Entry #9: An Accolade for Animating

Mood: Mixed Up

Hey! This is going to be a shorter post as I'm in the middle of a few tasks for this project and do not have a ton of things to update about. I still have to wait a few days to discuss all of the project's problems with my partner; until then, there's not a whole much that I can work with.

Creating the Film Title:
As I have previously mentioned, the name of our film is Borderline. I posted an entry that showed a few of the title animations I was playing with on Keynote, which is what I ended up using for this new graphic:

The neon green background is there so that when I import the clip to iMovie, I can click "green screen/blue screen" and make the background transparent. Therefore, the title will be shown directly on some of the footage shot by Srishti and I. So far, this is one of the best animations I have created, but I'm still working on finding new graphic design websites to play around with. 

Placement of the Film Title:
Our next order of business is figuring out where the title should be revealed in the film opening. Since the editing isn't going very well, we still have no clue where the title would be the most impactful. Determining where to show the title is vital to the tone of our opening, so I'm hoping we can get it right. If we put it in the beginning, I feel like a creepy mood would be set early on which is good for the suspense. On the other hand, I feel like putting Borderline at the end of the opening, after the intruder has left the object in the house, can leave the viewer wanting to continue the film.

I should be updating my blog in a few days with news about how the editing is going and the official graphic for Borderline.

Entry #8: Intro Info

Mood: Determined

Hey! Today's outlook is pretty positive since I'm researching and learning, some of my favorite things to do (honestly, no sarcasm here. I'm a teenager that actually enjoys learning)! I'm trying to figure out which elements should be included in the introductory credits to a film, since it is something that we will need to include in our opening.

According to this Wikipedia page, there are several typical components in the opening credits of a film. Since the integrity of this database is often questioned, I decided to check the information myself. So far, my best luck has been in studying examples of drama films such as those listed below:

In Se7en's film opening, I copied down the sequence of credits and made a note of what each name was representing. The opening credits are for the people who had the biggest influence on the development of the film such as the director, producers, actors, editors, and designers (both set and costume).

I also did this with the opening credits for Memento, a thriller/mystery film. I found that many of the components included in Se7en's opening also appeared in this opening sequence.

After researching and going through the above examples, I have narrowed down the credits to some of the most relevant elements: crediting the actors, directors, editors, and studio.

Laura Boland. “Memento (2000) - Opening Scene” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 25 Nov 2014. Web. 26 March 2016.

Vaslav Tchitcherine. “Se7en | opening credits | 720p” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 18 Nov 2011. Web. 26 March 2016.

Wikipedia contributors. "Opening credits." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 10 Mar. 2016. Web. 26 Mar. 2016.

Entry #7: Frustrating Footage

Mood: Annoyed

Hey! Sorry about my mini hiatus, life has been getting crazy on me! I didn't realize how busy I would be this week, so I'm a little off track with the work I wanted to be doing for this project. Anyhow, I'm back and ready to resume working.

It's. So. Long.

For this post, I am going to discuss my progress going over the footage. *Sigh* To start out, I'm unsatisfied with our work, and it's definitely not the result of a lack of effort. We have plenty of cool shots that look great individually, but when all of the shots are put together in a sequence it looks, well, crappy. Just look at this list of things that need to be changed! 

Although some of these changes are fairly minor, I know that every little thing carries weight when it comes to creating a *masterpiece.* Some of the common problems with the footage are that some of the shots I loved so much before now come across as too dark, too blurry, or too shaky. I'm not sure if the quality was lost when transferring the video clips from the phone to the laptop to iMovie, but something has changed. We definitely need to figure out what happened and see if there's anything we can do to fix it without having to reshoot those shots. Hopefully this is something that can be remedied.

I'm using iMovie to edit and arrange the footage we already have from our shoot last week.

Next, I'm concerned that some of the footage we do have is irrelevant, which means that there are scenes vital to the flow of our intro that are missing. When watching all of the shots put together, the sequence doesn't completely add up. I feel like we need to entirely redo the scenes where the two female characters are ignorantly working on a project while the intruder enters the house. Their actions seem to be random and frankly, scripted, despite our efforts to make it seem natural. Ughhh.

Anyhow, when Srish returns from her trip I'll be sure to discuss all of our problems with her and see what we can do to fix them. I'm just hoping that we're both on the same page... I'll be sure to update about how editing is going when I've made some headway. See you soon!