Walker 9:37

    I'm so excited to finally show you guys our final result. It's so sad that this amazing experience is over but it was incredible to be part of this huge project. 

    Here it is WALKER 9:37

Creative Critical Reflection

    Hey guyssss, here's my CCR. I hope you guys enjoy it. It was really fun to make it even though it was really stressful at the same time. 

  - MY CCR 

Reflection on key moments

    Hello guys, I'm so sad this one of the last blog posts I will be doing for this project but hey! it was an amazing experience. I'm so glad to have done my project with my teammates. They definitely made this experience worth it and it was incredibly fun to film and edit with them. 

    If I could change one thing I would probably fix our planning schedule. My teammates and I didn't follow our planning schedule because we couldn't all meet up the same day, which made it hard to follow our schedule. We had some difficulties with recording and meeting up for editing and planning but at the end of the day we accomplished our final goal. We made a lot of changes to our project since start, the genre: we switched from drama to psychological thriller. Another thing we changed was our idea in general. We wanted our film opening to be about a girl being kidnapped as she was walking out the library but when we talked to our teacher she told us how basic the idea was. This caused us to come up with the idea that we have now which we all love. 

    It was an amazing experience and I honestly learned a lot through this process. It was my very first time doing a project like this. I learned how to film and edit in just 8 weeks and I realized how planning just a film opening isn't easy at all. I would love to do this project all over again with the knowledge I have now. Again, thank you guys for being here with me through this amazing process. Stay tuned for the final result! 

    In my following posts you guys will be seeing my CCR and the final result of our film opening. 

Script

     Today I will be showing you guys the outcome of our script. I know it might seem a little late but we just wanted to make sure it was what we were going to use for sure. 

    It doesn't look clear until you guys open it up. 

   We thought it would be easy to do the script but when the time came it was harder than we expected. As soon as we realized that we had to write down word for word what we're going to say we realized that it was going to be a challenge. We had to write everything down so it took us some time to finish it since it had to be very detailed. I will be uploading the script next, hope you guys like it. 

    The due date is coming very soon and I'm so excited for you guys to see our full project. I will be uploading it very soon, thank you guys for being so patient. Hope you guys liked the script and let me know if you have any questions. Stay tuned. 

Some problems :(

    Hey guys, hope you're all doing great. I wanted to apologize for not posting any content of the filming process. My teammates and I have been dealing with some issues. Covid-19 has been our #1 enemy. 

    It has been very difficult to record due to the fact that some of us have left to travel during these past weeks due to family things. Some of us have gotten vaccinated so we have to be very careful on when to meet. I know this wasn't what was promised but we're all getting tested this weekend so next week we can start recording completely and start meeting up in person. Even though we haven't met in person due to many reasons we have face-timed and talked during the whole process to make sure we have everything ready. 

    Today we face-timed for about 2 hours planning everything we would need for the recording. We talked about what cameras we were using, what clothes we had to bring for the characters, makeup, times and locations and many more. During the group meeting today we also wrote our script so we could have it ready for whenever we were going to record. The script is a very important factor to our recording process so we don't get lost. We also talked about what days of next week we would be meeting up, we're meeting up 3 days, 2 to record and 1 to edit. We want to edit together so we're all in the same page. 

    I know that today's post is a little bit shorter than my other ones but it's because I wanted to update you guys on what was happening. As I mentioned before, we talked about the script. In my following post I will be showing you guys the outcome and explaining it a little further. I promise I'll be updating you guys on the recording process super soon. Stay checking up so you guys don't miss anything. So excited to record! 

Music!

    Hey guys! Hope everyone is having an amazing spring break. In today's blog post I will be talking about the music we will be using in our project and what we did to get to our final music decision. First of all I want to tell you guys that finding music for films ins't that easy so appreciate the ones you hear in your favorite films, they worked hard! 

