A Change in 'la Musique'

As usual, Alex and I kept searching around the "Bensound" website for more songs to see if we could find an even better piece of music for the opening credits.

And of course, we did! While going through the Jazz section again, we listened to every single song and came upon this one below, called "Jazz comedy". The guitar in it has a pace that flows so well with the timing of the credits and even when Alex swipes away the letters. (you will see this soon)
So, here is the final music for the opening and I will keep you posted if anything changes again!
-L

Music, Música, Musique

Alex and I spent all class this week editing our film. We had every crucial shot together and needed to figure out a perfect song for the opening credits. Since our film is based in the 1930's/40's, we wanted an old classic jazzy sound. We thought it would be unique to have an upbeat happy song playing in the beginning while the underlying plot is suspenseful revolving around a missing person's case. I guess you could call this a juxtaposition!

We googled "royalty free music" because again, with our short turn around time, we really don't have the patience to contact a company and try to get permission to use their music. We found a cool website called "Bensound" which has all types of instrumental songs for free! So, we searched around their "jazz" section and found the song below, called "jazzy frenchy". We thought it fit the opening perfectly so we went ahead and downloaded it to my computer and edited it in! I will keep you updated.
-L

Weekly Update

So far, the whole process of the film portfolio has gone very smoothly. I am so glad I have a cooperative and creative partner like Alex that has made every step of the way so much better!

This week, we finalized the script and story board so we could film every shot over the weekend. We went ahead of schedule and shot the entire film all day friday on our day off instead of breaking it up in two days. This was exhausting but well worth the work. Now we have all of the footage loaded onto my laptop and synced into imovie so we can spend the rest of our class periods editing, editing, and editing some more!

As I mentioned before, Alex and I unfortunately have a smaller time frame to finish our portfolios because I will be traveling for Spring Break. So, we have given ourselves a personal deadline and agreed that we need to submit our final film portfolio by April 6th. (three days before the actual due date). Until then, we will be working diligently on it! I will post more updates soon.

If you need me, I'll be behind my computer screen.
-L

And....Action!

Whew! Acting and directing is exhausting. Alex and I shot the entire film opening from 9:30am-4:00 pm today at my house.
I woke up pretty early around 7:30 to finalize my costume (from my mom's closet), charge/set up the camera, and organize the downstairs of my house. Alex shopped at Goodwill for his costume and found an awesome 'detective' trench coat for five bucks! I quickly did a low tight ponytail, natural but bold makeup, and threw on some pearls. (also my mother's)

Alex came over shortly after I was finally ready and we began a long day of shooting.
We decided to first shoot the opening credits (the magazine letters we cut out) on my dad's office desk. Boy, was this a struggle! Any movement made the tiny words go flying and made us set it up all over again. This took a lot of patience but we were able to do it. I used two bright lamps on either side of the desk to shine on the letters as we shot them from above. Once we were done with that we headed downstairs to film the rest of the scenes in my dining room and front door area.

We had a tripod but were missing the important piece that connects the camera to it, so we improvised. I took a huge stack of old yearbooks and piled them onto the dining room table to place the camera on, and it worked great! All we had to do was raise and lower the camera by adding or removing books and our shots were pretty steady.
The whole process took longer than we expected it to, but we realized that that is the process of creating a great film. All of our creative ideas took time and effort to execute but with our determination we were able to do it! Also, the hilarious bloopers are well worth it in the end.
-L

Ready for Our Close Ups

As I mentioned before, Alex and I are going for the 30s/40s style in our film opening. Of course, that means costumes are a key factor in representing that era. I decided to go through my mom's closet because she always has random vintage pieces that I knew could work for my character, Ms. Leroux. After scouring the deep ends of her wardrobe I found a black mid length dress with ruffles on the neckline and black suede pumps. I also took a pair of black leather gloves and a fringy shawl to complete the look. The day of shooting I needed accessories so again, I went through my mom's things, (sorry mom if you're reading this) and I took a pearl bracelet, necklace, and earrings. It looked perfect with the outfit! The goal was to make myself look at least fifteen years older than I am and I think I accomplished just that.

Alex is playing a detective so I suggested he find a specific coat and hat to portray his character, Jeremy Briggs. He shopped at Goodwill and found an awesome grey trench coat with buttons and a thick collar for just five bucks! You can't beat that. He then went to Burlington Coat factory and got a typical detective fedora hat. I must say, he and I really hit the nail in the head with our costumes and we can't wait to film!
-L

Schedule

Scheduling is definitely the most stressful part for two reasons: 1. I have a generally busy schedule as it is between school, work, and dance and 2. I have one less week to complete the film because I am going out of town for Spring Break.

Thankfully, Alex and I worked it out. Next Friday we have no school so we are going to take advantage of that and film for 4 hours. That Saturday we are also going to film for another four hours and finish up any final details. Our goal is to finish shooting in that one weekend so we can spend the next weeks editing and updating our blogs. -L


Here are the exact dates and times of our film schedule:

• Friday-      March 24th 9 am - 1 pm

• Saturday-  March 25th 10 am- 2 pm 

location, location, location

The title of this post sounds a little like I'm a house hunter on HGTV but that's okay because it is catchy and is relevant to our decision making for the film!

So, Alex and I had a tough time figuring out where exactly we wanted to shoot our film. We needed a specific space with symmetrical lines and a certain aesthetic. Since our genre is film noir, the typical aesthetic is old fashioned and classic black and white, so we had to come up with a place that encompassed that idea. Also, in regards to symmetry, since we want to follow the Wes Anderson style, we needed a space that when shown in a wide shot, is for the most part symmetrical. 

We first decided to possibly film at Alex's house. He mentioned that his bedroom has two windows side by side and create a pretty symmetrical space. But, he has a bunk bed and computer in the way that we would have to take apart so we ended up deciding to figure out a new place to film. That is exactly when a lightbulb went off in my head and I realized that I have a formal symmetrical dining room in my house. There is a big window with paintings on either side of it and tall candles on the table with six chairs. I took a picture of the room and edited it to make it black and white and Alex and I agreed it was perfect for the film. The filter I used is actually called 'noir' which couldn't be more fitting!
-L