Now that I am beginning the editing process one of the factors I will be needing in the future will be the font used for the title sequence. In order to find the best font fit for Elle qui Pleure I used the website DaFont. The type of font that I was looking for was something elegant yet artistic and I feel like I did find various fonts that fit this profile using this website.
This past week I've been taking every free moment I have to start editing, here's how it went:
The first thing I did was align the clips in chronological order. I had some small hiccups within this step, the first one being purely my own dumbness. When I first started organizing the clips I was editing directly from my SD which means... that as soon as I took it out everything was gone. That wasn't a huge issue though as I just simply downloaded all of the clips into my computer and replaced the missing files. There was also a moment when as I was trying to delete the missing files I accidentally deleted the sequence but I quickly was able to reverse this.
The next step was to edit everything together. There were moments during this process that were annoying such as my computer lagging too much or some clips being too shaky, but at the end of the day, I think everything flows well together. The only problem with the results is that it only takes up 2 minutes and 30 seconds and this portion that I edited is supposed to take up 2/3 of the entire production, meaning that I don't think I'll be able to reach the 5-minute requirement.
After I finished editing all of the clips together I went back to the research I had done on stylistic editing. I didn't feel too confident about the options I had so I decided to go back to the drawing board. With a little help from my friend Logan, this video by Justin Odisho was brought to my attention.
Basically, Odisho goes through every stylistic effect in Adobe Premier. At around 1:09 he covers an effect called Burshtroke which makes the clip you're working with appear to have been brushed on. I think out of the other options I had researched this effect will be the safest and easiest option.
Earlier in the year, actually, the very first project of this school year my peers and I were assigned the brand identity project. Basically, we had multiple lessons on the importance of a brand and the attributes forming one. Then we had to use the information we learned to brand ourselves. I remember being very anxious over this project as my mind wasn't wrapping around the idea of making a brand for myself, so, I turned to my comfort zone, art.
I had planned on talking about this project and my brand within the blog for a while as I noticed increasingly during the past few weeks that my brand was still very prevalent within the work I was doing. It was only today, however, after having a lesson on the Critical Reflection component that I decided to truly reflect on this.
One of the questions I have to answer within the reflection is how did the elements within my project work together to form a brand. To answer this, I decided to look back on the presentation I made for the brand identity project we made in late August.
For one, my brand contains a cohesive aesthetic, or in other terms, its Physique-
What does this mean you may ask? Well, as mentioned before, when making the identity project I relied heavily on my artistic side. As seen below, I chose to draw my logo, I integrated art pieces within the presentation, talked about how one of the ways I communicate my brand is through art, and finally even did my digital story on an artist and how he has impacted me and the world.
This art theme coincidentally continued within my blog as the backgrounds and side column images are art pieces (as shown below).
This art theme was also integrated into my portfolio projected when I, once again. coincidentally decided that a painting would not only be a major prop within the narrative but also a setting. Because of this factor within my project, both the Instagram for my film and the postcard will have major art and design elements as it is a theme in the short film.
Another element that creates a cohesive aesthetic within my brand is its colour palette.
As seen in my brand identity presentation, I defined my brand as having a natural palette, meaning, anything in green and brown tones. The images within my blog have this very same colour palette, leaning more towards the brown side, while the Instagram for my film has had a consistent green tone within each post.
Outside of the physique, another important factor within my brand is the message it is trying to send, or in other words its culture or purpose.
Within my presentation, I shared the purpose to "love", as seen displayed under my logo. Alongside this my brand also promoted the ideas of acceptance, freedom, and belonging.
Within Elle qui Pleure, one of the biggest themes is acceptance. This is displayed clearly through the narrative as in the end the main character encounters the painted version of herself and comforts her, ultimately acting as a metaphor for self-healing and acceptance.
There were couple of complication we faces, the biggest one being the afternoon sun. Since the sim was directly above, Maya’s hair was casting a lot of shadows over her face. Because if this Im not sure I’d be able to use some of the shots I took, however, despite this I do think that the majority of the shots turned out good so I do have something to work with.
