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.

Today we continued filming our opening scene. We decided to include an establishing shot of the house that our main character lives in. The house will be the first thing that the viewers see following the opening credits. Our plan for the opening credits of our movie is to film a shadow over grass, and have dog tags on the grass. The dog tags will have our names and the roles of the people involved in the movie on them. We have yet to film the opening credit scene because we need to purchase dog tags.




Following the opening credit scene there is a picture of the house that the main character lives in as shown above. This is to show where the main character lives. After this is shown our film has a clip of a close up shot of our main character being waken up by his alarm clock. The scene ends when he wakes up, then there is a cut to him brushing his teeth/ getting ready for school.

While our main character is brushing his teeth, the audience hears him ask google to play the mornings news. Google responds and says here is the news broadcast for 7:01 A.M today. That is when we play our broadcast that we produced for the film. This audio will be placed in the background, while our main character continues getting dressed for school. There are close up shots of our main character putting on his clothes and brushing his hair.

We stopped filming today after that scene, as it concludes the first 30 seconds of our opening scene. Because of this we have decided to only include one day of our characters life instead of two because of time issues.

Yesterday was the first day we filmed our project. Alex and one of my friends named Michael recorded the scenes. When they first arrived at my house we talked for about an hour about what device we should use to record. We decided to go ahead and use the IPhone8, which happens to be my phone. The first clip of the opening scene that we recorded was the main character getting up and getting dressed, etc ready for school. We filmed the main character getting dressed, brushing his teeth, eating breakfast, and getting into his car. Remember our film utilizes the same routine twice, so the first day is conveyed as everything is normal. It was kind of tricky getting the camera man out of some of the shots.

We have yet to edit the clips because we would like to get all the footage possible that we can before we begin editing. Instead of waiting until April 2nd, to film our main character at school I think that we can go ahead and change that idea. I haven't consulted my group about this idea yet, because I am writing this a day after Alex and I met up. But if we go ahead and agree on it will allow us more leniency on where to film. As long as our main character repeats the same actions both days it will work the same way.  There will be more time for us to film this as well, since we could just go ahead and utilize the time we have effectively.

We have decided to include the date before each day in green letters and a black background screen. The first day will be June 6th, and this will be written on the screen in dark green. We want to add an element to the plot which is to make it our main characters birthday. Right now things are a bit confusing because we only have two minutes maximum for our opening scene, once we film all of the footage necessary hopefully it will become less challenging. We are struggling with whether or not we can include two days or one day only. Our next meeting will be on Tuesday with Alex and I, we plan on calling Justin that day to consult him on what's running through our minds. We will also update Justin with our current progress on the film. We are still open to making changes to the plot, and will edit and adjust our film based on timing.

Today was the first day we filmed our movie. Just kidding, today I couldn't make it to school because I became sick. We couldn't film today because I didn't want my other group members around me. We have decided to go ahead and schedule a filming session on Saturday, things have been changing constantly. The schedule for filming that I put together in last weeks blog is inaccurate. Justin leaves for vacation tomorrow (Friday) and comes back Thursday of next week. However, I leave to Boston on Thursday and return Sunday of next week. Since Justin leaves tomorrow Alex and I will be alone for Spring Break and Saturday's filming. Justin got surprised by his family to go to California for a trip. Therefore we will be without him on Saturday.


As a result of Justin leaving to California tomorrow, I called one of my friends up to see if he could help us out on Saturday and he agreed to help. Saturday is when we will begin filming, and we will get the clips of our main character getting out of bed and of him going through his daily routines. Except the scenes that take place at school, and at the baseball field. We have all the camera and angle shots we want to use on our storyboard that we completed last week. There are only a couple clips for our opening scene that we can use from our first shoot which will be of our main character in the morning, and of him returning from school. Basically all the shots that are going to be taken Saturday are going to be the scenes of the opening scene that can be taken at my house. Alex and I will continue to film next week, with the help of some of our friends.

We talked to Justin about this, and he said it's fine that we film without him. We will send him all of our footage and get his opinion on it. There is a little over three weeks left for this project, which is plenty of time. Since Justin can't help with the filming part hopefully he can make it up and edit the video for us. Unfortunately, I don't think that will happen because I usually edit most of our projects as a group.

Since last blog, quite a few things have changed. One of our group members has canceled the filming days this week. Which means the majority of our filming will take place towards the end of this week and next week. This news broadcast is a part of the opening scene, and will appear the first or second day of our filming due to time. This is a crucial part of our opening scene because it presents the conflict in our film.

