Dance Genre Research

Finalizing Our Ideas

When my group and I were coming up with pitches it was really tough. We had to think about the circumstances and limiting factors that would not allow us to film certain things. For example, the location has to be correct once we start filming. If there was an idea of having a horror film in the middle of the woods, it would be easy for us to meet at a park. However, establishing the plot as to why the characters would be in the woods was what we found difficult. We did not finalize certain pitches until we all agreed on the ideas and the sentences were written officially. While brainstorming, writing down the sentences made it easier to visualize what we could film. One of the three pitches involved using a pool as the setting for most of the scenes. However, the context of the movie did not really sit well with one of the members. It reminded them of another cheesy movie they have watched and preferred to do an idea that was a thriller or romance. Our first pitch is about a teenage girl who is ready for her night out with friends, and she decides to hitch a ride with a complete stranger who offered. The second pitch involved the idea of a love story between a boy and a girl and his only interest was to get good grades from working with her.

I believe that the first pitch would be good for the assignment because we have already discussed how some scenes will be recorded. The final clip would be the victim being taken away by the stranger. This way, it would leave the audience wondering what will happen next. New shots will be incorporated into the film, for example, close-ups and a pov shot, possibly. Editing would also be much easier, for example, cross-cutting will be involved because it will display the characters getting ready for their day. The young girl will be doing what a regular teenager does before she goes out, while the stalker will be getting his items ready for his new victim. The viewers will have an idea of what is going to occur for the rest of the movie, after realizing the mistake the girl made when she got into a car with someone who she does not even know. The film will be edited to evoke tension in between scenes and have the audience want to watch the rest of the movie.

The second pitch does not really work with this assignment because we cannot film on our school campus. Also, the beginning needs to establish who the characters are and where the film will remotely take place. The conventions with this type of genre explain the background of the main character, and how he/she meets their love interests at school. The love interests can also be presented as the sweet jock or the intelligent class president. It would be difficult to do this without the setting at school and not having more friends to make the person seem popular. The topic of love can also be a little awkward because my group and I are just sophomores, and do not really find interest in recording scenes that will not have cringe-worthy energy.

The thriller seems like the pitch that we have chosen for the journey of creating the final task. We all agree with the idea of having similar shots and being able to build a plot from the opening scene in a movie. We look forward to working together on a new topic and seeing how much we can accomplish in the next few months.

Start of the Final Task

   Hello, my name is Darwin Rodriguez. I am a student at Fort Lauderdale High School. I am in 10th grade, and currently taking AICE Media Studies. I want to take this course to learn more about the filming process, which may help me in the future, since I haven't decided what career it is I want to pursue. My hobbies are playing video games, watching TV and movies. My interests consists of designing (clothes, architecture, website/app, graphic, etc.), psychology, technology, and more. I also enjoy videos and photography. Whenever I am watching a movie or looking images online, I analyze the image/video and appreciate it. I hope to learn a lot more in my Media Studies class.

   As of now, I have been in AICE Media Studies for about five months. In those five months in this class, I have made a commercial and a music video with my different partners. These two projects have taught me many things about the film and editing process. With the commercial introducing me to it, and the music video helping me gain more experience. In the commercial, we first tried out the basic angles and camera movements, learned how to work the camera, and how to edit. When we began doing the music video, we learned about more camera angles and movements. Since the music video is 1 minutes and 15 second, we had much more time, so therefore we had to shoot more scenes and try out different angles and lighting. I'm most excited to try out new angles that I hadn't used before, as well as new movements, lightings, sounds, and more. Because this final task will be 2 minutes, I hope to utilize this extra time by making a great film, using new features and qualities.

   A pitch is a term used with movie producers where it describes an idea for a film, and it's usually summarized in the most 25 sentences. Most pitches are done with one sentence. We came up with three pitches for our final task:

-Pitch One: A group of friends hang out by a pool, when two of the friends jump into the pool trying to retrieve a phone that fell into it, when they realized they have swapped bodies.
-Pitch Two: A teenage girl is getting ready to go out with her friends at night, when she decides to hitch a right with a complete stranger.
-Pitch Three: A teenage love story between a boy and girl where the girl thinks they have a nice connection and feelings, but in reality he is just using her for her smarts.

Below are some images of us discussing our pitch ideas:

   

Editing the Music Video

Before we begin to edit, we dump all the footage from the SD card into a folder. We then watched all of the clips and selected the few takes that we will use. Once those were placed as raw footage in the editing software, we began the editing process. In the beginning, there were 12 scenes from our storyboard. Despite there being many takes, Mariapaula and I needed to agree on which video would be the best for the final scene. We placed all of our footage onto the program (iMovie) as the first step. Then, I went through each of the clips and cut the audio from them. When editing, I glance and analyze how the scenes would work and what could be taken out and what can be changed. I had to shorten some of the videos because the actual scene would be enacted in the middle of the video. We tested how we could change the speed in some scenes and to see if it could enhance the scene, which did for some of them.

