First Steps of Editing

 Editing!!

I genuinely enjoy editing! It's one of my favorite parts of this whole production process! I enjoy acting too, but editing is where I feel my skills shine, and I hope to prove with the editing of this film opening. There isn't anything too crazy planned, most of it just being cuts to different angles and actions. That doesn't mean this role of editing should be taken lightly, since it is just as important as most of the factors of this production. So come with me, as I edit the few clips I have together to have a clear and consistent scene that fits into the time constraints.

(Screenshot was not working, I fear)

I'm currently editing Aurora's solo scenes, which isn't much, but I have to make sure to keep them short and sweet while including everything we want to. I will say, keeping things short is definitely my biggest struggle when I edit, so I am fearful of this, but as long as I make sure her scene is no more than 10 seconds we'll be fine! 

Well...

The video is 16 seconds instead of my hoped for 10 seconds (or less), but I did what felt right and natural, so I am not too upset. I will have to wait until I get all clips to see if it's much of an issue or not. For now, it's an alright time and it looks good so there is no huge outcry for this situation.

I know it isn't much, but it's all I can do right now! It's better to have this done than to add another "scene" on top of everything else I'd have to edit. The blog post for editing the big scenes is going to go insane!

The Rise and Fall of Production

 The Good News!

Sofia and Madison are back from STN! Our whole team is back, the equipment is here, and we are ready to get rocking on rolling to get back on track with our filming! 

 The Bad News!

Madison is sick, our lead actor can't film, and I can't film this weekend. Making us behind... AGAIN!

So What?

Sofia, Kenna, and I found a day and place we could film the scene with Aurora in her room after school. Sofia's house was perfect since her room had a window facing the street the same way my neighbor's house does. The plan for when we film at my house has Atticus looking longingly at his neighbor's house, which is Aurora! So filming in a different house in the perfect placement was, well, perfect! 

Sofia checked out a camera, we agreed at a time to meet up, gathered good props, and when the time came, met up and filmed! 

You don't want to read me yap about the process, you wanna see it! So here's our little vlog of creating the set of Aurora's room!

The story of this scene is simply Aurora getting ready to go out with her boyfriend Kai. Alongside that, we also filmed Auora's (my) reaction to Kai almost hitting Atticus with his car and leaving her room. 

We filmed multiple shots of me brushing my hair and putting my make-up on. Alongside that, we put some focus on the props we placed around to represent Aurora since she is a photographer who loves, and misses, her friends. We got a shot that would be Atticus's view of Aurora. Finally, we filmed Aurora seeing the commotion between Kai and Atticus, and running out to apologize and leave with Kai.

Here's some cool photos and videos of us filming!

This was a very successful session, but we still have a long way to go and not much time left. We plan on using the entirety of next week after school to film all that we need to! In the meantime, I'll start editing the clips we have as well as compile some foley. (subtle foreshadowing of the next blog posts)

The Comic!

 A Comic?

Yes, a comic! Our main character, Sam/Atticus, is seen drawing a comic through most of the opening. Why? Because it is his passion and a driving force for him throughout the movie, not just this simple opening. I was assigned to create this comic! A daunting task to be honest. It has to look good enough to appear like an artsy kid made it, but not too good it looks like a professional comic book artist drew it! I think I nailed it, however, I have yet to do line work on this comic. Why am I posting about unfinished work then? You'll see why (I'll explain in a few scrolls with pictures and videos!)

Shoutout to Kenna for making the comic booklet for me!

     

I don't know if you can tell, but I took full creative freedom with this comic. And I mean it was fully my idea on everything, besides the title (which truth be told I'm not a huge fan of and hope that we change). I want it to be changeable if my team doesn't like certain aspects or wants to take away or add to it. Does that increase the time of making the prop? Yes, and you know how worried I am about time, however, I know myself and my art! I know it'll be quick for me to do the line art of the pages and color the cover (the comic page remains colorless because it is the page Sam will be working on). It isn't perfect or even pretty, so I definitely want my team to see it in person and I can fix what they don't like in real time.

Now what am I trying to portray here? The comic is a projection of Sam's life. He is the main figure of the cover. He is also standing guard of a princess whom he based on Aurora. He guards here as he sends a magic spell that hits the dragon who is after the princess, which is supposed to represent Kai going after Aurora as Sam works to protect her. The page itself is representative of how Sam fell in love with Aurora through her beauty and also her kindness. He sees her kindly feeding a horse and immediately thinks she is the fairest of the land! Meanwhile, Sam sees Aurora striving to be a good person and falls in love with her because of it.

