🔱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🔮

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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📸

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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.

✍️PROJECT THOUGHTS✍️

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    A couple of thoughts about our project have been clouding my mind throughout this adventure. This project has me VERY excited about being able to convey my feelings in other ways other than my normal ways I vent my emotions. Being able to put my ideas to fruition has been so awesome, as I have never directed a film before. Filming has been quite difficult as none of us have been available on the same day to start the process. However, we have (thankfully) secured a date to start, which is this weekend.

    We haven't changed anything when it comes to our filming IDEAS, however, during filming things will probably change. This means we will probably tweak some scenes or add some new ones to enhance the viewing experience. Antwan has an EXTREMELY high quality camera, so we hope these scenes come out looking impeccable. To get the roles straight, Gallarde will be our actor, Antwan will be the cinematographer/editor, and I will be the director. All of our roles have been MADE CLEAR within our group to make this as easy as possible. 

👻SUPPORTING CHARACTERS👻

Hey bloggers, 

Supporting characters are crucial in films, even though they may not always seem like it. Supporting characters can convey multiple feelings and messages that can effect the way the viewer extracts information from the movie, while also playing an instrumental role in the protagonists' life. They also usually present their own goals, desires and motivations throughout the movie that could or could not be in line with that of the protagonist.

For our film, our supporting characters will reflect however the character is feeling. So whenever the character is feeling some sort of sadness or depression, our supporting characters will be feeling the same way. In addition, our supporting characters will be wearing light colored clothes during joyful scenes. In the contrary, during melancholy scenes, our supporting characters will wear darker shaded colored clothes. Our supporting characters will be HEAVILY involved in our film opening, as they will have a big influence on our protagonist.

⬛️COLOR IN YOUR PROJECT⬛️

 Hey bloggers,

Color is a ESSENTIAL when planning out a movie, as it can subtly imply or deliver a multitude of messages. Light colors, like yellow and green often convey moments of happiness, eccentric moments and/or dream moments. In contrast, dark colors, like dark and brown, can often depict moments of sadness, fear, and serious associations. Pastel hues are often used in romance, hazy lenses and period dramas. Additionally, dark colored clothes on characters often means that they are suffering with some sort of sadness, or it could mean a character is mysterious or ominous. Light colored clothes, in comparison, like red, pink and yellow, portray moments of passion, happiness, and delight.

In our movie specifically, we have opted towards more of a darker color scheme, with most scenes occurring at night time with darker colored clothes. We are attempting to evoke a melancholy mood, as our main character in the film will be suffering with depression and dealing with difficult personal matters. However, we did not want to make our film in COMPLETE dejection with no sort of happy scenes, because it is unrealistic. As a result, we will include at least one scene in the daylight that includes happy moments, with laughter and smiling.

👤MAIN CHARACTER ANALYSIS👤

 Hey bloggers, 

As we are on the brink of recording our project, it is only right to take a deep dive into our main characters' role and characteristics. Our main character, Gallarde, has a bulky frame and is about 5'10. In our film, our main character will be wearing an all black outfit to reflect his mental state. However, we are heavily considering including a scene where our subject wears light colored clothes, as this scene will be filled with laughter and happiness. 

Our main character will have a pretty apathetic personality, as his life is filled with sadness. As stated many times, our character will be suffering with depression. Our main character will be very bland in their delivery and communication as they battle their own personal battles. Basketball plays a pivotal role in the characters life, and we will see a seen where he is missing his shots. This gives a hint to the viewer that his basketball career is struggling to pan out how he wants it to. Overall, our film opening will be mostly centered around sad moments, except a scene here and there of delightful moments.

🦸‍♂️COSTUMING🦸‍♂️

 Hey bloggers,

For our project, costuming is crucial as it touches on many aspects during scenes. Costuming is an excellent way to convey emotions and can hint at future events during a film. As it pertains to our project, we have decided to go with dark colored clothes. As our movie opening is quite sorrowful, we feel that dark colored clothes will accurately reflect the mood that we are implementing. 

We had Gallarde choose the dark colored clothes as he is our actor. He decided to choose a black Nike hoodie and joggers, with Jordan 3's/New Balances. As our project revolves around a young boy, we wanted the clothes to reflect his age. We want there to be at least one scene where our subject experiences some sort of happiness, in which we will probably make them wear light colored clothes, as it represents joyousness.