Final Product

And it's finally here!!! enjoy!

https://youtu.be/YWYQxLTA_dU

Song Rights

So today, the 9th of April, we received official approval to use the song from one of the artist's that wrote our song. Joaquin and I managed to get Statik Selektah to contact us in regard to using the song as we had called his store beforehand to beg to try to get Statik to answer us. We are very happy as our project is now officially finalized. The CCR is next for all of us and I feel as if we will give our audience a very in depth review of our filming and editing process. As getting this permission was starting to get nerve-wracking, our artist did manage to pull through for us.

Final Edits

Editing is tough. I would say the first minute and a half of our opening has been fairly easy to edit, but the last scene has turned out more difficult than I thought. As this last portion involves diegetic sounds and dialogue, making cuts while trying to keep a smooth sound progression has been hard. Though we may be saying the same things and acting the same way in the many takes we have in our footage, each take has a different tonality in its sound. Also, we were not able to kill it with a single take, so editing is necessary. As none of us are actual actors, getting the scene right in one take was nearly impossible. After a few hours of moving parts around, the visual content of the last scene seems to make sense, but the sound still needs more work. Another issue we are having with the editing is our shaky footage. iMovie has an option to stabilize video, but this only works when the video is slightly shaky. We got lots of amazing footage that we won't be able to include due to this problem. We filmed everything with our hands, while driving, running, walking, etc. However, this was something we knew would happen, so we made sure to get a lot of footage. Half is shaky and half is not, but our halves are pretty big halves.

More Filming

At first, we wanted to make the final scene of our opening take place in a fancy restaurant. However, as usually happens whenever we are all together, my group members and I found another, better place. While driving around Miami looking for cool locations, we found a parking lot with the top floor empty. It was dim because not all the lights were functioning, but this only made the overall vibe more mysterious. Not only did the parking lot fit in to our opening well, it gave us a bonus, beautiful view of the Miami skyline.

Though the atmosphere seemed to be perfect, we ran into a little problem. It turns out the top floor was reserved for special guests, which we were certainly not. A security guard came in a golf cart and told us we needed to leave, but with a bit of persuasion and explanation as to why we were there, she decided to let us finish filming. So we did. Other than that, the filming went great. I hope when you see this scene, you can enjoy the unique setting we tried to portray.

Filming

Today was a pretty successful day of filming. We got the whole first scene done. It didn't take too long because we were all clear on what we were going to do. This wasn't the case two days ago, when we got about 7 minutes of footage which, due to bad planning, became useless. The only issue we had today was being able to make our blanket filled trash bag look like a dead body. The blanket kept coming out of the bag as I dragged it. But I guess we did a good job because a police officer actually came up to us and interrogated us. We showed her the blankets to assure her that she had only been deceived by our mine-en-scene and no dead people were being dumped out in the open. Also, to simulate the sound of the other body in the trunk, we threw Miguel in there and he was surprisingly good at crashing against the walls of the car's trunk. We're not bad friends... Miguel was having a great time. Plus, sometimes someone just has to take one for the team.

Miss Fordham Road (86' 87' 88')

Miss Fordham Road (86' 87' 88') is a song produced by the rapper Action Bronson and DJ Statik Selektah. It has a pretty groovy sound, mixing hip hop beats with some hispanic flavor. The song acts as an antithesis to the events seen in the beginning. It has an overall happy and energetic sound which is unexpected given a dead body was just shown. This serves to display the character of not only the protagonist but the other characters as well. They are money crazed and are as happy and ambitious as the song playing even though death surrounds them.


Here are the emails we have sent to Action Bronson and his team for permission to use his song:


                                   

Storyboard

Here is a glimpse of our storyboard. It shows the beginning of our opening. Our new plot will be based on a mafia/gangster type of story which involves three characters but focuses more on one, main character. This main character is the one displayed on the drawings below. He has a dark sense of humor and doesn't really mind dealing with dead people. This scene consists of the protagonist disposing a body without caring too. He gets in the car, and starts driving off, but as soon as he accelerates, he hears a thump in the trunk, meaning there's another body he forgot about.



 
                     
                               

Upgraded Thoughts

R.I.P. to the bank robbery idea. To be honest, I never really liked it. It never had much of a path and  was always more of a back up plan. However, we kept focusing on it more and more because time was running out and because we had been getting positive feedback from our classmates.

This weekend, I sat down and dedicated a few hours solely to think. I made sure to rid myself of all distractions and began to watch as many film openings as I could. This is something I have previously done, but this time, I focused more on analyzing the openings without getting caught up in their entertainment. There are two things I noticed. One, we are far from having the skills, money, and technology required to make most of the amazing openings I saw. Two, a good, authentic idea is worth more than the skills, money, and technology we don't have.

I realized that though there are certain rules one should follow, going by a guidebook isn't the key. The openings I saw were amazing because they executed their originality perfectly and efficiently. Each of them was different, and as long as their differences grab attention, most of their job is done.

So instead of following my classmates' feedback word for word, or becoming too obsessed with what we can and can't do, I decided to learn from these things, make adjustments, but ultimately create what I want to create. I consulted with my group before making any major changes. Fortunately, they liked the idea. More details about our new path will be given soon so stay tuned!

Props

Now that our idea is set up, we can plan out what we will need during the filming process. Here are a few props and places we thought about:

Sunglasses

Dark Pants 

Black shirt

House

Gun/Weapon 

Black mask

Old car

Bank

Though we already have these props, we still need to find a bank. This may take some time. I doubt most banks would welcome the idea of four teenagers pretending to rob them. However, if we don't manage to find a real bank to film at, we can use creative camera angles and other techniques to make make another type of place suit our needs. 

Idea?

We all agreed to make our film opening about a bank robbery. Here is brief description. The opening would begin by introducing the main character through a sequence of events portraying his antisocial intentions. He would look at himself in the mirror, splash water on his face, and begin to dress up for what is to come. These events will be shown in chronological order with quick cuts showing his every move. Wearing all black, he would open one of the cabinets and grab a black mask with holes cut out for his eyes and mouth, somewhat like that of a stereotypical thief. However, we would emphasize his nervousness and anxiety through his facial expressions. The protagonist would not be an evil character, rather he is forced to rob the bank due to his life. The plot, given that our genre is drama, would be based on the main character, his reasons to rob the bank, the ramifications of the event, his life issues, and solutions. I do not want to give too much away just yet as this post is only an introduction.