Portfolio Project Week #8, Post #2

 Finally fixing all the lighting

After, much trial and error of trying to fix that one clip, I could not figure out a way to truly fix the lighting. However, I have edited it enough to the point where it looks like the table lighting "flickers." I believe this looks better than how it did before. 

This was a big mistake on my part during filming, and I should've reshot this clip. However, I'm glad I was able to sort of play it off.

Today, I also went ahead and fixed the lighting in the rest of the clips.

Portfolio Project Week #8, Post #1

 Adding in credits:

Today, I decided to finally add in the credits. I think I want to use the same font as I did for the title, "Dax." This will help the credits to stay a little more consistent. I plan for each one to read the title (ie. "Producer") in a smaller font size than the name (ie. Douglas Pollino), so the name stands out a little more. 

I have them alternating sides on the bottom. I'm also going to keep the font size the same for each credit to it stays consistent. It took a little bit of time to figure out how to add in the text, but one of my friends helped me out and showed me where to create the text and how to edit it. I decided to add cross dissolves for each credit so it flows a little more naturally.

Portfolio Project Week #7, Post #3

 Editing the lighting

After having doing the phone call yesterday, today I decided I would finish the lighting adjustments on the interrogation clips. It was a fairly easy for the most of the clips. I just had to use the white balance selector and play around with a few of the settings.

An example of one of the clips

I think the slightly more whitened light creates a more "industrial" feel that you would find in an interrogation room.

There was an issue with one of the clips. When we were filming, I accidentally changed the brightness during one the clips. The result was that in the middle of the clip, it becomes immediately brighter. So, I split the clip at this moment and I'm going to have to do more intricate editing to make it flow naturally. I will need to do some research on editing lighting in more detail. I plan to finish fixing that one clip next week.

Portfolio Project Week #7, Post #2

Editing the phone call

Today I imported the phone call audios into Premiere and lined them up with the video sequence. That part of the timeline now looks like this:

First, I talked with my friend to find out more about the "Highpass" filter, they explained it well, and once I understood it enough, I added the filter to both clips. I set the "Cutoff" to 1000 Hz on both clips as I think this is what sounded closest to a phone call. However, after doing so I had to turn up the volume of the recordings as it made my voice lower. I also added the audio transition "Constant Power" to both recordings as it helped it to flow more naturally.

Portfolio Project Week #7, Post #1

 Planning/recording "other detective"

Today, I watched the clip of the phone call that the two detectives have. I first wrote out what the main detective said on a note pad on my computer. I then filled in the space I left with what the other detective would say. The script looks something like this:

Then, I recorded myself repeating detective "2"s lines. This took a few tries as I had to fit it within the right time frame, I had to pace my words very carefully. I sent the voice memos to myself and put them in my project folder.

Tomorrow, I will put these files into the project on Premiere. I will also use the "Highpass" sound affect to make it sound like a more natural, realistic, phonecall.

Portfolio Project Week#6, Post #3

 Learning more about editing

Today, I had one of my friends, who is proficient in Premiere, show me some useful tips/explanations. 

They showed me the effect that I should use for the phone audio. It is called "Highpass", they showed me where to find it and how to use it. I did not get the chance today to record the audio for the phone call, but I will do that at some point next week. 

They also explained how to color correct/white balance and edit other lighting settings. This was very useful as I need to edit the lighting in some of the clips. I went through the first three clips and messed around with the lighting in them using the "Lumetri Color" effect.

Using the white balance selector, I was able to change the lighting in the first clip to look like this:

I think I like this more white lighting better than the yellow. I think it gives it a more "industrial" look to it and looks more realistic to a light that would actually be an interrogation room. During the next week, I will go through the rest of the clips and play around with the lighting settings until all the clips look how I would like them.

Portfolio Project Week #6, Post #2

This weekend I have been incredibly busy. With my birthday on Thursday and numerous events over the weekend, I have had very very little time to work on this project. I think I got an hour and a half in total. I used this time to plan out editing and do some research.

Planning out editing

Last time I worked on this project I began editing. Today, I'm going to plan out the rest of editing to help make me more efficient and organized. First, I want to finish putting in all the clips. Next, I want to fix the lighting in some of the clips (which I will do research on how to do later). I also have to add in the audio when the detective is over the phone. I have to record the "other detective's" voice and put a "phone" effect on it. Last, I'll add in finishing touches and hopefully the editing section of the project will be done.

Portfolio Project Week #6, Post #1

 The very beginning of editing

Today I started editing. This is going to be a long process that I will work on a lot over the next few weeks. I will have to figure out Premiere, YouTube/tutorials are going to be very helpful during this time.

I first started by going through all the clips I filmed and deleting all the extras clips/bloopers from the folder. I then imported all of the clips I wanted to use in Premiere. I began editing the clips so it flowed at least a little better; I removed overlapped audio. Here's what the timeline currently looks like:

Editing now, I'm realizing I'm going to have to make a lot of lighting adjustments. When I was filming, the room was not dark enough. So, I lowered the exposure on my phone while filming. However, I did not keep this very consistent to the lighting changes by the clip. I have no clue how to do lighting effects in Premiere, so when I finish putting all the clips into the timeline, I will start researching and watching/reading tutorials on how to edit lighting with Premiere Pro.

Portfolio Project Week #5, Post #3

 Filming

The day to film has finally come. I filmed with Josh and Bennett on Saturday and Riley on Sunday. Josh and Bennett's filming took a lot longer than Riley's.

