening. No matter what way I choose I will make sure to provide cut-ins of components to make the CCR visually interesting. The other way I might do it is in a talk show manner where I act as if I am answering questions on live TV to a host about the film. These are all my ideas for now but I will continue to develop more ideas till the time comes.  

Conclusion

    Learning about the CCR helps me understand what is required of me for this project and will make me more cognizant of my choices as they culminate in the final reflection. Seeing examples were also helpful in showing me what will be required of me for the actual CCR. If I am going to be completely honest I was planning to do a talking head thing but now I know that I need something more to get the points and show what I can do. My next post will likely be updates about filming so stay tuned for that. 

 

Portfolio Week 4 Post #1 Mise En Scene of Opening

    To start this week off I wanted to do some mise en scene planning for our film opening to do with the characters and the setting specifically. I wanted to think about some things like the attire the characters will wear and the setting this will all take place in. Mise en scene planning is extremely important since if something in the look of the opening does not fit the general feel we are going for it could throw off the whole production. We do not want to have a horror opening where the killer is in a pink outfit unless it is to add to the scariness in any way which in our case will not. 

Mise en Scene: Main Character

    For our main character, we decided that we would dress him in attire fitting of a regular teenager with a regular t-shirt and pants. We want to give him the feel of being a normal kid in his house which is exactly what we know. The dressing of him will be simple just involving going into one of our closets and picking out an outfit. However, we likely will not make him dressed in black since that is what the killer will be wearing and we want to make sure both these characters are not dressed the same as the dark feel that the killer will have in his black attire will give him an ominous feel that we do not want our main character having. 

Mis en Scene: Dark Figure (shapeshifter/killer)

    For the dark figure, we wanted to dress him as the name implies in dark clothing. We plan to give him gloves, black pants, a cloak, and a mask to cover his face. The dark clothing will aid in keeping him hidden in the dark house setting the opening will take place in and the dark clothing will make him feel like a shadow or a part of the darkness giving him a more creepy and ominous feeling. We also plan to make it so we never really see him walking making him seem like a force of nature that chases the main character around seemingly manifesting behind him from the shadows at the end. The only real part we will see of him while in his disguise is the mask which will be shown in 2 close-ups and because of that the mask is a central component of the character. The masks we will be deciding on are below but either one can work with the first giving a more menacing and threatening vibe while the latter gives a more mysterious and unknown creepy vibe. We are still deciding which we will go with. In the end, the killer will take off the mask and have the same face as the main character setting up the mystery of the shapeshifter we also plan to use some effects on his face to make him seem like a distorted version by blacking our eyes. We also may do makeup on the day of filming like putting on eye shadow to provide a similar effect. 

Mise en Scene: The Setting

    For the setting of this opening, we have decided to do it at a house at night since that gives off the suburban supernatural murder aesthetic we are going for. The house is also an easily accessible location and provides the fear of being killed in a safe place that our audience can connect to and feel. We plan to utilize the living room with a TV, couch, and a table and keep it pretty minimalist with not many things in the frame except the actual furniture to not distract from the events that are occurring since they are the focus. We will then move to the hallway with the chase and for the final scene which will be a standard house hallway is empty and also dark as that is the constant feature in the house. The room that will be used to hide will be pretty minimalistic with just a simple bed with the focus being on the character sticking close to the door hiding and listening for the figure before going out to investigate. 

Conclusion

    Overall, as mise en scene is an important element to have in any film or movie it is great that I was able to cover some of it today and start to plan it out before filming. We still have to decide on the filming house location between my group and will likely talk about it, next class. We will also likely film or at least practice filming over the weekend, so until then stay tuned!