There is an adjustment in iMovie where you can stabilize a video that is shaky. This setting helped improve many of our scenes. Mostly because it make the music video much smoother. Then, we used a website which converts YouTube videos into audio files. I had to go copy the link of the YouTube video of the song we were using, and download it as an mp3 audio. We added it to the third track of our music video. Mariapaula figured out how to make the music best fit and cut a bit of the beginning of it. She then cut the audio clip and shortened it to our last lyric at the end of the video. We expected our music video to be just a bit over a minute and with the song added, the music video came out about a minute and 8 seconds.

While we were editing the third, fifth, and sixth scene, Mariapaula and I did not like the way they played together. We also noticed one of the scenes wasn't filmed right. Also, when we had "finished" editing, the video came out only 58 seconds long. We had to figure out what was wrong with those scenes, and how to fix it; so we planned to reshoot them on December 1. When done reshooting, we imported the new footage which also made the video longer than a minute. Something we wanted to do with our music video was put together the lyrics to match with whats happening in the scenes. Mariapaula suggested scenes 5-7 to fit with the song, but it wouldn't have the start of Verse 2 to start with scene 8. But, we had to make Verse 2 to fit with the scenes after 8 because then the song would end correctly for the music video. We then added a few transitions in areas that suggested there was a new locations (cross-dissolve). We had finished the editing process and I exported the music video.

Refiliming Certain Scenes in Music Video

After reviewing our footage from the first time we filmed, we had noticed some mistakes. Firstly, in the scene where Juan is in the car, he is supposed to be getting out. When we filmed, I had told him to be getting in, when in the storyboard it was meant to be the opposite. Another thing wrong with that is that, to be getting out, he would be at his girlfriend’s house. When we originally filmed it, it was outside his lover’s house, so the setting was also incorrect. We also noticed that Mariapaula had left her eye drops in the scene of her crying in the back. As well as in the frost two scenes we couldn’t see her phone that well in general. This made it difficult to see the photos of her and Juan. I went to Key West for Thanksgiving break, so I was unable to film during the first few days (Tuesday-Thursday)

However, Mariapaula had already been planning to help Emily and her group with their music video. So she used the opportunity to ask them to help reshoot the first two scenes. As I wasn’t needed for this, it was easy for them to reshoot. When I got back on Thursday, we had planned to reshoot the next day but had to cancel because of personal problems. We then rescheduled for Sunday. When the day came, Juan had come over to my house and we waited for Mariapaula to pick us up. We drove to her house and filmed the scene where Juan gets out of the car. We had the car on neutral and told him to set it to parking and go to turn off the engine. As he was turning it off, he was to look at the flowers in the driver seat and we panned the camera to it. This scene took only about three or four takes.

Next, we wanted to add a scene of Juan "driving" back home. Juan is unable to drive so someone else had to do the driving. Since we were at Mariapaula's house and using he car, she did it. She was also her mom's daughter and the only one with a license. So, she drove the car out of the driveway and slightly down the street. When I started recording there had been a car in the way not moving. So we had to wait for them to move the car in order to record. After that, I had angled the camera to face the house from the left and across the street. I stood still as Mariapaula drove by and into the driveway. This scene was also pretty easy. It only took about two or three takes. After this scene, we were finished and reviewed all of the footage put together.

Filming the Music Video

To shoot our film, we went over to Mariapaula's house to use as the setting for the music video. Our friend, Emily, had checked out a camera from our teacher on Thursday. She also came over so we could both utilize the camera (as she wanted also film at her house and wanted our help). Mariapaula played as the girlfriend in the relationship. We invited our friend Juan to come and be the boyfriend in the relationship. Before we actually began to film anything, I took some photos of Juan and Mariapaula to place in the background (her phone). After we took the photos, we began filming our first scene. This scene was fairly simple, since all it was was Mariapaula sitting on the couch, with the TV on and scrolling through the photos that we took of them. In the next scene, it was a closer angle of her showing tears (that were made using eye drops) and a closer look of her phone, as she wipes away her tears and gets up. This led to a scene of Mariapaula in the kitchen "cooking" dinner for herself and her boyfriend. This was a high angle and I had to hold the camera above her for this. After this, we shot the scene where the two are in bed facing away and Juan is wide away as his "girlfriend" is crying. This was a high angle, as I held the camera directly above them. We quickly shot a small scene in the same room of Juan just staring at the wall while he's in bed.

