Filming Blog: George Enlgish Park Part 2

This blog is about the fourth production of my final task. According to the previous filming blog, I filmed the Monitor scenes before the George English Park scenes because of my actresses' unavailability. This production day was the shortest and the most stressful because I had to film Scene 7-9 within in an hour. The reason why there was a limit restriction because one actress needed to be picked up at a specific time. In addition to the time restriction, one actress forgot to bring their leather jacket: a crucial item of clothing for her spy costume. A solution I suggested was to use my leather jacket. However, Hannah convinced me, the difference in the leather jacket would make the final task look unusual.

One minor role as an organizer was maintained. Before every take, I would ensure all the necessary shots, angles, and movements were filmed. For instance, I would follow the sound script and the storyboards during Scene 7. After filming, I would re-review the storyboard, shooting script, checklist and sound script to be efficient. This would act as a signal on what shot should be filmed next.

The primary role I was tasked with was directing. Since I was an organizer, I directed while referring to the storyboards and sound script. Before each take, I would elaborate on what each takes should appear. This would allow the actresses to understand the material and become better actresses. To achieve the ideal delivery, I would use anecdotes to help guide the actresses. For instance, I said, "Channel your inner Leila" or "Imagine a friend leaving you on reading". These anecdotes helped the actresses act disappointed or worried. Furthermore, I would yell commands on when actresses should begin acting. During the taking shots of Target, I would yell "Go" or I would give a thumbs-up as signals for Hannah to begin walking.

A minor role I was tasked with was camerawoman. Since Hannah is one of the actresses in this film, I substituted as a camerawoman during the tacking shots and wide shots of the actresses.  As camerawoman, I filmed the scenes with a tripod because it allowed the camera to be less shaky. For example, I used to tripod to filmed the tracking shot of Cori following Target. Since I am below average height, it was difficult to film this particular tracking shot on my tip-toes. The tripod helped me achieved the perfect height without straining myself.

(This picture is me (left) directing Kat as she prepares to be filmed.)

Editing Blog: Piecing Footage

Today in AICE Media Studies, I continued piecing the movie together. In the recent editing blog, I was able to piece Scene 1 and part of Scene 2.  My priority was to "finish" editing the first two scenes due to timing. This means titles, music, and transitions should be added to the movie. If the first two scenes were edited correctly, Hannah and I would theoretically spend less time editing those scenes. During the third day of the post-production process, I spent a significant amount of time editing. Since I did not have the opportunity to practice my editorial skills during the previous editing day, I was able to perform various editing skills.

The first thing I did was reviewed footage from the previous filming day. Due to time restrictions, I reviewed the Monitor's footage in Scene 2.  I selected the "best" take and inserted it into the track on Pinnacle Studios. Then, I trimmed the footage down to a decent duration. Once I added the Monitor scene, I continued to add the protagnists' scene. I used the checklist and storyboard as I guide on what scenes should be next. After the majority of the footage for Scene 2 was added to the track, I begin to meticously cut the scenes. For instance, I would cut away silence before dialogue was spoken. During this process, I directed Hannah on when she should cut the scene. Even though Hannah and I have attention to detail, one person should offer their input on when a scene should be cut shorter. In one take, there is a pause before an actress speaks. I say "Stop". This command is an indicator when take should be cut.

Futhermore, I was able to practice my sound skills. Since I  have more experience with sound, I trimmed imported the sound files from my flash drive onto Pinnacle Studios and the computer. I selected, added, and trimmed the tracks to fit in with the establishing shot and the conversation scene. I was able to add a fade to the music. This allows the transition from Scene 1 to Scene 2 to become smoother.

The weak skills I practiced were transitions and titles. During the last two mini-projects, I did not add titles because the duration of the projects was two weeks.  With good guessing skills, I was able to add the first and third titles. I adjusted the font, size, and position of the title. In addition to the style of the title, I added transitions on how the titles will enter and exit the screen.

At the end of the editing session, Scene 1 and Scene 2 were "finished".