Day one

Josh, Bennett, and I decided to meet on Saturday at 4PM. Bennett winded up getting there around 3:30 after his baseball game so he took the extra time to get ready and shower. We went to pick up Josh and we got back around 4:30.

The the filming began. I decided to use my dining room to film. I turned off all the lights and closed to blinds so the room was dark. I used a table lamp as the main light source which actually created good lighting for what I was going for.

We started with the opening clips of the detective sitting down and interrogating the suspect. Now, since we did not have a tripod (Josh failed to mention he had a gimbal that would have been useful), I had to set up my phone on a chair:

I had to move the chair each time we changed the angel, which was a pain, but we got it done.

A big issue was trying to get the timing for the detective's phone to ring correct. This one shot took multiple takes, not only because the ring kept going off at the wrong time, but I had to hold and move the camera so we could get a zoom on the phone to see who was calling.

We then filmed the part where the detective watched the security footage. The only issue is I didn't have the security footage filmed so all I could get was the reaction of the detective. Hopefully, I'll be able to work around this without having to reshoot.

Lastly, we decided to have the opening end with the detective discovering a note left behind from the suspect that says "GONE!" The three of us came up with this idea together and I like it a lot.

In total, it took about two hours to film all the clips.

Day two

Day two was a much easier day. Riley was filming her project with Josh at the same park where I wanted to film Riley's part. So after her and Josh finished up, I went to the park and me and Riley filmed.

I only need two clips from Riley. They were the same thing, her jogging around the track, just one was more zoomed in. So, I only spent about 15 minutes on this part

Overall, I filming went a lot better than expected and I'm eager to begin editing.

Portfolio Project Week #5, Post #2

 Fixing the title

After looking at the title I made, I've realized I'm not the biggest fan of it. So I opened up Photoshop and started playing around with it. I stretched out the text and spaced the letters a little more apart. I also lowered the opacity slightly. I am happier this one but it still doesn't feel quite right. I think I'm going to revisit it after we have filmed and I have begun editing. After having the clips, and hopefully where I will place the title, it may be easier to come up with a title that I like a lot.

New

Old

Setting the date to film

I finally decided who will play the suspect: my cousin, Bennett. I asked him and he agreed. Coordinating with him and Josh, we decided we would film Saturday afternoon, around 4PM.

I'm going to send them both the script so they can look over it. I'm going to ask Josh to wear detective clothing. Something like a button down shirt and jeans. I want to the detective to dress similar as a character from the show Brooklyn 99, Jake Peralta (show below). I'm going to tell Bennett to wear an outfit of sweatshirt and sweatpants, seemingly "suspect-like."

Portfolio Project Week #5, Post #1

 Getting the actors together

I have now asked two of the three actors if they'd be willing to be apart of my project. I have gotten a response back from Riley, the one playing the person in the security footage. She said she is available to film this weekend and we plan to do just that. Her part should not be long as it will only be shown on screen for a few seconds. Her part will be filmed at a park close to both of our houses as she is just running around the track. 

The other actor I asked is Josh, who I will ask to play the detective. I just texted him a few minutes ago and I await his response. I still am yet to decide on a third actor to play the suspect. After I have figured this out, I will text them and Josh to coordinate a date to film the main interrogation scene.

Premier Pro

I plan to use Premier Pro to edit my project. I am not too familiar with Premier but I will spend the next few days before we film practicing and learning about it. I have used other adobe programs before, but I suspect Premier will take a little getting used to. As Adobe is currently updating, I am looking at some online guides. I visited Adobe's official guides for adding effects, keyboard shortcuts, and titles.

I thought it would be a good idea to test out effects with my title image. I put it into Premier and put on some simple effects. Here is a cross dissolve (which I may wind up using in the final project):

Portfolio Project Week #4, Post #3

 Planning for production/film

I am hoping to begin filming either next week or the week after. This will depend on how fast I can find actors to commit and then to coordinate with them on a day to film. I plan to have 3 different actors. One playing the detective, one playing the suspect, and one playing the person at the park on the security tapes. I already have a friend in mind to play the detective, I will ask him officially about it within the next few days. The other two actors I have to think about who I should ask to play them.

An image of the park I plan to film at

The filming locations will be, a park very close to my house. Here I will film the suspects "flashback" to the park, and then the security tape footage. Another location is needed for the "interrogation" scene. This will either take place at my house where, with hopefully the right lighting, I can make it look like an interrogation room. The other place could be my mother's classroom, as it is empty after school and we would be able to adjust lighting and move things around. Or perhaps I can think of a better place to film that would make giving off a serious interrogation feel easy; I still have some thinking to do.

Portfolio Project Week #4, Post #2

 The title

Today I have worked on the title for the movie and how its going to look when it is displayed during the opening. I used Photoshop to create it as I've used Photoshop before, and I have a relative understanding of using it. This is what it turned out like:

Obviously it looks better in actuality, blogger has just reduced the quality. I like how its fairly simple and I like the white color scheme, it does two things. It creates a sort of "ghostly" effect and the white contrasts with the "dark" themes of murder that are shown in the movie. To achieve this effect, I used a font called "Dax ExtraBold," which I have had downloaded for a while. I made this a gray color and then I added an inner and outer glow. Both are pure white. Here are the specifics of what the effects are:

Outer Glow

Inner Glow