Fonts!

I KNOW ITS TOO EARLY TO BE LOOKING AT FONTS BUT... I GOT EXCITED.

I'm looking at '60-'70s, groovy themed fonts. Even though it is no set at that time, it is an atheistic I would like to maintain. Here are my favorite contenders so far!

There are sooo many good options but the last one os one of my favorites. I got all of these from the websites Dafont and FontSquirrel which are free to use commercially! YAY!

Song Approval

Song Approval
As time allows, I plan on asking for permission to use a variety of songs in my video. I am picking better-known songs, so I am sending out applications to as many record labels possible so that Maybe, just maybe a catch something decent. I want the routine scene to be music-driven and would love an upbeat song that matches the 60-70's vibe I am trying to create.

I have drafted this email to send to record labels and publishing companies.

Hello! My name is Annika Mussell and I am currently creating a no-profit 2-minute film opening for my Media Studies class (at Cypress Bay Highschool). The video would be seen by my teachers and some students from my class. It would also be posted on a blog, only visible by my teachers. I think "Song" would be the perfect song for my movie and was wondering if I could get approval to use the first two minutes of the song in my opening.
Song:
Writer:
Timing: 00:00 to 2:15
Use: Home video/student project
Version: Original track (not a cover)
Non-profit: No advertisement or promotional use

Unforeseen Challenge:
Sending these emails has resulted a little more difficult than I thought. I have gotten many emails referring me to the people, who then refer me to other people. I am a little frustrated at this point and scared I won't have any song to put in my opening. At least it got me to start checking my email again. The problem is that sometimes, especially famous, popular songs have multiple publishers like the song Obladi, Oblada hav=s a total of 5 publishers, each of which I must get approval.

Ei:

Hello Annika

Thanks for your enquiry.  The original recording of This Is The Day should be cleared by Universal Music and Sony Records.  See their contacts below

Universal - to clear publishing rights.  ***anne **rey ***anne.**rey@umusic.com

Sony - to clear master rights. ***ve **hford ***ve.***ford@sonymusic.com

Good luck with your project.

Many thanks,

Michelle

WHY A WAKE UP SCENE

WHY A WAKE-UP SCENE?

I decided that in order to convey all that I want with my character, a scene introducing the character would be vital. My opening will show my character's attitude and physical routine as they wake up and prepare for the day that is to come. I feel like wake-up scenes are a great way to show an audience who the movie is about and create a first impression with the viewer. I feel like showing someone in their natural state and setting can reveal a lot about their characters.

Here are some wake-up scenes that definitely do the trick/have the effect I would like to create with my own opening.

-The type of person she immediately becomes apparent

-The comedic tone is also established with the retainer and voice track

-The knick-knacks and items around her room show she is a straight-A student that prides herself in school work

-You can also see that she is the valedictorian of her class

-It is obvious that she is politically aware and is a feminist by the decorations in her room

-The wake-up scene can bring to light many things and naturally highlight what is essential the main character knows.

- This wake-up scene does less for the characters and more fo the setting and context of the film

-Shows some of the crazy things that happened the night before and provides comedic relief

-Serves to develop the plot and represent that the night before was full of madness and they don't remember the majority.

-All sign point at the fact that he is undisciplined and disorganized

-An important feature of the character: his hook prosthesis is shown and displayed

-He seems careless and reckless just by the actions he performed while breaking the alarm clock.

-This scene establishes the character's "vibe" as incoherent and aggressive.

-The immediate reach for the Jack Daniels indicates he is an alcoholic, since it is a drink most commonly drunk at night. 

Outline for My Main Character

After giving it a little bit more thought and realistically thinking through my ideas to determine first: what exactly I would like to do for this project and second: what I can do realistically with my experience, skills, and resources, I have modified and narrowed down my vague 60-70's activist concept. Here is my decision on who my main character will be:

Character: A Badass (couldn't find a cleaner equivalent that captured the character trope better)
I want to make my character quirky, different, a little weird, passionate, extroverted, and a force to be reckoned with. I want to somehow convey to the audience that she is a good person, but at the same time that she bites back and is not always nice or polite. I think I can achieve this by contrasting how she acts by her self with how she treats others. Her actions will show that inside she cares, but on the outside, she is cold when it comes to interacting with other people. I would like her to be straightforward and maybe little on the blunt side, yet by seeing her in her own space, the viewer can tell she is compassionate and shows she cares in her own way. I don't see her having many friends because she is very bossy and at times conflictive; most of her past friendships have ended abruptly and badly.

