Hi, so basically I went to visit my sister at her apartment in UF and she helped me film my last CCR. I realized that I haven't mentioned what I had in mind because I have been so busy editing that I just keep forgetting to update my blog once I made progress. So, anyway my second CCR is inspired by Wired's youtube video of asking Olivia Rodrigo the web's most searched questions. The video is attached below.
I thought this was a creative way of answering the last two questions as well as the final statement. I created my own Google board by printing out a Google search bar and gluing on some questions as well as blank pieces of paper that I could peel off to reveal each question, and then gluing that piece of paper on a piece of cardboard. I forgot to take a photo of the process of making the little board, but below I have attached a photo of how it turned out.
A few parts of the video with Olivia Rodrigo included short clips saying that they were going to ask her some burning questions along with upbeat music over it. I wanted to do the same, which is why i took a picture of my sister's room and blurred it, and then used the sound Shake That by FASS, which I found from the site upbeats where I have chosen all of my non-copywrited music so far. The photo below is the one I took of my sister's room prior to blurring it.
Now I am almost done with editing the video and realize that I am going to be a little over the 10 minute mark. This worries me greatly since I do not know how to fix it. I feel like I answered all the question and elaborated upon my responses which is why it took so much time, but if it means that I answered them appropriately, then is there really an issue? In the meantime, I am trying to quicken the pace of my words to see if that will help, if not then I may have to think about cutting some parts of the clips, which I would rather not do as I think it is better to include details of my elaboration and explanation behind the whole process.
Hi, so like I mentioned earlier I wanted to do a podcast type of media for my first CCR. I decided to write a script of what I would say and chose my mom to interview me. The script is the back-and-forth conversation between my mom and I, but despite trying to film it, my mom gave up on it as she said it was too difficult for her since English is not her first language. This led me to make the slight change on having my friend Daniela play the role of the host. Remind me to thank her later for staying up until 1 am with me to finish filming this. Anyway, the script I had was not intended for Daniela, so we made quick changes at the moment, but I would still like to show you what it mainly consisted of.
Now you may be thinking that that is quite a long dialogue, and you are right. After I filmed it all and began to edit I realized that it got quite long. So, I made the decision to leave out some clips, such as a mention of utilizing social media to engage audiences. While the mention is important, it does not necessarily have to be included as it is more among the marketing aspect and not the distribution one that is being asked. I am a little worried about going over 10 min though, since the final video after all my editing for the first CCR is 6:13 long. Hopefully, it all works out once I begin to edit my second CCR.
I also wanted to mention how I changed the layout of my entire living room to make it seem like a nice podcast. I mentioned in previous blogs about being inspired by Jake Shane's podcast and the warm colors of his setting, which is why I tried to replicate the same using warm light and green and brown colors.
Here is a video of the state of my living room once I had moved all the furniture around. let's just say that my mom was not very happy about it. But, anything for the project right?
Lastly, I made a little intro for the beginning of the podcast by simply taking clips of my backyard and greenery around me in Gainesville that I thought was visually appealing. Then I created a logo on Canva and put the sound Uplifting Future indent by Oakvale of Albion, which I found from the non-sopywrited site: Upbeats. Here is the logo I created on canva, I wanted to add the palms around the podcast name: The Insider so it would match the plant in between my friend Daniela and I, as well as the clips of greenery in the intro.
The intro aspect was inspired by the opening of the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. I was thinking about doing a talk show instead of a podcast, until I realized that a talk show would be more realistic with an adult, which I did not have, so my friend would be best suited for a podcast instead. Below is the opening of the Tonight Show that inspired me.
Hi, so I basically edited all the clips and I am trying to make them into a montage on adobe premier pro. I managed to use a variety of unboxing clips and make fast cuts between them. While I have gotten used to using adobe premier pro, there are still parts to the platform that I do not know how to use, specifically inserting text. So, I downloaded my edited video as an mp4 and planned to edit the credits on adobe express.
