Setting the time and date

 Jonathon and I met up today in in order to discuss the time and dates our team would meet up. The ideal situation would be that we can meet up whenever to film and edit. But sadly it doesn't work that way. Even though we're on break and our film is a big priority, we all have our separate schedules. This is a time for us to relax but this is time has been the busiest I've been. I can't speak on behalf of my team but while making our schedule I could tell that everyone was pretty busy during break. We needed to make sure we were fitting in everyone's schedule. Some of us work and some were going to celebrate the holidays with family. I also think a big factor to making our schedule would try to target our locations at the least amount of foot traffic possible. Due to COVID we want to make sure that everything is as safe as it can be. But in the end, we were able to make a schedule that suited everyone. 

We decided that within three days we would be able to film. Since many of our locations are going to be used for some of the same scenes, travel is not a big factor. Our plan is to change up the Mis en Scene in order for it to look different. We divided the scenes the three days. We made sure that we needed to film scenes that took place near each other. For example, we would film scenes in the southern region of our county one day and then film scenes in the northern region of our county another day. Sunday the 20th we would film scenes 1,2, and 3. We would film from 12pm-3pm in the southern region of our county. Tuesday the 22nd we would film the background scenes with the main character. Wednesday the 23rd is when we would film the majority of our film. Scenes 4,5,6,7 and 8 would be filmed from 11am-to whenever we finish. 

Location scouting

 Today we were able to finally scout out a location for one our scenes. Since we were able to plan everything out, we had some ideas of where we wanted to film our scenes. Of course these are all places that we've visited before so we had an idea of how it would turn out. However, for the scene where the main character gets kidnapped, we didn't have an absolute location where we wanted to film. We asked around to see if any of our friends knew of places that had the description we were looking for. Turns out one of our mutual friends knew of a place that was around 30 minutes away from our houses. We decided that today was a great day to go and see it. Since we need to film at this location, we need to make sure that filming is permitted. We did a little bit of research and found out that it's considered public property so filming was okay. We really wanted this location to work out because it matched the description almost perfectly. 

When we arrived to the location we were disappointed. It turns out that the location no longer exists. Granted, our friend hadn't recently been there so we all expected to see it. This whole time we've been depending on this location because we would be filming the most important scene. The scene would be the climax of the film where the twist of revealing the character's true intentions happens. We didn't think this would happen so we didn't plan to have a second location. We need to think of another location fast. Our deadline is coming up and we want to have as much time as possible to edit our short film. Hopefully in the upcoming days we will have a location to film at. If not, I don't know what we're gonna do. 

Back from break!!

Our Thanksgiving break has officially ended. Sad that it ended but I was able to think about my expectations for the film. I really want all of the aspects to come out as we envision them. The meaning of the scenes, camera angles, and movements. Everything in our film has a purpose. We hope that it can translate towards the audience. During the break we also roughly planned out what the next few weeks will look like. We have an upcoming winter break so we were able to figure out the filming and editing schedule that fits. Even though we don't know exactly when we'd be able to film and edit with our actors but we have a rough idea. 

Throughout the two weeks we plan on filming, editing, and taking care of all the other things. We want to get our filming done within the first week. Of course this all depends on our actors and our crew members but we're aiming for the first week. We don't need to get permission for the rights of any music. We decided that the sound would mostly be diegetic throughout our film. The second week would consist of editing our film. Editing is going to take the most time to finish. With my experience of making media, editing is a very meticulous step. Since our film needs to be five minutes, there is a lot of editing that needs to be done. In the end I know that we'll be able to get our film done the way we want it. 

Plans for the future

 Now that our social media is set up and ready to use, we need to plan other aspects of our film. In order to have our film be a success we need to plan accordingly. Even though we've planned certain things, I feel that there can't be too much planning. We want the film to come out good and for that each little detail needs to be perfect. When I say 'perfect' I mean to our expectations. I don't think that everything will be perfect but I do want our film to be exactly how we want it. Since we have our winter break coming up, Jonathon and I plan to take advantage to film and edit our film. The two weeks that we have off gives us the perfect amount of time to make our film. I think it's important to have ample time so there's no rush. We both agree that it's really important to have fun making our film. Even though it's for a class, it's important to have fun. 

Throughout the two weeks we plan on filming, editing, and taking care of all the other things. We want to get our filming done within the first week. Of course this all depends on our actors and our crew members but we're aiming for the first week. We don't need to get permission for the rights of any music. We decided that the sound would mostly be diegetic throughout our film. The second week would consist of editing our film. Editing is going to take the most time to finish. With my experience of making media, editing is a very meticulous step. Since our film needs to be five minutes, there is a lot of editing that needs to be done. In the end I know that we'll be able to get our film done the way we want it. 

 

Setting up our social media!

 Today my partner and I decided to set up the social media in order to jump start the marketing for our short film. Although we knew that marketing was going to be a big part of our project, I decided to look into why marketing is important to a film. But it's simple. If you don't market your film, there is no way that viewers are going to know about it. For a film to be successful, marketing is an essential part. Jonathon and I wanted to think about which social medias would be most effective to reaching out to our target audience. We think our target audience is going to be older teenagers to people in their late twenties. Even though we want to hit our target audience we also want to reach out to all audiences that would be willing to see the film. We want everyone to have a chance and see our film when it's done. The social medias we want to use are YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We also opened a Wix website to help promote our film.

First we opened an email account in order to save all the work between me and my partner. Then we opened our Instagram account for our film. There wasn't any trouble with opening the account. The name we wanted for the account wasn't taken, so we were able name it how we wanted. Then we opened our twitter account. There were two platforms that gave us problems with opening accounts. Facebook gave us a hard time opening our account because it required a 'real' name. Since this is for the sole purpose of promoting our film and not an actual account for someone, we had to put the name of our main character. The second platform to give us trouble was Wix. It didn't let me open an account under the email we made. In the end, my partner was able to open an account. 

Storyboard for short film!

 

The time to storyboard is here. We found drawing up the storyboard fairly easy. Since this is our second year in AICE Media, we’ve had practice making storyboards. Last year we had to make a storyboard for a commercial, music video, and movie intro. All that was practice for the storyboard that we had to do this time around. Since each page of our storyboard represents about thirty seconds of our short film, we had to fill eleven pages. Our storyboard consists of the eight scenes in our short film. We wouldn’t consider ourselves art prodigies but we did our best. Since we still need to abide by CDC safety guidelines, we decided to complete our storyboard over FaceTime. Although this was not ideal with the help of google slides we were able to combine our work and upload them to the blogger just like we would if we were in class. As we continue working we will always keep this storyboard in mind. Throughout the next few weeks we plan on completing several tasks. First, we will be shopping and obtaining the necessary props to film. Then, we will be re-visiting each filming location to ensure no obstacles come set filming day. Shortly after we will be hosting a zoom call with all participants going over the script, storyboard, and schedule of events. Likewise, during this call we will be conducting a table read and making any necessary edits. Then it’s time to film! As we go through this process we will be sure to continue blogging. Although we truly believe this storyboard has all necessary elements we will not be surprised if we have to go back and edit our initial thoughts. Even though this is going to be a lengthy journey, we hope to have our final product by early January. In the end, we hope to have an awesome project that we can be proud of, while having fun!

Planning for short film