still filming and editing

 Hey guys today we continued filming some more. Another stressful day with filming. Today we had help from both of Aaliyah parents. She had my dad dress in all black and a hat. Which was hilarious. He was supposed to be portrayed as a robber. For this part we had to use a long shot, to capture everything. Since this scene was mainly focused on him I was able to record these takes. It only took us a couple of takes. When her dad was walking around the house looking for her  (Stephanie) I used a high angle. I know  you're probably wondering how. Well I stood on the top of her stairs and stretched my arms as far as possible. This made it look like a high angle which was the goal I was aiming for. Aaliyahs dad forgot some of his lines so we had to film many takes until he got it right. I have to say there were lots of bloopers. After we did that Aaliyah switched back into her clothes and started filming the next scene. In this scene she was in the room listening to music while packing my luggage. This was right before the action happened. For this scene there was no dialogue which made it easier to film. I used a long shot and a mid shot for this scene because I wanted the luggage to be shown but not at all times. Aaliyah mom assisted during this scene as well. She had her call our house phone. She did this so that it would ring and Aaliyah would pick it up. This is where the suspense started to build up. After picking up the phone several times she heard nothing, this happened a few times before the climax was set into motion. When she grab a knife I make sure to get a close up of this to add emphasis. Eventually the action scene takes place. I used a zoom shot and a tracking shot for this. When she saw her killers face that's when the zoom shot was used. After this the camera was extremely shaky. Due to the tracking shot. I had to run downstairs and her sister was filming so she did also. When running I also used a hand held shot. I did this to show my face while running. After this another action scene will occur between my dad and I. In the end he will kill her and flee the scene.

re-filming the beginning

 Hey guys I’m back again with another update. We’re slowly making progress with the film. Today we filmed the 2 scenes. The scenes that we filmed were the scenes where Aaliyah was entering the house and was walking upstairs. Last time she’d filmed she stopped filming right at her front door. We used a close up shot for this to show my hand movements as Aaliyah opened the door. More on we acquired  new filming equipment. Today was Christmas and Aaliyah got a new ring light. This would be useful to us for lighting.  I also got a small tripod. We used the tripod for many close up scenes or scenes with Aaliyah walking. To continue, Christmas was a good day. Today we had to film many scenes to stay on track. We used a tracking shot. This was because Aaliyah kept walking in many scenes today. For example, the scene when she was walking in my hallway and the stairs I had to use a tracking shot to track her movements. When we finally began to film her entering my room that's where it started to get difficult. The angles were kind of hard to get but we made it work. Aaliyah had her younger sister stand in a far corner in my room to record her entering, as i directed her around the room.It looked as if we filmed this part using a wide shot. When she opened her closet I used an over the shoulder angle which switched to a trunk shot. We wanted the audience to see two different perspectives and I have a good feeling we achieved this. We’ve decided to film certain scenes on her younger sisters ipad pro. We  decided this because it carries more storage than a phone and it also had a great camera. For scenes that require hand held shots then of course I'll use my phone. I can't believe I spent Christmas afternoon filming, however it was a very productive day.

Filming our first Scene

Hey guys we're finally on winter break!! Christmas is right around the corner. But it also means that my partner and I are back to filming. We decided to split the filming and editing process. I will be editing the entire movie from my home and Aaliyah will be filming everything. Of course, I will be assisting with the filming process. And giving my input, we still have to work as a team. So today Aaliyah talked to me as she pulled out our storyboard. After reviewing and discussing it, we decided that she should start filming the first scene. In this scene she would be getting into a car and driving while having a conversation. Aaliyah doesn’t have her licenses yet, however she has her permit. We had to make sure while she was driving today that someone over 21 was with her. We discussed what she should wear. Since her character was a lawyer we decided she should dress business casual outfit. She also had her younger sister record everything. She explained to me that she used a tracking shot when she was walking into the car. She recalled recording several takes for this part because she  had to make sure not to get her house in the background. The goal was to make it seem like she was just getting off of work. In the car she told me she used a wide shot so that the entire background could be seen. she continued to drive around her neighborhood rather than the main roads. This was because she’s not a really experienced driver. During this time she was talking to her self. She did this on the phone to make it seem like she was having a conversation with Briana, Stephanie's (aaliyah) bestfriend. After recording several takes and driving around her  neighborhood for a good 5 times aaliyah had finally pulled into my driveway. For this scene she used an establishing shot from the front and back. She explained that she  did this because she didn't want the licenses plate in the movie. This was basically everything that she filmed today and reviewed with me today 

