Starting the Editing Process!

I finally sat down to edit and I spent more time than I should have on the beginning of the film.

The opening was the first issue. I started with the driving scene since that’s technically where the story begins, but I didn't like it. The audience doesn’t know these characters yet, so thirty seconds of them arguing feels random. Althoug the original plan was to start with the TV News Report scene, I tried the car scene first anyway just to get a feel. Although in the end, I ended up putting the TV news report scene first

I then spent another 20 ish minutes aligning, cutting, and making sure the clips fit well together and weren't abrupt in between. It wasn't hard, but it was kind of a tedious task, although it came out well in the end.

    (Photo of timeline)

Sound ended up being the biggest challenge. I’d focused too much on the visuals that I didn’t realize how uneven the audio was until I started editing. Some lines were too quiet, and others had background noise I didn't notice while filming. Cleaning that up took more time than I expected, but it made a huge difference.

This was a pretty short blog, and the editing was brief because my group and I were mindful during recording how the clips would come out. This made the editing load much easier. Although, I still have to figure out the music/audio tracks, and thats proving to be a real big problem.

Group meeting #2

Today in class, we got together in groups to do group meetings. Each group has members that were all a part of different projects which allows for multiple perspectives on our project and also allows me to share my ideas to other people's projects. This group meeting I looked forward to because this time I have work to show for and not just ideas, so we had real problems to solve instead of just hypothetical ones, and I was excited to share my all the filming I had so far.

We went around sharing where everyone was at with their projects. When it was my turn I showed some clips from the library scene and the car scene. The feedback was actually useful, someone asked how I would edit 2 clips, one of the inside of the car and one of the outside, so that it looks like both clips represent the same time in the film. This made me think about what I was going to do, and the other group members helped refine my ideas too. 

We also talked about pacing because we were all worried about hitting the 2 minute mark. I found out that with the clips I have that I wasn't doing bad on time. Someone suggested that I could extend the driving scene with more which could work, but I also don't want to drag it.

After we went over my project, we went over another group member's project which was about a typical romcom except the first 2 minutes of the scene were a girlfriend and boyfriend would have an argument and break up. However, I pointed out that 2 minutes was not enough time to fully capture an argument that warrants a break up, and thats on top of the fact that there still needs to be credits and an opening scene. I gave the idea that instead of an argument it could be that the girlfriend gets ready for the first minute to go out with her boyfriend, but when they go out to like a party, the girlfriend sees her boyfriend with another girl and that could be the end of the film. I felt that would fit much better in 2 minutes, and the group member agreed and she changed her idea of the film. I gave good insight and guided her in the right direction so she could make her own ideas but now she would be more mindful about her time restraints.

After this meeting I left feeling motivated instead of stressed. I was happy with how it turned out and I got some useful insights into my project and I was also able to help others with my ideas.

Of All the Scenes to Record

Of all the scenes to record, this was the shoot I was most nervous about. The scene is simple, our two field agents are driving to the location and it's supposed to show how unprofessional they are despite looking serious. They're arguing about directions and are talking about stiff irrelevent to their job. But to film this I needed someone to drive my car while I filmed from the backseat. This was because my car was the only one that looked like it could be an undercover cop car.

So I handed my keys to my group member, someone who I've only met like three times out of school. I hesitated a lot because I really didn't want anything bad happening to my car but I realized, we were in a pretty open area that wasn't crowded so I decided it was okay. We did loops around a neighborhood around eight times to get different angles and shots and every time he hit the gas I got nervous. My car survived thankfully, but its weird being in the backseat of your own car while its being driven.

Although, while filming we almost made a big mistake. Our group and I had this idea to use a song in the background playing from the car which the characters would sing as it fit perfectly with their vibe and unprofessionalism. Although, thankfully the first few shots we did, we endedup re doing them anyway, but by like the 4th re try, one of my group members made a good point saying "wait this is copyrighted, we cant use this." I was really bummed out becasuse the song added a layer to their character in such a good and subtle way, but it wasn't the end of the world and im glad we caught that before we finalized the shot.

We ended up just having to shoot the scene in like silence as we couldn't find a copy right free song that actually worked sadly. We ended up finishing the shot and we were happy with how it came out so we decided to call it there for day 1 of filming, as we had limited time but still managed to get a lot of recording done.

