editing part 1

It’s time… EDITING. 

Since filming this weekend, I’ve gotten started with editing all the clips together for my final film opening. Before I could even begin editing, though, I had to find the perfect app that wouldn’t be too difficult to use or too simple (cause that’s boring boo). In the past I’ve used the app iMovie and yes this is a great editing app, but I wanted to explore a little into more difficult editing platforms. I’ve also used Premiere Pro during the sound project, but that app is a little too crazy for me. Plus, it isn’t compatible with my iPad, which is my main device that I do all my work on. So I got to researching various editing app that would align with what I wanted. 

I watched this video that gave examples of editing softwares and the pros and cons of each. The one app that caught my eye was Davinci Resolve. This app would allow me to be able to edit the videos together and do all the things that iMovie could do, but even more. But… after downloading the app onto my iPad, I realized that I had no idea what I was doing. So I went back to YouTube to find some tutorials to figure this monster out. This video really helped me. It broke down each feature of Davinci Resolve in a clear way and explained the basics really well. I’m basically a pro now. 

After understanding the basics of the app I got to editing. I first started with finding the perfect music for the beginning of the opening. I went onto the website Purple Planet, which has TONS of royalty free music. After an extensive browse through all the music available, I finally came across one that fit the vibe of my opening. 

Now that I have the music for the beginning portion of the opening, I started to edit the clips to match the music. After finishing that, I went to a bunch of sound effect databases to start to add various sound effects that I wanted to include. I didn’t want the only sound to be the music, so I looked up different background sounds that would be normal in the setting and what was happening in the scene (like pencil scratching or papers rustling). I went to the YouTube Audio Library (this is a godsend) and found a bunch of sounds and then I went to Pixabay for the ones that were left. Here’s a little clip of some of what I have so far:

Then I got to an obstacle. The text message part (where Iris gets a message from her “friends” asking if the project is done yet and her response). I wanted the text messages to appear on screen, instead of on her phone cause it would just look cleaner, kinda like in The Fault In Our Stars. But figuring out how to actually do that was insane. I went back to my trust friend, YouTube, and found this amazing video that taught me how to create this effect on Davinci Resolve. And here’s the end result:

Anyways, after finishing about 40 seconds of editing, I decided to take a break, but I’ll start back up on that tomorrow cause its a half day in school (thank god it’s almost spring break). But, there was one thing that was unfortunate during this editing time, I realized that a couple of my shots just did not look good. It was mainly because of the lighting, like in this shot where you can’t even see my face cause the lighting is just terrible. 

This is basically all my own fault cause in some of the shots I kinda forgot to change the position of the ring light… so ya this is my own downfall. So now I gotta re-film a couple of shots tomorrow. I still included the dark shots in the opening for now to act as a placeholder so that when I re-film, I can just place them into the spots. It’s not terrible though, there aren’t that many, it’s just so ANNOYING, like damn if I had just remembered to change the ring light this would’ve all been fine, but no I have the memory of a goldfish. 

the woes of filming

This weekend was filled with filming. On Saturday, I helped out my friend who’s in A level with his project. He’s doing a short film and he asked me to be in it. We filmed from around 2 to 6:30, so basically that entire day was spent filming. I had fun tho, his short film is really cool. 

[Me on the left, the guy who’s project it is in the middle, and another actor on the right]

Then on Sunday (since my sister finally left) I filmed my opening. I was able to get it all done!! I filmed from 7:30 to around 9ish. But, before I could start filming I had to get everything ready. Soooo to make sure I wouldn’t forget anything, I wrote out everything I needed to have ready before I could film.

Once I wrote all that down, I got everything ready to start filming. The first thing I did was create the poster board. That one took me a while, but here’s the finished product:

[its very light, sorry bout that]

I got all the information for the poster on The Collector.

After I finished the poster I got to work on arranging the bedroom to how I wanted it to look. The only thing that I needed to do was set up the workspace of Iris and here’s what I came up with. 