Once I started to cut the video into parts to make it simpler to put credits, I realized that it would be difficult to allow the audience to read a credit such as " director and producer: Alexandra Nunez" within the 1.5 sec cut in the little montage at the unboxing scene. This took be aback for a moment since it made me realize that the original plan will not work out to our liking. To try to get inspiration on how others implemented their own credits I began to look at past students' projects and noted that their credits were within short clips that did not last longer than 4 seconds. This made me get the idea that instead of a fast montage, I could use the same idea, but just make each shot stay a little longer on the screen than I had originally planned. Once I edited it in that way I noted that it looked a lot more professional and visually appealing as each clip, such as placing a book on a shelf, was only seen once, whereas in my prior video, it was seen numerous times alternating between other shots.
I also wanted to add a little production company logo as the beginning to make it seem more like a real film. I planned on using Canva to create it, and chose upon a simple name: Blue Bird Films. I found a little blue bird that flew across the screen and paired it with a large green tree as well as the title that could be animated to rise up. Then, using the site with the non-copy write songs, I found the noise of a bird chirping, and put it all together. I am quite content with how it turned out and look froward to showing my group members
Hi, so I have spent the last few days collecting various clips of footage for the unboxing scene. I was so stressed because I felt like the boxes that I used as my props were just not as large as I needed them to be to make them look more realistic for someone to use when they move into a new apartment. When I filmed the boxes on the floor they just seemed to be unprofessional and unrealistic. My mom luckily had the bright idea to stack them up together, and I realized how bigger it made them seem and more appealing when filmed.
Below is a screenshot of what I filmed before and after my mom's idea.
I also realized that I did not just need to film the boxes themselves, but rather put various objects in their place. I believe this equally shows someone moving in, as they tend to fill up their apartment with things such as decorations and clothes. I filmed Chloe placing some of my clothes on hangers to fill up a closet, and I thought to use primarily white and pink clothing. A few months ago we did a lesson on color psychology and I remembered that white symbolized innocence and pink symbolized femininity. These two were a perfect match for my character and helped me establish her personality a little more.
Then I chose to film a few shots of Chloe placing books on shelves as I thought it hinted to her intellectual nature. Most of the books were romance books which would also lead the audience to believe that Chloe is a romantic herself.
Then I filmed Chloe placing a few plants on a shelf because I thought it added to the film's aesthetic and further pointed to the fact that she had just moved in. I felt like it also gave off a very girly, put-together nature for her.
I also made various props that I am happy to say I am proud of how they turned out. I was so determined to make it clear that Chloe was a very accomplished girl who won various trophies. So I did a little photoshoot a few weeks ago with one of her dance trophies and turns out I actually got to use it to put in a frame. I paired this with a trophy of my own and staged it so make it seem as yet another thing Chloe is putting to decorate her apartment. Below is the photo I had took of Chloe and beneath it is the picture of me doing so.
I also asked Chloe to send me various pictures of herself as well as taking it upon myself to look through her Instagram for aesthetic pictures of herself. I made sure to choose ones that showed her at dance competitions of her in very pretty lighting. My purpose for this was to create one of those walls that you can pin pictures off. The image below is the inspiration that I was going for. The link can be found here.
I thought I could print and film myself putting the images on the board. To fill it up even more, I thought of pinning some of my brother's soccer medals to further show how accomplished Chloe is. The board I used is one from my parent's office and although it is not as aesthetically appealing as the one from my inspiration, I though that it came out pretty well. Here's how one of the clips turned out.
Overall, very successful few days of filming and I look forward to editing it into my project!
Hi, so I have been thinking about all the aspects that the first scene has to have and I am a little overwhelmed. I have all the props, such as awards and boxes, but so much is left to consider. For instance, the background music, the credits' font and size, and especially the title.
I have begun to look for the background song at the beginning of the scene by searching through a list of upbeat summer songs from this interesting site that offers non-copywrited music for free. There are a few songs that I thought would fit well with the scene, but I am unable to find a way to put them on the blog to show you. So instead I will just explain the vibe that I am looking for when searching for a song. Basically, I envision this rom-com to be young and fresh as the main characters are in their first years of college. I want the song to reflect that excitement of starting in a new place. I also want the girl to be shown as a very light-hearted, kind person. In my past blogs, I may have described her as otherwise, so it may seem as though I am contradicting myself. But, after filming and seeing what the male character is portrayed as, I find the best way to contrast their personalities is by making the girl, Chloe be seen as sweet, innocent, and naive. Which is why I would like the song to be a happy summer type of song.
