Portfolio Project Fourth Reflection: Editing Softwares

     The editing software I used I have used since seventh grade, Adobe Premiere Pro, on top of having used it for a long time it also is one that I now know a lot about and I am extremely comfortable with it. That's why I am using this and have been using it for a while. I use the student discount so I also use other products like After Effects but for this project I doubt that software or any other program would be necessary to finish it. After Effects I mainly use for special effects and those aren't in this scene at all, even small visual changes like black bars I would be able to do in Premiere, this is another reason why I am doing it here, it'll get the editing process done the fastest.

Portfolio Project Fourth Reflection: Prop Creation

     My opening does have few props that are pretty important but I luckily didn't have to do much to get them all. The most of the props used were items that I already had. The knife that falls from one of the characters' pockets is a practice butterfly knife I borrowed from my brother because I forgot where mine was. The phone that the assassin uses is just my friends phone that he held for a few shots. Then there were the two, but actually three props we didn't have.

    The first was that a bag of chips was needed since there were a few lines mentioning it. We didn't have this when we started shooting because we forgot about it so my father ran out and got two for us. I asked for two because we had just taped my phone to the tripod and decided to shoot out of order so that I wouldn't have to reapply the tape to it. Since we shot out of order I would need the second bag for the opening shoot which has a closed bag but the rest of the shots had an open one.

    Lastly the was the big prop that was heavily focused on throughout the opening, even if it was out of focus most of its shots. The cup where the blood falls in. This was the most exciting and most nerve-racking prop. The first part of it was easy, we bought some clear plastic cups and on the day filled it with water. The actual blood was the hard part. We bought some liquid red food coloring that we would drop into the water which is how the blood was done. We practiced this a few times to see how it would fall before actually shooting the shot. 

    One small thing is that I realized the placement of the cup on the table made it so there would be no logical way blood would fall in but I liked the shot so its still gonna be there.

Portfolio Project Fourth Reflection: How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

     I think that most of my production skills had developed with this project. The film in my opinion was shot much more cleanly than my past attempts at something. I believe my process was better but most of it was like that because of the pre-production area. I would like to say I shot well but that was due to my storyboard that I didn't change from. I would like to say that I think the dialogue was better but that is obviously pre-production again. The only thing out of the production skills that I would say didn't improve was how to direct my actors. The type of opening I chose needed a decent amount from the actors and when they didn't really get what I was trying to do it would take them a while before realizing what I was trying to say, my stutter when I'm stressed or talk fast didn't help me either. My organizing skills I think did improve though, using the script and storyboard I was able to get through the shooting process much faster than just trying to wing it on the day. This was especially helpful when considering what we were using to shoot besides the phone for a camera. A broken tripod, a stabilizer and my hands.

Portfolio Project Third Reflection: Equipment and Storyboard

     These go hand in hand because of how the storyboard was used during the shooting. The equipment I used was an already broken tripod because my brother broke it, two phones since I didn't have anyone recording behind the scenes footage, and a handheld stabilizer my father let me borrow since he already had one.

    During the shooting I had also brought the script and the storyboard to keep track of what we had shot. The storyboard was made because the opening was mainly kept to one location and the conversation that I wrote, I made it so I could get the most out of the conversation visually with the camera, instead of just winging it like I would normally do with other projects. This was a huge issue with them which is another reason why I made the storyboard.

    The broken tripod I somehow managed to salvage by using tape to strap the iPhone to the tripod itself, it sounds absurd but it genuinely worked for the entirety of the time it was used. I normally don't do things like that but I tight schedule forced me to improvise. The stabilizer also gave me a few problems, it wasn't working properly and took me a while to get to actually stable, ironically, but once it fixed itself it was much easier to get my shots done. The phone was the only thing that didn't give me any problems fortunately, if the other things didn't work that would be ok, it wouldn't be great because I would have to shoot handheld when I felt the scene didn't need it but the project would still get done, if the phone didn't work I would have had to film some other day and the project would have dropped in quality tremendously.

