This is sadly my last post :( In the beginning I didn't even want to start this but now I am going to miss posting.
This whole filming process has been great I really enjoyed it and have learned a lot through it. This is my CCR. Thank you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGRL5Ah40nk
The title is the most important element to really tie everything together. If you do not have a title then the movie isn't really a movie.
This is why we have taken so long to come up with a title. We had an idea which is the number on the back of our main characters jump suite but the only problem is that we really did not put the back of the suite in the only scene he wears it in.
This brought us back to the drawing board. We had some different ideas and we narrowed it down to "Nameless."
This is because the whole movie is about him escaping from a mental institution where he had no name or anyone who cared for him. He was treated like an experiment and was just a number to everyone. Now even though he has escaped he still has no one which leaves no one to call him by a name, so it is still as if he had no one which he does not.
I have been trying to record the voices and place them in the film, but it was harder than I thought.
First I couldn't figure out how to work with Garage Band. I downloaded it to my Mac but one I had it I tried recording and it would not work. Then all of the filters would move and whatever I recorded changed and it all ended up erasing.
Then I finally got the hang of it. I was able to record everything but I did it with a filter and after listening to it all together I ended up not even liking it.
Now I have to record again and ask my friends to help me which I will finish this weekend and then finally put everything together.
This is what I have so far.
Okay so far we do not have any credits because we were not sure where or how we were going to put them. But we were thinking I class and we thought of putting them in the beginning of the film. Our idea for writing them is to write it them in the dirt.
Now the only problem is that Carlos tried doing it in his backyard and it didn't work because the dirt is too dry. He then tried in another place but the trees roots did not let him carve into the ground. He is going to go to a park today and try to do it there hopefully it works if not we will just need to go somewhere else.
But our idea is to write it in the dirt and then blow it away for it to erase. What we are picturing really matches the theme because all of our film os set outside in the dirt so it will look great out there.
This is what it will look like.
Like I mentioned in my previous post we have finally finished filming!!All thats left if the editing process and the voices, which are an extremely important element to our film. The voices he hears in my opinion are what gives the most meaning and set the perfect mood for the whole film.
So far I am not very sure who will be playing the parts of the voices but I do have some people in mind. By this week I will have them done for sure so that the video can be completely ready. I am also trying to finish editing as much as I can this weekend so that my main focus can be the voices.
The most important factor is that I need at least two people hopefully one male and one female who can really portray the parts of voices whom schizophrenic people actually hear. They need to sound scary while older and serious all at the same time. tomorrow I will talk to my friends who I think will do a great job in this and see if they'll helming me out so that we can wrap the project up.
When we were filming yesterday it did not take us more than 3 hours which I thought was great because I thought it was going to take us day to finish the whole process and its been at most 6 hours of filming all together.
My friend Luis who is our main character has been able to portray the character we are trying o show very well. He has been very cooperative with us and Liliana and I have gotten really inspired by some of his own ideas to help us better the film all together.
We finished filming the last scenes which were pending from last time that we needed to add to be able to tie everything together. Once again the lighting was great even though it looked like it was going to rain and we managed to get all off the footage in great quality.
Because of this we were also able to have time to record all of the folly sounds we needed of him running, his breathing, and any other sounds here or there. This whole filming process has really been great and I have learned a lot. I am now editing all the footage on my computer with some darker filters that still show the beautiful colors of the grass and trees that were in the area. Once we have put it all on order then the editing of the colors will take place and the only thing left will be putting in all of the sounds. If in the process we feel that something is missing then we can all go back and re film or take a completely different shot f anything we feel is missing, but fr now we are good.
On Saturday we started filming for our project and it went very well. Because of the fact that we could no longer film in the house we had to make some changes to our story board outline but we were able to make the best of it. He was now going to be hiding out in an abandoned stable in the middle of the woods.
The lighting outside was great due to it being outside with all natural light so all of our shots have very good quality. The only downside to this was the we wanted it a little darker but due to the mood being a little scary. But it being outside, we really didn't have much control over the lighting. In our times now though it doesn't really matter because with all the mediums available to us through computers and all its new abilities we can edit the shots and put them in the level of darkness or lightness we need to convey the tone of the film.
