Author: Isabella Garcia

Changes made during production was the costuming, establishing shots, and our equipment usage. The costuming for our character changed for a total of three times because I felt it either did not flow with our film opening or suit the character. I changed from an all white tank top and shorts to a white tank top plus black cargo pants to finally an all black dress. We first had the mindset to capture the term purity and tarnish it with blood splatter, but then realized the all white clothing did not exactly suit our character and me as an actor. It was rather comical and did not appear to be fitted into a horror movie. So we made the change to keep the blood splattered tank top and change the short to cargo pants. We thought it was better suited for the woods, but when we filmed a few shots we quickly came to term that it was horrible looking and made my legs look wonky. It did not have the fast pace we wanted as the costume made me look slow so then I thought of a flowy dress, but instead of white we have it in black. We settled with the way it looked because it suited our character and created a mystery feel as to why in the world is she running through the woods barefoot and in a dress. It was also very comfortable for me to perform and showed the right amount of flesh exposed along with providing less surface area to splatter “blood”. The establishing shots was another thing we altered because we could not find any birds in the area and if we did they were either too far away or barely visible in our shots so we decided to cut that part out and keep the scenery shots. Another change was the amount of equipment used. We only ended up using an Iphone camera and the Voice Memo app because the other equipment was not necessary to put into shooting our opening such as the practical lighting and Airpods. The practical lighting was never used because we used the sun and decided to use however much lighting was given to us during the time we went to film and the Airpods for a microphone also proved to be of no use because we used the microphone set in the Iphone to produce our audio.

A series of bloopers filled with laughs and also trying to direct what some scenes would include….Enjoy! 🙂

*some bloopers were already used in the diary entries

A learning experience taken from this project is the difficulty in continuity due to weather changes, the time, or costuming and makeup. For example, one day it was extremely windy during production and we set out to finish our ending for the opening. We managed to almost film everything, but had to re-film the next day and it was an issue due to the lack of wind. Then the time kept being an issue for me and my partner because either it was too sunny to film certain parts or it got too dark and we had to use the footage despite the error. Another occurrence was managing to keep the “blood” splatters in the same places as best as we could because it is necessary to keep the continuity the same and we could not have one blood splatter here, but then the next clip it vanishes. Another issue was during post-production, I recently cut my hair shorter and it was visible when we re-filmed some clips, but we managed to hide it to the best of our extent. An “a-ha” moment would be finding the perfect costuming for our character. We managed to go through a white tank top and shorts to a white tank top and black cargo pants then ultimately settling for a black dress. We wanted to go for an all white costume to stand for purity, but then changed the concept to a more eerie outtake with the black dress to further enhance the mystery for our character and the question, “Why is she running through the forest in a dress?”

These two videos show our issue with the time and weather. The video above was taken during “golden hour” and the wind was not strong during that day whereas the video clip below was during a windy and gloomy day and close to raining. We decided to choose the clip above for our opening since the performance was better than the other outtake despite the continuity issues that could arise.

In the first clip it shows my hair when I made the big chop and the second video clip shows how my hair was previously. When I chopped off my hair, I did not realize how this was gonna affect our film and my partner did not realize either until we began actually filming, but we managed to finish everything and needed to add filler shots so the film opening is more coherent and makes sense to the viewer. We overcame this issue by lowering my head in almost every shot we re-filmed so the viewer does not see the actual length of my hair.

Difficulties Tzitlalith and I endured was cinematography, continuity, and time management. Our first days of shooting was not how we visualized our film as we could not figure out the right angles and had to retake plenty of times to get the shots we wanted. We also needed to find the right momentum because either I ran too slow or Tzitlalith was running too slow to film a tracking shot faced forward which resulted in the both of us needing to match the same pace to get the exact shot we needed. Another problem was continuity because we filmed pretty irregular with the time of day as sometimes we shot around five o’clock or other times at six o’clock and the sun was either too bright or it was starting to get too dark and we needed to fill in more shots which resulted in a mix and match game with the shots. The weather was also a huge factor because one day it was extremely windy and the next there was hardly any wind and it did not match the results we got in the extremely windy day or vice versa. We had a time management problem which resulted in rushed filler shots as we had a limited time frame from five-thirty to six-thirty. At times, we would only be able to film from six o’clock to six-thirty because we got to our location too late or we did not pick up our momentum during the film process and focused too much on different angles of the same shot. The days we did not film, due to personal reasons, could have helped us with time management, but we simply could not which lead to a rushed rough cut.