Now about the materials that I used. Tripods were my best friend during filming. I filmed the entire thing basically by myself, so using a tripod was incredibly useful, especially to keep everything from looking all wonky. I also stole my brother for a little bit to film the stuff that required someone who was tall, such as the shot where I grab the box from the closet, which would’ve been literally impossible with a tripod that is barely as tall as me. 

As you can probably tell by the picture, I went with a blue lighting to frame the room. I used my sister’s LED lights on her walls, which was very useful. Then I used a ring light to light the things that needed a bit more. Like when I filmed my face, I shined the ring light towards me so I wouldn’t be all dark and blue. The ring light was set to a yellow color, cause I thought that brought out the best tone for my film.

 

[In this close up you can see the blue lighting in the background and the yellow ring light on my face. I like how the ring light created a shadow on the other side of my face cause it creates a sense of mystery that is important in this scene]

Oh, wait I forgot to mention: costume design. So, I decided to dress myself in a comfy fit as Iris is just at home working on her project. I ended up wearing a blue University of Florida jacket, fitting in with the theme of blues. For pants I decided on a pair of sweatpants, again alluding to the home vibe that I have goin on. For my socks, I wore two mismatched spider-man socks because why not, I love spider-man. I didn’t focus too much on costume design as for my opening is set in Iris’ home, so a comfy fit was the way to go.

For my actual camera, I used my phone, but I used an app called BlackmagicCam to get the cinematic look that I wanted to have. I watched a video on how to use the app and once I got the hang of it, it got really easy, plus it made my shots look wayyy cooler. 

The biggest problem that I had while filming on Sunday was doing it all myself. Before every shot I had to make sure I was framed properly in the video, but that was hard to do as I couldn’t see myself as I filmed. I had to just trust that I was in the center, or wherever I needed to be for the shot, and if I wasn’t in the center, I would have to re-film it until I was. It was so frustrating to continuously be redoing shots because the composition wasn’t right, which I think would’ve been wayyy easier if I had someone else behind the camera, but I didn’t really have that option since it was already late at night and the only person who i could’ve asked would be my brother, which I already felt bad for asking him to film a bunch of stuff for me. In hindsight, I probably could’ve filmed last weekend while my sister was here and actually get her to be behind the camera, but whatever, I got it to work and that’s all that matters. 

[just another pic of the set up :)]

After this weekend that was PACKED with filming, I’ve come to realize that being behind the camera is not my strong suit. As I watched my friend film his short film and having a whole crew behind him (he got another one of our friends to be behind the camera while he acted and another person to hold the boom mic) I realized that that is not for me. My friend used a whole bunch of professional equipment that he borrowed from BECON, which looked cool, but that would’ve been way too intense for me, so my phone was the way to go. But, I’m excited to start editing, because that’s the kind of stuff that I actually like. Well that is what I’ve liked when we’ve done our past projects in this class, we’ll see how it goes for this project. 

[figured this would be a great way to end the post ;)]

representation

Let’s talk about the gays. 

In 1934, LGBTQ+ characters were banned from being portrayed in film, as per the “Hays Code”. Despite not outwardly saying that homosexuality was not allowed, they implied it, stopping all appearances. The ban was lifted in 1968, however, queer characters were only ever shown as queer-coded villians and it was never outright told these characters sexualities. After the ban was lifted, as well as after the Stonewall riots of 1969 (a series of riots at various gay bars that forever changed the fight for gay rights), The Rocky Horror Picture Show was released, including a cast of LGBTQ+ characters portrayed in a revolutionary positive light. Unfortunately, during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, the stigma surrounding homosexuals increased and representation decreased from an already low amount.

In the 90s, TV was really the only place where people could learn about this community, however the portray of them was always minuscule or in extremely stereotyped manners. When people would try to portray them in a more positive light, they most commonly were attacked with homophobic backlash. 

