Group Meeting

Today we had a group meeting with people from my class. We had a group meeting before this as well but this time we had it with different people so we got a bunch of different inputs this time. We talked about the production and how it went. I told everyone how it was and how my project is coming along. I got some tips on what to do with the CCR's and Production. 

Tips:

• use final cut camera app for best quality video
• film each CCR scene with each angle first
• develop CCR idea!!!!!
• different costumes for each "character"
• purposeful imperfection
• imovie on desktop works well
• uppbeat.com for non copyrighted audio
• play on phone speaker rather than importing, sounds more authentic (?)

These helped a lot and will help when we do our second production day this weekend. I am sure the others in the group also found this very helpful. We all talked and discussed the ways that we can improve our projects and it turned out to be a great and big help.

Production Process #2

 After the news shot, pretty much everything else went pretty smooth and we got all the shots that we could. After the news shot we had to another shot with the agents speaking in like a meeting room, so we had already decided before that we would do it in the library meeting room. Fortunately, not many people were there at the library and we got the meeting room quickly and were able to do our shots and take our time. In the meeting room we reorganized the chairs and table a little to fit them to our needs and set up the props and everything that was required for the shot. By the time we got all the things ready, our actors also arrived which was perfect timing. We gave them the costume they had to wear and guided them through the script and what we need from them. One of the dialogues needed a little emotion and some anger and our actor executed it perfectly which was great and we really liked the scene. This shot also took some time, from setting up to getting what we needed it took about 25-30 mins. It also took multiple tries to get the actors to get the emotion shots correctly and overall the perfect scene we needed.

This is a photo of us at the set which was the meeting room. 

Once we finished the filming at the library we went to one of our partners house to start on the shots we needed from there. We now needed a shot of the two main characters in the car and a funny start to the movie. Once we got to the house, we had to dress up in our costumes which was a white shirt, pants and a tie. We also had to get our prop guns and put them in the car so it could be visible. We had one of our friends call in the car so it could look like the two characters boss is calling them and giving them an assignment. We gave the caller a really funny name and put a funny photo along with it too. This scene took us about another 30 mins but it was really good and we got what we need. We did not finish the whole production but we got about 1- 1:15 min of it captured. We have another production day sometime in the next week or next Saturday which is the 28th. Overall, it was really fun being with my friends and making this project and look forward to the next production day. 

Production Process

 We started filming the movie opening today and it was not as easy as we thought. The process took much more time than we expected it to and we had to redo multiple shots to make them perfect. At first we thought that the group would use an actual proper camera but at the last moment some problems happened with the camera and it would not work anymore. So, we decided to just use our iPhones because they also have pretty great camera quality.

The first shot we had to do was the news report shot, and we had to find a good background for that shot. We used the fountain at the library and the pillars around it. This made the shot look professional and like an actual news report which is what we were aiming for. The dialogue for the scene came in very clear and the very soft sounds of the waterfall in the background with the scenery make it look very professional and realistic. The scene took multiple tries because the actor was one of our friends and he messed it up a couple times but in the end we still got the perfect shot. The process of recording just this one small scene took like 15-20 mins. We realized that its not easy at all to do this stuff, it requires patience and a lot of hard work. We also ran into a problem the day of production in the morning where our friend who was going to act that day fell sick and then we were scrambling to find another person who was available to do that shot for us today. We then later proceeded to film some of the other shots. 

This is a picture of me and my friend who was doing the news report scene and I am the one who is recording him with my phone. He had a prop microphone in his hand to make it realistic and now we will use the shot in the opening and add some news editing to it.

Planning for production day

Today my group and I discussed the production day and what we need to do on that day. We discussed the locations, where we are going to meet up, how we will record and etc. The main thing we needed to do was finalize the costuming and props. We only had about the last 20-25 minutes of class to do it since we had a lesson that day as well. We created a group chat with our friends who were acting for us and also a private group chat just between the partners so we could discuss the scenes and plan thoroughly for production day. We made a list of all the props we needed and the costume that needed to be ordered, and nowadays with delivery and shipping being fast we would get it by tomorrow which is Friday. 

This is the list that we made with all the costume pieces and props that were required for our production day to go good and be productive. We encountered an issue with timings and what days we can film, because I could only do Saturday and I had to leave at 2:15 PM and my partners were not able to do it on Sunday. We all had to agree and find out some time where we could meet up and get some of the production done. Another thing that we did because of this is that we set up another date to record just in case we could not finish in the amount of time that we had. So we set a date to record on 2/21 from 12 to 2:15 and 2/28 around the same time. 

Production company logo

 

This is our production company logo. At first my group and I believed that making the production logo did not need much time and was not a big worry. We were totally wrong, this actually took much more time than we expected. The group and I came up with the name "White Hawk Productions" to go with our choice to make something with a bird because we felt it would look great. We then searched for free licenses of an eagle outline until we found one that matched what we wanted. I discussed with my group if to put WhiteHawk in one word or White Hawk in two, but once We typed it out, the two-word version looked cleaner. To try to create the kind of contrast we noticed in many simple example logos, We placed WHITE in a black box and then HAWK floating next to it in the same font. To make it obvious that the logo was for a production company, the word PRODUCTIONS was placed underneath.

The name we picked is White Hawk productions which is the meaning behind the name gavin, which is one of our partners name. We also thought that white hawk is something that could relate to our target audience which is young men primarily. The name we chose is White Hawk Productions, which is the meaning of one of our partners' names, Gavin. also we believed that White Hawk would connect with our target demographic, which is mainly younger guys.

Audio

 In the action comedy genre, the audio and the background music will be very important. This be a really important part to develop the tense and funny scenes. The sound will help to develop the characters, the genre of the movie. I have not thought so much about the sound part yet but I have some idea of what I want to incorporate. 

First in the opening I will start off with serious and fast action music. This will get the audience ready for the danger and all the usual aspects of an action opening. During the comedy moments in the opening the music will sometimes go silent, the volume will be reduced, or cut out all of a sudden. The dumb character will be loud, will speak with confidence but say dumb things. The smart character will be quieter and more professional and will use a lot of sarcasm.

We will also sound effects like boots stepping loudly in a quiet mission or like dropping something and it making a really loud noise which interrupts the mission. These will make the scenes much funnier and over all keep the action genre alive too. Silence will also be added to increase the comedy, such as when a mistake happens the silence will come or silence before a loud noise. These all are the some of the ideas that I have thought of and these I think will add a great touch to the opening to make it seem professional and overall be an interesting piece of media. 

An example of a movie that uses this really well is Four Lions, it mixes everything together in a perfect way. 

Mise-en-scene 2

 Costume is really important in an action comedy, it will mix the humor and action in a good way. The costume for the dumb character will be a oversized tactical vest, fake spy like sunglasses and instead of wearing boots they will be wearing sneakers. This will make the character look unprofessional and like he has no clue of what he is doing at all. This will also be funny because the audience will think that in such a serious situation theres an idiot like this who had no clue what he is doing.

The costume for the second character will be like a casual hoodie and will actually be wearing a good fitting tactical vest. He will have a backpack which will be full of random stuff and will wear boots. This characters main target is to look realistic and give more of a serious vibe but in a humorous way. The costume for the villain we have not figured it out yet but will be something with the color black to make it look evil and simple.

Props will also be key, we will use fake weapons such as BB Guns, Fake knifes and stuff like that. Cheap walkie talkies for communication, a flashlight that does not work and for the villain we will need a laptop, phone, fake cash, fake documents and etc.