 Today we finished making the news broadcast for our film. I ended up recording my voice and using it for the news broadcast, and I made the script. If there's anything wrong with the voice I used we can always find somebody else to voice the news for us. The script for the broadcast is very important, and it has to sound professional.  It will be used to inform the audience of the war that broke out between the U.S and North Korea. Our plan is to have close up shot of the radio turning on, and have our main character drive a car. There will be an over the shoulder shot and close up shots of his reactions to the news. Also, we are going to use editing to synchronize the radio broadcast with the movie, so right when the radio is turned on the broadcast begins.This way there the audience can focus more on the broadcast rather than the other things happening during the film. The broadcast will be formal, and direct. The script for the radio is listed down below.

"Hello and welcome to the 7:00 edition of America's News. There is breaking news this morning, it has been stated this morning by president Trump that the United States has declared war on North Korea. I repeat the United States has declared war on North Korea. There will be a military draft by selective service to fulfill efficient troop numbers, the first since 1973. "

This news broadcast will foreshadow the event of our main character getting drafted into the Army. It also provides the audience with much needed background information of the world that our main character lives in.

Today we discussed our schedule for filming the movie opening. We have created a storyboard to include the different angles and shots that we want for each scene. The list below are the days that we will meet up as a group outside of school. During those days we will film the majority of our project, for the first day the plan is to get as much footage as possible. That way we can make sure we have everything we need. Next week, we will begin filming the parts in school that we need to film. Such as our main character sitting in a classroom, and the bells ringing. 

3-21-18 5:00 P.M 

3-24-18 7:00 P.M

3-25-18 2:00 P.M

3-28-18 4:00 P.M

The first two days on our schedule are going to be for only filming. The next two days will be when our group meets up to do the editing of our project. Editing is an important thing in this film because we want to maintain the audiences attention. Since it's a war movie, the opening scene will be a little bit slow compared to other films. This is because in war films the climax doesn't usually happen until the battlefield scenes. Unfortunately in our case the opening scene can only be up to 2 minutes, which doesn't allot enough time for any action/battle scenes. As of right now, I have one of my friends who announces baseball games working on the news broadcast for us. He will be the person who voices that North Korea and the United States are in a war.

Today we were put into groups and discussed our projects among each other. I presented my group members with my idea for my film, and they gave me feedback. Some of the feedback I received was about introducing the idea that my main character had just turned 18. Another idea was I could include my main character playing with army figurines at the beginning of my movie. However, I didn't think this suggestion presented was something I would interpret into my film. I would like it to be more of a shock and don't want to have any foreshadowing about our main character going into the military. I may include the part about my main character turning 18, that way the audience would know he is eligible to join the army.

I was asked what my film title was, and I gave them two ideas. Either dark green which is the army color in the infantry unit that my person would belong in. For example it could be 202nd Infantry. One of my group members asked if I had been inspired by any film I had viewed previously. I told them A Christmas Story, yea the classic... unfortunately nobody had seen it. I went on and explained about the idea that maybe we could have a narrator explaining what's going on, and he could potentially be the older version of our main character in the film. All he's doing is looking back on the past and explaining the main characters current thoughts in the movie. They said that it was a good idea, and maybe I will incorporate that into my film.

One of my other group members Justin also received feedback. They suggested that when our main character comes out to grab the mail, it could be raining to foreshadow the event. The rain would set the mood for the scene, because that's the scene our main character would be drafted into the Army.

Today in class we met up as a group, and began the storyboard for our film. Last week's blog had said something about us filming during this week, and that just isn't realistic. I was getting too ahead of myself, because in order to begin filming we needed to create a storyboard. A storyboard allows us to put our movie opening on paper, and discuss the ways that each shot should be taken. For example, our main character hitting an alarm clock should be a close up of his arm hitting the clock. My group feels pretty good about everything so far, and the movie is planned out well. Right now it comes down to how well we can execute the planning.

We also began discussing how we want to put the credits in our film. We think the best way to do this would be in green font in the bottom left corner of the film opening. This is the most simplistic way, and sometimes the simpler the better. The green font will be the same colors that the Army uses in their logo. We will also be using the Army font to put our credits with.

We discussed what our film title should be named, and I had come up with the idea of Dark Green, because that is the Army's color. Justin and Alex came up with the title Draft Day, however I immediately denied that because there is already a movie titled that. Next class, we will be meeting up with other groups, They will present us with their feedback about my film.  Hopefully next class when I meet up with other groups, they can give me their opinions on my movie title.

