First Day Jitters

 And so it begins....

Our first day at filming has come and it was quite the experience. First off, never underestimate how long a quick scene might take to film. We filmed our Romance genre scene that would last around a minute and yet it took us over 3 hours! Granted the scene came out very well due to us being very meticulous with our shot composition and the way we want each take to play out. It was also great to put in the boom pole we rented out to use as the audio quality for the scenes was, in my opinion, professional level of quality and is most definitely the best way to record audio. 

Ryan as boom operator

From what I had to take away from this day as I think about the next few days for us to film is to film earlier as we do take quite some time to film. Additionally, I see our chemistry and workflow is just as smooth and efficient as it has been in previous projects, so I have great confidence that these next few days of filming will go great!

The crew (Left to right: Ryan, myself, and Edward)

New equipment who dis?

 Hey everybody! Today, Ryan and I went over to BECON-TV and picked up our new rental equipment that they would lend out to us in order to help us film Cutting Room Floor. Needless to say, we are extremely pleased with what we were able to check out. Jim was very helpful and eager to offer us whatever kind of equipment would be useful in helping us to get the highest quality of production for our film. 

We had requested ahead of time a boom mic, light kits, and a monitor. Jim went above and beyond giving us a clapboard for us to sync video and audio, a boom mic that can record internally and into the camera, Canon lenses for my camera, a wired and wireless video monitor, and even a mist machine! Ryan and I walked out feeling over the moon and like we were real film directors using real Hollywood-like equipment. We are very excited to put this hardware to good use :)

Clapboard slate + Mist Machine

Shure Lenshopper VP83 Boom Mic

New Lenses

A Jack of all Genres

Regarding the cinematography and overall "look" of our shots, we are going to have to display a variety of different compositions, color grades, and lighting setups to convey the several genres of film we are going to be tackling within our film. In order to prepare for this, I researched and found shots from various films from our specific genres in order to base the style that our shots will have.

1. Coming of Age 

Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)

Lady Bird (2017)

For our coming of age film, it is important that a bright and warm look is shown in order to convey feelings of happiness and to be more inviting, especially for the beginning of the film to lead the audience into a sense of comfort before throwing them into what is to come. Something that I see in coming of age films is that they have a "film look" meaning the look you get from a film camera as opposed to digital format. In order to replicate that on a DSLR, we will have to play around with the grain level as well as to soften up lighting while filming. 

2. Horror

Us (2019)

For the horror section, I am looking for a more dark and cool look, which is very reminiscent of typical horror films as they are typically chosen to create a 'chilling' effect. Since we are filming in a forest, having this moody and cold tone will create a sense of tension and ambiguity within the audience. Having the depth of field be shallow (background blurry) will also be used in order to convey loneliness and isolation.

3. Comedy

Truman Show (1998)

Regarding the comedy section, I decided to base it upon a film like the Truman Show as during this section is where we want it to seem as of the Protagonist is being ridiculed and a part of a sick joke. By having a more yellow hue with flat lighting and slight vignetting in the frame, will get the point of across visually as it is a similar look to typical old sitcoms. 

4. Silent Film

For the silent film clip, we will be filming the Protagonist at a flat 180 degree angle parallel to him. Many silent films were shot straight on to the subject at no angle and in medium shots, so we will do the same in replicating the style. To give off a more vintage look, we will overlay grain and a film filter to have it seem as if we shot the sequence on an old time camera. Additionally, we will have title cards for the dialogue after each line as there is no audio to be heard.

5. Action Scene

El Camino (2019)

Regarding the action scene, to evoke this style, we will be filming with dramatic lighting and having this section of the film be edited with black bars to create a more cinematic aspect ratio that is widescreen and more "Hollywood." For our color grading, we are thinking of having the contrast turned up and the colors become less vibrant and more towards a brown green tone to create a more gritty and dirty look to the film, that encapsulates the feel of a hostage situation. 

6. Void/ Ending Scene

Stranger things (2016- )

 
Our ending scene was recommended by Ryan to be based on how Stranger Things filmed their "void" scenes being completely encapsulated in darkness with only the subjects being lit slightly. In order to convey this effect of "nothing, but blackness", we had bought a black photography backdrop and being able to manipulate lighting effectively is something that will be key to pulling this off. 

