⁉️HOWS IT GOING?⁉️

 Hey bloggers,

    After hours of recording, editing, procrastination, arguing, etc, we have finally finished our project! A huge weight off my shoulders has finally been taken off, and I couldn't be happier. This project has caused so much stress, but to be honest, it has all been worth it. Being able to enjoy these times around people who I care for is something I will never take for granted. Even during the times where they weren't focused and would rather goof off, as frustrating as it was, it was still moments filled with laughter and joy. I talk Antwan and Gallarde everyday, but seeing the other side of them outside of school was amazing. 

    Editing and recording was definitely stressful, but I learned buckets of knowledge while doing so. Being able to direct the movie taught me so much about the intricate details that go into movie production, as one scene can make a movie go "Hollywood". Telling Gallarde what to do, at times, was quite frustrating because seeing him things do that did not align with my EXACT vision threw me off. However, he did the best he good which is all I asked for. Although not THAT experienced, we were all happy with how Antwan edited our project. He added all the things we wanted, which made our film turn out how we wanted to. I loved recording this project and wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

🤔A MOVIE THAT INSPIRED ME🤔

Hey bloggers,

    Before we even got this project assigned, I had already started brainstorming a couple of ideas that I felt would set us apart from other groups. In order to prepare me for this project, I did some research on a couple of movies that I felt would help us construct our scenes and give us an idea of what our opening should look like. Obviously our film was centered around a depressed kid, so I specifically looked up some sad movies.

    The movie that stood out to me was Interstellar. Although it doesn't really fit this narrative that we are trying to push, I was still able to extract a couple of ideas. As we all know, we see our protagonist, Cooper,  on a mission to find another habitable planet. Interstellar's central themes revolve around isolation and loneliness, and those are two ideas that we also wanted our project to be centered around. It stresses the importance of human connection and emotions in overcoming difficult situations, and that is what our protagonist is trying to overcome in our film.

    

🔖WHAT INSPIRED ME?🔖

 Hey bloggers,

    When first brainstorming our project, may different thoughts came across our groups mind. Topics such as sports, school stress, and video games crossed our mind. However, this topic specifically, of a kid who is suffering in silence, felt the most fitting for many reasons. Mental health is a huge topic in todays world, and encouraging people to get the help they need has been at an all time high. Messages like these are spread over all forms of social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok etc. On the dark side, we see people who would rather suffer silently...

    As boys growing up, we all agreed (our group) that we have been taught that crying shows moments of weakness of vulnerability. However, now that we have gotten older, we have learned that it's okay to sometimes show emotion. Humans are meant show emotion, as it is a natural part of human life, whether someone is a female or male. Venting how you feel about your feelings about someone or a certain situation is extremely beneficial. You get the opportunity to get things off your chest, and who doesn't like to do that? Me personally, when I feel something isn't right or my gut feeling is telling me something isn't right, I always address the situation.

    However, sadly, most men would rather keep it to themselves. They would rather cut deeper scars within themselves without addressing a particular problem until it gets too much to handle. That's why you see in our scene at the pool that our main character tells our background character that he has been doing well. While deep down inside he is suffering. It's okay to cry. It's okay to let out your emotions when you feel it's needed. Talk to someone when you are going through a tough period in time. Never suffer in silence.

🎩EDITING TRICKS🎩

Hey bloggers,

    Editing our project has been quite time consuming to say the least. Before we started our process of editing, we knew that it was going to be a challenge. We thankfully had Antwan edit who has already had prior experience in editing, but Gallarde and I still had our fingerprints involved. We wanted our project to come out a specific way, in which our editing had to be top tier. While discussing how to edit it, we discovered some tricks...

    A valuable trick we learned during this process was to start with a plan. Going into editing without having a foundation is like a headless chicken looking for food. It's important to develop a rough draft or outline when doing things like this. That's why a storyboard is so important in the editing process. You can organize your clips on paper or computer so when the editing comes around, all you have to do is look at your storyboard and organize it as such. You can also put the transitions and shots on the storyboard.

    Another trick I gained an understanding of was to focus on the continuity of your film. It's crucial to pay attention to it so your film runs smoothly. It includes maintaining consistent eyelines, ensuring the passage of time is crystal clear to the audience, and matching action continuity between shots. This step is CRITICAL to the development of your story.

💻SOCIAL MEDIA💻

 Hey bloggers,

    When searching for ideas on how to go about this project, I was quite dumbfounded. Obviously I knew the foundation of how I wanted the the project to look, but I struggled looking for how to create meaning within our scenes. That's when I took my concerns to social media. Platforms such as TikTok and Instagram provided me with an abundant amount of ideas and how to make our scenes the best they could be. Social media is an excellent place to find inspiration, and I am glad I did because I was able to find so many things that benefitted my project.