I think she would be pragmatic and simple, not focused on labels or brands/ she would know very little about them. Even though it is similar, I would try to stay away from the "unlikeable, frigid tomboy" trope because it sometimes feels shallow and underdeveloped to me; she would not fit the typical hippie/bohemian laidback personality either, she likes the 70's themed aesthetic due to be parents but she most definitely does not do drugs or participates in risky activities. I want it to be understood that she can be crazy and aggressive when giving a speech, but it is because she cares and seeing injustice frustrates her. I want her to be very smart, which maybe makes her a bit arrogant and able of underestimating the intelligence of others. Even though she seems like a horrible person now, I hope to show (not tell), all of her flaws come from a good place. She is considered by many friends and family to always be fighting for a lost cause.

Age:16-19 years old
Occupation: Student/ activist and environmentalist
-leader of many ecological clubs
-Good Student (too uptight to let grades slip, parents don't really care)
Parents:
-Mother: Human Rights Lawyer
-Father: Yoga Instructor at Community Center


Main inspirations:
-Lucy Kelson: 2 Weeks Notice
-Gretta Thunberg: Life
-Ruth Bator Ginsburg: On The Basis of Sex
-Amy: Booksmart
-Lisbeth: Girl With The Dragon Tatoo
-Lady Bird: Lady Bird

New Idea-Activist 60's-70's theme

I am not entirely sure what I want to do, but I have a theme that I would love to do. I think it would be really cool to introduce a bohemian, hippy, activist character as my opening. She is kind of uptight  which I think I could make funny. I made this mood board / collage and added a playlist below to capture the "essence" of my idea.

COLLAGE

PLAYLIST
Love Grows -Edison Lighthouse
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da- The Beatles
This Is The Day-The The
Edge of Seventeen-Stevie Nicks

Barracuda-Heart
Everywhere-Fleetwood Mac
Lets Get Loud- Jennifer Lopez
Pa' Maya- Carlos Vives
Wannabe-The Spice Girls
Build Me Up Buttercup- The Foundations
Don't Go Breaking My Heart- Elton John
I'm Coming Out- Diana Ross
9 to 5- Dolly Parton
Best Of My Love- The Emotions
Don't Bring Me Down- Electric Light Orchestra
Break My Stride- Mathew Wilder
Queen Of Disaster- Lana Del Rey
I'm Every Woman- Whitney Huston
Ain't No Mountain High Enough- Lionel Richie

I'm changing my genre

After a lot of consideration, I have made the decision of changing my genre. I know it is very risky and will definitely set me back, but I really want this project to reflect me as an artist and my abilities. I don't think I would have been able to achieve that success through the horror/ thriller genre I chose. At first, I was focused on making my film opening as simple to shoot as possible; I wanted to focus on the composition of the project alone. In my mind, the concept didn't matter as long as I showed off what I had learned in the year, why complicate my self doing something elaborate when I could easily show off the same skillset doing something more straightforward like horror.

Researching and brainstorming theses past few weeks made me realize that I know very little about horror movies. I don’t even watch horror movies because they scare me ad then I can’t sleep. My mother and sister are both thriller and horror movie fans and they encouraged me to pursue the genre. They continually gave me ideas for what I could do: a slasher film, a religious possession movie, thriller, etc. But I truthfully do not watch these types of movies and think I would run into a great deal of trouble recreating them. I think I tricked myself into thinking this genre would be the best for my schedule and ideas, but have now noticed this genre is not me.

I have decided to go with a…

DRAMEDY!
Also known as a comedy and drama squished together.

These are the movies I most enjoy and watch; I am always in the mood for a casual, light-hearted film that does not take itself too seriously. Booksmart, Superbad, Crazy Stupid Love, and Mean Girls are some of my favorite movies that I am always down to watch. I can appreciate heavy dramas and tense thrillers, but comedic dramas are the only ones I crave to watch. I am really excited about this change and feel like my project will turn out better now that I am creating something that I am personally passionate about. I already have so many ideas for what I might want to do and can envision some of the shots and techniques I want to use.

