The final step

With both happiness and sorrow, I would like to present the final part of my portfolio project: my CCR. Thank you to all for sticking with me through this tiring journey!

I hope to post here again in the future with my next big project!

Until then,
Alexa :)

Film Opening

I'm so happy to announce, the release of Seeking Lucas!! This took a bunch of work, so I hope you guys enjoy it!!

Here's the link to the video in case the interactive doesn't load in :)


Alexa :)

A quick reflection

As I'm coming to the end of the road for this project, I wanted to do a quick reflection on the process. Originally, I was unsure of how I'd be able to make a quality film opening, as my writing skills weren't something I actually worked on before. This is why I chose a genre I'm familiar with, detective fiction. My favorite movies are normally ones with twist endings or mysteries that are uncovered throughout the movie. I casted my mom as the lead role, as I felt it would be easiest to find a time to film with her than it would be to film with a friend or actor. In terms of filming, it went very smoothly. The coronavirus didn't affect my production at all if anything it gave me more time to get what I wanted to get done done. After 2 days of filming, I hit the editing stage. With this stage, I had a ton of fun. I worked with color, something I've never done before. I was able to play with camera shots and angles, along with working on some cool animation you can see with the title card. This project has allowed my creativity to flow in more ways than I could explain, which made it extremely fun to complete. I can't wait to put out the final product!

The finishing touches...

This is it!

With this blog post, I am gonna add the final foley sounds I need for my film opening. This is the sound I'm gonna put on top of the title card when it's glitching!

I recorded this through a DSLR and audio box I got use to record segments for my school show. I used it because it is the only AUX cord I have readily available, which is what I needed to record that sound. 

This is the title card look now. Take this as a little sneak peek before the posting of the film opening :)

Can't wait for you guys to see the finishing product!!!

Until then,
Alexa :)

Voice editing and sound effects!!

I'm a bit of an audio pro now
In order to get a better feel of naturalism, I added voice effects to some of the audio to make it sound as if it were coming from another room, or through a phone call. 

First, I edited the audio I got off of my phone to record my brother's voice during the conversation between Melissa and Lucas. Originally, the audio sounded a bit unnatural, so I imported it into adobe audition. 

From there I opened the effects tab. Effects -> Filter and EQ -> FFT Filter. 

Then, I chose the option "The Club Downstairs" and played a bit with the audio levels to get the desired muffled effect. 

This is what the audio ended up sounding like. 

I also edited the audio my friend Oliver sent me to use for Officer Tippit's character through a phone call. 

Going through the same route, I used this effect that is in the same location as the muffled sound effect I used earlier. This was the result of using that effect!

I also recorded the special sound effect to transition between the old footage and the new ones (I followed this tutorial here!!)! After generating some pink noise, I put a default pitch bender on the audio. 

Then, I added a Parametric Equalizer to the audio and boosted the bass. 

After adding some reverb, the audio was perfect! I imported into premiere to get the desired woosh sound effect by cutting the audio, adjusting the gain, and adjusting the speed at which the audio played. 

In the end, the audio sounded pretty close to the woosh I was going for, which is awesome considering I made this noise from scratch! But to keep the suspense, I won't link the audio to this one (You'll just have to wait to hear it for yourself :p).

Until then, 

Alexa

p.s. CCR script is done! Once this is exported, I will be putting together that video!!

Title screen

It's title time!
So, now that I'm running towards the end of my project, I thought it might be time to create the end title card; and what better way to tell you guys about it than to run you all through the process!

Since I'm new to the whole "effects" scene I haven't figured out how to use much of the tools in After Effects or Premiere so Youtube videos and online tutorials have been my go-to. This is the tutorial I used for this effect (CLICK ME!!).

Anyways, I'm gonna take you through the steps I did to get the effect I used for the title card!

So, first I wrote out the text in After Effects. Then I created a ton of layers, each layer masking out a different part of the text.  

I added the inner shadow effect afterward, which you can see here. 

Afterward, I messed around with positioning (using keyframes and such), color, and shading. 

And after all that work, this was the final result!

I'm putting the finishing touches on my project and CCR so stay tuned for those by the end of the week! 

Until then,

Alexa :)

I just used a cool effect!!

Fast Forwarding 101
So for the beginning of the film opening, I have a home video of my brother and my mom interacting to show a small bit of backstory before I lead into my opening. The problem was, I wanted to add two separate pieces of video from the same clip. In order to make the transition between them smooth, I looked up a little fast-forwarding effect tutorial (creds to Adobe Masters) and got to work!

 The video basically explains how to use an effect called Wave Warp to make the footage look like it's fast forwarding on a VHS or some sorta disc player (I don't think VHS's could fast forward). 

I also sped up the clips at the end of the first clip and the beginning of the second one to get the desired effect. 

Here's a video of how it looks like!

Little bits of cool effects like this makes editing worth all the struggle and stress because check this one out, I made something super cool!!! I'm thinking of adding the same effect at the end of the baby montage to transition between the video and present day. This has been super duper fun! I can't wait to show you guys what else I have in store. 

Until then,
Alexa :)

I've figured it out!!

After a little help from my friend Dean, I have figured out color-correcting!! This is the equivalent of being able to see color again, except way less of a light changing moment. But regardless, I am proud of myself. 

Before

After

Before

After

After messing around with the shadows and highlights, I am happy about using these images for the base of the images I'm going to color grade. I've done a few more bits of research and figured out how to color grade without making my images look bizarre. There's a little effect called Lumetri Color that Adobe Premiere Pro has. In that effect, there are 6 subdivisions. Dean taught me how to the Curves subdivision, which looks like this. 

Not only am I presented with a super cool rainbow, but I am able to achieve a color scheme that better fits the "depressive" tone I'm going for that most detective fiction films have.

Image taken from Skyfall

Films like these tend to have a more grayscale, brownish color palette. So, after a bit of copying, I present you my images:

Before

After

Now, I'm going through my film and making all of the images look similar to this. I'm super excited because before I was so upset with how my images looked, and now I know how to fix them. I'll update you guys once I've made more progress.

Until then, 

Alexa :)

Life is like a box of crayons

And sadly, I am color blind. 
Not actually, but when it comes to color grading and color correcting I have NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING!!!! Which isn't good because I don't like the colors my shots have. 

Since this production was low budget, I don't have the equipment to light the area the way I'd like to. In that case, I've fallen to having to color correct more than I would have needed to originally. 

From Taken

Gorilla Film School

The GodFather

I did some quick research on ways I could make my color scheme look like for my final edit. In detective fiction films, I found that the shots lack color. They're more gloomy and dark to set a tone. I'm hoping that after I consult a couple of Youtube videos I would have enough knowledge to continue editing and be happy with the way my shots look. I'll update you guys on the progress afterward!

Until then,
Alexa :)