Film Opening Project: Production Process Part 2

 Production: Part 2 (Filming)

    Hey everyone! I am back with more updates on me and Natalia's journey towards the film opening project, and I will be specifically talking about the filming process after setting up everything. However, before I begin, I would like to clarify that we did film lots of shots for the film opening, but I won't have to many visual examples to show due to some technical issues I have been dealing with on my part (since we filmed on Natalia's iPhone, a very new and high quality phone, none of my devices can support the quality, so I was not able to transfer many examples on to my devices). 

The Majority

    Since a big part of our film opening is reliant on the emotions and character of Stella, our most used shots would be close ups. The whole point of our idea is to introduce our character, Stella, without creating an actual, proper introduction. We just want to throw hints at the audience that relate to Stella's emotional connection to acting. Again, I would put more examples, but I was only able to grab a few that my device can handle, so here they are!

 

    Here is a close up of Stella's face as she watches the film being played on the screen. This is one of several close ups filmed throughout the opening.

    Here is an extreme close up of Stella's eyes as she watches the film and feels captivated and influenced by its message. 

Lighting

    Now some you may be asking yourselves, "How did you and Natalia manage to show light on Stella even with the auditorium lights off?' Honestly, all we did was project a film of our choice on the screen (we chose Rocky Balboa) so that it would look realistic, as if Stella is actually watching a film. However, it did take a while to find the appropriate scenes in the film with the brightest lighting, because in some shots, one could barely see Stella. And although the lighting is supposed to be dark at times in a movie theater, this is not a visual that we wanted to show, as we wanted to make sure that Stella was shown clearly throughout the film opening. 

    And then again, you all may be asking yourselves this other question: "Why didn't you and Natalia just display a bright photo onto the projector so that way you guys don't have to worry about finding bright scenes?' Honestly, this was brought up as an idea after struggling a bit with the film being projected, but we felt that the film opening would lose its realism because the light reflecting on Stella's face would remain the same. And usually, when you watch a film, the light changes on your face, so we decided to avoid this technique. 

    So, even though the way we worked with the lighting was more time consuming, we do feel that it does add to the film opening's quality and detailing. 

What Now?

    Me and Natalia have decided to meet up in the beginning of next week to carefully revise everything we have filmed and make sure that we are satisfied with what we filmed. If not, they we may refilm a few scenes that could use more work or inspire us to add more to it. From there, we will then have to edit the film opening, which includes the credits and title inserts. We will also be keeping the instruction next to us so we are 100% that we meet all of the requirements for the high scoring film opening. 

    Anyways, I am definitely looking forward to continue working with Natalia on our film opening project, so stay tuned for my next update on this journey!