    To start, the beginning of our music selection was kind of difficult, due to the fact that we were thinking of emailing an artist to ask for their music rights. After days thinking if we should or shouldn't write the email or ask for permission, we realized that we would need to ask more than one artist for permission since we would be using more than one song. We realized that it would be more difficult than we thought. During my group meeting with some friends in class, ideas were shared and I asked for help with some music websites recommendations. Some of my classmates helped guide me towards were I should start looking and they recommended using websites that had music that could be used without asking the artist for permission. My teammates and I looked into it and we found so many songs that were amazing that now the problem was choosing which one would be the best for our opening film. After a couple of days we choose which one would be the perfect match for our project. 

    Here are our 3 main songs. We will be using all 3 through our opening film to establish different feelings. 

    The first song showed in the screenshot will be played at the very beginning, while Maya gets ready to go see Lucy, it will play while she gets ready. I feel like this song can transmit a really productive feeling. When I listen to this song I want to get up and do something, which is what we want our audience to feel. 

    The second song showed in the screenshot will be played at the very end of our film opening, when Lucy disappears. I feel like this song says suspense in some ways, it gives out that feeling which is why I think it would be perfect for our opening. 

    Last but not least, the last song showed in the screenshot will be played at the moment where Maya starts to run and she plus her headphones in. This song will make the audience feel that as Maya runs she's getting into her own world, away from reality. 

    I hope you guys liked the songs. I'm really excited to show you guys the outcome as soon as it's done. Stay tuned to find out more about our film! 

Title fonts

    Hey guys! What's up? Soooo I wanted to talk to you guys about some fonts for our title because I thought it would be fun to do some research about it. 

    First things first, why is font selection important?. Well, the fonts for the title of the films are important because they need to have be readable in every screen that the film plays at. Also, the contrast should be high so everyone watching the film can notice the title. Title's are really important for films which is why choosing the best font is so important. 

    Since we're going to do a thriller film I had to do some research to see which fonts are better for these types of films. Sans serif fonts are the most popular ones, some examples of these fonts are: 

- Futura

- Helvetica

- Gill Sans

    These fonts are really popular/important because through these fonts we can get a feeling of drama, importance or boldness. I included some pictures of what the fonts look like so you guys could get a visual representation. 

    I think that choosing the right font for our film opening is really important. As of now, my teammates and I are going towards using the Helvetica font. We think that this matches the story that we're trying to show in our film. If anything changes I will let you guys know. Next week I will be posting more guys! Stay tuned! 

The title of our film

     I have been waiting a while to talk to you guys about the title of our film. It took us a while to agree on one title since we had so many in mind but we finally came up with the perfect one. What I love the most about the title is that it relates perfectly to our plot and the film itself. I really hope you guys like it. 

    The title of our film: Walker 9:37am 

    I know it might seem weird at first but listen. The last name of our main character is Walker. We thought this would be a good idea to connect the main character to the whole film but there's a twist. It's not just Maya's last name, it's also what Maya and Lucy would do every morning (walk/run). Lucy also disappeared whenever they were exercising on one of the mornings. We thought this would be the perfect way to connect it all together, the film, the plot, the characters, and the title. The 9:37am means the exact time that Lucy disappeared, the last time that Maya saw Lucy. 

    Even though it took us a while to agree in a title, as soon as one of us mentioned this one we knew it was going to be the one. In my opinion, it has a nice ring to it too. Naming the film Walker 9:37am would also give the reader something to look for. The audience would be wondering from the start, Why that title?, Why that time?. This would keep the viewers wondering the whole time and would make them pay more attention since they'll want to know what the title means. 

    I really hope you guys will like the title and the whole film, I can't wait to show you guys the outcome. Also, I know I haven't been posting anything about the recording process but that's because I will be doing it in following posts. My teammates and I are struggling to meet up due to corona but we will be recording very very soon and I will show you guys the whole process. Stay tuned for my next post. Lots of love. 

Week six of portfolio project / Editing Softwares

     Helloooo! So today I will be posting about the editing softwares we're planning to use. Since this will be one of my first times using editing softwares for something as big as a film opening, I will be needing to do some further research to see which one is the best for our project. 