Library scene

So we had this scene where two government officials need to be talking in some kind of official-looking room, and originally I was going to shoot it in one of our grup member's house,s but we realized that wasn't going to really work as no one's house looked "professional" enough. Then someone suggested the library study rooms, which we all thought was brilliant, but we also ended up going to the library without a reservation just hoping for an open room, very unplanned. This is becoming a common theme throughout this production.

We showed up at the library at like 12 on this past Saturday with no reservation, hoping something was free. I had all the recording stuff in my backpack, and only another group member and I went up to the front desk to be less intimidating (and because we looked the most mature), asking if any study rooms were available. The person working there was actually very nice and checked to see if any rooms were available and luckily one was.

The room itself was actually a decent place to shoot our scenes as when you turned the lights off the room became very mysterious. We had two hours to record before we could be kicked out, I say could because we would only get kicked out if someone asked for the room after we already were there for 2 hours.

We did the scene maybe six times total due to bloopers. This scene contained just dialogue, two guys in suits talking about the operation they're planning, but the whole joke is that they're being super serious and right at the end, one of the officials curses and says "not these 2 idiots".

I was not rushed, but I also didn't want to take up the entire time slot we had because I knew someone else had probably would ask for this room as it was the afternoon on a saturday, and I felt bad taking a study space just so we could film our project.

Thankfully, we finished all our recording after like maybe an hour, so we actually had a lot of time to spare and weren't rushed. This made me happy as I feel like since we weren't rushed our shots came out way better.

Production logo

While doing the project, my group and I realized we need to make a logo for our production company, which endend up being way harder than I thought it would be. I took the role of making the logo, and at the start I kept staring at the blank canva screen hoping to get any ideas but it was almost like I hit a writer's block without even doing any work

I started by just googling "production company logos" to get some inspiration and most of them are either way too complicated or ugly, and there was really no in between. I saw a lot of the film reel with the company name next to it type of logos which works I guess but felt kind of lazy. Then I saw some that were like super minimalist which I liked but also felt like they were trying too hard. I couldn't really find that middle ground.

Although, the idea of a minimalist logo sounded easy and doable for me, so I decided to go that route. My group and I decided to do something with a bird as we thought it would look cool, and also came up with the name "White Hawk Productions" to go with it. After that we looked for royalty free photos of an eagle silhouette and finally found one we were happy with and came up with this as the final product.

My Group and I went back and forth on whether to do "WhiteHawk" as one word or "White Hawk" as two but the two word version looked cleaner when I typed it out. I put "WHITE" in a black box because I wanted a sort of contrast that I saw in many minimalistic example logos, and then "HAWK" just floating next to it in the same font. The "PRODUCTIONS" text underneath was to make it clear the logo was for a production company. I used a different font for that part to give it contrast with the main title font.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Is it perfect? No. Could a professional designer do 10x better in 20 minutes? Absolutely. This was the easy part, as now I need to figure out how to animate it into the film opening without it looking like a slideshow.

Media Theory Integration

For this blog post, I’m focusing on the Uses and Gratifications Theory and how it connects to my project. This theory is based on the idea that audiences choose what media they consume based on what they want to get out of it, rather than just watching something passively.

A big reason people watch action-comedy films is for entertainment. Audiences want something fast, funny, and easy to follow. This fits my project well, since the opening is meant to be chaotic and exaggerated instead of serious or realistic. This means that people will watch my film (hypothetically) to get entertainment out of it, as it's an intro that is meant to be taken at face value with not much deeper meaning. This is perfect for audiences who are looking for a quick laugh and a break from serious movies.

The two main characters play a big role in this. In films like 21 Jump Street, the audience gets enjoyment from watching two characters repeatedly mess things up in situations that are supposed to be serious. Their mistakes and reactions are what make the scene entertaining. In my project, the undercover agents are hilariously bad at their job, and that incompetence is meant to be the main source of enjoyment, especially as they were hyped up to be on level with the best of the best.

