almost towards the finish line

 Wow... editing was such an experience for me, for lack of a better term. Wasn’t easy figuring out all the effects and how to make a proper edit, but I finally learned how to become a better editor. 

I’m so proud of myself for learning how to better use my editing software. I really feel like the opening will be incredible and that my CCR will be a lot easier for me to edit! 

A few roadblocks I’ve had with DaVinci were how to bolden the fonts, how to input voiceovers, and how to input the audio for the background music. Took several days for me, an amateur editor, to figure out, but with a little bit of practice and a lot of free time, I have our film (almost) all edited! Still need the voiceover audio from Isabella, and after that, voila! We have ourselves a coming of age film ❤️!

voiceover activated!

 Was it easy? No, no it was not. But after hours of research and one mental breakdown, I figured out how to insert voiceovers in DaVinci without screwing up. So, at last, I can continue editing! 

I wanted to show you the progress I’ve been doing with editing the opening. Take a look at me editing in the credits for the beginning of the film in the photo below.

    I know the text is hard to see, but that will be fixed to have it be seen better soon. 

the struggle of setting voiceovers

 O-M-G! So, let's discuss the tea.

So, there I was, trying to figure out how to set up a voiceover on DaVinici Resolve. It let me drag in a test voiceover (which was another audio that I had saved on my laptop. I couldn't use the real voiceover audio for the film since Isa won't be able to send that to me until next week). Anyways, as soon as I hit the play button after seeing that the audio was applied, I somehow ended up muting the whole film? It was so weird. I did everything I could, from searching up YouTube videos about how to insert voiceovers in DaVinci to turning up the volume in the film as much as I could- but it all led me to nowhere.

Alas, I refuse to give up! Tomorrow will be a new day and I will remove the voiceover, calmly figure out what the issue is, and hopefully have it resolved ASAP.

But as for everything right now, the titles and edits I'm making aren't much of a blunder. But please pray for me as I try to figure out the art if applying voiceovers in DaVinci. 

editing

 Allow me to admit to something: this is my first time ever using a editing software on my laptop. And was it difficult to understand at first? Absolutely, since I am definitely not a tech person. But, did I slowly start to learn how to use this software to edit the opening, yes I did ;). With the help of some helpful YouTube videos, I was able to get started on editing The Stupid, Brave New World. 

I used DaVinci Resolve for editing since it’s free to use and is widely known as a great editing tool. Take a look at the picture below to see a little snippet of my editing.

Although I am still having some difficulties with completely figuring out how to master the art of using Davinci, I’m sure that I’ll be able to understand it and end up making a fantastic film opening. 

film day!!

 This Thursday was a early release day for my school, so Isa and I decided to take the opportunity to film the opening right after school! 

My drive to her house wasn’t at all bad, considering the fact that we both live in the same neighborhood. We filmed the mirror scene in her room and went straight to Cypress to film the ending scene, where her mom was happy to drive us. 

We did, however, run into some issues. For example, Isa’s mom did not have her car available for us to drive to cypress. Luckily though, Isa’s friend (who lives in our same neighborhood) offered to have Isabella’s mom use her car. And with that, we were able to quickly wrap up all the shots!

After filming, me and Isabella talked for a while and got to know each other and she had her mom drive me back to my house. 

Overall, Thursday went great! And tomorrow, I’ll explain all the editing process that’s been conducted so far. 

group meetings

This Tuesday, I had a breakout room meeting in my AICE Media class with a couple of other classmates to discuss our plans for our films and ask for any necessary help with our films. I volunteered to go first, and everyone seemed to love my film idea! They liked the way I wrote what I envisioned for the film in my script and especially loved my song selection of bags by Clairo (which I can agree with since it is pretty cool that I got permission from Clairo herself 😏). Big flex, right?

After I went up, I helped my other group members with anything they were struggling with and commented on what I thought about their film ideas. From my opinion, everyone had a very unique and creative film opening plot. I can't wait to see how these ideas are filmed in the future!

Also, good news! Me and Isa have filmed all the scenes for our opening yesterday! I will go over all of that tomorrow, though. Feel any suspense, me too... but it will all be revealed tomorrow. So stay tuned :).

we have a new cast member!

 Isa’s mom has agreed to play the role of Isabella’s mom! Im so happy to welcome someone else as part of our Stupid, Brave New World. 

Not only have we got a new cast member today, but a new inspirational video from a movie for our opening! This would be the scene from the hit Pixar movie, Inside Out where the main character, Riley enters her new school at a new state for her first day of school. (This scene begins at the time frame of 2:03). 

When thinking about Isabella’s state during the opening scene, Riley immediately came to mind. And since both have faced the same problem, I thought that it would be awesome to draw inspiration from this movie to my film’s story. 

Also, be prepared for our shooting/filming day posts next week!! I’m so excited to film this opening. And I can’t wait to share with all of you what we have created together 😌!!!

film additions

 The voiceovers for the new script have been officially added. As stated in my previous post, I wanted to write the voiceovers to make clear of Isabella's inner thoughts about what she feels about being the new kid. Take a look at the picture below to see the new and improved script with these voiceovers!

For a clearer view of this new script, click here.

Before explaining more about the new additions, let’s go over why I wrote the voiceovers for Isabella in this tone. When thinking about how someone who is entirely new to a different place might react, I thought it fitting for Isabella to have a gloomy, pessimistic outlook because that’s how many people who are new to another environment react, especially if they didn’t want to move in the first place, just like Isabella in this case. They deeply miss the place where they’re from and want nothing more but to go back to their home. I wanted to reflect this common feeling onto Isabella- and with how the voiceovers look now, I think I succeeded 😌.

