Posts!

 Ok yes. I know I've been lacking with social media posts; however, I can explain.

Before filming, we didn't have much content to go off of. All I could post was literally the title and... nope that's it.  Now that we had at least one day of filming and we have our cast selected, I can post so much more. I haven't posted in the last week because I was in Chicago, and I honestly didn't have time to do much. However, I have already posted the meet the cast posts and I will be posting a BTS post and Insta story later today. It is important to show the process of our short film because considering that we aren't actually making a film, it all stops once the trailers and poster are out. That's because well, the next step would be the film. 

 

Once I post the BTS stuff, I plan on posting things that the audience can interact with, like facts about the characters and little teaser pictures with the caption "coming soon" and the little eye emojis. I want the essence to be dramatic yet, not too dramatic that people know what is going on until the trailers. I also added a bio that states what the account is and the release dates. I've seen many movie accounts do this, so I just wanted to make it as professional as possible. 

Editing Pt. 1

 So, editing time!

I'm writing this at like one am here in Chicago. It's spring break and I can't do much because we sight see all day. However, I am trying. I started editing the first scene of my trailer together! I talked about my structure before, so you guys probably know what I'm talking about. I am using Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2023 (It's better than 2024 for me idk why) which I'm certified in, so I know my way around it. So far, I've used a piece of music I found titles "coming of age intro" and I'm going to cut it later on to make it sound more dramatic after the crash. The shots are framed right, but like two of the intro shots are out of focus so I need to sharpen them. I also need to color grade and fix the exposure, but I'm going to do that after I finish adding everything to the timeline because if not it's going to drive me crazy.  Finally, the two actors really do have great chemistry and I'm really excited on how this will turn out. 

Here's a picture of what my Premiere tab looks like. As you can see in the effects panel I had to add denoise on the audio because the background noise was too loud when dialogue was being said. I imported all my clips that we've filmed so far and added the copyright free music onto the timeline as well. It's going pretty well, and I can't wait for all of you to see the finished product!

Equipment

 To add on to my last post. 

We needed equipment to film our project so here's what we got:

-A DSLR camera

-DSLR camera battery

-A mini zoom lens

-50 mil lens

-28 mil lens

-A tripod

-Shure rode mic

-boom pole

-RGB three-point light kit.

The first three bullet points were equipment I had prior. We were good with that. However, how were we supposed to get the shots stable? How were we supposed to light it? How were we supposed to get audio? This is when we decided to contact our county news station that Tai and I actually interned at last summer. They actually give out equipment rentals for free to all TV/film kids in our school county.  That's where we got all the other equipment on the list, and it was actually a huge help. It made the prosses of filming run smoother, and it will make filming day 2 run smoother as well. 

Here's the name of where we got the equipment.

Filming Day 1

 So today was day one of filming for the movie trailer. We filmed basically every shot we needed minus the school scenes because we're currently on spring break. (That will get done the week we get back). I think we did pretty well, and we honestly had a lot of fun filming so :). 

We started off the shoot, by going to a semi secluded area of a local park. The purpose of going here was mainly to get shots of our two actors in character, not only to make them comfortable with their character, but to film their relationship, that way audience members will be able to understand what they mean to each other. We got long shots, medium shots, close ups, and a couple lines of dialogue of their interactions. We later got a tracking shot of them heading to a secluded parking lot where they will eventually get into the car and you know...

We then got all the car scenes. We got what happens inside the vehicle as well as on the outside, not only to have a variety of shots, but also just to give context to what is happening and what is about to happen. We even got Lynda to scream so that was cool. As you can see in the picture Tai and I are holding a Canon camera and a boom mic/pole to capture everything. 

I don't have photos, but we later went to my house to get all the shots of Liz being depressed in her bedroom and writing the "letter to her mom." These shots took some time because we had to get the perfect lighting without having the shot be too grainy. We also had a hard time figuring out what to write on the note considering it is a heavy topic to discuss and we didn't want to get it wrong. We didn't want to make it in any way comical or make it in a way that it isn't taken seriously. 

