Filming on the Other End of the Camera

 

Unlike yesterday, I was actually in frame while recording today. I wrote about filming the lines of the interviewer yesterday and today I filmed on the other end of the camera. This time I was playing the interviewee. The worries I had yesterday about the film all falling on my acting have been mostly subdued. I feel as though I've done a good job acting both naturally and unnaturally at the same time. By that I mean, the character on screen isn't too far off of how I would be if I were in that situation. However, he is still a lot more nervous and awkward than I would be. One thing that made its way into my acting from how I act normally is my hand movements. When speaking formally, I tend to move my hands a lot to help explain to subject better. This tendency is more than represented in my acting.

So far, I've recorded all of my lines up until I switch into the Dark Figure costume. It took me a while to figure out what camera angle looked the best and what to do about the lighting reflecting off my glasses. In the end, I did the best I could and settled with a decent angle. Not much I could do about my glasses. It'd be impossible to sneak a look at the script without it looking horribly obvious without them. All I need to do now is record the second half of the interview, edit it all together, and render the final products. Assuming there will be no need for any reshoots, of course. I would've finished recording the full interview before blogging, but my camera died. Anyways, I expect to need to do a bit of problem solving during the editing process. I want to include to clips in the film, but I've only made room for one in the script. I doubt I'll need to rewrite a portion of the script, but I don't have any idea of where to fit in the second clip. I'll figure that out when the time comes.

Filming! I Didn't Know I Still Did That!

 

Before jumping into the actual filming, I had to record some lines. These lines are meant to be that of an interviewer. In the script, I wrote the film to play out as an interview of the producer of "Secluded." To accomplish that effect, I needed to have an interviewer, obviously. To preserve the spirit of "Secluded," I opted to have myself be the interviewer and to have my voice be cut into the film to make it seem as if I was asking myself questions from behind the camera. To make the audio sound as natural as possible, I set up the camera and sat a fair distance behind it. Which is why the picture above is of an empty chair. It's a picture taken while filming, yes, but all I filmed was just a corner of my room. What I'm going to do next is actually act out the interview as the interviewee, i.e. myself.

I'm a little nervous about playing the part myself, seeing as there's so many aspects to it. I need to act as I would, but at the same time play up some of my more negative attributes. I need to seem even more obsessive with the project than I really am and I need to seem a lot more embarrassed by some of the mishaps that have occurred. Not only does my acting play a role, but I also need to worry about the audio as well. I'll need to get deep into production to see whether I should go for clear audio when recording as the interviewer, or if I should record in the same environment to help it blend in more. In comparison to other microphones I've used, the microphone on my camera is a lot more sensitive than any other. It can pick up background noise from other places in the house and really likes to amplify the noises of my air conditioning, even when I don't hear it. I expect my voice to come through clearly. When I was re-enacting events for the mockumentary, my voice was clearer beyond my expectations. The problem lies with the background noise. In any case, I'll figure it out once I dive deeper into filming.

Editing, Finally

 

While rewriting my short film, I planned for there to be cutaways throughout. Clips of some mishaps that occurred while filming were specifically what I wanted to include. While I was done writing for the day, I actually recorded some recreations of those mishaps. Today, I took the time to edit them. Most of them didn't require much work. All I needed to do was add captions. The one clip I did need to edit a bit was the clip where I break a lightbulb on accident. I didn't have any footage of me actually breaking the lightbulb, so this was one of the clips I had to reenact. To make things clear, I didn't actually break a lightbulb or burn myself while recording the clip. When it actually happened, I didn't burn myself then either. As for breaking the bulb, I was completely fine afterward. My hand was protected and my parents were nearby.

Alongside these clips, I want to include the first scene that I recorded and edited. I plan on working it into the film as an intro of sorts. I'll have a portion, if not all, of it play, then cut to my character speaking about it. "Then I had to cut a lot of out of focus clips, leading to that scene being unusable." This line, which will also talk about what happened during production, will introduce my character. I don't expect everything to be related to real life experiences, but I'll feel better about the product if I can bring in those experiences naturally. I want to make it seem like the production of this film was filled with mishaps and slapstick chaos, while not being over-the-top and unbelievable. It'll take some workshopping, but I can do it.

The Writing Blog?

 

Yes, the writing blog. Instead of blogging about filming scenes, I'm here to talk about rewriting my short film. Throughout the short filming process of my original story, I've gone through trials and tribulations time and time again. While I could work through it and make the original story, I imagine doing that would lead to a final product that I'm not happy with. So to avoid this, I've decided to rewrite the story I want to tell and take a more meta approach to it. Instead of filming a story about a shut-in being haunted by his past, I'm going to film a story about the filming of the story about a shut-in being haunted by his past. I want to make a mockumentary about the production of this short film. I feel as if this will lead to a better product due to most of the blunders and mistakes I'll be talking about in the mockumentary have actually happened during the filming of my original story.

I'm not going to just throw out everything I've done in preparation of filming my horror story. Instead, I'm going to use my promotional website and social medias as pieces of lore in the film. They'll play a part in the characters' journey through filming. I haven't figured everything out yet, which is why I took today to start writing and figuring out how to make this idea work. With what I've written out so far, I expect the film to be one long interview about the upcoming movie. I'm going to exaggerate my clumsiness in the dialogue of the characters and have them reflect some of my own feelings throughout this project. Just like my original idea, this new film is going to rely on my acting. Since there's no special effects or action packed scenes, I'm going to have to carry the film with my performance. Hopefully writing that down will ensure I do a good job.