Finding an Editing Software

 Hey guys today was another day of us not filming. However, we did get some things done. Before we decided to put a hold on our filming schedule we already began to  film some scenes. We had also started to edit. Even though we started to edit we didn't get as far as we wanted to. Do my partner Aaliyah decided to review our footage today.  After she looked over the footage we had she decided to start re editing. We wanted to fix what was already edited. She began telling me how she normally uses iMovie to edit. iMovie is a great editing software on apple devices. However she also wanted to use other editing software as well. So we did some research of our own. We set out to find a new softwares.  Aaliyah ended up finding an app called "Videoleap Video Editor". It was basically described as a free video editing app. On this app she was able to combine different video clips together and add thing such as special effects. I think this is really going to help us when editing. We never planned on using any special effects. On the app there was a variety of effects, so now we might want to add some in. Aaliyah told me how she started combining the footage and it looked great. However, she wasn't able to figure out how to insert music with this app. I told her we should use youtube to figure it out. But she  thought we might have to use iMovie for that. Although, we didn't get any filming done today we still managed to have a somewhat productive day. I can't wait to see the final product of our film!

Going Back Into Planning

 So today was another long day of not filming. My partner and I thought today was the day to start. We’ve come a simple conclusion. We decided to continue our filming process  over winter break. We feel like that gives us more time to film how we want. In addition make sure everything is accurate. I can say, this year I’ve faced a lot of complications when it was time to start filming. Last year was nothing like this. I don’t know if it’s because of all the restrictions in place, but this is turning out to be difficult. Today we decided to look over our storyboard and make sure everything was okay. When we thought through our story we found a few holes. So of course changes were made to our storyboard. We decided to tweak our murder scene. We felt the way we had it set up before wasn’t realistic. It seemed as though the audience could guess what would happen in our murder scene. Since this was a thriller and we’re suppose to create suspense this had to change. There was a lot of foreshadowing in the scene. In addition, reading over our interrogation scene we decided to alter it. It wasn’t a drastic change at all. We decided to change the dialogue between our characters in that scene. I think all the changes we made today will hopefully better our film. Giving the film, the thriller feel we want it to have and nothing less.

Starting the Editing Process

 Hey guys, we haven't started filming just yet. This is due to reasons mentioned in the previous blogs. Anyways we have started to work on other things. For example, we have been editing and finding music for our film. You're probably wondering how we started editing already if we have no footage. Well to answer that question, we started to edit the title page. We've also started to work on adding words in between flashback scenes of our movie. We decided to do this so the viewers won't be confused when time goes back during the film. For example, during a flashback scene we plan to put words such as "earlier this week". Things like that will alert the audience that this particular event occurred before the present scene taking place. While doing this we realized our film needed background music. We wanted music during the suspicious scenes. Another thing that we wanted was music during the ending of the movie. Obviously we would have to get permission from any artist that we choose to use music from. We have to do that unless we're able to find free music that fits our film. We're currently looking for music that have the audience anxious and on edge. I think if we do this it would make our film 10 times better. Our main goal for this movie is to give our viewers a feeling of suspense and excitement mixed together. While the plot is slowly building towards the climax of our movie we want the audience to literally be on the edge of their seats. Hopefully we'll have music picked out by the time we start to put all of our footage together and edit it.

starting to film ? or are we ?

 Well today we came to the conclusion that we should start filming. We’ve been planning for weeks and anticipating. Of course we have a few obstacles in our way. But we came up with a few ideas. Currently, our parents are going crazy over the thought of us going out to film. I can’t say I blame them, but things need to be done. We’ve came to the realization that we can film. And film safely, with precautions. Since we aren’t able to get camera from school, we decided to use our phones. Besides this being an inconvenience I think this is a good thing. Our phones are less likely to have germs on them than the camera. In addition our phones are easier to operate. The only question is weather or not the end results will be the same. We have a few hindering thoughts on the end result of our film. We’re still trying to figure out all the kinks of our plan. For example, how we’re going to edit. Since we’re not in school we can’t use the free editing software. Most of the editing software's we looked over carry watermarks. We really don’t want that on our finished product. I feel like we will find a solution to this problem and everything will go as planned

how we didn’t film !!

 Hey guys I can’t believe we’re in December already. We just came back from a week long Thanksgiving break. Although we wanted to film over the break unfortunately we couldn’t. We both had busy schedules. Also I had friends and family stay with me during the break. Even though we weren’t able to film we did get some things done a couple of days before the break started. For example, we finally launched the website for our film “Who did it?”. Our website has several things on it. It has information on the movie. It also has social media links to our film. We did this to give our fans the option to keep up with the making of our movie by following our social media accounts. Moreover, we plan to film during winter break because that would work best for the both of us. We have midterms coming up. Because of this we decided to prioritize studying for our exams first and then filming. We also plan to edit over the break as well. I think our biggest issue is figuring out how to film. COVID cases have recently been rising again. Due to this are parents want us to social distance as much as possible. Hopefully we’ll be able to meet up and film while following the social distancing rules. If not then we know how to accommodate. We will just film different scene separately. Afterwards we’ll just edit everything over the phone. Hopefully we’ll have a better update next time.