My Film Opening:

That Man in the Mirror Ain't Me:
Here is That Man in the Mirror Ain't Me

https://drive.google.com/open?id=186AXBXgw4bnbKLTy939ePjmFWdSiX3LG

My CCR:

Here is my CCR.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=12zsKDaKsz8ymKK_yZj8MgC3wT6S7QSVw

The Last Blog Post...

Well guys, here is the last blog post. Here I will be talking about all the things that we planned to do but were unable to for some reason.

First of all, we were originally planning to film a whole other scene at school where both characters go up to the wrong group of friends and they just struggle in general to live in a different body. We quickly learned that we would not have nearly enough time as we needed to fit this scene. After the first day of filming, I edited Juan waking up, walking to the bathroom, screaming, and trying to pee, and it lasted 1:15. We were limited to 2 minutes for this project so we would really only be able to film Layla waking up and seeing herself in the mirror. This is exactly what we ended up doing, the video ended when they both called a friend and told them they are not in their body. I'm glad that it ended this way as it leaves it at more of a cliffhanger.

We also had an idea of editing some text bubbles to appear on screen but I think this would've been way too hard to edit and would've taken too much time. Either way, we ended up using a call rather than texts just to make it seem more dramatic.

It has been a long run working on this project with Juan and Layla. I've really learned a lot and gained lots of experience. I'm super glad that I was able to participate in this. Thanks for reading my blog I really appreciate it! Bye!

Done Editing!

I just finished editing! Now to figure out how to show you the video... I've worked on the edit about 3 days so everything went just how we planned it. We didn't have to end up filming anything extra and I didn't have to delete any parts either, the final video is 1:50 long.

I think that the only thing the video might need is some background music, it feels very empty to the point where when a character speaks it kinda scares you. So I think we should definitely consider music, I will talk to my group tomorrow in class.

Color Grading

The color grading was very simple, I didn't do anything special here. The raw footage looked very flat so I decided to turn up some contrast and highlights, turn the shadows down a little, and adjust the exposure where necessary. I also made the video a little colder just to balance it out. Here are the results:

I'm almost done editing! I'll leave the final touches for tomorrow. Peace.

Editing

The editing process has been smooth. First I put all the videos together in the correct order, then I got to creating the credits and later I will color grade the video.

For this video, we decided to go with parallel editing to show how both characters wake up and discover their switched body at the same time. Sometimes we even split the screen in half to show both of the characters at the same time. We did this at the part where they see themselves in the mirror, and when they call their friends. In order to make the cuts flow, we used some graphic matches. Here are screenshots of the two parts where we used a graphic match to make a cut.

For the credits, we decided to make them appear to be in the actual room with the person just to add a little visual interest. This is hard to explain so I'll let you see the video on a later date when I can figure out how to upload it on here.

As for the colors, I'll probably finish them tomorrow and update you.

Day Two of Filming

On this second day of filming, we filmed Layla's part where she wakes up, gets up and sees herself in the mirror. Here are some screenshots of the shots:

We filmed similar shots so that the parallel editing would flow nice and clear. I will probably start editing today and I will update you on how that goes as well.

Problems We Ran Into

While filming and editing on this first day, we did run into a few problems. The biggest problem we ran into is the length of the video. Everything that we filmed today, which was supposedly a small portion of the video, adds up to 1:15. We are going to have to either cut the idea shorter or cut some unnecessary parts.

Another problem was keeping the camera smooth at the very first shot. The way that I resolved it was by adding a warp stabilizer in Premiere Pro. This looks perfect as the original camera shake was not too noticeable anyways, the warp stabilizer was just for extra measure.

Our final problem was how and where to set up the light, we found where we wanted to set it up for it to look best but the cable was not long enough. This was a simple fix, we just used an extension and placed it where it looked best.

Tomorrow we will continue filming Laylas part and maybe refilming a little of Juan's part.

First Day of Filming!

Today was our first day of filming, I would say it went very well. We filmed the part where Juan wakes up and heads to the bathroom.