Another great example of a film that uses this theory and is similiar to my project is Rush Hour

Rush Hour is a good example of Uses and Gratifications Theory in action. Again, the film centers around the chemistry between its two main characters. The 2 characters constantly bicker and misunderstand each other which is obviously not good for solving a serious crime like they were tasked to do. Although this also creates a sort of mystery that captivates the audience, making them wonder how these 2 characters will get over their differences and come together to actually solve the crime. Just like 21 jump street, a lot of the enjoyment comes from watching these guys fail, argue, and accidentally make situations worse. This movie I feel along with 21 jump street are huge inspirations and great examples of movies that use this media theory very well, as both movies involve real crime and danger, but audiences watch them mostly for the comedy aspect.

Another part of Uses and Gratifications Theory is personal identity. Even though the characters are exaggerated, audiences can still relate to them in small ways, like feeling unprepared or relying on someone else when things go wrong. This makes the characters more likable, even when they clearly don’t know what they’re doing.

Overall, my film is meant to satisfy audience's wants of a humuours, comedy centered movie with mostly eveything being face value with no deeper hidden meaning or confusing plot. This theory is definitely an easy one to implement into my film, but fits well and is not too complicated. The film will be advertised as comedy-action, and the audience will get exactly what they clicked for.

The Script

 The moment you have all been waiting for...

THE SCRIPT!

To be honest its not done and its in a very early rough draft stage, and only the first 2 scenes have been written. Now this is not out of procrastination but rather my group members and I spend a lot of time rewriting scenes as we think of new ideas, probably more time than we should be spending. Although after one whole class of brainstorming, refining, and taking in suggestions from other groups, we finished a rough draft of the first 2 scenes we are proud of. I say rough draft as we are always open to new changes if need be or if we think of something that we think would improve the script and how it develops tone, character, or even if its humurous. Enough with the talk, here is Scene 1.

Scene 1:  

(Extreme Close Up on News Reporter talking on a screen about the Major Fraud happening in the state of FL with a slow zoom out capturing the room with the person doing the Fraud and we can see his setup but face hidden) 

 

News reporter: “We are interrupting the regular program for urgent news that just came in, Investigators just revealed they have discovered a huge embezzlement fraud occurring right here in the state of Florida.” (Extreme Close Up)                                    

News Reporter: Agents and officials are moving fast to identify the person behind this major fraud 

(Zoom out to see “criminals” figure watching the news report) 

News Reporter: Local government officials are preparing statements which will be aired live soon

(News reporter keeps babbling and the sound fades out during the zoom out) 

(Low Medium Shot of Criminal in his dark messy room with multiple monitors and the tv screen playing the news and we can see him on the phone. Bank Accounts and Stocks on the monitors.) 

Criminal/Mystery Character: “Transfer the money to my account in the next 3 hours”. (Very Low Faint Voice) 

Sound: Low intense music when camera fully zooms out, News channel still playing, Criminal

    -END SCENE

While the script itself is short, the stage directions give instructions on what the scene is actually going to look like. We planned this scene so that it relies more on the setting, camera angles/movement, and overall lighting to convey tone rather than rely on dialogue. This is very similiar to movies like John Wick where their opening relies on visual storytelling. Although the script for scene 1 looks short, we plan for it to last around 15-30 seconds with the use of slow camera movements, and also we assume that we will have last minute changes or even improv when recording scenes so we added extra time when making these scenes. to give room for creative freedom. Now for Scene 2.

Scene 2: 

(Medium shot of government officials in a room with low lighting talking about who to send to arrest and cuts to a close-up of the case files which shows the main 2 characters.) 

Government official 1: Boss, we just got word of our guy's whereabouts, we need to act fast if we want to catch him, but I have bad news.

Government official 2 (Boss):  Well whats the bad news, and why haven't we sent our 2 best undercovers yet? This shouldn't be a question to ask me; those 2 should have already been on their case.

Government official 1: Thats the bad news, our 2 best guys just left for a mission up in Tallahassee for a wanted drug trafficker fugitive around 5 days ago and contacting them now to come down to Fort Lauderdale would mess up their whole operation and they could potentially take too long to get here and the guy we're looking for now could get away in that time. That could jeopardize 2 missions and we dont have time for that.

Government official 2 (Boss): God damn it just send someone. This man has stolen billions from our government and its citizens send anyone for Christ's sake. Who is our next best choice for finding this guy?