Editing Blog : Sound and Cutting

On the second day of post-production. I was semi-productive in downloading music and dumping it onto my flash drive. The primary reason this post-production day was not efficient because of the computers. Immediately upon arrival to AICE Media Studies class, I grabbed and logged onto my computer because Final Task's footage was dumped onto that computer. Once I click the Pinnacle Studios app, I waited approximately 10 minutes before a notification popped up which read: "Pinnacle Studios is not responding". I decided to restart the program because students at my high school do not know how to properly shut down and return a computer. After I restarted the computer, I had the same issues as before. A temporary solution is to grab another computer. This computer also had the same technical error. The last solution was to grab another computer. Eventually, Pinnacle Studios loaded and I was able to re-follow the post-production procedures of dumping and importing.

As Hannah was importing the footage onto the computer and into Pinnacle Studios, my role was sound. Since I have the most experience downloading music, I was tasked with download and dump the sound onto my flash drive. I spent a good portion of time visiting multiple Youtube converter sites to see which sites allow free and efficient downloading services. The reason why this took a good portion of time because certain websites required a Google extension which was blocked by my school's administrator. Eventually, I found a site that worked without the Google Extension, and I was able to convert the Youtube video into an MP3 file. Once I converted the music from Youtube Videos into a music file, I dumped the files onto my flash drive.

As I finished the last file, the computer was importing the 246 footage files. After finished dumping the sound, I helped Hannah with the editing. This is where the checklist of the selected footage came in handy. I told Hannah which footage would be added into the track. This allowed us to efficiently begin piecing the footage together. During the editing, I would offer my input on each take and where I wanted the footage to be cut.

Due to the technical difficulties and interruptions, Hannah and I were able to piece Scene 1 and part of Scene 2. During the third day of editing, Hannah and I will be piecing the last part of Scene 2 and begin editing Scene 3.

(This is a picture of me (left) and Hannah reviewing the selected footage. Since Pinnacle Studios is not the best editing software, it would lag. So, Hannah and I would review the footage on a separate screen to watch the videos without any interruptions. )

Final Task Peer Review

During the middle of the production process, my group and I were peer-reviewed and vice versa. Due to the slow computers, my group and I had to export our film before it was reviewed. The peer-review process was educational and interesting. I liked the peer-reviewed because the suggestion given by people can help improve the film. Once the film was exported, I gave it to another group while I reviewed another. On this peer review day, I was assigned to review Julia's group's final task.

Overall, I liked their final task. One aspect I enjoyed was their storyline. Based on the footage I watched, I infer the storyline was a father and a daughter are going on a trip. However, something bad happens and the dad disappears. I enjoyed this storyline because, in most "horror", the protagonist does something stupid and cliche. In this movie, it was an ordinary daughter and father going on an innocent trip. Another thing I liked was their creative use of the graphic match. In one scene there is a trunk show of the father putting a backpack in the trunk of the car. The inaction of zipping the backpack is continued into the next scene where Julia is zipping up her backpack. I found this transition creative and smooth. The last aspect was the usage of dark lighting and sound. Throughout the film, there was dark lighting and " scary" music. This foreshadows the big reveal of the dad disappearing. I felt these aspects help develop and establish suspense.

Two elements could be improved: lighting and sound. Throughout the film, there was dark lighting and shadows. I felt the images were too dark and obscure the footage. For instance, I had to squint to see what action was being followed. The other suggestion is sound. I felt the volume during some parts of the background music too loud. I feel if the volume was a little softer then, the dialogue will be heard.

After I peer-reviewed another group's, I received my peer-review sheet. Since the group had four people, I had a variety of responses on what to improve on. The most common suggestion was sound. Some of the responses suggested having the actresses speak louder. This would allow the audience to hear them better. I agree with this suggestion because the actresses are quiet people. To improve on this, I will try to have the actresses speak louder or I would record voice-overs of the dialogue. This is crucial advice because most viewers would be discouraged to watch something they cannot hear. The other common is lighting. Some responses to adjusted the lighting to be darker during the Monitor scenes. I agree with this statement because the darker lighting will help foreshadow a surprise. It will also help me establish a more ominous tone.

