Filming the Opening Sequence

      On Sunday (2/27), Jazmin, Anyeska, and Lesly all went to Dollar Tree to gather props and makeup so that we could film our opening sequence. They bought makeup which is shown down below, worn by Lesly along with the props bought. Afterwards, Anyeska drove to my house to pick me up. Once I arrived at Anyeska’s, Jazmin and I went into the kitchen to make fake blood, using cornstarch, corn syrup, and red food coloring. It took us roughly 10 minutes to get the perfect mixture. Afterwards, I went over the storyboard to better understand the movie. Simultaneously,  Jazmin was doing Lesly’s makeup with clay, foundation, lipstick and our very own homemade fake blood. When Jazmin was finished, we gathered our props and drove over to the abandoned house where we planned to film. When we got to the abandoned house, we started decorating it with fake snakes, a creepy doll, fake blood hand prints, and the broken mirror.
      In front of the abandoned house, Anyeska, Jazmin and I played frisbee as Hangeno recorded us. The next scene we filmed was the scene where I went off to get the frisbee I came across the unknown entity. We filmed all of our outside scenes on Sunday. It took us around three hours to film all of our outside scenes. Of course, we had to reshoot our scenes a few times before finally getting it right.

Gathering Props + Filming Blog

      On Saturday (2/22), my group mates and I got together to commence the filming process for our opening sequence. We (Lesly, Jazmin, Anyeska and our volunteer, Nick) all planned to meet up at Anyeska’s house around 4PM. Side note: Nick is not apart of our group, however he was nice enough to help us out with our preparations. We all individually arrived at Anyeska’s house, so therefore we were all there by 4:30PM which delayed us a bit. Shortly after we all arrived at Anyeska’s house, we got into Lesly’s car and headed over to Party City to gather our props. We were looking for fake blood, a soccer ball and wax to act as scars and bruises. The way in which we utilized the fake blood and wax will be further discussed in a later blog. When we got to Party City, we looked carefully through each isle for the supplies we needed. When we were unable to find the supplies, we reached out to one of the workers for help. The worker told us that fake blood was out of stock since it is nowhere near Halloween time. Below is a picture of my group mate Lesly and I playing with a few props we saw at Party City. Therefore, we left Party City and drove 11 minutes to Walmart. Surely enough, Walmart also did not have fake blood being that it is out of season. However, we bought a frisbee at Walmart which is a substitute for the soccer ball we initially planned to use. Neither of us had a soccer ball and we were unable to buy one, therefore we found it best to use a frisbee.
     On our way back to Anyeska’s house, we stopped at Pizza Hut to pick up pizza for our house scene. When we got back to the house, we all washed our hands and Jazmin, Anyeska and I gathered around the dining table to film the scene where I realized that I left my phone at the Haunted House. We were only able to film two scenes on Saturday being that we failed to acquire all of our necessary props. Filming took around an hour being that we had a lot of bloopers. All in all, Saturday was a day of hunting for props and doing a few practice runs for the actual film which we planned to seriously initiate the very next day, Sunday (2/23).

Final Task Filming Blog

      Today, February 20th, my AICE Media teachers gave our class the chance to take home our filming equipments. Lesly went to the camera room and signed off on a camera, SD card and tripod for our group to utilize. A picture of our filming equipment is shown below. My group mates and I are going to film our opening sequence this weekend. We plan to film on both Saturday (2/22) and Sunday (2/23). Lesly, Jazmin and I will all go to Anyeska’s house to film. On Saturday we hope to finish filming majority of our movie scenes; however, on Sunday we plan to go back to Anyeska’a house to clean up the film, redoing scenes if necessary. If by chance filming this weekend does not go well, we also have next weekend to film— Saturday (2/29) and Sunday (3/1). Our rough draft film is due on 3/3, therefore we hope to get everything completed in due time.

