My first CCR filming is finally finished!!! Andreina and me got together to film our talk show CCR's, we had filmed mine first since hers was supposed to be a late night talk show. We actually decided that the host's would have a totally different look than what we actually look like, so we drew mustaches on each other! I only needed help with this CCR since it required 2 people and my other CCR will just be an individual film where I address "hate comments" which are actually the questions in disguise. Today, I only answered 2/4 questions, and my other CCR will have the other 2.

Here's a blooper!

As you can see from the frustration, this was one of many takes.

From the research for this CCR, one of the questions required a response on the engagement with audiences with content. I knew that mental health was a big issue in teens, ESPECIALLY in the most recent generations, which is part of the reason me and Andreina chose our target audience to be teens through young adults.

I obviously mentioned an important statistic I found which would also back up the clothing choice we chose in the opening.

Tomorrow will officially be our last day of filming for the opening, with the only scene left being the one with Alex's mom. Then, I'll immediately get to editing and will definitely be filming my second CCR by the end of this week.

Naming our opening

 Me and Andreina are working on our opening's title. I researched mystery movies and notices a common pattern, a lot of them are only 1 or 2 words. 

We also wanted to have some symbolism in the title, and wanted to symbolize on how Aurora kept fighting for Adaliah. We also took into consideration the symbolic meaning of a semicolon, meaning a battle against depression and mental health. Our idea is about putting a single word and then the semicolon as a title. Ex. here; or left;.

I searched up gone synonyms, which none of the words really worked for our title. However, I saw the word "end" and thought that using it before a semicolon may mean that even though Adaliah's story is done, Aurora's isn't. 

Looking through synonyms for end, I also came across remnant, which honestly sound good to us for the title:

-end;

-remnant;

-remains;

Honestly, we liked remains the most, so I decided to keep searching through the web of synonyms and look up similar words to "remains". The synonyms for remains were way too vulgar for us to use as a title and not make it sound like a thriller/ horror genre. 

Like using corpse, body, cadaver, or carcass would shape the intro into an entirely different mood than we want, we want sorrow and mourning, and using titles like that would steer our genre off. Also, remains can be interpreted in several ways that ALSO apply to the plot. Aurora is hanging on to what remains of Adaliah, Adaliah's death, and that Aurora barely has anything that remains of Adaliah. The semicolon is meant to symbolize both the mental health issues in the opening but also the fact Aurora continues fighting for her best friend's justice. 

We really like this title, and all the symbolism behind it.

HEY

Today me, Andreina, and our actors finally finished MOST scenes. Basically, our actor Alex's mom was still out of town and we couldn't film the scene she was in. Also, when filming, some of the storyboard original ideas had to be changed and tweaked so it would be more convenient for everyone and flow together.

Right now, we have 2 major scenes left. One scene at the library which we will film after school. With the scene that Alex's mom is in, we will be filming on Tuesday after school since everyone is available there. Andreina told me that she'll send me the footage either today or tomorrow, and we can start editing during class or after school together!

For my CCR's, I'll need to start filming my first one while editing the opening, since editing isn't something that I really need to leave the house for.

Here are some cute BTS photos and a video!

I actually a lot of fun filming today because making the "bruise" on our actor was so chaotic and my entire group got a laugh out of it! When we stopped at the mall, we even got a little carried away and bought some drinks.

Also for spring break, I'll be focusing mainly on these projects because I have NO school to keep me distracted with homework or other projects! I'm definitely going to be working on my second CCR idea so I can film over break, and edit in the last few days so everything will be finished by that time.

Until next time!

 CCR IDEAS

So when my teacher gave us a lesson on CCR's I already had an idea i THOUGHT was really creative. She had mentioned that her previous students had used trending interview styles and used those to do their CCR's, so I thought about what was currently trending. I realized that I have been seeing a lot of 'get ready with me' videos, where someone is just doing a basic thing (like makeup) and talking about other things meanwhile. I knew I could easily edit in some graphics and go in my bathroom, which would be a wonderful filming area for me. 