    The storyboard during the shoot was crossed out while shooting to see what shots we had left and helped a lot because I was able to shoot out of order in the scene, I normally would not do that but the fact I was using a tripod that was held together with tape meant I would have to get all of those shots requiring a tripod first. After that was done I simply shot the rest in the chronological order of the scene.

Portfolio Project Third Reflection: Scheduling and Casting

     If I am being completely honest this was a nightmare for a while. The family trip we are taking for Spring Break had me extremely worried. We had to reschedule the day and recast because of it. 

    The original plan I had in mind was to shoot it at the very beginning of spring break, which was Thursday, unfortunately that didn't end well because one of the actors was leaving and I didn't know about it until a few days before. This meant we had to recast and we decided on someone else the next day, he said yes but he was able to do Thursday. This meant the shooting would have to be another day.

    We all decided to shoot it the next day at the commons in my neighborhood. We decided to do it in the morning since there would be less people there and because I had to go to my class in the afternoon. This is where a huge communication issue occurred. We had decided on a time but one of the actors had plans conflicting with that time but we had all mixed the text sent and realized that Friday morning. We had tried to push it back to after he went out but we didn't want to shoot at night because the film would just have not looked good.

    Finally we decided on Saturday morning, much earlier than before, starting the shooting at 10 am. I originally tried to avoid this because that was the day my family was leaving and because my morning would have been taking up with my job, I was extremely lucky that someone was able to cover for me and that is when we shot the film.

    Moving forward I have to take this into account and the rest of the project will still be effected by my job so I must be extra careful and make sure everyone and everything will be available.

Portfolio Project Third Reflection: Changes in the Script

     I finished writing the script a bit ago and a lot has changed, not only for how the dialogue in the opening is, but for how its paced and how much information is given to the audience. I will talk about that first since that part isn't as long.

    The reason I realized I had to heavily simplify it was because I did a table read with the actors while timing it, I realized it went over two minutes so I just kept the first section of the opening with about 10 seconds of the other part. This meant that I had to change how the scene was in the second part, but I didn't change any dialogue I just deleted most of it and changed the shots in the storyboard to deliver visual exposition faster.    

    The dialogue had huge changes, the first draft, while also being longer, was written with the idea of having two normal adults conversating before getting interrupted. With this idea in mind I wrote a conversation where the two characters talk about their jobs before the assassination on one of them occurs. Much of the dialogue consisted of things relating to my father's job since I would have a decent idea of what they would say and would be able to ask my father about certain things. This draft of the script had things mentioning their review of other countries and how they had to fix communication towers. They also talked about their at home work like having to use multiple computers to keep things organized. The assassin would then come up and kill one of them, leading to obvious panic and screams around them. Once I changed it with teenagers in mind and simplified version where one of the characters was assassinating the other I could shorten the conversation heavily while also providing a steady increase in tension instead of an abrupt confusion at the end. This made the conversation lean more towards the personality of those characters and what they know. The assassin is now shown to like to play with his targets, starting the conversation in the new version with "These people, no decency." When he refers to a cup left over on the table. He goes on as if it were a normal conversation while the other is clearly nervous. 

    The other character instead of being another forgettable character similar to the first was now an extremely nervous person that, hopefully, would intrigue viewers. He has nervous chuckles and looks away while having rambling sentences like "I, uh, am on break and I need to get back to the office soon, speaking of that thank you for reminding me."

    I personally think this version of the script is much better and not just for story purpose but for filming too.

Portfolio Project Second Reflection: Target Audience

      My target audience would probably be teenagers to young adults. If I had to guess the ages would be from roughly 15 to around 30. I am not sure if anyone younger would be bored by the film I have in mind due to it having not as much action as others and how it would be more character based. Since the target audience is very young it means that I would have to distribute the film a certain way and if it were real, market it a certain way too. I would probably do this through social media and maybe upload the film to YouTube, this would be so there would be a possibility at an increase in its popularity. There are much higher chances of it happening there than anywhere else. Part of the reason would be because its free to watch and audiences would not have to pay for a ticket to a film festival or something similar.

