Entry #6: Mystical Music

Mood: Jammin'

Hey! After filming all the good stuff, we looked into YouTube's audio library, a place filled with copyright-free music and music that the creators have given permission for people to use. We found two possible songs that we think would create a great atmosphere in our film opening. 

The first song, called Chase Pulse Faster, is for the scenes related to the intruder breaking into the house. It will definitely add an eerie feeling to the scenes, which I'm excited about. It's so interesting to see how all of the sounds work together to convey a feeling to the viewers! Something that I loved about our footage is that the natural ambient sounds created the mysterious vibe we were going for. The creaking gate, plane flying overhead, crickets chirping, and grass moving all helped to establish the intruder's vibe.

The second song, called On the Table, is an upbeat track meant to establish the youth and obliviousness of the two teen characters. We want to use it as background music as if they were playing it themselves because it is a normal thing for teenage girls to do. We want the scene to seem as relatable and natural as possible because so many films incorrectly depict teenagers.

"Audio Library." YouTube. Google, n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2016. 

     <https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/music>. 

Chase Pulse Faster by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100384

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Entry #5: Filming Fun

Mood: Exhausted 

Hey! Spring break just started and lasts for two weeks, so Srishti and I decided to film some scenes for our opening. She's leaving for almost the entire break, so we wanted to get as much done as we could last night.

As I think I've previously mentioned (or not), the premise of our opening is that an intruder is breaking into the main character's house while she is working on a group project with a girl from her school. The unsuspecting girls are busy talking when the intruder enters the house and leaves an object inside of the house. All of these scenes take place at Srishti's house at night. We were super scared about having to film at night because we know how unreliable flash can be with our phones, but we hoped for the best. One of my favorite shots from our 5 hour (yes, FIVE HOUR LONG) filming session was when the intruder opens the gate to enter the backyard of the main character's house. It came out super creepy, which is definitely the vibe we're going for. Here it is:

It was pretty interesting getting this shot. We were playing with a few different angles and lighting "techniques" (aka me holding a bunch of flashlights up while Srishti filmed) until this shot came to life. The creaking of the gate also added to the overall suspenseful mood, which is super convenient; that way, we don't have to add random sound effects to make the scene come together. 

This is the object left behind by the intruder.

For our opening, we needed to find an object that we could draw a special symbol on from the intruder (reminder: the intruder leaves an object with a symbol in the house). The symbol is something we found online at this website and knew that it fit our film. We were walking around her house and, alas, found an old medicine bottle that we could use as the object to place the symbol. Another thing we had to do in order to film was create an ideal "set" to do a mugshot of the main character's friend (we can call her character #2), a shot that we thought would be fun to add since these two characters are busy working on their own film project, how coincidental. ;) Overall, we created a few items to film, and we learned how to make everyday objects work for us to create a cool product.

***Side note: Filming was an absolute blast. Not only did I get to dress up as a crazy intruder since our recruited actress could not stay for the whole time, but Srishti's neighbors found us lying in the street, filming, and dressed as intruders at 1 o'clock in the morning. What an unforgettable moment!

"The Magick of Candles." HubPages. HubPages, 7 July 2011. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.  <http://hubpages.com/religion-philosophy/TOOLS-OF-THE-CRAFT-CANDLES>. 

Entry #4: Tangoing with a Title

Mood: Explorative

I may have forgotten to mention a recent development with our project… We decided on a title! Our film is called “Borderline,” a reference to a character that wants to be noticed by the few people who have had interactions with her. She is on the borderline with everything in her life: After a childhood full of neglect, this character (still unnamed) only wants some attention before she *possibly* makes her exit from the world. As many say, she wants to “go out with a bang” and wants spectators so that she doesn’t feel so alone. She is so close to changing many lives all at once. She is the character that reflects the title of our film.

As of now, we are focusing on how to create the title visually using font, size, color, and position of the letters. Since neither Srishti nor I have ever created a title graphically, it will surely be a learning process, as much of this project is. I am starting to research effects with titles in iMovie.

Since I’m a newbie and have access to only a few programs, I looked up some tutorials such as this one about how to apply effects to titles using Keynote and iMovie. Here are some photos where I was playing with the effects and fonts.

On Keynote, I also found some really cool effects under “animate” that I think can really help us with creating the title for our film. I’m currently exploring the different effects, trying to find one that fits my vision. Here is a short clip of one of the cooler effects:

I like the movements, but I’m still searching; this one isn’t as, I don’t know, creepy as I pictured it? Anyway, hopefully I’ll have a cool title to show in my next entry. Until next time! 

Gabrielle Marie. “Drifting Text Effect iMovie.” Online video clip. YouTube, 30 Dec. 2014. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.