Adding Sound - Portfolio Project Blog Post #17

ADDING SOUND

So far, our project has turned out beautifully, minus some hiccups here and there (but we'll get to that in a different blog post). The editing is clean, the coloring we used matched our vision exactly, the shots were not blurred... but, something is still missing to make this post-apocalyptic scene post-apocalyptic-er- and that, my friends, is SOUND.

When line editing, Logan and I made sure to plan ahead. We knew that music can make or break our scene, so while I put the clips together, Logan frantically searched through Epidemic Sound and YouTube Music for something that caught our eye- or, well, erm, ear, in this case.

And finally, we found something.

"Murmur" by WHENISEEYOUISEEMYSELF. 

I'm honestly surprised by how well the music matched with what we had in mind. 

For more realism, we used the camera sound of me slamming drawers shut, which honestly sounded far cleaner than I expected. We also tossed in camera noises for the security footage, horror sounds for transitions, and footsteps as our character walks.

Somebody's Watching Me...- Portfolio Project Blog Post #16

 Somebody's Watching Me

Since beginning this project, we have jumped between storylines, thrown out plots of monsters and ghouls, and nearly ripped out hairs out on those days when ideas just wouldn't come to us. But, through the chaos, one thought has stayed constant: our character is alone, or so they think.

But, what's a good apocalypse without a menacing antagonist? 

Although we did not want to introduce a villain in our film opening, we decided hinting at the character being watched may add to the suspense of the train coming by. For this, we had our minds set on security camera footage beginning the video, and, since I am one of the people on editing duty, I had to figure out a way to achieve this effect realistically.

Footage with timecode

The most important part of the security camera effect in my eyes is the coloring- bright, vivid colors make the technology seem far too modern, and flushing the liveliness down into a dull bluish-gray really pushes the hollow, tense vibe of this empty world. Playing around with lumetri color helped me achieve this effect.

Footage with coloring

Finally, for the finishing touches, I added some noise to the footage as well as a premiere effect titled "Dust and Scratches." In an apocalypse, it is likely that some dust would've collected on the camera, slightly blurring the footage in certain spots.

Footage with full effect

Right on Track - Portfolio Project Blog Post #15

 Right on Track

So far, our project has been a major success. Our ideas have been aligning just as we wanted them to, our storyboard was realistic for us, and filming day went great. However, as TV kids we know one thing for sure: the way we go about editing may change the game entirely. 

And, so far, everything is going smoothly. Logan and I line-edited the project, and at the moment, we are waiting on Isabella to finish the volumetric lighting effect and Kimberly to find the font for our credits. But, you can go ahead and read that on their blogs. I'm just the line-editing chick.

Line Editing

Logan and I were ridiculously excited to begin line-editing everything together. We had a clear vision of what we wanted, and we were ready to get the ball rolling. Our biggest fear at first was that warp stabilization was not going to work for our security camera shots, but it seems that the Adobe Premiere gods were on our sides. Other than that, everything went according to plan. 

Just a little something to mention, because I just have to brag about how awesome this was- we added a really cool transition using a flashlight that wasn't in the script. When my flashlight passes the screen, it cuts to the flashlight passing the screen in the next shot. A toast to Logan for thinking up this one.

When we got most of our editing done, our worst fear came to life:

2:05.

Five seconds over time. At first, we totally freaked out- we had already cut everything we could, how are we supposed to trim an entire five seconds? But, we watched it over and realized that we had spent WAY too long on the security camera sequence, so we cut a large portion out from there and trimmed some other clips ever so slightly. At the end, we cut an entire 10 seconds, giving us some wiggle room in case we need to add anything later.

As for audio, we added some nice music and looked through our folley for some nice sounds to include. We all agree that we need some more sounds, so Kimberly and Logan will be making some extra for us to use.

All we need now is our credits, which I will be doing, and our visual effects from Kimberly and Isabella. We're right on track!

Black and Blue - Portfolio Project Blog Post #14

 Black and Blue

Reinforcing the difference between our survivalist character and a burglar was not an easy task, especially with the rigorous challenge presented to us by being teenagers: a low budget. But, despite my anxiety, we managed to construct a costume that honestly... wasn't that bad?

Before we began filming, we had a pretty clear idea of what our character was going to wear during the film opening. The classic survivalist - a beanie, boots, black shirt, and some pants that are in any color except blue (who would wear jeans during the apocalypse?) While running out the door on filming day, I also grabbed a black belt, my makeup bag, and ... red velvet extract. I know it sounds weird, but just go with it.