The credits should match the color scheme of the items and lighting of the clips, but I find myself leaning towards yellow as the font color to go along with the summer theme. I have been playing around with fonts as well. I know I had said I favored a font with pin-straight letters to mimic the girl's perfect personality and obsessive nature, but I find myself liking the second font, as it makes me think of femininity and innocence. I plan on showing these to my group members and seeing what they think is best. Below is the image of the fonts I have liked the most.
Hi, so I have basically edited 75% of the opening. I did not expect the shots that we took last weekend to be more than enough than we needed. I knew we would not be short of clips, but I am more than happy to see that if we wanted to change something about our opening, we could due to the various clips I could pull from.
I am a little worried though, because I find myself cringing at the scene with the dialogue between my characters. I realize that the genre is meant to be a cringy/cliché romance, so I have to remind myself that we have just followed the typical conventions of a romantic comedy. I also noted that the conversation seemed unrealistic and choppy with the cuts. After taking in feedback, I realized that I just have to cut each scene a little sooner than I have been doing, so that it resembles a real conversation in which people reply quickly. I think this will make the scene much more sophisticated than it is right now. I want to play around with the sound as well because unfortunately the sounds of the children playing in a pool nearby are heard in some clips and frankly is driving me crazy. If I can not get rid of it, I do not think it will negatively impact the final product. It is just my perfectionism that makes me cringe whenever I hear the sounds of the children, I suppose.
Hi, so I felt like my last post was a little chaotic since I had so much going on. I basically summed out how my plans were ruined, but a plan B was in place, and we got to film after all. The day of filming was nothing short of memorable. My actors had a little trouble getting there on time, which led me and my group members to be left by themselves for over an hour at our location (aka the apartment). So, we did what anyone would do in our situation and ordered food. When they finally arrived, and we were ready to start filming, issues with the UberEats person being unable to find the apartment sort of derailed our project.
Nonetheless, we were able to go back on track and get the shots we needed (once we had gotten our food). However, this plan was completely last minute due to the original apartment being unexpectedly unavailable. This made it harder for us to film. To elaborate, the apartment had poor, yellow lighting that made it so we were unable to film the opening scene of the unboxing. Also, the balcony showed a view of a parking lot, while the original was supposed to show the view of Miami Beach. Clearly, these aspects are extremely different. So, we just filmed the scenes that included dialogue between the two characters, and any shots that showed Chloe in the apartment hallway. The rest of the shots that include the unboxing, and essentially establish who are character is will have to be filmed another day.
I realized halfway through filming that I could have planned the situation better. For instance, part of our script consisted of a line by the male lead about Chloe's necklace which spells out her name. Unfortunately, I was unable to get this shot as I forgot to actually tell Chloe to wear that specific necklace. This type of thing happened a few other time with small details that we just forgot to bring to the set, as we rushed to get there due to the last-minute location change. I am a little disappointed in myself because I know if I had organized myself better those little mistakes would not have happened. But, I know that I have to give myself a break because the issue with the location was completely out of my hands. Anyway, we were able to come up with more lines and a variety of shots that we could pick and choose from when I began to edit. I am confident that we will have more than enough material to meet the 1 min of the two characters' interaction and leave time left over for the unboxing clips. I am so excited to edit and will update you once I do.
Hi, so literally the worst news possible: my aunt forgot to contact her apartment building security and send over my parents' IDs to let us in. So, since she did so last minute, I am unable to go to film in Miami on Saturday. I am not going to lie, this issue made me reach a breaking point. Luckily, my dad thought of a solution. One of his closest friends has his own apartment in Doral and said we could use it as he is going to be gone all day celebrating his birthday. This was the biggest relief I have ever heard.
