Drone Shot!!

Hey guys!!! So, spring break has finally come. Thank god it did because I really needed a break from school so I can finally get a little bit of free time. Although spring break has come, it doesn’t mean that I won’t be working on the film opening or keeping you guys updated. Don’t worry, Vale and I are ready to spend much of our time filming and editing. We actually finally started filming yesterday. 

Because yesterday was an early release day for our school, Vale, Fran, and I went straight from school to film some shots. If you guys are wondering who Fran is, he is a friend of ours who owns a drone in which he can drive very well. We were able to use the drone he has to film the car scene. The car scene we are talking about is the scene where we track the family car driving to their new community. Let me show you guys what we were going for. 

This scene will most likely be put after all the establishing shots of the beach, palm trees, etc. We will position this scene in this place so that the audience can understand that the film opening is about the family in the car we are tracking. After this scene, we plan on cutting to a scene inside the car in which the audience is able to see the family together which introduces the main characters of the opening.

We were only able to film for only 2 hours, from 12:30-2:30, because I had to make it home for my soccer practice and because our friend Fran had something for his club JROTC. Surprisingly, we actually got almost all the shots we needed in that shot period. OK, so first we were setting up the perfect position for the drone to be placed. 

When we finished with the shots, Vale was actually able to put the clips on Wevideo which is a free online video editor which our teacher recommended to me and I will be recommending it to you guys. Vale began to put the clips in order and started to add some special effects to make it seem better. We only have 4 clips so far, and even though it might not seem like it’s a lot, at least we were finally able to start filming something for our project.

We will most likely film today again for any missing shots with the car scene. I hope you guys enjoy our little sneak peek. Tune in for further updates this week as stuff is about to get real since we are finally starting to film. Peace!!!

5 Emails Later...

Guys Im back!!! You won't believe how stressed we have been on trying to obtain rights to the songs we want to use for our film opening. Yes we have gotten some answers, but those answers require going back and forth completing documents and filling out information about our film. I'm just going to let you guys know now that what I am about to show you is a lot of information. The process has taken longer than I thought it would because our song choices are very popular. If you don't remember these songs involve artists like Coldplay and Rihanna. Vale told me something the other day that got me worried. She said “this has been the MOST stressful part of the film so far, and we haven't even started editing!” This has made me realize that we need that consent for our song ASAP.

First artist reply for the song Walking On Sunshine:



In the email, they told us to contact BMG. Therefore Vale and I searched for their contact information and said this:



This is basically us just asking for permission to use the song that they own. Shortly after, they answered saying this:



To be honest guys, Vale and I are wondering why we even need to fill all these documents and all these licenses for a school project. It is getting a bit frustrating and annoying because it's not like they answer us right away, they are answering us several days later which makes the process more stressful.






The second artist reply was from Coldplay about the song Viva La Vida:

So this is the song that we really want to use for our film, as it syncs perfectly with what we are trying to do. We are not trying to get ahead of ourselves with this song because if we cant end up using it, we are going to lose hope. In the meantime, our friend from media class had mentioned something about an app called Garage Band. What this app does is that it allows for any user to insert and edit the speed of the song that one wants to use. Therefore, we are thinking of doing this if we don't get the permission for the song on time. We are contemplating this because our media studies teacher stated that this practice is frowned upon. 

Don't worry guys I will keep you updated and stay tuned for further updates.

Font Change!!!

Hey guys!! So, if you guys have been reading all the blog posts this week, then you all know that Vale and I have been having some difficulties in choosing and deciding which fonts and colors to use for the credits and titles in our film opening. Well guess what, Vale and I have made a final decision on the fonts and colors we will implementing. We would have still been stuck in the fonts if it wasn’t for the group meetings we had in class the other day. Vales group had told her that we should use and do something similar to the movie Monster in Law’s. When Vale told me I immediately went to go check out the opening credits and I was so happy because it was exactly what we wanted with our opening credits. Let me show you guys how it looks in the movie. 

                                                 

                                                 
 The font choice we have finally decided to use is High Society because it is what looks closest to the font used in Monster in Law’s. I already showed you how High Society works but if you guys didn’t see that blog, this is how the font looks. 

                                                            
Now comes the color aspect that we want to use for the font. So after watching Monster in Law’s many times, we decided that we wanted to use warm hues. We decided that we were going to switch our original colors, blue and yellow, to turquoise and orange. Here are the colors that we will be focusing on using for the credits and titles 

                                             
We decided we wanted to use turquoise because it gives off a calm, relaxing, and clear mood and orange because it gives off a happy and adventurous feeling. Well that’s all for today, I will continue to keep you guys updated in everything going on. Talk to you guys soon!!

Finally Being Productive

Hey guys!! I am excited to tell you guys that we have finally started looking for other places to film for the establishing shots. As I explained yesterday, we figured out the location of where we want to film the house scenes. So yesterday, we decided to go location scouting for the establishing shots. Well, I can’t really say “we” because I was not able to make it. The amazing partner I have, Vale, was able to go find places for the establishing shots with her friend while I was at soccer practice. Here are some pictures of what we were aiming to find

 

Now let me show you guys what Vale was able to find and take pictures of during her journey of finding locations 

 
Now these are all still pictures, but I want to remind you guys that in the film opening it will be little clips of video that goes with the beat of our song choice. Keep in mind we are still figuring our song choice as we are having some difficulties trying to contact the owners, but that is something else to talk about later on. Now, I know that these pictures do not seem so bright and so appealing, so we decided to do some editing to see how it looks in the end. Let me show you what the pictures look like after some editing 

 

Now, I have to say they look 100 times better that without the editing. The editing tool that we used for these pictures is called BeFunky. You guys should really go check it out, it is really astonishing how it could turn an ok picture to an amazing one 

                      

I am actually very happy right now, as it seems that we are finally starting to be productive and get started with the filming aspect of our film opening. Stick around for tomorrows blog. Peace!!!

