Editing Update

Yesterday we are over halfway done with putting together our final production and will be finishing it all by tomorrow if not tonight. I am not going to show you any videos, but just trust me, we are making progress. At the end of class yesterday I got a mini sneak peak and it looks pretty good. We chose to include a variety of shots in the beginning part that I saw which makes it more engaging. I am honestly still surprised by how good the quality looks since we shot it all on an iPhone.  

*For some reason my computer is not letting me put a picture, but I am hoping this works.

Anyways, there were some issues that took place during the editing process with the first setting of our film opening. Julia said that since we filmed at a public field it took a while for her to find the perfect placement of clips where there aren't random people in the background. She said though that by cropping or stopping the clips at certain spots this issue was avoided. 

Another problem was that since we did not have professional high quality movie equipment it was difficult to figure out how to line up the certain clips. Just by constantly watching the clips she was able to figure out which parts were good and stable and which ones weren't. 

In terms of what's next, the rest of the film opening will be finished by the end of tonight. She did say that time may be an issue, but tomorrow in class we will all work together in order to get the perfect timing. We will also possibly add in some foley sounds, which I am going to write about in my next article, to make our film opening even more higher quality. We aren't officially done yet, but this is starting to feel like the beginning of the end to this creative journey for me and my group. 

Week Recap/What's Next

 This week was filled with ups and downs in terms of putting together our project. I always prefer to tell the truth, so I will say that not everything that we wanted to get done got done this week, but we still made sure to utilize our time. 

This week was our Spring Break, so it was more difficult being able to coordinate for all of us to work together. For example, when I got back home from my trip on Tuesday, that Thursday I filmed the rest of our opening by myself with one of my siblings recording the footage. This wasn't too challenging for me because we had everything planned out on a story board, but my whole group wasn't there compared to the last time we filmed. After this, I sent over all of my footage to Julia to start the editing process, but due to her having a dance competition during the break, she was able to get very little of it done. 

Since I filmed the second half of our opening by myself, I told Gabe to record our foley sounds, but he was unable to do that. Despite some of these challenges though, we did other things instead to continue to be productive. For example, we researched what fonts we want to use as our opening credits. I think this was a smart thing for us to do at this time since we can all research that from our own personal devices at home. 

Looking ahead into the future, we are starting to hit the end of this portfolio project journey. We have a little over a week left and will need to act very fast and productive to get everything done. I do think with all the hard work we have done leading up to this that we will be ok.  

What I want to do tomorrow is rewatch all the videos we collected and have Julia and Gabe do the same thing and then comment on if there is any that we need to reshoot if they don't like anything. Julia will also be able to start working on the editing and that will be done by the end of this week. She also said that she has an idea of which song she will be using for some of the music, so that is good as well. In terms of those foley sounds that I mentioned earlier, Gabe said that he will use the time that we have in class to record these. I don't think this should take too long since we have had experience doing this in the past. 

Being able to utilize our class time on top of this next week overall I think will allow us to finish the project and still give us a couple days to review it and make any last second adjustments as well. 

Fonts

It is an essential part to any film opening that there needs to be opening credits and a showcase of the name of the film. In order to do this, this needs to be typed out in fonts. Throughout this blog I am going to provide a few fonts that I think we should use. My idea with these fonts is that it should look like something that belongs on a soccer jersey or fonts that are typically seen on sports shows on TV since this is a sports movie. 

On my quest to find the perfect font I went onto google and typed in "Soccer jersey fonts" to see what would come up. A font that I found that has that soccer jersey/sporty feel is called "Spantaran". 

 As you can see, this font looks perfect, but there is one issue: this font costs $25.00. I'm not saying I do not take this class or project seriously, but I do not think it is worth investing my money to buy a font. Instead, I went snooping around my Google Docs to find some similar fonts. A couple of the fonts that I found that are similar to this are Rye, Impact, and Oswald. 

Here is an example of each font. 

The reason why I chose all these three fonts besides the fact that they all kind of look similar is that they are all very bold and are catching to the eye. I don't want the fonts to draw away from the action on screen, but I feel like these fonts are more clear and aren't hard to see even from far away which I like.

I will certainly keep my hunt for more fonts continuing, but for now these are a few that I am interested in and will probably use. 

Filming Day 2

 I know. I lied. I thought I would get back from my vacation in the beginning of the day on Tuesday, but it ended up being too late. We ended up doing our second day of filming on Thursday instead of the day I said, Tuesday. In filming yesterday, we recorded all of the scenes that took place in the second set which was at my house. 