In more recent years, many pieces of cinema have included queer representation. In 2017, Moonlight became the first queer film to win an Oscar for Best Picture. Love, Simon was considered the first film to include a gay man as the main character. Even in the superhero world, a gay superhero was introduced in Eternals by Marvel, which was revolutionary. Many queer actors also have gotten many roles in Hollywood, such as Todd Chavez from Bojack Horeman, who recently came out as asexual. 

Even children’s cartoons have taken the tide in this type of representation. Dreamwork’s She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is focused around a lesbian romance between two main characters in the series (if you want to read more about this one I actually wrote a whole blog post about it). Even Disney, notorious for their continued distaste towards this community, had their own cartoon, The Owl House, that featured many queer characters. Despite their cancelation of this show due to disagreements, the representation shown in this show was revolutionary as it portrayed a younger lesbian couple in a refreshing and normal way (yes they’re witches, but their story just feels so normal). This kind of representation, especially the fact that it’s being shown to children, is incredibly important. To young queer kids, it shows them that their feelings are normal and okay, and to non-queer children, it familiarizes them with this concept and normalizes it, making it easier for them to be accepting of all kinds of people. 

I really think it’s important to showcase queer individuals in a positive light, and through representation in the media, especially through film, society can see what this community goes through, normalizing their existence, especially after the intense backlash that they have gotten, and still get to this day. It is especially important for queer children to be able to see that people like themselves do exist, and that even if they are currently surrounded by homophobic people, they can understand that it does get better. 

Here are some more amazing queer films and cartoons that you should definitely check out:

45 best queer movies

queer children’s cartoons

REFERENCES

Cragg, Dan. “LGBT History Month – a History of LGBT Representation in TV/Film.” Your Bristol Story, 16 Feb. 2022, student.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/2022/02/17/lgbt-history-month-a-history-of-lgbt-representation-in-tv-film/comment-page-1/. 

“1969 Stonewall Riots - Origins, Timeline & Leaders.” History.Com, A&E Television Networks, www.history.com/topics/gay-rights/the-stonewall-riots. Accessed 14 Mar. 2024. 

thinking about the CCR

 Today in class we learned about the creative critical reflection. My teacher told us all about what is expected of us for this portion of the portfolio project. Here’s a quick rundown of what we need to discuss:

The main purpose of this portion is to reflect on the production as a whole, that means planning, production and post-production. We have to respond to four different questions in whatever style we want. We can be as creative as we want, the only requirement is answering the questions. Wait, but what are the questions?

That’s a good question (hehe). The first question is about genre convention and the research that we did on our genre and how we used those conventions in our own project. The next one is all about audience and how we could possibly distribute our film if given the change. Then we have to discuss what production skills we developed while working on this project. And finally, how we used different technologies to aid us through the process. My teacher told us how we should respond to these questions and how to make our CCR’s as effective as possible. Here are my notes from what she told us. 

So what I need to think about now is how I want to actually answer these questions (and of course what I want to talk about). It’s supposed to be creative, which is not something I’m that good at, but we did look at some examples in class today. One person did their CCR in the form of an interview, almost like a talk show. Another person did theirs based on a popular trend. Overall, though, they all took creative turns on their reflection. Now, I just need to think about what I want to do with their part of the project and get to working on a script to actually answer the questions. 

t-minus four weeks…

Four weeks left until this project must be turned it. God damn, the deadline is creeping up fast. Ok, I know I said I would start filming this weekend in my last blog posts, but I have a little set back. My sister is staying for her spring break :0000. It’s great and all, but now we’re actually doing stuff on the weekend, like today we spent the whole day out doing stuff and then tomorrow we’re going of to the city to hang out and go to the beach. Which leave’s basically no time to actually start filming. So, not saying I blame my sister…but I blame my sister. 

BUT…. I did get everything else on my list of “things to do before filming” even though I will not be filming this weekend (well besides the title, which will be a problem for future Ayami). So here’s all of that (they’re small things, so I figured I’d just put them all into one LONG blog post instead of a bunch of baby ones).