First, we set the room up to look like a boy's room. We threw a few shirts on the floor, some nunchucks, and even some underwear. 

Before filming, we did some final research and decided to begin the scene with some b-roll. We decided on a close-up, the camera maneuvering through all the dirty clothes leading up to his sleeping face. The character then opened his eyes and sat up, here we switched to a medium shot of the character sitting on the bed. Then we included the close up of his legs walking that I believe I have mentioned before. This will later be used as a graphic match with Layla's legs. We then moved on to the bathroom shots. We set up one of Juan's lights to act as a light and began filming.

The first shot is a medium shot of the mirror, Juan walks up, enters the frame creating an over the shoulder shot. This is where the character realizes he is in a guys body and screams. Juan screams and the screen turns black.

The next few shots are of Juan panicking/ figuring out what to do. First, there is a close up examining himself in the mirror, then a sequence of him figuring out how to pee. For this sequence we changed the light set up to this:

 

Juan began by lifting and putting the toilet seat down undecidedly because the character was unsure whether to sit down or stand up. Then, when the character decided to sit down, we used a water bottle to spray water all over the place to make it look like the girl didn't know how to pee as a guy.

This is where we left off today, tomorrow, Layla will be able to film and we will do her part. In the next post, I will talk about some problems we ran into during today's filming.

Schedule

We have about two weeks and a half left to complete this opening. Soon we will start filming, we would like to finish filming everything by Wednesday or Thursday next week, this way we are left with a few days to edit and film any shots that we missed or want to add. We want to finish the opening about a week before the whole project is due so that we are left with a week to complete the CCR.

Today is Thursday 3/21, the project is due 4/7, this leaves us with 17 days to complete the project. Including the CCR, however, we have 10 days to film and edit the video. This is definitely doable, the filming should not take too long. I would think that we could split the days evenly and have 5 days for filming and 5 more for editing.

My schedule is relatively free and very flexible, while Layla and Juan are more limited because they work. Hopefully well be able to make some time and finish this project

Problems...

We had a problem today that we hadn't thought of before. We had never defined whether the characters would switch bodies or switch minds. Originally, our idea was to have the characters switch bodies. What I mean by this is that the characters will wake up in their own houses but in different bodies. We decided to change this because it would seem more realistic for a mind to switch than a body. This would force us to change our whole opening sequence because now the character would wake up in a different house, they would notice immediately. To play this off, we will make it so they are so drowsy that they don't even notice until they see themselves in the mirror.

We are currently writing the script, I will update you when we have finished a rough draft.

Suggestions and Opinions from Mrs. Stoklosa!

When we met up with Mrs. Stoklosa, we discussed some things that we were doubting such as whether to make the characters switch bodies or minds and if we would be able to film at our school once school has ended. However, she also suggested a few things that we hadn't really considered before. She suggested that we make the characters different genders. This would add a little comedy to the movie. Making the two characters different genders would also set this movie apart from the others. The movies that I've researched have all been the same sexes changing. 

An exception to this would be Jumanji where a girl is transferred to a man's body but the concept of this movie is very different from what we would like to do.

Finally, we discussed our idea for the credits where they will disappear and appear according to what is happening on the screen. For example, if the character goes to turn off her alarm clock, the hand will cover the text and then it will disappear. Mrs. Stoklosa really liked this idea.

That's all for today. Peace.

Updates to the Storyline

Today my group and I cleared up the storyline a little more. Our original idea was to have the movie begin with the girls already in each other's bodies and then have a part where the film rewinds to the beginning of the story. Instead of this, we decided to have the film start with the body switch in the same way, however, instead of rewinding to the beginning, it will simply keep going through the character's day trying to find their actual body. Later on, when the two girls get together they could figure out how the body switch happened, here a flashback could be shown. Our project would only be the intro of the movie so the flashback part would probably not be shown. This will probably change soon as we will talk to Mrs. Stoklosa soon. I will update you on any changes that we make.