The (Almost) Filming Blog!

 

With the small break I took yesterday, I plan to jump back into filming soon. I've been unable to film due to some issues on my part. With any luck, I'll be able to start filming once more tomorrow. To make up for my long absence, I'm going to need to film as much as possible for the next few days. My situation may not be that dire, but it's what I plan on doing. I'm not too worried about the filming itself. Instead, I expect the editing to take the most time. Out of everything, masking is definitely going to be what causes editing to take the longest. While masking, I need to go through each frame and make sure that the path looks good and doesn't move unnecessarily. It's what caused the first scene to be a hassle to edit and it'll repeat throughout production.

What I hope to happen while editing is that I'll get better at masking. Not only so that the final product looks better, but also so it takes less time to do. My favorite part of doing these projects is always getting better at something. Last year, I improved at filmmaking in general. I learned just how much filmmaking relies on the editing. Before, I treated editing as just cutting clips and putting them together. After making just my commercial, I learned that editing also included fading in and out, correcting mistakes, and changing how the scene looks. This year, I've learned the importance of lighting in a scene and I'm off to learn how to mask better. Despite the quality of my final product, I'll be able to look back and be proud of my growth. I still want to make a good final product though.

Finding Sound Effects

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILtw7SKMjCQ

I didn't plan on finding the sound effects for the film today, but I decided to get it out of the way. The search for these was a lot easier than the search for music. While I knew what I wanted for both the music and effects, there were a lot more sound effects to choose from. Shown in the picture above, the video I'm going with contains 5 different impact sound effects. I'm sure I'll appreciate the extra choices when I'm editing. I'll appreciate it even more considering that I'll need to change the sound a bit before use. For example, I'll need to change the volume and maybe the pitch of the sound. I expect to use this sound effect whenever the Dark Figure disappears off-screen. When I do use this effect, I don't want it to be extremely noticeable. I'll aim to make it subtle, that way it won't ruin the experience in any way.

I plan on making another post for Christmas tomorrow. I'll have to come up with what to post. I plan on making another picture, but I might also be able to make a video. I'll have to put a lot more thought into it. I've already done a picture with the Dark Figure in a Christmas Hat, so if I use him again it'll have to be different. I don't want to recycle the same idea and have him in a hat again. Instead, I might use a Christmas present to make it different. Of the few ideas I have, I'm considering making a Christmas card. It would be a fun side project to work on while I have the time. I'll figure it out soon.

Finding the Background Music

 

In preparation for the grueling filming and editing process I'm bound to have, I decided to look for some creepy background noise to put in the movie. I knew I wouldn't need hours of ambience, so I found this one video to be sufficient. Even better, the creator doesn't require permission for me to use it, not even credit. Of course I still plan to give credit, but it is nice to not need to worry about any extra processes for gaining permission. Here's the link to the video: https://youtu.be/1nD3Sp_saz4

I don't plan on using this music all throughout the film. While writing the story, I didn't picture there being any music other than some the main character potentially will be listening to. I wanted to focus on the content of the scene and using it to create a sense of unease. I've decided to include music because I realize how much of a bad idea not including it would be. Not only can music intensify a scene's mood exponentially, but it can also prevent the movie from feeling "empty." A movie feeling "empty" means that there's a lack of sound and, as a result, it is too quiet at times. This can be done well if those making the film want to use this effect in their film. I, however, didn't write this effect into my film so including it will only ruin it.

Before editing any of the scenes, I'm going to predict that I'll use the music more heavily in the scenes where the main character has left his room. I imagine the shot of the main character surveying the house he's shut himself out of will work well with the ambience of the music. If I use the music in any of the scenes inside of the room, it will most likely be quiet and fairly unnoticeable. Barring the scenes before the main character leaves the room, I don't think the scenes inside the room will need the music. Instead, I'll focus on sound effects for whenever the Dark Figure is on screen and/or when he affects the main character. After I get deeper into the making of the film, I look into what sound effects fit into it better. I'm gonna need to find out where to find those sound effects as well.

Social Media Managing

 

Today I made and posted a Christmas photo on my social medias. I didn't plan on posting content that was directly related to filming, but a few setbacks have stopped me from being able to film and caused me to do this. Above is the photo that I made earlier today. The quality isn't the best due to the photo being taken on my phone, but I find that to be acceptable. I think the quality is fine because of the inclusion of the Dark Figure. It implies that his presence distorts the footage, which I think is a cool piece of lore to have. I don't plan on incorporating this into the film, which is why I'm not filming with my phone, but it is fine if it's for a picture.

The easiest part of making this picture was editing it together. Since I wasn't able to use a proper camera, I couldn't use my phone to remotely take pictures. This meant I had to record myself getting into position as both myself and the Dark Figure. Hopefully it isn't a surprise that both people in this image is me. I've been getting good at blending together images to clone myself. I've practiced before working on the film and I feel as if I've hit my stride. Now I need to get better at masking shots together. While I don't necessarily look forward to masking together my next scene, I am excited for the practice I'll get while doing it. I expect to make a few more images like this, despite whatever setback I'm facing. Whenever I edit a photo for this effect, I feel proud of myself for getting better and better at it. The first picture I made wasn't the best, but I was able to improve as I made more. I learned to keep the camera angle and lighting as close as possible to the first shot, which makes the editing 1000 times easier. I plan on filming as soon as I get the chance, the problem is when that chance will be.