Film Blog

11/25 This weekend I didn't get to film at all. For the point being that I didn't have any plans for this weekend to film. Also, my actors were not ready to film this weekend. We all had a plan to do it over the Thanksgiving break because it'll give us more time. This weekend I had other things that I had to work on. This break my plan is either Friday or Saturday to work on this film. I will have to ask my teachers if I'm allowed to use a tripod if not I'll purchase one or something that will stabilize the camera. I want clean shots only in my film nothing crazy. I want to make it look professional as much as possible. The plan is to get it all done in one day, hopefully in a couple hours.
     I will be filming all my shots on my iPhone XR. I did some research and my phone has more megapixels and has autofocus. A basic camcorder like the one we are given has a regular 7-megapixel camera. I'm positive my camera will come out way clearer and smoother. My editing software will improve as well because I will be using iMovie instead. The one I was originally given for my last project was not the best. It lacked speed and wasted a lot of time. If I had the chance to film this weekend I assume that I would've completed it. I'm confident that this won't take too long to film. A couple hours is all I need.
     I don't know exactly how many sentences we need for this blog. I'm assuming 25 to 30 sentences. Just to be sure I will be including 27. This will also be included in my blog to reach the goal. Once I get my film recorded I will instantly get to editing to be ahead as much as possible. This will help me not only get ahead but experiment with my choices. Make it as genuine as possible and original to me. This project will have a lot of improvements. I'm excited to see what the outcome will be. I am nervous although excited.

Planning Blog For Music Video

11/22 Today I'm planning my music video. I'm trying to pick out locations, make sure health and safety procedures, props all in order, costumes, and a schedule. For my music video I might be in luck for the locations. All my locations are close so I don't have to travel far. I'm going to use a basketball ball court and film me getting beat up by a couple of guys so it looks like I was being innocent and I got beaten up for my wallet and phone. After that I want a scene where I'm just walking down a street having my head down looking sad. After I want to go to the Jetties and jump off a ledge I usually go with friends to jump into the water. I want this scene to be second to last so I look like I gave up but I continue after in an alley playing my ukulele. There's going to be a scene where I'm walking down a sidewalk and accidentally run into a guy with his girlfriend and he pushes me to the ground. The point of this is me getting beaten up by life but still managing to get back up and not quitting. All these stunts with danger will be performed by me and I will have a First Aid Kit by me because there's bound to be a lot of injuries. I'm okay with all of it because I do a lot of sports and always get hurt so I'm used to it and I really want to commit to make this the best I can do possible.
      Although many scenes will look unsafe I can guarantee there won't be any situation. My parents are okay with it too because I told them my idea and they loved it but obviously were worried. There won't be too many props in this there is a main prop that will be seen in a couple scenes in the background. It's a black ukulele that will be played in the final scene by me looking all tired but enjoying my music. There aren't any costumes I will be wearing some type of formal clothing. I want to look tired and a mess at the end but I still manage to be happy. There might be some props that will show up on the spot depending how I feel. This won't be easy because I'm directing it all but I'm also acting in it. I know that this will be stressful especially with the actors because they're my friends and they will act up and mess around. Most of these scenes will be filmed at night to give a dark mood.
     For the schedule it will be a mess with my actors. They're are going to play around and make jokes so I have to be the adult in my group of actors. I will have to stay at a friends house to film because where my friend stays is by the beach. I don't have an actual idea for a schedule I'm just going with the flow. Hopefully, I get this all finished within a couple hours in the night. I think that this project will turn out exactly how I envision it. There might be some downfall to it I don't know what it could be but I just know there has to be something wrong. I'm excited to use my phone and my own editing software this time because it will look smoother. I just don't want to have issues with my software.

Intro to New Project Blog

11/14 Today is the beginning of our new project. We finally finished up and turned in our commercial with my old group. On this new project I am working by myself because I want to see how creative I can get on my own. For this project I will be working on creating my own music video. For this project I will be working with better technology for example, my editing program I will be using imovie, the camera I will use is my iPhone XR, and I will probably ask a friend for a tripod because I will actually need it this time. My storyboard needs to be worked on a bit more because I only have a couple scenes that I like. I'm excited that I will have complete control because some of my ideas in the past project wasn't at full potential because I had to share ideas with my group. Now that I have full control this will be a project straight from me. The only downside from this project is that I will have to do a lot of work independently but I'm willing to do it. A complete original except for the song.

     The song that I'm using is called "worldstar money(Interlude)" by Joji. Joji is a Japanese singer, song writer, rapper, record producer, author. He has a very aesthetic taste in style for everything. I do want to use some of the camera angles that he uses for some of his music videos. For the song I will have an idea for a love story or just a boy talking about a girl. I honestly don't know because I have a couple ideas in mind. The song is a very calm and smooth because most of the song uses a ukulele and at the end it has a little edm vibe to it. Then the song ends with the ukulele and some soft singing. The song is about 2 minutes but I'm going to have to crop some of the beginning and the ending of the song. I'm trying to reach exactly 1 minute and 15 seconds because I want to get as much as possible. 

     The music video will include not many costumes the actors and actresses will use basic everyday clothing although at the end I want it to end with the guy wearing a suit and strumming to a ukulele. I want to give it a very dramatic lighting but a mellow lighting because I want it to look a little dark. I will have a couple actors and actresses involved in the video for the beginning scene I'm going to have more than 8 actors involved. For my props I will have this ukulele that's a key prop and seen in multiple scenes. The setting will change multiple times but all I know for sure the first setting will be in a park. The ending scene will be in an odd scene like under a small bridge with the guy wearing a suit playing the ukulele. 

Editing Commercial Blog

11/7    In the last two classes we successfully were able to start editing our commercial. We finally imported our footage onto pinnacle studio. We had some issues because we didn't understand how to turn our Zip folder into a regular folder. With some help from the internet I figured it out. I also imported the footage because my group was very confused. The Pinnacle Studio software was quite difficult. I was right about my guess that the more we play around with it the better we learned because I got to learn how to crop and add in transitions. There were times were I was so frustrated that I wanted to break the computer but I calmed down and kept my cool. My group mates also got frustrated but they remembered our notes and that's what we use for guidance. I am curious to know if we are allowed to use another editing software so I will ask my teacher next class.
     On our first day of editing we got the basics down. Imported our footage and we figured out the transition part. One of my group mates figured out how to crop our footage which helped us a lot with editing and saving time. Today we added in the correct transition because we wanted a fade in and out. Also we decided on a song that we want to put into the background. Now we need to do a mp3 converter of our music and add it into the commercial. I'm going to get a head start and do that as soon as possible. So next week when I come into class I can just add the music. I didn't get to finish editing the end, we want to add in a whole section that just says "Just Do It." We also agreed on putting the Nike logo.
     Overall, it's a fun experience getting to understand Pinnacle Studio. Next project I want to do my project alone to be able to use my full potential. I had ideas that I wanted to be included but they weren't allowed. I want to use my own phone and editing software because I think I would be more comfortable using something that I have more experience in. Hopefully though I can use the tripod with my phone because I want to get smoother takes. Since my teachers weren't here I had to hold back on some questions. My group members and I are all impressed with the outcome so far. I believe if we had more time today we probably would've finished. Today was a PSD day so we lost about an hour. I can't wait till we finish this project to see what our final film looks like.