The Process Behind Making a Film Opening: Editing

 How did we edit our film?

Our main focus while editing was to show the contrast between Dave's life at work and his life when he is making music. In order to show this contrast we lowered the saturation in the scenes where Dave is getting for work and the scenes at the office. Lowering the saturation shows the darkness of his life during this time, which contrasts with the studio scenes in which he's enjoying himself. We then had to added the credits which we decided to use a font and color that would match the color of the hat that Dave is wearing at the end to have the same color scheme. The hardest part of the editing was matching the sounds with the video but we figured out a way that if we made it like a song it would be easier to fill the empty spaces without sound.

What issues did we have while editing?

Editing our opening was one of the most important part of the project and since we have to use technology for it and technology isn't always reliable, we had many issues. The first issue we had was that many of the computers that we were trying to use wouldn't allow us to open Adobe Premier Pro which is the software that we wanted to use. We solved this by burrowing a computer from someone, however, this person needed their computer back before they left our city, so we had to finish editing before he left. Another issues that we had was that the sound didn't match what was displayed on the screen, so we had to make many edits in order to make this work.

The Process Behind Making a Film Opening: Filming Part 2

 Me and my partner are finally done filming!!!

This week we were able to follow the schedule that we had planned and finished filming. We filmed the studio scene in Tuesday after school, and we knew it was the most important scene so we made sure that our shots were good quality and showed what we wanted to show. In this scene we decided to use a lot of color because it brought brightness to the scene, showing that music is what he likes doing. We used an LED lightbulb that changed color to make the scenes look better and more artistic.

Then after recording the studio scene, we wanted to be finished with filming so we went to the set for the office and filmed the office scene. We wanted to make this office look boring so we made sure that the desks and office as a whole was plain white and cleared so that it didn't show many details about Dave.

The Process Behind Making a Film Opening: What I have learned so far

 What did I think about this project before starting it?

Before I started this project I thought that it would be easy, that if I followed my plan, I would be able to finish this without any stress. I thought that my ideas were going to look exactly like they looked in my head and that it was possible to do every idea that I had in the span of two minutes. I also thought that two minutes seemed like a long time and it was going to be hard to get to that time and finding a plot that would give me an opening that would say the plot of the movie in that time.

What have I learned so far?

After planning and working on my film opening I have learned and realized many things. One of the main things I have learned is that time management is key in the success of a film. I also learned that for a film opening two minutes was really short, I had planned a very long opening that I had to cut many of the things we filmed because it was way too long. Another thing was the fact that many of the things that I had planned to do I couldn't do because they were too difficult to film or edit, so next time I'll have to think more realistically.

Overall I'm glad I made many mistakes now because it makes me better for my future projects and helps me learn to do a better job at solving and avoiding problems.

The Process Behind Making a Film Opening: Schedule for new week

 Why do we need a new schedule?

My partner and I have been having issues staying according to schedule due to traveling and other activities that have prevented us from doing so. Next week we will have to follow the schedule we planned because if we don’t then we won’t be done before the due date. 

What’s the new schedule?

Day 1: March 30

Work on CCR script in class

Film studio scene in the afternoon.

Edit studio scene and morning scene

Day 2: March 31st

Film office scene 

Finish editing studio scene and edit office scene

Day 3: April 1st

Work on CCR script in class

Film girlfriend scene

Edit girlfriend scene

Add sound to everything

Day 4: April 3rd

Record CCR and submit project and CCR.

The Process Behind Creating A Film Opening: Issues

 What are the issues we are having?

This week we had spring break. Spring break could’ve  been the most productive week for our opening because we didn’t have school and we could have easily finished filming our opening and focused on the reflection and the editing instead of having to focus on filming and editing at the same time. However, we barely got any work done because me and my partner both had to travel. He had to travel in the beginning of the week and I had to travel at the end of the week, which means that we had to move all of our schedule to this week. 

Another issue with our opening is that it has been had to record the girlfriend scene because the actress playing it with a jot available most of the time and we are going to have to record this scene too next week. We also know that we are going to edit the sound because it is a big part of the opening and our plot as a whole. We also have some shots that we don’t really like for our film so we are going to have to reshoot many shots that we have already shot so that we can have a better and more effective project. We are also going to have to write and film the reflection individually, and this is a big part of our project so it should be a great focus this week.

How are we going to resolve these issues?

We know that next week it’ll be a busy week, so we will have to have a schedule that we will follow so that we can still have a chance of having a good effective project. We will plan to focus each day on a specific scene and that same day I’ll edit it and send it to my partner so he can fix the sound because I am better at editing and he is better with sound. We will also use our class time to write the reflection and the record it over the weekend, we feel like if we use all of our class time for this we will be able to write the reflection while still being able to focus on the opening itself

The Process Behind Creating A Film Opening: New Schedule

 Even though we were able to record some of the opening this week, we still have a lot to film and we weren't able to meet our schedule due to complications during the week. Therefore, me and my partner are going to have to make a new schedule that will allow us to still have time to edit. Me and my partner know that following this new schedule will be key to the success of our project. Fortunately, it will be easier to follow this schedule because it's mostly going to be during spring break, so we won't have any other classes or things to worry about.

Day 1: Monday 3/21

Record the studio scene 3-4 hours

Day 2: Wednesday 3/23

Record the girlfriend scene 1-2 hours

Day 3: Thursday 3/24

Record the office scene and reshoot previous shots 1-2 hours

We feel like this schedule spreads out the work and will give us time to have good effective shots that will make our film opening better. It will also give us good time to edit the film in the way that we have been thinking about in the beginning.

The Process Behind Creating A Film Opening: Group Meetings

 This week my class had group meeting in which we shared our project ideas and our progress to our classmates. In this meeting I shared my idea and was looking for help in some aspects of the project. For example, me and my partner weren't sure if the name "It Comes in Waves" was right for our project, but my classmates said that it was and that we should keep the name. My classmates also gave me the idea of making the saturation darker at the beginning of the film opening since we are showing that he is depressed and then have more brighter colors at the end to show how he is enjoying making music.

This meeting really helped me figure out some doubts that I had about my film. It also helped me build confidence towards it because my classmates said that they really liked my idea. Also, the fact that I was able to answer questions that my classmates had also helped me because it showed that I know a lot about my project and have clear ideas that I know how to execute. It was also revealing knowing that a portion audience that me and my partner were targeting liked our idea and all we had to do was execute it correctly. Overall, this meeting was very helpful and I thank my teacher for giving us the opportunity to participate in it.