Rachel’s Film Opening Project

April 14 2018 Here is the final product! We are officially finished. Thanks for coming along this journey with me. Until next time, Rachel Rachel's film opening

April 13 2018 Well, the end has come! Attached is my CCR link which summarizes my project and the thought process going into it. I hope it gives a better idea at the reasoning behind each decision and explains the backstory of the film opening. Thank you to my group members- Jonathan Galante, Jacob Katz, and Sebastian Vargas for helping create a great project. Enjoy!!!! Rachel's CCR

April 5 2018      My class did a second critique discussion today to get our peers' final input. I personally thought it was more effective than the first time I showed my classmates my project because I had much more to show them this time. The first critique session was pretty early on, so I didn't have too much to share besides the main idea/vision of the film opening and how my blog was coming along. Still, both sessions were helpful because it gave each group member a chance to get the honest opinion of our unbiased classmates.      The commentary included a website called "Purple Planet Music" for reliable, royalty free music. I showed the website to my group and we thought it was in our best interest to use that website instead of "Killer Tracks," since we didn't need a username or password for it. Although I liked "Killer Tracks," it's too risky to use if my group can't have easy access to the site.       Lastly, my group ...

April 3 2018      One of my group members, Jonathan, introduced the rest of us to an editing app called "Video Editor." After he showed us how it is used, our group decided it would be a good idea to run our film opening through both apps, the other being iMovie, before submitting the final product.      The main obstacle with editing thus far is lighting/shadows. We tried to avoid filming right underneath the sun, but still some shots are very dark. Other scenes had to be re-filmed because you could see the camera's shadow on whatever was in the frame. To fix this, we've tried to find the perfect angle to film at so the camera is completely invisible. Because both apps have their strengths/weaknesses, using one of them to do something the other can't is helping create the ideal film opening.

April 2 2018      Today in class, my group and I browsed a website called "Killer Tracks" which " produces and licenses production music for use in film, television, advertising and interactive media." The website was very easy to navigate as it had a drop down menu with several genres of music. My group and I listened to the options under action and thriller music and found some good fits for our film opener.       Unfortunately I can not include the music here because the website requires a username and password that only my teacher has. In reference to my last blog posts, I can not use the music from the Spotify playlist because that would be illegal without permission from the artist. I knew this before, but it honestly escaped my mind in the midst of planning everything else for the project. 

April 1 2018      It is officially 12 more days until the project is due, so my group and I are headed back to school from spring break with all our focus and attention on our film opening. Tomorrow in class we will confirm the schedule for the rest of the time until deadline.      We will also look at royalty free music in case we don't like any of the songs we would need permission to use. Honestly, it may be easier (and definitely quicker) to find music that we know we can use right away.       I want to make sure we have enough footage to make it to the required time, because if not we will need to get filler shots ASAP. With deadline so close, it is crucial to have enough scenes and ensure any "filler" scene is not obvious-but actually goes along smoothly with the rest of the opening.