    First option: iMovie 

    - iMovie is very popular for everyone that has apple, in some occasion it's the one that people go to for editing. This software allows the users to edit videos from different cameras and images. It has also a variety of transitions for the videos just in case you want to add any effects to it. It's also easy to use. It's also free if you own a Mac, which all of my team members do. 

    Second option: Adobe Premiere Pro 

    - It is said that Adobe Premiere Pro is the best for video editing. Adobe has a variety of softwares that will help you create in different ways, an example being: photoshop, illustrator and others. Adobe has amazing color workflows, amazing dynamic graphics and really good titles. It is available in all platforms the only inconvenience is that it costs about $20.99. 

I found a video that I though would help with this topic- iMovie VS Adobe Premiere Pro: Which Editor is best?

    I will be talking to my teammates about which editing software should we use the next time we meet up. This is a really important step because we need our opening film to be the best ever, meaning that we need a good editing software for this. I will be updating you guys when we come up with a decision. Thanks for checking up, i'll be posting again soon!

Target Audience

     Hey guys, today I will be talking about the target audience for our film. I will be doing some research so you guys know everything about the target audience! 

    The target audience for thrillers is big, they go in between 15-50 years old. It depends on the age due to the fact that some of these thriller films contain violence, relationships and others. These thriller films mainly target both genders, male and female. They bring the attention from both genders due to all the suspense, the action or simply because it has the audience always wanting more. Even though females like these genre, it's mainly targeted at males due to all the action. Our film is going to target both genders. Thriller is mostly popular between the ages 18-25, this is the age in which the audience is most drawn to the story. 

    I did some research and I found this chart online. We can see in this chart that thriller is one of the top genres that people like to watch. The people love this genre because they always want to be surprised/at the edge of their seats. This is why my teammates and I decided that thriller would be the best genre for our film. 

    Hope you guys liked this post. I will be updating soon. Have a great day!

A change of genre

     I know this wasn't the main plan but at first my teammates and I were going to do drama, our story changed and I had already done a post about the drama genre. This is why I will be doing some research today about our new genre, thriller. The reason why I waited so long to do the research for the thriller genre was because I wanted to make sure we didn't change it again.  

    What is the thriller genre? 

    Thriller is the genre that has the audience at the top of their seat. This is a genre that contains excitement and suspense. There's a lot of tension in these films and the tension is created by the filmmaker by delaying what the viewers might think is inevitable. The thrillers films are considered to be the most exciting, in most of the occasions thrillers are unique. These films will always keep you wondering of what will be occurring next, they heightened the feelings of suspense for the audience. The way that characters work on thrillers is simple, the main character is isolated from people that they trusted, they have a complicated life. This separates them from other people which makes them want to prove themselves. Thrillers are just exciting, which is why we decided to do this genre. 

    Some thriller examples that you guys should check out are: 

- A Quiet Place 

- Parasite

    I will be leaving a video here for you guys to watch. It is about Thriller vs Horror, I hope you guys enjoy this video and the post. Thank you guys for keeping up with me. I will be posting soon again so stay tuned. 

- Thriller vs Horror

Week five of portfolio project / Some changes we made

     Hey guys! I'm sorry it took me so long to make this post but I wanted to make sure that we had made majority of the changes to our opening film before letting you guys know. My teammates and I decided that waiting until we had majority of the changes settled would be better so we could explain them all together. Some of the changes to our opening film and the process were made due to safety and help from higher sources. 

    First, we had a conversation were we talked out our ideas and decided that it would be better if we removed one of the characters. We were supposed to have 3 main characters before, now we will only have 2 which are Maya Walker and Lucy Suco. The reason why we decided to eliminate one of the characters was because it would make the story more intimate (since it's a friendship of 2), it would be easier to record since one of us can be the one behind the camera at all times, and because it would make more sense if Lucy were to die or disappear than a random third person, which was the plan before. The main plot now will be that Lucy dies and there's no evidence about it, technically Lucy was inside Maya's head the whole time. This will leave the audience wanting more in the film opening which is the whole purpose. 

