Post-Production: Editing

After filming all scenes in the film, including the final interrogation scene that was added, it was only a matter of editing. Jada was in charge of the editing but all of us had to sit down to decide how the sound should be edited in certain scenes, or what transitions would be best between specific clips. Here's a breakdown of all the editing techniques used in the film and why they were added.

The first thing added after putting all the clips together was the voiceover. Originally, we weren't going to add a voiceover because we felt as if it took away from the suspense of the film. The silence of the film did make certain clips look awkward though, so we added voice over of Carla's internal monologue to let the audience know what is going through her head. This gives the audience a chance to relate to Carla.

The next and easiest thing was transitions. Transitions move a story along and if they look out of place, it can really take the audience out of the world in the story. Flashback scenes for example, had blurry transitions to resemble the time-travelling in Carla's head. If this transition were used for all clips, it would look choppy. The black fade in was used in two scenes. One, to transition from Carla's walking to her talk with Mr. Johnson and second time to transition from the murder scene to the next day.

Filters weren't used as much as the other editing factors, but they still played a big role especially in the Flashback scenes. The flashback scenes had to be a different color to resemble the scene taking place in a different time. The clips were changed to a less saturated, almost grey, color to resemble the past.

The most tedious part of this whole process was the sound editing. The sound of clips had to be controlled. If there was noise in the background it had to be reduced and the voice of the characters had to be increased. Music, voiceover, and sound effects had to fit in with scene and complement each other. A good example of all these factors working together is the scene where Carla picks up the knife and kills her teacher. Carla's mom's and Mr. Johnson's voice are duplicated to be used in those clips; they're given an echo to resemble Carla's mind. A heartbeat sound effect is added which makes the audience aware of what Carla is feeling and hints what she's about to do. A small voiceover is added until Carla's mind goes blank and loud of the voices in her head, resembling her breaking under pressure.

A small detail was the end title scene. Depending on the movie, most movies have the title after the opening scene and credits. We decided to do this because it gives a strong ending.

Production Week: Final Day

After receiving feedback on our movie, our group realized we still had a little more work to do. While I thought the first draft was great, I'll admit it was missing a lot of things like a voiceover, credits, title, production logo, and time. Another short filming day had to be planned to make up for these mistakes.

We were never able to film the first scene in Ms. Vincent's class, however, we felt that the introduction would be too long if we added another scene to the beginning. Our end was good, but it wasn't strong. The audience should have a reason to want to see more of a film after watching the first few scenes. After some discussion, we decided to add a scene, with another teacher questioning Carla in a suspicious manner. This leaves the audience wondering "was she caught?" or "will she get away with it?" and makes them want to watch more. 

The day of filming, I wore dark colored clothes to contrast the costume the beginning of the movie. This portrays the evolution of Carla's character. She went from a bright, smart girl to a dark killer. Jada and I added another small prop too, a folder for Carla to mindlessly flip around as she thinks of what she did.

Later that day me and Jada met up to film the final scene since Brandon had class. We went to our teacher's room and asked her if she wanted to play the teacher who would interrogate Carla and she gladly accepted. We named her character Ms. E and discussed how we wanted the scene to go. Our group was on a time crunch, so we didn't have much time to write and memorize lines, all we could do was make a general outline.

The scene takes place the following day and Carla is wondrously flipping through her folder with no thoughts, just guilt, until Ms. E stops her and asks if she's heard about Mr. Johnson's death. Carla gets nervous and asks, "what do you mean" to which Ms. E responds "Carla I think we know."

After talking about the outline, we quickly filmed the scene, which was mostly improvisation, but we made it work. The camera work was kept fairly simple since the scene was really short, being less than 30 seconds. The camera movement went from a slow zoom (before Ms. E) to random movement. This portrays Carla's mind which is all over the place after committing a crime. The shot goes from medium full to just medium and the angle stays eye level. The camera framing remains one shot, only showing Ms. E's hand. This was done to give Ms. E a sense of power, the audience can only hear her voice and see her hand, making her a mysterious yet intimidating character, leaving Carla in a vulnerable perspective.

Jada and I took two takes and chose the best one for the final scene. After we finished, we added the clip to the movie to finalize editing, including adding a voiceover.

