Not filming Blog

        After all the planning and the storyboarding, we had to plan. We had to plan when we were going to film. Not only that, but also how and the details. We hope to have everything ready by this week. Most groups have already filmed or are filming this week. Because it is thanksgiving break, though, some of us are going away. Because we won’t be home, we won’t be able to film and have to move the date. Since Joe left, it has been easier to coordinate meeting times. Despite that, we still all love in different cities. That makes it difficult to find rides to locations.

        For filming, as mentioned before, we have already picked out location. We are going to so someplace that is convenient for everyone. We chose to utilize fresas apartment. Because it is close to the school and an avenue with many stores, it will be good. Especially for what we have planned, we won’t have to travel very far. For example, in the first few scenes, the actors are located in a kitchen, then a bedroom. Of course, an apartment is ideal for that situation because it’s a realistic living environment for a young couple. It is also small enough to be able to do tracking shots without taking up too much time. That way, we can fit in more plot into the music video.

        Another example of why we are using Freya’s apartment is the next scene after that. It is going to take place at an ice cream shop, with the couple talking. There is an ice cream shop within walking distance that we can film at if we get permission. From there, we will walk to Freya’s neighborhood again and film a scene where they are having a serious conversation on a park bench. That will add to the dramatization of the scene. We will also have Freya’s dog in the scene, as shown in the storyboard. With that, we are hoping it can represent how close the couple actually was. After we finish filming, we will move on to editing. Josh is going to be the main one guiding us and we will be helping him along the way. We are hoping to start this process next Monday.

Planning blog

        For this music video, we started off with a group of four people. It was originally Freya, Josh, Jeo, and me. Jeo texted our group chat and told us that he was not able to work in our group anymore. We asked him why and he apologized and explained to us. He said he had other responsibilities, like being captain of the wrestling team and working at a restaurant. He decided it would be better if he worked by himself because he didn’t want to let us down. We said it was fine and started planning on how to work it without him. Freya and Josh would be the actors and I would direct. I would tell them where to stand and how to act based on the storyboard.
        Location wise, we struggled at first because the three of us live in different cities. Because none of us have cars, transportation is a factor that we have to consider. We decided that we would film in Freya’s apartment. It is close to the school and we can finish in time to catch the activity bus at 5:00pm. We are so grateful that her mom will let us film there and get our work done. We will utilize not even only her apartment, but also her Neighbourhood.
        When Jeo left our group, we decided to change the song since it was originally his idea. We wanted to to something with a melancholy feel to it. We immediately thought of the singer Lana Del Rey. She writes sad lyrics that would be good for storytelling. We chose a song called Dark Paradise because it tells of a love story that ends in tragedy. The male interest in the song dies and she greaves over him. We thought that would be a good thing for the actors to act out.
        Overall, we very excited to start filming. It is a good chance for Freya and Josh to practice acting and for me to get more work with the camera. It will also be a good way for me focus on lighting and angles, which is something we didn’t vary on for the commercial.

Research for Music Video Blog

        In class today, we finished up the commercial and started on our new project. We started off by learning a little bit about how the blogs had to be formatted. After that, our professors talked to us about what to include in our projects. We picked our groups and i decided to work with a new group of people to expand my skills. I was ready to start brainstorming and creating ideas for our project. At first, we struggled in picking a song because we all have different music tastes. We ended up picking a song called "Lost Ones" by J. Cole because it was suggested by our group member, Jeo. The song is a rap song that tells a story about a broken relationship. Our idea for the video is to display a couple arguing and telling a story with their acting. It was interesting to hear every ones ideas on how to express the emotion of the song and the story. So me typical things in rap music videos is storytelling. To go along with the lyrics, they try and portray the emotion and experiences through acting.
        For the actual formatting of the video, we are going to plan out everything we need beforehand. For the costumes, we are going to dress the actors in casual, urban attire to go with the song. Lighting wise, we are going to use dim lighting to give off the solemn lyrics behind the beat. That way, we can visually show off what we need. We are going to direct our actors to use stressed facial expressions. Because of the song's lyrics, they need to show that off well. We are going to give them natural makeup because the setting is casual. Their makeup will match their costumes. Props are going to be  very  simple. We are going to use phones during scenes with phone calls, as we would. We are planning o filming at our friend's apartment. Because she lives close to the school, it will be easy to get there with the equipment. We plan on using all types of angles to demonstrate our abilities. I am excited for this process. I will use my skills ive learned. It will turn out great.

Final Editing Blog

        Today, we did our final editing for our commercial. We had a few issues with the Pinnacle Studio 18 program. Before that happened, we started off the process by picking a song to layer over the video. We decided to choose an upbeat, workout song to get the viewers in the mood. We wanted to promote an intense, energetic mood that made the audience feel motivated. We picked a popular song that is fairly recognizable and upbeat. After we edited that in, we looked back at the story-boarding we did a few blogs back. It was very helpful in helping to remember what editing we were planning on doing. Then we started to move on to the specifics and cleaning up the shots.
        At first, we placed all of the shots on the tracks. Then, we took a good look at all the takes we had chosen. We made sure that every take fit well in the commercial and had a certain way to be edited. We ended up using a lot of raw footage. We had a few clips where we didn't have to add any effects or anything, so that made the process faster. We had to add the program's stabilizer for a few shots to make the camera work look more professional. That wasn't one of our main focuses during filming so i'm grateful that it was in the software. We added certain edits for our shots to move together nicely. We mainly used jump cuts to show the passing of time. At that point, we were almost done.
        As we were getting closer to finishing, we started having some troubles. The official AICE program that we were using was being incredibly slow and not opening. We decided to get another computer and sign into that one. It crashed on that one, too, so we messaged our teacher. The only thing we had left to do was a split screen we wanted to have in the last clip. We were able to get extra time to edit. That was a huge relief to my group and i and allowed us to add any additions we felt were necessary. With that extra time, we added the split screen and perfected some of the shots. The final product came out like we wanted it to. It was also a new experience for me and i'm glad i got to go through it with my group.