Voice editing blog

 Today I recorded the voiceover for my film. I had scenes in my film where the main character Myles had internal dialogue. The first step was to decide what I wanted each character to say. I did this by reviewing the clips before and after where the dialogue would be. I also referenced my storyboard. I then recorded each section of dialogue and uploaded them to my computer. I played them back and listened to them while watching the scene they were supposed to be with. I realized I had a monotone voice and did not capture the proper emotion Myles would have while thinking to himself in the stressful situations he was in. I rerecorded everything for the second time and had a lot better of a result. I then Began combining the internal dialogue audio with the scenes it corresponded with on my computer. This was very challenging considering I was trying to embed audio on a video file. I had to phone a friend who had an internal dialogue in his film and ask him what he did to combine them. He showed me how with a website specifically designed for this, and it worked. I then took the new clips with the internal dialogue attached to the video and put it in “iMovie”. After cutting the edges of the clips adding clean-cut transitions and the proper filter, I got to watch my almost completed film for the first time. I still need to reshoot my ending scenes with the original plan. I am a lot happier being able to use the outdoor balcony instead of the indoor one. It fits the plot much better and keeps the suspense of bringing the story to the outdoors. My next step is to add the sound from the keyboard for any sound effects I wanted to add.

 

Re-Shooting blog

Today the construction on my balcony was finished. This was sooner than expected and means I can record my original ending for my film. The construction was finished at 2:00 PM today which left a little bit of the afternoon and all the evening for the day. I got off work at 3:30 PM and rushed home to begin the process. I started by getting the same clothes that we have been wearing out of the wash. Getting everybody just and giving my dad his “weapon”. I watched back on the clips that involved the balcony. First off, I reused the old clip of entering the correct bedroom during the day. So that we truly do enter my bedroom. I also deleted the clips involving the indoor balcony and the hallway scene. I restarted recording from the opening of my bedroom door out into the hallway and go into the right instead of the left. I got to include the scene I wanted of Myles tripping over the doorframe leading out to the balcony. Everything was perfect it looked like it was going to rain so I wanted to finish recording before that. I was able to record the dialogue scenes and even the killing on the balcony. I hated using my pillow as a body double for when Myles gets thrown over the balcony. Especially because my pillow landed in the pool and was wet. After doing the bare minimum editing of stitching all the clips together with clean-cut transitions and the proper nighttime filter to match the clips before my film Lux almost exactly how I pictured it in my head. There is still some editing that needs to be done to enhance the sound of my film as well as lighting and reshooting any scenes I am not 100% happy with. I am very happy that the balcony was finished on Saturday, so I was able to have my dad film because he works during the week. Tomorrow I will further edit my film and start working with my friends’ keyboard for sound.

Editing Night blog

Today I did not want to reshoot the scenes I was not happy with because it is a holiday and I want to spend it with my family. I decided to edit the remaining scenes I had already filmed. This consisted of the late-night scenes that began to involve the killer up to the new end of my film. I began by stitching each clip together on iMovie. I did this by removing the bit of film at the beginning and end of each clip and adding a simple transition. For a lot of these scenes, I filmed the lighting was not what I wanted. I found an option on iMovie that allows a light filter over clips which I liked. It added the slightly gloomy and mysterious feeling I wanted in my film. I was not sure if I can have filters over my clips, so I asked my teacher hoping they will get back to me after the break. I am keeping the original clips just in case I cannot use the filter.  I only found one scene I was not happy with, in the nighttime. So, on the day that I decide to re-film the daytime clips, I will also wait till nighttime and re-film what is necessary. I spoke to one of my friends and asked if I could use his keyboard for my film. I told him that he would get credit both on my social media pages as well as in the credits of my movie. His keyboard has custom sounds that he made up himself. I am very pleased with how my film is turning out so far. Aside from the few re-shoots, I need to do, and the construction obstacles everything has come out smoothly. I hope that my outdoor balcony will be finished soon so I can we filmed the last couple of scenes where I originally planned them. But if not, I am still happy with how Plan B turned out. This process has given me an insight into how setbacks affect filming, and how difficult they can be to get over.

