Editing process

Some encounters we had during editing:

Now that we have started editing like I mentioned earlier we encountered some problems. Problems along everyone's way is normal and probably very common. As editing takes place, mistakes and other things such as failure to do some things happen. We, ourselves encountered some problems. 

For example, the computer not working in school and  Sebastien's computer isn't meant for editing. 

 

 -First when we were uploading the clips at school it wasn't working, but once we got home I used my computer which then it final worked. The seconded problem is that Sebastian computer isn't meant for editing so we has said it does take some extra time to work and that why i have started contributing more to the editing as my computer which i use to edit photos is better fit to edit the opening. 

--We are hoping to finish the editing process by Monday so that we can then focus on our CCR, otherwise so far it has been going smoothly and I got really excited seeing some of the clips as it look like an actual movie scene, like the shot of all the boys looking down at the bag. I will update you guys when I am finish and mention any other problems we encountered when filming.

These are just some screenshots of our videos lined up for us to use and edit as well as the videos being put in the app we will be using to edit, ClipChamp, which isn't my favorite but it will have to be.

That is a good way to end a Saturday. Didn't we have fun this week. Tomorrow I will talk more in detail on some things. STAY TUNED!

Foley sounds

 Our foley sounds!!

I told you guys today will be very fun as we take a step closer to finish the Portfolio Project, but also filming our process to really finish it. Today I will show you guys our foley sounds. What are foley sounds? Well, it's not very complicated. Foley sounds are sounds that every production company uses to make sounds as the films go on. For example, footsteps. Many productions record the sound of either a person walking or shutting a door, to make the sound very clear and not use the one from the actual filming.

We, ourselves filmed a few foley sounds, like footsteps, door opening and closing, as well as a duffel bag opening. We did this because in our film opening, we utilized these things, so in order to make the audience clear on what they are watching, we recorded these foley sounds just to make sure you all get a better understanding and clear visual understanding of the overall film. 

Here are the videos:

The first video I provided was the footsteps as we will most definetely need that one as myself as well as the other actors walked in the film opening. Meaning, we will absolutely have to utilize these footsteps to show that these characters are not only walking but also to create that realistic tone. The second foley sound we have to use is the duffel bag as I opened it during the production and is the main point of the whole film opening, which is where the three friends get stuck in the trance. And finally the last foley sound, which was the door opening and closing in which we did quite a bit of that when filming for the final product.

I hope you guys had fun, seeing our foley sounds which you will for sure listen as we post our final product in these following weeks. We don't have much time until it all ends.

Stay tuned for tomorrow!

Research for CCR #1

 The CCR!!

The CCR isn't only another assignment, it is a crucial part in the overall Portfolio Project. As it can't be boring I will need to find many different ways in which I can corporate techniques and just a good background for my CCR #1 but also the rest. 

The question for the first CCR is:

---"How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues."

Different things will have to be done in order to achieve a good CCR, especially for the first one which is the intro to the rest of them. By all means, this are the things I will have to do for this CCR #1:

1. Discuss the genre conventions/cite it: 

-Genre conventions mean the familiar, standardized rules-such as character archetypes, settings, and the devices for the plot-that define a specific category of anything such as media.

2.  Discuss which genre conventions you chose: 

-As everyone not just me will have to pick the genre conventions they will utilize as well as how to discuss it, my group but especially myself will choose some and discuss it in the short film for the CCR #1.

3. Discussion of representation:

-This one specifically will be the easiest one to do as representation isn't too far off from just viewing but also understanding what is going on in the film, in this case our own film opening being about a group of friends who get together to chill and have fun, but encounter a weird bag across their view and get stuck in a trance as they look inside it, then the 4th friend who they were going to meet up with, was in shock to find nothing but the car and their belongings.

Use of conventions in the film opening:

1. One convention we utilized in the film opening is a sting. It starts as three friends in the car, waiting, talking, bored. Then we added a sting as I noticed the random black bag in the street. As we wanted to utilize the sting to further show it's a thriller, we did this to signal in a shift in tension to point out the exact moment when something ordinary becomes threatening.