On Saturday we were able to drive down and meet with my actors to get lots of scenes. Unfortunately, the lighting within the apartment was too yellow for my taste, so we planned on filming the unboxing scene in a different location. I think if we use tight shots and white lighting, you will not be able to tell that it is in another location.
The filming process was a little chaotic since my actors could not stop laughing, but we were able to push through and get all the scenes in which they were having a conversation. We also added more scenes than what was in the original script to make sure that we had extra shots left over if we were to need them.
I plan on editing this in the upcoming weeks and searching for a new location for the unboxing scene, but other than that here is a clip of me filming my actors.
Hi, so I have begun to research media forms that I would like to make my CCR inspired by. Since I watch various podcasts myself, I thought it would be best to research a video that I particularly enjoyed. I chose to take a look at an episode from Therapuss with social media influencer: Jake Shane. Jake is someone who is very outgoing and is confident in the way he speaks. This is clear throughout his podcast by the way he speaks in a comfortable/confident tone. In my podcast, I would not be the one speaking, but rather the one being questioned. So I would have to ensure that whoever it is that is questioning me holds the same confident tone of voice that Jake had within his own podcast.
Moreover, I really like Jake's setting. The warm colors and furniture all tie in together and create a comfortable atmosphere. This is something I would like to recreate with my CCR, but my own living room consists of cool colors, so I would have to use a different location to recreate a warmer tone. This is something I would have to discuss with my mother because I am sure she knows of a location with a similar color scheme.
This video is one of Jake Shane's podcast episodes. It was found on Youtube here.
Hi, so I may have the best news possible. I was really frustrated because my actors were unable to film on the same weekend due to their extracurricular activities, i.e. sports. But, I was just informed that one of my actor's tournaments was canceled this weekend. Our original plan was to go ahead and film regardless of whether he was going to be there or not, to get at least half of the footage. Since Justin is only in the second half of the opening, I thought it would be efficient to just get the first minute done. Luckily, we don't have to do that anymore!
So to just clarify, we are now going to meet up and film on Sunday. One of my group members drives and has her own car (thankfully) so the drive down to Miami will be no problem. We plan on getting to my Aunt's apartment early, around 9 am, so we have the entire day to film. Since it is one hour away, I think are approach to the filming is great. My group members and I are in the process of creating mood boards for our two characters. We have a general idea of what their personalities are going to be like but I want us to be able to visualize it so we choose the right mise-en-scène elements and everything. In addition, we have begun planning what our two characters are going to wear. So stay tuned for when I reveal their costumes!
I realize that I keep blogging about my actors, but have not shown you what they look like. So to put a name to the face, the headshots of my actors are seen below.
Lead actress: Chloe Blum playing the role of Chloe Fisher.
Lead actor: Justin Poms playing the role of Justin Wright.
Hi, so today I had a lesson on the final component of the portfolio project, the CCR. Essentially, I must reflect on the production, respond to at least 4 questions, and express my personality through creativity. This would be shown through two different forms of media such as a presentation with a voiceover, director commentary, talk show, or an enhanced podcast. For the first question, I must discuss the genre conventions and describe how I may have challenged/followed the genre norms within my rom-com film opening. I already have a few ideas on how to answer this question. For one, we followed the conventions by creating a cringy meet cute between the two characters.
For the second question, I am to describe the audience and distribution techniques. A few ideas I have in mind for how to answer this question is the costuming that we used for the male lead. Specifically, the fact that he was shirtless is meant to engage a younger female audience. A way I would like to distribute this is by using a free streaming platform, as I am keeping in mind that I am not a well-known director/producer, so theaters are unrealistic.
For the third question, I am to explain and describe how my production skills developed throughout. Since I have not started the editing process yet, as of right now I do not have many ideas on how to answer this question. But, I am sure once I begin editing I will learn lots of new skills for the opening I could speak on.
Lastly, the fourth question instructs me to speak on how I integrated technologies. The first thing that comes to mind is, of course, blogger. This platform has allowed me to organize myself and brainstorm research that I could potentially use. The platform, Canva has also been extremely useful as it allows me to create visual representations of what I would like to see in my film.
