CCR

     As a final goodbye, here is my CCR. With much love, Lau :) 

Silence and Violence

     Alright friends. It's time that I post the final product for this project. It has been a good time producing this for the last few weeks and I can happily say I'm satisfied with the work I am showing you all today. Enjoy!

Cinematography FTW

     If anyone was going to give Roger Deakins and Blade Runner 2049 a run for their money at the Oscars this year, it was going to be me. Before I post my final product alongside my CCR, I want to treat everyone to a viewing of my favorite shots from my film opening, which I personally believe make me a top contender for the 2019 Oscars category in cinematography. Enjoy!

Note: This last shot didn't make the final cut sadly, but I love it so much! 

Mini Film Fest in 4th Period

     Story time friends! I haven't mentioned this yet, but I am in my school's musical production and our shows are THIS WEEK! That being said, I've been spending a crazy amount of time with my other cast mates, so I took the opportunity to show them my final product today before our run through. Since I missed the group meeting last week in my media class, I thought it'd be a good idea to get feedback from my peers. 
     I was not expecting such kind words! In fact, I was very nervous that my audience wouldn't understand the direction of the film, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that that isn't the case at all! Initially, I had only shown one friend, and they had headphones in to listen to the audio. I hadn't noticed my other friend watching from over her shoulder, also paying attention to my project. The person listening to the audio understood that April was in an abusive relationship, and somehow, my other friend ALSO got the same idea, and they didn't even listen to the dialogue. 
     I also showed our choreographer, who also happens to be in AICE Media Studies, the opening and she loved the variety of shots I used to convey April's different emotions and to move between scenes. Another girl in drama, who is also in this class, reviewed the film and advised me to clean the audio further, which I am currently in the process of doing before I post my final product. I chose to show my opening to people who are also working on this same project and have the knowledge it takes to adequately criticize my film opening in terms of shots, angles, composition, editing, sound, and mise en scene. 
     All the feedback I received was welcomed with open arms and I am definitely feeling more and more confident with what my results are turning out to be. 

Title

     I may have to hire a professional title maker in the future if I really want to continue my film career. No matter how creative I can be, sometimes my titles just.... suck. I made the title for my piece rhyme as well. "Silence and Violence" encompasses the experience April is going through at the beginning of the film. Here is a picture of the title screen:

What's In, What's Not

     Okay so you guys know how I said I was going to use those blacked out frames with the locations on them in the opening? Well forget I said anything!
     This post is going to be dedicated to showing all of you what is officially in the opening and what shots have been taken out. To do so, I am going to post an edited version of my original storyboard.

     Here you can see that I had to take out the establishing mid shot (already explained in an earlier post), the close up of April as the phone rings, and the extreme close shot of April's eyes. I was okay with deleting that last frame because it wasn't necessary. April's distress is evident in the shot prior to her reaching for her phone anyway.

     Here I deleted the shot of Luke motioning for April to come sit with him. I also cut the frame before it, but failed to indicate it on the paper. The sequence cuts from the establishing shot of the restaurant straight to the two shot of April and Luke talking. I also omitted the two shot illustrated later on that paper so that the dialogue was faster and got to the point of the scene quicker. 

      As much as I absolutely loved the shot I captured for the close up of the french fries, the cut was too short and was unnecessary. 

     I didn't change much on this last one except for how I edited the long shot of April and Luke walking away from 100 Montaditos. Instead of a long master shot, I opted to use a jump cut to quicken the pace of the transition between scenes and explain how they got from one point to another in the first place. 

     Another small change I made that didn't quite make it onto these papers is the shots in which actor, director, producer, and other credits are displayed in. I'll leave that one up for everyone's interpretation until you see the final product. Until next time, amigos! 

Post Production Blues

     Hey folks! I've been very focused on editing the video that I haven't prioritized giving this blog updates. However, I want to focus on some issues I've encountered while creating a final product for the video portion of this project. 
     My first mistake was accidentally losing the footage I had for the establishing shot of the film. The dialogue heard in that opening frame introduces the macro setting for the piece, Miami, and the initial time the events are occurring: Spring Break. That being said, I decided to include text prior to the actual scenes that explicitly states the setting. 

     I have also cut shots from the short film because of time constraints. Whichever frames have now been omitted I have felt could be taken from the film because they aren't necessary. Before I post the final video, I will post pictures of the storyboard after the cuts have been made. 
     Additionally, I've had to work with the inconsistency of placement between cuts. For example, there are shots I have had to work around where the main character's hands change from resting against her face to not being visible in the frame. 
     While observing and cleaning the footage I gathered last week, I noticed that there was an inconsistency in brightness between videos as well as the inconsistency in audio for the footage taken at the restaurant due to the constantly playing music there. To fix this, I have been playing around with the brightness of the frames as well as enhancing the audio of all the videos to remove background noise. 
     Last but not least, I had a scene that came out a bit shaky because I don't have a long tripod to support my camera. Therefore, this shot: 

Wasn't completely still as I intended it to be. Luckily for me, the shot isn't very significant aside from establishing the location to lay a foundation for the tone of April's friendship and encounter with Luke. 
     That's it for now guys, I'll be posting my final product later this week!

     

It's a Filmmaker's Hard Life

     Before any updates on the post production magic, I want to document several complications I encountered on the day I was filming. 
     First, one of my actor's cancelled on me last minute and wasn't able to play Luke. Therefore I improvised and used my friend who was playing Gabriel as both characters. It's a sloppy last minute choice I hope doesn't ruin my film, but the costumes are different and the way that the characters talk are somewhat different per acting choice of my friend. I would have played Luke myself. However, I felt unsure letting another person handle the camera, and since several of the planned shots were fairly complicated, I decided it was better I stay behind the camera. 
     Second, filming the first scene was EXCEPTIONALLY difficult. I was not able to be behind the camera for a majority of the frames shot because the camera was practically propped up against the wall using the small tripod I showed in my last post, and I had to rely on a film + check video approach to make sure I was capturing the shots I wanted to. 
     Third, I had completely forgotten that the restaurant I chose as one of the locations for filming played music outside where I planned to set up the scene. I don't think it's very audible from what I've observed, but there is a possibility that there will be an inconsistency in the song playing in the background. Additionally, there was a very loud family sitting a couple tables nearby that may have intercepted the audio, but I trust that my audio editing skills can pull through to enhance the dialogue and dilute the diegetic sounds from the audio so they don't compromise the consistency of the scene. 
     Lastly, the lighting was not good for the camera I use. I am not well versed in cameras and playing around with their different modes. That being said, I had to work with what I could and managed to capture very good shots regardless. I hope to learn more about my camera as I progress in my potential film career. 

Kiss With A Fist (Or Brush)

     Hey party people! I'm back from Spring Break and am in the process of cleaning all the footage I gathered for my short film. But before, I want to share something interesting the main actress for this piece did in preparation for shooting on Saturday morning. 
     Playing April, my friend asked for resources (as in videos, instructional articles, etc) on how to make fake bruises so she could get ahead on the "hickies" on April's neck. Me, being the information extraordinaire of this generation, sent her a very useful and detailed Wikihow page on how to make a fake bruise with make up. And the results... 

Were extraordinary! I must add a "Make Up Artist" credit to the film now. Hope everyone is having a great start to this week and I will keep updating you guys on my post production progress.