    Second, we decided to change our setting. We were going to record at the everglades before because we thought that it would be the best environment for our story but then we realized that it could be dangerous for us to record. Since we realized that it could be dangerous we thought that it would be better if we recorded at Markham park. There's a road in Markham park that is perfect for the running scene in which Lucy disappears. 

    We also decided that since we weren't going to have a third character anymore, that we would change Maya's last name. Her name was Maya Millers before, it is now going to be Maya Walker. The reason why her last name change is related to the title of the film which I will be explaining in following posts when I talk about the title. 

    I hope you guys liked this post and that it cleared some things up. If we change anything else I will be explaining it. If you guys have any questions please let me know. In my next post I will be talking about our genre change (yes we changed that too jeje) so keep checking to see what's coming. 

Some Shots & Angles

    Hey guys! Sorry I waited a couple of days until this post. My teammates and I were talking about the shots and angles we would need for opening film. We met up through facetime and discussed the whole opening film and we wrote down all the angles we would need and why we would need them. I will be including a picture here of the paper were we wrote everything down and I will be explaining it further. 

    So in this picture we can see all the shots that we will be using in the opening of our film. First we will be using a establishing shot if the sun rising so we can set the time for the film which will be really early in the morning. Following, we will start doing some close ups of Maya getting ready while also doing close ups of things around Mayas room so we can show how organized she is and so we can show her environment. After all these close ups we will cut the scene and we will have a long shot where Maya picks up Lucy outside her house to go for their daily run. There will be a mid shot after of them in the car to establish the relationship between the two characters then, point of view shots so we can see each of the characters points of views/surroundings. After that we will have a establishing shot of when they get to Markham to show the change of setting. Now, there will be a series of consecutive shots of Maya and Lucy running, in some of these clips only one of them will be running, there will be close ups and mid shots in this scene. After all of these shots we will have an establishing shot that will show Lucy tying her show, Maya running and a car passing by that happens to stop in front of Lucy. A close up of Maya with a serious face will be next, this will leave the audience in wonder. 

    I will be showing more about the shots in following posts, and I will be including some of the recording process also. Hope you guys liked this week's posts. Thanks for checking in. 

Character Development #2

    Now we will be talking about the other main character to our opening film. As I did in the previous post I will be including a picture of the points we touched in the conversation my teammates and I had when we met up. I will be talking about Lucy and her character development. In the previous post I mention that we changed Maya's last name, Lucy's last name remains the name. Lucy Suco is the main character's best friend. Her life is different than Mayas.

    

    My teammates and I discussed what Lucy Suco would look like. Since we had to make her look like one of us (due to the fact that we're playing the characters) we thought that adding a little touch to what she looked like would be fun. Patrizia, my friend that will be playing Lucy will be painting a part of her hair red, she has always wanted to so we saw a good opportunity. Lucy has dark brown eyes and she likes to dress all black or really dark colors. She's really adventurous, finding what's out there in the world is her first thought every morning. One of the reasons why she's like this always is because her parents are never really around, they're always working or trying to find ways of making money so they can support the family. Lucy's really wild and she likes taking a lot of risks when it comes to day-to-day activities, she'll always be the one to say "I'm down for anything". As every other rebel kid she doesn't pay a lot of attention in school meaning that her grades aren't the best. She has that one friend that she is always with and that's Maya Walker, they exercise together. Walks and runs are their favorite hobby. 

    That's what we have so far for Lucy Suco but we will definitely talk more about her in future posts. In my following post I will be addressing the kinds of angles/shots we will be using to film our opening so keep checking to be updated. I'll be posting soon. 

Week four of portfolio project / Character Development

    Hey guys!! So for this week my teammates and I met up and did some character development. We thought it would be good to share the way our characters were going to be developed since the characters are a really important part of our story, technically they're the whole story. This first post will be talking about Maya Walker. First, we decided to change her last name because "walker" connects to the plot of the movie and it's also a really good last name. Since Maya and Lucy go on walks/runs almost everyday we thought it would be a good idea to include this in one of the character's names. 