    I searched up on TikTok, "how to make a sad film", with the hopes of finding something similar to what I'm doing. Luckily, I was able to find some things that helped me. They suggested using dark clothing, but specifically casual attire. This casual attire, this specific TikToker said, would suit what we were trying to get at, which is a depressed teenager, and as we know, teenagers love to wear comfy outfits. Another piece of inspiration that I got from Instagram was to show our main character in a secluded place. Obviously that suggestion is quite broad, but it lead me thinking about the pier at Riviera Isles. In this case, we ended up recording a scene at the pier and we never looked back.

🤲WISHLIST🤲

Hey bloggers,

    While recording our project, we wondered "what if we had a bigger budget?" Obviously these are just curious thoughts, but having a significantly larger budget would definitely make things look better. As the director, seeing how the camera effects the outcome of a film was truly fascinating. At first, we started recording with an iPhone 15. However, when Antwan offered us the chance to use his Canon camera, it changed the whole landscape of our project. Going from a pretty good camera, to an an actual camera that is used for things like this helped us in ways that we could have never imagined.

    Having Gallarde as our actor was amazing, but the truth is that he is not an actor. If we had the chance to have a competent actor, who actually knows how to get the best out of every scene, would be absolutely  incredible. Costuming, although a huge component, does not necessarily require a huge budget. If we wanted to record a lavish film with fancy scenery, restaurants, cars etc then of course we would want the costuming to match the occasion. However, our film could have clothes from the dollar store and we would still be content with it. 

    In terms of our location, we were extremely happy with where we were able to record. However, it would be nice to be in a secluded area as it would have fit our idea for the project, which was isolation. If we had an unlimited budget we probably would rent out a small part of Miami for a night just to shoot a couple of scenes. Having a professional editing team with the best of the best editing software would be a BLESSING. Our project would be immaculate as the edits would be smooth, exquisite, and seamless. Sound plays a huge component, so maybe paying a prominent artist/band would work wonders for us. Our lighting was actually perfect for our project, so I probably wouldn't change anything about it.

🖥SPECIFIC CAMERA SHOTS/ANGLES🖥

 Hey bloggers,

    As already stated many times, camera shots and angles can convey multiple messages without actually saying what they are. They are what, I would call, "subtle messages". As a group, we wanted to use multiple different angles and shots that would be able to show the main characters emotions. Recording some of these shots were tedious at times, but we felt these angles/shots would best convey what we were trying to aim for.

    Starting off, we see the opening with our main character, Gallarde, in bed with an alarm clock waking him up. In this scene, I used an overhead shot to really get insight on his facial expressions when waking up. His demeanor makes it seem like he is dreading waking up. Another shot that can also be seen within the same clip is a close shot. Close shots are great at capturing emotions, in fact, probably the best shot at catching those feelings that cannot be captured with any other shot.

    An additional scene that I wanted to touch on was near the end, wear we can see our main character sat down on a bench. During this scene, I wanted to show that our protagonist was at his lowest point, which is why we incorporated a high angle shot. High angle shots are brilliant at capturing vulnerability, in which our protagonist is probably in his most vulnerable state. Isolation is also something that can be seen within this high angle shot. We see that it's just our protagonist, with no one around. The time of day and his surroundings are able to be analyzed within this shot, which is why the high angle was the best for this situation.

📱EDITING POST 2📱

 Hey bloggers,

    As we finish up our project, we have started to put our final touch ups to ensure our project is how we want it to be. Editing has gone pretty smooth sailing, barring a few mistakes such as deleting a scene but you can always but it back. Also, it was annoying adjusting the scenes into their proper positions as when you'r scrolling them to get where they are supposed to go, it goes to fast. Just a minor problem though, no biggie. We spent around an hour and a half finishing up our editing process. 

We added a couple sounds, while also toning down the volume on a couple of the clips due to the loud background noises during filming. Our title sequence was added at the start of the film, as we were looking for the right clip to be inserted in there. During our editing process, we started to notice that our film may have been a little too long. As a result, we sadly had to exclude a couple of scenes that we recorded. Although it may suck, we still know our project is up to par with our standards. 

🌌DAY 2 OF SHOOTING🌌

Hey bloggers,

    Our second day of filming is finished! Like our first, it was filled with laughter, excitement, energy, but also frustration and anxiety. Filming can get quite frustrating, especially when you'r trying to record the perfect scene. Input from both me, the director, and Gallarde, the actor, were made in order to find what we thought was best and most fitting for a scene. 