The filming process this time I would say was not as smooth. There are a lot of mini details that go into filming such as holding objects the same way, keeping the setting looking exactly the same, and more. This definitely made the process a little bit annoying however, I wanted to strive for excellence and that is what we needed to do. 

There were some changes made to help get the filming done quicker. Instead of having both a mom and the dad in the film we just included the mom only. The dad served as an insignificant role and could have added a lot more confusion because the dad only had one set of lines. It can also possibly add some suspense for viewers wondering about the story on Gabriel's dad. 

There are also some things that we may have to reshoot. The argument between Gabriel and his mom I think needs to be shot with some more different angles. One idea I have for this is maybe using a close up of their mouths yelling at each other. Luckily by filming yesterday, we got time to go through the footage, edit, and figure out what we need to change or add. Another scene that I didn't like too much was of Gabriel sitting in his bedroom on the computer. I think it is insignificant and doesn't really do much to the story since nothing else takes place in that room. 

Something we may or may not add is sound for the voice of the college coach that calls Gabriel's home phone. It will be a voice over, but in order to make it sound legit we will need to record it on our phones and then edit the audio to sound like it is coming through a phone. 

Overall, yesterday felt like a productive day being able to record a huge portion of our project. 

Here are some stills from filming yesterday.

Foley Sound Ideas

 I remember earlier in the year when I learned about Foley sounds. The experience was something that I think goes under appreciated in film. It may seem like all the sounds are recorded on the spot when they are actually recorded on the side and mixed in in editing. In this article, I am going to discuss and write about what certain sounds I think should require a foley for sure. There may be more, but off the top of my head these are some that I am thinking of. 

Kicking Soccer Ball: This sound is something that needs to be used and heard in the film opening. When playing soccer, the athlete is able to hear the sound of the ball when they kick it (which in my opinion I find the sound satisfying). If the audience is viewing our main character Gabriel playing soccer, they should be able to hear the sound of the ball as well. A couple of ideas I have to create this sound is to either have a sneaker hit the ball stationary and record it or also I think the sound of clashing both of my sneakers together will also create a similar effect. 

Getting Phone Out of Bag and Carrying Bag: This sound will take place when Gabriel runs away from the soccer field. I remember from filming that the sling bag that I used did make some noise, but it probably wasn't picked up by the iPhone we were using to film. In order to make this sound we can utilize a bag or a fabric or plastic and rub that together to make the same sound the bag makes when the bag touches each other. 

Footsteps: The footsteps will more than likely be used within the house scene whenever there is movement of the characters. In my very short, but still valuable experience with foley, we used my back pack and mushing it together to sound like footsteps. We also did some walking on certain surface and recorded that as well to help depict what kind of steps we wanted and on what surface. I think that we can use these similar strategies for steps to go along with the film opening as well. 

These are a few sounds that I can think of off the top of my head that we can really use foley for. I believe that for other sounds we may need like the sounds of doors, or the sound of a computer we will probably just use by recording someone actually doing that instead of using a unique foley. 

Shooting Plan #2

 On Sunday we only filmed the scenes that involved soccer. We now need to find another day to film the part that takes place within a house. We start Spring Break on Friday which we are all entitled to being able to take some time off from school, however the grind can't stop. I go out of town until Monday and plan on filming the house scene on Tuesday. 

This is convenient since I play the part of Gabriel and my parents have agreed to act as the parents in our film opening. I am also very fortunate to have another sibling who is in high school that can film while the rest of us are acting in my house. This is very convenient for the rest of my group members because by having me film the rest of it at my house allows us to not worry about scheduling a date and time for the three of us to meet and I can just do this independently. It can also allow for other members of the group to focus on other aspects of the project, more specifically post production and start editing the soccer clips while I film, This two birds with one stone approach is something that I think is very helpful and is a main reason why I wanted to work with at least a couple of people.

An issue that you may be thinking about filming by myself is if the quality will change between different phones, but we came prepared with this issue because we have so far filmed everything, including the soccer scenes, all on my phone so the quality will not change. 

You may also be wondering what I am going to do with all the footage on my phone if I am not going to be the main one editing at the time. Through the technology of a shared album on Apple Photos,  I can share all the footage that is on my phone to both of my group members in one album for all of them to see. 

Once this filming process is complete this leaves us with over a week and a half to finish up editing and make any other revisions that we may have to make to our project. 

