What’s so funny?

Here is our bloopers video :)

Day 5: Wrapping things Up

Today, Amani and I finished editing our entire film opening! I can't believe we have finally finished! Since I wasn't feeling too well, Amani and I had to have a Zoom call in order to finish editing. This virtual communication program allowed Amani to share her screen, so both of us could see what she was working on in Adobe. We finished putting in the credits, and fixed any other issues we may have had like the voiceover, time-lapse, etc. After reviewing the entire video, we found our video to be complete. I believe this turned out just how we envisioned it to be and maybe even better! I think our opening scene directly portrays a coming-of-age film, and captures the deep meanings.

A few pictures of our credit scenes:

Even though our project has come to an end, I am beyond grateful to have worked on this project with such an awesome partner! I think we worked really well together, and I would definitely do more projects with Amani in the future. That being said, enjoy our last vlog!

 

Importing the Font into Adobe

In a previous post I talked about the issue of importing the Authentic Signature font from dafont.com into Adobe. After we had our class collaborations, I was able receive an article that explained step by step what to do followed by a YouTube video. This is the article Amani and I utilized to be able to add our specific font. Amani and I chose Authentic Signature as our font design out of the three other ideas because it was the easiest to read, and went with the theme we want to portray. We wanted to make sure our viewers were able to clearly see the font without having to squint or infer. 

It took Amani and I a bit of time to input the title at the end of the scene like we discussed in our outline, but we eventually figured it out. The ending scene looks perfect with the font we chose to display and truly captures our overall aesthetic. All we have left is to input the credits into the beginning scenes and review it the next time we meet. 

Here is a sneak peak of our title scene!

Day 4: Editing

Today was the first day we started editing our film opening. This was definitely a long and strenuous process. Amani came over around 12pm and left at 3pm. Three hours of staring at a screen made us exhausted. Luckily, we were able to get a lot done. Since Amani and I are not pros at navigating Adobe Premiere, we had to look up tutorials on YouTube. This was extremely helpful and provided us with new editing skills. We had a few issues regarding the voiceover scenes. Because the sounds we recorded were too short, we had to add a few more sentences to make it fit the time frame. This was honestly a lot of fun to do, and I can't wait to see how it turns out!

Here is vlog #4!

The Voiceover Plan

In our film opening, Amani and I decided it would be best to include voiceover scenes. These clips will allow audience members to understand Jess’s thoughts and feelings. We collaborated together to create a solid proposal of what Jess will be saying. We broke it up into four scenes in order to keep it short and sweet. We had to make sure to carefully execute our script in order to get all of Jess’s necessary thoughts portrayed. Here is our final outline for our voiceover scenes. 

Start at the butterfly clip:
“I always loved my conversations with my grandma. She’s the only one that ever had anything meaningful to say to me. She told me that one day she’ll tell me the meaning of life but now she’s dead and all she left me with is this letter that I don’t even understand.”

Lake scene:
“I come to this lake pretty much everyday to escape from reality. My parents don’t let me live because I am just a “kid.” That’s why I began making origami to take my mind off of things.”

Reading letter:

“What does this even mean?”

Stepping on butterfly:

“That’s my life”

Collaborating in Groups

During class our teacher put us in different groups to share out our projects. This offered me a way to get helpful feedback and listen to my peers' ideas. This was a great learning opportunity since I was able to ask questions about some concerns Amani and I had. First, I asked about importing a certain font from dafont.com into Adobe Premiere. In a previous blog post, I mentioned how Amani and I were struggling with how to get the font we wanted to use into our editing software. Thanks to a classmate, I was given an article showing step by step instructions which will be very useful. The second question I asked about was the time-lapse scene. I wanted to know any tricks or tips I could use to make the scene more creative and real. Another peer offered me an editing technique that can be found within Adobe to make that scene the best it could be. This time provided me with beneficial information which Amani and I will utilize in our editing process. 

Day 3: Reshooting

After Amani put together our clips from my phone and her camera, she noticed a problem with the format. Since the scenes were filmed on two different devices, they were not the same size. This put a pause in our editing plans, because we had to re-film all of our scenes. Thankfully, we were able to meet up today after school and film. This allowed us to resolve our issue, and permitted us to stay on track. 

The downfall for today was the Sun. Due to Daylight Savings Time, the Sun was out and beating down on us. This was a conflict to our shots since shadows were cast, not to mention it was super hot and humid! Hopefully we were able to avoid this problem and capture the remaining shots. If anything doesn't look right we can use editing techniques to fix this, but if we have to we can reshoot the most vital scenes. 

Here is our third vlog, which is definitely my favorite so far!

Our Music Plan

Amani and I originally wanted to use Lana Del Rey’s song, “Happiness is a butterfly” in the background of our film opening, but unfortunately we don’t think we will be hearing back from Interscope anytime soon. With our editing process approaching quickly, we decided to go with a song that is just instrumental. We believe this song will be better for our scene since it is not too wordy, which could possibly distract viewers from the main message. 