There were a few interesting responses. One of the papers, one person commented on their fondness of the opening scene. This person liked the smooth transition from the establishing shot to the two spies. They felt the zoom in on the front door acted as a doorway into the spies' world. Another part of the film that was interesting was the door closing scene at the end of Scene 2. Someone thought the door closing help builds anticipation and adrenaline which leaves viewers more interested.

Aspects that were achieved were smooth transitions and a variety of shots in the first 40 seconds. Hannah and I were able to insert titles in the correct order. I feel with more time, the final task can tell a story.



(The following pictures shows my criticism for my peers.)

Filming Blog: Hannah's House

As I previously stated in the recent blog, Hannah and I had to delay the second day of filming due to camera issues. Before Hannah and I could finish filming scenes 7 to 9, the camera died thus, preventing further filming. The reason why the third filming day was at Hannah's house because of our actresses scheduling. During this week, one of the actresses was out of town. Since we need both actresses, we had to post-pone another filming day. Even though the spies actresses were unavailable, I was able to film my scenes.

Before I went over to Hannah's house, I gathered my props: black headphones and my computer, and my costume: a black tank top, khaki cardigan, and glasses. Once I arrived at Hannah's house, I began to help Hannah with set design. Although most of the set was organized, there were still crucial elements that were missing such as the computers. During the Pre-Production process, Hannah and I forgot to plan the images on the computer during the Monitor's scenes. We only planned to use two computers during these scenes. I suggested having one computer display a certain area of the park that shows the spies are not in position while the other computer will have the layout of the park. This caused me to create the format of the park on the word document while we waited for footage to be dumped onto Hannah's computer. Also, I edited the picture of a briefcase to display the words "Motivation", to help develop suspense for the audience.

On the third day of filming, my major role was as an actress. Since the planning stages, I was cast as the Monitor, the person who oversees the spies' operation. Even though my character is typing on her computer and monitoring the screens, it was a difficult process because my scenes were more focused on the dialogue than the action. In my scenes, I had to act aggressive, sarcastic, annoyed, serious and disappointed as I "watched" the spies fail at being spies. The challenging part was conveying these emotions because I have no acting experiences and I am camera shy. Eventually, I recorded all my scenes and dialogue.

Throughout the filming day, I maintained my role as an organizer. Between the scenes, I would refer to the storyboard, sound script and the shooting script to ensure all the dialogue and the shots were filmed. There were some angles and shots Hannah and I had to change. Due to the position of the desk, it was difficult to film a medium close up of me because of my short stature. This caused the filming to be shot from the side angle at a medium close up. In addition to the organizer, I did direct Scene 10. Although Hannah filmed all the necessary footage, I felt something was missing as Hannah and I reviewed the footage. This caused me to direct the camerawoman Hannah and the Kidnapper to produce a logical and suspenseful kidnapping scene. For instance, I directed to Hannah to film a close up of the Kidnapper holding their wooden stick and a long shot of the Kidnapper walking towards me. I felt the switching of perspectives it would add more suspense to our action movie.

After this filming day, Hannah and I have one more production day.


(This is a picture of me acting as the Monitor.)

Editing Blog: Dumping & Checklist

In AICE Media Studies, I was ready to begin edit the footage because my partner and I was able to film a good quantity of takes on our first filming day. During the first day of editing, I did not immediatly start editing because of minor technical difficulties. One minor technical difficulty is the computer battery. Almost every time I arrived in AICE Media Studies, the computer I've been always using has low. This delayed the editing process because it takes forever for the computer to adjust to a new login. Another minor difficulty was dumping. I tried to dump the footage onto the computer from the SD card but, it didn't show the footage. After Hannah attempted to dumped, our teacher helped us figure the technical difficulty and I dumped the footage while Hannah created the folder for Pinnacle Studios.


