Here is my CCR! We are finished :)!

We have finished our movie. It was a long process, and one that took time. Our last day together was on Friday and we edited everything in class. We had one minor change which was to change the war between the U.S and Russia, instead of North Korea. Alex and Justin have been a tremendous help throughout this project, and I would totally work with them again. This is our link to view the video we worked on. My next blog will be about my CCR.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chS0N3Up7RE

Alright well it's finally Sunday! Today I invited some of my friends over, because we need them to film the scenes.

Yet again we have decided to change the plot of our movie... this time it's final.

The opening scene will be the dog tags, and we've decided to go ahead and make scene one my birthday instead. Scene 2 will be me getting a jaguar for my birthday and driving it around. I'll hit the radio and the news will be playing. Scene 3 is me going to the mailbox and receiving the letter. Scene 4 me going inside with birthday cards on the table and I put the letters on top of my birthday cards. Saying I got drafted into the military.

Our  plan is to talk about the opening credits on Monday when our group meets next, and then we can have all of next week to edit our film. It is due next Saturday.

We have filmed all of this and will begin editing Monday in class. This is our final time filming. We had to get rid of the clips at school because of time. Our plot has definitely changed, and this project has been a headache so far... Hopefully the end result is good.

Today we were put in groups, which allowed us to get opinions from our classmates about our project. We have done this one time before, and now we are doing it again deep in the process of the project. As I said in the blog earlier this week. one of my main problems is trying to fit everything under 2 minutes. I told this to my group, after explaining the plot of my film.

They presented me with the idea that maybe I can be woke up by one of my family members, then go through the daily procedures of getting dressed. After getting dressed I would walk out of my room and  play a board game with my family. This board game would be called risk, and it foreshadows the future because it is about the army. Before this I would still receive the news from a radio, or something. After this part of the board game my father would walk in and tell me I have mail. That is when I would find out that I have been drafted. They said the board game would be a better idea because it would foreshadow the event of me going into the army. Also it would allow the audience to connect with me more.


If I chose to follow through with this i would of course have to edit out my ending scene since the plot is now different. This may be necessary because everything must fit under 2 minutes. Also this is a war movie, and the opening scene is only supposed to present the audience with the background information, which is why we are including who the war is between.

I'm going to film on Sunday and put all the clips together to see how this turns out. Somehow all the work we did filming from last week may not even make it into the opening scene of the movie.

Today in class we filmed the part about our main character going to school. We borrowed a tripod from our teacher to make the shots look more stable. We recorded our main character walking into school and filmed him going to a class. We have a couple scenes of him sitting in class reviewing work, but we are not sure if we are going to use these clips of him at school due to the time limit. While our character was in class we edited a website to show that he's looking at the United States and North Korean war.

Because of the time limit being 2 minutes to our opening scene, it's going to be hard for the audience to feel an emotional connection with our character. The opening credits scene takes 10 seconds alone, and filming our main character and the ending scene took about 45 seconds of our clip. Filming him waking up in the morning and getting dressed takes another 20 seconds. We need to find out what we can fit in and what we can edit out of our movie. Next class we will be put in groups to discuss our project and get feedback from our classmates.

As of now, I have finished editing the ending scene of our film when the character finds out he's going to be drafted into the military. We used quick cuts and close ups of our character to make his emotion seem real, and as if this actually happened. Next class I plan on showing the people I get put with what we have so far. In return I would like to get  their opinions about what the middle of the opening scene should be.

We need our main character to be doing something that the audience can relate with so they connect with him.

Today we began editing the last scene of our film, since we will be filming sometime next week for the school scenes. I went ahead and purchased Adobe and got a discount because I'm a student, in fact it was half off. The last scene flows very well as it is just continuous cuts of the main character and him discovering the fact he is going to be drafted. When the letter is read he announces the date he is supposed to report for duty which is May 20, 2020. After this scene is done there is a fade to black and then the screen shows May 20, 2020 in dark green letters.

That is when our film opening will end, because we can't include any of the war and violence due to budget. We feel as if next week everything will be completed and we can focus on polishing up the colors of the film if necessary

Next week we meet in class for two days, and those will be for filming only. Sometime next weekend we will meet up to finish the editing of our film. There is only two weeks before this project is due so we will need to pace ourselves efficiently when it comes to filming in school. We plan on having close up shots of our character doing work, taking tests, and mid shots of him just having a regular day at school.

Yet again, this is all to show that our main character is just a normal kid and is not prepared for the news that is coming his way later in that day. The opening scene is important because we need the audience to care for our main character, and hope to develop that while they watch him for one day.

Following the last filming session we discussed including the date before the establishing shot of the house is shown, and it is something we will implement in our film. The date will say May 3rd 2019. This is because it provides the audience with background knowledge of the year.

Picking up from last blog, we continued to film our main character and him getting ready to leave for school. After he is done getting dressed, there are cuts of him talking to his father about the event that has occurred. Which is brought up in the news broadcast which states the United States is in a war with North Korea. That's when the audience learns that there is a mandatory military draft. There are mid-shots of his conversation with his father as it allows the audience to focus on their conversation.

Following the conversation between the two our main character is shown walking outside of the house and into his car, with a low angle shot. After this scene we will need to film the rest of the middle part of the scene next week during school. There will be establishing shots of the school and the main character will be shown in school going to classes, which will convey he is just a normal 18 year old.

We also filmed the last scene because it also takes place at the main characters house. We filmed our main character getting out of his car and walking to the mailbox. Once he reaches the mailbox there is a cut to the point of view of the mailbox being opened. Then there is a close up of the envelope being opened, and following this our main character is then shown with a close up of him reading the letter sent to him with the camera moving around it.

Next time we meet we will be editing the last scene because we still need to film clips of our main character at school.