Planning Blog- Storyboard

Today, my teammates and I were able to start drawing out our storyboards. We grabbed our storyboard template, which we already had a stack of for future use. Then, immediately began. After completing our genre research, title research, and planning blogs where we discussed how we wanted to go about filming our opening scene, we knew it was time for our storyboard. It took approximately two hours to draw and write out our camera angles, camera movements, actions, and titles for each scene. Working diligently we were able to finish in class. First, we discussed our scenes with each other. Then, we made sure everyone agreed on what would happen in each scene and what angles we wanted to use to capture that moment. Although, we had originally planned some of the scenes differently, there were changes in the final decision. It was decided that most of the scenes would be filmed at the abandoned house and some at Anyeska's house. Storyboarding would have been a much longer process if the entire group was not helping one another. We assigned different jobs, so that way we would all be diligently working. Since most of us in the group could not draw, we decided Lesly would be the best choice. Our storyboard consists of pan shots, medium shots, and high angles. It also has a brief overview of each character and each placement of the titles. Our opening scene will be around two minutes. So far, we are on a good track with timing. It is filled with great details that will guide us during the filming process. Our storyboard is shown below.

Planning Blog (Title Design in Details)

The studio my group and I have chosen is JLab Productions. In this Title, The Font size will be 40, the color would be black, the font would be Ultra. Also, the title will disappear after 2 to 3 seconds. The Production company we chose is RNFK Productions. The font, size, color, and duration will be the same. The film title we have chosen is “The House  on NW 10th Ave. The color will be red and the font size will be 80. Soon after the film title is shown, Actors’ Name titles will be shown. The actors include: “Anyeska, Britania, Lesly, And Jazmin. In the casting by title, The title will state, “Casting by Lesly”. Other slides include: Music by title, Costume Designer title, Edited by title, Production designer title, Director of photography title, Producer, executive producer title, Story by title, written by title, and directed by title.

Planning Blog (Health and Safety, Location, Sound, Schedule, and participants)

For health and safety, we decided to bring a first aid kit on set in case anyone gets injured during the film-making process. Also, we have the parents of my groupmate who volunteered to supervise while we are film-making. The supervisors will also have access to the phone that can dial 911. The location we will be filming at is an abandoned house in my group mates’ neighborhood. This house was burned down, so it gives off a spooky atmosphere. Another location will be Anyeska’s house. Our sound will be found online. Most of the scenes taking place in Anyeska’s house will take place in her Dining Room. Our Participants include: Anyeska as Molly, Britania as Claire, Jazmin as Rose, and Hangeno as the cameraman. My groupmates and I scheduled the filming to begin on February 16th and to end on March 27th.

Planning Blog Shooting Script

  Below is our group’s PowerPoint of the shooting script for our opening sequence. The shooting script revolves around what we will be doing per scene. It involves the camera angles, movements, and character movements, minus the dialogue in each scene. There are 10 scenes, not including the title slide. The script writing format was written in short, visual sentences, avoiding more than three sentences in each scene. Some of the camera angles, movements, and shots that we plan to use in our opening sequence include three-shot, wide shot, point of view shot, medium shot, close-ups. By mapping out or script ahead of time, we will be more organized and have the ideas and plans set for the film. We had to think of ways to make all of our thoughts of the film come to life. As we progress through our planning process, we have it in mind that our ideas of our film can possibly change. Therefore, having access to our PowerPoint, we will always ensure to go back and edit in new details to perfect our movie to our liking. 

Planning Blog Sound Script

Above is our group’s PowerPoint of the sound script for our opening sequence. The sound script is about what the characters will be saying along with the type of sounds in each scene, minus angles, movements, and character movements. The purpose of the sound script is for us to know exactly which sounds to use in our movie, giving us a structure. Sounds which we plan to incorporate in our opening sequence include ambient music, diegetic sound, score, non-diegetic sound, and of course, dialogue. By having a variety of sounds, our opening sequence will appeal to the audience’s senses. Being that we have planned out our shooting and sound scripts, our ideas of our opening scene is beginning to manifest. We are now in a stage where we are more aware of how our movie will look and sound. Moreover, we have it in mind to edit in more information and do our final changes at any given moment being that we are still in the planning process. Making the sound script was relatively easy because we already knew what we wanted to use for the sound. The use of eerie music along with the monster’s laugh will definitely keep the audience on their feet.