Movie Trailer

   Bonjour!! The past couple weeks I have been working on a movie trailer for my video class. We got to choose a movie of our choice to recreate the movie trailer. My group chose Edge of Seventeen, so down below I will talk about the process that went into creating a professional trailer that looks more off-brand than professional.

Process

    The process for the trailer was actually really hard and long. First, we had to brainstorm our movie trailer and then get it approved by my teacher because my trailer does have a little bit of sensitive content. But, after we got it approved we went straight to work. Before filming, we had to map out all of our shots in a google doc and describe what shot they were and how we would be able to create them. After the shots were planned out we had to think of locations, costumes, and actresses and actors. Pre-production took a good week to a week and a half because our trailer was packed with different shots and people and it was two minutes long. So we had a lot of planning to do before could film. We were finally ready for filming and then my school got canceled for a week due to snow and ice so my group had to redo our plans to film. But once we got everything figured out it went pretty smoothly. Filming was fun because of all the different shots we got to do and all the people to work with. It was stressful to make sure we had everything and to make the teachers and actors memorize their lines but after they did that it went by good. Filming took two and a half weeks with a whole bunch of filming outside of school and then we went to editing. Editing was such a long process because a lot of our shots had no audio so that was a whole issue, my project kept getting deleted for some reason, and we had to omit some shots because they were too difficult for beginner teenagers to be able to film okish. It was hard to keep all the audio between -12 and -18 and then matching up audio with voiceovers and trying to match up music with different shots was hard too.But it was also fun and cool to see it all come together and look somewhat nice even though I was very much rushing.

Learned 

    I learned a lot, once again. I have learned how important communication through a team is important because if I was gone and they didn't know it would mess with the schedule and I would have to email teachers if they were avalibe and a lot of decisions fell on me since I was the director. I have learned that if you want something to look nice you must have patience and get lots of footage. Even though I said communication was important, independent decisions are also equally important because you can't just rely on teammates to carry you through a project, there must be some sort of part you did.

Change

   I would change the way the beginning of my video turned out. I don't like how all the clips are just flipping so fast that you have no idea what is going on and that might because our actor was rushing his lines or just the way it turned out but that beginning is just a collage of different shots flipping at a rapid pace and it is a little dizzying. I also would like to change the location of where we filmed some of the shots because I don't think the ones we did in school look the best but I understand that we are students and it is hard to get the variety of shots I want.

Same 

    I would keep most of the trailer the same. I think the places we choose and the actors/actresses we choose pulled through and did a good job with the trailer. The little thing I would want to fix are mostly nit-picky so, for the most part, I liked how it came out. The music choices are great, the costumes were good. For the most part, the locations turned out ok and the people did a fantastic job so I am really happy with it turned out

    In conclusion, I had a good time filming this. I worked with some great people and I think we all were able to bounce ideas off each other and we all listened to one another and everything was respectful. The project turned out pretty good and I think I am definitely improving and everything has been really fun so much.

Music Video

     Bonjour!! Récemment j'ai fait un music video avec mes amies! It was really fun and I definitely enjoyed getting to start the entertainment side of my film class. It was a lot of hard work but getting a month or so to work on it was very helpful.

Process
     A few months ago, I got an assignment in my exploring Film class that we had to recreate a music video. We first got to pick our groups and I choose a good friend of mine and a few other people in my class that I had started talking to. I think we actually got along pretty well as a ground considering we all didn't really know each other very well. Next, we had to think of a music video we wanted to try and recreate. It was really tough for my group to pick because there are so many different types of genres and songs. I think it took my group and me about 3 days to agree with Love by Lana Del Rey. After that was picked out, we spent the rest of the week storyboarding, I think storyboarding took us a while because our video was really detailed we and wanted it to look really nice. We thought of everything, like where we wanted to film, what outfits and even planned some shots that we knew that we wanted. After our week long of storyboarding, we started the film schedule. The first thing we filmed was a coffee shop scene. I was very pleased with how these scenes turned out, the coffee shop stuff was probably my favorite thing we filmed. Next came a couple who was studying, and although I couldn't make it to that filming session or the couple outside, I know that they went very smooth and the shots were all pretty decent. The filming period took around a week to a week and a half and afterward my group and I went straight into editing since we were running short on time. My editor was my good friend and she did a very good job. Even though editing primarily took only one person, I tried to keep the whole group together just so there could be second and third opinions and new ideas for shots that didn't work. It was a very fun experience for my group pretty much clicked and we all had so many ideas that it helped make the video great. There were times where we would suggest filters for the shots and they turned out great or if we were missing something one of us could figure out another shot to help fix it. Editing took about a week as well and my team finished just a day or so before the deadline. It turned out wonderful and I am really proud of it.

Learn
    I learned different ways to edit a video like my friend edits a different way than I do so it was cool to watch her because I learned some new things I can try, like using the razor tool and cutting a shot in half rather than clipping it and getting rid of the rest of it.I also learned how to develop a better eye for pretty shots and got to help the cinematographer plan some pretty nice looking shots. I also learned how to be punctual because if I was late I would miss something.

Differently
   There aren't many things I would like to change, I would perhaps like to follow the music video a little bit more because some of our shots were filtered differently but it would've thrown off the balance we had found so it is ok that it was not added in. I also would've liked to have been there to help them film the other two couples because some of the shots aren't very good so I could've added to help create some shots, but maybe not, the world will never know. I would also have liked to change some of the castings just because a few couples didn't look natural or maybe a little camera shy.

No Change
    Things I wouldn't change would be the video idea itself and my group. I think we all had different talents we brought to the table and that made for a very creative and nice looking video. I liked the actress who played Lana, she did fantastic, as well as the other actors/actresses. Everyone was so kind and it really made the whole thing easier. The end product was very well made, the filters really added something to it and the editing was also very precise.

    In conclusion, I had a great time working on this project. I think if I didn't like animation so much I would want to be in the film entertainment industry. My group was very well working and I learned that bouncing ideas off one another really helps to create the best possible idea and the fact that everyone was working together really made it that more great. I loved this project and can't wait to start on the movie trailer.

See you next time,
Sophie the First