Peer Feedback

 First drafts are never going to be perfect. As much as I enjoyed the first draft of our movie, there are many aspects that can be improved or worked on. Because I want our film to be the best it can be, I asked friends for constructive criticism so my group and I can take note and apply it to our film.

Right off the bat, the first pieces of criticism we received were technical aspects. Our movie is 30 seconds short of 2 minutes, so our friends suggested recording another scene. Another technical aspect we were missing were credits, company logo, and a title. This is critical information for the audience to know who made or participated in the film. 

We also received criticism in sound. The original route our team was going for was building tension through silence and facial expressions. Our group felt that Carla being silent for the beginning of the film would give a more eerie vibe to her character. However, the execution was different. Our friends said they would've like to know more about Carla in the beginning of the film and what she was thinking before grabbing the knife. To comply with this criticism, we added a voiceover or internal monologue from Carla's perspective. This gives the audience more hints as to who Carla is as a character. 

Our friends seemed to really like the sound effects we used. This includes the heartbeat and echoing of voices in Carla's head. One thing they suggested is adding music. The reason me and my team didn't add music in the first place is because we couldn't figure out how to make it fit. We didn't like the idea of the film having background music the entire time but figured having music at the end to build suspense would make the audience not only want more but also added synchronous sound.

Taking all of this into account, we were able to make the proper changes to our film without altering the plot or original theme of the movie. My team and I are very grateful we were able to get the criticism necessary to improve our film.

First Draft Opening Film Submittal

Me and my group completed the first draft of our film. Our film takes place in present time and revolves around a hispanic teenager, Carla, who has high expectations to meet due to her mom’s strict behavior. Carla is walking out of class one day when suddenly, she receives a notification from her teacher, Mr. Johnson, regarding her final. Looking at her F, she panics and starts to think of her mom yelling at her for not meeting her high standards. Carla snaps out of it and goes inside the theater to talk to Mr. Johnson. Inside, Carla tries to negotiate with Mr. Johnson but is met with failure. As she walks away in defeat, Carla starts to feel overwhelmed by negative emotions, until she spots a knife. Carla slowly walks up to the knife and stabs Mr.Johnson behind his back. His now dead body lying next to her, she takes his laptop, changes her grade and quickly leaves, taking the evidence with her.

There were tedious aspects like figuring out what camera movement, angle, or framing we wanted for each scene. The most difficult task wasn’t filming though, it was the editing. While all of us contributed to the editing, we still had a hard time figuring out how to deal with certain aspects. For example, when portraying the flashbacks, we didn’t want it to come off as too tacky and we wanted to make sure the audience knew why Carla was having those flashbacks. Another example was the editing right before the killing. We didn’t know whether to add echo voices or just leave a heartbeat. We wanted the audience to feel as overwhelmed as Carla felt.

Of course, nothing come easy but nonetheless me and my team had so much fun working on our film and creating a storyline from scratch. We all got along and communicated very well and creating this movie just brought us closer as friends. The best part of this whole process was the end result. Seeing your work done after all those hours of work and being satisfied with it is what makes everything worth it.

Production Week: Day 1

Today Brandon and I met up during 4th period to film the movie. We had over an hour to film, so we had to make the most of our time. Here's how the first day of filming went.

Brandon and I couldn't film the first scene in Ms. Vincent's room because she had a class, so we decided to film the rest of the movie first. We started by filming me walking home until I check my phone for a notification. Then we got to the scenes where Carla gets stressed and walks towards the inside of the theater. Once Brandon and I got inside we filmed the flashback scenes in the back of the costume room, which resembled a kitchen of a house. After filming the flashback with our friend Emily, or Carla's mom, we went to the front of the stage to film the scene where Carla talks to her teacher about her grade. Our teacher wanted to do it in one take, so we had to make sure the angles and other camera work was perfect before proceeding to film. After successfully filming the killing scene, we realized we ran out of time to film the first scene in the media studies class, so we decided to cut the scene entirely.

Through the entire process, Brandon and I had to go through some experimentation to find the best angles to film from, what type of camera work to use for specific scenes, or where to stand for the best framing. It was a process of trial and error for sure, but we made it work.