Out of all the possible media forms I could do, the one that most interested me was a podcast. I am someone who frequently watches podcasts such as Therapuss and Hot Mess, so I am interested in taking an approach such as that one.
So basically, I am extremely annoyed. I know in my last blog post I was super excited about having an apartment to film in, and everything seemed to be going smoothly. Well, I have bad news. While my actress, Chloe, is available to film next weekend, my actor, Justin, is not. He is a big basketball player and is having tournaments almost every weekend. The weekend after the roles are reversed since Justin is free but Chloe has a tournament herself. This is understandable, but frustrating, as I hoped to begin filming so that we have an ample amount of time to edit.
I think my group members and I are going to have to think of maybe finding someone new to play the role of the male lead because I do not think we should wait for one to be available and potentially cost us valuable time that we could be used for perfecting the opening.
On a happier note, I have begun to look for props to use at the beginning of the opening. If you recall, we plan on having her unpack boxes full of objects that indicate that the female lead is an overachiever, and very intelligent. I have a couple of trophies/medals in my own home that I think would be great to use for the opening. On example is shown below.
This is another medal I was thinking of using. We used it for my mom's achievement if you could not tell, but I was thinking maybe I could replace the picture of my mom with one of Chloe to add to the fact that she was the one who earned it
Also, I purchased the college flag that I mentioned using as a prop a few weeks ago. I know earlier it seemed as though I was going to get a UF college flag, but I realized that since the apartment I will be filming in is Miami, it would be best to match the vibe of the location with the college known in that area. It also makes it easier for me to use shots of the surroundings/city of Miami if needed. This would further point the audience to the location of the opening without me having to clearly point it out through dialogue. My online receipt is seen below.
If I plan on using more props relating to medals/achievements, I am sure that my two group members have some. Although I do not want to overdo it with the amount if medals, so to break it up a bit I would like to just have picture frames of the female lead with her family. Which brings me to my next point. I am going to contact my friend Chloe, aka the lead, to see if we could get together one day and have a small photo shoot where she is wearing studious clothing, holding medals, and just simple ones with her family. I plan on printing these in Walgreens and putting them in frames to add to the props that I already have. I feel like these, along with random items that take up space in the cardboard boxes (to make it look full) will be sufficient for the first scene of the opening.
Hi, so I have great news. I mentioned in my last blog that I was super worried about where our filming location would be since I did not know anyone who owned an apartment that I could film in. However, I realized that my Aunt actually owned a beach apartment of that sort in Miami. After asking my mother to ask my Aunt to give us a pass to enter the apartment without her being there, she said yes! All I have to do is send her a picture of my ID so that the front office can let me in without a problem.
Now that the issue of the location is resolved, we are going to contact our actors and schedule a time in which we could all get together and film. Our hope is to film as soon as possible so that we can spend a good amount of our time editing and perfecting the final product.
Hi, so I know I briefly mentioned the script writing in my last blog post, but today I am going to dedicate the blog to showing you what we have come up with so far. The plan is to take up the first 30 seconds of the opening with the girl unpacking her stuff. We plan on creating a sort of montage out of these shots and incorporating the credits and music within this scene. The next 30 seconds would be dedicated to her grabbing something out of her car/a short phone call with her mother. Then, the last minute would consist of her encounter with her neighbor and the conversation between them. During filming, if we see that we have time left over or maybe not enough time, then my group and I would either elongate the dialogue between the two love interests or shorten it depending on the situation.
I realize that the script may seem a little short, or underdeveloped, so I plan on dedicating time to edit and perfect it. To specify, I need to make sure that my group agrees with the dialogue I had written down and does not see it as too cringy/cliche. But up until now, I feel like this shows all that we hope to include within our opening.
Hi, so now that I was able to regroup with my partners, we were able to discuss various of the things I mentioned in my blogs last week. For one, the music is going to be cut off once the girl exits her apartment. We realized that in order to fill the time we would want noises such as a phone call and her keys jingling, and in order to do that we would need it to be quiet. This was a little saddening for me since I liked the idea of the sound cutting off as soon as they met because I felt it gave the sense that the girl discinnected from her own little world when meeting him, but I guess it just was not meant to be.
