Planning My Alternate Version of Black-eyed Susan (ADD PICS)

 I need to make some revisions to the production portfolio for my version of Black-eyed Susan. Starting with the script, I opened with the phone ringing. I feel like this gives more emphasis on why the phone call is so important. Then the conversation between Adira and her mother will happen and Chantal gets kidnapped. The deal that Chantal talks about will relate later in the story as to why she was kidnapped. After the flower is shown on the ground, the 'ClickClock' will play showing the media giving attention to the kidnapping of a Caucasian woman. 

Script version 4

For the storyboard, I did a quick sketch of each scene then cut it out and rearranged it. 3 of the shots I didn't know exactly what order they should be in so I marked them with a star to remember that those specific ones were optional. Everything else regarding cinematography I was going off of what the cinematographer already written down. 

Location wise, my mom said that a good place would be at a relatives condo around 15 minutes away. It was a nice building and it had automatic doors to recreate that one shot of Chantal walking out of the hotel.  

I was the only one from my group in class on Thursday which meant that I carried home all our necessary equipment. I tried to contact my group to see when we were filming or at least if I could drop off the equipment but they were unavailable. I looked at the canon camera but I had never used a camera like that to film and I didn't want to risk messing up anything. I will stick with my Galaxy S9 phone which I know how to operate. I can adjust settings to my liking and it comes with a setting of the rule of thirds grid. 

The actors were now my mom as Chantal and myself as Adira. 

Screening Feedback

In class today, we screened some footage from day 2 of filming and recieved a lot of feedback from the class. 

The feedback they gave us was:

•Highlight the flower - The flower behind her ear is hard to see, some people didn't notice it until the end where it was on the ground. Some suggestions they had were to put the flower on her shirt because the shirt is black and it would stand out more. Another suggestion was to do a closeup of the flower on Chantal while she is walking. 

Shot inside where the flower is barely noticeable

•Have more shot diversity - A lot of the shots we screened were dialouge based and showed basically the same thing in a different setting. A suggestion the class had was to add a tracking shot and come closeups. 

Shot where she is walking outside can be a tracking shot

•Fix the kidnapping scene - The kidnapping scene did not give the effect of a kidnapping. The fade to black was an ineffective transition that gave the impression that she just walked away. What we originally tried to do was have the car drive by, block Chantal while still moving, and when it passes her she dissappears. The editor tried to cut this together but it wasn't smooth enough so we had to leave it out for the screening. Their suggestion was to have the car go faster then suddenly stop, this would fit better that having the car go at a crawl. Another thing was to have the flower fall before she get kidnapped instead of after and have a sound that adds to the effect. One suggestion we really liked was to add a perspective of the person in the car. For example when she is standing in the road, have a shot where we see her from the cars perspective. This can show that she is being watched by someone and it adds to our shot diversity. 

Shot outside where we can use the perspective of someone in the car

Another general suggestion was to remove all the transitions which we were going to do anyways. The transitions did not serve any purpose, the editor just put it in there for screening. 

With these suggestions in mind, we will reshoot at the hotel over spring break.  

CCR Planning

I started planning what I want to do on the Creative Critical Reflection. On the last CCR, I tried to do a vlog entry about the film. I did it last minute so it wasn't as detailed and structured as it could have been. This time I want to have a clear plan for all 4 CCR questions. 

I am starting with 2 questions:

1. How did your production skills develop throughout this project? 

For this question, I want to try doing a vlog again. My production skills have developed a lot more over this project than last time. I have a better sense of project planning and management. I also had to try editing for the first time. This project gave me a better sense of what it is to be a director and I feel like I am able to step in and help more than last time. 

2. How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

For this question, I want to do an audience reaction followed by a discussion. I can get a few friends and family members to participate and watch the film opening. In the discussion, I will talk about how our film opening keeps audiences questioning what is going to happen. The flower motif will also be a topic of interest, what is its significance? Why does it relate to the movie? If it were a real text, It would be distributed through YouTube as just a film opening. 

Trying Out Editing

The cinematographer shared the footage from Thursday on Google Drive. On google drive, we can have better access to the files rather than just sending it through email. I was not sure what our editor had cut together to screen today so last night I went ahead and tried to do some editing on my own. I installed Adobe premiere rush because it seemed the easiest to use and I can access it with my school information. I looked at some of the tools like adding graphics, adjusting color, and enhancing audio but I was not sure how to properly use those features yet. I stuck to using the cut and delete tools, it was all I really needed. 

I started by watching all the footage twice, then picking out some some possible footage to be used. After making my list, I rewatched all the clips and narrowed it down a little more. Once I had what I needed, I transferred it all to Adobe and started cutting up the footage. 

I started with about 5 minutes and 35 seconds of footage which I cut down to 2 minutes and 3 seconds. I had to cut the shot number and take number to get the time so low, but we only have 5 minutes of screening time and I wanted to play this twice. 

The process of figuring out how to use the cut tool took a while to figure out, but once I got the hang of it, cutting the footage wasn't too bad. I would say it took around 40 minutes to do this start to finish. 