Although we thought it was going to take us a very long time to film everything in about two hours or less we were able to film almost all of the footage we needed. The only things that we need to film now are parts we want to add or make better after analyzing all of the footage we were able to get Saturday.
This is personally one of my favorite scenes that we got because of how great all the green looks making him pop out so much more.
In one of my earlier blogs I had talked about how we were choosing in between two people for our main character. Both had already agreed to doing it but we told them we were still deciding two. These two guys were 16 years old so they didn't exactly fit the age range of males who we were looking for. For men schizophrenia is usually diagnosed if early from ages 15-25, so we wanted someone of age at least 20.
Not only this but the one we had chosen was going to New York this weekend so we weren't going to be able to start filming and we really wanted to. I then started thinking of people I knew and this one guy just kind of popped into my head out of no where. He is 22 years old and was willing to help us. Honestly I thought he was not going to be a good actor but it turns out that he was a better choice by far from the other two, by the way he acts and also because he is older making it look a lot more realistic.
Yesterday my group and I went to the abandoned house to check out whether we were going to be able to film there or not. Sadly it turns our that they have blocked it off so no one can go in any longer.
The abandoned house is right next to where I horseback ride so we explored the sides and back of the barn that no one really sees or goes through and found some stables that have been empty and abandoned for a long time. We decided that since the movie is set in around 2020 that the stables to them are considered the old city were people used to be in their "past". Since it is outside the modern world and not a house he hides there thinking that no one will ever be able to think of looking for him there. The stables we found are also surrounded by tree areas that look like a forests that will help establish the mood of it being far away from society.
We will take advantage of our day off on Friday and begin filming in the morning!
Okay so because we are three people it is a little hard to find a day when everyone can work out of school to film. Today we are actually going to go check out the location of where we are planning to film. If we get the permission to film there then we will begin filming this Friday if not our other idea is just to film the outside of the house and then just go to any one of our rooms and just pretend like its the inside of the house.
As of now our plan is to go to the house today right after school. Then this weekend on Friday and on Sunday we will film and then the next weekend finish anything else that we might need.
I will let you guy know then on my next blog what will happen with the house.
The location is very important to the rest of the film because it will establish the mood and the setting perfectly. I horseback ride and right next to my barn there is a public park with an abandoned house. Some of my friends have gone in it before and we think the this house could be a very good place to start our film.
The house is in the middle of a field with a background of a little forest area. It is really in the middle of nowhere and it is also actually abandoned so it would perfectly help cover our point. The only thing is that we need to see if there is an easy way in and if there is then that will be our filming location if not then we will need to search for a new place.
From this picture above you can see a little White House with some details in orange which is surrounded by trees. This is the house we are planning on filming in.
Okay so we are now starting to create the whole story of wha the film is going to be about. We have decided that it is going to be about a man in about 2020 who has run away from an asylum. While there he met a man who told him that all the medications and everything that they are doing to them was not real and they had become human experiments. Our main character believes this and he decides to stop taking the daily medications and somehow finds a way to escape.
Here is a preview of what our film opening is going to look like.
We decided to begin the film with him having already escaped from the asylum and him hiding out in an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. This is just a rough draft of what we think we are going to do and some editing techniques are mentioned above. We still need to figure every detail out but for now this is our basic outline.
Today I will be talking about our Target Audience for this film. When we started thinking of this genre what we had predicted for our target audiance was teens to about age 30 both male and female.
With the help of some research I found that thriller is a popular genre targeted mainly to young adults aged 18-25. People at this age are usually drawn in by the intense storylines and graphic action all of which can be found in this genre the majority of the time. Being able to watch and just try to guess and figure out what will happen next calls for an older group to enjoy this particular genre.
Psychological thrillers like Silence of the Lambs and American Psycho, attract a male dominated audience. This can be because they are drawn in by the conventional male leads, and can relate certain characters to people they know or even themselves, helping them engage more to the film.
