Production Blog: The Opening Act

 The first step in the opening sequence is adding your studio name and production company. We agreed to keep the ones we created last year, so it was time for Girl Boss Studios and Dagger Production to reappear. I found the video we made last year and cut off the opening clip from there, and attached it to this video. So it's a total of three seconds more to our time. Next, we had to decide what font, color, and size we wanted the other titles to be. Capcut has saved font styles, so we reviewed those to see which one we liked best. Ash and I picked out eight and then sent them to Siena to pick her favorite. Out of the eight, I liked Mokgech, Playfairdisplay, and Wargod. Ash also Liked Mokgech and Wargod, but she liked Rackham as well. Siena favored Mokgech but said we should go with whatever font closest to the poster. In the end, we decided on Mokgech because of its medieval look. It felt right for an adventure film.

Next, we needed a size that would be big enough to see but not too big where it's distracting. CapCut doesn't do sizing by number, so we had to drag or pinch the words to the size we liked. We also needed a color that would stand out from the background but not become the scene's focal point. I thought of pink since our studio name is pink, but I figured black was more subtle yet still visible, so we went with that. The words will wipe in from the bottom right corner of the screen for transitions. For the movie title, I thought we could have the words come off the paper to spell out the name. Easier said than done because as hard as I tried, I couldn't get it to look less tacky. We found a better spot for the title anyway, so it was okay. After finalizing the editing, I couldn't be happier with the film. It's indeed come a long way, especially with all the problems we had initially, but we're finally finished, and I'm so excited to show you the final copy. 

Production Blog: Putting out the flames

 After our film review, I realized there's still work to do before we can call the film finished. One thing we needed to work on was the lighting. Going back into CapCut, I started playing with filters until I found some that made the clips brighter. I had to choose between Sunlit, One Day, and Oasis. I'm leaning towards One Day. It makes the scene brighter, looks natural, and doesn't have as drastic of a hue as the others. We also turned down the brightness in the places where the sun was causing a glare. Then we tackled audio once more. We decided to do voiceovers for the garage to eliminate the background noises.

We couldn't turn the siren down low enough and still be able to hear Siena, so that wasn't working. We fought long and hard to separate the wind even more from the dialect in the beach scenes. It was hard because there was only so much we could do without switching to a voiceover here. Lastly, we turned to CapCut transitions to help smooth out the passage between scenes. The only one that wasn't drastically obnoxious was called mix. It's a subtle fade, so the scene will easily flow from one to the other without showing that we actually used a transition. It'll look like we did it all in one take. We've exhausted all our options, and there's truly nothing else we can do editing-wise without enlisting the help of a professional. Since we don't know any, we'll have to trust ourselves and make do with what we have. We managed to cut the film to a near-perfect time which shocked me because I felt we were so far from it. We're missing the titles and the end quote, and then we're finished. These are relatively easy to add, so we saved them until the end. I can't believe we're almost there. 

Production Blog: Friendly Fire

Every good movie needs a good review team. So I chose two of my friends who I trusted to be honest with me, and honest they were. A few seconds in, Karine paused to tell me how corny it was. I reminded her we're high schoolers in Media Studies, not professional actors. This convinced her to continue watching. Asia finished first and gave really good criticism. She said it was hard to hear Siena talking right after she answered the call. We can do a voiceover here since her back is turned, so we won't need to match facial reactions. We killed the background noise, but she was talking too low.  She also gave positive remarks. She mentioned how she noticed we used a lot of angles, and it's good to show the actors from different perspectives. She also noted how well done the clues were and praised our creativity. Unfortunately, Karine only had negative things to say. Despite our attempts to perfect the audio, she says there were times when it could have flowed more nicely. For example, you can tell where we muted it to remove the sirens and add wind sounds.  She also noted that some scenes' lighting glared or was dull. She took a stab at the acting, saying it's a bit lackluster and could've been better. Lastly, she mentioned that the transitions are jumpy. I assume she means the clips don't flow together as well as they should. I would've loved for them to elaborate further, but they said this is all the current criticism and that they'd love to see it again after we've made edits. I would've loved to hear more positive reviews, but everything is never perfect on the first try. So, back to the drawing board we go.  

