Final Project: I Love Music

     I've recently found a Youtube channel called Sideways, which breaks down the musical elements in various films to explain why their bad or why they work. He talks about various aspects of films that are good, bad, and where they tie into classical opera or what the places mean in past musical studies. 

    Here's the link to his Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi7l9chXMljpUft67vw78qw 

    I think his channel is extremely good for breaking down how the music changes a scene, and what it means for the overall value of the production. I like that the channel dives down so much deeper into various aspects of the production and how they can be improved or why they work. 

Final Project: Further Planning and Roofers

 Since I've been gone all of Spring Break, doing further work for the filming was difficult. However, it did pose a unique advantage for me to that way the set was consistent. The roof of my house was being done, so before we left for the trip, I had my brother fly a small drone over the entire house to ensure that the roof was going to be done on time, and my mom's coworker has been doing checks on the roof. I'm very excited to report that the roof of the house will be done tomorrow, which means that I will be able to have something with a consistent set. 

    This is important because there are a few scenes that will be filmed outside, and these scenes needed to have consistency in the roofs that were behind and in front of it. My neighbors are also getting their roof's done, and I don't want to have any inconsistency in my background, because it wouldn't make sense in the context of the piece, since not much time passes between shots. 

Final Project: Spring Break Scheduleing

 Cypress Bay had Spring Break at a very inconvenient time this year. I wanted to do some of my filming during this week, but I was not in town and thus didn’t have access to my house, equipment, or any of the actors that I planned to use on set. Thus I was faced with a dilemma. How could I still be productive without access to many materials. So I got organized. 

    The project realistically will not take me much longer to film then any other videos that my friends and I have made in the past, which take several hours but are also planned on set that day. Since planning takes up most of the time and the project has been mostly planning and research, I anticipate that actual filming will not take an extremely long period of time, and that an entire weekend will be enough time for me to film everything I need, while also giving me time to double check footage in case I need to do reshoots later on in the week. 

    I contacted a friend of mine who is also taking media studies and she agreed to help me by being an actor on set. She will play the victim. I also have a friend that goes to Western High, who will be helping me with lighting and set preparation. I think that given a decent amount of time on a Saturday night, we will be able to film everything I need to ensure that the project is going well. 

Final Project: How Visual Analysis Helped

 There were two things that really helped with brainstorming for this project. The first was research from watching or rewatching various pieces that I thought matched perfectly the aesthetic that I was trying to accomplish. This was discussed in early phases of the project with various research blogs on various things I thought were interesting. 

    The second one is what I want to discuss today. The visual analysis essays that we’ve been completing in class have forced me to look at various aspects of production and how they add meaning to the overall product that s seen on screen. By engaging in academic activities where someone is forced to look at the details of a production, it makes me more aware of things that I could put into my production to add subtle meaning and nuance instead of shoving things down the audience’s throat. 

    I forget who it is but there’s someone with a quote that talks about giving the audience enough to understand what it going on without spoon feeding them, which I think applies to everyone’s projects at this point, because I’ve learned various aspects of production that add meaning, and I want to ensure that I don’t miss any marks, almost as if I’m writing an essay about a piece that I haven’t even finished. It’s an interesting thought that occurred to me the other day as I was watching Breaking Bad, and it made me realize that the essays are forcing me to look at production in a more meaningful way. 

Final Project: Storyboarding Process 2

     The second phase of the project in terms of a storyboard comes from a combination of two things. The first is a wonderful application called storyboarder, which allows you to use your computer to draw on your screen and build a storyboard from scratch. I had a few ideas in my head and was able to draw a few of them inside a storyboard using that application. I honestly cannot believe that its completely free and I love using it, even though my storyboards look like they’ve been drawn by a kindergartener. 

    The second aspect of the story boarding campaign comes from mocks of what I want to film. I tested a few ideas out to see if what I wanted to do was feasible, and then I decided from there how I would alter the story that I had outlined. I did things such as examine whether or not I could properly cover street lamps to artificially alter the lighting for the scene(I could not) and also tried out various angles to see if they would look good for the project, using a Halloween prop as a stand-in for my actors. Overall this process was pretty effective and caused me to reconsider some of the things that I had previously thought would be a good idea. 

    Overall this process allowed me to go through all of the aspects of production to determine what would work and what wouldn’t, while allowing me to maximize my ability to film effectively given a budget of zero. 

Final Project: Storyboarding Process 1

    I haven't spent many blog postings discussing my storyboarding process, so I'm going to dedicate this weeks' blog postings to a storyboarding overview for the project thus far. It went in a few phases, and each phase helped me realize what worked and what didn't, as well as giving me ideas for the future for the project. 

    The first of these phases was the brainstorming phase. The second this project was assigned, I knew I wanted to do a crime thriller, but I wasn't sure how I would go about doing it. Thus began phase one. I do this thing when I'm brainstorming for written pieces and visual pieces where I listen to a music compilation that I think matches the mood I'm going for, and I close my eyes, trying to imagine scenes playing out in my head. This gave me a few scenes that really clicked with me in my head, which allowed me to move forward with the pieces that were feasible. 

    The second phase was figuring out which of these scenes I wanted to use, and how they could potentially tie together. At this point of the project, I eliminated anything that didn't make sense and then I added in scenes for the parts that I was missing, leaving a few scenes from my 'vision' while still having a project that felt polished and good. 

    The third step was a physical storyboard, with drawings and images depicting what would happen in the scene. I've never been great at drawing, so this is where I used the LEGO fill-ins to help supplement the physical drawings that I had done. Once that part of the process was done I double-checked the relationship that the piece had with research and made further changes at that point. 

Final Project: Looking Forward to the Next Group Session

     I can't wait for the next group session to occur. There are a few aspects of the project that I want to get second opinions on before I proceed. The first of these concerns is major and something I've been thinking about over the past few days. I have a rough outline for how I want the scenes to look like and I think that what I have is good, but there are a few difficulties with production that I want to discuss within the groups that we will be doing next week. 

    I think that there is a portion of the project that requires a possible change. I was thinking originally to have the murder location be outside, but it would be much easier to control lighting inside my house then outside it, and thus I think that I will consult the group to figure out which one will end up looking better(I'm leaning towards inside but I want a second opinion). 

    The second aspect of the project I want to possibly change is an inclusion of a character. I've noticed that the main character for all of these movies and TV shows are introduced differently, but all of them are introduced at the beginning of the film. At first I didn't think I would have time for the inclusion of a main character, but I think that I will have time at the end of the excerpt to introduce the detective that the movie will follow. I'm planning on doing a few blogs on my planning process next week.