My CCR!

Now, the true final part, my CCR.

Reconnect - Completed

I really hope you enjoy my film opening as much as I enjoyed making it!

Reconnect:

Opening Credits Order - SciFi

As I practice social-distancing, I have been watching a lot of movies and learning a variety of things from them, pertaining to this project. One thing I have noticed as I watch all these movies is that the order of the credits always varies. I know I have to include:

• Writer
• Director
• Producer
• Cinematographer
• Editor
• Actors
• Music

What I do not know exactly is how to order the credits for my genre, especially because I've seen so many varieties.

As I googled around, I came across this article on a website that I had already cited when talking about color theory. It's titled "The Ultimate Guide to Film Credits Order Hierarchy".  I thought it would be very general, and may not relate to my genre, but they used the opening credits from Back to the Future as the example and laid out the order of the credits from that. 

As it is from my genre, I will be using this opening as a model for the credit order in my film opening. I have also decided on the font that will be standard for all of the credits: MADE Tommy by MADEType available for download on dafont.com

Filming Again?

Yes, I am filming again. I am pretty much done with everything, editing and audio-wise, but I keep critiquing some of my final shots. I am especially concerned with the final shot of Alice crying because you can't really see any real tears. Originally, I was going to settle for just some sad expressions to sell it, but now I don't think its enough. I redid my makeup how I did on my last filming day, and made sure to wear the same clothes and use the exact same lighting as last time. This time, I was focused on crying for real.

At first, I tried the "drying your eyes out" method. I stuck my face in front of a fan and tried my best to keep my eyes open but that didn't work. I guess my eyes don't dry out very easily. And it also didn't look like real tears, which is what I wanted.

Then, I went to Youtube for some true crying content. To be honest, I did not really know what exact video would get me to cry. I knew what videos had made me cried before, but I was afraid that I wouldn't the second time around. So, I simply searched "sad videos". I came across a few videos, in a TedTalk style, from the channel Motivation2Study, but those didn't exactly do it for me. While there were motivating, they weren't exactly tearjerking. What really got me was this video titled "WORLD'S HARDEST TRY NOT TO CRY CHALLENGE". I seriously thought it was gonna be sort of a scam, but it had a large number of views and likes. This video truly brought me to tears.

I have mentioned my dad before, and I think that it can be inferred that we have a very close relationship. This "WORLD'S HARDEST TRY NOT TO CRY CHALLENGE" truly poked at those heartstrings. It was a simple voiceover, of a girl talking to her father who had passed away throughout the course of her life. With that, I got the true genuine tears and sadness on my face that I wanted.

Now, I am finally done with filming, editing, and audio. All that's left is to post my film. I really hope you enjoy it, and I am so happy to have done this project the way I wanted.

DaFont = DaBomb

As of right now, I have a rough draft of the ordering and editing of the footage, and I am onto the credits. For the credits, I want to include photos and videos of Alice and Jacob, sort of like a scrapbook to further emphasize their relationship, it's length, and why his death has such a big impact on her. I want to emulate the one from Up, but less kid-friendly and happy than that one.

As I mentioned in my last post, I am not a big fan of the present fonts in iMovie so I wanted to find other ones, free for my use. I already know how to implement my own titles and text into iMovie after working on my Music Marketing project, so the editing part is not the issue for me. As the indecisive person I am, however, choosing the font is the hard part.

For all the fonts I download, I will be retrieving them from dafont.com, where the fonts are either freeware, shareware, demo versions or public domain. For this project, I will be focusing on public domain and freeware fonts.

iEdit on iMovie

Recently, I have been using iMovie for simply cutting the footage together to see my timing and to organize the shots better. However, I noticed that my footage is a little flat, probably because I filmed on my phone, so I looked into color grading. I want to continue using free editing software, but not many have options. iMovie does have some options to change the saturation, highlights, and shadows, so I will try my best to utilize those features to get the look I want.

Another thing I will have to find out on iMovie is how to put the fonts that I want when I get to the title and credits. There are some presets, but by just skimming through them, I do not think any of them fit my film. I will either have to download new fonts, or create a png to overlay on top of the footage. Either way, I already know the hardest part will be choosing the right font and not the editing.

So far I do think I will continue using iMovie as my main editing software until I come across an obstacle that can not be fixed.

Finally Filming

I know I said I would get it done last week, but it's done now. Today I filmed for about two hours trying to get the right shots, angles, and lighting. I don't own any true equipment, and didn't really want to spend money on equipment I don't know I will use in the future. To see keep most of the shots steady, I put a bunch of books on my desk chair, raised the chair as high as it could, and plopped my phone on top. I also used mainly natural light, as I filmed during the day, which turned out very well. The big window in my room was an amazing light source, and when the blinds were closed, the footage had a slight blue tint to it, which I think helps set the mood. I did initially have a lamp, and I recorded with both lighting choices, but as I look back on the footage, I prefer the natural light much better.

One major issue I had was getting in front of the camera and actually speaking. Personally, I was never drawn to public speaking, debate, drama, or anything like that, and I never enjoyed presentations much. I consider myself much more of a behind the scenes person. I googled a few videos and phoned a few friends, but this simple task of just speaking a few lines seemed so daunting to me in my head. As I look back, I realize that I actually spent more time focusing on the shots that did not feature me, as opposed to those that did. This may be because I simply wanted to get the speaking and acting over with, but I don't think I did too bad of a job in the end.

Another issue that really had me bummed was the fact that I didn't have the manpower to execute the pans and tilts how I had originally wanted. While I was filming, my mom was at work, and my sister was still asleep, so I had to find another way to execute the same feel that I was going for. It just so happened that last night, I had rewatched the film Ladybird and read an interview with Ladybird's director, Greta Gerwig. In the interview, Gerwig mentioned that she wanted to make the film like a memory, and referred to old photos from French photographers, attempting to recreate that nostalgic look in the film. As I struggled with this whole pan and tilt situation, I recalled the interview and began to shoot some still shots of places in my/Alice's room. Hopefully. this establishes parts of Alice's personality and life as well as fits in with the overall tone I am going for.

Now that I am done with filming, however, I have to find out how to tame this whole new beast of editing.