As promised, we have been working hard towards our storyboard and script. We were able to really brainstorm a few different shots and angles. In fact, we started to think of what type of shot we would like our credits to be seen in and we wrote it all down on our storyboard. The images below is the storyboard that we sketched out while brainstorming which shots we would like to use. Keep in mind that we tried to make it a concise storyboard since we will not know what exactly type of shot to use until we see the apartment ourselves.
Hi, so before I start to develop the script, I have begun to reserach some films that have made the characters meet in a similar way than that of my own project. One that I found in which the meet cute is very similar is from the film series, Emily in Paris.
This video is the exact clip of when the two characters meet. I found this clip on YouTube.
The silly aspect of when the two meet by the girl mistakenly thinking her apartment was her neighbors is what my Meet Cute is going to be like as well. So, since my own opening is going to be a little like this one, I thought I would analyze what shots/ dialogue were used in the scene.
To start off, a low-angle shot of Emily attempting to get into the apartment is shown. I believe this was to show how similar the outside of their apartments appear, and how easily one might mistake one for the other. An over-the-shoulder shot of Gabriel abruptly opening the door as she is attempting to open it shows his confused expression as to why someone is trying to get into his apartment. A series of counter shots were then used to show dialogue between them.
I believe that, similar to how they showed a low-angle shot of the outside of the door, my group and I could focus the camera on the door to her apartment as she was leaving to run an errand. Specifically, the number above her door. On the way back to the apartment, we could focus the camera once again on the number of the new apartment door to emphasize to the audience that it is not the same as the one she came out of earlier, but very similar (for example on digit off). The use of an over-the-shoulder shot is also something I would like to use in my own opening, as it gives a view of the guy's reaction while also showing the girl's attempt at opening the door in the same shot. This could establish awkwardness as well as a comedic aspect of her getting to the wrong apartment, which in turn goes along with the genre. Lastly, the use of counter shots is also something I would like to incorporate as it expresses the dialogue and back and forth between the two characters. I was thinking of even using a POV shot, for instance when she first drops her keys and bends down to pick them up. The more variety in the shots, the more interesting/appealing it will look to the audience.
Another thing I wanted to note about this scene was sound. At the start of the clip, the sound of the key jamming into the door was heard. I believe that filming that myself might be difficult to have it heard so well. This leads me to think that my group and I should start looking for sounds of keys opening doors, or think of making a Foley sound ourselves. I think doing the latter might prove to be very fun and make the project a little more personal. I mentioned in past blogs that I plan on using upbeat background music at the start of the film, but have it abruptly shut off when the two characters meet by the sound of the door opening. However, now I have to think about how I would have that music play while she is struggling to get the door open. I want my audience to hear her getting frustrated, and to not have her words be drowned out by the sound of the music. So, either the sound of the keys would have to overlap with the sound of the background music, or maybe I would have to turn off the music altogether before the scene of her trying to get to the door commences. I would rather not do the latter, as I thought the idea of having her music turned off as soon as the door opens was cooler and made the moment more dramatic. This has just shown me that I need to discuss this matter with my group and get their input on how we should move forward.
Finally, the dialogue used in this clip was simple and realistic. The girl began by apologizing and saying she believed that it was her apartment. I would like to have a similar interaction, but slightly different. For one, the guy is supposed to help her pick up her keys from the floor when he opens the door, so I was thinking of her thanking him for helping her and then apologizing for getting the wrong apartment. Similar to that of the film series, the two would go into a small conversation about how she just recently moved in and is still getting used to the new college atmosphere. However, my plot would differ from the series by having their conversation cut short by the girl coming from the male lead's apartment. Still, seeing an example of a similar interaction helped me get an understanding of how awkward one would be in that situation, and how that would affect dialogue.
With this research in mind, I think it's safe to say that my group and I could go ahead with our storyboard and our script, so stay tuned for that!