Split Lighting

Rim Lighting

Loop Lighting

Split, Rim and Loop lighting are techniques I have researched and believe will be beneficial to us during this sequence as they give a variety of looks and emotions to the subject. Split demonstrates inner conflict and ambiguity, while loop is more exposed and soft. Rim lighting is a technique I see us experimenting with, especially in this dark abysmal environment to create a variety of unique looks and shots through the silhouette of the Protagonist alone.

Filming Schedule

With the incoming week upon us, spring break is over and our time for filming is soon to begin. We have prepared our schedule, as well as our location list for the different scenes.

• Tuesday - Romance scene
• Wednesday - Teen and horror scenes
• Thursday - Comedy and silent film scenes
• Friday - Action and Void (ending) scenes

This week is going to be a strenuous, but very exciting week as we know having to film everyday in the middle of a regular school week is no easy task, but this is nothing my group and I have not tackled before. On Tuesday, Ryan and I will drive to BECON-TV to pick up the equipment we are renting from them. After receiving the equipment, we will be hitting the ground running and filming the Romance Scene. As production is underway, I will be updating everyone on how the process goes.

Music Update

 Hello everyone! I have some new on our music situation! Out of the two record companies I have contacted for licensing in our films, Epic and Matador Records respectively, only one has contacted me back: Matador. The lady who I was in contact with was very kind and responded rather quick; only a day after my initial e-mail was when she responded. She asked a couple of questions regarding where I was located and to whom the film would be shown to. I had explained to her that the film was going to be shown to my class, but also be sent off to Cambridge for grading. Additionally, I made mention of the fact that my group and I are most likely going to send this film off to film festivals within the US. Afterwards, she gave this response: 

Although I love the Interpol song we are requesting and think it would work great with the intended ending for our film, we unfortunately do not have the budget to pay for the license of the master and the publishing rights for our film. While this isn't the outcome we were hoping for, I am going to keep a pin on this song to eventually use for a future project that I work on.

Script Revisions

Just as I mentioned in the previous script update, our script is a living document. And this document has been revised once more; albeit, for a more conclusive time.

Some updates we made included: shortening of the opening scene, revised scene and character descriptions, a few tweaks to the ending confrontation, and a new ending entirely (same idea of protagonist getting their own script, but different execution.

Ryan has added notes and comments to the screenplay online that will help Eddy in creating the storyboards for our film. With all these revisions and markups, my group is happy to say that this version should be the closest to what the end product will turn out to be and are ready to help bring these words on paper to life.

You can view our completed script here.

Music

In terms of our film, the visual is only half the battle that we have tackled head on, now it is time for audio; more specifically, our non-diegetic sound.

For our soundtrack to the movie, we will use resources such as copyright free songs on YouTube, filmstro.com, and freesounds.org for any special sound effects. We will need to gather a rather large array of royalty-free music in order to ensure all the different film genres and scenes have the appropriate soundtrack to go along with what is happening on screen. 

An aspect of this journey that we are wanting to go the extra mile for is for the ability to implement copyrighted songs that we ourselves are huge fans of and want to add these songs as a cameo to our film, as well as these songs have always been songs we have always thought of putting into a film.

The songs are:

• Interpol - Untitled
• Death Grips - Get Got

In order to use these songs without copyright infringement, we will be contacting Matador Records and Epic Records, respectively. While we may not even get a response back, it is worth a shot regardless. I'll be back with anymore updates.

Equipment

 In order to produce our film at the highest quality that we are aiming for, we have gathered a list of all the equipment my group and I own and what we will use in order to produce the project.

I, Oliver, will use my own:

• Canon SL2 with two-three lenses as one of our primary cameras 
• SunPak 12\"\" Ring Light for lighting
• Purple Panda Lavalier to record close and isolated audio
• DJI Ronin S Gimbal in order to stabilize any footage that requires steady camera movement
• Tripod for lockdown and more static shots
• Reflector/Diffusor to control lighting
• Rode Video MicGO for NAT sounds

Ryan will bring:

• Lumix G7 with lenses as our second primary camera 
• Three point lighting stands
• Wireless Lavaliers for audio

While this is a plethora of equipment at our disposal, we want to be ambitious on this project. So, we decided to enlist the help of one of the producers of the Shortcuts TV show at BECON-TV by the name of Jim Guarasci. Their program allows South Florida student filmmakers to rent out industry-level equipment for their films.