The Cannon EOS Rebel T3

The Cannon EOS Rebel T3 

I might not be sure of anything when it comes to this project, but I can definitively say, I will be using this camera to film. SLIGHT PROBLEM... I have no idea how to use it. I will take this time- where I have almost no idea of what I will do- to at least familiarize myself with the manual settings and the optimal techniques for filming with this camera. I will also be reviewing a TAMRON macro lens my sister gifted me.

https://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-shoot-video-on-your-canon-rebel--photo-12747

WHY DID I CHOOSE THIS CAMERA?
Typically, I would not choose to pick a recording device that I am not entirely comfortable with, but it is kind of my only choice at this point. I am extremely used to the iPhone video settings and used to be very familiar to the Nikon COOLPIX B500, but cannot use either of them for this project :(

WHY NOT THE iPHONE?:
The iPhone would actually probably be my best choice. I know how to manage the features and have been successful in getting decent footage on it. However, something has been up with my microphone lately. Sometimes when I film things using my phone camera, half of the video will come out without any audio and also I cannot use the speakerphone. I went to the Apple store genius bar and they could not find what was wrong with it. They checked both its physical state as well as software status, and could not tell me what I needed to do to get it fixed. I don't plan on taking a chance with my audio and possibly come out of filming with unusable takes. Naturally, I could use by mother's cellphone- she even has a better camera- but I can already picture her getting frustrated and impatient with me having her phone all the time. That woman is more obsessed with her phone than me.

WHY NOT THE NIKON?:
Something that makes me very nervous about filming with the rebel is how my last camera's life ended. In my defense, tripods are kind of my worst enemy and hate to level when I want them to. Unfortunately, when I was filming a short mockumentary with some friends in my drive-way last year, I left the camera unattended for a couple of seconds and it fell... first on the concrete and then into the water. My house had a big lake right next to where we were filming and the wind pushed my flimsy tripod over right next to the edge of the water. I guess I hadn't properly attached the camera to the tripod because upon impact it "bounced" into the lake. By the time we found it and fished it out, the screen would not turn on and the ground had dented the lens so it could not open. My parents were FURIOUS! The only reason I have this camera now is that my sister (who is a photographer) bought herself a new DSLR and decided to give me one of her old cameras from when she was first learning. My parents even warned her against it and still bring up the mishap constantly. Not breaking this camera could redeem my reputation though!

WHAT IS GOOD ABOUT THIS CAMERA?
-Good image quality for the price/ user-friendly
-Great or beginners that are just starting out with more sophisticated photography/ videography
-Garners high-quality photos even in low light
-manual focus options for video mode
-auto and manual ISO settings
-720 x 1/25 frames per second
     *optimal cinematic settings
-Manual color setting options including neutral

HOW WILL THIS CAMERA CHALLENGE ME?
-Very lightweight, footage can look shaky with ease
-Aperture cannot be manually set on video mode
     *it is either manual or automatic, you cannot assign an F-number
-The camera makes a sound when focusing and zooming that can be heard in the video
-Mediocre sound quality in video mode
-very small LCD screen

SETTING THE CAMERA UP

ISO
The ISO is described as your camera's "sensitivity for light" it is also called the shutter speed. When it is very dark or you are filming under fluorescent light, you want to put a higher ISO, probably between 400 and 800 for the best results. If you were outside on a sunny day, you would want to set the ISO lower, around 100 or 200. Most tutorials I watched do not recommend using the 3,200 and 6,400 ISO value, for it typically lowers image quality and is visibly grainy.
The ideal value for filmmaking: Below 1000 no not get grainy footage

APERATURE + MANUAL FOCUS
The aperture is what creates a blurred background and. controls the depth of field of a video. The aperture is measured with an F value. The higher the F-value the deeper the depth of field. The shallowest depth of field hast the lowest F-value. The range of the F-value depends on the lens being used. The Canon lens I have has a minimum of F5.6, but the TAMRON macro lens that is designed for very close and detailed shots has a minimum of F2.0. Unfortunately, one cannot manually set the aperture on this camera when recording video. However, on the side of the lens, there is a small switch that I discovered allows you to control the focus of the lens manually by turning the outer/top nozzle of the lens. I have noticed that the automatic aperture settings typically have a very deep focus, so I think I will try to use manual focus whenever I can for my movie.
The ideal value for filmmaking: The perfect "sweet spot" for most cameras is F8.0

FRAMES PER SECOND
Frames per second describes the speed/ rate of images the camera captures for every second of recording. 25 frames per second is what our brains consider the most "cinematic". In other words, it reminds us most of the feature films we see in theatres. 24-25 frames per second creates a perfect amount of motion blur and what humans associate with movies and TVs since this is a standard filmmakers that used actual film went by. It has been ingrained in us that 25 f/s = movies. This Canon only has 2 options 25 frames per second and 30 frames per second. Some sources state that one should use 25 all the time, while others recommend using 30 and later adjusting the frames per second while editing. It all depends on which editing service I will use.
The ideal value for filmmaking: Most movie theatres play movies at 24 or 25 frames per second