Government official 1: Take a look boss, these guys have a 100% catch rate being undercovers, they have experience in the Fort Lauderdale area and already have some ties with powerful people, I think they would do the job right.

(Offical 1 opens a case file showing the two main characters and shows the boss)

(Sound: dialogue with theme song as case file opens)

   -END SCENE

Now this part of the script is not lengthy to say, but it relies heavily on dialogue to get the message across. Theres not much to say about this as this scene is stritly used to introduce a problem, and a "solution," which actually just turns out to be a bigger problem as the agents sent to catch this guy are numbnuts and just get themselves captured creating an even bigger problem. I think this scene sets the stage for irony as it plays up these 2 characters as some hotshots who can catch this evasive criminal, but in the next scene it immediately cuts to the 2 agents pulling up to the address of where the criminal is, but then missing the house and having to reverse, which immediately acts as a sort of comedic releif and is really where the intro of the film starts.

I am very excited to see where this script goes, and of course, changes will be made. This is by no means a final draft, so if you're reading this dont be surprised if any dialogue, sound choice, or anything in the mise-en-scène in the film differs from the script.

Project Summary and the Main Inspiration

For my project, the film starts off with 2 undercover government agents trying to catch the criminal behind one of the biggest fraud cases in Florida. The genre is action-comedy, and to be able to pull this off the plot of the intro is that while the mission itself is serious, the two characters are not. They are uncoordinated, careless, clumsy, unprepared, and most definitely not the most intelligent of the agency. The opening I plan to clearly and instantly introduce these characters as the clumsy, unprofessional people they are and how they dont take anything seriously. 

Now you may be thinking, wow this sounds a lot like 21 jump street...

Well...

You'd be right, as the main inspiration for these two characters is 21 Jump Street, specifically the dynamic between the two main characters 

This movie was always a favorite of mine growing up because I thought it was so funny when I watched it, and always seeing short clips of this movie on platforms like TikTok always makes me laugh. On top of that, this movie is almost like a staple in the comedy genre, as it inspired many movies to come after, and honestly, I would even argue that this movie changed the course of comedy in all movies. Due to the fact that my film is comedy-action, I thought that the perfect inspiration would be this movie. Honestly, taking this movie as inspiration almost feels like an homage that keeps this movie's legacy alive, showing how even though this movie is old its still a huge influence on the comedy industry in today's age.

What makes that film work is how well the characters play off each other. One mistake usually leads to another, and instead of fixing the situation, they make it worse together. Their chemistry comes from how out of sync they are with what they’re supposed to be doing, and that's what makes the movie so funny as they are supposed to be sophisticated undercover agents who are professionals. This is exactly what I want to establish within my characters in the film. To try and recreate this I watched the film and interviews on the characters to really try and understand how the directors came up with their jokes in the movie so I could hopefully get inspiration to make my own jokes that aren't directly taken from the movie.

The best part is that the humor doesn’t come from jokes being said directly, but from how the characters react to each other and the situation. Simple actions like going to the wrong house, ringing the doorbell, or bringing the wrong gear (Which are concepts/ideas of what I might've made the two characters in my film do) make it funny as it contrasts with usual professionalism that comes with being an undercover agent, which reveals how confidently wrong the characters are.

Overall, I really want to put the focus of the film on the chemistry between the two characters as my goal is to make the film something to laugh at, as I believe everyone can enjoy comedy. I also believe that this type of movie genre of action-comedy has a lot of creative freedom that comes with it, so I am very excited to create the script with my group for this film. Aswell, this genre also leaves a lot of room for improv, which I personally love in movies as I feel they always come off way more funny due to them being more natural compared to just being read off a script.

Group Meeting

Today in class, we held a group meeting between members of different groups to exchange feedback. I was very excited for this day as I wanted to get a lot of constructive criticism to make my project as good as I can. Although I had a lingering thought in the back of my mind that my idea might not be as clear to others as it is to me, so I came into this meeting hoping for some constructive criticism.