    During this day of filming, we filmed at the Riviera Isles pier. This location was absolutely PERFECT for what we were trying to get at in this scene and the scenery was gorgeous. We thought of many places to shoot these scenes, but this was the best and most convenient for us. All the shots that you see at night were recorded during our second day of filming. This day, it was just Gallarde and I, as Antwan was not allowed to come out this late since these shots were recorded at around midnight.

    I wouldn't really say there were any challenges, but it was pretty annoying waiting for the Riviera lights to turn off. They normally turn off at 10 but due to the change in time, they now turn off at 11. Staying out this light definitely had my mom on edge as it was extremely late (I just had to reassure her that I'm only like 5 minutes away). Overall, our second day of filming was filled with a lot of reshoots, but it was extremely fun and we got what we needed to get done, done.

🕶REPRESENTATION🕶

Hey bloggers,

    Being a teenager is a critical part in the process of finding yourself, whether it's finding what job you like or what particular fashion style you would like to categorize yourself under. In this process, we, like adults and elders, go through rough and challenging periods. However, it is fair to say that the way girls deal with these problems, compared to boys, is like night and day. In today's society, we as men, are more likely to deal with our personal problems in silence, as we would rather not inflict our pain on others. 

    As a group, we decided to choose this topic, although many other ideas were discussed. As our group consists of only boys, we felt this topic would resonate with us more than any other idea we brainstormed. We feel this project is one that most people, whether male or female, could relate to because everyone has different ways of dealing with pain, whether it's heartbreak or losing a family member. The overwhelming pressure that comes with being a teen can truly make or break someone, which can be a determining factor in a teen growing into the successful adult, or living a tumultuous and chaotic life.

    Our stereotype is fairly simple; a depressed teen who masks him problems with his big smile and exuberant personality. It's often said that the happiest person in the room is always the one who is struggling the most, so that's why we included that scene at the pool with our protagonist noticeably happy. Our scene in the bedroom with clothes and bottles scattered on the floor is supposed to reflect his mental state; calamitous and struggling. Personally, this scene felt PERFECT for the situation and we were extremely happy with how it came out. 

    We felt costuming was going to be CRUCIAL, so we made our actor dress very specifically for the occasion. His all black attire, we felt, fits the tone for the films identity. However, for the scene at the pool and on the swings, we opted to go for a white shirt as it shows purity and innocence. But for the other scenes, you obviously can clearly see his internal struggles are impacting the way he dresses, as all black indicates anxiety. 

    Honestly, we felt we did not need to improve anything with our character. Our actor put in 100 percent effort, which is all that matters. Obviously there are things I wish came out better (or maybe sounded better in my head), but nothing is supposed to come out perfect. 

    

💭WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE A MOVIE DIRECTOR?💭

 Hey bloggers,

As already stated before in previous blogs, I have been assigned the role of being the movie director for our film opening. At first, I thought being the director would be quite a dull role, as being the actor and recorder seemed more intriguing. However, my mind was quickly changed when I was creating the storyboards and our first day of filming. ITS SO FUN! Being able to really express yourself and control what is happening in a movie definitely brings huge doses of dopamine. Lets really get into what it takes to be a movie director...

Most importantly, HAVE FUN/BE CREATIVE! Don't think that just because what you think may seem corny is going to also be felt by the audience. Sometimes we are too harsh on ourselves, which ends up limiting our creativity. Be free. Don't let the expectations and stereotypes effect what YOU want to do with your movie because at the end of the day, you are the movie director. Creativity is a huge component when it comes to being a director. You have to be able to make your movie unique. Think outside the box and don't be like everyone else. Adding that extra bit of OOMPH to your movie could be the reason why your movie does excellent at the box office.

Another excellent skill to have under your belt is to be a great problem solver. Many problems may arise on set, which could lead to unrest throughout the whole crew. This could end up leading to the collapse of your movie and all the money you have spent, gone. When any problems come up during filming, make sure to communicate CLEARLY with your crew, analyze the situation, be flexible, and be able to think creatively and critically. You don't want your whole movie to go to waste over a small dispute or disagreement.

📖UPDATED STORYBOARD📖

 Hey bloggers,

    As we start to update and add new ideas to our project, it is time to make a new storyboard. We initially were happy with our original idea, as it was all planned out and seemed to be good. However, as we started to record, we noticed that some of these initial thoughts were not going to pan out well. For example, that scene at the beginning where we wanted to foreshadow our main characters death with a tombstone seemed a littttlleee too harsh so we decided to scratch that idea.