Finally, as a group, on a well-deserved break, went to go watch the sunset. However, when we got there we thought, "Why not get shots here?" So, I filmed Liz and Jackson (Lynda and Pombo) having more moments together to establish their relationship. I don't know if we'll use these as actual scenes or flashbacks, but we'll see. 

As far as social media goes, I did get behind the scenes content, but I'll need to edit it before it can go out. 

ACTORS :)))))

Photo credits: me :)

Our Liz 

 Lynda is the Liz of this movie. She used to be an actor at her local theater program, and I’ve seen her act. Trust me…she’s good. She also is in Tai and I’s TV program, so she know all about working with cameras, how long shoots can take, and how to follow critiques from the director. That’s what made her the perfect choice for our lead. Lynda is such a sweet and energetic person and hopefully that portrays on screen as her initial personality. 

Change 

So, we decided to change up the characters. The movie is going to be called a Letter to my Mom because the note is going to be actually meant for her mom. Like her mom is alive. We realized that the notes are usually meant for their parents anyways, and it proved difficult to get an adult willing to act into our film. So now the person that does in the car crash will be Liz’s best friend, Jackson. He will be a childhood best friend and someone Liz thought she could never live without. Having it be someone Liz’s age, makes the survivor’s guilt more real in a sense but it shows the frailty of human life no matter the age. The twin flames in the title will be meant for the two friends. Same meaning, different people. 

 Our Jackson 

Pombo, as we call him, is a great Jackson. He is very charismatic and has amazing on camera chemistry with Lynda. They complement each other well. He also is in our TV program, so he knows all the ins and outs of filming. He is willing to do anything for the shoot including pretending to crash a car.

IDEAS

 Ok so...final planning time.

Since we have to create two trailers for our film, Tai and I decided we were each going to come up with the concept of one of them that way we have different approaches to our promotion. 

Structure

So here's my concept/structure:

Boom

-Start off with an establishing shot

-Go into the car crash scene

-Title sequence

-"I was a normal girl" (school montage)

-Text

-Final Montage

-Ending credits

Each "scene" (both montages and the car crash) lasting 30 seconds. 

I think that starting off with the car crash will hook people's attention the most and it will engage viewers to watch to the end. It would end with the montage cause c'mon, what trailer doesn't end with a really cool/fast-paced montage? The text parts will quicken the pace and make it seem almost, more high stakes in a way. It will also give more context to what's going on along with the VO that will be included. 

Shot List

I know I said I was going to make a story board, but I forgot how bad I was at drawing. I also am better at thinking for montage shots on the spot, so here's my shot list mostly complete, it's just the montage shots that are iffy. During shootings I like making them up (for movie trailers, in an actual short film I'd have it planned down to the bone) because I like to see what the actors are good at portraying (just for montages): 

I WON

 So as you guys know I went to the STN National, well now international cause there was a school from Wales there, Convention. My two competitions were News Magazine where we placed 3rd in the nation and guess what….

I competed in the Movie trailer category and I won 4th place in the nation. THAT’S CRAZY! For the competition we had 6 hours to write, film, and edit a movie trailer to the prompt “Fine Line.”

I learned so much about making a movie trailer, by making it this this weekend and that was crazy. Let me explain. So, I’m not usually a big film gal, I usually do more news stuff and before this competition we only practiced once. My team and I asked for critiques with our practice trailer and our main issue was not including the studio credits or saying when it was coming out. We also did too much of a story per say and it lowkey told the story before watching the movie. It gave too much away. We took these critiques to mind and during our competition day we made sure to correct them. And let me just say it came out amazing. Instead of making it a cohesive story, we made the first few shots be from a scene in the climax of the movie, then we cut it to a scene towards the beginning, and then we made a 30 second montage of the best scenes. The montage included running, hugging (for that emotion you know), and VO. I will definitely use these tips with tai in making this segment especially since again, WE WON 4TH PLACE IN THE COUNTRY! (I would share it but I don't know because of copyright so far)

Another thing I learned was working as a team. Like yeah, I work well with other people, but sometimes I let other people walk over me because I think they know better. That happened at the practice. However, for this competition I took initiative and it felt...good. I think I'm liking having my ideas heard. 

Anyways

I’m also almost done with the shot list/storyboard so stay tuned 👀