Location Scouting!!!

Hey guys! So, in yesterday’s blog I was going to tell you guys about what happened in our group meeting in class, but I completely forgot, so that’s what I am going to talk about right now along with other exciting things going on. So, in yesterday’s group meeting I explained to my new group about our ideas and also our problems. They really enjoyed our idea of doing the establishing shots that go along with the music. They also seemed to have the same problem as us, which is not being on time with the shooting schedule. I was a bit relieved when I heard that none of them have started to film their production yet. After talking to Vale about how her group meeting, she was explaining to me about how we have to find a location of where we want to film the house scene because everyone in her group already had places where they wanted to film. We decided to choose a house in the suburbs to represent family. At first, I was saying to myself how are we going to find an empty house which looks like the family had just moved in. And then it came to me and when it did I felt extremely stupid. My dad is in the construction business and he is the general contractor. After thinking for hours, I realized that my dad could possibly have a couple of houses that would be useful for our film. When I asked him, he explained to me that he had two empty house that could work out, one bigger than the other. I immediately told me to send me pictures of what he’s got. I talked to him all through text so let me show you guys what the conversation looked like.       
Now let me show you guys the picture of one of the houses that he has available for us.
   
Like I said, my dad has two houses. The one that I just showed you is the smaller house. The reason I did not show you the bigger one is because my dad does not have pictures of yet, but when he does, I will make sure to show it to you guys immediately. One reason I am really happy with the house above is because it is very close to the beach, which means we will be able to film almost everything we want for the establishing shots and also for the house scenes in one day. I Hope you guys liked the pictures I just showed you, stay tuned for tomorrows blog!!!

                                                                                 

Font Styles

Hey guys what’s upp!! So today we did another group meeting in class to talk about our progress with our projects, but Ill talk to you guys about that later. The point of today’s blog is to show you guys what fonts we want to use for the credits in our opening. While figuring out what fonts that we wanted, Vale found this awesome website called Font Meme. So, what this website really is, is that it has a large variety of all different types of fonts that one can choose from. It is actually very simple to navigate as at first you choose your category, in our case Drama, and then it continues to give you more options such as style to narrow down your options. You can search for about anything you are looking for in this amazing website, and that is exactly why this website was an essential tool for choosing our font style that we want to present in our film opening. You guys should really go check it out, maybe it will help too!!

 

OK, so after looking around trying to pick and choose, Vale and I thought that the font that would best fit in our Drama film opening would be one that is elegant, has rounded forms, and has sharp edges. We thought that a font like this would look nice and clean. After deciding what exact font we wanted, we narrowed it down to two options: Clearlight and High society. Let me show you guys how these fonts look!

                                                    

                             
As you can see, they are both crisp and elegant which is what we are looking for. Now comes the coloring of the fonts. We decided that we want the colors yellow and blue. We want to use these colors because they represent Florida, the place the family is moving into, and all the different bright colors it has from the sun and the skies. This might be a risky move because the colors might not blend in well with the background, but the font color is still not finalized, as we will most likely finalize that decision towards the end when we can see how it looks on our piece. Let me know what you guys think about the fonts. That’s all for today, stay tuned because more exciting things are coming as we get closer to beginning production.

We have a Problem

Oh no guys!!We have just run into a problem. So, remember how I showed you guys our shooting schedule for the project earlier this week. Well if you guys paid close attention, we were supposed to start filming this weekend on Friday from 6pm to 8pm at Vales house to make the voiceover and on Saturday from 1pm to 6pm in Miami to capture some shots for our establishing scene. Well, you guessed it, we didn’t do anything either of those days. It feels like we are so behind with the project, and I am starting to stress out. If you guys don’t know me yet I stress about almost everything in life, even if it’s a minor thing like this. Anyways, Vale and I didn’t film on Film on Friday because I had practice from 5pm-7:30pm and we didn’t film on Saturday because Vale was taking the SAT and I also had a soccer game that day. This meant that we had to adjust our shooting schedule. Vale and I called each other yesterday and made a completely new shooting schedule in which we can almost 100% both follow. After about an hour of talking, let me show you what the new schedule looks like

                                                      

 Vale and I have agreed that we need to be committed with these dates and that we cannot miss a single one starting from now on. I have to be honest with you guys, this project is actually way harder than I thought it would be at first. Our storyline sounds so good in my head, but its so hard to translate it into the project. For example, the voice over that we had planned on doing this weekend seemed as if it was going to be a breeze making it, but we just have so many things to say and we are not quite sure how we are going to put it all together in one smooth voiceover. Vale and I decided that what we should do is watch a couple of drama films that have implemented voice overs and establishing shots. Some films that we plan on watching includes The Kissing Booth, Monster in Law, and The Duff.  

  

We are going to be paying close attention to the dialogue in the films and the different shots so hopefully we can become inspired and hopefully we can get rolling with this project. Thank You guys for listening to my problem, I hope I was not too stressful. Talk to you guys soon!!