We will be filming the majority of this project throughout our Spring Break. Which is March 23-April 1st, this gives us a whole week to film anything necessary, and none of us are traveling during this time period as of now. That's the easiest time for us to get together as a group. There are some clips that we need to film at school, and those will be taken sometime next week. The scenes that will be filmed next week are the main character pulling up to school, him sitting in class, and him on the baseball field. We should be able to get all of those out of the way prior to spring break.

We will be meeting every other day over spring break at 1:00 PM. The first day will be solely taking all the footage necessary. By then we will have produced our news broadcast so then we can incorporate it into the opening scene. I have also began working on the military letter that says our main character has been drafted into the Army. The purpose for meeting every other day is to make sure if there is anything that must be changed we can change it. Sticking to the schedule is definitely the most efficient way to accomplish tasks in my opinion. 

Most of our editing for the film will be done by myself or Alex. Justin isn't technological savvy, so therefore I went ahead and began researching applications that will help ease the editing process. Our top runner right now is FilmoraGo, if we decide to use our smart phones. If we decide to use a computer for the editing, we will use MAGIX.  As of now, we still haven't discussed how we are going to do the editing or camera angles, hopefully that will be the topic of our next meeting as a group. We meet on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday this week.

We are meeting today, which is day number 2 of this week. Today we discussed the dates that we will be filming our opening scene, along with where the scenes of our movie will take place. The first clip of our opening scene is me hitting the alarm clock in the morning, this clip will be taken in my bedroom while I am laying in bed. The main focus of this clip will be on the alarm clock to convey the time it is, and the day of the week it is.Alex or Justin will be filming this. The next clip will be filmed in my room, and it will be me putting on clothes to get ready for school. As of now, we haven't though of our angle compositions or camera movement, as we are focusing on the plot for now.

Following me getting dressed, the next clip will take place in my kitchen, I will be making breakfast and then consume it. The reason for this clip is to show the viewers that I am just a normal student that goes through the day just like everyone else. The next clip will be of me leaving my house, and driving to the school that I attend. This will show the viewers that I attend a school, and am still receiving an education, also that I have no occupation. Once I'm at school there will be shots of me sitting in class, and shots of the bell ringing.  When school ends, I'll be shown at baseball practice with the baseball team going through the motions (catching and throwing, working on drills).  Following baseball I'll be filmed going to the gym, and after the gym I will go home and do my homework. Once i arrive at home, after finishing my homework there will be a close up shot of me setting an alarm on my phone for 6:00 tomorrow morning.

The next day will come and I will repeat the same daily routine, however when I turn on the T.V the news will be on. While I am going through my daily routine, the audio of the news will be in the background. I will actually make a news broadcast to implement into my movie. The broadcast will state that America has got into a war with North Korea. The purpose for this is to tell the audience what is occurring in the world that the main character of the movie lives in. The broadcast will also include the fact that there is a military draft. After the broadcast ends I will be shown going through the whole day exactly the same as yesterday. However, when I come home i will check the mailbox in a point of view shot, and I will open a letter sent by the United States Army saying that I have been drafted. This shot will be a close up of the letter, and in the background there will be the noise of me reading this letter. The opening scene will end here.

We might make me be a narrator throughout the opening scene, as maybe in the movie there will be an older version of myself that narrates the story. While the opening scene is flashbacks of the main characters life as a young boy. That's how we can in cooperate that everything has changed in his life.

It's week two of our project. We have decided to go with an action drama genre. Other movies that fall into this category are the dark knight rises. The beginning scene of our movie will show me going through a daily routine of my life. I will be shown hitting an alarm clock at 6:30am, going to school, working out after school, and then going to baseball. This day will be a completely normal day, and the viewers won't suspect anything to happen.


The next day I'll be shown getting dressed for school, and then I'll turn the television on. Once the television is on there will be background noise of North Korea getting in a war with the United States. The news broadcaster will say that there has been a military draft.I will then repeat my life at school then once I come home I'll open the mailbox and I will see I have been drafted by the Army.  The opening scene may or may not include dates to convey that there is actually a new day. Our movie will  star myself as the main character.

We have decided to go with myself being the main character, because I have the best acting skills out of the group. We did some skits in front of strangers to see who they thought was the best actor. we did this for 5 people, and received the same answer after every performance. It was quite funny putting on a show for random people, but it got the job done.