2. Another use of convention that we utilized was an isolated setting. Which we used because an empty parking lot at night creates vulnerability and suspense.

3. We also used a Supernatural object(the bag) similar to Talk to Me’s embalmed hand or Jaws’ unseen threat, our random bag becomes the catalyst for danger as one of the friends notice it which would be me. 

How we challenged it:

1. The characters don’t scream, run, or fight. Instead, they silently fall into a trance, which is more unsettling and less predictable, which we did to create a weird sense for the audience to realize.

How does it represent social groups or issues?

1. The product represents teenage boys in a realistic way as they are shown as casual, curious, and careless which we absolutely did as our film opening was basically a teenage friend group which encounters a weird object.

-Overall, our product uses thriller conventions through mystery, suspense, and isolated settings. While at the same time challenging it by having teenage characters in a suburban environment. This balance creates a relatable and suspenseful film.

Well, that is all for today's blog, tomorrow will be a fun ride as I will show you guys our foley sounds that we will utilize for the film.

I hope you all we invested in this blog and stay tuned for the next one!

The production process

Our process while filming:

-I told you guys that today was a very interesting and special day. I have come behind the scenes clips of us on friday filming our opening for the Portfolio Project. It was very fun yet so complicated. As we had many issues and concerns throughout just getting there in general but we made it and we did the best we could. All of this time in the blogs for you guys to see our process. I hope you like it so far

-As you migh hear in these videos, my coughing, as i mentioned before i went there while being sick. Not only did I get sick but my whole family too, even my brother which now has a fever. It is interesting how all these little issues were resolved in about 2 hours. The sickness, the car, and even my brother fully confirming he was going to take part as an actor in our film.

-This was at the start of our production, maybe around 5:45pm as we were getting started. Some slips aren't shown yet as we need to further develop this recordings for our final opening film. Just to remind and refresh you with our casting, Teo which is the owner of the car, driver of the car, and actor in our film did a fantastic job, considering he was a last minute call-up. I was the charactor with the most screen time, Christian Schroder, but in the film being Sebastian. My brother Stefan Schroder is one of the friends in the car and Kai being the final actor as well as the producer as you will see in these vidoes. And finally the cameraman, Sebastien Nicolas was director/cinematographer which you will clearly see in these pieces of production we put together for you guys to enjoy and watch our journey.

The start: #1

2 hours in the production: #2

                                                                       At the end: #3

That was all for today and this week's blogs. I can asure you that this following week we will have a blast.

Stay tuned for next week's blogs. Bye!

Some issues we encountered

 Reasoning:

Like probably many other film openings, concerns pop out of nowhere. Either someone couldn’t show up or even the location that was suggested to be the filming spot wasn’t a good fit.

Some of our issues: 

-I recently mentioned this issue in the casting blog, which wad Kai’s brother cancelling on us. He had baseball practice on friday which fully didn’t work for us. Saturday, me and my brother would not be able to attend and on Sunday Sebastien couldn’t show up, so Friday was the go to day for us to film our opening. 

-Following that, a very key reason we needed Kai’s brother to act in the film was because as neither of us had a drivers license, and we absolutely needed a car in our film opening, concerns grew and we weren’t sure what would be needed. Then, Kai had the brilliant idea to contact another guy which is enrolled in the same class but different periods which had a license and most importantly a car! He later carried on to be the driver of the 3 friends in the car which really helped us a lot. Considering he was very late to show up, we didn’t really give him a hard time, since we had no other choice.

- That same Friday, during school, I started feeling bad, as if I was going to fall in the floor. I had later realized that I was slowly getting sick. This started 8th period during my science class in which we had taken a quiz. I just really started feeling bad, but it wasn’t until I had gotten to my house where I started sweating and have had pains all over my body. I told the group on our group chat we have, that I might not be able to make it. They were worried as I was the main character in the film. My mom gave me 2 ibuprofen pills for relieve the pain, then 2 hour later I felt a bit better. Even though I was sick, it was clear that I needed to show up. After many concerns, I did show up, and actually felt unbothered while I was there. It was very fun and felt as if my sickness just magically went away. It got late so me and my brother went back to our house, and there it was, I felt extremely sick and woke up the following day with a fever. What a good way to end the problems.

