Blog 33: Day 2 of Shooting

 

DAY 2 OF SHOOTING

     Hey guys!!! It's the day that you have been waiting! Welcome back all of my blog viewers. Previously, I had mention that we will fill-in the missing sounds by re-creating on the 2nd Day of Shooting. It was shoot on a nice Martin Luther King Day—no school for us. It's a busy day for me as this is a week right before Lunar New Year.I had the whole day planned out with recording, dance practice for New Year, and a little cozy dinner BBQ out with my family. We started off around 12:30AM, still off plan a little bit but not quite much. Upon Editing and re-touch, we decided to add another scene of GiGi shed a tear as she look up from

her disappointment. The reason is because we wanted to show off as many emotion as possible. Due to the limited characters present in our movie, emotion is our top choice. 

    Gigi's additional scene shows the disappointment and extreme peak of emotion since her dad abandoned Gigi on her birthday—the only one she is celebrating with. This wasn't that hardest part. The most tempting part of the second day of shooting was brainstorming. Me, Mimeo, and Real life Barbie spent half an hour to work on which part need to implement and brainstorming our additional scene. After MULTIPLE

trial of assisting Gigi cry by pouring water into her eyes, we moved on to "Foley stage". We created our own foley stage by re-creating the sash sound through shuffling the shirts together. Furthermore, we also drop the pen several to create the drop sound of the make up brush. Lastly, we ran up and down stair several times to create 'thump' steps sound when Gigi walking down stair. 

Blog 32: Representation

Representation

    Heyyyyy!!! Welcome to another lovely blog. As it's getting closer to the final release, we are taking a bigger step towards refining our filming's analysis. Within the film, our main actor dressed up as the y2k theme. The outfit gives out retro vibes, something authentic and vintage as her room's decor matching up. Y2k fashion is a style that was popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The fashion revolves around dynamic colors, metalic textures, and futuristic silhouettes. Some Y2K fashion portrait itself with different layer of colors but still look fashionable together. We purposely chose the fashion not only to match with the view but also to give out with the teenage era. 

    Gigi put on herself with 3 different layers, each color represent a phase of emotions in deeper interpretation—as I mention in previous blogs—without disrupting the theme we're trying to pursue. As the representation of the film, our main character—Gigi— did a great job picking out her outfit. The outfit is not just random but it's also her daily style. With a wide range of fashion taste, Gigi never went wrong on the clothing. She represented a teenage girl who're trying to find our herself as she's turning 18. However, the surprise didn't go as she expected. I guess we will just have to find out <3

Blog 31: Inspiration

 

Inspiration

   Hey guys! Welcome back. In the past, I've only announce our genre "Coming of Age" but I had never talk about the inspiration. If you reviewed one of my previous blog, you would realize how obsessed I am with "To All The Boy I've love Before". My inspiration came through this movie. As it's my favorite movie of all time. I saw her youth and growing self through each volume. Each volume present different plots but the only thing doesn't change here is her relationships with her family. It all began in sophomore year, where I discovered the first volume of  "To All The Boy I've Love Before". Then, led on to the second and the third. I have been rewatched this movie for countless times. 

    One by one, I was caught up with the flow of the story. In this movie, Lara Jean represents herself as a typical teenage, who's trying to explore and find herself. The best fit remains coincidently in the most unexpected way. When it came to this project, I had a huge inspiration by this movie. Something teenage. Something sentimental. Something at our age, we will be able to sense it. Therefore, the "Coming of Age" genre came up as a perfect candidate and we took it as advantage. Conversely, the family topic remains the same but the plots are completely different. Instead of a happy, lovely family, we kept it the opposite. A little twist will make you twisting. 

Blog 30: Updated Storyboard

STORYBOARD 

UPDATE!!!!

Hey guys!! Welcome back to my blog. 

    Let's do a comparison here. As you might notice, our first storyboard is totally different from the updated version. From the drawing, format, to the description and details. Our artist, the Real Life Barbie definitely aced the updated version as she goes more in details of each scene. Every details was captured and closest to the real version of our footage. This update storyboarding not only giving us a sneak peak into the real footage but also explain each plot in a greater detail. 

    In this version, the blue arrows mark the movement of the characters. The red arrows represent the camera movement and the light source is mark by yellow arrow. Some of the major scene was alter from the old storyboarding was the first object in the scene. Originally, we were imagined the calendar will be on the table with a close up and zoom out on Gigi. However, we decided to start the scene off with a close up on Gigi's white board with a drew calendar. Therefore, the camera movement also shift to pan as well. I found this changing more convenient and capture Gigi's movement at a better angle. Additionally, some intended angle portrait in the first Storyboarding also change due to the switched in filming location. Moreover, scene 13 was added as we wanted some deeper emotions from Gigi on the second day of filming. To get a closer look and understanding of the film, you can take at our final version of Storyboard!

