Friction

     We have finally finished our film opening, titled "Friction".  It has taken a vast amount of work and planning and our entire group is very proud of it.


 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jORy0irrxng&t=2s

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1q_SilzCm4asrQe0S-DEdK4s1_a4p9Umr

 

The End

As we finish our film, a lot of things were changed.  For one, we had to agree on a ending which was difficult as four members of our group discussed the different visions each person had for the film. As a group we came to a decison to end the film with the car accident although there was a lot of debate. Another group decision we had to make was to pruchase the lutz to color grade the film. We had to decide to spend more money when purchasing the lutz which made it a group discussion.

Finishing our film opening was a deeply furfilling feeling as we had spent a large amount of time editing shooting and creating the film opening. We created it with the intention to have meaning, and move people and we hope that it lives up to that goal. Our group is proud of what we have created and thankful for the journey to get to the end.

Creative Critical Reflection

As we finish our film opening, I have created a creative critical reflection to talk about the process, of creating our film opening. I narrated the video while using a slide of pictures taken from the day of filming. The video speaks about a lot of ideas such as integrated technology, how we improved as we were filming, conventions we enlisted and challenged and others. The reflection is vital for growth as a filmmaker.

Editing the film

 Editing is never a fun process. The grueling task is essential, but often painfully long as every frame has to be perfect. When editing our film opening, we knew in order to get the ideal look we needed to buy an overlay that pushed not only a "Miami" feel but also an old school look to our film.
 The creation of the title for our film on the screen was another important aspect that was carefully considered when making the film. We knew that when recording we wanted the title to roll across the screen behind the actor on a skateboard, which would give a vibrant appeal and aesthetic to the film. We used light yellow to title the credits as well as the title in order to push the vibrant appeal of the film that we wanted. The use of light colors was important for creating an uplifting and vibrant look that we so sought after. Overall, the title and the credits were both important pieces of the film opening that we were able to capitalize on through our use of editing.

Picking Audio

Films rely heavily on many elements in order to create the ultimate cinematography experience. Audio is one of the most important elements because it stimulates another part of the watcher's senses, the ears. Imagine watching a horror movie, without the gradual suspenseful buildups that make your skin crawl. Musicality offers a wide variety of impact onto a film that without it, will make a film seem empty. Imagine an action fast-paced movie, but the music is slow. This will make the entire scene feel out of place, and using this train of logic we picked music that would best inhibit our films soul.
    Although our film is not fully completed, we have finished editing and are reviewing music to put over the opener that will give the film the ultimate feel of "punk". The music genre punk is an embodiment of our film because it shows the rebellious nature of not only our film but of skateboarding. With this idea in mind the first artist we temporarily chose thus far, is Lil Peep, a rapper who unfortunately has passed away but embodies the soul of rebellion with his musicality that is just a little bit "off". Although our music is bound to change as we continue to edit and change aspects of our film opening, right now our train of logic is centered on the punk or sub-genre of punk-rap.

Picking an ending for the film

When our film opening was shot, we had two ending in mind and picking a specific ending is a tough process of going back and forth when different members of the group have different ideas about how they want the film to end. One ending campaigned on by a member talks about a car crash scene that filmed, that look aesthetically pleasing and could be plausible. However, other members of my group argue that this scene is useless and does not contribute properly to the plot in the way that we would want it to.

     This has led our group to argue the pros and cons of each ending and discuss which one contributes more to the overall purpose of the film, creating a meaningful emotional opening that leaves the audience with feelings. Our end goal is one that we all agree on, and therefore anything we do has the same end goal, giving our group a purpose in putting together the collection of clips that we have.

weird filming techniques that worked

A big challenge we had creating the film opening, was filming skateboarding. Typically skateboarding is filmed by a person on a skateboard holding a camera. The skill level required in order to do this is however very high and due to that fact, we had to improvise as it is very difficult to hold a camera and move at the speed required without a lot of experience beforehand.