 During the first day of the editing process, I was very productive. Although I didn't get to actually physical edit, I was able to review all the takes from the first filming process. My major role during this editing day was to record the most liked take and record which takes need to be re-filmed. In my notebook, I organized it each scenes and listed the decent takes in chronological order of the storyboard. As Hannah and I watched each take, I offered my input and opinions about each take. Together, we would collaborated on which takes would be selected or how to incorporated part of the take without re-filming the entire take. For instance, during one the takes I noticed the actresses were not in their character or they were expressing the wrong emotions. I also noticed the jerkyness or the shakiness of some of the takes and the quietness of the actresses. An example of a take that needs to be re-filmed was a close-up of Kat setting down the phone. This take was not filmed and I think it would  make the film become more appealing.

During the first day of editing, I noticed the "movie mistakes" within the  firs two minutes of the final task. For instance, in Scene 6, there is a pan of the Target walking from a wide-shot. This is a mistake because Cori should be "behind" a tree since the next shot is commenting on the Target's relative position.


(This picture shows me writing the number of each take after Hannah dumped the footage onto the computer.)

Filming Blog: George English Park

On the second day of production, Hannah and our actresses went to my house. A minor job I was tasked with was transportation. Since my house is closer to George English Park, I offered to transport the production crew and cast. The first job I did after we have arrived at the park was given instructions to Kat. Since the setting of Kat's scenes is in a tree, I suggested to Hannah to film all of Kat's scenes because it would cause less confusion going to different locations and back. Once Kat was settled in the tree, I describe the scenes and the emotions she should be expressing. For instance, I would describe the scene and disappointment Kat's character should be expressing after Cori has fallen on the trap. Also, another tasked I fulfilled was give the dialogue to the actresses. Since the actresses were not aware of our sound script, I referred to the sound script to give the actresses their lines before filming. An example that demonstrates this job was Kat's scenes in the tree. Before filming, I would yell her lines since I was lower than Kat. During filming, I would say the Monitor's dialogue to give cues to Kat when she should say her lines.

One of the major jobs I performed was supervisor. Before new takes were being filmed, I checked off the camera shots, angles, movements and actions Hannah capture. Then, I would make decisions on which scenes will be filmed. While the actresses where filming their scenes, I  would follow the storyboard to check if  the actresses and and Hannah were following the shooting script, sound script, and storyboards.

A minor job I performed was lighting. Since the weather was bright and clear, I did not have a major lighting design role. I changed the brightness and color settings on the camera to reduced the glare and add more shadows. Another minor I performed was filming. Since the main camerawoman is an actor, I took over as the camerawoman. As camerawoman, I filmed Hannah's scenes of her walking and tracking shots of Cori following Hannah. That take was difficult because of my short statue. Since I am the smallest of our actresses, I had to walk on my tip toes and hold the camera about 5 inches above my head to include Cori and Hannah. The last minor role I was assigned to was set design. Even though most of the setting is at a park, I had to tie the rope around two trees to make the trap.Since the actresses do not know how to properly a knot, I was in charge in tying the rope on the tree.


Over the next week, I have to come back to George English Park to film the rest of the park scenes since the camera died.

(This is me looking at the sound script off my phone to give dialogue to Kat , who is in a tree. )

Filming Blog: Leila's House

On the first day of the production, Hannah and our actresses went to my house to film scenes 1 to 4. The first day of the filming process was very efficient and organized. Before the director and the cast have arrived, I cleared different locations in my house to create a wider space to film two people and contain two production crew members. After I cleared my bedroom and the kitchen, I gathered the following props: makeup, rope, and earpieces. I made sure these essential props were ready before we began production. Once the cast arrived, I consulted Hannah on our respective jobs and devised a gameplan for the filming production. During this filming day, I acted as a supervisor to ensure Hannah and the actresses were following the storyboards and the sound script. An example is I would refer to the storyboards and sound script during and before the shooting to ensure the actresses were following directions and saying their dialogue. 

