Foundation Portfolio Journey

     Hey guys! As you may be aware, my Foundation Portfolio Project journey is coming to an end. I've enjoyed every step of the way filming with my friends and bringing my visions for the film come to life. In my media class, I've always worked in a group to create a moving picture, which is why I couldn't be prouder to have made the entirety of this one, all by myself in the sense of writing the script, getting the props, getting a cast, editing, producing, and organizing everything. I would like to thank you guys for keeping up with my blog and being curious of what I am generating. As I had previously mentioned, I enjoyed and had so much fun in the making of the film, so i'm going to share some of the fun with you guys in this post... Here are two bloopers that came to be, I hope that you guys enjoy it as much as I did.  By the way, I'm the one Holding the camera and yes, that is my laugh sometimes!       Well that will be all for n...

     Hey guys! After choosing the shots that I was going to use, I started to place them in the order that I was thinking of (you can see that order in my previous post displaying my Storyboard). Now, all I had to do was edit them so that they can flow together smoothly.      For the editing, I used an app called imovie on a friends apple computer, since my computer had recently broke. In here I was having trouble with the audio and quality of the resolution of the shots taken with the drone. I didn't realize before that all the shots taken with the drone were extremely blurry and had no audio, if I had known before, I wouldn't of had used that drone specifically and if anything, a drone at all! What's the point of capturing a great shot, if it is blurry? Unfortunately for me, it is too late to redo those shots because of timing and because my actors are not available anymore. Thus, I tried my best to try to give it a higher resolution by asking google, ye...

     Hey guys! As you may have noticed from the title of the post, I finally managed to film the shots that I needed inside of my house. In here, the first shot that we started to film was the one were Lucia, playing Jackie, was marking up the calendar to show that they were going on a camping trip. For this shot, we had to film it around 15 times before we actually captured the perfect one. Since she was marking the calendar with a sharpie, we had to get that one shot right in one go, which is why we had practiced so much to make no mistakes. Here is a clip:      In this shoot, we had a little trouble with time. Because we started filming after we ate dinner and we had ran so many practice shots along with placing the props, when we captured the actual shot, it was already dark outside; I wanted it there to be daylight to show that they had woken up to go for the camping trip in the morning. Nevertheless, that wasn't possible anymore, but this cou...

     Hey guys! So we went filming to Markham Park on friday 04/06/18 and captured pretty much every shot that I was planning on getting. As you may know from my previous post, the woman working at the park's entry booth was incredibly nice and agreed to both be filmed and say a few lines, including the name of my made-up park, which I will use as the name for my whole film (this name will be revealed along with the actual film opening later on). Earlier that Friday, I went to the park by myself to find the best place to shoot. Despite having to find a place that was both isolated from the general public and had a reasonable opening amongst the trees for the drone to fly up, finding this place was rather quick as I already had a hiking trail in mind, I just need to check it out to make sure that we could use it.      Along the way, we ran into a problem with the drone, where it had ran out of battery. However, we solved that quickly since there was a small ...

     Hey guys! So I had previously called the park where shooting will take place, where I spoke with one of the managers who told me to email her what I planned to use their entry booth for and when. However, she never replied to my email. For that reason, when we went earlier today to the park, I was only going with hopes that the person working at one of the booths that day was willing to cooperate with me and help me out to capture the scene.      To my luck, the girl working at the booth was incredibly nice and agreed to help me out. She didn't just say the lines that I asked her to say, but she also did them multiple times until I had captured the best clip for the scene. When filming, she did a great job, as she said the lines clearly and behaved in a natural way as if there wasn't a girl sticking half of her body out of a car window with a phone recording her. In addition to that, she let me and the other car that was with me enter the park for fre...

     Hey guys! As you may know, the main character of my film will be deaf. For that reason, I will have to add subtitles on the parts of my film where the characters sign to each other, that way the viewer may be able to understand what the characters are saying. There is not one type of sign language understood worldwide, for that reason, I will be using American Sign Language (ASL). This is a complete language that employs signs made by moving the hands combined with facial expressions and postures of the body. American Sign Language however, is the primary language of many North Americans who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Because I do not know ASL, I have asked one of my friends Irene Mejia, who has been learning ASL for over three years now, to help me learn how to do the signs necessary that I will use in the film. She sent me this video of her doing it:       With this video, my actors will know how to properly sign when the time ...