My editing on Adobe premiere rush

Filming Day 2

The second day of filming went better than the first. Both the sound designer and I were unable to be there but the cinematographer and actor got everything done. There are a few different variations of the same scene, one where Chantal is inside the hotel, one where she is walking out, and one where she is standing outside. 

The first clip is Chantal inside the hotel. Link to the clip: https://youtu.be/kqXOGsDdue4  

Chantal inside the hotel

I did not like this shot at all. There is so much glare from the glass of the aquarium and you can see the cinematographer and tripod in the reflection. In the video, the bubbles in the aquarium are moving around fast which is distracting to the viewer because it takes attention away from Chantal.

The next clip is the one where she is standing outside. Link to the clip: https://youtu.be/G6r41ot450U

Chantal talking outside

I like the outside shots better than the inside ones. There is still some distracting movement with the tree branches, but it is not as bad as the bubbles. Another thing is that the flower stands out more which is good because we want the viewer to pay attention to it.

The last clip is the one where she walks out of the hotel. Link to the clip: https://youtu.be/cvupU4vw6II

Chantal walking outside

This is my favorite shot, I really like the doors opening to reveal Chantal. I think that this shot is one we will definitely use in the final cut. My biggest problem with this is that it is off-level and not completely centered. There is still the issue with the reflection in the glass but that is not as important. If we have time, I would like to do a reshoot. 

 

All we need to do is shoot the 'tiktok' and the other scene with Adira and we will be done with filming.

New Shooting Schedule

Today our teacher posted an announcement saying that the final cut is now due on April 2nd. This will help my group significantly because we are falling behind. I think we really would have had to rush editing to meet the old deadline of March 21st. At this point, almost every group has screened footage for the class or has footage prepared to screen tomorrow. After filming today, we should have something to screen tomorrow. 

Now that the due date has been moved, we have more time to shoot and possibly reshoot certain shots. Finishing the scene with Adira is our top priority so we can start putting footage together. I want to be done with shooting before spring break because people in my group or our actors might go on a vacation. I am really trying to avoid doing everything last minute. We can film the scene with Adira on Sunday and possibly shoot at the hotel again on Wednesday or Thursday. 

Filming the First Scene

I was not able to make it to the actors house on Sunday to film, but the rest of my group was there. They were able to complete the entire scene with Adira. 

In class today, we discovered there was a problem with the footage, (for some reason,) there was a black vertical line on the right side of everything we filmed. It looked fine on the camera, but when the SD card was transferred to the computer, that's when the line appeared. All the footage could not be used because the line would not go away. This creates a new problem because now we have to shoot the scene all over again. 

At this point, I was a little concerned that we would be cutting it close to the deadline. Thursday was already late to be done filming, now we have to film again on Sunday and the final cut is due next Thursday. I am really hoping that after Sunday, we can immediately start editing and put everything together. 

Creation of Props

I am creating the props we are using in the film. Starting with the certificate, I did some background research on what criminal classes someone in high school could take because our main character is high school aged. I found various pre-college programs both in and out of Florida. The best one was a summer program under Harvard. I looked at the list of courses and chose Constitutional Law, Civil Rights, and Civil liberties. I also picked the Racism, Law, and Justice course because those classes would best suit the theme of our movie. 

I found a template on the Microsoft website for a certificate. There were 3 versions but I selected the one that would print better in black and white. The certificate is important because it is how we are going to introduce our main characters biggest strength; her knowledge. This knowledge she has from taking these courses will help her solve her mothers disappearance. I printed it out an added a handwritten date and signature. I also put the institution under the Florida Pre-College program because it is not real and very general. 

Template from website 

My version of the certificate

Printed certificate. 

We already did research on the Black-eyed Susan flower during our title research. They are yellow flowers with a black center. We couldn't find anywhere that had Black eyed Susan flowers or at least a lookalike so I got some yellow mums from my cousin. I colored the center black so it would resemble the black-eyed Susans.

The yellow mums 

Scheduling Conflicts

Our plan for filming completely fell apart. The cinematographer had track practice on Monday and Tuesday. We still could have filmed on Monday, but our actor had a club meeting and would not finish in time. By the time she arrived, it would be too dark to film. Wednesday we found out we couldn't film because no one had a ride to the hotel. It was decided that on Sunday we could film the scene with Adira at the actors house. The cinematographer still had track practice and our actor was busy that Wednesday so on Thursday, we can shoot the hotel scenes and wrap up our filming. 

Conversation between the cinematographer and I.

Conversation between the cinematographer and I.

 

Plan for Filming

My group is planning out our schedule next week. We checked out our equipment on Thursday so we can film on Monday. The equipment we checked out were a sound kit, a tripod, and a canon camera kit. Over the weekend we can practice using the equipment so we know what we're working with on Monday. I ended up taking home the camera and tripod because the cinematographer was not in class. 

The hotel scene is the most important so we need to get that done first. Monday and Wednesday are also the only days our actor is available. If we don't get everything done on Monday then we can continue on Wednesday. The other scene can be filmed on Tuesday or the weekend and we can start the editing process next week.

The canon camera and tripod set up.

Close up of the camera.