Well, that was all for today.

See you guys tomorrow!

Our casting

 Our casting for the film opening:

The people involved in the film opening we recently filmed: Christian Schroder(me), Stefan Schroder(my brother), Kai, sebastien, and Teo.

Everything involved were extremely helpful to the plot as well as the overall smoothness of the production.

Kai’s brother had cancelled us and couldn’t make it to help us out so we had to call up Teo, which is enrolled in the same class but different period as he is just helping us out. 

Teo: 

His character in the film opening was the driver of the car as well as one of the three friends who got stuck in a trance later on. He had the least screen time as he was replacing someone else and didn’t know much of our opening film production. Even though, he didn’t really catch the theme at the start, he did a very good job as we filmed.

Stefan Schroder(my brother):

 He was always supposed to be a part of our film, through our past film opening ideas he was going to have the star role but as we moved forward we changed ideas and his role. He was one of the three friends in the car who got into the trance. He did a wonderful job as he has had some previous film experience in the past. 

Christian Schroder(me):

I acted as a character named Sebastian, which was the main characters name. We struggled a bit since I don’t know why but I found everything funny when the cameraman was filming but I handled it and controlled my emotions, allowing me to act at a decent level and finish the film opening in a good way.

Our cameraman- Sebastien Nicolas:

We decided that Sebastien should be the camera man as in our previous projects, he was the one filming. He also directed the film and made sure every shot was stable for the audience to fully comprehend and visually understand the whole point of our production.

Kai Raider:

Kai was also directing behind the scenes as his character was supposed to be introduced towards the end of the film opening, following the fact that the three friends which started in the car had disappeared. As well as directing, his character was introduced as well which made him have a key role in the overall production.

That was all for today’s blog. Very interesting as I proceed to give many details for our upcoming film opening.

Stay tuned for another amazing blog tomorrow. Bye!

Production post for creation of our production company logo

 The process in creating our logo:

The creation of our logo wasn't exactly hard, the only difficult part was maybe the animations that the logo requires to have. Me and my parters took one class only to complete this task and with teamwork we completed the logo by the end of the class.

The letters included in the logo are SMR in which the S is for Sebastien's first name, M for my middle name Matthias, and R for Kais last name Raider. We had some thoughts and came up with this. First name at the start, middle name in the middle and last name at the end. I think this is clever and very professional for the Portfolio Project.

Different stages in creating our logo:

Our initial logo idea was plane and we didn't like it for the logo which later on we definitely switched it, but here it is:

The middle process: Specifically the color change and the quality change.

And lastly the final product of our logo:

As they are all screenshots, the quality is a bit off, but in the final stages of the Portfolio Project, we will make sure the quality isn't like this.

That is all for today, tomorrow I will include details regarding the casting for the the film opening.

See you guys tomorrow!

Focusing on character development

 A little background on what character development is:

Character development is usually done to establish and complete the reasoning behind the character. It can be expressed or showed through their face expressions as well as how they dress and also by the way they carry themselves. Character development is not only crucial but it is the most important aspect to a film, especially if it aims to be the best.

-Enough of that. Character development is much more complex than that. Charcuterie development can be achieved through techniques such as: a backstory, defining motivations, using dialogue and most importantly creating an intense bunch of emotions.

How we will establish it:

The ideas and facts behind character is easy to mention but to actually make it well and develop the characters in a way that the audience can understand our thoughts and feelings can be hard, and we are very much aware.

-As we have a group of people that will act in our film opening we will develop their character in many different ways. For example, we will create emotion to express their feelings for greater audience attention as we will detail everything as best as possible.

Well, that was it for this week of blogs. Next week will be epic as we are moving forwards into the Portfolio Project.

Stay tuned and remember, have fun!