In terms of camera movement, we mainly used pan. It's a simple movement but successfully moves a story forward. Tracking was also used to follow Carla's hand before she killed Mr. Johnson.

All kinds of shot sizes were used while filming. Wide and master shots were used in the beginning before Carla entered the theater, a medium close up was used to showcase Carla's sad expressions, and full shots were used to follow Carla's walking.

For camera angles, the main ones used were eye level and hip level since they were the simplest ones to master and fit well with the storyline. However, dutch angle was used before Carla picked up the knife and ground level was briefly used to show Carla walking up the stairs.

Camera framing stayed fairly simple. Carla was the main character, so the movie was mainly a four shot and occasionally two shot when she interacted with her mom and teacher. There was a POV shot as Carla picked the knife up.

After a successful day of filming, I put all the videos together on my phone and emailed it to Jada for them to edit it. What surprised me is that we were able to film everything in one day.

Production Week: Day 1 Behind the Scenes

During the first day of filming, there was a lot of work that went on behind the scenes in order to get a perfect run. Here's a rundown of every technical aspect that went into filming.

For starters, the costume. That day I wore brighter clothes than I usually do to accurately portray Carla's character and brought an extra shirt for the flashback scene. 

-Carla's shirt in the flashback scene. I didn't want Carla to be wearing anything too fancy for this scene since she is technically supposed to be at home.

-Carla's main outfit. Her outfit is very bright because Carla isn't a bad person at all. She's a smart girl who broke under all the pressure.

I also wore fake glasses since Carla is supposed to look smart. The first thing Brandon and I did when we met up during 4th period was check out the settings on the script Jada and I typed up:

-Outside of theater. This setting is where the first few scenes were filmed. This includes the part where Carla checks the grade on her phone. The weather was working in our favor that day since I thought it would be nice for the first few scenes to be bright, before things get dark.

-Inside the theater. This specific location was used for one scene. We wanted to show Carla's fast-pace walking to let the audience know how nervous she was. The lighting of this scene is also the transition from bright to dark.

-This location, otherwise known as Mr. Johnson's desk, was where Carla talked to her teacher and killed him.

 Next thing we did was set up the props, this included:

-Carla's phone. Carla's phone is actually Brandon's phone since we were using my phone to film. The grade used in this film is not mine or Brandon's but my friend's old reading grade. She gave me permission prior to filming to use it in our movie.

-Graded 'F' worksheet. I found this old ACT practice packet in my binder and thought it would be perfect for the film. All I did was use a red marker to draw a big 'F' on the front. I also added some drawings so Emily could say "y dibujitos? no no no" or "and drawings? no no no."

-The Knife. This knife was a prop knife used in the drama club's last play 'CLUE'. I asked Mr. Kean if I could use it to kill him and he said yes, even told me to keep it.

And of course, personal props

-Carla's glasses. The glasses are actually blue light glasses that I already owned. I thought they would be a perfect prop for Carla since she is a smart girl.

-Carla's headphone and bookbag. Carla's headphone added a nice accessory to her costume and the bookbag of course is necessary since that's where all her school items go.

If none of this was set up before filming, the process would've gone a lot slower. Having the costume, location and props set up is what allowed for the filming to be done in under an hour. This is why pre-production planning is just as important as the actual filming. Minor details give the audience hints about the character and allow for personal analyzation of the main character or film.

Pre-production: Script

Pre-production is an essential stage of any film project. It includes all the brainstorming and planning that happens before cameras start rolling. From developing a concept, exploring the look of your film, storyboarding scenes and much more.

One of the most important things you need in order to start on a film, is an outline. Without an outline, you won't have direction. Me and my team used word document but later switched to studio-binder to create our script and to be honest, we had little to no prior knowledge on script writing. We had to refresh our mind on terms we were taught and search up scripts online for reference. For example, before writing the script, I had no idea what EXT. and INT. represented. I also didn’t know how scripts were supposed to be laid out, like where dialogue went or where new locations went. 

For the most part, the script followed the same outline as we originally planned except the Spain flashbacks were cut out.

In general, this task was a learning experience. Finalizing our script meant we were now a hundred percent ready to start filming!