Most makeup tutorials focus on removing: getting rid of zits, redness in your face, and, of course, those dreadful eye bags that make it look like you and sleep had a very rough breakup. But, for this film opening, glam was the last thing on our minds; realism is what we were going for, so we felt that those raccoon under-eyes of mine should be accentuated.

The strangest (and my favorite) part of our character design was utilizing things I had at home to make me look even more like a trainwreck (haha). Since I was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, we thought it'd be a cool idea to add a bandaged wound to my arm. Using a bandage patch, sports tape, and a strange baking material, we managed to turn my scrawny, boring arm into a scrawny-but-a-little-cooler one.

Over the time we spent setting up camera equipment, testing out lighting, and practicing shots, the coloring on my bandage oxidized to a brownish-red color, just like real blood. I think it definitely made the wound look more realistic, especially in the shot where it can be seen.

I'm actually very impressed by how well the extract we used resembled a bloody wound. Whoever's reading this, if you want some fake blood that you can also use to make dessert, you should really give this a try. It's a great investment.

Finally, we added the finishing touches to our character. Using a blend of purple, pink and black eyeshadow, I dotted at my knuckles to make them appear subtly bruised and added some more red coloring in my nails to make them appear unkept. This worked out great for us, especially in this shot:

Overall, I'm more than satisfied with our character design and how I appeared on camera. No, I wasn't too worried about looking like I hadn't showered in days for a video that all my friends and family will be watching; I was nervous about seeming too clean, or, even worse, unrealistic. Thankfully, our ideas didn't end up looking like ketchup and black paint thrown onto me. This is definitely an unexpected win.

We Aren't the Best at Drawing - Portfolio Project Blog Post #13

 We Aren't The Best at Drawing 

    Making our storyboard has been quite the process throughout this project- we have been pushing the task back until we see the location in person, feeling our stomachs turning as the days go by. This weekend we were supposed to go to the office and make our storyboard together, but problems arose in scheduling and ultimately our plans were canceled. Luckily, nothing has impacted the scheduling of our filming, which begins on March 13th, next Saturday. But, even if we are confident in our abilities to finish this project quickly, we figured we must plan our shots prior to shooting, whether we see the location or not. 

Despite our various scheduling issues, we managed to come together to create our storyboard over a free service that allows us to draw together online. We definitely had more shots than written in the outline, which is always a good thing- having more filler footage to select from is far worse than not having enough. But, by the looks of it, we are going to have to throw some of these shots away since we are likely going to think up new ideas when we begin filming.

Here’s what we managed to create together (we are not artists, in case that isn’t obvious):

Breaking Tropes - Portfolio Project Blog Post #12

 Breaking Tropes

Tomorrow, my group and I plan on touring the office we will be filming at in order to write our storyboard. But until then, we will be researching the post-apocalyptic genre some more in order to truly understand how to portray the lone, hollow feeling we have in mind. By understanding common techniques of the genre, we can apply and manipulate them to better fit the interests of our target audience.

The typical target audience of post-apocalyptic films is 18-44 year-olds, as the protagonists of these movies typically face mature hardships against nature that are too violent for younger individuals. With our film, however, we want to catch the attention of older teens as well, putting our target range from 16-24. In order to do this, we have changed a few tropes, such as making our protagonist a teenage girl rather than a middle-aged man. Our protagonist also has a survivalist, animalistic way about her, much unlike the nurturing and loving woman typically presented in this genre. 

At the moment, we find that balancing between keeping and breaking cliche tropes will benefit us greatly in attracting all members of our audience. 

Blueprints - Portfolio Project Blog Post #11

BLUEPRINTS

    Today in class, my group and I worked on polishing our shot list, since most of our overview was vague and content-based rather than specific to camera position. Three of us were able to meet on a call during class to discuss our shot list, but we were having a difficult time doing so since I am the only person who has visited the location of filming. Although I had a clear vision of what shots we could get, the others were rather confused on how the pictures of the office I sent all come together. To fix this, I shared my screen with them and drew a basic layout of the building using boxes (or, well, attempted boxes) and text. I explained to them some minute details of the location that could help us, such as the dark hallways and birthday decorations that have yet to be taken down. 
    Being TV students, we are rather used to working on these types of projects, and we have had enough time to understand how we work best. We appreciate having a basic outline, but we also accept that we are likely not going to follow it when we get to the location, especially since the others have yet to see it in person. I don't expect us to follow our outline or storyboard (coming soon!), but it is a nice plan to have in case we begin to forget that this is just a film opening and let the excitement of filming distract us from the story we need to create.