    In the first box, we wanted to incorporate an overhead shot to be able to get a clear view of his facial expression during this rough period of his life. This scene includes him waking up, while wiping his face in frustration as he hears the irritating sound of his alarm going off. This was the perfect start to our film. In the second box, we use a low angle as the camera looks up to him getting out of his bed, kicking all the clutter on the ground out of his way. We wanted to show that he is the main character in this situation and the one with the most power, as this frustrated state causes him to act in ways that are not needed. All the clutter on the ground is supposed to reflect his rough mental state. Moving on to the third box, we included  a shot where our main character is in the mirror. He looks frustrated and dejected, as his life at the moment is not going his way at all. Mirrors are a time where self reflection takes place, at least for me. He is looking at himself, unhappy with his physical appearance, wishing that he looked better. In the fourth box, it's a simple under the waist shot as we show our main character walking to his car.

    In our fifth box, we have our main character in the car by himself. He starts the car, looking frustrated and is not looking forward to his day. He places his head on the steering wheel, in clear distress as you hear him put the key in his car and the car starting. Our camera is in the car with our main character. In the sixth box, we implemented an over the shoulder shot with our background actor being the one whose shoulder we are recording after. We use the over the shoulder shot to show conversation, while our main and background character are talking about how they have been recently. Clearly lying, we have our main character saying he has been happy, when he hasn't. In the seventh box, we have our main and background character having fun on on the swings, clearly enjoying their time. We incorporate a low angle during this scene. You can also hear jovial music, just to show this is a fun part in our main characters rough life. Lastly, in our eighth box, we used a fade transition to go from the fun and sunny part of our main characters day, to the lonely, dark moment of his life. We felt this was a perfect scene just to show his devastating life.

    

🏃‍♂️GROUP DYNAMICS🏃‍♂️

Hey bloggers,

Our film has been a huge focus of ours throughout these past weeks, with many hours being put into making it the best possible film opening it can be. Filming and editing has been quite tedious, however through communication and teamwork, we have been able to fight this adversity and keep moving forward. On weekends, it has been hard to find a day where all of us are available, as some of us have work, already have plans, or simply cannot go. So normally, we will work on weekdays on a little bit of a time constraint, but it hasn't been THAT serious.

As a group, all of us have been able to pull our our own weight, as we all CLEARLY know our roles and what it takes to make our film the best it can be. Gallarde has done a fantastic job at acting, as his exuberant personality makes him the most fit for our role. Antwan's experience with editing has allowed us to put our ideas to fruition, through the use of multiple transitions, angles, and exaggerated camera movements. My role as director has gone pretty smoothly, barring a couple setbacks with disagreements. Making the scenes has been quite stressful, but through the help of my supportive teammates, I have been able to be creative.

🔱WHAT MAKES MOVIES SO SPECIAL?🔱

 Hey bloggers,

If I'm being honest, I have never been the BIGGEST movie watcher. Movies bring unforgettable memories, and being able to really examine, in depth, on how movies are made is EXTREMELY intriguing. Now that I have learned buckets of information during this class, I am starting to appreciate/observe the slight tweaks in movies that can be the determining factor in whether a movie does well at the box office or not. Depending on the movie, I have always walked out the movie theater feeling different than when I first walked in.

Seeing how the lighting effects the reader has been fascinating to learn about. Whether the lights are dark or bright, it will always convey a certain, indescribable feeling. Examining the directors writing has been so incredible to watch. Seeing all the minuscule details that can unveil multiple messages shows how intelligent movie writers are, and their attention to detail is second to none. Although barely noticeable at times, certain sounds can bring scenes to life. Having that slight leaf movement in the background during a horror movie brings the audience to the edge of their seat as they restlessly wait to see what happens to a character. All these sounds that may seem irrelevant can make scene 10x better than they already are.

Directors can really compress someones whole life into 2 to 3 hours. Incredible, right? Their constant creativity is what makes them so unique, as they search for ways to improve the audiences viewing experience. A slight movement of the camera can put the audience on the tip of their toes, eager to see what happens next. Camera movement can go into a characters life from their eyes, as we observe the fine line between a frantic or decompressed character. This class has made me appreciate movies more than I would have ever thought, and I can not wait to continue to learn about the ins and outs of filmmaking.