Production Blog: When in doubt, YouTube it out

This next part of editing is not my favorite, especially not with this film. Editing sound has never been my strong suit. I've always worked with visuals. Extracting audio is easy. It gets complicated when you must overlay them and ensure everything is lined up perfectly. Still, I tried my absolute best to help Ash. Ash is our main audio person, and she always does a great job. I told her about areas that I thought needed fixing. This includes places where the sirens were too loud, or the wind was too strong, and you just couldn't hear the actors. I also told her about sounds we could add. For example, the closing clip is a voiceover of an inspiring quote at the end. We could use an inspiring song but the instrumental version as background noise so that it's a little more interesting. After listening to several inspiring instrumentals, I decided they needed to be more exciting and ventured into Hip Hop instead.

I found a song by Rihanna that would make an excellent outro, mainly since our quote deals with not letting life pass you by. It's upbeat and gets you pumped up. That's a great way to end an adventure film. We needed to ask for the rights to use the song, so I contacted Rihanna through social media, asking her the best way to contact her regarding permission. We'll likely have to find an uncopyrighted YouTube song if she doesn't respond. I hope it doesn't come to this because the piece is perfect. As of right now, the movie has really come together, and I'm happy with our progress.

Production Blog: Working Overtime

The day after filming, I decided to put all the clips together. The three days' worth of clips increased the video from one minute and 41 seconds to seven and 42 seconds. Some scenes overlapped, so I cropped them and other clips that I thought could be shortened, bringing it down to six minutes and 54 seconds. I still had to take into account the opening scenes, which would need a few extra seconds for the production company, and the closing scene, which also needed a few extra seconds for the quote. In total, it would probably go back up to seven seconds. We need to go down to five, so this is an issue. As I watch the video, I notice a lot of the audio has really harsh wind overshadowing it. I'm not usually in charge of audio, but even I can tell this will be hard to isolate. As an alternative, Ash and Siena could individually do voiceovers, and we can mute the audio of the original clips and replace it with the voiceovers. Then we could add a softer wind sound in the background so you can tell we're on the beach, but it's not overshadowing the talking. We can also add walking and birds in the background to make it more natural. My only concern is that their voices won't match up with the emotion on their face. In the moment, they were acting, but at home, they were alone and not in the moment, so it might be hard to recreate their original emotions.

Another thing that needs fixing is the lighting. In the parking garage and the hallway, it's a little dimmer than I would like it. Since it was supposed to be set mid-day, I can make those scenes a lot brighter, so the day doesn't look as murky. I can also make the night scenes darker, so it looks like the hunt went on for longer than it did. Overall, I need to go back and crop out a lot more filler clips. I will try to bring the time to around four minutes and 50 seconds so that we have a 10-second wiggle room for the opening and closing. It will be tricky to cut that much off because I didn't see that much that needed cropping on my first two run-throughs. However, I like a good challenge, so I'm ready. 

Production Blog: Elevator Endeavors

 Today was our last day of filming, and I have never felt so relieved. Ironically, this was the most crucial scene in the whole film, and we saved it until the end. After our last heated debate, we got Siena to agree on the residential elevator. Filming went smoothly. When we were there, we weren't interrupted even once. The elevator was great. Since it was outdoors, the concrete was a great transition from the parking garage, so it looks like we filmed both scenes in the same place. Unfortunately, one of the light tiles was out of place, so we pushed it around until it looked presentable enough for the video.

The poster fits perfectly above the buttons, precisely where we wanted it. It took a few takes, but we wrapped up filming after about half an hour. I was a little disappointed in the acting. Siena was doing okay, but Ash wasn't giving me the energy I wanted. Her argument was that Riley is supposed to be more nonchalant, and while I agree, she wasn't giving enough energy to be someone who just decided to go on a treasure hunt with a random stranger. Siena said she was doing fine, which means I was outnumbered, so we didn't redo the scenes. At one point, I thought we broke the elevator because I was standing in the doorway so it wouldn't close to get a shot, and I guess I had it open for too long because it started beeping. I quickly moved out of the way because I don't know what I'd do if I broke an elevator in a neighborhood I didn't even live in. I noticed that everyone looked a little happier when we were leaving. The movie was taking a toll on them more than I realized. I'm just glad we have all the shots now, so I can start editing.  We were way under time, but I am satisfied with the number of clips we have now. Here's a behind the scene picture of the girls in the elevator:

Production Blog: Journey Downtown

 Today might be the easiest day of filming we've had all year. We went downtown Fort Lauderdale, known to the locals as The Downtowner, to film our last clue. It wasn't super busy, but there were still enough people to count as background characters so that the film looked more natural. Many people were walking puppies, and I had to fight the urge to pet them. We first filmed the scene of the girls walking across the bridge and then stopping to search for the water taxi sign. I had to walk backward to get this shot, and they were walking so quickly I was practically running. I probably looked ridiculous to onlookers, but it was super funny. In the next shot, I filmed a high-angle shot of the girls running down the ramp. I thought I looked ridiculous until I had to film this. Rather than run, they did a weird soccer mom jog that was so perfectly in sync. Hilarious. Next, I tried to sneak shots of the water taxi without looking like a stalker to the people on it. The hardest part of today was trying to get a low-angle shot of Siena putting on her jacket. She had it on in the last clip we filmed, so we needed to show her putting it on. I sat on the ground for this shot. I was utterly disgusted, but I got the clip. I was a little disappointed with the trashcan scene because I don't think they searched for the lucky ticket long enough, but I was outnumbered, so we kept it. After this, we tried to go home but got caught in rush-hour traffic. Ash managed to cut some of the time to get home by detours through random neighborhoods. We saw the most beautiful lakeside two-story houses one could only imagine living in. Here's a cute picture I took downtown that looks like it belongs on a postcard.

Production Blog: Beach Babes

 As a new day of filming arises, so do a new set of problems. We agreed to film today after school since we were all free. The problem was deciding where to film. We still needed the elevator scene since we couldn't get it at the parking garage. It was super busy, and we would need the elevator for a minimum of 20 minutes to get all our shots, and 20 minutes was pushing it. Holding the elevator for that long felt wrong, so we opted against it. We needed a new elevator, and Ash and Siena argued about which elevator would be better to film in. Siena wanted to film at Galleria mall, arguing that it would be emptier during the week, so we could continue using it. Ash argued that Galleria mall was always busy, so we'd be blocking someone regardless. Ash found another location with an older elevator that would transition well enough to look like we filmed it at the parking garage. It was a residential elevator, too, so it wouldn't be as busy as the other two locations. Siena hated this idea. The mall was down the road, and she just wanted to get it over with. Ash didn't want it to be rushed because it'd result in crappy scenes. Evidently, I sided with Ash. Why wouldn't we film in the less busy elevator? It seemed like the obvious choice, but Siena angrily stormed off, so I guess she disagreed. Did I mention this whole argument was happening in class? It was super embarrassing.

After the whole debacle, we decided to save the elevator scene for another day, leading us to the beach again. We needed the seawall scene and search for the seashell. There were children on the playground, and we didn't want to interrupt them, so we decided to take it out of the script. Despite the argument, the scenes went well, with us only interrupted by the wind howling in the background. Isolating audio from that is going to be a pain. We might have to do a voiceover for today's clips. It should be easier because many of the dialogue scenes were close-up shots, so you can see the face clearly enough to reenact the emotions in their voices. But that's another day's problem. Here's a behind-the-scenes picture of getting the exact position right for the next scene. 

Production Blog: Connections In CapCut

 After two days of filming, I decided to do some editing. I redownloaded CapCut since it's the only editing app I can use. It's gotten some new updates since I last used it, which were kind of annoying, but it didn't take long for me to get back into the swing of things. Since it was updated, we were hoping they would add a collaborative feature. That way, Ash and I could edit simultaneously rather than her having to wait until I've finished visuals to start on sound. Unfortunately, they didn't add this feature. We just got TikTok templates. Yay. We didn't have a lot of content at this point but seeing it in numbers really put things into perspective. We had only one minute and 41 seconds worth of content. And this was before I cropped out bloopers, which means we had even less. This worried me because we only had three days of filming left. Would we have enough to make a five-minute film? One thing I noticed that would need serious editing throughout the clips is the brightness. It's really dull and icky, which isn't what we were going for in this film. Another thing that needs serious editing is the sound. Since most of our scenes are filmed on different parts of the beach, the wind is incredibly strong, making it hard to hear the actors. We could mute the sound and do a voiceover instead, but it won't match up well, and I'd rather not do that. Ash is usually in charge of audio, so I'm hoping she'll be able to somehow lower the wind sounds a little bit. Other than that, it's going okay so far. We managed to get good scenes that transition well, so we don't need a lot of filler scenes. I'm not feeling the adventure aspect yet, but I'm hoping that'll change once we actually have all the clips.