Ryan has reached out and we are all very ready and excited to put this new equipment to great use!👍🏻

Group Meeting

  Hello everyone! Today during my class, my teacher arranged our class and had us meet in groups to discuss how all of our projects have been going and for any feedback we could give one another. This is our second round of group meetings and it has been a couple of weeks ago since our first union, so it was exciting to see how everyone's progress and ideas would have developed since then. When we met up, we had a good and positive energy among us which helped for us to give critiques well. I was the first one to go and as soon as I described the plot for my group's film, everyone's face lit up. They all loved the idea and were really excited to see how it would go. I let everyone know how we have a finished script, production schedule, and how we organized the work among my group. For the most part, everyone in my group meeting was all for my idea, but I did ask for critiques on the film's ending. I had asked whether to leave it more open ended and ambiguous or to have something more structured and definite. They decided on the latter in order to prevent from confusing the audience and getting our point across. This is something I will be bringing up with my group to ensure our movie ends on not confusing and satisfying note. 

Production Schedule Update

 As my group and I have progressed and focused more and more on the pre-production side of our short film, it begs to wonder how our production stage will go. Since the last blog post I made about our schedule, we decided that we would have to change our dates in order to accommodate for all of our schedules and the time we have spent on just planning alone. 

Our new production schedule from this point forward will go like this:

• Week of 3/15- Principle photography, location scouting, wardrobe and props
• Week of 3/22- Finding and getting approval for music, social media, and postcard
• Week of 3/29 - Filming
• Week of 4/5- Editing
• 4/10 - Finish
• 4/12 - Deadline

This time table takes into account the fact that I will not be here during Spring Break which is why we will begin filming after break ends. During my absence, we will be working on other aspects of our project to further our progress on the overall project at hand (such as by working on the social media page and postcard), as well as preparing as much as we can for us to hit the metaphorical film ground running. We aim to finish by April 10th just in case anything were to go wrong, we have two full days for buffer time before our inevitable deadline of April 12th. 

Source: Nickelodeon

Script Finalize

 After keeping in mind the feedback from our teacher, as well as my group and I reading over the script and discussing how our film would play out, the general themes of the piece, and how the different elements we hope to keep in our film would work with one another; we have finally come to a complete and prepared script.

Source: Nickelodeon

We have completed the three different genre scenes that our protagonist would undergo: coming of age, action, and romantic drama. While the script is still a living document, meaning we can still change or add ideas as we come up with and think of new concepts, it is definitely a strong foundation for us to begin our production. 

Our script can be viewed here.

Teacher Feedback :D

 Hey everyone! During my last class, my team and I decided to take a step back and ask for some feedback from our teacher regarding our script, story, and ideas we have regarding our short film. Safe to say that the meeting went very well. My teacher had already viewed a draft of our screenplay via our last blog, so she already had a good idea on what the synopsis for our film would be about. Thankfully, she really liked our idea! 

We discussed aspects, such as:

• How we would break the fourth wall to prevent us from rehashing old clichés typically seen in many mainstream movies
• To combat this, our character would be talking to the narrator in a variety of different situations and environments that are not reminiscent of stereotypical "talking to camera" sequences.
• Whether our narrator would be a physical person or an omniscient figure
• We decided it would be best for our narrator to remain an omniscient and invisible presence to preserve his mystique and almost god-like control over the film
• How many genres and interpretations we would show in our film
• We would showcase three main scenes from different genres in order to not over or under load the audience, as well as for the benefit of time. 

Overall, it was a very successful and helpful meeting. It was great to hear feedback on our ambitious concept and to know we are on a good track. 

Breaking New Ground

Since my last blogpost, the team and I have been hard at work with our film screenplay. Not only did we begin writing the screenplay for the actual film (as opposed to the script that would be used for a prop within the movie) this week, but we have made significant progress on our script. 

We are up to 8 pages and have a completed rough draft of our story. As we were reading back this first draft, a concern that came about among us was regarding our time limit. We have to keep our short film within a 5-minute window. With our script already at 8 pages and us still wanting to add scenes and revise more aspects of our storyline, this time constraint could prove a bit of a challenge for us creatively. 

As of right now, the storyline of our film involves our main character, dubbed "The Protagonist", who is introduced in the film as the main character within a stereotypical coming-of-age film; until, he doesn't  want to follow his line and breaks the 4th wall by speaking to the narrator directly. After a back and forth between protagonist and narrator, the narrator proceeds to put the protagonist in several different types of movies and genres that ultimately end in a standoff between one another. The ending would then have the protagonist and the narrator meet up face to face in person in which the narrator hands a script to the protagonist, symbolizing the protagonist (literally) writing his own future and story. 

