My CCR

This is the final version of my CCR

You can view it on Google Drive here and on YouTube here

Redemption Film Opening

This the final product for our film opening called Redemption

If the video doesn't play there is a link to it here on Google Drive and here on YouTube

Just Finished the Script for the CCR

Alright so, I just finished writing the script for the CCR last night and that means that I'm still on schedule. Im planning on having the CCR being around 7 to 8 minutes long in an interview format. In order to get the that 7 to 8 minute mark, I tried to get the answer to each question around 250 words long. I got this number by reading an article in the same speed that I would read the answers to the questions in the CCR. I read for about 2 minutes and then highlighted everything I read and copied and pasted it into a Word document where I did a word count and got it around 250 words long. The part of finding out how much to write and say was what I was worried about the most as might not be able to reach the certain time range. However, writing the script was easier than I thought it would be, as there was plenty of things for me to write about for each of the 4 questions. This is probably going to be my last post besides the CCR and the film opening itself.

Editing the Film Opening

Ok so we just finished editing the film opening last night and I think that it looks pretty good. Farjad and I edited exclusively on iMovie and it turned out better than I expected. I really thought that iMovie wouldn't have all the necessary options we would need to edit the film opening in the way that we wanted to. iMovie had a nice selection of transitions and title screens that I was able to use during the film opening to display things like he names of us, our actor, and our made-up production company called "Roulette Productions." Another thing that iMovie had that I did not expect was there very own sound effect bank. I expecting to have to search around he internet trying to find the right sound effects to import to iMovie to use in the film opening. Luckily, I was able to find all the sound effects I needed in their sound effect bank. There, I was able to find things like the heartbeat and footsteps sound effects and I was also able to speed up or slow down the tempo to match what I wanted in the film. There was one problem that I faced with iMovie though. When I first started editing the film opening and tried to save it, iMovie would just crash every single time. This worried me at first because I thought that I had lost my whole film and would have to find another editing software to use. However, after searching for solutions to fix this on the internet, I found out that all I needed to do was to update iMovie. Also, my project would be saved after iMovie updated so I didn't lose anything in the process. The next thing I'm going to do is finish the script for my CCR and film it and then edit it. After that, I should be finished with the entire portfolio project and upload it either Friday or Saturday.

Second Outing of Filming

So Farjad and I just finished filming the portion of the film opening where our main protagonist is in his room watching the sports tv show. This went down a lot smoother than when we went to film the part where the main protagonist is running on the track. There weren't really any obstacles we faced during the shooting of it, except for one thing. So in order to get our sports tv show to play from my computer to the tv, I needed to hook up an HDMI cord to them both. This meant that the computer had to stay in one spot and not move or else the HDMI cord would pop out. Also the only way to start and pause the sports tv show was to press the space bar on the computer itself. This was a problem as we were expecting to do the pausing and playing on the tv remote. Now what I had to do with most of our shots was to play the sports tv show before the audio for it had a chance to sync up with what was going to be happening in that certain shot. This made us have to play the show, then run across the room and quickly get in position to get our shot. We had to repeat this process for basically every shot, but other than that the filming of this scene was surprisingly quicker than I thought it would be. This will give us more time to edit the actual project and finish the CCR.

How the Actual Filming Went Down

In my previous post I talked about how Farjad and I set up my iPhone in a certain way so that it was at the perfect height and angle for the shots using random objects we found throughout the room. However, I never discussed what happened after we got the phone set up. Well, at first we wanted to practice our lines before we even started recording on the phone, so we went to the desk and did our best at reciting and memorizing the lines. Normally, anchors have the script of whatever they're talking about on the desk, so we didn't try too hard in remembering what we're gonna be saying in its entirety. After practicing for a few minutes we started the recording and naturally, it took several tries before we finally got a video where we sounded near perfect. After trimming the beginning and the end of the recoding down a bit, it lasted 52 seconds long. Farjad and I both thinks this length is perfect because in our storyboard, we wanted about half of the film opening to be the part where the main protagonist is practicing, then gets hurt, and the other half to be portion with the TV show and the main protagonist watching the TV show on the couch.

My iPhone's Makeshift Tripod

So I think that Farjad and I are done filming the TV show and it definitely wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, which was very surprising. However, there was one task that we had to do that was pretty difficult to do; setting up the makeshift stand for my iPhone. It took at least 20 minutes of us finding anything we could in the room we were filming in and trying to put it together in a way so that my iPhone wasn't moving and having stuff in the shot that wasn't supposed to be there. We used some random objects we found in the room like door stops, tape dispensers, and VHS tapes to try to get my iPhone at the perfect angle and height for the shot. The setup that worked the best ended up having my iPhone being propped up by two padlocks, which was placed on top of three VHS tape cases in order to get it at the right height. Sorry, I was going to include a picture of the setup, but we forgot to get a picture of it with Farjad's phone.