I wanted to do this kind of plot because people can relate to it. They can see where we are coming from, considering there is tension between the United States and North Korea right now. Also, after I finish college I will be joining the military as an officer. My grandpa was in the Air Force for 31 years, and I was inspired by him to make this film opening.

A lot has changed since my last blog. We came up with the conclusion that a drama film would be a better fit for us. A comedy film would be hard to produce, for some reasons. One reason being not everybody has a sense of humor. The next reason being is most comedy movies are rated R. After discussing this with my group, we have decided to make the transition to a Drama film. There are many ways we can go about making a drama film, since it falls under a fairly big category. I provided some background research about drama below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drama_(film_and_television)

In reference to film and television, drama is a genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone.^[1] Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular subgenre, such as "political drama", "courtroom drama", "historical drama", "domestic drama", or "comedy-drama". These terms tend to indicate a particular setting or subject-matter, or else they qualify the otherwise serious tone of a drama with elements that encourage a broader range of moods.

http://www.filmsite.org/dramafilms.html

 Dramatic themes often include current issues, societal ills, and problems, concerns or injustices, such as racial prejudice, religious intolerance (such as anti-Semitism), drug addiction, poverty, political unrest, the corruption of power, alcoholism, class divisions, sexual inequality, mental illness, corrupt societal institutions, violence toward women or other explosive issues of the times. These films have successfully drawn attention to the issues by taking advantage of the topical interest of the subject. Although dramatic films have often dealt frankly and realistically with social problems, the tendency has been for Hollywood, especially during earlier times of censorship, to exonerate society and institutions and to blame problems on an individual, who more often than not, would be punished for his/her transgressions.

Since the purpose of a drama film is to engage the audience with the conflict, character, and story line. After brainstorming for a while, I came up with the idea that our film could be a narrative of somebody's life. We can start it out with them speaking about how they live on a daily basis, such as the activities they do. And how their life is as a student. The main actor will be the one talking over the clips of him at the actual locations of what he's talking about. For example, he might say I wake up at 6AM every day for school, while this is going on we would have the camera on him smacking his alarm clock off. After conveying to the viewers that our actor is just a normal high school student, we would have the actor say "my life is pretty good, everything was completely normal. Until one day, everything went wrong." I'm not completely sure what this conflict would be as of now, or how our actors life changes. Next week I'll consult with my group mates and hear their takes on this idea. 

I am writing this two days following my last post. In the last blog I said we have produced videos of comedic quality. We have decided to go ahead and make a movie in the comedy genre. The three of us all have a good sense of humor, and we want to put our ideas forward. I have grown up watching Will Ferrell and Adam Sandler films, which all make me laugh. I'm a firm believer that laughter can make somebody's day better.  Comedy also makes sense for our budget, we are three high school kids and Warner Bro's won't be knocking on our door anytime soon. Wikipedia is my first source of research, I decided to do some research on the comedy genre.


Comedy is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement and most often work by exaggerating characteristics for humorous effect.^[1] Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). One of the oldest genres in film, some of the very first silent movies were comedies, as slapstick comedy often relies on visual depictions, without requiring sound. When sound films became more prevalent during the 1920s, comedy films took another swing, as laughter could result from burlesque situations but also dialogue.

Since this is only our second day together as a group, we may decide to change our idea in the future. As of now we only came up with the genre of our movie to be comedy. We have no script, and not really a general idea of where to go from here. We meet again in two days, and maybe something will come out of our next meeting.

My name is Robert Meyerson, and welcome to my blog. I will be documenting the process that my group and I take to tackle our opening movie scene. I was presented with two options, either make a magazine or make a film opening. After being introduced to these ideas I felt like the movie would fall better under my realm of creativity. I was allowed to have a group for this project, and I asked two of my friends, Justin Fisher, and Alex Barten.

I decided to work with Justin and Alex. Throughout our Media Studies career we have continuously produced projects that were somewhat comical. As of right now (day 1) we don't know what our film will be about.  Working with Justin and Alex was a strategical move because if we need to alter production, we can all meet upon demand. We are between a sports film, a drama, or a comedy film at the moment. The reasoning for our interest in sports is because we all play one, and can relate. Justin plays golf, I play baseball, and Alex plays basketball.

We have discussed how we should film this, and more than likely we will use one of our smart phones. The quality is pretty solid, and we can edit colors if we need to through an application on the phone. There are some websites that we can use for background music, and we plan on using them for our film.