Blog 29: Group Dynamics

Group Dynamics

       Hello!!! Welcome, welcome back. I am happy to have you as my audience. As this project approaching its end, I would like to thanks you for showing your support on our way. 

  Our group has been attaching a long way together and I'm happy to celebrate it as we are seemingly to approaching more than half way through our project. Just a little touch on and we are wrapping it up for delivery. Upon division of role, we each was responsible for our part and pull it off right on time. While filming, there were 4 of us together: me, spider-woman, mimeo, and real life barbie. Real Life Barbie got her self into the main character—our only physical actor.

     On the other hand,  I got myself a tripod to stabilize my friendly camera—Iphone—transform into camera man role. Throughout my high-school filming journey, I have always been the camera man where I have filled myself up with plenty of experiences . Besides, the spider-woman and mimeo was the director whose direct us off storyboarding and brainstorm our way as if unwanted things get in our way. Afterwards, Me and mimeo took over the editing part as we had more than enough experience with capcut and editing. Although, we found it difficult to function the app sometimes but Youtube's instructions video always work out. Personally, working as a group requires consent!!! I would prefer to work as a group rather than individual due to our ability of generating the maximum idea and solutions. If I was to work alone, I might not be able to keep up with the pacing and filming. 

  

Blog 28: Self Reflection

 

Self Reflection 

    Hey guys! It's Self- Reflection time. This blog is going to be way different than the other blogs. I am going to dedicate this blog and talk about my journey so far. I have already making my way into month 7th of Aice Media Studies. I can't believe that. It's really giving a sense of timing, now that I'm thinking about it. 

    Throughout this class, I have learned a lot. Especially, how to write a blog!!!! If we were to go back to my first blog, you would realize how unaesthetic it is comparing to the current. However, I loved how they turned out. I chose the sea aesthetic for my first blog because aquatic is full of me. I found myself floating in this world. As I move on to the second blog, I'm trying out different format. They look okay...for beginner. Blogs with no title?? I wish I can come back in time and shook myself. 

    However, I wont go back to fix as it's part of my progress. By going through each blogs, I felt like i went back in time. As I review each of my blogs, I found a new me in there. The new font, the new images, new structure, new set up. There comes my first official project, utilizing my knowledge and skills from this class. Although, there was some complications with our partner and colliding ideas throughout this project, we were able to pull it through the filming. Shining my way through until the day I wrap this nicely up in my hand. I'm grateful to get my self a chance, experiencing with different projects in the Aice program. They gave me a better insight and aspect of life. Through this project, I realize how further I can go without setting up a limit in life. 

Blog 27: Lighting

 

Lighting 

    Hey guys!!! Welcome back to another blogs. I have hinted to you many many times about lighting. Lighting is the most important component that we're trying to achieve and filter through editing. Lightning can be achieved through different angles and times period of the day. 

    Our filming project was recorded in a late noon with the best sunny weather. We intended to film at 1pm because we wanted the most energetic natural light source. The bright sun shining through those glamorous glass, leaving a soft filter coating on Gigi's decor and brighten her features. The film started off with Gigi's walking in from the corner of her bed, a darker side of the room. The camera pan left with Gigi's walking in, approaching her make up table with more natural light coming in. This gave out a sense of high key lighting with the intention to highlight her rightful mood. As the film progress, she stood out by doing make up and gorgeously smiling as the room also brighten up her mood. 
 

    For the first half plots, we wanted to absorb as much natural light scene as possible. We wanted to develop gradually to catch our audience off guard when the plot twist come. Through built up tension, the movie focused on facial expression and observation. The lighting shift gradually from high key lighting to low key lighting as Gigi's mood went dark, created color fade out effect. From the point where Gigi's expressing her disappointment on, the filming will coat it self with similar cool tone indicating uneasy mood and her own celebration. 

Blog 26: Editing Day 1

                Editing

    Welcome back my loves! Editing is an essential technique that polish one's filming product. As an editor, I am more happy to spill about my editing journey. 

    We used CapCut as our main editing software. Some other color filter app was considered but CapCut's filters are also applicable. Me and Mimeo decided to divides our most time consuming part, which is title sequencing editing. She does the first two title effect and I do the other twos. However, our imagination did not match our expectation. The title sequencing took up a lot of our times, considering from choosing the font to the appropriate color and shadow.  We chose to use the Pinyon font for the title and the birthstone font for each individual's name. However, each scene utilize different  it's own color and appearance techniques. We figured that the title looks a little weird and shaky as it doesn't move with the objects. Attaching the phrase on top of the products was a complicate idea for us. We tried different techniques and positions. 

    As result, CapCut's motion tracking feature work the best for us. After a couple hours with title sequence. We moved on to transitioning. Transitioning was only placed primarily on the most important part like shifting in scenes, lighting or mood. We chose to use the simplest transitioning as possible, such as fade to black, fade to white, dissolve, and blur. The only dramatic transition was employed in this film was pull in to create the overwhelming effect and place the audience on spot for Gigi's roller coaster emotional. 

To be continue...