Filming Update

     I can proudly say that I managed to get a grip on the situation that is filming. After the disaster that was Michell leaving for the break, I came to the conclusion that I could no longer rely on her. And that I must essentially fill the parts where she was needed. That left me in quite a rough spot if I'm being honest. And at the risk of adding too many delay blogs, I'll illustrate the painstaking workaround I came up with. 

    As it stands now, we have three filming days. Resulting from hours and hours of phone calls and text messages. The three days will serve as dailies and reshoots for all intents and purposes. It came out this way because of the varying personal schedules of the two additions I made to my team. Justin is a part-time worker and can only film on Friday, which is day two. I enlisted the help of both my partner and my sisters, mine babysits and won't be available until next week Tuesday, and my sister's partner luckily is available tomorrow, which is Wednesday, and marks day three and day two respectably. And it that seems confusing, it is. While filming is now wrangled, this scheduling creates its own unique issue. Now if I were to want to mix and match footage, I couldn't. Each participant of course has a different height. My sister is the only constant and is the focus of the film, my partner is shorter than her, hers taller, and Justin is assumed taller but we have no way of determining that until filming day since they have never been in the same room with one another. It isn't a big issue. It might even add an unexpected element to the film that this mysterious s figure changes shape and size throughout until its revel. Though said and done, with filming on different days, we run into the fact that the scenes outdoors will be completely unsalvageable, being that weather and light are unpredictable and uncontrollable. I'd have to pick the best singular figure for those scenes. 

Filming Hiccups

     Plans were made to rewrite it seems. I'm not sure who said it, but I'm sure it's a quote. If it's not, it should be because it hasn't seemed more true than right now. My plan included starting filming on the first few days of our winter break. But it would seem that I didn't learn from my Thanksgiving mishap. I waited too long to get started. I enjoyed my break too much and neglected to begin the work I had delegated to myself. At no one's fault but my own, I now have to rearrange a few things.  And it's not just because I waited, I still have time, so to speak. The problem is, that by waiting, I have now lost a key component of my plan. 

    My plan consisted of four people. These people are: myself, of course, my sister, my classmate outside of this particular class, and a mutual friend who doesn't attend this school.  What has now happened is that  Michell, my classmate is leaving to visit family for the winter break. This is bad on many levels, the first being that she will no longer be able to assist me in filming, and I have lost access to the high-quality camera she posses on her phone. Then on top of not being here, though he is a mutual friend, Justin will be less inclined to lend his assistance without Michell accompanying him. But even if she were to come back in time to lend me her camera, assist in filming, and convenience Justin to participate, her travels jeopardize safety so I couldn't have her there. It wouldn't be fair to the other participants in this time of unease. Covid still runs rampant and I would hope she wouldn't travel, not only for this project, but for her safety, but there's nothing I can do.  I'll just have to find a replacement for them both. Hopefully in time to begin editing on schedule.

Disruptions in Filming

    Maybe it was a tad overzealous of me to assume Id get to film at the first chance I got. And giving myself a week, was a little too ambitious. Didn't take into account that at least two of those days would be spent relaxing and enjoying the break, two more for other projects I had on hand, the day of thanks of course, then the day of cleaning from the day of thanks. Leaving one sole day, which wasn't enough. Instead of filming I just ran through the general plan of the film. Ironed out some details like transitions and so on. My main issue is the the issue continuity. Right now I want the character to be wearing the same clothes when the wake, so they can go to sleep in the them to create the loop, in the picture taken on the news, and when the viewer see her get murdered. Everything is fine up until the last point. I have two actors playing the same person, therefore I must find a way for them to look indistinguishable until the reveal. I hold that either I can do a quick warobe change and swap outfits, with a convenient enough angle, or that my actors have similar enough clothing. But that saying I hope the differences in my actors don't show too heavily on camera. 

   With that all said and done, I planed for Christmas break as well. And to my surprise, it's a two-week break rather than just one week, so that's great. However I was informed that one of my participants might me leaving the state in order to visit family for the holidays. While this isn't as much of an issue, It puts some dents in the plan. The person in question was meant to hold the camera while I direct. That being so I wouldn't have to do everything. Also It would allow me to shoot more effetcily, by positioning the camera woman and actors. Ill mostlikly move the dates up for my orinbigal plan by a few days and start filming on a weekend. Its not as concrete of a plan, but I still want to get started in Demcember, which is approaching stortly.

Websites' Alive and Well

     As of today, the website is fully functional. And just like the social media accounts, It wasn't very hard. My peers and I, by the suggestion of our instructors, used the website, Wix.com. The instructions thereon were pretty straight forward. I choose a general category; film, and some general templates that I liked, and Wix put together a website that I liked enough to start to edit. And not to sound like a sponsored ad, but I found it extremely easy. It didn't take much time, especially since there were other things I had to attend to. The website itself is live and can be found under "https://daziechain.wixsite.com/daziechain".