💡LIGHTING💡

Hey bloggers,

Lighting has been ESSENTIAL throughout our filming, as it can convey multiple messages/moods, subtly. We will mostly be using low key/natural lighting as we try to establish a melancholy mood to convey the boys struggles. We plan to use 3 point lighting during one of our pivotal scenes, in which our protagonist will be standing under a street light, by himself. This will establishes the boys loneliness throughout his battle through depression. 

This style of lighting perfectly fits our vision, as the dark scenes accurately reflect our characters mental state. Honestly, we are perfectly fine with how our lighting will be whether we get more equipment or not. Not much lighting is needed for our project, so we will just work with what we have, which is enough. Having more equipment would obviously be fantastic, but its not necessarily needed.

👨‍💻EDITING👨‍💻

Hey bloggers, 

As we continue to go through our filming process, the editing has been constantly running through our mind. Editing is our main focus at the moment as filming has gone to plan, for the most part. Making sure everything is up to our standards has been pretty difficult to manage. Editing on iMovie has been extremely convenient as we haven't had to stress over how to edit on different softwares. In our video, we have decided to include multiple different transitions, such as jump cuts, cross-cuts, while also including smash cuts and a dissolve transition.

Our editing hasn't been as smooth sailing as expected, as we have encountered multiple problems during editing. At times, we have not agreed on what transitions to use, as we all had different views at times. Also, iMovie is limited at times on what sounds to use. Lastly, iMovie is sometimes very glitchy, which has caused us to lose progress on multiple occasions. During these problems, we have reiterated multiple times that communication is key, and that problems will arise no matter how easy or hard something may be. Being level headed has helped us battle through multiple issues. For our film, Antwan will be the one editing, as he has the most experience.

🔊SOUND🔊

 Hey bloggers, 

Sound plays a CRITICAL role in movies, whether they are the focal point in the scene, or are lingering in the background. Just a little sound of leaves moving at night in a movie can frighten the viewer to the point where they are even watching THEIR surroundings. Diegetic sounds are ones that are heard by both the audience and the characters, while non-diegetic sounds are purely made for the audiences benefit and can NOT be heard by characters. Some diegetic sounds that we will include are a basketball bouncing, a person walking and cars driving by. A non-diegetic sound we will include is a single gunshot.

For our project, we have decided to incorporate both diegetic and non-diegetic sounds as they both offer different dynamics to our film. Some sounds are not able to be created, so that's we have opted to include non-diegetic sounds. We obviously decided to have our most experienced person in film making do our editing, so Antwan is doing that role. For our editing software, we wanted to do what was most comfortable for our editor. He decided he wanted to use iMovie.

🔮TITLE SEQUENCE🔮

Hey bloggers,

The title is a HUGE component when creating your own film. The title can subtly deliver thousands of messages through its font, color, effects etc. Going into our filming process, one of the things my group was most looking forward was creating the title. Being able to create a title opens up new facets into our creative minds, and you can just do SO MUCH with it. As mentioned in many previous blogs, our film will be extremely melancholic, so we felt that it was only right to create a title that evokes some sadness. 

Gallarde, Antwan and I spent HOURS discussing what our title should be. We couldn't really agree on one (obviously), so we asked for some help from our friends. Some titles that our group suggested were Toughest Battle, Into Darkness, Mind State, Alone, and Life's Mask. We all discussed these but we ended up coming up with one we thought was perfect. We felt that "On Thin Ice" would be the absolute PERFECT title for our movie. Our protagonists' battle with depression will ultimately lead him to ending his own life. 

We want our title to have a long, but skinny font. I feel like these features combined with a white font would bring our films' feelings/emotions to our title, which is what we are aiming for. We want our text to be close together, as it brings a sense of eeriness and unknown to our title. Our title will contain a background image of a scene from our film, most likely one with low lighting. We searched up inspiration for how we want our movie title to look like, and these are some of the ones we liked:

📸FIRST DAY OF FILMING📸

Hey bloggers,

ITS FINALLY TIME! Our first day of filming was definitely a monumental experience that was filled with laughter, stress, and most of all, fun. We decided to film at our local park as all of us live pretty close to each other. We already have all our scenes planned out, HOWEVER, making sure they came out in the exact manner that we wanted was quite difficult. We had to reshoot multiple scenes as one of us either laughed or forgot what we were doing. We are planning to continue our filming either this Thursday or this weekend.

Sound will definitely be a HUGE component for our project. As of right now, we are still deciding what type of music we will implement, but it will be decided at our next shoot. We are planning of putting sounds of basketballs bouncing, cars driving by, and a gunshot noise, just to name a few. Our sound recordings went according to plan, which was extremely promising. Overall, our first day of filming was excellent and a day to remember.