The meeting was held, where everyone had time to explain their project one at a time and then receive feedback from the group, and the member speaking would also share their blog posts to show their research. I went last during the meeting, which I think was good, as listening to other projects first was helpful because it gave me a better understanding of how different people are approaching the same assignment and made it easier for me to articulate my ideas to my group members as straightforwardly as possible.

When it was my turn, I explained my project idea, the genre, and what I wanted to establish in the opening. At first, I tried not to overexplain so I could see what people first thought of, but I realized my original idea was very broad , and my group members helped me realize this.

My original idea was to make a serious action film opening where two characters would do a sort of house raid to catch this high-profile criminal, but I was also open to the idea of the house raid actually just being a sort of practice raid for training if that makes sense. However, the other group members brought up great points and made me realize that I would need good actors, props, and a certain level of camera knowledge/skills to make this film opening good, which my group and I do not have. So instead, the idea of doing a comedy-action opening instead was suggested, where the two characters doing the raid are these two doofuses who are hilariously bad at their job, which would make the film way more lenient when it came to the whole aspect of seriousness, which also meant it required less camera knowledge/skill than the other film idea. Aswell, I feel like this idea is more fun, which would make me want to work on this project more, which I feel would end up in me wanting to make sure every aspect of the film is perfect.

After we talked about my project ideas, we started to circle back on the other members' projects again. This time, however, we started giving raw feedback and advice/suggestions on other's film ideas. I personally had a lot of ideas to share, and honestly, this part of the meeting was fun as I always love giving feedback. Some of the project ideas the other group members felt incomplete in certain areas, so I elaborated on parts I thought they were lacking on so I could hopefully give thema view of what I envisioned their project to be like and how I thought they could improve it.

Overall, the meeting was really helpful. It gave me a better idea of what’s working, what needs improvement, and guided me in the direction of a comedy-action style film. And of course, we had to take a group photo for the memories

Project Schedule and Timeline

 Making A Timeline

To keep myself on track and accountable for my project, I will be creating a timeline that I will strictly follow over the course of the next 8 weeks I have as of writing this blog. This will make the project a lot easier (at least for me) as due dates create a sense of urgency. This class especially has shown me how effective creating a personal timeline can be to reduce procrastination

For the timeline, I plan to get all of the research aspects of this project to be done by the end of the first week, so I can give myself enough time for quality planning and to also give time to get props, which I plan to do in weeks 2-3. After that, weeks 4-5 will be spent on the filming/production. Week 6 will be spent editing and then weeks 7 and 8 will be spent on final revisions and my CCR respectively. I dedicated at least a week to each final revisions and my CCR so I can make sure I am happy with my portfolio project and to ensure its quality.

All of that in timeline form looks like this

TIMELINE

• Week One { 1/16 - 1/23 }
• Research genre
• Research movies/tv shows  in my genre
• Week Two{ 1/26 - 2/1 }
• Research camera, editing, and post production techniques for said genre
• Start to plan the script/video

• Week Three { 2/2 - 2/8 }
• Continue Planning all week
• (Locations, extra actors, storyboard, script, props, recording days, outfits)
• IF DONE PLANNING EARLY, start recording early

• Week Four{ 2/9 - 2/15 }
• Start recording (or continue if recording started earlier)
• Filming
• Foley Sounds
• Voice Overs
• Scenery
• Locations/Backdrops
• Actors

• Week Five{ 2/16 - 2/22 }
• Continue filming
• Foley should be complete by now (only if needed)
• Most of the minor shots should be done by now
• Gives time for shot re-takes 

• Week Six{ 2/23 - 3/1}
• Start editing
• Follow examples from TV shows/movies I researched
• Analyze video recordings
• Add sound effects
• Add non-diegetic music

• Week Seven{ 3/2 - 3/8 }
• Finish editing
• Final revisions
• Check editing for any mistakes
• Make sure all VO's, music, foley, or sound effects fit the film

• Week Eight{ 3/9 - 3/17 }
• Complete CCR
• Research 
• Create the reflection
• Analyze, edit, and review my CCR before submission
• Make sure everything is completed and good quality
• Submit everything
• Relax 😎

This is the timeline that I plan to stick by for my portfolio project. I know that nothing in life is guaranteed, so to compensate for this in my timeline I've left extra time between weeks just incase of any roadblocks or unexpected setbacks I may face.