Audio issues

 After the last night of filming we did, we looked over the videos and realized our mics were a little weird. What I mean by this is out microphones may have been to good. When we would film we realized only our voices were being picked up which was not our goal. Since our filming location was in Town center the audio has to be more lively. In our film you can see all the people in the background talking but none of the audio picks up.

This puts a delay in our schedule, since we wanted to try and start our creative critical reflection over the weekend. Our new plan is now to finish over the weekend and do our ccr's over the week. This plan almost works out better than our original since spring break is about to start. My group and I are free the whole week so we expect to get our ccr's done and edited by Friday.

Production

 Today in our production we had countless retakes. Out of all the filming days this was our most challenging because of our microphones. For some reason we dealt with a problem during our phone call scene. Every time I would answer the phone my voice would echo and to be honest it just ruined the way the scene sounded. After about 30 minutes of troubleshooting we finally fixed the issue and could move on.

The image above is the scene that took us the most time to perfect. We wanted to make the kill scene subtle so we decided to reveal it through the shadows. At first I thought it would be annoying to try and get the perfect shot for every one of our scenes, but the more days me and my group work together I find myself being excited to film.

Even though we filmed the kill shot our filming is still not over we still have to include our newspaper scene which subtly hints at the possibility of 2 killers.

Production day 1

 The first day of production went better than I thought and it makes me excited to think about what the end product will look like. Our filming process couldn't have gone smoother if we wanted it to. Julio brought microphones with him which greatly improved our audio for filming. for some reason the microphones didn't have any clips and they were struggling to stay on so we had to tape them to each other for them to stay.

I can't lie since this was my first time filming something in a crowded area I felt a little nervous because everyone would walk by and look at us. After a couple of practice shots and just focusing on the scenes I found it to be fun and enjoying. Our film needs to be no more than 2 minutes and on our first night of filming we have roughly 45 seconds of film.

The next 2-3 days in a row we will be filming and finishing up so we can start the editing process. Tonight took us about an hour and a half for how much we filmed which may seem like a lot but we wanted to make sure our shots are perfect. By the end of the night I wanted to keep filing but everything in town center was starting to close so that was our queue to leave. Overall I think the first night was a success and I'm excited to get back to filming tomorrow

Prop setups

The filming part of our project is finally around the corner and I couldn't be more excited. For my project there were 3 props that I had to go out of my way to get but were vital to the film. The first being a camera stabilizer. This wasn't hard to find since I was able to purchase it at a local best buy. 

Next was creating a fake news paper this was the easiest prop for me to get since all I had to do was make it at home. I already knew what I wanted in my newspaper the only thing I needed help with was constructing it. After looking online the website that helped me the most with the creation of my newspaper was https://easy-peasy.ai/templates/news-article-generator. This website helped with the layout of my newspaper and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

The last prop needed was a fake retractable knife. This wasn't as important since my kill scene is happening off camera but it still helps with the smoothness of the film. This product I picked up after getting hold of my camera stabilizer. The knife was at a local party city so there was no hassle in getting this.

Filming location

 In class I asked my teacher for recommendations on what I can improve in my production. She gave really helpful critiques but the ones that stood out the most are a change of setting from what I originally planned and a slight change of the script.

My original plan for the setting was the local amc movie theatre because I really liked the idea of the place having a tunnel connecting to the back of the building, which is where I wanted to film my kill shot. The reason I originally planned amc was because my first script was a movie date but the guy unknowingly gets set up by his date and gets killed in the tunnel of the building. However the slight change of script my teacher recommended completely changed my mind.

She said I should instead focus on the girl luring in the guy to get killed. She also said I should change my location of filming to Weston town center. I questioned this idea since I really liked the idea of my kill shot being in the tunnel, but when I thought about it, there are buildings in the back of town center that don't have lights on. When I realized this I instantly knew that town center will be my choice of setting.

Character development

 The names for our characters in the movie are going to be our actual names played by me (Justin), my classmate Julio, and my girlfriend Jackie who is helping with the project. Since the characters are based off of us, the ages of our characters are the following: Justin's character is 17, Jackie' character is 18 and Julio's character is 18. The character that we are going to focus on is Jackie. Julio's identity is never revealed in the opening but he is the killer.

Jackie is the girl who approaches Justin in the opening seconds of the film and strikes up a conversation with him. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, Jackie is dressed in a bright white shirt with bright blonde hair. This makes her stand out since it will be a dark but barley lit area. From the interaction she has with Justin she seems like a charming outgoing person but she could be hiding a dark secret. She talks to Justin and they get to know each other, however, Justin gets bumped into by a random guy in all black and that's what changes Jackie's mood.

When the guy bumps into Justin, Jackie and the guy make eye contact, they look at each other as if they know each other. Justin wants to leave but Jackie becomes more sweet and touchy almost throwing herself at him. Jackie's actions and her all of a sudden trying to make Justin stay and keep walking could be a hint at what kind of secrets Jackie is hiding. Jackie's advances towards Justin causes him to want to stay and keep walking which leads to his eventual death.

Project Idea

 The idea I have for my film opening is a slasher film that's inspired by scream. There will be three characters in the opening. A boy getting ice cream (Justin), a girl who approaches Justin (Jackie) and the killer.  I wanted to do something that focuses on a twist in the story and something that can hopefully attract the audiences attention. The classic scene from scream when Casey Becker gets a phone call from the killer and he starts to mess with her is something I knew I wanted to include in my production since day 1. However I wanted to make the phone call a little different. Since we don't have as much time during our opening I will have to make it a short call.

The idea that came to my mind for filming the project was near the local town center, the reason being is they have a nice ice cream shop and also very dimly lit buildings which would fit perfectly for the eeriness of the film. The way that I'm going to make the phone call scene differently is by having the killer call me after he bumps into when I'm walking with Jackie. The reason the killer bumps into me is to draw the audiences attention to how the killer and Jackie make an almost suspicious look to each other.

I wanted to do a film that focuses around a killer who only kills people with gold accessories but also have an unsuspecting companion helping the killer behind the scenes In the final seconds of my opening I want to include a newspaper and the reason is so that the audience can get the information that's crucial to understanding the plot of the movie.