Re-Shoot Blog

During my re-shooting day, I was able to get a lot done. I had to re-shoot some of the scenes from George English Park and Leila's house, but before I started to film I wanted to create a plan. Before Leila and I decided to film we established a list of everything we needed to make sure we wouldn't forget anything.

This re-shooting day began at George English park. There was a lot of filming that needed to be done at this location. I just needed to re-film the actress, Cori, saying her dialogue. This was because she was extremely hard to hear in the film. I was in charge of being the camerawoman while she recited her lines. I had her say her lines multiple times, so I could get different angles. Besides from filming, I also helped to direct. I would direct her where to stand to make sure she was in the frame of the camera and also where to look. Furthermore, I would let her know if she was being loud enough. I wanted to make sure she had enough volume when saying her lines because that was the reason for re-shooting scenes at the park.

After I re-filmed everything at the park, I car-pooled with Leila and Cori to Leila's house. Before we could film any of the scenes at Leila's house I had to wait for Kat to arrive. I didn't have to re-shoot any of Kat scenes at the park, so I told her she didn't have to come until later. While waiting for Kat, Leila and I sat down and discussed new dialogue for scene 3. Since we decided to no longer have comedy as a sub-genre we decided to change the original dialogue of scene 3. I suggested dialogue ideas and write down any of the ideas we came up with. This way we can have an overview of all the dialogue and chose what best fits the scene.

Once Kat arrived, no time was wasted and I started filming. Like a George English Park, I was in charge of being the camerawoman. Before I started filming, I told the actress where they needed to stand and to not move until I tell them otherwise. I didn't want them to move there position a lot because it was going to be a still conversation scene. During their conversation scene, I filmed over-the-shoulder shots, so I moved around a lot to get the shot I needed. When Cori was saying her dialogue I would stand behind Kat, and when Kat was stating her lines I would stand behind Cori. While I was filming, I was also helping to direct. During some parts of the scene, one of the actresses would start to smile. Scene 3 is meant to be a serious scene, so I would inform this actress when she started smiling and she would go back to being serious. I would also notify the two actresses if they were being loud enough. After I finished re-filming everything at Leila's house, I put all the equipment way, which brought the re-shooting day to an end.

This is a picture of Leila and me discussing the new dialogue.

Editing Blog: Sound and Changes

The plan for this editing day was very similar to the previous editing day. The plan was to work on sound and make any changes needed to the film opening. I wanted to use the entire class time to finish the film; however, I ran into a laptop issue. The laptop I usually use for editing was almost dead. This doesn't seem like a huge problem because the simple solution would be to get a different laptop. It wasn't that simple though, when I started up Pinnacle Studio on a different laptop I realized that I had to re-import all the footage and music in order to edit anything. Importing the footage takes an extremely long time which means I wouldn't be able to get a lot of work done and would waste a lot of valuable time. To not waste time Leila and I sat on the floor next to the laptop cart, which is where the laptop chargers are and did our work on the original laptop. About halfway through the class, the laptop had charged to about halfway so I suggested we go back to our desk and do our work from there.

Before I started editing I watched the opening from the beginning to see what was finished. If I noticed any issues I pointed out to Leila who was writing down everything that needed to be fixed. The main issue I noticed throughout the opening was that it was extremely difficult to understand what the actresses were saying because either the actresses were too quiet or the music was too loud. To fix this issue I suggested to Leila the volume we should have the dialogue at because she had control over the laptop at the time. I also suggested that we should lower the volume of the music a little bit, but not too much so it wouldn't ruin the intensity of the scenes. When editing the music towards the end of the opening, I proposed to make the fade-in longer to have a better transition. Also, to have the music end abruptly to increase the seriousness and intensity of the Monitor being attacked. I helped to line up the 'bang' sound made when the Monitor gets hit to her dialogue. The dialogue that was used wasn't a complete sentence to make it sound like the 'bang' sound interrupted her and prevented her from finishing her sentence. This was extremely hard to do and it took me and Leila many attempts to get it right.

After all the sound was finished we asked a classmate to review it for us and if they could tell us if they could understand what was happening. The classmate gave us very helpful criticism on our opening. They informed us that the conversation in scene 3 was choppy and look displaced. Also, they recommended having the Monitor appear in more scenes for the audience to understand that the Monitor is friends with the spies. I fully agreed with this because I believed the story didn't make sense with the Monitor only appearing in two scenes, one at the beginning and one at the end. To fix these issues Leila and I planned to create new dialogue for scene 3 and re-shoot it and to add in more scenes where the monitor is present.

Closer to the end of the day, Leila and I realized that we needed to make a big change to our film opening. This change involved getting rid of the sub-genre, comedy. The original plan of this film opening was to be a comedy but before we started filming we changed the genre to action with the sub-genre of comedy. Now, we realized the comedy aspect of the opening doesn't work.