 

 

Editing Blog

I edited the scenes of my film on my phone because my PC was offline today. This will be the initial step of editing on my phone utilizing these editing programs. I chose to utilize two different programs, which were free and accessible on my phone as well as my PC. These two editing programs are, "Imovie", and "FilmoraGo". I used Imovie mostly because I was somewhat familiar with it. I chose to go with these two since they were free, and both had the option to create editing programs. I might switch editing programs later if I find one that works better. I like these editing programs because they are straightforward and take cuts and do what is necessary by cutting them and embeddings transitions for each scene. I kept Imovie since my phone could open the application and transport over the edited clips. I began by starting on the editing of my first scenes during the daytime. There were about 10 scenes edited. I started to take each scene from my camera roll and uploaded them all on Imovie. I cut them down and took parts out of the clips that were not supposed to be there. Every scene had something that needed to be edited, but most just needed to have the time from when the record button was pushed, and the actual film began to be cut out. Doing all of this took about two hours of editing. I felt more comfortable with the editing software afterward. I noticed that I had to reshoot some of my clips because I did not like how they came out. At the end of every clip, I needed to add a transition, I used the “clean-cut” that Imovie offers. A clean-cut has nothing fancy just a simple jump from the end of one scene to the beginning of the next one. What I will work on tomorrow is editing the scenes that take place during the nighttime and hopefully reshoot the scenes I need to fix.

Social media/website changes blog

As I was taking a break from filming, I checked up on my classmate's WIX websites for their films. I noticed that mine was looking a little bland in comparison, so I made my website a bit more personal and pretty. I added a film-related background theme as well as a better spot for my social media website links. I also looked at their social media accounts and realize that I had not been posting enough. I had pictures saved in a file on my phone that I wanted to post on my social media websites. I was taking the pictures and writing captions for them on my phone but forgot to post them. I decided to start releasing a few, but not all the posts I had on my phone, and I spent a while coming up with ideas of what to post about next. I spent a lot of time specifically playing with Facebook as I was new to the website and did not know much about it. I compared it to some of my classmates and asked them how they did some of the features on their pages. I was happy with the overall current state of my Instagram and Twitter accounts. And like Facebook, I was new to YouTube. I learned how to upload a video and correctly mark it for the right audience. I also found out that I can organize my YouTube channel, so it is easier for viewers to maneuver through my YouTube page. I plan on periodically going back to my social media pages and updating them as I go. I do not want to post every day because I would feel that each post has less meaning if there is a lot of them. I am very hopeful that my pages will grow in popularity. It would be amazing if people had an interest in my film and ask questions about it or left comments on some of my posts. I would also like to see my view count on YouTube go up even though there is only one post. I also cannot wait to be able to screenshot my editing progress and post that on my social media. I feel that those who see it would be very interested in the technology behind the scenes.

 

 

Late Night Filming blog

Tonight, I began to film the second portion of my movie. We started with the scene of Myles being knocked out at his computer by the intruder (my dad). It was hard to get it just right so that my dad did not hit me, but it will look too real on camera. It took about 4 tries to get the angle just right. It was fun being dragged by my dad from my computer to my shower, but it was a little awkward. It was difficult to have my dad toss me in the shower in a way that I will be able to come back to for the next scene. I wanted to have my arm up on the shower bench like I had been thrown there. But he had to go in the shower to do that, so it did not work. We ended up having my legs stick out of the shower and the rest of my body on the floor. The scenes following these struggles to open the door and find a light switch Came out perfectly. They were even better than I imagined, it did not seem unnatural when we watched it back. After the entire chase section of my film, I had to do the scene where Myles gets pushed off the balcony. It was frustrating not to have my original plan. But I tried my best to work around this inconvenience. I was able to use the plant and the picture frame like I originally wanted to in my script. And switching rooms during the hallway chase worked but I realized that I had to redo one of my earlier takes because when I originally walked into my room it's a different room than I would have come out of. I finished filming the ending and went back to film the entrance into my room. I realized that it wasn't daytime so I would have to wait until tomorrow to read the film that scene. I uploaded all of my clips from my mother's phone to my computer. This was especially challenging because I couldn't email the files they were “too big”. So instead I texted them to my friend with a MacBook, and he was able to open our texts on his computer. He was then able to email them from his MacBook to my PC without a problem. They did not read that the files were too big. I began looking around for editing software to use for my film. I'm very excited to start that next step in my project.

