Cambridge Portfolio Week 8 (Video capture/Sound/Presentation of CCR)

 For my CCR I will be doing a directors commentary in which I will play the film opening and pause at certain moments to explain/give insight on some choices made for the film opening and what went on behind the scenes. I will also be making a video where I talk to the viewer and answer the four CCR questions and talk about my role in the creation of the film opening. 

For the directors commentary I will play the film opening from the beginning and pause it when I have something to talk about as it relates to the creative process.

To record myself for the second half of my CCR I will be using the iPhone camera and microphone. To make sure that I do not stutter or mess up my explanations, I will be using a teleprompter app that works just like a regular teleprompter but displays on my screen as I am recording my video. The app is on the app store for iPhone. I record myself in app and can then export the video to my camera roll. I can then share this video to my email and import it into an editing software and fix lighting, add transitions, effects, etc.

This is the app I will be using:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/teleprompter/id941620509

Cambridge Portfolio Week 7 (Specificities of CCR)

 I've done some more thinking about how I want to execute my CCR. This includes certain equipment and techniques. I want to get the best possible quality footage for the CCR so I will most likely use my DSLR camera. If I find it difficult to achieve the look I wan, I will use my iPhone camera. What's coo about my DSLR camera is that it has a screen that can be rotated and flipped to face towards me so that I can see what my camera is capturing.

This isn't my camera but my camera does he same function shown in the image above.

For achieving the best audio quality, since I do not have a lot of time to complete my CCR I will have to use the microphone on a pair of wired headphones to capture audio. An alternative is my cameras built in microphone, either the DSLR or iPhone. Tuesday I will test each option and decide what works best, so that I can record ASAP. Tomorrow I will gather what I need to answer and address in my CCR so that I a prepared to start recording either Wednesday or Thursday.

Recording the CCR shouldn't take longer than a day. Editing is going to be the part that takes me the longest, which is why I want to finish recording by Thursday. 

Cambridge Portfolio Week 7 (CCR Plan)

fore I talk about my plans for my CCR, I wanted to clear up a mistake in my last post. I released that the CCR isn’t a collaborative group effort like the video, rather instead it is individual.

Knowing this, I want to make my CCR in the format of an informative video where I speak to the camera, directly addressing the viewer, while also adding visuals such as effects and cutaways to videos and photos of the project. I believe this is a fun and interactive way that avoids the “talking head” syndrome that is common to this assignment. 

I also plan on having AI/automatically generated subtitles in the video to make it easier to follow along, while also providing imagery for the viewer. These subtitles would appear as I speak and would be highlighted.

Here is an example of such titles:

https://youtu.be/H9IVx9HBPXk

Although these are not the exact type I am going for, I am still intending to have the type of engagement that these examples provide.

Photo examples:

Cambridge Portfolio Week 7 (Film Opening Complete)

 I am happy to announce that my group has officially completed the film opening. Everything is squared away and no more edits are intended to be made.

Heading forward we are to begin writing our CCR which will begin filming early next week. The CCR is the final piece of the project that we have been working on long and hard. We are satisfied with our work and are excited to begin CCR production and address issues and accomplishments from our process. 

Tomorrow we will begin drafting the CCR to get all our thoughts and ideas straightened away so that we can be sure to start filming it ASAP and have some extra time to review and edit the footage.

More updates are on the way!

Cambridge Portfolio Week 6 (Update)

 To update you on our progress. We are still in the editing of the sound and lighting phase but are close to being finished. 

We are currently looking for foley sounds and are soon to make our own. I am very happy with how the project is coming along as I once was nervous if it would come out okay.

I don’t have much else to provide in terms of an update but we are working hard and will be done with the video by Monday/Tuesday. Then we will get started on our CCR which we are very excited about.

Cambridge Portfolio Week 6 (Editing/Color)

 Phew! What a day. Today started off with me trying to edit the film together, but I'll be honest, I suck at editing, that is definitely my group member Abhiram's strong suit. I was sorting through the clips when I started to think maybe we should reshoot the entire opening due to what I thought was poor video quality. Turns out my files were just messed up and Abhiram was able to piece together a much better-edited version.

