Group Discussion - Portfolio Blog #23

Hello Glorp! 

Before I start, here's a photo that sums up my week. I am burning out :D

Today we were sorted into groups and discussed our project for peer reviews. Here's the recap.

Miguel:

(His blog is down, so he gave me his group member's blog instead)

https://joseph347.blogspot.com/

Miguel is going to film soon, likely today he says. His story is in the horror genre. The plot follows a high school band with an outraged guitarist. After an argument, the guitarist get kicked off the band. This influenced his final decision to kill off band members one by one. Something I found really cool about his project is that the way the band members will get killed. It has to do with the instrument that they played. For example, the drumist gets drum sticks wedged into his eyes and the bassist gets strangled by an amp chord. They are also making their own music since each actor already knows how to play their instrument. I honestly really like that idea. Truly, I wish them the best. 

Sophia:

https://education-rua.blogspot.com/

Her opening follows a group of girls who have a prank war every April 1st. During the preperation of a prank, one of the girls gets murderd. Sophia didn't say the genre, but I assume this is also horror. I really liked her idea of having two camera's on set. One recording the regular way and a small digital cameria for the girls to record as a vlog. I think there can be some really good use of POV shots with that, so long as it's used with intention. Sophia told me that the way she plans on showing the murder is by using fake blood and only showing the hand of the victim. This is a good way to hide the fact that we are jobless highschoolers and don't have the budget to make a murder scene look realistic. She was planning on making blood out of corn syrup and food dye. I suggested adding one part blue food dye and four parts red. This gives the fake blood a deeper, more realistic color. Also, to watch out for stains and to keep a wet rag near her, things can get sticky quick.

Roman:

https://romancambridgeblog.blogspot.com/

Roman, if you are reading this, I'm sorry if I spelt your name wrong. Roman already filmed his project, he is doing something in the action genre. The opening is focused on two men involved with trading drugs getting caught by the police and being interrogated. The character played by Roman snitches to the cops. At first, I was skeptical. How is this kid going to get access to a cop car? Handcuffs? Police uniforms? A police station??? He assured me that, since his girlfriend's dad is a cop, he has access to all those things. I'm still a little skeptical. Personally, if I where a cop and my daughter's boyfriend wanted to borrow my expensive equipment for a school project, I'd say no. But, I'm not a cop, I'm a kid who hasn't even finished high school. So what do I know?

My Project:

Talking to my group members, I realized my film has no name. I instantly texted the group chat.

So the film is now called Death Wears a Dress. I really like the name. 

With my group, I went over the line edit and showed them the text I planned on using for the graphic. Miguel said to use the Zebrawood font because it looks more "western" compared to the Discourse font. He said it looked like a sticker from the 80s, I see what he means and I and agree. 

The plan is to add the graphics today, but it's already 8 pm. So I guess this is good night, bye Glorp!

Filming Day 2 - Portfolio Blog #19

 Yes Glorp, I know these blogs are out of order. So sue me. 

Today my team went out and filmed the missing clips for our project. We had 2 - 3 shots we where missing, and they went out and got them. 

Zach recording Emi and her cross.

Nico, Emi, and Zach getting the sounds of the shovel.

Thank you to my group members for being able to go out and film without me, you guys are amazing. Bye Glorp.

CCR - Portfolio Blog Post #22

Hey Glorp! 

Back in the day, I would grab my phone and my microphone and film myself climbing trees while talking to myself. So when I heard about the CCR, which is expected to be me talking to a camera, that's the first thing that came to my head. I plan to go out around 3 pm and maybe stay for the sunset. I'll also have a script and bullet notes so I know what points I wanna make. Lucky, question #1 is one I've already asked myself.

"How does your product use or challenge conventions, and how does it represent social groups or issues?"

We decided that our protagonist should be female. This is to challenge how the protagonist of a western is always a white man. Many women where cowgirls back in the Victorian era, they just have never gotten the same representation in media as men. The western landscape was a lot fairer than people make it out to be, most believed that woman were equal so long as they can do the job as well as a man. I know western movies aren't always known to be historically accurate, but the genre can do with a little change up in gender. This will expand the target demographic to women and younger people. Not to mention, women in the western genres are typically a damsel in distress. Our character isn't in distress, in fact her personality is very masculine. Not using this trope at all turns the convention on it's head, and shows that film can be made without using tropes that reinforce the patriarchy. 

Voice Recording - Portfolio Blog #21

Guess who's still sick? I am! This morning I awoke level headed and forced myself to school. But the hellish critters violating my immune system forced me to the nurses office. Suffice to say, Glorp, I had to miss the recording my group did. Here's a update blog. 

While I was resting at home, my group went to the recording studio in the TV room. They stayed in there for a good thirty minutes or so to get the line right. Zach and Nico instructed Emi to say her lines in a morbid, ponderous voice. According to her, it took a few attempts, but she eventually got there. They decided to only say 2 of her 4 lines since the spare 2 might give too much exposition. 

They got rid of these two lines:

Then, Zach instantly put those recorded lines in the project. Here's how they turned out.

Me personally, I really like it. I think Emi did a great job. A part of me wishes I could've been there to help direct, I think her voice is a little too cheery. But, Emi herself is a cheery person so I don't think I could've done much regardless.

That's it for today. Buh bye, Glorp!

The Text - Portfolio Blog #20

Hey Glorp!

Something I take pride in is my immune system, I often say it's made of steel. Well, my pride was taken from me this week at STN. The lack of sleep weakened my army of white blood cells and I started feeling terrible. I'm home now, but I'm still sick, I'm being forced into rest by my dad. I woke up from a fever dream about graphics and instantly got to writing this post. 

During my research for movie openings, I realized that all the text used by westerns are thick and capitalized. The colors used are reds, blacks, and whites, and the graphic is meant to grab attention. So, with all of this is mind, I looked through Adobe Fonts to find the perfect text. Here are a few of my choices.

I like how clean this one looks. A lot of the fonts I found sacrificed their vide for legibility. This one is the perfect mix of both. The only issue is that it may be too clean. Western fonts, from what I've seen, aren't this bubbly and neat.

I think this font really adds to the western vibe. I like how theres a flat color and a detailed version, but I doubt that it'll look good if we use something with so much detail. 

This text has a little bit of texture, which I really like. None of the font's from my research had this, but I think that a little texture will really add to the aesthetic of our opening. 

Should I have to pick one, I think I'd go with Discourse and I'd add a little bit of texture on After Effects. That way I'd get the best of both worlds. Okay, I'm going to go convince Zach to let me have control over the text in our opening. Bye Glorp!

Editing in Post - Portfolio Blog #18

Hello Glorp! All of today was spent filming and editing. Now I’m at a social mixer hidden away in a corner because loud noises overwhelm me. Anyways, Zach finished the line edit! We plan to have a voice over the entire thing, but we haven’t recorded any of it yet. Also, the music we added is temporary and will likely be changed. I also plan to add more noises like wind, dirt, and clothes with foley and free online sources (pixabay.com)

That's all for today! Good night Glorp :)