Editing the First Scene (Masking, Masking, and More Masking)

 

After a few days of slacking off, I decided to get to work on editing the first scene. I didn't expect it to be too much work and was looking forward to finding out how I was going to achieve the cloning effect the short film will rely on. Before I got to the few seconds that the dark figure was on screen, I found out that I may need to reshoot some parts of the first scene. The reasons why varied for each shot. The shot of me walking back to my desk with the plate of food was out of focus. The shot of me walking into the camera/toward my door was unusable due to the laptop I was pretending to be working on going into sleep mode. Despite a few of my shots being unusable, I was able to piece together enough footage to make up the first scene up until the parts with the dark figure. When thinking of ways to create my cloning effect, I decided to mask out my character and to add him into the shot. The problem with this was that I ended up having to go frame by frame adjusting the masking path so that my character was cut smoothly. This has been a grueling editing process.

The period of time that the dark figure appears is only 2 seconds. This doesn't sound too bad, but it gets worse when you factor in how many frames are in those 2 seconds. In those 2 seconds alone, there are more than 50 frames. This means that I have to make or manage the masking paths of 50+ frames. I appreciate the time to myself, but this was more than enough. While going through each frame, a few problems presented themselves. One of them being the shadow I casted on the wall. The way I was masking out my character, excluded anything else in the scene but him. This included the wall next to me and the shadow I casted on it. The other problem was my door. On my door, there were 2 jackets on a towel hanging there. One of those jackets is a part of the dark figure's costume, meaning that it isn't hanging on the door during the 2 seconds he's in frame. This means that my character's moving in front of the door will make the mask look awkward. A solution that I have for both of these problems is to finish masking out the main character, then to mask out the wall and door as well. Hopefully it works, I'm tired of masking things out.

Filming the First Scene

 

Today I recorded the first scene of the short film. The scene itself will most likely last less than a minute, but the filming took a lot longer than just a minute. Before I started filming, I had to prepare a plate of food to use. I had a choice of just putting together a sandwich or waiting until Thanksgiving to have a full plate of food. As you could tell by the date this is going up on, I didn't decide to wait. When I had the sandwich prepared, I had all I needed to start recording.

My story gave me no scenes to film before the first scene with the dark figure. The first scene of the film will be the dark figure's first scene. This meant, I had to shoot additional takes as the dark figure. He didn't do much this scene. All he does is bang on a table before disappearing. Despite being in the costume for about 30-45 seconds, my glasses had enough time to fog up inside the hoodie (which I was wearing backwards). In hindsight, I should've taken off my glasses before recording, but whatever. Alea iacta est. 

Other than the plate of food and recording as the dark figure, I had to constantly had to transfer a light bulb from one lamp to another. This is because one lamp had a white light bulb while another had a bulb with a yellow tint. I didn't want to have a yellow tint to my lighting, so I resolved to swapping the bulb back and forth depending on where I needed the lighting. In the end, filming went fairly smooth. I'm expecting editing it to go well too. I'd move onto filming the next scene, but it needs to be dark out for to do so.

Making My Own Website...

 

Link to the website:

https://secludedshortfilm.wixsite.com/mysite

To better spread my short film, I was tasked to create a website as well as a few social medias. The easiest part was making the social medias. All I needed to do was create a new email and the rest was smooth sailing. I'm not new to making social medias, that can't be said when it comes to making a new website. I've never made a website before. I've had the idea of making a website and had knowledge about the tools online for doing so, but never decided to go through with it. Setting up a YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook took around a half hour to complete. Setting up the website probably took around twice that time and maybe some more. Eventually, I got the site up and running, even with the few setbacks.

I'm 100% sure that making a website without the use of Wix would be much more difficult than with it. That doesn't make it a perfect experience though. Either at fault of my computer or the sign itself, the site would move slowly while using it. Clicking and dragging elements would make the process difficult. The menus felt a little bit clunky. Again, this was due to the website moving slowly. Whenever I wanted to change which tab I was working on, the drop down menu would take a few clicks to drop. Despite the slowness of the site, I enjoyed seeing the different things I could do with the website and links. I thought it was cool seeing that I was able to add links to buttons, images, and whatever else I wanted. There isn't much, but I was able to add a little bit of character into the buttons. All in all, an okay experience.

Storyboard for Short Film

 

Here is the storyboard for my short film. When drawing all of the scenes, I needed to change a few details. This was either due to me losing confidence in my ability or for clarity. I didn't have to make any major changes to the story, thankfully. While writing, I made sure to keep in mind the limitations that would come about from filming at home. I wasn't perfect in making sure filming every scene would be possible, but I did fairly well. Going through the script once more made me excited to start filming again. I'm a bit nervous and curious as to how pulling off the cloning effect is going to go. I know about what to do when editing the effect. However, there may be a problem with the lighting. The effect requires for the two takes to have similar, if not identical, lighting to be pulled off well. If I'm unable to access lighting gear, I plan on using laptop screens to light up my shots. This year, I should have better equipment than last year. Earlier this year, I was worried about not being able to get a camera from school. Thankfully, I've been given the opportunity to use a camera to film from someone else. Although it would be useful to have two cameras for recording, I don't plan on borrowing a camera from school. For obvious reasons. Other than a better camera, I've also gotten better at editing. Due to both practice and a new computer to edit on, I've gotten a little more competent in editing. My getting better at editing is part of the reason why I chose to do a script with a heavy emphasis on it.

Planning for Short Film

 

Before I'm able to start filming, I need to layout plans for more than just the story. So, before I start, I'll plan my schedule, where I'll be filming, who's going to be helping with production, what safety precautions I'll be taking, what props I'll be using, and what costumes I'll be wearing.

In comparison to my project last year, I have a lot more filming to do with this short film. Mostly due to the increased length of the project, but also because my plans will require me to record some scenes twice. Not only will I need more time to film, but I'll also have set times to film as well. Some of the scenes require me to be awake early in the morning or late at night. So, to make sure filming doesn't interfere with school in anyway, I plan on recording during the weekend. Of course, this isn't going to prohibit me from filming during weekdays; if there are scenes that I need to record and I have time to record, then there's no reason for me not to record.

As for my filming location, I will be filming around my house. Mostly, I will be filming in my room but there are scenes that require me to film in my kitchen or outside of my room. Although it isn't the most exciting place to record, it makes planning safety precautions easier. Because I'm filming at home, I can be confident that at least one of parents will be nearby. As a backup, my niece will also be here as well.

Last year, I filmed all of my projects with me being the only cast member. Along with the amount of group members I have, this will not change this year. The plans I have for filming will have me take on two roles and use editing to have those characters appear on screen at the same time. If it turns out that I've overestimated my editing skills, then I'll be able to pass off one of the roles to a family member.

I've explained how my filming at home will help cover the filming precautions, but there is something else that I plan on doing. Before I start filming, I plan letting everyone in the house that I will be filming. This will not only prevent anyone from walking in and ruining a take, but also to make sure that they are aware that something may go awry.

Finally, I the only props that I have written into the script are two plates. One plate will be filled with food and the other will be empty. There are two instances where the full plate will be used and one instance where the empty plate will be used. As for costumes, the main character will be dressed in casual wear up until the end, where they will be dressed for school. For casual wear, I have a wide selection of outfits to choose. For the school outfit, I'll have a backpack and an outfit that is more appropriate for school. The last costume I'll need is an all black outfit for the figure character. I already have the school costume and the all black outfits chosen.