Editing Blog: No Editing

Since there is a global pandemic going on, schools are closed as well as a lot of businesses. The virus started in China and has spread to the United States and where I live. Because of this, I was not able to edit the rest of my final task. I have about half of the final task edited minus the titles so far. It's about 1 minute long so I need about another minute. We are basically advised not to leave our house and to practice "Social Distancing". This means staying about 6 feet away from strangers or just people who aren't in your household in general. I haven't been able to meet with my group-mate partially because of this. The good thing is that we have already dumped all the footage that we need. Worst case scenario, we can just have one of us edit the remainder of the final task because we still have over a couple weeks before that is due. One of us will probably have to continue editing the final task on iMovie. We could also possibly meet up as long as neither one of us or our family members are showing symptoms. This is still risky though because some people don't show symptoms at all or for a few days to a couple of weeks. Either one of us can edit the remainder of the final task individually if necessary because we both have MacBooks at home which have and run iMovie. Another solution would be to video call/facetime each other while we edit it. I am currently on vacation at a location where there are no cases of Coronavirus. I come home Monday back to my county, which has the most cases in my state. I am scheduled to come back to school on March 30th. It is unbelievable that this is happening right now. I just hope that everyone and myself stays safe.

Filming Blog: Office

   Now that the peer review was over and I had filmed my first few scenes. On Saturday, my group-mate and I filmed the remainder of our final task. First, she came to my house because we needed to film some clips there. The first clip I filmed was a shot of her and her mother driving past the camera in a car. I made sure to stand in my driveway (on the other side of where she was driving) when I was filming. This was to ensure that everyone (including myself), was safe. Next, I filmed another scene from outside of the car of my group-mate and her mom. After that, i filmed a close-up shot of my group-mate's mother shifting the car. These shots did not take that many takes overall. The only difficult thing was having to wait for pedestrians and bicyclists on my street.
    After this, I drove to my parent's office to film the rest of the scenes. This location was used as the therapist's office. There were quite a few scenes that needed to be filmed here, so it took a bit longer than expected. The first scene I filmed was my group-mate and her mother talking to each other. I made sure to film this (and any other scenes where it wasn't necessary for the car to be in motion) while the car was parked. I then filmed a close up of my group-mate'd foot/shoe as she was getting out of the car. She then waked into the therapist's office, which was filmed as well. I then set the camera up and filmed some footage of my group-mate and I (I'm playing the therapist, she's playing the protagonist) sitting down and talking. I then had my father film a scene where he had to pan the camera, and then my group-mate filmed the scenes where I was tied up. These scenes took a bit longer to film because some of them required things like makeup to be done, but it was overall a good experience that went smoothly.

Editing blog: Beginning To Edit

    After the computer malfunction, there wasn't anything edited yet. This meant that the film would have to be edited on iMovie or another editing software at home. This was because my group needed to submit at least part of our film for the final task. Other groups had this issue as well, and I talked to others about what they did. One classmate said that she found editing on iMovie quicker and more convenient. She explained to me that it had only taken her one hour to edit the whole movie including titles. The only thing she hadn't added was the music. I knew that only part of the movie would be edited before the final task, so it may take even less time. Because of this helpful insight, I wasn't as upset about having to use a different editing program. I filmed the first few scenes with my partner, and now it was time to edit.
    My partner agreed to edit what we had filmed. I left the camera, tripod, and SD card at her house. The footage for the scenes we were editing had already been dumped onto the computers at school. I am very glad I suggested that she also put the footage on her google drive because Pinnacle studios didn't work. This way, she was able to access the footage from home to edit on iMovie as well. She also bought an SD card reader for at home but it didn't work. This was fine though because we already had the footage we were planning to edit available. She edited everything very nicely and added music. The only thing not added was music, but that was fine because my teacher said the final task didn't need to be complete for the peer review. Overall, editing went and has gone very well so far and I am excited to continue editing.

Peer Review

In class, I had to peer review another group's/person's final task. My group got assigned a number and had to look at a spreadsheet that said which group we would be peer reviewing. Our final task also got peer reviewed by another group. I had to fill out a sheet while watching the final task I got assigned to review. This sheet included yes or no questions on things like titles and how long the final task was. It also included a section to check off the required shots and at what point they were performed. Lastly, there were questions that required a written response. These included tips to give on lighting and sound, and what was liked and disliked about the film. The film I was assigned to review was about two girls planning to rob/break into somewhere. They were making plans on how to do it and arguing over who's plan was better. Lighting-wise, the film was good overall. The only thing they could fix was a small glare in the corner of the screen near the end of the film. Sound wise the sound quality was easy to hear, but they still need to add music at some point in the film. One thing I liked about the film was how clean the transitions were. I think they did a good job editing especially with the transitions between scenes. Something they could improve is the overall plot of the story. There was only one thing going on the whole time, and it was all filmed in one place basically. They were also missing some of the required camera shots, movement, and angles as well as titles. This is okay though because we still have time to edit and didn't need to show our full final task. Overall they had a good final task and I enjoyed peer reviewing.