Focusing on our audio

 A little background on the project idea:

Our project will include a series of emotions throughout the opening. A lot will happen in a few minutes that will later on be established for better understanding of the overall film. The idea itself is decently hard but we will make it the best version that it could be.

Why we need audio?

The audio for this film opening is crucial. Not only because it’s ideal to have audio for our idea but many diffrerent types of audio will be needed, especially for us. As a group we have decided to include the characters voices as well as background noise as we will need it to establish the point that the characters came back from a party as said in previous blogs.

What types of audio:

The types of audio will definitely vary. For example, we will most definitely include the characters voices throughout the film. Other then the fact that we will use regular music to indicate the group of friends came from a party, we are thinking of adding another sound or music type of thing to better the understanding of the overall plot and theme of the film.

That’s is it for today, tomorrow will be epic as I will talk about character development.

Bye!

Mise-en-scene element: costume

 Our costumes for film opening:

For our film opening as a group, we decided that the characters will represent teenagers leaving a party of some  type. They will continue to go to the car and such but we plan to establish the fact that they were at a party from the music they are hearing and the overall vibe.

As we won’t actually place the characters in the party or leaving, the clothing that we use will be very important to show the whole leaving a party type of thing.

We plan to use casual clothing: graphic tees, ripped jeans, plain black shirt, and even joggers. As this will be a very key and important thing for our film opening, we very much need to keep working and figuring out what will work best, not only for the overall theme of the opening but to establish and allow audiences to understand the characters in general.

Lastly, as a group we decided to include other people outside of our in class group. So based on their own personal style and ourselves in general, we will do our best to underneath everyone’s wants to make this film opening the best and most entertaining as well as understanding film opening that we could make.

That is all for today, tomorrow there will be much more to discover.

Have fun with it and of course, stay tuned!

Planning post focusing on mise-en-scene element: Location

 Possible Locations:

One of the mise-en-scene elements that are required and extremely important for a film opening is the setting or in other words the location. Many locations are good, but the ones we picked together to potentially film are Vista Park, Regional Park, St. Paul's church, and Tequesta trace park. All of these are very good options but depending on how crowded it is and such, we would need to select one and stick to it.

Vista Park:

Vista Park is considered a soccer park as it is a training facility for Weston Fc. We would use the back where the parking lot is. As we plan to film Saturday's, we would need to see if it is crowded with soccer games and most importantly cars. Since it is always crowded with people, vista might be utilized as a backup plan.

Regional Park:

Regional Park is one of the only parks that I attend a lot. Whether it is for soccer practice, rinks tournaments, and even birthdays, I do a lot there. Now, this park is severely crowded at points, as it is a largely known park for soccer, swimming, basketball, and other events. Since many activities take place in Regional Park, my group and I need to figure out the best day and the best time to film our film opening. We will most likely be filming as it gets dark and most likely in the parking lot as our story contains of that.

St. Paul's church:

St. Paul's church is another location where we consider filming as it has space for our film opening to take place. Of course we aren't going to film in the church, our session will take place outside, most likely in a parking lot. This was recommended by Kai, one of my partners for this project, not only on its space it has but the interesting surroundings that we might need for our Portfolio Project.

Tequesta trace park:

This is another park that has football/soccer, American football, basketball... It is known for its events that take place there, so we need to be considering that too. This park is also near a school, so another thing to consider as well. We would film, not only this but all locations, in the back of them, most likely in the parking lots that these places have.

We are leaning towards filming in the back of Vista Park near the softball fields where the parking lot takes place.

That is it for today, tomorrow I will be back with another huge update! 

Stay tuned because we will be back. 

Bye!
 

Storyboard

 Our storyboard:

- The story board and script for our Portfolio Project is key for the overall grade and the quality of the film as we surely need both for sound and to know exactly how the film opening will be. In this Kai which is one one my partners for the project sketched the storyboard which was crucial for our thriller film opening.

The story board:

That is all for today. The following week will be very interesting so stay tuned and ready for more!

