Peer Review: Captured

          Attached is my peer review of another group's final task. They gave our group what they currently have done for their final task and each of us gave our personal opinions. I really liked their final task. It, however, definitely needs some more work. They said that it was far from done and it is what they were able to put together the night before. One thing I really like about their video was their opening scene. It is a moving shot of the camera coming into a close up of books on a bookshelf. The books are removed and two boys peek through the hole where the book was. It is revealed that the boys are leering at a girl sitting down enjoying a book. It was a really dynamic shot and my favorite out of the video. However, the title of the movie, "Captured" does come up out of order during the scene. They will have to move the title or add some scenes beforehand in order to make it right. One suggestion I have towards the group is to try and avoid filming people who are not supposed to be in the film. During one of the car scenes, you can see a person in the back of the car. That person is most likely the cameraman and not one of the characters. There are other things, like lighting and sound that need fixing. During some scenes in the car, the sun outside the window is blindingly bright. And some dialogue scenes outside the car, wind can be heard. They can fix this while editing, and they can add voice over for the dialogue scenes. Overall, a great video! I can't wait to see the finished product!

Filming: Helping Hands

          My four-person group filmed alongside another, 1-person group: Macy. We were able to use her Nikon DSLR camera. The footage it takes looks really crisp. Way better than the school Sony cameras and my iPhone XR. After we filmed all of our footage, we went on to help Macy with her Final Task. I was an actor in Macy's Final Task known as Assistant #2. Assistant #2 is a side character. I was the assistant to one of the main characters. I show up in the film only once during the opening. My scene included me talking to one of the main characters. The shot was an over the shoulder shot. It then transitions into a close up of my face. My takes were pretty short. I got it down by the third time filming it. The dialogue was the one part messing me up. If we needed to, we could record voice over for the scene if Macy doesn't feel its adequate. We then filmed everyone else's scenes in Macy's Final Task. I can not really talk about them here. I did not help out with those scenes at all. All in all, we recorded around half of Macy's Final Task.

Filming: Additional Filming

          This is my experience for our second time filming. One scene we filmed was a trunk shot outside of Mariapaula's house. In it, Darwin/Kenny takes some tools out of the trunk of a car. He would then shut the trunk on the camera and it would cut to black. I was able to go in the backseat of the car and take a picture of Mariapaula and Darwin setting up the scene. In the picture, you can see Darwin holding cables on his arm. Emily wasn't able to get in the trunk through the backseat, so we decided to film it the way we filmed the closet scene. We would hit record and then place it in the trunk. We then hope the camera doesn't fall over when we close/open the trunk. Another scene we recorded was the dialogue scene. We recorded it just before the sunset. You could see how low the sun was in my picture of Emily recording the scene. It was the scene of the conversation between Carolina and her mother. Mariapaula's acting during the scene was solid, she would just forget her lines a bit. Also during one of the takes, Mariapaula accidentally closed her phone. So throughout that entire take, she was talking with her phone off. If need be, we could record a voice over for that one scene. We managed to record two-thirds of our final task. The footage we have so far is fine, but some need re-shooting. Put together, the footage was over 2 minutes. We will need to cut the footage down a whole lot.

Filming: Presidents' Day Filming!

            February 17th (Monday) was a day off of school. Our group took full advantage of that day off to start filming our final task. I carpooled with Emily to Mariapaula's house. We arrived around 1:20pm and Darwin was already there. We waited for twenty-minutes for Macy to arrive, then we started filming. The time was important because we want it to be sunny outside for all of the shots. It wouldn't make sense for someone to "get ready for the day" during the dead of night. I was not that involved in the filming portion of the final task. I was not an actor and Emily was the main camerawomen. I did, however, help out whenever I could. If my group needed me for anything, I was there right away. I especially helped with taking the pictures for the blog (seen below). I took pictures of the scenes from a different angle. The first scene we recorded involved Mariapaula throwing clothes on to her bed. Her dog Milo was also on the bed which was pretty cute. The scene took forever to record, however, due to that decision. While they were recording the scene, I took a "behind the scenes" picture of one of our takes. Afterward, the next scene I was involved with was Darwin's shaving scene. I took another "behind the scenes" picture of Mariapaula putting on the fake blood on the razor. In the picture, I captured Darwin standing there awkwardly with a small grin.

Planning: Storyboard

Attached to this blog is the storyboard of our final task. Each slide contains a sheet of what we will be filming. There are 10 pages for the storyboard template and each page has 6 boxes. The 6 boxes have specific drawings of every action. The camera’s movement and the location are described with angles and shots, for example, high angles and tracking shots. The actions of what the actors should be doing in each scene are also included. Sound is specific, especially diegetic and dialogue between characters. The titles are written in black pen to have an idea of where they should be placed in the scene. It also helps to plan out what titles we want to use for our final task. Hopefully, our group would not have to add more scenes because it is a short opening sequence. 

Planning: Location, Sound, Participants, Safety, and Schedule

Attached is the location, sound, participants, safety, and schedule of our final task. The locations used for our film will be Mariapaula's house and her neighbor's house. We will mostly be using the inside of M's house as the setting for both the Driver and the Victim. We will use different rooms to add the illusion of the Driver and Victim getting ready in different houses. We will mainly only use the outsides of the house for establishing shots. The sound used will be royalty-free background music used throughout the entire two minutes. Other sounds will be mainly sound effects like doors opening or faucets running. Participants will be all four of us. Darwin and Mariapaula are the actors, while Rafael and Emily will work behind the scenes. One slide on the slideshow is the overall schedule of the project, while another slide is the filming schedule in detail. In the slideshow, we covered many practices we will be doing to make sure we are safe at all times. For example, one scene involves the Driver shaving his face. During that scene, the razor being used will be dulled to prevent cuts.

Planning: Title Design

Attached is the planning for our title design for our final task. We want our titles to be unique and eyecatching. We do not want them to be just some words we throw at the bottom of the screen. We decided on using different fonts depending on when and where the titles will pop up. For example, a chilling font will be used for titles that go up during the Driver's scenes. And for the victim's scenes, a happier font will be used for those titles. The main title will be bold and large to attract the audience's attention and so that you will not be able to miss it. Most titles in the two minutes will be monochromatic, meaning it will either by black on white, or white on black. The spacing for only the main title will be different since the font we are using puts the letters too close together. The titles will fit the background and most will last 2-3 seconds, long enough for the general audience to read.