Film Opening

 After nine weeks of hard work, I can now finally present The Accessory. I hope you enjoy. :)

Creative Critical Reflection

 Here are my creative critical reflections: click here

Final Reflection

So, the project. It's done! Woohoo! This has definitely been a journey, so let's take a look back on the project.

 The original plan was, let's just say, ambitious. I wanted an entire extra scene in the beginning just showing Jimmy and Elvis getting dressed and preparing weapons, then I wanted them to have the discussion in a diner, then the whole scene with Lily was supposed to happen. How on Earth did I ever think I would be able to fit that in two minutes??? In my defense, I played it out in my head and timed it, and it did fit. However, let's be fair: it would have felt waaaay too fast paced. After talking with peers during group review, and my media teacher, I decided that I should one, focus on Lily as the main character, and two, should remove the diner scene all together. Later, while writing the script, I also decided to remove the opening scene of them getting ready. I had also originally planned on making the entire film go along to the music. I decided to scrap this idea however, because the music would interfere with the dialogue heavy opening. 

Although I had to change my original idea quite a bit, I am very happy with the result. I like the way the opening flows together, and I think I did a good job considering this is my first time doing something like this alone. This project has been quite a journey, and I'm happy with the way I'm leaving it.

I'll be taking Aice Media A Level next year, but until then, this is me signing off. I've really really enjoyed this class, and I can't wait to be back. :)

finished! the opening

 So yeah, I FINALLY FINISHED EDITING THE OPENING

It took a few hours, mostly because I had to figure out which takes to use, but the process overall went pretty smoothly. 

I wasn't really sure if I was going to record my own cover song for this project. On one hand, it would mean I would be able to use a song that I love and think would fit well with the piece. On the other hand, it's very easy to tell when a song is recorded by professionals vs an amateur like myself. I really loved the way the song Sing Child by Heart would fit over the film, so I decided I would cover it myself. 

This is my super professional and not at all janky recording setup. My amplifier has the ability to directly connect to my laptop which was running Audacity.

I also used After Effects for the first time. I used it to animate the title screen, and used the 3D feature to have the title follow the camera as it moves. 

This took a little while to figure out, but it was totally worth it in the end. 

Here is the finished timeline for the video. 

I filmed! Yaaaaaaay!

So I think overall filming went well. There were a few hiccups (which I'll get into), but for the most part I'm happy with how it came out. I will also be calling the Sams by their last names for now on. 

For equipment I used my dad's camera, a Sony A6000, and my own tripod. For audio, I used voice memos. 

Chapter 1: What's Up Studs?

I picked up Pombo and took him to the location, where we met up with Armesto. Nicole came pretty late, so we filmed all of the scenes without her first. As we started of filming, an employee of a nearby store walked over a said to us and said "What's up studs? My servers are wondering what you're filming since we can see you through the window." That was a teeny bit awkward, but once we explained what we were doing and that they weren't on camera they let us keep filming. 

Chapter 2: FLORIDA

I would like to imagine you have two questions right now: What is the first problem you came across? Why are you putting parts of this blog into chapters? The answer to the second question is I have no clue. The first question can easily be answered by this short clip. 

As you can see from the clip, the lighting changed SO MUCH. The clouds kept moving and I had to adjust the iso and f-stop constantly. This normally isn't a problem, but when a shot takes multiple takes it really interrupted flow to have to stop and change my camera settings. Speaking of my camera, you may see this an ask, "Is your lens dirty?". The answer to that question is: it's a mise-en-scene element. 

Chapter 3: STILL FLORIDA

It started raining. Who would have guessed? Luckily it never really rained hard, and all of my equipment was safe, but it once again changed the lighting which was really annoying. 

Chapter 4: We are in public

I never really considered how filming this would look from an outside perspective until someone walked up on us while filming this part: 

The UPS worker seemed mildly concerned...

Chapter 5: Pizza

I realized that I had kind of begged my friends to help me with this, and I was taking up their time during spring break, so I felt kind of bad. So I decided to pay them by buying them lunch.

Look how happy they look!

Chapter 6: Finished!

Filming took about 4 hours in total including time for the lunch break, which isn't terrible considered how much I managed to film. I was very happy with how filming went, and after reviewing the footage at home I was satisfied with most of the shots. This is really the first time I've been able to take control of a project like this, and I'm really excited to see how the final thing turns out. 

Us after we finished.

Filming in the Morning

 Yeah yeah it's 12:07, I should be asleep. This is just a little update for what's going on. So the original plan was to film with my friends Sam, Diana, and Bryan. Well, Bryan told me he had a doctor's appointment that his mom never told him about today, so he can no longer do it. Also Diana had something come up, so she can't do it either. Faaaaaantastic. So I've been scrambling these past two days and I now have two new actors. Lily will now be played by my good friend Nicole, and Elvis will now be played by another friend named Sam. So two Sams and a Nicole. We are filming in 10 hours so if anyone cancels I'm canceling my friendship with them.

Bryan breaking my heart

Diana crushing my soul

Sam V.2 had just gotten a new fancy suit, so hopefully he looks absolutely dapper tomorrow. 

That's it from me. Wish me luck filming.

The Current Plan for Filming

 I have a current date scheduled to film the opening, along with the people that will act in it. The current plan is as follows: 

We will meet up at the filming location on the 25th of this month. Jimmy will be played by my good friend Sam, and Elvis will be played by my friend Bryan. Both have a lot of experience in acting, and they have good chemistry from acting together in the past, which is why I decided to seek them out. Here is a film they acted together in, so you can see their talent. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ruAioQCDs2_7i9edO8h6lR__8WlepGCO/view?usp=sharing

Sam(left) and Bryan(Right)

I then recruited my friend Diana to play the roll of Lily. She is in drama and has a good amount of experience acting as well. 

The plan is to meet up at the town center and film the main opening scene. Then, we will try to film the alley scene in a place there. If that doesn't work, we will drive to another location to film the alley scene there.