Media Theory to integrate in film opening

 Media Theory:

One of the requirements that the teacher has said, is to integrate a media theory into our Portfolio Project, which we struggled a bit on due to the confusion on these theories, but together we figured out what media theory we wanted to do. And that is the enigma code from Roland Barthes narrative codes.

Enigma Code:

The enigma code is a narrative technique as stated above, in which a story withholds information to create mystery or leave a plot point unexplained. To keep the audience watching and entertained, the plot is structured in a way that there is jo clear explanation for why anything is happening. Enigma codes are frequently utilized in thrillers, which we want to do, and mystery films due to the suspense and engagement they create through questions that rise but aren't answered.

A little about how we will integrated:

-We will apply the Enigma code in Hollow Point by never revealing what the glowing bag is or what happens to the three friends after they enter the trance, and by having the fourth friend show up. Since the audience isn't shown what is inside the bag and isn't given any explanation of what this trance is, it makes them think of certain things, like, 'Does the bag have powers?', 'Where did the friends go?' and 'How did the bag get there?'

Today was a short one, but a detailed one. Keep tuned for another post tomorrow in which will get a little more interesting.

Stay tuned!

Our inspiration and Idea

 Our idea:

-Our initial ideas is that three friends in a car in an empty parking lot at night, waiting for one other friend. One of the friends in the car notices a strange bag in the middle of the parking lot. He tells the others, then steps out to check it. When he opens the bag, he enters a trance. The others start yelling at him, and they also go out to see what he's looking at, but they are too caught up in their own trance. Then the scene cuts to the fourth friend walking up. When he gets there, the car is still running, with no one in sight except a strange bag and some of his friends' personal belongings lying on the floor. 

-This idea is in the thriller genre, and we try to make it at night to seem more suspenseful and intense. We came up with the title being "Hallow Point", as "Hollow" relates to the emptiest part of the parking lot, and to the emptiest of people's minds when they are in a trance. The point that came from the bag is a specific point from the hollowness of the rest. It hints at emptiness and danger without revealing the plot, making it effective for a thriller film, as it can spark curiosity. I believe that the ideas is overall very solid as well as the title. The title represents the overall theme and the whole point of the film.

Our inspiration:

-For the film opening and our idea we surely did research and found some inspiration. We found "Talk to Me" very interesting, later inspiring us to make a possessed type of theme. But instead of doing the horror part of the film, we included the thriller part of it and of course the key thing that happens in "Talk to Me."

 "Talk to me" is about a hand that signifies the devil, in which when someone holds he hand, they get into a trance kind of being possessed by it. That's kind of when we got the idea for our own film opening.

-This film really speaks out to us in a way that no other did. So, we go this idea from this film but extracted the horror part like the devil into some other thing so it's thriller and not horror. We haven't gotten an exact idea of what comes after the film opening, even though we aren't doing that part, but of course, we want to establish that. We would not use the horror part of the film just the thriller.

Our other inspiration: "Jaws"

Jaws is a thriller film about a shark that attacks people. Because this film, many sequels came out being inspired by it.

So did we, but not about the sharks and such. We really focused on the opening for our own. The opening starts with a group of friends drinking and eating, really just chilling, like we want to do. Not only the friends at the start but the curiosity after. As the girl starts running in the water, the boy that was following seemed confused in which we are trying to do. The 4th friend trying to find the other three in a trance is confused on where they are as the boy in "Jaws" was about the girl.

That was all for today's blog. Tomorrow I will be back for another post, stay focused and tuned for my next blog. See you soon!

Group meeting #1 reflection

Group meeting #1 reflection

Our group idea: Our own ideas is that 3 friends are chilling, eating and just talking in the car late at night while waiting for the 4th friend. As they drive they come across a bag in the middle of nowhere. One person yell at the rest and they go and check it out. While they wait for their friend, they look in the bag and get cough up in their own trance. While their belongings are in the floor and car is on running, the other friend tries contacting them but can't as they are in a trance. 

-We surely need to improve some things as some ideas we got from our peers were, a low angle shot from the bag, maybe include less people in the film opening, and instead of a trance its a portal and they, very fast, close it and take it with them. Some ideas might help and us ourselves might need to change.