If I were to keep it how it is, Sam/Atticus would be colored in a dark blue and Aurora would be in light pinks. Kai, the dragon, would be green and black as well as huffing orange flames. The line art would be a little scribbly to show that Sam himself is a bit of a messy artist rather than a professional guide. Is this to make the drawing process a little easier for me? A little bit! But also because I genuinely think he would be a messy artist. I would add subtle foreshadowing in the background, like the dragon blowing his flames actually at Atticus on the cover to reference the fight they have. I'll show that the magic Atticus has on the cover does nothing while the dargaon's flames burn Atticus' robes, foreshadowing the physical fight that Kai easily wins against Sam, discussed by my group members a week or so ago! The comic would be colored very vividly, almost in a jarring way to show that Sam's fantasy is not a true reflection of his real world.

Time lapse of me making the cover

Time lapse of me making the comic page

Here you can see me looking through a few of my comics, and that is because I wanted a reference of good comic panels to replicate. Ones that fit the scene in my head that I imagined. So thank you IDW Sonic issue 1!

The page of inspiration 

Now, you may be thinking to yourself, "But Lee, why not show us after you make corrections to the comic?" And that is a valid question, but I wanted to show you guys my thought process, not just my group's. If I solely post after the corrections from my group, you only see the perspective of my group as a whole, and not my own perspective on the film and what the comic should convey. This comic is a big deal and really shows what I think of the story. I see Sam/Atticus as someone who wants to protect Aurora from her abuser, but is blinded by love to see she's stronger than he thinks. I tried to represent his blindness in the comic with her seeming to have a very passive role, hoping that contrast with how I'll play her within the scene.

Final Notes

I plan on showing the final product alongside a showing of all the props I collected or even made for the opening. The comic is important enough to have its own blog post, but to make another blog post for it seems a little much, don't you think? But don't you worry, I love talking so there will be a large paragraph or two or three underneath it discussing the final thoughts of the comic. This post was to show you my thought process behind making the comic since I was the one to make it, and to show that, although we are a great team, we are not a hive mind and have slightly different interpretations of our story. Yes, we are on the same page, but do have a few differing ideas and I wanted to focus on my ideas for this comic before tweaking it! Who knows, maybe my team will love it and not want to change a thing! Maybe they'll want to change everything. We'll see when the finally come back from STN!

Student Television and Me

 Question: What are we going to do?

That logo up there is the logo for Student Television Network, or STN. It is a place for high schoolers (and middle schoolers) to compete against one another with their TV production skills. Why is this important? Because Madison and Safia, two of my teammates, are away on a trip to this competition for a week! We are down half a team for a whole week, I fear. That's fine because Kenna and I can go film on our own together, right? Wrong! STN is huge for our school's television production club/class so most of its members go on this trip, and because of that, they take most of the equipment and don't allow the leftover students to check out any of the equipment after school. We need a T8 Cannon camera to film our scenes, but now have no way of getting it! Having our whole group allows for us to achieve our ambition, as well as the right equipment. This is rough, so the question is what are we going to do?

Answer: What are we going to do?

This STN trip is really testing my collaboration skills and resourcefulness. If we can't film, might as well continue preparing the stage for our opening. I've begun looking for costumes around my house for my character, Aurora.

I believe this outfit is perfect for Aurora, to fit that dulled grungy vibe we're searching for her. I don't care much about the shirt so I can follow this helpful guide to make it even duller if we want! Alongside that, I found good wizard costumes and hats we imagine Sam/Atticus on Amazon that I can try to buy by the time our teammates (and the actor, funny enough) come back from STN. Finally, a huge contribution to this project of mine, other than editing, is my art. I can make some background pieces that'll be claimed to be Sam's as well as use some of my past art and set it up in the office we will be filming in.

Concluding

There will always be a complication in a project. Some big, some small. Unfortunately, we did get the big complication of a week of stand-by. But there is always something I can do. There is something you can always do. There is something we all can do, even if small. So if all I can do is gather all of my old art and draw new art, that's what I'll do. If I work on costuming, I'll work on costuming. For now, I'll be scrolling through my old blog posts and writing ideas I have brought up and searching for a way to make them happen by the time we actually film. 