    I will be including a picture so you guys see exactly what we did. It was really basic but we were just throwing ideas out. I will be elaborating the ideas here. 

    We decided to talk about the color of her hair and eyes so you guys could get an idea and maybe try visualizing her, she's 16 years old. We did some little background information also and we included that she had American parents and that her mom had died recently. Her mom dying affected her relationship with her dad and now they're distant, we also included this in our list. She is also an only daughter which makes her feel lonely at times, she even talks to herself. Her and her dad recently moved away to another state due to her mom dying, this affected her since she would have to make new friendships and get familiarized with new surroundings. Due to all of this that has happened she goes to therapy. She isn't the best at making friendships because she's shy, she has a hard time opening up to other people but she cares a lot about others. Her family is wealthy so she doesn't have a need for money. Even though she has gone through a lot she tries to exercise every morning with her friend Lucy and she tries to keep her life organized. 

    This is what we have so far for Maya Walker. We will be talking more about her personality and feelings in later posts. For my next post I will be talking about Lucy and developing her character so stay tuned to find out more about Lucy. Talk to you guys soon! 

Storyboard / Planning

     Hey guys! So, my teammates and I worked on the storyboard this week and I wanted to show you guys but first I'm going to explain a little further. In this storyboard we will show you guys a visual representation of what our film will look like. This is not the exact way our film will like but we're going to guide ourselves through the storyboard. This is technically a sneak peak of our film, hope you guys like it.

    Here is our storyboard. To explain a little more about the storyboard I wanted to say that it took us a while to get it done because while we were doing it we realized that there were more things we needed to plan, like exact places, times, etc. While doing this we gathered more information that we needed and our storyboard came out. I hope you guys enjoy it and I will be showing you guys the filming process in later posts. 

    I will also be including in this blog post our planning schedule so you guys have an idea of when you guys will getting newer posts relating the opening film. We will be recording really soon and I will be posting here a lot about it. We planned the days for the next couple of weeks whenever we would be recording so we could keep ourselves organized. 

    We will be working in between the schedules and individually too so I will also be posting things I research on my own. I hope you guys liked the posts and I will be posting again really soon so stay checking to find out more of what's happening with our blog. 

Research #2

    Sound is going to be a huge part of our project. Majority of our production is going to be based in sounds. Sounds are really important for creating an atmosphere for the film. This and many reasons more are why I decided to talk about why sounds are important in this blog post. 

    Sounds aren't just door openings or music, sounds are what makes the whole movie. It can vary from a pencil writing in a piece of paper to a song being part of the movie. In thriller films sounds are mainly used to create a sense of tension and suspense, this can get the audience to feel scared or frightened. Sounds can help create the feelings that the director is trying to convey through the movie. Music is used to create or build up a climax when the scary part of the film is coming up. Sound can impact the viewing process. There's everyday sounds that these films use like water running, alarm clocks, and text messages, these sounds just connect the viewers to the film cause these are sounds that we're all used to. There's many different types of sounds and some examples of these are synchronous sounds, and asynchronous sounds, these are sounds that are used in almost every film. We probably don't realize but sounds are what drives a film which is why we need to pay attention to the sounds we're going to use in our film. 

    We will have to make a lot of foley sounds that will be part of our film opening and I was talking to my teammates about some music that we could use for our opening and that we need to email the artist for permission. We came to the conclusion that we would need to get together in a safe way to create some of these foley sounds and to start the process of creating our film. My teammates and I will need to look at examples of sounds we will use for our thriller film so we can create them. 

    I'm leaving a video that shows diegetic and non-diegetic sounds that I found really interesting and I think you guys should watch it to learn more about it. 

            Diegetic and non-diegetic sound 

    I liked this video as an example because it shows what my teammates and I are going to have to do. We will have to use diegetic and non-diegetic sounds in our film. I thought it would be good to talk about sounds in this blog post because sound is going to be an essential factor for our film. My teammates and I decided that we will working on our foley sounds really soon. I will be explaining more about the process of our sounds and what we will be creating so keep checking here and you guys will find out. Hope you guys liked it! 