Amani was able to contact an artist through Instagram to ask for permission to use his song. She really likes the music he produces and thought one song in particular would fit perfectly. We are planning on using the song, “we loved when we were strangers.” This instrumental piece had a chill beat that embodied our character Jess.

We are deciding to use this sound during the scene where she puts her headphones on. This will allow us to create a synchronized sound. For the first thirty seconds of our opening scene we will have Jess do a voice-over, explaining a bit about her life. This will give audiences a chance to understand Jess’s thoughts and feelings. 

Day 2: Filming at the Lake

Yesterday, Amani and I got together to shoot the lake scenes, and thankfully it was bright and sunny. The only downfall was that Amani forgot to put the battery in her camera so we had to resort to using my phone. The shots ended up turning out great and we were able to shoot all the scenes we needed to. The phone I have is the Iphone 12 Pro Max. The camera quality is extremely precise and worked well with our camera shots. This device contains a telephoto zoom lens and an 87% improvement in low light imagery. I never knew my phone could take such clear and crisp videos, so I was really impressed. 

During class that day, we sorted through our shots and assessed them all. We found a few clips that needed to be taken again, but overall we are finished with filming the major parts. Shooting these scenes was a lot of fun and I was able to learn new things throughout the process. This process allowed me to strengthen my communication and filming skills since I had to shoot these scenes with my partner. We were able to bounce ideas off of each other and create quality videos. I am extremely excited to begin editing so I can see the final product!

Enjoy our second vlog!

Picking the Perfect Font

Amani and I wanted to make sure we picked the best font for our film opening title. In order to get to this point, we researched multiple options on dafont.com. This website was filled with fonts for every occasion, but we needed to find one that matched our theme. Since our opening scene will entail of Jess finding herself through her grandmother's treasured letter, we decided to go with script as our font. After scrolling through many different versions of script, we found two choices which we are debating on. The first is called 'Authentic signature' and the second is called 'Photograph signature.' This font will resemble Jess's grandmother's handwriting used in the letter. Both are very similar, yet Authentic signature stood out to us the most. We will most likely lean towards utilizing Authentic signature, but for now we will keep the other just in case. We are a bit unsure on how to download this font to use it in our editing software system, but we will keep testing it out.

Possible choices:

Behind the scenes: Vlog #1

Here is our first vlog of many, Enjoy!!

 

Day 1: Filming shenanigans

Today was the first day Amani and I met up to film. This is was a bit disappointing but also really fun. Our main issue was that we didn’t check the weather before meeting up, so it down-poured on us. We were set and ready to starting filming our lake shots when the next thing we knew, we were drenched. We ran home and managed to save the camera from getting wet. 

In order to make use of our meet-up, we filmed our beginning scenes that took place inside the protagonists home. This allowed us to get used to the camera and scope out any shot options. A second issue arose when the lightning was too dull. Luckily, my dad had a bright light stick that we were able to use to give us decent lightning. We were able to get the beginning all filmed and ready for editing which was great! 

In order to capture all of our endeavors, we started to create a small vlog which we will use to document our progress each time we meet-up. This vlog will be informal and show a bit of our personalities. 

The last thing did was submit a license quote request for the song we are thinking of using in our opening scene. We believe we want to use the song “Happiness is a butterfly” by Lana Del Rey, since this song was our main inspiration. First, I had to research Lana Del Rey’s label company which was Interscope Records. Then, I located the license quote form and filled it out. Hopefully they answer back soon so we have our definite answer. 

Overall, I’m glad with the progress we made so far. We are planning to meet up again during the week in order to finish filming our lake scenes, and this time we will be sure to check the weather! 

A sneak peak picture!

 

Finding the perfect location

In order to find the perfect setting to shoot our scene, Amani and I thought long and hard about this decision. Since this setting would signify a deeper meaning for our main character, we wanted the spot to be perfect. We both agreed on a location that was near a lake and multiple trees. Our protagonist Jess wanted to be hidden away from the world, and the location we chose conveyed that feeling. 

These are a few pictures of the setting we chose.

Luckily, I have a beautiful lake with tons of grassy areas. This will make it easier for us to film scenes where Jess is sitting down. My lake is stationed within my development, which makes it ideal to shoot there. It is not on any open roads where it could be noisy and make it hard to focus. There are plenty of trees to make it feel isolated and completely away from reality. 

We are getting even closer to filming which we will begin by the end of the week, and that makes me excited! 

Creating our Origami Butterflies + Jess's Letter

The first prop we made for our scene were origami butterflies. We constructed these origami butterflies today in class to use as a prop for our opening scene. This was quite a challenge since it was difficult to fold correctly. Amani and I had to watch multiple videos to accomplish this design. At times I got frustrated and had to take a break. Since our main character Jess will be surrounded by these paper butterflies, we needed to make sure we had a sufficient amount. 

The second prop we made was the special letter from Jess’s grandmother. In order to do this we drafted the body of the letter with meaningful words coming from her grandmother. After we collaborated our ideas, I transferred this letter onto a piece of paper in cursive. Since Amani and I were not talented at writing cursive, we decided to have my mother write it. We wanted to use cursive to demonstrate penmanship of an older lady. This will be the symbolic letter she will ponder over through our scene.