For our week of production, my partner and I went through an immense struggle with our view for this film because we could not establish any coherent shots that matched our visual, but we eventually managed to and it turned out fairly decent although we possibly need to add more filler shots to make sense of our film opening.

Saturday, March 22nd

Tzitlalith, my partner, and I went to film our opening and endured difficulties of establishing a mood for our film and finding a suitable costume for our character. We did not find a white dress so we went with a white tank top and white shorts to replace it, but I did not resonate with the way the shots came out. On top of that, we could not figure out in the moment what cinematography went with our opening and struggled with different angles. The only shots we captured were the screams right at the beginning of our film opening and a few ambient noises which were the sound of leaves crunching. 

Running through the woods (one through seven) showcased the struggle of my partner and I trying to film the right shot, getting the right angle, and trying to maintain our momentum. We could not figure out the first few running shots that were going to be in the opening after the establishing shots and we had the idea of inserting a tracking shot, but that did not work out as we kept repeating the same shots in roughly the same area. We also could not figure out the angle whether to show the full body or half of it and this led into our unmatched momentum. Tzitlalith, my partner, had to track me wherever I was heading to and this concluded in having a shaky camera, lopsided angle, or a shot cut short when she fell into something or was too slow and I ended up getting too close to the camera.

Monday, February 24th

On this day, my partner and I decided to film multiple establishing shots that open up to our audience and they all turned out fairly well although we barely could find any crows or birds at the location we shot. The only shot we had was an owl and it did not appear as a clear visual, but we decided to incorporate it anyhow. The issue we had was once again was filming our running through the woods shot and perfecting our costuming that fit well for our character. We tried black cargo pants paired with a white tank top, but it did not match our vision.

For the establishing shots, my partner and I had the mindset to really capture our location to give the viewers insight to what our actor is about to run through and the terror. The establishing shots where it showed a river were going to be included in our film opening, but we forgot to shoot there though it is a very nice clearing. We also tried to show the woods and give it an eerie feel to it because the woods are not portrayed to be a happy clearing, but rather a mysterious feel to it.

Instead of following through tracking shots, we decided to try and do a still frame where I run across the camera frame. We repeated this shot a few times and to no luck, we could not manage to find one perfect shot to include in our film opening and the costuming was not working well with the frame so we decided to call it quits and figure out a solution to where the costume is suitable and our issue on finding the right cinematography.

Tuesday, February 25th

We accomplished more on Tuesday by filming the end stage of our opening to get a clear mindset and a break from the running shots. Along with finally managing to find a suitable costume for our character which consisted of a black, flowy dress to match our vision which was to create an eerie mood rather than purity that was originally going to be paired with a white dress. Aside from that, our tower shots were to capture the character going mad and ending her life and we did so. The weather consisted of extreme wind which can be a problem with continuity if we decided to film more filler shots or reshoot. 

We took on a different angle to show the gloomy sky and portray the emotion settle on our actor (which is me), but it did not effectively match our visual and rather showed me as a bigger, powerful figure so we dismissed this type of shot.

Tzitlalith and I decided to experiment with a 360 shot that showed the world going into chaos for the actor and also show the paranoia and hurt on the actor so the viewers can see her reaching a breaking point. We loved the outcome and decided to go ahead with the footage from our third take.

Wednesday, February 26th

We could not film this day as it was a high chance of rain around the time we filmed at five-thirty to six-thirty

Thursday, February 27th

We did not film as my partner could not 

Friday, February 28th

We did not film because my partner could not

Saturday, February 29th

Our last production day was Saturday and we filmed the entirety of our film that we did not shoot on the other days. We finished up the running through the woods shot which proved to be semi difficult with the time of day because we shot around five o’clock and during our shots we captured the sun which was not how we envisioned it, but still used the shots. We then captured the last scene where our character dies and the lighting there was almost too dark compared to the rest of our film, but we had no time left and decided to use it anyhow.

My partner and I decided to try two different angles for our tracking shot, one facing forward and the other facing backwards. We took multiple shots of the same scene and even changed location for the last two shots and eventually we had the right footage to insert in our opening (tracking shot 8).

For a pan shot we filmed a few times to show me running away from my chasers, but had to re-film twice because Tzitlalith had my shoes and socks in the footage though it was an easy fix because I simply took off my shoes and we filmed the perfect shot to insert.

