AICE Media Studies

 Today is the last day of the year and we are going to begin post production. In the previous blogs I described how both days of filming went. During day one of filming we got about 10 minutes of filming. On the second day we got about 5 minutes of filming. The film will only be 5 minutes long so most of that footage will be cut. Blake is very tech savvy so he helped a lot with the dumping of the footage. The first step for the footage was going from the different cameras all onto one laptop. When using the GoPro and the drone we had to transfer it differently than the iPhone.The first step was removing the SD card. Then you place the SD card in the reader and plug it into the USB port of the computer. After that we opened the DCIM founder that contained all the footage. We labeled each individual scene and put them onto a desktop folder. For the footage on the iPhone, we used airdrop. We airdropped the footage to Blake and then Blake airdropped to his computer. This process took a...

 After the first day of filming we addressed some issues that we ran into. We thought it was going to run much more smoothly the 2nd day. To our surprise we ran into a few new issues. On the first day of filming. All of our actors had outfits that they were wearing. On the second day of filming one of my groupmates forgot to wear the exact same outfit. Luckily I had something in my closet that was close enough for us to use. In the blog where I spoke about adjustments the first time, I mentioned needing additional people to help film. This time we did have a tripod but also extra people. My mom, dad, and two brothers were all home during the 2 hours of filming. Even though it was good in case we needed help, it was also a negative. Multiple time I had to stop what I was doing and ask them to be quiet. This added to filming time because we continued to stop and tell them. Another issue was making sure that the film would flow by making sure that we were in the same positions. Once o...

 On Tuesday December 29th we had our second day of filming. Before my group mates had arrived I went over the script. I thought it would be best to get ahead and just run through my lines. I also thought it was a good idea to see what scenes we would be able to film. We only had about 2 hours today. I had an appointment till 2 and Tess had work at 4:30. We planned for 2-4. After everyone arrived I discussed with them what I thought about the scenes we should do. Everyone agreed that they were good and we could get them done. The first thing we filmed was me asking Ryan to turn on the TV just before they announce the vaccine. It only took us 2 takes to get it because it was only one line. Next we filmed us walking into the house. We started by setting up the phone inside my front door and pressing play. We walked back outside and practiced what we were going to do. Blake was going to open the door and we would all walk through. Then we would say the lines and Chloe would walk off li...

 Although we did complete a lot on our first day of filming, we did run into a couple of issues. We knew that everything was not going to run perfectly smooth on our first day so we weren’t shocked when they appeared. One of the first issues we ran into was holiday decorations. My group mate Chloe doesn’t have decorations in her house for the holidays so when we originally planned to film we didn’t have to worry about decorations. My parents on the other hand decorate the entire house with Christmas decorations. When we found out we needed to switch locations, my mom said that it was unreasonable to take everything down and then put it back up. We spent about 30 minutes picking up little things that made the house look less like a VRBO. I talked to my group mates and mentioned maybe switching the time of year to winter break. Winter break is still a time when lots of college age kids come home so it still fits in our plot. They agreed so now the group of friends is visiting during ...

 After arriving home from filming at the park, we went over the script. We were trying to find what else we could film in a short period of time. We then decided to look at the story board. We only had about 45 minutes left to film so we were limited. The only two shots left were the friends  pulling into the driveway and the getting out of the car. I was still uncomfortable with Blake driving my car so we had the think of some ideas. The best that we could come up with was for Blake just to start at the end of the driveway. Instead of pulling in from the street we just made a shorter clip. Once that was done we pulled the car back out to the end of the driveway so we could film us getting out of the car. For this shot I needed to be in the car. I went inside and asked my brother if he was willing to help. Unfortunately we didn’t bring a tripod so we couldn’t just set it up to film. He agreed and stepped outside. I showed him the angle and position that we needed and told...

 After not being able to record near my house we had to find a new location close by. When looking at the area not allowed to fly Blake noticed that Chloe’s house was not in the circle. Chloe only lives 5 minutes from me so it was perfect. We grabbed the equipment and headed to her neighborhood. Once we arrived she directed us to a quiet side street. Once there we parked in an empty lot and let Blake out. He set up the drone equipment and began to film. Using a call through my car and Blake’s phone we were able to talk while I drove. He directed me to start and stop at different points. Once was sure he had the shots we got in the car and headed back to my house. We were done with the drones so Blake put it away. The next shot we filmed was the scene of us in the car on the way to the house. It isn’t safe to use a phone while driving so we drove over to a park where it looked like we were driving on the street. I pulled over and me and Blake switched seats. We placed the phone on t...

On December 18th, we began filming. On the 17th I plugged in the equipment that I was providing for the next day. I contacted Blake to make sure that the drone and go-pro were plugged in and charging. I also contacted Chloe to make sure she charged her phone. We had planned to meet at my house at 8 am. Me and Blake had plans at 2 so we started early. It was also our study hall midterm so we weren’t missing any classes. That morning I had overslept so we pushed the start time to 8:30. By 8:30 all 3 of my group mates had arrived. The first scene we filmed was the drone shots of my car. Blake spent about 10 minutes setting up the drone and connecting it to the iPad. Once that was set up we got in my car. Because the viewer will not see the driver I was able to drive in this scene. This was safer because Blake had never driven my car and was not used to it. We pulled out of the driveway and headed down a side street. We purposely choose a street with little traffic because we knew we would...

Today is December 13th and we are still following our filming schedule. Previously we posted a picture of our calendar timeline in a blog. We had outlined the days that we would meet and what we would be doing on those days. For the week of December 6th through the 13th, we had designated that we would plan out the production of the film. This included securing locations, charging cameras, and organizing costumes. During this planning period we did not accomplish as much as we had liked. The current global pandemic has created many unexpected challenges. Most of our contact has been virtual to limit potential exposure. We worked extremely hard to receive permission from our parents to meet one another, safely. Another small setback has been work. Some of my groupmates work 9-5 on the weekends and are only fee during the week while others work during the week and are off on the weekends. Even though we had a couple of setbacks we did accomplish a few positive things. On December 10t...