    Keeping my target audience in mind will also effect how I make certain scenes and whether I should keep them in for the audience's enjoyment, or if it would make for a better film. The way scenes would be slightly changed would be in pacing, camera movement, acting and almost everything else.

Portfolio Project Second Reflection: Changes to Project and Key Moments

      I already mentioned how I am changing the script of the project and why it’s happening but here I will go more specifically into how I will change it. I mentioned how I would have to rewrite dialogue but what I didn’t say is that the dialogue not only needs to be rewritten for him but for whoever he is talking to since adults and teenagers talk in different ways. I also need to change the setting of the scene so that it is more optimal not only for a safer environment for COVID-19 but for a place in which filming will not have as many interruptions. Actually writing the blog right now just gave me the perfect place, there’s an area outside the neighborhood pool that has tables and chairs and not many people go to it so that would be great because it’s also like five minutes away biking.

     Another reason I have to rewrite this is because as time went on with the project I have ideas for singular shots or concepts I want to include but can’t with the current script, so rewriting it would let me change the pacing allowing for those shots I want to include.

     Now let’s talk about the key moment with this character. This character is supposed to be assassinated by someone who the main character’s farther sent and the film concept is about how much the main character hates this lifestyle and the assassination being done on a teenager instead of an adult would help sell that idea and let the audience get behind the main character.

Portfolio Project Second Reflection: Production Process

     This week I was actually able to do some filming and I started to realize a few things. One of them being that I might be too ambitious, obviously ambition is good in the long run but right now it isn’t because of COVID-19 and just my limitations as a film maker in general. I don’t have any adult willing to play parts as far as I know, besides the family that appears in a few shots but that’s fine since I can use mine. This means I will have to go back and rewrite part of my script to fit the new character, I was fortunate enough to have my friend agree to play a part outside the family so that’s what I’ll have to work off of. 

     This means I am going to have to change the dialogue to sound more like a teenager which may actually be a good thing in multiple ways. One is that it would be much easier to write and would probably sound better since I am actually a teenager. Two is that my friend would be playing the role so it would be much easier to communicate when the filming happens. Lastly it actually adds a lot more to the story at play because the character I have to rewrite is one that is there for a key moment.

     Another thing to note is that I am unprepared in terms of my vision for cross cutting between places, while shooting the family section I realized this and I unfortunately had to stop pretty early because I could only shoot the parts that I knew didn’t have cross cutting, so I have to go back to storyboarding to make sure I do this correctly.

Portfolio Project First Reflection: Production Process

     This week, unfortunately due to my work schedule, I was unable to actually film anything today. I work as a busser at a restaurant which is why I have to work for so long when called. I was called in both Saturday and Sunday which is why I didn't get anything done. I realized this on Friday which is why I decided to simply look at my outline for my opening. I also tried to do a pre-visualization. This is something mainly used for filming action but I just did it for a few shots to see whether they would actually hold up, in camera rather than in my head or in the quick sketch. That was the only thing I was able to get done this weekend in terms of production.

Portfolio Project First Reflection: Changes to Project

     I didn't make that many changes to the project to be honest. Any changes I did make were extremely minor. On top of that the changes mainly occurred in the areas of the key moments, whether that be how it is shown in the story, how its shots, or how long it lasts. Although I did go over the entire outline again due to limited time. It was the most I could do due to work on the weekend, anything else would have taken me to long because of all the preparation I would have needed to do.

Portfolio Project First Reflection: Key Moments

     I took a bit of today to look at my outline for my opening again. This majority of this week so far was spent studying for the SAT and yesterday was focused on catching up on homework which is why this is my first day working on the project. I realized the key moments in the opening are the asking of the assassination, the moment it occurs, and the family's reaction to it.

    I looked at each one of the moments by the angle of the story first to see if they worked or not. For me it was did not take long to figure out, they all worked fine in my opinion. I then tried to see how they should be shot since they can carry a lot of weight depending on what shots are decided on.

    Lastly, I looked at the time in the opening since I only have two minutes, I obviously do not want to take up too much time in the opening or too little since they are key moments.