We decided to show a low angle shot for my feet because with the process of editing, the purpose was to indicate a passage of time and inferring that I was heading for the tower now. We filmed multiple shots to choose from because we wanted to have several backups to see which one was best (tracking shot 4).

We chose to film an eye level shot or a medium shot to give the viewers an insight to what our character is feeling.

We decided to do another tracking shot to show where our actor is now heading, kind of an establishing shot, but not really. It was to also add a bit of drama and suspense for our opening as she heads to what the viewers do not know, her final resting place.

These series of shots is what I like to call, “The bloody shots”. We used red acrylic paint to create these shots because this idea came from our title, “Driving Insanity” in which we tried to actually show our character going mad and this will result in the final blow to where she kills herself.

These final shots were the last scene to our film opening and we used an abrupt tilt shot to show the death of our character (me). We gathered inspiration from the opening scene to “It Follows” because their character’s death scene was also abrupt, gruesome death and we were inspired to do the same.

Sunday, March 1st

We did not film this day as we saved it for editing our rough cut

What kind of technology did we use?

Our technology was simplistic as it was an IPhone XR and the Voice Memo app incorporated with the IPhone. We used what resources we had available to us and applied them to our film. 

What did we learn about using production technologies?

What I learned about using production technologies was how difficult it can be to gather the right angle for our shots because the IPhone XR, while the latest produce, does not have the quality of an actual camera and the shots can be a bit blurry or hazy. The only lighting source we had was the sun and it proved to be difficult because we had a specific time frame from five o’clock to six-thirty and past that it got real dark which did not allow any visual for our shots.

Did we consult any sources to learn how to use our equipment?

Our technology was minimal and did not require any tutorials on how to use them because we were well knowledgeable on how to work our tech.

Did we work from any influences when recording certain shots?

To shoot our running shots, my partner and I watched a short film that had great cinematography running through the woods and we were inspired by those shots. 

Our storyboard opens up to a darkened sky disrupted by the sound of absolute terror and crows would also be involved to symbolize death. The next few shots are to show our character running around the woods trying to escape a horrid scene and she is dressed in white to portray the usage of innocence and purity. The female eventually breaks down to absolute madness and realizes she can’t escape. She spots a tower where she decides to end this misery and cuts to a brutal death of the character.

Sound

During production, we aspire to record sounds from nature along with minimal dialogue. We will record leaves crunching, twigs snapping, and bird sounds to build up suspense in our film. The leaves and twigs breaking will be used to signify something or someone chasing our character through the woods and the bird sounds come from the crows that will symbolize murder. The minimal dialogue is to build up tension like the film “It Follows” does because all the audience will hear is heavy breathing and the panic coming from our character who is trying to escape the woods alive. The impact will reside with our audience to produce the feeling of mystery and curiosity. 

Technology

The technology we would use are Iphones, tripod, a lighting source (possibility of usage), and a recording device such as a microphone. The Iphone XR cameras would be used to shoot our entire film opening and a tripod would be used to show stable footage such as a long shot. The lighting source would be incase if we need lighting to cast deep shadows or provide a specific use. For example, someone flashing a light in the woods and our character sees it, causing panic and fear. To record our sounds, we may have to use Airpods or the microphone on the Iphones to capture the sounds we need such as the dialogue and ambient sounds.

Our film will look like The Witch because of the similar locations they are both produced in and the fixture of blue tones that sets an eerie feel. The Witch is shot in a large land close to the woods that is similar to our own and really captures this dark feel of the woods that holds something more than just nature. Furthermore, when the lighting is low, the woods are an eerie place. The film also is set in blue tones that captures that cold feeling that will draw in the viewer because it doesn’t show any sunshine or happiness just pure moodiness along with despair and can emphasize anything that contrasts such as the color white.

Our film will sound and feel like the film, It Follows because our cinematography is centralized around the opening scene and how it has minimal dialogue. The opening scene really focuses on the young female running away from something that is chasing her. It shows what she is looking at, but never reveals the evil doer and creates the feeling of suspense then drastically ends in a gruesome way which is what my partner and I are aiming for. The dialogue is also set to a minimum only a few exchange of words between the female and her father along with heavy breathing, footsteps, and car noises. Our film would only hold heavy breathing and the sound of footsteps along with the sounds emitted from nature such as birds, twigs, and leaves breaking.