 

Production Blog: Adventures of Big Red

We decided to film in Downtown Las Olas on our second day of filming. We were going straight from school, so we stopped for food first. Nothing like French fries and a McFlurry to give you the strength to tackle another day of filming. I wasn't surprised when our first problem arose. We hardly ever have problem-free filming days. Ash and I decided to park in a parking garage rather than parallel park in front of our filming spot. We got our parking ticket and went inside, but it was a really suspicious-looking area. There were hardly any cars in there; it was dimly lit and looked like something straight out of a horror film. It would've been great if we were filming a horror movie, but since it was an adventure film, we decided to leave and live to see another day. Then we couldn't find the exit. It was as if we were stuck in a giant circle. We pulled over to gather our bearings when Ash noticed she didn't have the ticket to get out. We searched the whole car checking every little slip of white paper we encountered. We even returned to the parking spot, but it wasn't there. At this point, everyone was frustrated. Siena had been waiting outside and started calling, Ash was angrily yelling at everyone, and I wanted to go home. Eventually, we decided to pay for the lost ticket and met up with Siena. The chest didn't blend in with the chair as much as we thought, so it was obvious when we set it down. Still, the show must go on, so we just went with it. The only other problem we encountered was the need for more people in the area. We needed a crowd; only about three people were passing at a time. Once again, we just went with it. People were very entertained by what we were doing, stopping to stare at us. I made friends with a little boy who wanted to take a picture on the chair I named Big Red. I also saw more adorable puppies. I'd rate the day overall a 5/10. Here's a picture of me on Big Red:

Production Blog: Garage Grouchiness

Today was our first day of filming, and it was an adventure. At first, I was worried it wouldn't happen because our main two actors had problems aligning their schedules. We switched one of them out, and Ashleigh took her place. That means our two actors are now Ashleigh and Siena. It wasn't a big deal because we had already decided that if Siena's friend couldn't film, Ash would take her place. We started a little later than the time we agreed on because traffic was terrible, but we still had more than enough time to film. We decided to film at a parking garage near the beach, but when we got there, it said it was packed.

Regardless, we went inside anyways and found an excellent spot on the third floor. It was a corner spot, so we wouldn't have to worry about cars switching next to us and causing inconsistency in the clips. It was also super close to the elevator which is exactly what we planned in the script. It took several hours, and several takes to get the clip right. We faced many difficulties, from the wind being too loud, to constant honking and sirens in the background, but eventually, we got clips that we could work with and moved on to the next scene. This one was easier to do because there was no dialogue, so we could mute the background. The only problem was waiting for the crowds to pass by since we were right in front of the elevator. On our way out of the garage is when the trouble really started. The line to the exit was so incredibly long, and it wasn't moving. And as if everyone wasn't grouchy enough, a large group of kids on bikes thought it would be a great idea to do wheelies through traffic. There we sat in a seemingly endless line of cars watching about 20 children on bikes zooming in between the cars and laughing as they go by. Playing in a busy parking lot is not how I'd spend my free time but to each their own I suppose. One of them bumped Siena's car and. continued as if nothing had happened. Luckily it didn't scratch. 20 minutes later we finally exited the parking lot and boy was I glad to go home. 

Here's a picture of an iguana we saw on a house we passed that scared Ash:

Production Blog: Color Confusion

Filming is about to begin, and we're already off to a bad start. A few days before filming, we were still determining whether we'd be filming. As a result, none of our props were in order. We didn't have a treasure box. The most crucial prop, and we didn't have it. Siena said she had a box, but we found out it was yellow on the day of filming, and she didn't have enough time to paint it red. So I started frantically searching my house for any red box so we'd at least have something to film with. Something that would blend in with Big Red. I came across red watch boxes but was told they were too small.  I ultimately went with a red see-through jewelry box I borrowed from my cousin. It opened like a treasure box, so it was perfect. Then I went to postermywall.com to help Ash work on the treasure hunt poster and the water taxi tickets. She was out with her parents and didn't have Wi-Fi, but she had picked a template already, so I continued to work on that. I didn't have a printer; although Ash had one, she insisted we go to Walgreens to print them. Siena said she'd have her dad print them at work to save money, and then she'd pick them up from there. We agreed that would be better. While I helped Ash with the digital stuff, she worked on painting the shell. She made it white and then painted stripes on it so it'd match the clue. To get the paint to dry faster, I held it in front of the ac in the car on the way there. When we arrived, my fingers were freezing, and I almost got hyperthermia, but the shell was perfectly dry. That's when Siena presented us with the printed goods; the poster, which turned out perfectly, and the ticket that was as large as a flag. At that moment, I knew our filming journies were about to be an adventure.