Which brings me to the decision of the working title. Not that it needed much thought or a deeper meaning, but I did so. It's like a little cherry on top for now. And in terms of branding and them, I like them a lot. I thought of Dazie for the name of my character, as in the name Dasiy, mixed with hazy, to represent the misty and foggy feel that I want the film to have. The chain came in because I want the film to have a looped effect, that the start and end are connected, and can repeat after the film has ended off-screen. And though the name is subject to change the elements I was want to embellish won't. The name will still most like retain apart of its origin if it changes at all.

Socials Went Live

     As of now, all social media accounts for the film have been activated. That includes Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and my personal favorite Twitter. Making the accounts wasn't very hard. It was fairly easy actually. As a member of Gen Z, I'm already well versed in technology. And I had already made personal accounts for each website/app so I was that much more familiar. Not to say making a social account would have been hard otherwise though. The way I did it, was that I simply connected everything, like a tree with branches. In hindsight, I could have gone a step further and made an official email for the film but I decided to use my professional student one. Going from there I opened accounts with the email and there all linked.

    As for branding, and marketing, I'm currently at a loss. Naturally, I don't have anything to post as of yet. I plan on filling the feed with behind the scenes, maybe actor P.O.Vs, and bloopers from filming. But I still have to think about the feel for the movie. I want to base my social media presence off of the show Riverdale, and how each member of the cast had turns posting their own takes on what was happening episode to episode. You got the learn more about the characters they played along with the actual personalities of the actors and I liked that. The only downside is, it might be too lighthearted of a branding idea for a thriller film. Or, maybe the juxtaposition would help hypothetical fans warm up to the film and look forward to it more.

Storyboard Blog

   Below is my storyboard. I didn't do much of it and tried to do my best illustrating my vision of how I wanted the film to play out. I plan on filming from my home so It wasn't very hard to map out where I wanted things to happen. And apart from the scene at the store, I will have full control of the elements to change to fit my vision. Filming at the store is still an uncertain factor in my vision because of this. I don't doubt that I'll be given permission to shoot there, but I worry that because of the public nature of the store the quality of my shots will diminish.

    With the storyboard itself, I can see almost even scene I mapped out perfecting, I like the pacing and to me, everything is smooth until the end. I feel that the drama leading up to the conclusion is adamant, but how I end it could use work. I was thinking of possibly a few more seconds between frames to illustrate the reveal of the figure after the murder. That really comes down to filming and editing though. I'm going to have the camera running for at least a few seconds between each take for more natural transitions. I feel like I also have a lot of varying angles but not many transitions. For pacing sake, I used fades and mostly jump cuts. With one or two action matches, I could also add some dissolves. It's mainly because I want the figure to move quickly. With inhuman, and freakish speed. And I want the feel to be that you could miss something with the blink of an eye. I also want to limit the need for transitions. The way I broke up the film, I can shoot most scenes in one shot, with some need a shot-reverse-shot and that's it, and then a transition in between. I'd love to have each scene have a trucking shot to make it easier but depending on the feasibility of having everything, multiple stitched shots will have to work too. 

Planning Blog

     Beginning with the film's schedule, I plan on utilizing my holiday breaks to the fullest. Since my personal schedule is fairly busy, I plan on using weekends and the upcoming holidays, the days in which school isn't as much of a hassle. And since I will be working with other people weekends and holidays make it more likely everyone will have the means of transportation and free time as well. I plan to film consecutively at my house and the surrounding area, if not in one-day, filming would be back to back; assuming weather and availability are stable factors. Preferably on any given Saturday and Sunday. After filming I'll be on my own for the most part. Creativity and editing and directing will be my main focus, while I enlist the help of my classmate Michell for film, and my sister and neighbor Jahmeila and Justin respectably for acting. And of course, due to coronavirus, everyone will be wearing masks ensuring everyone's safety; if they don't have any, disposable masks have been procured in advance to distribute. 

    The current ideal is to start filming around the 24th, with the 25th, and 26th being the holiday safety net. If need be, the 21st and the 22nd are available. The overall goal is to finish, before the 31st of this month, with any and reshoots, or retakes being done in December. Editing shouldn't take long, for what I envision the bulk of the work in is filming and the transitioning. After all the footage is compiled all that would be left is stitching it together. With maybe one or two sound effects that we'll record like heavy breathing and such I don't see myself having much to do.

    With the basis of the film overall, the only prop I see us needing is a fake knife and some concoction for fake blood. If they can't be bought for whatever, either because of expenses or unavailability, I consider myself pretty crafty so I'll make them. As for customs, I have a good idea of what I want my actors to wear, it'll be regular clothes like running shoes and a hoodie, nothing too hard to muster up out of the closet.