The scene that we shot was the one where the main character meets the weeping woman. Since Maya portrays both the protagonist and the woman in the painting, we enlisted the help of her sister who looks a lot like her to take the place of a double.
I also had the opportunity to take the last reference picture I need, which means that hopefully with a bit of an all nighter I can finish the painting today. Hopefully.
Here is the long-awaited painting process blog that's been in the making for an entire week!
After painting the white basecoat almost two weeks ago it took me a while to actually start sketching as of course there are other things I as a student have to worry about. On the 20th Sunday night was when I began actually drawing out the composition. Also, I think it's important to note that weeks prior a created sketches in my sketchbook just to try to plan everything out and I will be including images of it here once I get my sketchbook left.
After finishing the background I started colouring the portrait. I began with the skin tones but then was quickly discouraged over the more detailed oriented parts so I turned to the dress. It was actually really fun to paint the texture of cloth, it was something I've always wanted to do but never got the chance and I feel like it turned out pretty great.
From the last image, I've finished the face and also the details on the dress. I'm choosing not to post these updates as I do want to keep it for the big reveal and as I'm not done with the hair yet that is being pushed off till later.
Tomorrow I'm meeting up with Maya and her sister at Markahn Park to film the last scene in the film (not to be confused with the last scene I need to film) and hopefully, then I'll get a reference pic for the hair as right now I'm working off of 3 separate images and I'm struggling with it.
There are sixteen days till the portfolio project is due and it is safe to say that I am kinda freaking out. I am officially saying the infamous line "a lot to do, not a lot of time to do it." In order to attempt to calm my anxieties, I've decided to write another schedule to make sure I keep a level head and don't succumb to the pressure of having to finish.
As of right now, there is A LOT left to do. Some of which include finishing shooting, editing the film, editing music, creating a postcard, and finishing the social media portion. It is safe to say that my time during the following two weeks will be fully dedicated to this (which isn't great news for my seven other classes).
Once again. this schedule includes both my media studies and outside responsibilities. The media studies portion win be bolded.
Monday:
Around the time that I originally wrote this blog, I was heavily inspired by the aesthetic and music from Fantastic Mr Fox. I would picture the scenes of my film with Mr Fox in the Fields playing in the background. Because of this all of the music I researched including the ones listed below are pure of the bluegrass genre. However, after filming one scene with a good amount of shots I'm not sure if this is the type of music I'm looking for. Regardless, I present you with my research.
I began searching for similar songs to Mr Fox in the Fields using the website Chosic as it has a "find similar songs" feature, but after looking through it I couldn't find anything to my liking.
After this I directly searched up on google "bluegrass royalty-free music" and found the website called Free Music Archive.
From there I made note of a couple of songs:
I then continued my search through google before finding the Proud Music Library where I noted two songs:
After going over the music I had listed above I do see some promise with Madame Flowers but I know that I will need to find different songs for different parts of the film that these bluegrass songs would not work for.
Now that we've officially filmed the first scene for this year's portfolio project I decided to make complete props and equipment list!
1. The Painting!
2. The Red Apple
6. Canon t7i + 17-50mm Sigma lens
8. Ring light
Here are a couple of things you've been missing out on the Instagram
Today was officially the first filming day for Elle qui Pleure! For the most part, everything went smoothly. Maya, Logan, and I drove to Tree Tops in order to get the shots I listed in the image in yesterday's post. I was able to get all of them, however, I was hoping that I'd be able to film the scene where the main character encounters the weeping woman but for that, we need Maya's sister. There were also some complications such as light rain and my idea with the apple tree didn't necessarily work out. The tape I had brought wasn't strong enough to stick to the uneven surface of the apple stem, so in the end, I decided to have the apple just lay on the floor as that was the best I could do.
Overall I think everything went smoothly. We didn't use some of the equipment such as the gimbal Maya brought and also my tripod as most of the shots I felt was just easier to get handheld. The use of the props such as the apple and the red paint also went really well if we ignore the slight change in ideas. I'm pretty satisfied with the shots I got, the plan now is to get the painting done, start editing, and film the last two scenes