My original idea was me doing a 'do my makeup with me for my interview' where I would answer some questions. The second media product would be the actual interview, where I would answer the other questions. However, when I asked my teacher about the idea, she said that MANY other students had done this, and done it HORRIBLY. Honestly, I wasn't surprised that lots of other people had done it, but I didn't expect them all to be done bad! She said that I would probably be a talking head, and that the focus would be my actions in the video, not my responses to the questions. Honestly, I see the problems with it now

So for my second idea, I was thinking of doing a 'suggestion box' approach, where there would be paper in a box, I shake it, and it would be a hate comment or a simple question. To choose my specific question to answer, I was thinking of sticking my hand in the box off-camera, and picking up the piece of paper which is not in the box, making it look like I reached in the box to pick it out. With this, I can have all sorts of freedom with graphics or other things I could do, such as pointing to a part of the screen, where a graphic would pop up.

My other idea is still in the making, maybe I could make a paparazzi interview where I walk around while answering questions. This one's still a ROUGH draft so it'll probably change. 

Anyways, tomorrow will (hopefully) be our last filming day, where we can finish all the scenes!

 Finallyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!

So basically the script was finished days ago and we JUST began filming today. We decided to do most the house scenes at first since it's all in one area, too. However, our actor Alex's mom is out of town for the next couple of days so we have to postpone that part of the story. On Sunday we'll be filming all the scenes outside of the house, which is only a few. Here's some behind the scene shots!!

As you can see, our filming site looks pretty upper class. Since we obviously can't trash her house, I've decided that editing in coloring will be something we have to depend on. I was thinking about using extremely warm and grey tones, to make the scene feel smaller as well as a little ickier.

As you can also see, we decided to use a professional camera for this one, as the extra details may make the opening feel more realistic. For the opening flashback scene, Andreina actually provided a digital camera, to give it that extra depth. 

Next filming time is Sunday, which we will most likely finish filming! I may start editing before Sunday just to see how it looks, but I will definitely be reviewing footage to see if we have to refilm. Bye blog!

 STORYBOARD!!!

SO I've finished the whole storyboard. Honestly the story itself should fit around 2 minutes and ends on an unfinished conflict, so that makes it clear its only an opening. I've just sent them over to Andreina and now I'm waiting for her response! Obviously this storyboard is ONLY if the police actually let us film in there, there's still an alternate scene if they don't just in case! I'm a little scared because I feel like some of the opening might not reach 2 minutes, but if not I can always add more scenes that would build up the plot or characters.

Before next weekend, I plan to make a mood board of all the characters on Pinterest and make a document describing their outfits, their dialogues, how they'll speak, and personalities. When the time comes to film, the script and the document with character information can be printed and given to our actors! For Aurora's mom, we'll definitely be using Alex's (our actor) mom. 

Here's a run through of the storyboards:

I feel like the scenes in Alex's bedroom will be the longest, maybe something like 45 seconds overall since it has the most dialogue, but if the opening is too short, we can always add more scenes to the very beginning to create more of a relationship between them two or add scenes after Aurora leaves the police station!

Locations of filming:

Most scenes are actually right in Alex's house! That means a lot of our filming can be done on 1 day in 1 location. 

Bye blog!

 STORYBOARDING!!! This blog will be fairly short because I'll just be showing progress and my plan for tomorrow.

So I've storyboarded a good amount of the story so far and established exactly where we would film. Surprisingly, all the locations are either nearby or directly in Alex's house, SO convenient! The locations are written on a notecard + which scenes have the same locations. Once I finish the storyboard, I'll review with Andreina and then we'll start the script! A lot of the dialogue is written in the storyboard already so it shouldn't take long.

:List of locations to film

Storyboards:

I tried to incorporate the length that the scenes should be in the beginning, but as you can see it kind of got harder to predict by the second page, as some scenes could take longer than others. Even so, since it's kind of unpredictable, I could have the time stamps off and throw my whole project off. 

Tomorrow, I plan on finishing the rest of the storyboard so me and Andreina can just quickly go through it, revise it if necessary, and write the script. By LATEST the script should be done by Wednesday, which then we can start filming over next weekend. Since a lot of the locations are close together, it should only take a couple days and then we can get on to editing! But that's thinking too far ahead and not considering any difficulties we could possibly run into. 

Storyboard update tomorrow!