The Audio

 Eva has finished editing the clips together. She has found a soundtrack but was not satisfied with it. She has put me in charge of finding a new soundtrack. The par Eva was having a problem with is the cheerful music in the beginning. We are looking for something cheerful yet, calming and welcoming but not something that would get you excited. We also didn't want something that was too boring to listen to. Eva was really struggling to find the right music but I had the idea that we could use Christmassy piano music since there are Christmas decorations in the background. In theory, the friends in the movie could be having some sort of Christmas party. As I applied the audio, it seemed like it would fit nicely but, to get the full effect, we will have to alter the track for it to fit our needs. As for the horror aspect of the soundtrack, we had no problem trying to find something that fit. I wasn't needed for this part of the audio editing since there are so many royalty- free horror music options.

Editing

 My editing skills are only strong in Photoshop and Illustrator so, I am leaving the majority of the editing for Eva. I can however edit the audio so, that is what I will most likely be doing. Eva created a new project in Premiere. I then imported it. The first thing Eva did was line up the clips. This took much longer than I thought it would. Last year it was much quicker. This was because they were only two minutes for the film last year. The hardest part, according o Eva, was lining up the conversation shots. This is because they all look the same. So, she had to watch all of the clips multiple times just to get the order. Currently looking at the footage I fear that we don’t have enough to get to five minutes. I am currently at 2 and a half minutes. I already used a bit over half of the footage.

Update: I finished lining up all of the footage. With place holders for the main titles, it made it to exactly five minutes. This is exactly where it needs to be. This was a great start to the editing process. Now that everything is lined up I have to add transitions, effects, and finish the titles.

Filming process

 This blog is a continuation of yesterday's blog. Looking back at the filming process it went very well and smoothly. A few things we did differently from last year is the amount of planning we did and the quantity of dialogue. The planning helped make sure everything went smoothly. I think my favorite scene was when Eddie scared Sean. I think it was a nice funny scene that lightened the original mood of the movie. That offered a drastic contrast to the ending. One thing I was not a fan of was filming under the scenes under the house. It was fine when we checked when we were scouting where we filmed. I did not anticipate how uncomfortable crouching the entire time we were filming would be. Eva seemed to be slightly bothered by the amount of bugs under the house. I on the other hand was expecting this.

I haven’t thoroughly reviewed all of the footage yet. I will be doing that tomorrow.  But, from what I can see the lighting was good throughout. One thing I am now worried about is making sure it is not choppy. A lot of the scenes were filmed separately and we have not done a film with heavy dialogue. But, I am confident that it will turn out well. I can’t wait for editing because I feel like our acting had much to be desired.

Vacant filming part two

 Today we filmed. Before everyone started showing up Eva made the fake blood. Eva mixed cornstarch, water, and food dye. I instructed her to microwave it so it would be thicker. With no surprise, It turned out great and was quite thick. At first, I thought there was going to be a repeat of what happened on Friday. Two people canceled on us once again. It was already two o’clock and I thought we would have to postpone again. But, I already had extras scheduled to arrive. This meant Eva did not have to act and she could be solely the cinematographer and director. It also means we had another person to check for any issues in the background of the shot. We changed the name of Allie to Alex to fit the gender of the extra person. The cast ended up being:

• Sean as James
• Andrew as Connor
• Michael as Eddie
• Esteban as Alex
• Trent as a Homeless Person

Filming started at roughly three o’clock. We filmed slightly out of order. We started off filming the flashback scene because it was the only scene at a secondary location. So, we walked down to the park. This scene took roughly twenty minutes, including walking there and back. We filmed the rest

"Vacant" filming: Part one

 Today we began the production of our short film "Vacant." Our actors were scheduled to begin arriving around 1:30 although the majority of them arrived between 2:00- 2:30. We probably should have scheduled our filming to start earlier. While we wee waiting for the rest of our actors to arrive me and Trent drove to the store to grab some food dye. Once we returned, the rest of our actors began to arrive. We had an arsenal of prop weapons to choose from so, it was Trent's job to choose which weapon seemed the most realistic for a homeless man to be carrying around. The options were a kitchen knife, a hammer, a sickle, and the prop gun we used last year. In the end, Trent chose the hammer because it is likely something a homeless man would be carrying around. It is a versatile tool that could double as a lethal weapon in need of self defense. After this, we got all of the scripts and storyboards together and began filming. We started with the park flashback scene since we just wanted t get it out of the way and it would be a good warm up scene since we don't have to maintain straight faces.

Filming Rescheduled

 We have officially rescheduled filming for Monday, the 21st. Everyone has confirmed they will be available on that day. We chose this day for multiple reasons. One, it is close to the beginning o winter break so many people might not have plans yet (which no one had.) A second reason is because we wanted an ample amount of time to edit since we weren't confident in the componence of some of our actors. Although, it is ironic I say this since my acting skills aren't that strong in and of itself. One of my biggest fears are that we might have to do some refilming since we may have some unsuccessful takes. Unfortunately, we d not have this commodity since a handful of our extras are only in Florida for winter break and will leave state soon after the da filming. To compensate, we will try to get as many takes as possible on the day of filming. We can only try our best to ensure that we will have enough time to capture enough takes and that all of the audio will come out crisp. If not we might have to resort to having actors do complete voice- over over their own voices.

Filming cancelled

Today we had to cancel our filming plans. Not all of our actors were able to make it. There must have been a communication error because our actor stated that he was unable to make the time he previously agreed to. There is nothing we can do about it now, however. We will just schedule our filming for a future date. This may have been a blessing in disguise since I have recently come to discover we are lacking the majority of our props. Hopefully we will be more prepared. To mitigate the threat of having to reschedule for a second time, I made sure we would have extras in case someone doesn't show up. Two actors outside of the class have been contacted along with three extras who will be contacted. When we do schedule our filming, it will likely be some time next week, this will be when everyone is on winter break and everyone is available. We will now have to ask everyone which days they will be available. Then we will be able to schedule a day.

Planning filming date

 Today I have set up the plans to film. Everyone in our group will be able to come but, we need at least one more actor, preferably two. We have arranged filming to be set on Friday afternoon. Everyone should be available since mid-Terms will be finished and no one has scheduled any other plans. We intend on inviting two friends who have either worked with us before or have previously taken an AICE media class. Are props will be minimal: we will need tattered clothes (the homeless man character), prop weapons (a hammer), and fake blood. Making fake blood shouldn't be too hard for us since we made some in our last film. It is simply food dye, water, corn starch and xanthan powder. After that we heat it in the microwave to thicken it even more. Safety is our number one priority so, we have made sure all of the ingredients in our fake blood are non-toxic and easily digestible. We will be filming at three main locations: in our house, our crawlspace and a park down the street. We have already made sure all of these locations are cinematically pleasing.