PROPS

Ok, so for props, I started to think about everything I could possible need for each scene and wrote them all into my planner:

The first thing on there is obviously the action figure, which is basically the one thing I have to go out and buy. I have everything else that I need at home, so I’m basically all good on props. Oh, but one thing I do need to actually make is the poster board, cause it’s gotta be somewhat completed to make it look like Iris is working on it. I also have to write the names of each box onto a cardboard box, which won’t be difficult, but I gotta make sure I don’t forget about it. 

MISE-EN-SCENE

For mise-en-scene, I first thought about what I want Iris to wear, cause she’s the only one who will actually be shown on screen for the opening. This wasn’t that difficult cause the person I casted for her (no spoilers!! I’ll get to that…) dresses how I want her to dress. She’s going to be in very casual clothes, cause she’s just chilling at home and not going anywhere. 

Then after figuring that out, I thought about how I want the lighting and everything to look like on camera. I started to experiment with different colors on my LED lights and how it looked like on camera, and here’s a cool picture I got:

I look dumb, but that’s beside the point. I like how the blue contrasts the glowing whiteness that’s coming out of the box, which is exactly how I want the scene where she’s opening Patrick’s box up to look like. The blue adds to the mystery of it all, and also creates a sense of curiosity, which is perfect. I think it could use a little work, but so far, it’s pretty decent. 

While Iris is working on the project, I don’t want the lighting to be blue, instead I want it to look normal, and slightly darker, so that the contrast between that scene and the opening box scene is apparent, highlighting the tone shift. 

ACTORS

Ok, so I kinda hinted toward this, and I think it’s kinda obvious, but I’m going to be playing Iris for the opening. I don’t really want to go through the pain of having to cast someone and then figuring out schedules and whatnot, so having me be the main character is just way more efficient and just makes a lot more sense. But, that does mean I’m going to have to film majority of my shots with a tripod, and maybe forcing my little brother to help me out if anything. It won’t be bad though, plus I can work at my own pace, so it’ll be great.

SETTING

For setting, since the entire opening is set in Iris’ room, I figured I’d just use a room in my house to do it in. My room is a little too crazy for her, plus it’s incredibly messy and just does not fit the vide of Iris at all. So, instead I’m going to be using my sister’s room. Since she moved out for college, her room has basically nothing in it besides a bed and a desk and a couple of stuffed animals and posters. Since all we will be seeing is the floor and her bed, this is perfect, plus her room is a lot bigger than mine (she’s older, so she got first pick ugh). Which is also another reason why it’ll be easier to film once she’s gone back to college so I can steal her room (heh).

 

[here’s the room and my sister sleeping in her bed]

Boom, so that’s everything that was on the list that I needed to get done before starting to film, which is kinda funny cause I actually will not be filming yet. BUT, it’s fine cause I did put in time in my calendar just in case something like this did happen, so I’m still sort of on track. I got this…hopefully as least. 

another change o.O

Ok so I’ve been thinking about different places where I could film the store section of my opening, and I came across a roadblock. How am I supposed to film a store, which is a public space where other people would be (ew)? And would I have to get permission to even film in the store? The answer to that question:

So that’s a no go. Target also does not allow filming in store, so I started to think about how I could fix this massive problem. I got to brainstorming and I realized that I would have to completely cut the store scene from my opening. The question is how would I introduce the action figure without Iris buying it from a store? and what else can I include instead of this scene? Soooo, I came up with the idea that instead of her having to go to the store to buy a new sharpie, instead she goes to her closet (get it cause she’s stuck in the closet hah) where she finds a box of school supplies. Next to this box is a box that is labeled “Brother’s shit”. So, here I would introduce the idea that Iris had a brother, whose name has still not been decided, and something mysterious happened to him (or he just went to college. idk I wanna keep it mysterious, let me live). She gets intrigued by this box and grabs it, opening it and finding all of her brother’s old comic’s and action figures. Before she can explore the remainders of the box, she gets a text from her mom telling her she’s almost home, and she rushes to shove the box under her bed, hiding the evidence. Iris would then continue to work on her project, the whole reason why she was looking in the closet to begin with, but is extremely distracted by the contents of the box. Overwhelmed with curiosity, she grabs the box from under her bed, opens it and grabs an action figure. The end (well not really, but that’s where I’d end my opening). 