Once Abhiram finished his edit. I take myself with color correction to create a warmer yet dark tone to the film that is not felt if the footage remained untouched. Here is a screenshot of the lighting adjustments I made, which are also susceptible to change.

This image might not make a whole lot of sense but I adjusted the colors to be darker and have a yellowish-green tint. I decided to manually change the color rather than color match like I said I would because I felt that it was easier to manipulate the colors and have a consistent quality throughout. Tomorrow my group will finalize the video by adding credits and a title, along with sound-fx.

Cambridge Portfolio Week 6 (Editing Issues)

Today is the first day of editing our film opening. Unfortunately, we have run into some difficulties importing the files. 

There are over 100 video files that need to be imported onto my PC. As expected that process takes a long time. 

I imported the files onto adobe premiere but in the process of importing my camera died and I now have to reset the importing process which will take some time.

By tomorrow all issues should be resolved.

Here is a screenshot of the error on adobe.

Cambridge Portfolio Week 5 (Finished Filming!)

I am happy to announce that my group members and I have finished filming our opening! We are all very excited to start the editing process. 

Today was without a doubt stressful and tiring as we did run into some issues considering battery life. My camera died as we were filming so we had to wait around 30 minutes to get enough battery to film the rest.

We also had to wait until the sun set in order to start filming since it takes place at night. 

We began filming at 7 and finished at 9:30.

Here are some photos from today:

Now begins the lengthy editing process!

Cambridge Portfolio Week 5 (Prep

 Tomorrow is the big day! I will be meeting with my group members Abhuram and Miguel to shoot our film opening. Words cannot describe how eager I am to finally film. Ideas have been bouncing around in my skull and tomorrow is the day they can finally be brought to light.

We have all the necessary props and tools needed.

This includes

Camera

Gimball

Killers mask

Gloves

Outfit

Makeup 

The makeup will be applied to the killer's eyelid and surrounding area. when the killer's face is revealed the actor will shut his eyes to make it appear as if he has no eyes, and instead dark voids in their place.

Here is an example of what we are attempting.

(Just imagine black where his eyes are)

My members and I are super excited about tomorrow and will provide a detailed update.

Cambridge Portfolio Week 5 (Blog Discussion)

 From now on I am going to be changing up my approach to these blogs. I learned some valuable lessons, in the last class, on how to make a well-written blog that is engaging for you, the reader. 

Last class, I was given an assignment in which I reviewed two well-made blogs and discussed what was done right and what I learned from them. The two blogs I reviewed can be found at the bottom of the post. I highly recommend checking them out as I found them a delight to read.

This is what I submitted for the discussion post:

"I reviewed the Bianca's Media Musings blog. Right away I noticed how in her blog postings she wrote as if she was speaking directly to the reader in a fun and engaging manner. She used expressive language but also kept a sense of professionalism. She also frequently addressed her previous postings/work and how she did or did not follow through with her original ideas. I found this to be quite impressive since reflecting on your own ideas and performance is an excellent way to improve for future projects not just involved with media. A perfect example of this is in her "The End Is Nigh" blog post, where she said "I see I may not have followed my own advice in some aspects."

I also reviewed Wade's Media Portfolio blog. Something I immediately noticed well before reading any of the blogs, was the use of pictures in the blogs. This drew my attention and made me interested into what the information surrounding these pictures was. The use of visuals is an excellent way to engage someone and draw them into your blog. Wade, similar to Bianca, also kept a sense of professionalism while also directly addressing the reader, in turn making the reading more personal. An example of this is the inclusion of words like "you."

Something I learned from both blogs is that is essential to make your posts engaging by directly addressing the reader. Wades blog allowed me to notice how simple pictures have a huge impact on the engagement that your blog has with its readers. I will be sure to incorporate these methods moving forward, especially with addressing the reader, which I have been lacking."

What I took away from these blogs is to incorporate more images and more interactive ways of communicating my ideas. I promise you that from now on my blogs will contain heavy use of these techniques.