Shooting Day 1

 Today is currently Tuesday and on Sunday we had our fist day filming our film opening. We met up at approximately 4:00 PM EST at one of the locations that I wrote about in my setting blog. At Regional Park we were able to find an ample amount of soccer goals. I brought a soccer ball, a couple of Gatorade bottles, and a sling bag, and Gabe also brought a sling bag to add to the esthetic. 

We started off filming by collecting some b-roll. We gathered footage of a couple parents that we saw playing with their kids and got their permission to potentially include them in our project. We also recorded multiple clips of Gabe and I playing soccer to use in the beginning of our intro. One of my favorite shots of this sequence has to be of me juggling the soccer ball and Julia filming behind the net. I won't put the shot in here so that I don't spoil anything, but if we use it it looks cool. 

After filming multiple clips of us playing soccer, we then started the dialogue. I'm not going to lie, it was a little difficult for me to not laugh during this filming process. I don't know what it is about it, but I just couldn't keep a straight face for the most part. Luckily though I was able to control myself and we got good shots of dialogue. I wrote a previous article about how I was concerned about sound, but it ended up turning out to be ok. Thanks Apple! 

Finally, we ended our filming of a shot of me running away which will be where we pick off on filming day 2 at our next location. I am going to write a separate blog on this plan in order to elaborate on what the plan is. 

Here are a few stills from our project so far. 

Music to my Ears

    In almost everything, music can always be heard. When you are in a grocery store, driving a car, buying close, or watching a commercial, music is everywhere. While we considered at one point in time to maybe not use any music at all, we decided that it would be important to use music in our film opening. 

    One main reason for why we chose to use music is that it will be able to help contrast the feelings that Gabriel has when he is playing soccer compared to when he is seeing his parents. We will use more upbeat music when he is playing soccer and when he sees his parents the music will be more somber. 

    Having the beginning sequences of our opening take place outside, having some upbeat music can add to the scenery of being outside with a sunny backdrop and blue skies. It will also help us with balancing out some of the natural sounds that may be heard when filming outside because the sound of the wind may be less focused on and instead people can focus more on the music. Another important ability that the music can do can make parts such as when looking at the credits more entertaining. What is just seeing words on a screen can be turned into a more entertaining fashion because there will be music for people to listen to while looking at the credits. 

    We are allowed to use any kind of music that we want, but the one issue is that we would have to go through the process of emailing production companies in order to get rights to use those songs. Instead, we have chosen to take advantage of the copyright free music that is out there on the internet and use that in our film opening instead. 

    Through websites such as Bensound and Adobe Stock, we were able to find copyright free music that we would like to use. Some of the names of these sounds that we will use in the soccer scene are "moose, high octane, and rumble". 

Prop List

 T-Minus two days until we film. In order to keep staying organized and getting everything in order, we made a prop list of objects that we will need for filming in class today. I am going to write a mini explanation for why we need each of these items and where we will get them.

Prop List: 

• Soccer Ball - We need this to play soccer and illustrate that Gabriel and Daniel are practicing. This is an object that I can bring from my house.

• Soccer Goal - We need this to help contribute to the setting that it is taking place at a soccer field and that it is a soccer movie. This will be found on set at Regional Park.

• iPhone - We need an iPhone as a prop to illustrate that our characters are in the upper class. All of my group members own an iPhone, so we will use one of our own phones.

• Car keys - This helps to illustrate the upper class environment since our character has his own car. Our group members all own cars so we will be able to use one of those.

• Car - This is also similar to why we need the car keys.

• Mac Laptop - These are very high end laptops that convey that this character is upper class status. I own a Mac so we can probably use mine.

• Couch - We will use the couch in my house for the parents to sit on when Gabriel walks into the house.

• TV - A TV will be in place in the living room. Having these technological devices will prove that this family does have a lot of money.

• Bed - As the opening transitions into the bedroom there will be a bed that Gabriel can lay on to get upset. I have a bed in my room that we can use.

• Desk - Gabriel could also sit at his desk to get upset. I have one of these in my room that we can use.

• House phone - We will use a house phone when the coach calls the mom because this is something that my house still has and uses. A lot of houses also have house phones and since this part will be in the house the phone call should take place on the house phone.

• Backpack - When Gabriel and Daniel are finishing up, they will need to grab their backpacks to bring home. Everyone in our group has backpacks. Athletes usually bring backpacks around to their practices to carry whatever goods we need.

• Water Bottle - Finally, everybody needs a water bottle if you are playing a sport. I have a few green Gatorade bottles at my house that I can bring for the two character's to use at practice.

Fortunately for us, all of these props are objects that I think we will be able to find within our houses to bring or in our settings like at Regional Park there will be soccer goals.