     Hey guys! In this post, I will be talking about the people that I have chosen to be part of my film as well as the times we've set to schedule the scenes, that way you guys can know what days to look out for my posts. There will be two main locations that are needed to capture the scenes. One is at my house and the other one will be in Markham Park.        For the film I casted: - Lucia Carreras as my main character, Jackie. I choose Lucia to play her, not only because she is available to help me film, but also because she has had experience in filming before. Lucia has her own YouTube channel where she's posted multiple films of hers acting. From What I saw, I'm confident that she can play Jackie, specially for the scene that Jackie is in distress, bleeding in the floor. - Cristina Heilbron as my second main character, Robin. I casted Cristina as she is a very close friend of mine that is able to drive. Cristina has her drivers license and ...

     Hey guys! So as you were able to see on my Storyboard, there's a part of my project that I would like to film in one of the booths in Markham park where people can buy their tickets to enter the park. Due to the fact that those booths are only used by people that work for the park, I called the park through the number of their website. When they moved me to the front desk, I asked to speak with their manager, Espinosa, which then gave me her email so that I can tell her how I want to utilize the booth and other details such as with how many people I would be and when.      In the email, I mentioned that I will only use the Entry Booth for only around 10 minutes to make sure that I captured the whole scene in the intended way. I would also be going with four other people that are essential for the film. That would include the actor playing Jackie, the actor playing Robin, the actor playing the park worker, and the person handling the drone. We would a...

     Hey guys! For my video, I wanted to incorporate a couple of aerial shots that will serve as an establishing shot to demonstrate what the film is about and its environment. this drone shot will be especially important in the opening scene of the film as when the drone moves up the frame zooming out of the main character in the ground, the main character will fade away into the frame, making the point that she is left alone in a huge park. This idea was greatly influenced by the various aerial shots displayed in the movie "127 Hours," directed by Danny Boyle, depicting a man stuck on a remote canyon in Utah all by himself. Here is the trailer of that movie:      Because my film is not a trailer however, I won't be displaying so much plot and nor so many small clips everywhere. For the aerial shots, I was depending on a drone that we have at my house but when I went to look for it, I found it with one of its wings side broken...since I can't really r...

     Hey guys! I've had enough time to visualize how I would want my film to be like, so now it's time for me to focus on the mise-en-scene involved, to give the film the right mood and environment that goes with people going camping and the story that I'm trying to depict. I already have the essential materials to go camping at my house that include water bottles, multiple bags that hold important tools such as a camping tent, flashlights, and things for recreational use such as a frisbee and a speaker.      However, I don't necessarily have big hiking gear that can be worn such as big boots or jackets (basically the clothing that the characters would be wearing). In this case, because everyone has their own individual sizes for clothing, I will be asking the people that I cast if they have such things to wear. If they do not, I will look into borrowing these clothing from a friend, or if anything, go out and buy them. thankfully, I do have a small budget...

     Hey guys! On this post is the Script for my Foundation Portfolio film. I've never really written an actual script before, so I hope that this one is alright, as it mentions the dialogue and actions that the characters will do. Script: Scene #1:  Jackie ( Lucia Carreras ) - [Will be seating down in the ground with legs on display. Hands will be shacking on leg while touching blood. Look of despair and agony] - [Will then start screaming while drone moves up.] Scene #2: Jackie-  [Cross off the day (Friday 13th) on the calendar with a black sharpie while looking enthusiastic.] - [Will then wait 2 seconds smiling at the calendar.] - [Will then turn around to pick up water bottle that was on the floor and notice Robin ( Cristina Heilbron ) approach her. Smiles.] Robin ( Cristina Heilbron )-  [walks into the room and approaches Jackie] Signs "Are you ready to go?" Jackie- Happily signs "Yes". Scene #3: Robin-  [pulls car into the park's...

Hey guys! I said that I would have a Storyboard ready for you guys, and Im finally done with it. So, here it is:      In the storyboard, you can see the main shots that I plan on taking along with the camera angle of those shots. I think that there are a lot of scenes for a 2 minute film, but if it passes over the 2 minute limit, I can cut some of the home scenes or the scene of the characters getting into the car. It's better to have more possible shots than running short last minute. I will be introducing my choice of actors and characters later along with a script. Until then, Mafe. 