Linked below is the YouTube video we used.

Origami Butterflies:

Jess's Letter:

Screenplay

Exciting news! Amani and I came up with out film title! We decided our film would be called..."Happiness is a Butterfly." We thought this was the perfect option for our production since our whole character and plot revolves around this symbolic meaning. This title will hopefully leave our audiences wanting to know more about the film, and enjoy what has to come.

Film in the making!

Amani and I are going to begin filming very soon! All we need to do is prepare our script and gather any props we may need. I wanted to share the type of camera equipment we will be using to film our opening scene, as well as the editing software. 

We think our opening scene would turn out best if we utilized a professional camera instead of our digital devices. Amani suggested we use her Nikon D7100 camera. This will enable us to capture a series of clear close-up shots. By using this camera, it will make it easier for us to transfer over the footage to the editing computer. 

The editing software we will use is Adobe Premiere. This software system will assist in our editing capabilities. I believe this program will help with the manipulation of audio and visual effects. The application contains multiple added benefits such as filters, titles, and graphics. Since we are creating a coming-of-age film opening, titles and filters are imperative to the mise-en-scene of the genre, because it adds to the quality of the content. 

The Nikon D7100 camera:

Adobe Premiere logo:

Storyboard

Today in class, Amani and I worked diligently on our storyboard. We were able to use our outline to establish illustrated scenes for our film opening. This was surprisingly very fun to create since we used a storyboard website to digitally design the plot. This took us a while to finish since we had to carefully place each object into each box, and pick the color we wanted it to be. Overall, we really like how it turned out in the end because we believe it portrays our story well. We are still figuring out what our movie title should be since it is a very important aspect to our film. This is why we left the last box with the black background blank. Once we decide on the title we will be ready to start filming!

Here is our Outline

Yesterday in class, Amani and I constructed our outline. We brainstormed for a while to come up with our best option. At first, we wanted to begin the scene with Jess (our main character) in her room sitting with her origami butterflies. Then after contemplating for a little, we decided that it would be better for her character to be in the outdoors. In this case we will transition Jess from her bedroom to her secret hiding spot, which will be located near a lake. We really want to exhibit her strained relationship with her parents as well as her deeper connection with her grandmother through the origami butterflies.

Outline:
Starts off showing the origami butterflies all around her room
Transitions to the girl packing up her origami and a paper letter to go outside
She grabs her headphones and listens to her “chill beats” playlist while riding her bike to her hidden spot
Arrives at her spot
Continues to make origami butterflies 
Reads the letter and states that “happiness is a butterfly” and responds saying “what does that even mean?”
She steps on one of the butterfly and crushes it and says “that’s my life” (in sarcastic tone)
*Shows time lapse of the day and the girl in different places*
Phone bings
Girl looks at phone and sees 100 notifications from her mom asking where she is
Her mother calls her and she answers the phone
Mother is screaming at her to come home
She hangs up after a few seconds
Scene ends and title is displayed

So far this is the outline we are going with, but if there are any changes I'll keep you updated! The next time Amani and I meet, we will be creating the storyboard. I feel like our project is really coming together and I'm excited to begin filming soon!

Meet our main character!

Now that Amani and I have a definite plot we want to introduce you to our main character. Since our protagonist will be a teenage girl 16-17 years old, we wanted to make sure she had her own personal aesthetic. We really wanted to make her attributes similar to teenagers nowadays, making sure to stick with relatable content.

Our character will be named Jessica, but likes to go by Jess for short. She is known as the shy type within her friends and family. Jess likes to dress in dark colored clothing such as a dark pullover sweatshirt and comfortable black leggings. Her relationship with her parents is not the best. Even though she is grateful for them, she is not able to be vulnerable around them. The only strong relationship she has with a family member is her grandmother. Her grandmother’s letter will be a strong presence throughout our opening scene and connect her to the butterfly symbol.

Some of Jess’s hobbies include folding origami and listening to her favorite music. When she’s alone in her room at night, she likes to listen to her “chill beats” playlist on Spotify. This allows her to be in touch with her feelings. Overall, Jess keeps to herself and only allows a few people in. 

Jess's outfit style:

Jess's butterfly origami:

"Chill Beats" Spotify playlist:

There’s more to the plot

When Amani and I met last class, we finalized our plot and added an additional aspect to our opening scene. In order to portray and accurate coming-of-age film opening, we needed to make sure it wasn’t to cliche, but creative and original. Since we are using the idea of a teenage girl battling with depression, we wanted to make it more meaningful and not just a bland story. This will allow our viewers to understand the message on a deeper level. 

We decided to utilize a symbolic meaning into our opening scene to give our character a firmer story. My partner and I will use a butterfly as the symbol for the main characters depression. This will convey the message that “happiness is a butterfly,” meaning that happiness is fragile and not something that can be rigid. Our character will be shown living by this meaning, and using it to find her way through life. Our plot will revolve around her interpreting this idea. I think this addition will make our opening scene more abstract and artistic, leaving audiences’ questioning what will happen next.