Costumes

Everyday humans need to come up with the answer to this question: What am I going to wear today? In this blog, I am going to answer that question in terms of what my characters should wear in the film opening. The exact pieces of clothing may not be replicated, but the general vibe that comes with these clothes will. 

Gabriel and Daniel: I envision Gabriel and Daniel wearing clothes similar to this. I just want to clear this up that they will not be matching lol. Anyways, I want these two characters to wear these clothes because these drift shirts and shorts along with sneakers are common clothing for athletes to wear.  I also like the fact that both this shirts, shorts, and shoes aren't loud clothes and they don't draw attention away from the story itself. I would also like for both of these characters to wear similar characters to illustrate that they are both at the same social status in life which proves that these two are very good friends. 

Mom: For the mom I would like her to wear something similar to this outfit. When Gabriel will be interacting with his mom it will be happening at his house, so the mom shouldn't be dressed to formally, but she should still look serious and intimidating. These clothes are also nice which can add to the point that this family is from more of an upper class position in society. Some jewelry accessories will be necessary. 

Dad: For the Dad I also wanted him to be in clothes that are a little bit casual since they are at home, but also clothes that illustrate the family's upper class status. An outfit like this is something that looks casual, but is clearly nice enough to illustrate the upper class status. Since they will be at home there is no reason for the dad to be in a suit or dress pants and a shirt. Some accessories like a watch might be able to further bring the point home of the family's wealth. 

Story Board

 In class on Tuesday we made sure to finish our story board. Even though story board art does not have to be perfect, I have bad handwriting and horrendous drawing skills even for a story board so Julia wrote and drew most of it. In the story board we included both a visual of the kind of shot we want and also a description of that shot. 

Today in class we did a visual analysis essay and I thought of this when coming up for what we should include in our story board. I wanted to make sure that our shots had meaning to them and that there was some sort of symbolism in our film opening. 

I've written about a couple of examples of our symbolism throughout the blog so I will have to provide a different example. We chose to include the shot of the main character Gabriel scoring a goal because it helps to showcase that Gabriel is actually talented at soccer. This piece of information will be essential to including in our story because it illustrates that he has potential and should be supported. 

There were also other shots that don't have as much meaning but are more to add to the flow of our piece. For example, we would like to include a variety of different shots and angles to make it a more engaging watch. 

Sound Concerns

Yesterday in class, Gabriel brought up a great point that sound is going to be really difficult for this project. I do not think he is wrong. We do not have professional cameras or equipments so when we film with our phone outside it may be hard to hear the dialogue and there will definitely be a lot of natural sounds. This would make our audio sound very poor which is something we do not want to do.

An idea of something we can utilize is an attachable lavalier microphone that will be plugged into the phone that we use to film. On Amazon, I found one that costed $11.88. I wouldn't mind paying for this all on my own because I may use this for future projects anyways. Using this microphone will allow the audio to be focused in on the dialogue and less focused on the natural sounds that are going on in the background. 

Another option that we may use is recording the audio is as voice over and then putting synching that with what is being filmed. This may sound a little clearer but this will definitely take more time. We would have to record the voice overs separate from filming in person which would take more time. It will probably be difficult to edit the footage because we will have to synch the footage. 

We will definitely have to do some strategies similar to a voice over by creating some foley sounds. For example, the phone being picked up will probably be recorded along with kicking the basketball and more. There will definitely be some aspects of having to synch audio to our filming in one way or another. 

I don't know right now exactly which strategy we may use but it is always good to have options. I plan on also talking to my teacher and other groups to figure out what they did to combat this issue. 

Shooting Schedule

These blogs would be kind of pointless if we never ended up creating any sort of piece to go along with it.  We have chosen that we are going to start our filming process on Sunday, March 13th. We picked this day because it is a weekend so we have a lot more time on our hands to film and still have time to go through and select the best footage. 

We are going to have Gabriel in our group play the part of Daniel and ironically even though my name is not Gabriel I am going to play the part of Gabriel. I am going to do this because my parents will also be acting in our film opening. To go along with our shooting schedule, I am going to film the part with the parents at my house after that or later that week. This makes the process easier if I am Gabriel because we won't need the whole team to come over to film this specific part since it will just be at my house with my parents.

Having all our filming done before Spring Break which starts after a half day on March 17th. This will give us all of Spring Break and the few days before that to edit our film opening. Editing shouldn't take more than a few days maximum, so once that process is done we will have at least a week or two to make edits and revisions to our project and try to perfect it.