     Hey guys! I've been thinking about the cast that I would need for the film. I would ovbiously need the main character with schizophrenia, I have asked my friend Joaquin Perez, if he can play this role and he is interested. Then I would need the second main character, the head psychologist of the establishment, that is going to be played by another friend of mine Cristina Heilbron.      Other than that, I will have around 3 nurses and 2 other patients with schizophrenia that I plan to display at the begining of the clip to create that hospital environment/mood. Those could be played by any other friend of mine. They have minimal roles in the film so they won't have any lines, they'll just be there for the visuals.      In addition I will have my friend Sabirna Veit help me with the production process as I'll have her as a camera man. This week I will be posting my story board.      Until then, Mafe

     Hey guys! Since the main character of my movie is deaf and I am not, I've been looking into films and articles that talk about or demonstrate a deaf character in a leading role. Even Though, this opening film is really short, I would like to properly portray a community of people that are often underrepresented and sometimes misinterpreted, the deaf community. That's when I ran into the article "Deaf Culture in Hollywood," by Lydia Callis (you can find her article on  this link ). In her article, Lydia mentions a film called "Children of Lesser God" where the main character is deaf. Here is a trailer of that movie:       In here, the main actress proved that deafness does not make a character non-relatable to the hearing audiences. In fact, this film opened its audience's eyes to the wide range of engaging characters that deaf actors can portray. It is my goal to do the same through my film.  Until then, Mafe. 

     Hey guys! Today in my media class, my peers went over the ideas that they had in mind for their Foundation Portfolio film openings or magazines, depending on which one each individual chose to create. Because I was absent in class however, I turned to other peers of mine, including Sabrina Veit and Mariana Correa, after school who are also taking the class. When discussing my idea with them, we agreed that establishing horror at the opening of a film would be hard, but after telling them the idea that I have for a movie, we all agreed that I could possibly make it work. So, I will be placing the scary scene as the very opening of my film, which will be then followed by a more calm scene that will produce the suspense for the thriller.       I will have fake blood on my main character and have her look in a lot of distress as she lays by herself on the ground in a very isolated part of a park. This will appeal to the audiences fears as hopefully t...

     Hey guys! As you guys might of noticed already from my previous posts, I's still looking at other films to try to get ideas of shots and ways to approach my Foundation Portfolio Film. While searching through the web, I ran into this video:      In here, at least 10 openings of films are displayed. I was able to briefly see different ways to approach the opening of my film, since the ways that these films started off are all very different. One thing that I really liked was the shots that were continuous, like having a person walk through a a group of people. Perhaps, I will be able to produce a continuous shot at the beginning of my film that establishes the context for what the film will be about.

     Hey guys! After much thinking and looking over at other films and such, I came up for a story that my film could be based on. It will be about a deaf woman, the main character, who decides to go on a camping trip with one of her friends. However, something goes terribly wrong while camping, and the main character ends up in the park all by herself, bleeding on the ground. I thought that this would be a very interesting story as the media usually displays deaf people as being disabled and kindoff unable to stand by themselves. In my film however, I will more accurately depict deaf people, as the main character would use her other senses and eventually survive in the park, despite being all alone. I thought that the fact of her being by herself would bring suspense into the film and with the making of fast short clips, it could be a suspenseful thriller.      In addition, because I don't really have a huge budget in my disposal for my Foundation Portfol...

     Hey Guys! Since the last post, I've been looking into suspenseful horror movies where I ran into "The Conjuring" (2013), directed by James Wan, on a website (you can find the website on  this link ).  Noted as a Horror, Mystery, Thriller, I was inclined to look at the films trailer where I was able to see all of the genre characteristics of a suspenseful horror film. That is why, I'm using it as an example of inspiration to set my film to be like in the sense of the emotions it evokes on its audience. You can see a trailer of it below:       In this trailer it is clearly noticeable that the shots are set to be somber, making a gloomy senario and environment. This dark colors aided the film in creating a mysterious and scary setting as it gives off the feeling of "whats in the dark" scene it cannot be seen. I plan on using this strategy on the first scene of my film and perhaps will continue it throughout the entirety of the fi...