As for an update on the film opening. My group members and I are planning on meeting Sunday to complete the film opening. I will provide updates as they occur. 

Stay tuned!

https://biancalmedia.blogspot.com/

https://frameisokay.blogspot.com/

Cambridge Portfolio Week 4 (In-class Group Discussions)

 In this blog post, I want to fill you, the reader, in on what my group has been discussing in class about our film opening.

My group has agreed to begin filming next weekend as this weekend all members had schedule conflicts. We agreed that we will shoot all footage needed in one day, which we approximate will take 2-3 hours. If for whatever reason reshoots are needed we will plan and meet accordingly. 

My group has also assigned some production credits for our members, which will be displayed at the beginning of the film opening, here are some key roles.

Director of Photography/Cinematographer: Hayden

Editors: Hayden/Abhiram

I will be behind the camera doing all the recording and making sure the lighting and style of the film opening are consistent. My group has a very specific goal and looks for the film that we would like to achieve (Check most recent blog post). 

Last class my group members also discussed the CCR. We want to make it creative and avoid “talking head”. Which is where we would just stare at the camera and talk. My group wants to use characters and themes from our film opening in the CCR as if they were in the same universe/timeline.

Cambridge Portfolio Week 4 (Color/Mis-En-Scene During Production)

Unfortunately, my group members and I were not able to meet in person today to practice some shots for our film. We are aiming to begin recording next week.

In the meantime, I wanted to talk about the Mis-En-Scene and look of our film and how it would be executed during production

I watched an Argentinian film called Aterrados. When the title is translated into English, the film is called “Terrified”. The movie has a unique color grading that I feel adds to the suspense and tension of the film. I would like to replicate this in our film opening to increase the enjoyment and tension of our film opening.

[Examples of the film's color can be found at the bottom of this blog post]

As you can see the film keeps a Greenish-yellow color. 

The film holds a heavy emphasis on death and decay, especially with bodies. I believe the color of the film was intentional to match the theme of death and decay, which is equally associated with greenish-yellow hues.

I can achieve this same look for our film by using a program called DaVinci Resolve. I can take the coloring from a scene in the film and place it on our film opening so that without any tricky editing, I can easily create an identical color scheme.

During the filming, I will keep my white balance set where there are no adjustments made and will record in well-lit areas, then make any color changes in post-production. The reason for this is the 2022 film Nope, had many scenes that took place in the dark but had very clear images. This is because the nighttime scenes, were filmed during the day, and the lighting was edited in post-production so that the end product images were sharper.

To view image in better quality Click Here

Cambridge Portfolio Week 4 (Gathering Materials)

 In this blog post, I will discuss my group's efforts to collect all the required tools, tech, and props for the film opening. These items will help my group properly execute the film opening in an efficient manner that not only speeds up the process but improves the overall quality of your film opening. Improvements include, but are not limited to, shot quality and sound quality.

Tech/Tools

Panasonic Lumix G100 camera [Record footgae] [Owned by Hayden Jalazo]

Weebill S [Stabilize camera and execute shots] [Owned by Hayden Jalazo]

iPhone [Record audio] [Whichever group members phone picks up better audio]

Props/Costumes

Mask for killer [Conceal identity] [Owned by Hayden Jalazo]

These materials are ready and available for our group to use. We are still looking for a proper cloak that will conceal the antagonist of our film. We do not want to purchase something that is an improper fit for our actor. When we are set on an actor then we can make our decision. 

For the iPhone, we will not be using it to record footage even though that is what most would expect. Instead, we will use it to record our victim speaking at the film's beginning. 

At the film's beginning, the victim is talking on the phone since he is on a phone call with his friend. My group thinks it would be smart and practical to have our actor speak on the phone using an audio recording app such as Voice Memos. This will create the illusion of our character speaking while also making the audio clear.

We are still sorting at the film location. We know that we will film in one of the group member's homes but we are not entirely sure which home has a good layout for our narrative. 

Tomorrow, March 4th, 2023, Miguel, Abhiram, and I will resolve this issue by going to each other's homes and testing the location by attempting to film some shots to see if the setting would work in an effective manner.