In order to further add to the script in detail, we will be researching different stereotypes and conventions of several movie genres that we could poke fun of and reference via the protagonist's adventures. We will be further revising and brainstorming ideas and concepts we can play around with and utilize to improve our short film.

Our draft can be viewed right here.

Scripts don't write themselves

 I've begun writing the scripts for our short film ( a slippery slope as I have to make both a script to be used within the film and one that is for our film as a whole). So as of late, it has been a lot of...

Source: Nickelodeon

But we are getting progress done bit by bit! The first page of the script within the film (before the protagonist breaks the fourth wall) is shown down below here:

In order to compose this script, I was just thinking of typical "youth coming of age films" and how I would start one off. The one line the protagonist has at the end of the page is where he would (quite literally) go off script. This is an opening and sequence of events that are simple, but I know our team can add a lot of personal touch and style to the shots. 

When it comes to the script of the actual film, I've been taking notes from all kinds of films like, Stranger than Fiction, that I already discussed, and Scott Pilgrim vs The World. Films that are not only very meta, but edited in a very stylized manner ie. heavy use of text and graphics to accentuate the events of the film and precise cuts. Approximately one and a half pages of the film have been written, but I still got quite a bit to go and still need to discuss with my team for their opinions. But hey, these things don't write themselves!

And the name is...

 Well, the time has finally come for our film to have a name and it is one that I think is awesome and very well suiting. Our title is... *drum roll please*

 Cutting Room Floor

 This idea came from my group partner, Ryan and was the one who taught me and explained to me what this term is because I had never heard of it before. Cutting room floor is used in the film industry as a figure of speech referring to unused or scrapped footage not included in the finished film. Outside of the film industry, it may refer to any creative work unused in the final product. 

Source: El Space

This term for our title made a lot of sense to me because it is symbolic of our protagonist's journey and growth throughout the movie. Our protagonist deciding how the course of his life goes and what does or doesn't make it into his "final cut." It is a title that additionally works for marketing purposes as it is a name that sticks out and people will remember once hearing about it. This is an awesome working title and unless any significant changes are made to the story, it will end up being the final title for our production. :)

Bit by Bit

Hey everyone! Today during class my group and I  came up with a more cohesive outline now that the rough idea has become more and more completed. A big factor that we came to change was that we would now have one protagonist as opposed to two. This was done in order for the sake of character development and to not overcomplicate the story progression. Having one central driving force would make more sense and can focus on the individual in a more complex manner. The other driving force would now be the narrator of the film who the two main characters meet at the end and where the protagonist is handed the script for the film and becomes "his own main character."

Our updated outline is here:

CHARACTERS

• Protagonist - Supposed to be perfect     

• Narrator (VO) - In control of the narrative

OUTLINE

• Shrek Opening

• Scene Description - Motion Graphics

• Protagonist goes off script/Main character does not say their (full) line

• Cuts to IRL scene/Script 

• Narrator: “What are you doing?”

• Protagonist: “I'm not a fan of this script”

• Narrator: “Wdym? You’re the main character!”

• Protagonist: “I’m going to make some changes”

• Narrator: “No, wait!”

• Title Card 

• Next scene with description on scene (First act of film)

• Main character messes up/refuses to act properly

• Next scene with description on scene (Second act of film)

• Main character messes up/refuses to act properly

• Next scene with description on scene (Third act of film)

• Narrator: “This is the last scene, the climax, you’ve gotta get this right!”

• Main character almost perfectly completes script and then starts breaking into laughter

• Protagonist: “This scene is so stupid!”

• Narrator: “You know what?”

• Narrator teleports them to empty white void, like the screenplay itself

• Final argument (Protagonist: “Why would I want to live by someone else’s rules… The only line I’m going to follow is his own”)

• Narrator hands him the script, pans up to reveal the narrator is now the protagonist, he controls the narrative  

 

FAKE MOVIE

• The fake movie is a coming of age story, parodying the same stories romanticized by teens

• Coming age of story is 

• The protagonist is written to be a perfect, flawless character

• Opening - 

• Scene 1 - Skating in neighborhood, Library, getting out of school, at home getting ready for school, football field

• Scene 2 - Reminiscing childhood

• Scene 3 - Outside during sunset reflecting on his future

The work that still needs to be completed before filming is:

-Writing and formatting the complete script

-Finding locations

-Storyboarding

This upcoming weekend will give my team an opportunity for us to catch up. See you in the next update!