 

Rethinking my storyboard blog

 Without my balcony available to me and no clue when it will be finished, I had to adapt to this obstacle. My first attempt to fix this situation was to find out how long it should take for my balcony to be finished. I asked my father did he said one to two weeks. If it took any longer than that I would not be able to finish my film Before the end of the break. I had to come up with another way to finish filming for my movie without using the outside balcony. I do have an indoor balcony that could have worked except for the fact It would be brightly lit versus the outdoor balcony which would have been dimly lit. Ironically both balconies had a plant that fit the film, everything would have worked I would just need to move a lot of furniture for when miles gets pushed off the edge. As I began setting everything up, I realized that one of my longer scenes where Myles runs to the balcony and trips over the door would have to be removed considering there was no door to this balcony. I felt that taking out that part would take away from Myles's character and from the film itself. With this in mind, I decided to find another way to fix my problem. I have three options, option one would have been to film around the couple scenes and hopefully be able to refilm them if the balcony is done in time. I did not love this option because of how close I would be cutting my film to the deadline. My second option was to change the film’s ending entirely, using different parts of my house. I thought instead of miles being pushed over the balcony he could have been drowned in the pool, but I did not want to risk getting my mom's phone wet or add any Unnecessary safety issues to my film. My third option was to use the indoor balcony and switch the location of my room. I decided to go with the third option because I would just film the exiting of my room a bit further down the Hall in my sister's room and still be able to have the hallway chase. I Would instead have Myles trip over something in the hallway instead of the doorway leading to the balcony. This section of filming was still far away as I had much more to film in between. Hoping that my balcony will be finished before this scene needs to be filmed, if not I will use the indoor balcony, and be creative enough to make it work.   

Official Filming blog

I have had a bunch of setbacks and delays with my filming. Since the beginning of December, I started Studying for and taking my midterms. I have not had the opportunity to film any more of my movie due to school. Come the week before Christmas, my house underwent some construction because of a leak due to a pipe breaking. I have had a very busy house since then and could not get the scenery I wanted with my house half torn apart. They fixed the pipe in patched the wall on December 18th. Over the weekend following, I filmed as much of my movie as I possibly could with the balcony still under construction. I have finished the exterior beginning shots, there was no rain to interrupt. My prop for the film had finally come in the mail. I began filming inside and had to find a time that was convenient for my father considering he still works while my sister and I are on Christmas break. While we were filming my dogs decided they wanted to be on camera an interrupted, I had no problem with this and thought it was very cute. I had a lot of fun doing the scene with my sister of us opening the package which is my guitar. We got distracted from filming at one point in began playing guitar together. I have two guitars and we both have been taking lessons since we were young children. It was enjoyable, and the filming felt natural and I am excited to edit everything together for a final product. I hope I can make the film look as good as I envision it in my head. I am nervous to begin filming with my dad because he is a perfectionist and will probably make us take shots over and over again until he likes it even though it is my movie. I am very grateful my mom let me use her iPhone 11 to film otherwise I would not know what to do for a camera because my phone does not meet the requirements. My next step for this movie is to film Myles getting attacked and the true drama beginning.