Posts

Showing posts from March, 2023

Editing and Finalizing

Image
I started off by just adding the videos together to create them into one. This was easy since I already had experience from last year. The hard part came when I had to add the sounds over top of the video. I thought this would be fairly easy since I had some prior experience with this before. However, it did not go as smoothly as I thought it would go. I had issues because the sound would either be too loud or too quiet. I knew what I had to do was to put the sound of "Honey, dinner's ready" over the video. I thought I could just make the underlying video silent. However, it ended up sounding too fake when everything in the background was silent and there was just the sound of the mom talking. I then thought I could increase the sound of the video a little bit but not too much so there would be some background noise, but so the audience couldn't hear me giving the little girl cues. I couldn't figure out how to do this easily so it sounded regular, it would always

Finally time to edit

Image
At last, the filming process was over and the really fun process was about to start, editing. Addison wanted to take a sort of lead in the editing since this was one of her strong suits. Still, she agreed with me to split some of the work. I felt bad to pin it all on her, whether it was something she enjoyed or not. I felt that it was the right thing to do to at least split some of the editing up among the group. This way, not only would one person not have to do everything, the film could have a piece of everyone's creative work. She said she could use some help on a couple of the final scenes, so I got straight to work. I already had the last two shots that incorporated the little girl and the dolls, so it was perfect. There would be no hassle trying to send over the shots, which I have unfortunately experienced before. I decided to edit in iMovie because it was the most accessible for me. It was free on my apple devices and I could access it on both my phone and laptop. Being ab

Filming the Final Scene

Image
This was the scene that had been put off the most and I was excited and scared to film it at the same time. I'm aware that getting children to do what you need them to is a difficult task. However, I was hopeful that the little girl I was working with would be compliant since I'd known her for years. She'd never seemed to be a troublemaker and was hoping she would stay this way for the duration of the filming process. At first, everything started off smoothly. When I first got to her house, I settled down and asked her to bring over her Barbie dolls so I could see what I was working with. A large box was brought over full of dolls and toys, and I discovered she had exactly what I was looking for. Two dolls, one blonde, one brunette, and even a table with a plate of sweets and a drink, to replicate what we had in the film. I started explaining what I needed her to do, which is when I was met with her own input on what she thought I should do. It was quite hard to get her to

Having to Refilm

Image
The next day came fairly quickly and it was time to refilm. Since Dara and I had decided to not go to Addison's house physically, I sat on my bed and waited for the facetime call. At about 12:15, everyone was on the call and Addison and Violet began getting ready. Once the costumes, hair, and makeup were finished, filming was ready to begin. Addison decided to prop her phone up on a tripod to film the scene. There were no other group members there, so everyone decided it would suffice. However, problems quickly arose. Addison's dog immediately jumped on the bed and it was hard to keep him out of the shots. If he was locked out of the room, his barking would disrupt the scene, so there really was no other option. Besides the dog, my group and I all came to the conclusion that the tripod made the scene lose some of its creepy feels. Everyone agreed it looked way better before when a person's hand was holding the camera. Little things like moving the camera around in the sligh

Deleted scenes

Image
  This is what I was most afraid of, footage being deleted. Unfortunately, that became my reality today. I was feeling extremely accomplished and productive after having finished almost all of our filming. However, this all went away when I read Addison's text in the group chat. Addison told everyone that for some odd reason, one of the scenes had been wiped from her phone. Sadly, it was an important scene too, so it would need to be refilmed. It was the scene where Addison was holding the knife up to Violet and was about to stab her. I texted Addison asking if the video was in her recently deleted, but she informed me it wasn't. I was out of ideas on what to do and knew the whole scene would just need to be refilmed. Initially, the idea brought up was to simply have Violet go over to Addison's house in order to shoot the scene again. This seemed to be okay with everyone on the team. Dara and I decided to be on facetime while the production was going on. Despite not being t

Filming continued

Image
The day after, filming went by quickly and easily. My group and I already knew exactly what needed to be done from our experience the day before. This time, when school ended Violet picked up Dara, Addison, and me to drive to Addison's house. Before Violet went to Addison's house, my group and I stopped by Starbucks. This was to get some good drinks and food to fuel my team and me before filming. After the quick stop, my team members and I were on the way to Addison's house. Right after arrival, everyone set out to do what they needed to. Dara and I set up the scenes to be filmed. Addison and Violet got dressed in their costumes from the day before. Addison also helped Violet put on makeup the same as the previous day. This was all done relatively quickly, quicker than the day before, at least, and soon the filming process began. Again, Dara and I took turns holding Addison's dog so there weren't any dogs in the backgrounds of the scenes. The first couple of shots w

Time to really film

Image
After the worker revealed there were no ropes that my group and I had been searching for, they gave another solution. The worker showed my group and me the jump ropes instead. While nobody was really thrilled about the idea, this all soon changed. There was a pink and blue jump rope, which wasn't what anyone was initially looking for but ended up being what was used. Everyone thought it was perfect because the colors perfectly matched the barbie aesthetic. Once this was taken care of, there was the last issue left to tackle, the spoon. My group and I searched high and low throughout the store for a seemingly large spoon, yet it was nowhere to be found. Violet, Dara, and I even went as far as asking another worker if the store had any large spoons. The worker revealed there were none in the store, only regular-sized spoons. Sadly, there was no other alternative option this time like there was with the rope. My group and I decided to check out and go begin filming before the cake mel

Filming preparation

Image
I was so excited to finally film today and bring my group's and my ideas to life. The plan was for Violet, Dara, and I to all go to Addison's house after school that day. Addison wouldn't need a ride there because she had stayed home that day. This was exactly what my group and I did. However, before going right to Addison's house after school, Violet, Dara, and I realized we needed to go to a store quickly to get some missing props. My group and I  decided to go to Target because it was close to the school and had everything that was needed. After talking and texting with everyone, it was decided that Dara, Violet, and I would look for a cake and a rope. My group and I also decided to look for a large spoon since barbies are miniature versions of people, so pairing a large spoon would help bring that out to viewers. When Violet, Dara, and I went to Target, there wasn't any vanilla cake that was originally planned for. However, there were found two slices of a choco

Time for filming

Image
My group and I finally got to the day we decided to film. While this was a set plan we all had from before, something had come up for me. This caused me to, yet again, not be able to film. My teacher had resigned from her position as an online Spanish teacher, so I would have to receive a new teacher. I needed to have a welcome call with this new teacher before she went on spring break. The only day and time she was available were at 5:30 pm on the 6th. This, unfortunately, was the exact time we would have to film, so I couldn't go. It wasn't a huge problem though, as my group and I worked through it. It was decided that I would be on a facetime call while the group films so I could give my input and "be there" through the process. Also, Dara would just be able to film all the scenes on her own while Violet and Addison acted. While this wasn't our original plan, it would have to do with the circumstances given. However, the whole plan ended up not working out beca