This is a picture of me editing the final task.

Editing Blog: Minor Details and Sound

On this editing day, almost all of the footage had been added so I just needed to make some minor detail changes. These changes included trimming and speeding up or down footage. Before I could add in any changes I watched my film all the way through. While I was watching the opening I told Leila where I think there needs to be a change so she could write it down. After the list of changes was completed I retrieved the storyboard it case I need a reference when I'm making the changes.

The main changes I needed to make was to cut the footage more and add transitions. Some of the scenes went on for too long so I had to cut them to make them shorter. In some of the scenes, the audience could hear my voice or Leila's, so I had to trim out our voices. While watching the opening I noticed some of the transitions were choppy, so I added in fades to make it look smoother.

I also got to work on sound this day. Before Leila and I could add in any sound we had to re-import the music because the old import wasn't loading. After all the music was re-imported, Leila and I listened to all of the music to remind ourselves what we have to choose from. While listening to the music I was also making sure if we had enough music to choose from or if we needed more. After we listened to all of the music once, we went back and listen to it a second time and wrote down notes. These notes consisted of the parts of the songs we wanted to include. Whenever I came across a part I found would work with the opening I would tell Leila, so she could write it down. After I listened to the music a second time, I started adding in the sound. I would help to adjust the length of the music and where it should be located. I also added in the fade-ins and outs in the music to help transition between the different music more smoothly. After a lot of the sound was added, I watch the film and realized that some of the original music planned for a scene didn't sound right for the situation. For example, the original music for the montage scene didn't transition well from the previous song. I tried fixing it with different lengths of fade, but it still wasn't working. In the end, I recommended extended the previous song over the montage and getting rid of the original montage music. I really liked the outcome of doing this, so instead of finding new montage music, we decided to just you the song from the earlier scene.

Another part of the sound I was able to work on briefly was adjusting the loudness of the dialogue scenes. Due to the background music, come of the dialogue was to quiet which would make it very hard for the audience to understand. I went through the different dialogue scenes and made them louder until the class ended.

This is a picture of myself editing.

Editing Blog: Drafting the Final Task

This blog consist of everything I did during three editing days. Leila and I discussed that we should put these three days in one blog because one of the days we got out early, another day was the second half of the peer review day, and the last day was a full editing day. My roles were the same for each of the three days.

On each of these days I started off by taking out the storyboard like I have done every previous editing day. Having the storyboard keeps me organized when I'm editing and helps me to not waste time. I definitely didn't want to waste any time on these days because I didn't have a lot to begin with.

My main role on these days was to add the footage to their respective tracks. On day four, I worked on creating scene 3. This was one of the longer scenes, so a lot of work needed to be done. I started off by having Leila read me off which take would be added from the checklist. This checklist was made by myself and Leila a few days earlier, so we wouldn't waste time picking out takes the day we planned to edit the scene. After all the footage was placed in the correct order I started trimming. Some of the footage consisted of an actress saying her line multiple times. This was done so all takes of the line could be found in one place. This meant when I was editing I had to cut out the takes we weren't going to use and save the one we were. When Leila had control over the laptop and was trimming I provided input on where the footage should be cut. On this day I also added in a split screen of the actresses getting ready.

On day five, I worked on create scenes 4-6. These scenes were relatively short, which is why I was able to edit them all in one day. On this day, I did mainly the same thing from the fourth day. I added the footage to the tracks where they belonged and cut them to the right length.

On day six, I worked on editing multiple scenes. There was a slight issue with viewing the footage on this day. I had to try to open the footage using different ways until I found one that worked. This delayed the amount of time I had to edit. After the issue was fixed I started editing. I added in the footage to the tracks and trimmed them. After adding in a lot of the footage I realized that there was still a lot in and we were almost at our max minutes. This meant that we were going to go over the 2 minute limit. In order to fix this, I discussed with Leila on what need to do and we decided to cut out some of the scenes. On this day I also helped Leila de-attach the audio from the footage to create a voice over. Furthermore, I slowed down some of the footage because it was to fast and hard to understand due to its original speed.

This is a picture of me ( ) viewing the footage.

Filming Blog: George English Park Part 2

On the fourth day of filming, Leila and I went back to George English park to film. The plan for this filming day was to film from scene 7 to 9. Originally, scene 9 was supposed to be filmed at a middle school; however, I discussed with Leila that we should film that seen at George English instead. I thought that would be a better idea because time would be wasted driving to another location. We didn't have a lot of time to film on this day. There was also a perfect spot to film scene 9. I didn't have a long time to film due to one of the actresses needing to be picked up at a certain time. One of the issues we had that wasted time was one of the actresses forgot their leather jacket. I had to go with the actresses to her house to get the leather jacket. I didn't want to use a different leather jacket because it wouldn't look the same as the one originally utilized.

