Cambridge Blog Post 22

     Today I have completed the final color grades and the addition of muzzle flashes to my scene. To complete the color grading, I made sure to watch the tutorial again that posted in a previous blog. I had to make sure that the color grading matched the overall theme of my film, as does everything else. 

        To create the muzzle flashes, I had to search for free, copyright free, assets. I found 5 different styles, all of which I used in my film to give some randomness and variety to my film. I also had to make sure that the brightness and opacity of each of the flashes corresponded to the already provided film grading. 

    Moreover, I also had to make sure that the area around the gun was being illuminated, because if you are firing a gun in a closed space there will be light coming off of the objects in  the way of the gun. Therefore, I decided to boost the white levels and use a mask for a short period of time to get the illumination effect. Here is a frame from one of the shots:

    Although it may look silly or unprofessional in this frame by frame view, it looks amazing when played at full speed.

Cambridge Blog Post 21

     Today as I was completing some of the final touches to my piece, I noticed that one of the songs that I used was actually copyrighted. I needed to change it, so I went back and looked for more music that actually was not copyrighted. I found multiple songs on the web page that I pasted below, and I thought that a lot of them did actually fit the theme of my film.

    To my surprise, when dropping in the most recent one, with limited tweaking, I was able to get it to fit the theme and flow perfectly, and I am extremely pleased. I tried out multiple songs from that list, but ultimately landed on the one titled "Super suspense", and "the hero we need". The hero we need was strategically used to create a sad tone after the person was killed by the assassin, which perfectly fits the mood. 

    I am extremely satisfied with the way this is turning out and I am excited to complete the final touches.

https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/royalty-free-music/downloads-c/suspenseful-music/25

Cambridge Blog Post 20

    I just finished the composition of all the sound into the project. At first I only added the video portion of the clips because I did not know where exactly I wanted everything to go and it was easier to do it with no audio. As of now, this is what my project looks like in Adobe Premiere:

    There are many layers of audio. I had to make sure that each clip of audio was mixed correctly and accurately timed. For some of the slow motion parts I needed to make sure that the audio was matching the speed and placement. This is what one portion of the audio looks like:

    As you can see, there is multiple layers, and some effects are applied to some of the audio. For the final slow motion part, I decided to shy away from my original plan of a reverb addition, and I went with a simple slowed down version of the song and audio. For this part, I had to make sure that the audio sound effects I used matched the speed of the video, since it was slowed to 50%. 

    Next, I plan on completing the color grading and muzzle flashes on all of the parts of the film. This will be complicated and take lots of research and time, but it will be worth it in the end.

Cambridge Blog Post 19

     I have begun editing my project. Yesterday, I was having so much fun editing, that I spent almost 7 hours on it. So far, I have completed the composition of all of my shots into the editing software. I wil be using Adobe Premiere Pro 2022 for this project. 

    After the composition, I plan on doing a simple color grade for now, and adding more later on. After that, I will make sure that I add all of the sound effects in their correct spots with the correct volumes and more. I have included screenshots of the movie editing so far below.

Cambridge Blog Post 18

    I finally filmed the entire project yesterday. It was incredibly fun to do so. I included some videos from the filming below. I kept mostly to the storyboard I had, but I ended up taking a couple of shots out and replacing them with new ones. I took out all of the close up shots of the assassin, and instead included an establishing shot.

        The establishing shot includes the assassin walking out from a corner and the lights turning on one by one by one. It looks really cool and I am excited for the next steps. I am currently piecing together the first pass of the film opening and I am getting some people to tell me what they think about it as I go. I want to make sure that I get this film progress to match the overall theme of the film. 

    Below I have uploaded the scene that I was given the most feedback on. Before the people said it was too fast and confusing. Therefore, I ended up changing it so that it is still cohesive but slower.

Cambridge Blog Post 17

    Today is the day that I begin my filming. We had to make a couple of changes to the filming date. At first, we were supposed to film on Monday, 3/14/22 at 7:30 pm. After some discussion, we had to move the date to Wednesday, 3/16/22 at 7:30.

    I had a track meet yesterday, and at that I was able to talk to the owner of the warehouse. Due to a miscommunication and a failed relay of information, he did not know when we were filming. I told him Wednesday 3/16 and he said that worked for him. However, when I got home, the main character asked to do it a bit earlier and proposed a time at 6:30 pm. I got that confirmed by the owner and we are good to go.

    I will be filming today at 6:30 pm at the warehouse. I have to make sure that all of the supplies are brought, including the camera, the airsoft gun, holster, vest, and the actors. I will have a second friend there to help me take pictures and videos of the filming for the blog.

Cambridge Blog Post 16

    This class, we conducted a group discussion. We got members of different groups and we discussed our projects and ideas. After we discussed, we gave each other advice for different portions of the project that we needed help on. 

    They gave me advice on how I should end my film. Because I am ending my film with someone being shot to death, they recommended that I end the film without actually showing the kill. I will be changing the ending to fit the appropriateness of a school project. It will not be much different so it will not be a huge deal. I enjoyed this group discussion because it provided me with a lot of confidence.