Finallllly Filming!

Mood: AHHHAHBFESHJFKEJ

Progress:
Hiiii!!! I'm so hyper and excited right now! Kass and I just finished an AWESOME filming day. It was super cool to use the projector for filming, and we got some pretty nice shots. Sigh, filming is always such an interesting and fun time with all of my friends. Basically, this is how it went down:

First, we dragged our subjects (at their previously organized appointment time.. we're amazing) into our secret, dark filming lair.
Then, we never let them leave. You can never have too much footage... Just kidding!! We kept everyone for about 30ish minutes and filmed their dejected and empowered scenes, and then recorded their voices for the narration portion of the doc. Instead of pre-dividing who would say what lines, Kass and I decided to just record everyone saying all of the lines ("They call us... but they're wrong... we are..."). We decided to do it this way so that we could pick out the best voice for each segment so that those lines would sound powerful.

Let me introduce our subjects (a special thanks to them, please):

#1: Laurel Vernon

#2: Marina Maldonado

#3: Pedro Salom

#4: Mason Eiss

#5: Dani Altamiranda

Up next:
I still have to go through a TON of the footage to see what we can use, as we JUST filmed, and I can't wait to see what we've got.

We ended up having a ton of cancellations, as some last-minute issues came up with some of our friends; however, we planned for this problem by asking like 13 people to help us out, so we got the 5 that we did need! Worst case scenario, we can film an extra person or two on another day if we're missing any shots.

By the way, here is a picture of the slide Kass made to use for these projector scenes:

See ya next time!
Chey :)

I'm Just A Little Bit Caught in the Middle

Mood: Irritated

Hey there! I'm working on finalizing the script for my part in the extract, but I'm having some trouble making the final touches. I want the script to switch between being abstract and concrete throughout the piece, and it has been interesting trying to write in this way; however, it seems to be working! One issue that I am facing though is that my script keeps trying to end on me. By that, I mean that I keep writing a beginning, middle, and end that would fit into about a 4-5 minute time slot. Because the episodes will be longer than that, I don't want the extract to gloss over my story, as that is not how the actual episode would be. I am having a difficult time in extending the middle content because I don't want the extract to end on a weird note, so I'll have to plan that out. I am working diligently to resolve this issue, and the script should be completed by the end of this week. 

Also, there was almost a MAJOR problem that was narrowly avoided today. Our project is due April 16th, and Kass and I have planned out what portions of the project we need to get completed by certain dates. We have a week of spring break (I'm not going anywhere so I have TONS of time to work work work), but we still need to do many parts of this project together. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, Kass and I are using her house to film the intro to our doc in which we are using several of our friends as subjects. We have scheduled them for varying times tomorrow, almost like everyone has their own appointment times (we are very proud of ourselves for managing this). I have the projector packed and ready to go for tomorrow's fun day of filming that will (hopefully) go well! The problem was that Kass's boss told her TODAY that she has to attend some sort of workshop straight after school tomorrow, which is when our filming begins. Apparently, it's a mandatory thing, but Kass was able to get out of it by some miracle THANK GOODNESS. I don't know what we would have done, as many of our friends are leaving for spring break to various places, and Kass is even going to be gone for the first few days of it.

During school on Monday, Kass and I tried to shoot a bit around the courtyard of our school and see if we could manipulative our basic phones into producing some interesting shots. My phone is horrible at focusing, so I figured I could use that to my advantage to try and make some shots look like I'm intentionally doing focus pulls... hehe. We were just playing around and seeing what we could do in preparation for B-roll filming. I did get one cool little tester shot that I found to be superrr pretty:

I thought it would be super cool to get this dust from the ground to blow into the frame of our shot, as it would make it look abstract n stuff, but all that we ended up with was dirt in our faces, so... that was a no-go. I did get this cool chains shot though:

Anyhow, you'll definitely be hearing from me soon with updates on our filming and editing progress. See you then!

The accidental dust-inhaler,
Chey

"Filming"

Mood: Energetic

Hey there!!

Kass and I planned to start filming on Friday, and we actually have an 8 minute video of me making random facial expressions to go along with the narration (that we had not completely finished). Basically, we got ready to film the content for the 5 minute extract that involved me and set up a whole thingy for optimal lighting and filming, and then we realized how difficult it was to film without following a script completely. So, that led me to scripting for a good portion of the night, but it was super productive!! After writing the script, I timed and recorded it to see if it would work with our doc. It was about 3 minutes and 45 seconds, and the narration sounds really cool! I spaced out the words while I was speaking to create a more intense and dramatic tone for the doc, and I like it!! This is a small little excerpt from that script that shows the creative twist on my personal story: Muscles ignore pleads to rise from my haven of warmth, eyes shut tight to shield my heart from the realities of the world, dreams dance upon my eyelids, begging to see the light of day. I grant that wish.

Also, I found some awesome music from YouTube's Audio Library, a great source for music that I found last year, called "Their Story, They Seeing" that is copyright free (one of my favorite phrases, yay for free stuff)! I searched for "dramatic" music, and I found this amazing song. It will definitely add to our doc and maintain that same tonality created through the narration and followed by the visuals.

Going back to that failed filming attempt, Kass and I created the ULTIMATE set for filming. We wanted a plain background for our subject (me) where I am the sole focus of the shot, as well as the room we filmed in to be dark. So, we had to create that whole setup, which was super funny... just look at the pic below (that is, indeed, a phone flashlight inside of a jewelry box drawer, on top of a shoebox, resting on quite a few textbooks that happen to be atop of a nice set of drawers... lol). I also included a little clip of what the lighting looks like yayyy. Kass and I have recruited a good number of friends to record for our intro this Thursday, and we will pick the best 5 or 6 subjects and their shots for the doc. I'm excited for the filming and editing portion of this project, as everything will start to come together!

The beautiful and innovative lighting set up.

**A little side note, this dude Phil is my new best friend. In an article by SFGate, a few classes of high school teens were asked if the media portrays teens as they really are. My bffl Phil said "we cannot be represented by a stereotype. We are deciding our own identity," which I felt was a great statement that truly encompasses why we are making this documentary. We want to give people a glimpse into the lives of a few that make up Generation Z, people who make it great.

Until next time!
Chey :)