Before I started filming, I reviewed the storyboard and checklist, so I could remind myself of what I needed to film. Similar to the other filming days, my main role was to be the camerawomen. I performed the same task I did every filming day, like videoing the scenes from multiple angles and shots. After I finished filming a scene, I would view some of the footage to make sure I had something to work with when editing. I learned by doing this I wouldn't have to re-shoot the scene later if I discovered there was nothing to use when editing.

Another role I had was to direct. I would direct the actresses on how they should act in the scenes and what emotions they should portray. I mainly remained them that they needed to act serious. I would also inform the actresses that they needed to speak their lines louder, so when sound is put over it, during editing, the audience can still hear them. During scene 9, I told the actress, Cori, when she was saying her line, "Hello, hello, hello, are you there?" to sound more worried after each "hello." I also gave her some examples of how to say it by saying the lines myself.

My last role was to act. This was the second day that I got to practice my acting. I didn't have any lines to say, but I did have different emotions to portray. In most of my scenes, I acted seriously, but when my character found out she was being followed she acts surprised.

This is a picture of me (middle) filming Kat.

Editing Blog: Piecing Footage

On this editing day, the goal was to finish scenes 1 and 2. On the previous editing day, I started to edit these two scenes; however, I ran out of time and couldn't finish them. Fortunately, I was able to grab the same laptop I used last class, so I didn't have to re-download the footage. Which also means there was more time to edit. The program, Pinnacle Studio, also didn't have too many issues. It loaded up fine but was a bit slow. However, I prefer having a slow working laptop then three that don't work. While the program was loading, I took out the storyboard to have a reference of the film opening. Furthermore, I asked Leila to get the checklist to have another reference. Having these two sources of references made editing easier and quicker on the second day of editing, so I felt that it would be important and logical to use them during this day too.

After Pinnacle Studio finished loading I opened up our film and got to work. I started by watching all the editing completed previously, in order to have a recap of the work done earlier. After reviewing scene 1 and 2's editing draft I discussed with Leila changes we needed to make. While I was tripping the footage Leila was providing me with input and I did the same when she was cutting. I felt that when one person was using the laptop it was important for the other to always suggest input and ideas. This way, if the scene wasn't looking right, the other person may know how to fix it or know how to make a scene look better. When I was cutting, I made sure to cut anything we don't need, like footage with long seconds of no sound or movement, or if Leila and I were talking in it.

After the cutting process for scene 1 and 2 was finally complete we moved on to sound. Leila had more experience with sound, so she was mainly in charge of fixing it; however, I tried my best to help by sharing my opinions, like if the music was to load or to quiet. I also helped to create the fades in the music to have a better transition between the songs.

A new skill I learned on this editing day was how to insert titles. While the plan was to add titles closer to the end of the editing process, we felt that it would be a good time to practice since scene 1 and 2 were mainly finished. The plan on how the titles should look were previously established before the editing process. This meant that I just had to create them. While Leila created the first title, I watched her, so I could learn how to do it for when I made the next one. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to do it, but after a few trials and errors, I was able to figure it out. I adjusted the size, font, and color of the titles. I was also able to find how to edit the titles, so they would fade in and out of the scenes.

This is a picture of me (grey jacket) working with Leila (black shirt) on the film opening.

Editing Blog: Cutting and Sound

On my second day of editing, the issues with Pinnacle Studio, the editing software, continued. The program was not opening up. Leila and I attempted to restart the laptops multiple times, but the program still refused to work. After attempting to open the system on three different laptops, I was finally able to find one that worked. I was glad to be able to edit on Pinnacle Studio; however, I already wasted a lot of time because it wouldn't open earlier. To make the situation worst, I had to re-dump all the footage onto the laptop, because we were using a different one from before. This took an extremely long time because there was a lot to download. I then had to import all the footage I had previously collected onto the program. While the footage was downloading, I took out the storyboard, so Leila and I would have something to reference when we were going to edit.

After the importing process was finished, I had Leila read of the checklist we had made on our first editing day, while I added the footage to the tracks. Having this checklist made earlier saved a lot of time because I didn't have to look for the footage to include in the film due to it already being written down. I added the footage according to the order it comes in the opening in order to stay organized.

After I was able to add scene 1 and part of scene 2's footage to a track I started to cut the footage to the length I wanted. When cutting the footage, I took Leila's input on where to cut and my own to figure out what was best. During this time I also added in some fades to make the scenes have a smoother transition. While Leila was adding in the sound, I provided input on where the sound should be placed and where it should start. After we finished editing and adding sound to scene 1 and 2 we watched it all the way through and made any changes necessary. Changes included: making scenes slower or faster and making scenes longer or shorter. Due to all the issues, we didn't have a lot of time to edit, so we did our best to use the time we did have wisely.

This is a picture of me adding footage to a track on Pinnacle Studio.