However, this new addition to our film does not stand alone, for we have a new character in the works! As you can tell by the script, a character with the given name of "Isabella's mom" is added to the script! Although she doesn't say anything about it, Isabella's mom is going to be a single mother, taking care of her only daughter. This is done to give representation to single mothers who have to balance work and taking care of their children. 

We are still looking for someone to play this new character.

But it doesn’t stop there! Me and Isa have added one more elements to this opening: where Isabella and her mom are from. I wanted to have it be San Diego mainly because of how far it is from Florida. I figured that in order to show how entirely new Isabella is to not only her new school, but state of residency, I could make San Diego her hometown, as it is geographically much farther than Florida. 

what's being added & film shooting updates!

Happy Friday, everyone! So, as you can tell by the title, me and Isa have made a few additions to our movie and gotten more info to share for where and when we will start filming. Genuinely, these updates are making me so happy and proud of the current progress we're in. 

Here are the things that me and Isa are planning that we would love to share with you, our fans :).

So, Who's Playing the New Girl?

Ladies and gents, it is with honor that I announce Isa to be playing our main character, who now has a name: Isabella! In addition, in order to perfectly capture the soft/caring persona of our main character, Isa is going to be wearing an outfit that reflects on Isabella's kind nature. I suggested for her to wear anything pastel and paired with a nice knitted-sweater or flowy skirt if she owns one. 

New Dialogue

As I said in my previous blog post, I thought about adding more dialogue for the script. I must admit, I was facing some challenges when thinking about what additional lines I could make. But then, on one day when our AICE Media teacher, Mrs. Stoklosa, had a group meeting with me and Isa, Isa suggested an idea that will for sure solve this dialogue issue: voiceovers of Isabella's thoughts. Isa got this idea from an excerpt from a  coming-of-age show called My So Called Life that we watched together one class day. In the excerpt, the main character's inner thoughts are being put out in voiceovers of her speaking her thoughts. From these voiceovers, me and my fellow classmates have learned a lot about the main character's true self. That's why I thought that having voiceovers for our film is genius and benefits dialogue a lot. So, for tomorrow, I will write any lines I think would fit for voiceovers, add them to my Outline, and post the new and improved Outline here. I haven't decided on anything final yet, but for now, I want the voiceovers to reflect Isabella's inner thoughts about where she's from and what she thinks about entering an entirely new school or, hence the name of the movie, a stupid, brave new world.

Shooting Date & Location

We will be filming the opening at Isa's house (specifically, in her room so we can film the mirror-scene). Next, we will be filming an added scene of Isabella in the car-ride on her way to her new school (which will be me and Isa's high school, Cypress Bay). In this car-ride scene, the voiceovers of Isabella's inner thoughts will be added. After this scene, we will be shooting the final scene on the Cypress Bay campus, where the camera capture the school entrance and smoothly pins over to Isabella, staring at the entrance, and walks out of the scene to show that she entered the school. 

what's being planned (more info, plans, and maybe a few brainstorms)

 Now that we've got a vision written down and a game-plan all worked out, let's discuss anything that I haven't mentioned before. Things such as costume ideas, editing software, the target audience, etc. 

As far as the editing software goes, I am planning on using the free editing app called DaVinci Resolve. According to my classmates, it is convenient, has several features you can use to edit your films with, and is very helpful with editing. Although I am more than willing to edit this video, there is one slight issue- I really have never edited a film like this before. And neither has my partner. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it, and thankfully my classmates volunteered to help out if I'm ever stuck. So this is definitely the perfect time to sit back, relax, and manifest me becoming a pro editor for this project :)! 

Now let's discuss our target audience. Since the target audience for coming-of-age films is teenagers around the age of 12-18, this will for sure be me and Isa's target audience, too.

One other thing I wanted to touch base on is coming up with an outfit the main character would wear. I figured that since I thought her persona should be a "sweet-innocent-girl" type, that her outfit should definitely reflect that of her. For example, I don't see her wearing a black tank-top with a leather jacket and jeans, but I envision her wearing a flowy skirt, a cloth sweater, or just a nice pastel-colored shirt. For a better reference of this wardrobe, see below :)

                                                           

For next week, me and Isa are planning to cast someone for the main character role, decide on when we will start filming, and add more information to anything new we come up with! 

Until next time:). 

outlined

 I decided to write a small draft to use for the outline/script for the film opening! In this outline, I’ve included the camera directions, actions done by the characters, characters lines, and what occurs in every scene. If I come up with new things to add or things to take off of the outline, I will write a new one and show it to you all for your pleasure! Because I know you love to see outlines for movie openings directed by high schoolers 😍!

LOL, just kidding around. Anyways, enough kidding- let’s get serious.

Here we go! Outline time!!!

As in the previous post, MC stands for main character.

Hope you enjoy this masterpiece of an outline 😘. Talk to you all in the ‘morrow (omg that sounded so corny I truly apologize).

storyboarding this stupid, brave new world

 Well, here we go! A poorly drawn (I apologize in advanced), yet clear storyboard! This storyboard was meant to capture what I envision for the project. Sure, I may add one or two things along the way, but as for the big picture, I have storyboarded what I want to have in the opening.

Are you ready to see my crappy drawings, though? Me neither. But I'm gonna do it anyways.

"Mc" stands for main character and "LAS" stands for low angle shot.

I'm aware that this looks a little simplistic- but trust me when I say that I'm going to add some elements to spice up the story and get creative with it. With the background music and just me and Isa's own imagination, I have confidence that we're gonna make a fantastic film opening that we can both be proud of.