 Samuel: His Portfolio Project ideas for his film opening seemed a little disoriented as he didn't have any clear idea. Samuel had said that his group's film opening is going to take place in a medical room, as a famous doctor treats a famous person and the famous person dies. As this person died, the doctor gets blamed or everything. The idea wasn't very clear in which more work should b implemented. 

Trisha: Her idea seemed interesting, as it is about an evil robot or some kind of AI. She was a little lost on the fact that she needs to establish a way in which the audience would know the evil that is happening is a robot/AI. The  ideas is about a girl in her house, the doorbell rung and she went to check it out. As she looks outside there is no one in view. When she goes back in after checking, she finds that something is off. She had said that maybe the lamp or an object that wasn't there before. This ideas is very good and I liked it, but the way in which she has to make sure the audience knows the evil isn't a person has to be further developed. 

Ethan: This was the most interesting film opening idea I heard in the group meeting #1. It is a Sci-fi movie, in which a rocket breaks in space while the astronaut is in it. He has said that the production set will take about 2-3 weeks to make which is very long. He also said, and it was very cool, that for the astronaut he is going to use a stick bot toy, in which is usually used for navigation but in this case it will be as a prop/main character. He had mentioned that the lighting will be what he struggles the most with. But I personally think he can manage it and do his best. I surely want to see the end result of his film opening as it seems very interesting.

Avery: Another well developed and interesting idea was Avery's. Her idea was about a cheerleader that cheers but also is a drug dealer. her in a basketball player work together to deal drugs. Her initial idea was that the cheerleader, after practice, rushed at a van with a kind of black color to signify that she is a drug dealer. Going to the van with drugs after the practice really shows a development and makes sure to leave the audience in a cliff ganger as well as with an idea of where they are going.

That is all for today. I will be back for the next one.

Stay tuned!

Thriller based credit scenes.

 Credit scenes: In thriller films, credit scenes are key, as they are treated as part of the storytelling, not just list people. What I mean by listing people, is, credit scenes can be at the start or at end.

 They begin listing the cast and other production people who worked and helped develop the film. Credit scenes apart from the cast and production poeple, they provide the title and play music/video.

In this case, I will provide some research about thriller opening scenes, due to our Portfolio Project being a film opening, meaning we need to include the credit scenes at the start, definetely not at the end. I will use thriller credit scenes because our chosen genre is thriller as for now, meaning I will research about credit scenes that contain the genre thriller to gain experience and inspiration.

First thriller credit scene: (Se7en)

                               Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k2gsEI34CE&utm

Overview: This credit scene shows disturbing close-ups of a person cutting photos, stiching what appears to be skin, and writing a lot into a notebook. This credit scene that not only shows the production but also develops the theme of the film. 

It indeed creates unease at the start of the film which initially tells the audience what the film will be about. It shows obsession without any context through using chaotic editing as well as the weird and unsettling music in the backround.

Second thriller credits: (Zodiac)

                        Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwS0XRJRKlE&utm

Overview: This credit scene opening is exactly what me and my partners are aiming to accomplish in our own film opening.The film opens wityh families outside, kids playing, fireworks in the sky as the camera slowly moves around the neighborhood in which the zodiac symbol and credit scenes appear on screen.

This opening appears as joyful as everyone seems happy and just a chill neighborhood, but later on tragic things happen. The film opening tries to establish a tone just for it later to change very quickly which very much affects the overall plot.

Third credit scene: (Vertigo)

Overview: The credits show a womans face, then her eye, in which turns into some type of spiraling shape. While credit scenes and weird images, the music is played and purposely made unsettling for viewers to feel some type of way.

The spirals are used in the opening credit scene to symbolize obsession and loss of control, as well as a unease. It isn't only famous and well known for the rare opening but it is recognized as a very unique credit scene, maily because of the weird figures and such but the credit scenes very much help with the theme. 

This opening is for sure a good inspiration for my Portfolio Project and migh be a very good opening to look over in the upcoming days.

That is all for today. See yall in the next one.