ISABELLA ALVARENGA
DIGITAL MEDIA
Silent Short film:
Unescapable
1. We formed our group during the first semester and planned all year for this, but we changed our plans when we started to get together. Originally, we planned to do more of a sad grieving film but we wanted to do something with days that looped and looped. So, our rough draft was a cursed camera and every time the shutter went off, the day would loop. This idea stuck heavily with us, but we had to let it go as we didn't have much time to film. We started to brainstorm more, and come up with something more horror like- which is our film, the "Unescapable". Coming up with so many plans such as having a funeral scene for the character "John" as the beginning was our main plan, but we decided to scrap it as we just didn't have time. We also had to scrap a lot of stuff such as the church scene where "It" appears as a priest in disguise, and the pawn shop where the camera is last seen after the character- Shaun's passing. But, we were finally able to make a final decision, filming at three different spots to create our final film for the rest of our high-school careers. The plot of someone (or an extraterrestrial?) hunting down our main characters was still on the board, and worked out great! At first, we decided to work with Premiere Pro but we couldn't figure out the collaboration feature we switched to Capcut. Capcut was way worse, so Premiere pro was our final choice. I love working with Premiere pro, it looks intimidating but it's actually fun and not too tough to use. I used Premiere Pro for only two projects, and my opinion on it already changed. We started filming last Tuesday and ended last Thursday, with so many ideas in our head. We made even made fake blood using corn syrup and red food dye, and the consistency of it was pretty close to the real stuff.
When we finished with recording, and finally decided to work with Premiere Pro, we first put the footage into a Dropbox folder to make sure that everyone has access to the footage. I wanted to do a vintage , 90s recording investigation theme and the director approved! I used a static overlay for behind the text, and used an old film camera overlay for the clips. I also used a Lumetri Preset: Fuji Eterna 250D/Fuji 3510, which makes the clips look warm and faded- an old film style. I cut and split the clips when needed using the Razor tool, using shortcut C to use this tool really helped as I used the Razor tool the most. I also used other shortcuts such as V for the cursor tool, and T for the type tool. Marking a specific space on the timeline really helps, as you can see what stuff you need to put where the markings are. In this case, our title cards. I also downloaded a special font for this project, it's a typewriter font that is bleeding (spreading out), which really adds to the vintage theme.
I was having a hard time choosing what music I should add in the background, and found good BGM such as video game "Yume Nikki" and a popular vintage sounding song from The Caretaker (such an amazing artist, love them). They all match with the vintage, old (analog horror?) theme I wanted to do, along with the director.
Without TeamViewer (not sponsored), I would not have been able to work as good like this. TeamViewer was a lifesaver as for some reason the work I did using my PC, just wouldn't appear on my MacBook's Premiere pro application even though PrP is a creative cloud application. (I love you TeamViewer *mwuah*!).
2. The easiest process of making a silent short film were the overlays and filters, as they didn't take too long to do. But, I did put thought into them! The most difficult part that also took the longest was filming. As it took a while to do and had a lot of improvisions and so many ideas flowing through our head that we wanted to do but our amazing director leaded us all on the right path to take :). We overcame this by creating a filming schedule, which really helped and thinking about how much time we had left really kept us moving around. Premiere Pro was difficult when trying to collaborate, so either me or Arturo had to screen share our monitor through a discord video chat so we can all collaborate together (*sigh* I really need to learn more about PrP team projects).
3. My experience with working with a group really helped me and encouraged me to work, as we all relied on each other! I love working with groups (that are productive and can do the work on time) because once I see someone working hard, I too will work hard with them and support them in many ways. Working solo for projects like this does have more freedom, but it's tough and can be lonely in some ways. But, the more people you work with- the easier and better the work will be distributed so not everyone will be super super stressed out. I really loved working with my team of Seniors (me being the only junior lol), and I had a lot of fun, had a lot of laughs, learned more about them, and was able to bond with them. Such an amazing group, and i'm sad that they are leaving Highschool next week *cries*. (Luv yall!)
4. Based on the learning target, "Understand the component steps and skills required to design, edit, and produce a Silent Film by producing a storyboard, script, audio, and video clips that use characterization, style, and related elements for specific aesthetic purposes". The level of mastery my *our* project demonstrates is "Exceeds" . I think this because we did use various shots to make sure each clip is unique, but each clip matches each other. We also used various transitions such as using clips from different perspective but still the same scene, and unique camera movements to dramatize the plot. We also used various camera angles such as low level, eye level, and even shoulder level (?). The editing is stylish, and matches the vintage investigation vibe we were going for, and is horror-themed- as the way we wanted the story to be told. The editing doesn't distract the story, but it works with the story.
Overall, for my final digital media project for my High-School career (not final for leadership), I had so much fun in this class and learned so much, from Adobe Creative Cloud apps, to even photography and videography I sucked in so much knowledge like a sponge from this class that I can use in my future that is actually really beneficial to me. I really enjoyed it a lot :)