First Steps of Filming

Time to Get Filming

As the title and heading imply, we have started to film! Exciting right? Yes and no... we didn't have the time nor supplies to come together and film a full-fledged out scene within our opening, so what we did was find a short period of time where team members could film non-character shots and/or close ups that don't show the character and their costuming. Soon we landed on the plan of meeting together after school to do some quick close-ups of Madison's car and their hand. Initially, it would be all four of us meeting and filming together, but due to the tight filming space and tight schedules, Sofia and Madison thought it better for it to be just them to film and have me and Kenna work on costuming and props.

  

Sofia and Madison checked out a T8 Cannon camera from our school's TV production class and filmed their shots using it! This is the camera we plan on using for all of our shots to make the opening look amazing and feel consistent. It is a great camera that Madison, Sofia, and I have lots of experience using!

These shots were all of Madison's car and some bits of Madison that we planned on having within our opening! These shots are great! Madison is planning on sending them to me so I can start editing as soon as possible to make up for some of the lost time we believe this entire week will bring.

To Be Frank

I'm very nervous about how few shots we have if I'm being honest. It's great to have these shots of course, but our group seems to be very busy with a variety of things and half of our team is about to leave for a TV production competition. I'm just nervous about the timing of it all and hope that things will work out in the end with scheduling. We went a little ambitious with our project and as it turns out ambitious people come up with ambitious ideas, but these ambitious people also have busy lives. I'm sure I'm overthinking and we can indeed succeed, but for now I'll sit worrying.

Luckily, I'm not at a loss. A majority of filming will be done at my house. If I start setting up now, the less time it takes to actually start filming. To keep my worries at bay, I will do what I can to make everything happen as smooth as possible.

Casting Calls!

 Casting

To make a movie, one has to get a cast. Our opening will have 4 characters, therefore we need three actors! Simple math right there! So who have we cast? Why have we cast them? How did you cast them? All will be revealed in the next few paragraphs! So keep reading!

Our Process

I wish I could tell you guys that we held a large-scale audition and went through multiple rounds of line reading before we found the perfect actors to play our characters.... but we didn't. We chose an easier path and cast some of our group members and a friend of the group that we knew for sure we could count on being in the opening. Time for the cast list!

Cast List

Kai........................... Madison!

Aurora................... Kaylee!

Sam/Atticus....... Sam!

Headshots and Characters and How they Fit!

Sam/Atticus

Sam was actually the character we as a group put the most thought into. We agreed that Sam needed to be played by someone who looks or can be made to look nerdy/geeky/dorky. Sofia and Madison thought, who better than their friend Sam! I've worked on a video with him before and believe him to be a great actor and can very easily fit the vibe we are trying to achieve. So I agreed to him very quickly. Although Kenna has never met him before, she trusted our judgment and we went on to recruit him and he kindly agreed. It would be cool for any social media marketing for our film if we joked around with the fact that he has the same name as the character he's playing. Just a thought that crossed my genius and ever moving mind.

Kai

Madison always wanted this role. From the very beginning when he was first made (Kai was the first character proposed). In truth, I think Madison built this role for themselves. Either way, there was absolutely no one to take the role away from Madison. Kai is a Mister tough guy that wants nothing but control. Madison may not look like a mean brute, but with the right costuming, we can make them look like that description and I know Madison has the ability to portray that personality. I know Madison will be awesome!

Aurora

Oh hey! That's me! Crazy! I'm a huge theater kid, so I definitely wanted to contribute some acting to this opening, so when Aurora's character was first brought up we all agreed she should be played by me! Her character, I think, fits me a lot with the grungey look she starts the story with and the interest in the arts and nerd culture. If only she was a Sonic fan, her character would be perfect for me! Who knows... there's still time to add to her character :)

Concluding Notes

Although none of us fully fit our characters, we each have the acting skill to adapt into the character as well as enough similarities, so it works out! I'm confident the characters we have will be portrayed properly. 

I love scripts!!

 Why A Script?

You're always asking me so many questions, aren't you? That's alright, I love to answer them! A script is where all the action and dialogue or a play, movie, or other media pieces is written out. They help keep the entirety of production on task and in an understatement of what is taking place within their pieces. It's a way to stay organized, on task, and in agreement. Not to mention tells the performers exactly what they are performing. 

Our Script:

CLICK HERE TO READ

This is our script! It's helpful to know exactly what the characters are going to be doing, the shots we need, and how they'll be edited together! With this script put together it looks very likely that we will be able to start production soon and what an amazing production this is beginning to look like!