    Keep checking up to see the next posts. 

Research #1

    Starting now we will start to work more on the film opening so as I said in my previous post I decided that doing research on color and how it can help our film be better would be good. The colors that we use and edit into our film are really important because they can create a feeling that will connect our viewers to the film. 

Why is color so important in films? 

    The reason why color is so important in all the films around the world is because it makes the audience feel. Many will ask how this is possible but color connects the audience, due to the fact that many attach certain feelings to colors, directors use this to target the audience's feelings. Color can also show a character's journey, the colors might start bland, grey, black and they can end up being yellow and bright, this shows how the character can go from being sad or depressed to happy. Color has become one of the best storytelling tools in the film world. In the thriller films the directors tend to use darker colors, this is because the darker the color is the more sinister they make the film look. Another really important factor is lighting, this is important not just in thriller but in every genre and film. Depending on the lighting being used in the film it can create a feeling of suspense or tension which can have the audience at the edge of their seat. 

    I used this picture as an example because we can see all the different tones of the same color that are being used. All the different tones create a different feeling. It can vary from energy, passion and power to danger, war, blood and others. 

  

Here I will be leaving you guys a video that can explain it further: Colour in Storytelling

    My teammates and I have decided that we will be doing way more research to see what colors we can use for our film. As of now I just wanted to explain why using the perfect colors are so important in the films. Starting we have decided that for the very beginning we will be using warm hues, to create a mood of comfortability between Lucy and Maya and as the film goes on we will go on towards darker colors and come color combinations to create a different feeling. 

    In my next post I will be talking about sounds and why it's important for our film. Stay tuned to find out more! 

Week three of portfolio project

     It is time to start planning out out what we want the first steps to our film to look like but first we have made some changes to our characters and the plot. Now, there's only going to be two main characters, Lucy and Maya. Maya and Lucy will go on their daily jogs and Lucy will be the one found dead, Maya will find Lucy dead but there won't be any evidence of this murder, the only one that saw it and knows about it is Maya. The reason why my teammates and I decided to make this change is because with further research we realized that it would be way more interesting and it could leave our audience wanting more with our film opening which is the whole purpose. For our setting we have decided to do it at Markham Park, in the back there's a space perfect for recording where it's a road and barely anyone passes through it so it'll be perfect for recording our scenes. Also, since Markham has a lot of woods it will give the perfect mystery vibe. I know that I had said before that we were going to be recording at the Everglades but we came to the conclusion that it would be safer for us to record at Markham and we have easier access to the park. 

    Now talking about planning the next steps of the project my teammates and I have talked about doing further research. This is relating to the sounds, colors, and other techniques we might need for our project to be the best. In my next post I will be talking a little more about each one of these but for now I just wanted to tell you guys the little changes we made! We will also be working on the storyboards this week so stay tuned to find out what's coming. 

Plot and technical elements

   Our plot is based on Maya Millers going on one of her daily jogs with her friends and suddenly hearing a scream, she finds a body, someone had died. She's really worried and she calls her friend Lucy Suco who was far behind her. When Lucy approaches where Maya is, she sees nothing. Maya thinks she's crazy because she's seeing a body that her friend isn't isn't but she proceeds to believe that someone got murdered. Lucy thinks Maya is hallucinating because she doesn't see a body or blood. There isn't any official evidence or report of this murder but through the years Maya continues to believe that she saw a dead body. The relationship between Lucy and Maya starts falling apart because Maya is completely sure that she saw and heard someone die and Lucy just continues to believe she's crazy.

    Our main scenery is going to be the Everglades, we think this is the perfect place to record our film because it connects with the jogging and is a far/big space. We will be creating our own sound effects that will relate to our film. The costumes are going to be very basic, regular sport clothes, headphones, glasses, and others. We will be incorporating many more technical elements along the way but for now this are our main ones.