Audio editing

     I will be using various amounts of audio software in order to achieve the desired sound for the film's opening. One of these software is ArtList.

(Artlist sound software)

    Artlist provides copyright-free soundtracks with various different genres and moods.  Having the right soundtrack is an important and key factor in making the film feel professional. The soundtrack can help emphasize the mood and tone of the film's opening. With all things being said, I found a track titled "Insomniac's Dream" which really helps my film have that serious tone that I'm looking for. 

(Pixabay sound software)

    Another software that I will be utilizing is Pixabay. Pixabay provides royalty-free sound effects with thousands of different options to choose from. Sound effects are normally a factor that is discredited by many beginners. Sound effects and using them correctly can bring a good production into a great one. Pixabay is a great software allowing individuals who want to achieve greatness possible. An example of how I have used Pixabay is by using one of their knocking-on-door sound effects in my film opening. 

Editing the clips altogether

 The editing software that I was initially using was Adobe Premier Pro, but serval problems arose with that. A problem with the software was that the audio from my video clips did not work. Though composing the video clips was fairly simple the problem with the audio set me back.     

(Editing With Adobe Premier Pro)

    With this, I decided to use a much simpler editing software called iMovie doesn't require any prior skills in order to be good at it doesn't take much time to achieve the look that you want to achieve.     

    Throughout the editing process, I would get new ideas on how the clips should be structured together, so in turn I would restart from scratch. In the film opening, I also included the names of all the actors involved in the production and gave credits to the director, producer, and writer.

(Editing with imovie)

    I am still planning on using Adobe Premier Pro after I compose all the clips together in imovie for the audio portion of the editing.

filming day!!

     Today we finished filming the opening. We filmed in my friend's room but we had to move a couple of stuff. While filming a few problems arose which made my life a bit difficult

(use of gorilla pod)

     For starters, the tripod that I was using had a non-stable plate, so it kept moving, almost dropping my camera. So I switched to using a Gorilla pod tripod. This also allowed me to mount the camera on various places such as the top of a door and on top of a chair. The Gorilla pod made it achievable for me to get high-angle shots of the room with the two actors.  

Another self-inflicted problem was that I forgot the battery of the camera at my house. Not only did I have to drive all the way back to my house but one of the actors(Estefania Gonzalez) had to leave in 30 minutes. By the time I came back to the house, she had to go. We only had the opportunity to capture a couple shots before she unfortunately had to go. In addition, me and one of the other actors(Maximo Capparili) had a soccer game in an hour so we also had to rush during the rest of the filming in order to make it on time for the game. As we leave and get to the field where the suppose game is supposed to happen we don't see any of our teammates, so we check the team's group chat and the game has been postponed for the next week.

(Problem with wearing the 
suspenders)

    For the dead body also known as Norman Walker, the character is supposed to be depicted wearing a white button-up with suspenders. The issue with that is that we had some trouble trying to put the suspenders and eventually coming to a decision on not wearing it. 
        

    Overall I really enjoyed filming with the actors and enjoyed the process of it all.

Camera

(Nikon D5100)

     For the film opening I will be using the Nikon D5100. I love this camera so much even if its 14 years it still provides high quality pictures and videos. Paired with the camera the lens that i will be using is the nikon dx vr 18 200mm. With these two used together, the images that the camera provides is utterly beautiful.         

(Nikon dx vr 18 200mm lens)

(Set Picture Control)

      In order to film the opening in black and white I had to change the set picture control to monochrome. Reason why I chose to film in black and white and not just film normally and later apply the monochrome filter. Well if I were to just film without the picture control set to monochrome  then I wouldn't be able to get the right lighting used in film noir.

                                           

   One problem that the camera has is that since it was released 14 years ago the audio that gets captured is not of high quality. In order to fix this problem I would just capture the audio using the voice memo app on my phone. Overall the camera is amazing and the quality that it captures makes up for the problem with audio.

(Sample Picture with the new setting)

Auditions For Roles

     In order to find the right people for my film opening I want to do an audition. The positions that the actors will be auditioning for is the protagonist (The detective), the dead body in the room, and the antagonist (The women serial killer).             

(Cypress Bay AMT)

    Some of the people that will be auditioning are from Cypress Bay American Musical Theater program. I chose to ask the individuals who are part of the program is due to them having experience in acting which can enhance the film opening making it look more professional. I will be hosting the auditions in the schools auditorium after school.

    

    One of the things that I will be looking for during the auditions is if they are able to perform different emotions flawsy. A actor with a emotional range can make the film opening seem professional and great. Personally, a film that has great visuals and a great production quality but horrible acting, can degrade the films quality. 

    

(Trans-Atlantic accent)

    Another important factor that I will be looking for is if the actor can do a trans-alantic accent or sound similar. Reason for why this is an important factor is because while doing my research, looking for inspiration, whenever I viewed a short noir film and the actors didn't have a trans-alantic accent or at least sound similar the film seemed amature and not as good as the other films that had the accent.