 Another primary tasked I performed during this filming shoot was informed the actresses of their lines and to give a break down/ summary of each scene. Using the shooting script, and sound script as a reference, I describe what actions they will be performing and how the dialogue should be spoken. I also explained to them where the camera will be located and what emotions they should be expressing. For instance, at the ending of Scene 2, the actresses realized they are late for their mission. Between each takes, I explained to them they should be expressing fear because the actresses are timid of the Monitor. To achieve these frightening emotions, I advise them to use past situations where they were frightened/scared to be disappointed in. With this advice, the actresses were able to film a perfect take that captures their fear of the Monitor. 

A secondary task I was assigned was lighting. Before Hannah filmed the kitchen  scenes, I played with combinations of lights to see which lighting looked appealing. I also adjusted the lighting design on the camera to become "snow lighting". This caused the takes on camera to have a cool tones and reduced the amount of warm lighting. Another example where I managed the lighting was during Scene 3. As Hannah filmed the over-the-shoulder shots, I was holding a light on the respective actress to highlight the emotions of each actress.

A minor role I was assigned to do was makeup. According to the storyboard, there is going to be a split screen of Cori putting eyeliner on and with another scene of Kat. Even though I dabble in makeup for special occasions, I have experience putting makeup on. So, I painted Cori's faced with eyeliner and massacre for their spy alter ego.

(The picture is me putting eyeliner on Cori. I am wearing the maroon top. )

Planning Blog: Storybboard

Today in AICE Media Studies Hannah and I finalized and uploaded the storyboard. The Storyboarding process was a tedious process that required critical thinking. During last week, I went over to Hannah's house to draft a storyboard to understand which camera angles, shots, movements  ,, transitions and editing techniques that might be included in our final task. Also,Hannah began to sketch rough drawings of the storyboard. These first sketches were figure out the amount of details we wanted to include and confirm the storyboards are on the right track. During this week, Hannah mostly did the drawings while I finished Scenes 9 to 10 and typed out the sentences for our other blogs. Also, I drew the extra details to make the frames more realistic.

In the Google Slide attachment, we attached pictures of the storyboard to each slide. On each Google Slide, we attached pictures of the storyboard to the corresponding scene. In the storyboard, it will detail the camera angles, movements, camera shots, and Mis-en-scene involved in each scene. Also, the storyboards will  list the editing techniques and lighting that will be included in each frame.

Planning Blog: Location, Participants, Health/ Safety, & Schedule

Today in AICE Media Studies Hannah and I finalized our planning blog for locations, participants, health,/safety, and schedule. This is where we edited our schedule and decided whose name will be included in the titles. We also grammar checked our responses and added the images of our locations. During the weekend, Hannah and I met at her house to draft the locations, health/ safety, participants, and schedule. In the Google Slide Attachment, one some of the slides, it will  detail where we are going to film and the safety procedures we will be following. It also details our schedule for our production of our final task along with the list of the participants involved in the making of this film.

The most challenging part of the this blog was the schedule and the locations. Scheduling was difficult because we had to coordinate it to our actors' schedules school-calendar and our own schedules. Planning the locations was not difficult but, it involved critical thinking. For instance, when we can film on the middle school since parts of the middle school is public property. When we were planning the participants it was uncomfortable because we both wanted to give each other more credit. We were able to finish these blogs this evening and we can start on our storyboard blogs.

Planning Blog: Title Design

In AICE Media Studies Hannah and I planned our title design for our final task. This was a tedious and lengthy process because we reviewed different types of fonts, sizes, colors and spacing of  our titles. We didn't realized how much calculation was involved. We had to perfectly time the titles' entrance and format to fit the action conventions. We reviewed the different combinations of fonts and sizes of our Working Title and occupation titles.Then , we had to figure out how long the title should stay on the blog.  The Title Design Blog will detail how the titles will appear and disappear throughout the movie. In the Google Slide attachment, it it details how our Working Title and other titles will be formatted. Hannah and I will reference the Title Design Planning Blog, when Hannah and I are going to inserting Titles into the movie.