Then, we began to shoot the scenes using the car and him leaving his affair's house. Mariapaula's family knows and is friends with their neighbors, so we used their front door and driveway to film these shots. Firstly we shot Juan getting into the car, putting his seatbelt on, putting his hands on the wheel, and looking at the flowers we placed in the passenger seat. This took a couple tries, but we finally got the best and quickest one. Next, I had to pretend to be Juan and pull out of the driveway in the car since Juan doesn't have his license yet. I was wearing a similar top and bands as him to attempt the best to look like him. This scene was somewhat difficult as I could only look to the left when pulling out and Mariapaula had to look to the right for me so I could pull out safely; this was in order for the camera to not see my face. Our friend Emily was also playing as Juan's affair, and was waving goodbye to the car as we pulled out. Next, we filmed a scene where Juan and his affair are leaving his affair's "house." As mentioned before, we used Mariapaula's neighbor's house to film this scene. This scene was very easy to shoot, as all it was was Juan walking out with Emily following right behind him.

For the last few scenes, we returned into Mariapaula's house. Mariapaula's dad had brought pizza and her mom had brought leftovers from a restaurant she had came back from. We used the pizza and the leftover as props for the scene with the dinner. In this scene, we arranged the table to have candles and plates facing across from each other. Mariapaula them walks into the scene with two plates, places one on Juan's side and one on her side as she sits down. This entire time, we had Juan use my phone to pretend that he is texting someone and laughing. For this scene we had used the tripod to keep a still and steady image of the scene. In the scene that follows directly after, it was a close-up of Juan holding my phone. We renamed Mariapaula's contact to a fake name which is supposed to be that of his affair: Vanessica. I went on Mariapaula's phone and spammed love-related emojis (hearts, heart eyes, etc.) and she filmed the phone receiving them

Storyboard

Costumes: The characters in the music video will be wearing both a formal and informal clothing throughout the video. Since the girlfriend is cooking up dinner at home for a mini-date, they will need to wear formal clothing. However in other scenes before and after the date, they will be wearing regular informal clothing.

Lighting: We will be mostly using natural lighting in our film. Whenever we are outside we will be using the natural lighting, as well as when we are in the kitchen, since there are a lot of windows for natural lighting. We will use the ceiling lights in the room to dim the lights during the dinner and sleeping scene, along with some candles to light them too.

Acting: In the beginning, the girlfriend already knows about her man cheating, so she is in a sad mood from the start. The man however, is in an elated and energetic mood after leaving the side chick's house and coming home to his girlfriend. At night in the bedroom, the characters will have to pretend to be asleep.

Makeup: The girlfriend and the side chick will both be wearing makeup. They are both at home so there isn't anything that special. So they will be wearing simple makeup, especially the girlfriend for their dinner.

Props: Actors in the music video will be holding multiple things, such as the girlfriend using a phone to scroll through old pictures. Flowers will be needed for the the boyfriend to give to his girlfriend; to cover the fact that he is cheating on her. The girlfriend will be making dinner, so she needs kitchen supplies to prepare the food (cutting board, knife, pan, ingredients). She will also need two plates full of food in order for her to bring it to her boyfriend and have a dinner. Candles will be lit at the dinner table.

Setting: There will be two or three settings in the music video. In these settings, it will involve houses, and rooms inside of one. There needs to be scenes of the mistress' house and the boyfriend leaving it. The rest of the video will be shot in the girlfriend's house: in the living room, front door, kitchen, and bedroom. 

Camera angles, movements, and shots: All the angels will be filmed differently in some scenes. The scene where the boyfriend is in the car will be a low angle and where the girlfriend in cooking in the kitchen will be shot at a high angle. Most common movements that will be used is panning and tracking shots. For example when the boyfriend is leaving the mistress' house. Over the shoulder shot of the boyfriend driving out of his mistress' driveway. Lastly, in the second to last scene, we plan on using a aerial shot of the bed, to show that the couple is "sleeping." Medium shot of the boyfriend in  bed. 

Editing: There will crosscuts where the girlfriend is cooking while her boyfriend is on the way home. Also we incorporated a cutaway into the flowers in the car, to the next scene of the boyfriend gifting his girlfriend the flowers when he gets home. Another cutaway used was at dinner, where the girlfriend is bringing the food and you can see the boyfriend using his phone. Next scene will be of the phone getting a lot of notifications. 

Sounds: Since this is a music video, the sound we will be using all throughout the film is the song. The song we are using is "I'm Not The Only One" by Sam Smith. We also might use small sound effects in the video like a car starting or knife chopping.