This scene will actually work a lot better than my original idea. Now that I’m not filming in a store, that gets rid of the hassle of asking if I could film there and then actually going there and spending the day filming. Plus, I wouldn’t have been able to control the lighting of the shots, which would just not look good under the fluorescent lighting of Walmart. Additionally, I cut out the scene of the flashback to the memory of young Iris, which I think is MUCH better because first of all I don’t really know that many little kids, plus convincing their parents if I could take them to a random Walmart to film would not have ended well. Overall, I think this change was extremely necessary and works a lot better than a change of setting. 

Ok, so now that I have an idea, I started to redo my story board, script and shot list.

STORY BOARD

Ok, now that the storyboard is completed, I got straight to work on my script. While writing my script I came across the perfect name for the brother: Patrick. Ok it sounds dumb but hear me out. I based his name off of Patroclus, an ancient greek warrior. Patroclus was the only one who could calm Achilles (another warrior, the greatest) when he was mad, but his death during the Trojan War greatly affected Achilles. This, however, is not why I wanted to include an allusion to his name. Instead I did it because Achilles and Patroclus were lovers. Yup, it’s true!! So I figured by alluding to the name Patroclus I could further add to the overall theme of my film, but in a very unnoticeable detail that would only be caught on by lovers of Greek mythology. It’s so subtle and I love it.

SCRIPT

Ok, script is all done. Oh and one thing I want to mention about my script was how I represented the mother. I wrote her text message in the exact way my mother sends texts. With a period a space away from the text, which I feel like is very important to include (it’s really not but I think it’s funny).

Next up is the shot list. This is literally just a written out version of my storyboard, but I still want to have it because it will be really helpful to keep track of all the shots and during the editing process, which I went more into depth in my blog post that was only about shot list creation. 

SHOT LIST

WOW ok that was a lot of changing up to do, but now I feel much more confident in my film opening. But, now that I’ve changed more than half of my opening, filming is gonna have to be pushed back a little bit. I’m gonna try my best to maybe try filming this weekend with the beginning portion, but no promises. We’ll see what happens. 

REFERENCES

Discentes. (2023, September 17). The very best men in greek mythology. https://web.sas.upenn.edu/discentes/2023/07/30/the-very-best-men-in-greek-mythology/ 

Can I film inside a walmart store? (n.d.). https://corporate.walmart.com/askwalmart/can-i-film-inside-a-walmart-store#:~:text=Out%20of%20respect%20for%20our,right%20to%20enforce%20that%20policy. 

things to do before filming?

According to my calendar, this weekend will be the start of filming for this project. Wow. That’s crazy and extremely nerve racking. But, to get myself ready for that HUGE step, I figured I’d start small. What is everything I need to get done before this weekend?

- shot list

- props 

- mise-en-scene (costumes and lighting)

- determine actors

- determine setting

- fonts and title (although this isn’t necessary for before filming, I just need to get it done)

Today in class I tackled the very first thing on the list: my shot list. The shot list is, as the name suggests, a list of shots that I plan to film. It’s kinda similar to the story board, but it’s more detailed and is exactly what I want to include in each shot and how I want it to be composed. Here is what I concluded with:

Now that I have a detailed shot list, when I start filming I can simply check it off once I film the shot, which will be extremely helpful and also keeps me organized for production day. It will also be incredibly helpful for when I’m editing everything together as I will have the exact order that the shots should go in right there, making it easy to navigate and overall make the editing process that much easier.