                                                              
This led to us creating new methods to film, most notably sticking the camera out of a car next to the skateboarder. This was a great idea as it allowed us to film high-speed skating in the easiest way possible. Without this idea, our film would have not been able to film skating to the same level that it was able to. The idea of the filming technique was to drive next to the skateboarder, going at the same speed. It, however, enabled the shots to be smooth opposed to shaky.

Picking a title for our film

Picking a film title in a group of four people is never an easy process. Constant debate, and brainstorming is an important aspect of the process of critically thinking in a group. It was no mystery that we wanted our title to represent our entire film, but also be simple in every sense.
   In order to pick the title that we felt best represented our film, each member of our group brainstormed titles until we found one that best represented the aspects of our film in the best manner. A lot of titles were suggested including "The Outlet", "Skate", "SB" until finally a title we all instantly agreed on was picked, "Friction. The title was instantly a hit due to its double meaning, the idea of friction with feet on a skateboard, that anytime a person skateboards would feel. The other meaning is symbolism for the home situation for the character in our film that is abusive, giving us idea of friction at the house.
    We felt that this title fully represented the multiple aspects of the film that we wanted, helping to create a create the tone we initially envisioned a film touching on the harsh topic of abusive family's should have.

Reviewing the footage

In film making, a vital lesson i learned early on, was the importance of over-filming to an extent where you can choose from a variety of footage instead of being forced to pick. When we were filming, this idea was prominent, recording multiple takes of each scene was important for creating a film that we had the ability to pick and chose from the best clips, keeping in mind prominent ideas such as continuity and importance of each shot.
  As we begin editing, specific ideas were kept in mind, such as developing the story with editing techniques that develop meaning and overall contribute to making a story with meaning. We plan on using popular editing techniques such as eye line matches, crosscut editing and cuts to properly edit our film to become cinema quality. Editing will help create meaning in our film and with the use of picking the best clips will help us create the best film opening that we can.

Having fun with our film

 After the day of the shoot, we were luckily enough to get a full tour of CNBC, the amazing television station that produces many famous Soup Operas. This tour helped fuel my love for television, as besides having amazing food, our private tour showed us sets, and control rooms of the news station. Our entire group was extremely lucky to have the opportunity to tour the amazing station and learn about what makes many of the channels run, and how the news works in our modern society. It was a great inside look of a news station, something i had never thought about the inner workings of.
  More than anything, the news station motivated me, showing me the future i could have, if i continued with film. Overall, being able to have insight into a professional news station helped me to have motivation for my future and showed me the wonderful life of film in ways i never imagined.

Acting in a film

Acting has never been my strong suit. With that being said, the immense pressure of becoming a main actor in a film was a tough role to fill. Although i watched numerous Youtube videos, with the hope of becoming the next Will Smith overnight, i still felt unprepared for my role. However, the day of the shoot i had a lot of faith and confidence to play my new role, with helped me when the pressure was on and the lights were in my face.
   The ideology of molding myself to become a character I was not, was ultimately not as hard as i originally believed it to be. Once i put myself in the head-space of becoming the character we wanted for the film, the job instantly became easier and I worked to become the actor our film required. Skateboarding has always been my talent, and much of the film was written by myself, with the intentions of creating a film i truly believed in which pushed me to become the best actor i could be.

Filming in wynwood

    Filming in a good location, is what will push a film to have the setting that appeals visually and hooking the viewers. Wynwood, miamis art district, is a great area centered around progressive street art that has a look that is artistic. Creating art with meaning was a main idea of our film, and we chose Wynwood for a shot for the fact that Wynwood has the visual aesthetic with street art, paired with the miami look was essnetial for our film. Wynwood is both beautiful, and under construction, a city that will never finish creation but will always continue to evolve. Our film was created with the intention to represent skateboarding as a hobby that is art. We can always grow and become better at most skills, and skateboarding is a prime example of something that most people dont see in a positive light, but challenging social perception was never an issue for our group. Wynwood enveloped these ideas and thats why we chose to film there.