Editing Blog: Malfunctions

Last class and today, my partner and I were able to begin editing. Now that I had filmed some, I was able to dump the footage onto a laptop in class. Once this was done, to be safe, I had my partner upload the footage onto Google Drive as well. This was in case the laptop crasher/didn't work or that next time, a different one was used. After this, Pinnacle Studios was clicked on to be opened. Sometimes, it takes a short while to fully load and open, so I was waiting. Then after a little while, an error message popped up on the screen. It read "Pinnacle Studios is not responding...". This has happened to me before when I was editing my music video, so I knew to try and restart the computer. I did that, sitting in anticipation and hoping that it would fix the issue. Unfortunately, it did not. After this, I got a new computer and attempted to open Pinnacle Studios on there. It still did not work, so I tried restarting this computer. This didn't work, and there weren't any computers left to try, so no editing was accomplished that class period. The next class period, I got a different computer than the other two I tried to use last time. I had my partner log in, and attempt to open Pinnacle Studios. It still didn't work, so I tried restarting the computer. That didn't work either so I got up and got another one. Pinnacle Studios didn't work on that laptop either, and a restart didn't help. No editing was done that class period. This was a bit frustrating, and I will now have to edit my footage on iMovie at home to have something done in time for the Peer Review.

Filming Blog: Group Member's House

This weekend, I filmed some scenes at a group member's house. Before going over there, I made sure to charge the camera that I had checked out. I then drove over there at around 6:00 PM. When I got there, the filming process begun. I filmed scene 2 first, beginning with the shot from inside the backpack. This took quite a bit of takes because it was hard to get the camera to sit upright in the backpack and not tip over. One that was finished, I filmed the scene where Olivia is packing her bag. This took a couple of tries at the most because it was a simple shot. Next, the close up of Olivia shouting "Coming!" was filmed. This took two tries as well to get the lighting to the way I wanted it. Then,  filmed a part of scene 3, which took two tries and was a closeup of Olivia's bag's zipper. Next, the group member's father arrived, so I was able to shoot the scenes with him. This included the remainder of scene 2 and scene 1 as well as 3. Out of all the scenes with the dad, the one of him opening the door took the most takes. This is because he forgot to close the door after exiting or he walked away too fast. This is understandable and part of the filming process, so it ended up coming out nice after multiple takes. For everything shot outside, my group mate and I had to wait till it was dark outside. This way, we were able to film the scenes inside of Olivia packing her bag inside first. Something that was challenging was matching the distance away from the house in scenes like the establishing shot, and some scenes with the dad. Overall, this filming session went very well and I am excited to continue filming.

Filming Blog: Didn't Get to Film

Last weekend was the first weekend where I had the opportunity to film. Unfortunately, I was out of town so I was unable to meet with my group mate. Many students checked out equipment and began to film over the weekend. It was a long weekend so it was unfortunate that I could not film. Even if I did not film, I could not meet my group mate over the weekend. Instead, my group mate and I decided to work and plan ahead. I used the schedule created and checked  my calendar as well as my group mate's to determine when both of us were available. Both of us were able to determine multiple dates in which filming could be done. The first dates were February 22nd and 23rd where we will film scenes 1-5. Most or all of the filming will most-likely be done on the 23rd. February 24th through the 28th will be for editing the scenes that were filmed over the 22nd and 23rd. This will be done in class because that is the only place where the editing software is accessible. These edited scenes will be the ones presented during peer review. February 28th and 29th will be used to film the remainder of the final task (scenes 6-10). There will not be time to edit the last 5 scenes before peer review, so those will not be shown. Once the peer review is finished, the last five scenes will be edited March 4th to March 6th. The final task is due in the middle of April, so if more time is needed to edit the last 5 scenes it will be able to be done. After the editing of the final 5 scenes is complete, my group mate and I will go reedit the final task. We will take the constructive criticism from the peer review into careful consideration and used to better the final task. With this schedule, I am confident that there will be enough time to complete the final task to the best of my ability. I believe it was very helpful to determine the schedule, location, actors, etc. so that we can jump right into filming.