Plan for the Rest of the Week

Alright, so tomorrow Farjad and I are planning to go and film the TV show. We're going to wear suit jackets, dress shirts, and maybe ties to make it seem like we are actual broadcasters in our made-up show. The script is also done by the way, and it's approximately 50 seconds long as we both acted it out a few times. Hopefully, once I'm done trimming the videos from the portion of the opening where the main protagonist is practicing the length is close to a minute and ten seconds so it could be as close to two minutes as possible.

On the weekend, Farjad and I are going to get with our actor playing the protagonist and we're going to film the scene where the main character is sitting on the couch watching the TV show. This shouldn't be too hard as we really just need our actor to sit on the couch and watch the show when we put it on the TV.

Next, the editing is going to take place after school Monday or maybe even Sunday if everything goes as planned. I not really sure if the editing is going to be challenging. I'm thinking that the hardest part is probably going to be trying to match all the sound we're having in the practicing scene to the best of our abilities. Hopefully it isn't too hard, but if it is I think Farjad and I are capable of figuring out a way to do it.

Getting Ready to do the TV Show

Ok, Farjad and I have begun to start on a script for the sports talk show. Like I've said before on my previous posts, the sports shows that we want to base our show on usually have two anchors that discuss various topics in the sports world. The show that best represents this in my opinion is "First Take," as it has two anchors who discuss topics and sometimes get into arguments over certain issues. However, in our script, it would probably be best to make our two anchors agree on the matter of our main protagonist's injury being severe and that the timetable to return is unknown. By having our anchors agree, it gives the audience the feeling that the injury is very serious and there will be a long, hard road to recovery since both of the anchors agreed without any question.

For the actors for the sports talk show, I was thinking that Farjad and I would just play the role of the two anchors. We would probably wear a dress shirt, tie, and suit jacket as all of these are commonly worn by people in sports talk shows. I don't think that we would have to memorize the script either as in real life, anchors in sports talk shows have papers about the topic they're going to be discussing. Once we get done with the script, Farjad and I are planning on filming the TV show this week or this weekend at the latest.

Difficulty of Some Shots

Alright, so we finished the rest of filming for the scene of our main protagonist running and then getting injured on the track. Overall, I think that all the shots that we have are pretty good. Farjad and I decided on a new shot of the injury instead of the long shot, which I think helps the viewers to connect with our main character. However, some of our shots required us to get close to the main protagonist while he was running, while trying to keep the camera as stable as possible. Naturally this was extremely hard to do because when you move quickly, the camera will always shake.

The shaking effect was probably the worst with the shot of our main protagonist running at the camera. First, I had to tell our actor to run, but as slowly as possible because I would be backpedalling in front of him. Farjad and I took turns trying to find the best way to take this shot, and one of the methods that Farjad thought might work was if we held the camera in front of our actor's face and ran beside him. This turned out to be worse than the backpedalling method, as not only was it more shaky, but when we were running the camera would start to tilt to the side, ruining the shot. As of now, we're using the backpedalling method for this shot , but later on we might want to figure out another way to get this, maybe by filming while on a bike or something.

We Started Filming

Alright, so for our project, Farjad and I were planning on filming the part of the opening with the track at our school, Cypress Bay High School. However, when we got there, it was under construction and we couldn't go on it at all. We both knew it was under construction, but we both heard that it would be finished before spring break. This was a problem for us because we made our storyboard with the mindset that we'd be able to film on the Cypress Bay. For example, the establishing shot was going to be an extreme long shot and we were going to take it from on top of the "home" bleachers, but now we had to change it.

After Farjad and I got to the Cypress track and realized that we couldn't go on it, we decided to go to the track at Tequesta Trace Park. This track wasn't at a school so there were only small bleachers, which wouldn't work for our shots. Also, the track had no lines or rubber on it, which took away from the feeling that our main protagonist was in high school and on the track team.

Once we figured out that the Tequesta track wouldn't work either, Farjad and I agreed on going to the track at West Broward High School. This track was much better than the one at Tequesta and we could actually go on it unlike the one at Cypress Bay. This track also had bleachers that were bigger than the ones at Tequesta, although they weren't quite the same as Cypress Bay's we still got our establishing shot and it looks pretty good. We're definitely using this track for the rest of our film opening.