filming locations

 Settings are an important part of any movie, that can set a mood or tone without any dialogue or actions being displayed. A rich house will have certain stigmas immediately correlated to it, while a poor house will have other stigmas paired with it. Brightly colored houses will envoke happiness and joy, while inversely monotone houses have a boring and sad stigma attached to them.
  Picking a filming location for our movie, was a difficult job, due to the fact that nowhere that we lived would stimulate the idea that the movie required. This set us on a journey, to get a filming location that would perfectly embody the house we wanted our film to be set in.
   Ideally, the main character in the film would be born in a lower income house, and that was an issue as many of the places that we could film at did not have an old and broken vibe, but instead had a modern and wealthy feel. We ended up picking a house in North Miami to use as the main boys "house" for the film. The house, and surrounding area all had the aesthetic and feel that would be vital for creating a film in a lower economic area.

shot composition

 It is no secret a great film is filled with a bunch of great shots, each with deliberate placement and meaning, that pushes a bunch of videos into a movie. Several rules are very important in order to create a film that is visually pleasing. The rule of thirds is an important element of film composition that can create visual stimulation with the use of placing the subject in one of the thirds on the screen. Creating an overabundance of lines going every each way on the screen will create the feeling of chaos and unease, while straight lines going vertically will envoke a calm and controlled mood.
   This weekend, when we were filming our movie, shot composition was one of the most important aspects. Creating shots with specific lightning and depth helped us envoke feelings with the audience. The kind of warm feeling we wanted to be paired with the film caused us to carefully take account of lightning and saturation, as well as camera focus, making sure everything was in check with our intentions.  

Getting the right camera gear

    Quality is an essential part of any good movie. Low-quality cameras are an immediate red flag for any experienced movie-watcher and in order to create the best possible film opening, the use of high-quality cameras, with cinema grade lenses will be enlisted. In order to get the dream quality, we are renting a high-grade camera for the filming use. Purchasing special equipment will give us the ability to create a film that will be on par with some of Hollywood's best.
   Color overlays will also add on a layer to the outlay that will create the desired aesthetic that the film requires to flourish. The art of filming is one we have not overlooked, and our increased attention to this matter will lead to our film flourishing.

working in a group

Planning and cordinating is a very important part of working with others. It is what ultimately will lead to a great project, or a terrible one. Compramising is a very important componet of this, and creating a schedule that we will be able to all follow. This has led to the creation fo a film schedule that will be best suited for all members of our group.

   Monday           Tuesday Wednesday       Thursday Friday      Saturday Sunday

4th Start	5th	6th Plan	7th	8th -finish storyboard -get locations -finish planning -get actors	9th	10th
11th	12th -get locations confirmed for Saturday and Sunday -Get actors confirmed for Saturday and Sunday	13th	14th	15th -Pick up lens	16th -SHOOT 8am-4pm (house in lincoln park) -SHOOT (skate park scene)	17th -SHOOT 8am-4pm Anything we didn't get Saturday or reshoot
18th -Organize clips	19th -Organize clips	20th -Organize clips	21th -Organize clips	22nd -Purchase editing luts and old film camera presets	23rd -edit film -If need to, reshooting clips.	24th -edit film
25th -edit film	26th -edit film -start working on critical reflection	27th -edit film -work on critical reflection	28th -edit film -work on critical reflection	29th -edit film -work on critical reflection	30th -FINISH EDITING FILM	31st -edit film

April

Monday           Tuesday Wednesday       Thursday Friday      Saturday Sunday

1st -Work on critical reflection

2nd -Work on critical reflection

3rd -Work on critical reflection

4th -Work on critical reflection

5th -Work on critical reflection

6th -Finish FIlm -Finish critical reflection

7th FILM OPENER DUE!!!!!!

sound

The sound is an important aspect of any film. Light-hearted music with primarily major chords is going to infer a happy mood and put a straight pathway to pull happy emotions. Minor chords with a slow tempo will infer a sad scene. Guardian of the galaxy is one of my favorite movies, that uses music to create an aura for the viewers to live in. In fight scene songs such as "Mr blue skies" are played in order to contrast the fighting with upbeat fighting turning a dismal situation into an upbeat moment. In our sound is going to be playing an important role, to create impactful moments. A big feature of using sound in our film is going to be the use of no sound to create moments in which are truly going to be impactful.
    A sound motif is going to be used in our film opening to pair an abusive parent with the mental outcome on somebody being abused. This will be powerful, as it will be a slight buzzing noise that will raise as the actor fails tricks, a clear representation of how thoughts linger within us. Overall, this idea is a key component of creating a moving film.

