My Critical Reflection

https://youtu.be/YH1KkWe4cQk

The Day Has Finally Arrived

I finally finished. Those three words are heaven to my ears. After working on this for countless hours, I can finally look at the end form of media and be proud. Of course, as with practically anything, it could be improved. If I had more time and less restrictions on what I can and cannot use or do, I would have loved to develop the intro even more. However, I'm satisfied with the way it turned out. I hope you all enjoy my film, Just Breathe.

https://youtu.be/TywTS7GmFLo

Progress and Posters

Something has occurred that I would've have never guessed: I have gone way over the time limit. In my odd way of first editing the beginning and ending, I've realized that I have left myself no time for the middle. The intro to the intro of the film involves showing the house and the room of the main character, while the ending presents the character covering her puffy eyes with makeup and leaving the room. In order to have enough time for the mid section, I might have to get rid of the makeup scene and some establishing shots. These shots are important to the further understanding the film but, time is not permitting it. I just hope that even without these scenes, the rest of the project can stand well on its own. For now, I need to edit like a mad man.
Other than that, I worked on creating a poster for the movie. By taking one of the more aesthetically pleasing shots from the intro, I modeled the poster after some that I saw online. Of course, I don't have as many credits to put on it as professional movies do. With the poster, I thought of a title. A title that's been bouncing around my head includes a major element to the intro of the film: sound. More specifically, the sound of the main character breathing. A large symptom of panic attacks is shortness of breath. Thus, the title "Just Breathe" was born.

An Extremely Unfinished Preview

Editing will be the death of me. It's killing me slowly on the inside like some sort of supreme cancer that involves growing tumors out of every single one of my body parts. My plan of attack regarding editing is to line up all the video shots creating the full film and then work on audio. I think this will be effective because with this method, I can focus on one aspect of the project at one rather than scrambling with multiple.

So far, I've been editing in a rather unconventional way; instead of working from beginning to end, I've been creating the intro and the ending yet not the middle part. The middle being the most difficult part to edit is the reason for my avoidance of it. Yet, I have somewhat finished the intro to the intro, which is basically just the first thirty seconds. Here is a small preview of the intro to the intro. There are still some things that I'd like to perfect with this clip. One of which is the coloring. The shades of the shot change from bright and yellow, which allude to optimism and confidence, to a cooler blue, which elucidates depressed emotions. However, I've been struggling to find a way to gradually change the colors from one shot to the next without a noticeable change.



Psychological Properties Of Colours. (n.d.). Retrieved April 08, 2017, from http://www.colour-affects.co.uk/psychological-properties-of-colours
The Color Blue. (n.d.). Retrieved April 08, 2017, from http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/color-blue.html

Updates and Playing with Premiere

As of right now, I am officially done filming. Well, that's not exactly true. I have to get one more shot that is simple and only involves having the credits for who produced and filmed by. Obviously, since I am working alone, most of the credits will have only my name. However, for who produced the short intro, I'm probably going to create a logo for Fire Spark Films and have that with the name as one of the credits, something plain like the sketch below. I don't want to spend too much time on the logo since I still have to edit, but it would be a nice touch to the film. 

Possible Logo

Speaking of the gigantic beast that is editing, I've decided to use Premiere Pro's free trial instead of Windows Movie Maker. The reasoning behind this is to create a more professional look to my piece. I also want to play with the different elements that a more advanced editing software can offer me. Although it is a professional program, Premiere Pro does come with a caveat or two. I have limited knowledge in using such a software. And by limited I mean none whatsoever. Thus, I would have to learn even the most basic actions. This will take up time of course. But, I do have some help. My friend is in the school's television class, CBTV, and was certified in Premiere Pro as part of the class. So with his help and a vast amount of Youtube tutorials, I think the editing process will go as smooth as it possibly could.

Playing with the color settings 

As for what I want to use Premiere Pro for, one feature would be the coloring effects it has. By utilizing this and changing the hues of the shots, I can affect how the audience feels and further emphasize the mood of the production. For this though, I would have to do a little more research on the psychology of colors and emotions. As for now, I've been toying around with the settings of some shots in Premiere and I'm rather pleased with the results. When altering the colors, I'm not only expressing the tone, but also giving the film a cleaner and professional look.

The Inevitable Death of The Orange Screen

Yesterday was incredibly eventful. In the morning, I was able to film with my lead actress and we managed to get a lot done. However, as we progressed with the shoot, I realized that I was gonna have to scrap some of my original ideas.

Jania on our "orange screen"

One of them being the green screen I wanted to use in order to create a completely black background. The effect was to further enhance the tone of the piece by creating a dark and almost horror-like atmosphere. I was originally going to use a blue sheet that my friend had her possession, but that whole exchange did not go through. So instead, I tried using a neon orange blanket that I had lying around my house.             That's when I finally saw the mistake I had made because A. the blanket was way to small to make any sort of background with, B. I wasn't able to set it in a way that wouldn't make it wrinkle and look horrible, and C. I had not done enough research to know how difficult green screening actually is. A friend of mine who is in Cypress Bay's television production class was explaining to me just how strenuous the process of chroma keying. And that's even with the school's budget for actual professional equipment, incomparable to my raggedy orange throw blanket. He also explained to me that if I were to chroma key a scene, since I don't have the proper lighting, I would have to manually map out the green screen. This mean every single tiny frame would have to be chroma keyed by hand. As soon as those words hit my ears, I knew I had to throw my green screen fantasy into my personal garbage can of ideas. I have about less than eight days to finish this project and so, it would take too much for an effect that would not have my desired look.

While the green screen idea has crumbled to the floor, I've decided that I'm going to try to focus on creating the mood via camera shots rather than special effects since I am on a extremely limited budget.

Before Filming (BF) and After Filming (AF) are My New BC and AD

Before Filming

Makeup used to make a character sick

Today is going to be an eventful day. I'm filming later on with my actress as much of the intro we can get covered. The excitement of getting the footage that has been playing in my head is fueling my motivation.
 As I thought more about the filming, I realized that I want a certain look for the actress. It would seem unrealistic if the girl who's hysterically crying during a panic attack to have the same complexion of a healthy and mentally stable person. So, in preparation for this, I've looked up how to make a person look tired and sick with a few makeup tricks. For example, dark eye shadow underneath the eye will make it look like bags while red eye shadow on the edge of the eyes will make them look puffy as if the person I had been crying. This is the type of look I'm going for with my character because it is the most realistic. As I have learned, mise en scene is an important element to any film.

After Filming

The actress looking sad with makeup

Filming went well. We got most of the shots needed. However, I do think I'll have to reshoot some of them because of lighting issues. Since we ended up filming in the late afternoon, a lot of the footage came out too dark. However, we're going fix this by meeting tomorrow in the late morning when the sun is the brightest.

I ended up recreating the look previously mentioned and I have to say, it turned out alright. The actress ended up looking tired and almost sickly which ended helping with the whole look of the film. Putting together the makeup and attempting to create worthy set made me come to the realization of just how much preparation needs to go into the making of this form of medium. Especially, if one wants it done well. 

I feel as if I have been neglecting stage design and have just been using my room without looking at it through the lens of a film director. Thus, for tomorrow, I'm going to be more aware of the things in frame and see what I can do to add more subtle and relevant hints to what the film is about in regards to mise en scene.

Besides the whole lighting issue, things are looking like they will go smoothly from here. I just need to finish filming and begin furiously editing next week. 

A. (2013, September 25). How To Fake Looking Sick And Get Out Of Stuff You Don't Want To Do. Retrieved March 31, 2017, from http://www.xovain.com/makeup/how-to-look-sick-with-makeup