creating a rough draft of our film

Every film needs specific planning in order to create a defined order for the creation of the film. I have worked hard over the past couple weeks in order to make a film opening that leaves room for the rest of the film, while also creating an opening that will leave the audience with provoked thoughts.  With this goal in mind and what lies below is a rough draft of what i have written.

Modern film based in 2019.

Film opens with an establishing shot of a house, an alarm clock is going off. Actors yawns and looks around. Yelling can be heard in the background - his family is having an argument. The actor not shown.

Dad  “turn your alarm clock off now” in an angry voice. Arguing continues as the main character turns off the alarm and gets dressed. Setting shows a room of a kid who is interested in skateboarding, with different posters on his wall that depict this idea.  Fully dressed in a typical outfit of somebody that skateboard wears. (black/cargo jeans, plain shirt high socks). The actor finished getting dressed walks in the living room.

MOM “Jared, what did I tell you about turning your  alarm clock on”

Son “ I'm sorry” The relationship between the parents and the son is noted in which appears to be abusive although not enough is known to make this assumption thus far.

Dad drops glass on the floor, shatters every. Low angle shot of glass falling

Dad upset “clean up my glass now before I step on it”.

(low pitched ringing noise begins, kind of annoying but not loud enough yet to be a big deal for viewers.)

(furthering abusive idea) Son cleans up the glass

“Now get out of my house”

Son grabs a skateboard and leaves how shots of him riding down the street are shown jump cut of varying tricks. As he is going down the street he misses an ollie and falls ringing intensifies that is a sound motif paired with his parents. Diegetic sound is not heard anymore and the ringing intensified.

At this point, the son is at town center skating the stairs and we seem him trying to jump over the stairs. Every Time he falls the ringing gets louder until it becomes inaudible. Quick cuts show 3-4 attempts and finally last attempt low shot slow motion. Lands it rings disappears silence for a second. The title appears on concrete next to him.

Composing a film opening

      Throughout the course of trying to create a film opening, we have faced an obvious struggle; picking the idea that was best suited for our entire group. A common shared interest between members of the group was a passion for creating an impactful film with the representation that accurately molded teenage life to the highest degree. This common theme led us to create a film that would depict an abusive household for a teenager and his coping mechanisms for dealing with it in a healthy way. Many modern movies want to create and show unhealthy versions of dealing with these issues and our group wants to strive to show a healthy outlet for a teenager going through a tough situation. 
    Although this will create a film that is going to require a lot of hard work and dedication, it will ultimately be fulfilling to make and create something that we would all be proud of. The depiction of abusive parents will be especially hard to portray, but overall with a lot of attention to detail, we hope to create a film that can truly depict how somebody's love for skateboarding can override any tough moments of life.

Research into filming a skateboarding video

              Skateboarding has a unique filming technique due to the fast-paced movement shot over a long spread out filming location. Since our project has a very minimal budget, we will not be able to buy any fancy equipment that allows the creation of the best skate videos. However, the enlistment of a fisheye lens is a vital add on, that will allow for the skater and the obstacle to be kept perfectly within the width of the video, capturing a perfect moment with a cool added feature.

      Skateboarding is often captured by a cameraman who has to be moving fast, to keep the skateboarder within the frame. The fast movement is often done by the cameraman riding a skateboard. If the skateboarder falls out of the frame, the tricks look jerky, as, in order for the clean look, both the skateboard and the skateboarder must be in the video.

      Various other factors such as headspace, depth, and distance are key components in trying to create beautiful shots. Often skateboarding will be taken by low shots- in order for the skateboarder to look higher in the air than they actually are. Through my various research and watching different video parts, I was able to learn a lot of techniques i will apply to my own film, to create the best possible film opening.