I am happy to announce that I am pretty much done with filming!!!! I had a fun time filming with my friends, even if shoots were hard to schedule over break or had to be pushed back for some unforeseen circumstances. I got the majority of the shots that I wanted, with one or two exceptions. I'll go into that a little bit later in the blog. I want to talk about what it means for me to be all finished with the filming first, and then I'll go into editing. I have already started editing the first trailer, so I want to update you guys on how that's going. But before that, filming!
I don't know if you noticed on my Instagram page, but my production now has a mascot: Bones! He's pretty cool. Might be a little small, I wanted the dead and decayed body to be a full-grown adult (the woman in the picture). That would be her dead human form, and now she's just roaming about town as a demon. Getting back to the point, Bones is a little small for that, so I had to play around with the angles to make him appear larger or at least not be as small as he really is. But, he apparently looks somewhat realistic in some lighting, so I would say that it's a success. And I have a feeling it would be a little less worrisome if the skeleton still looked somewhat fake. Just for the sake of those watching and wondering where a media student got a realistic skeleton prop for filming.
I also got the perfect lighting for my shots at the Graveyard of Souls (and Memories). The shots look pretty and ominous at the same time, which is what I was going for. I also had to park illegally to film there because that site was closed off for cars at the time, so that was thrilling. I may have to adjust the lighting for a few shots, just to make them appear darker and more foreboding, but I really don't think I need to do that much to improve them. Just a few tweaks.
Moreover, I finished my actual thriller/horror shot sequence. I wouldn't say they are absolutely mortifying, but there are some that are genuinely a scary good time. And that's what my target audience wants, so I think I'm on the right path. And I got to play a lot with the lighting for all of them, and I'm happy how they turned out. Set with some spooky background audio, I think they would really get hit that tense and frightening tone right on the head. Once I put the demon makeup on my lead actress and gave her a knife, I couldn't stand within five feet of her. I was anguished while filming her do her specific staircase scene. Again, that bodes well for the project.
I'd show a few clips, but I want to talk about editing. Before I do, I have a fee qualms that I'd like to share, just about shots that I couldn't get over the break. I still want that shot of the townspeople (aka demons) staring at my lead as she walks by. And I tried to recruit people while filming the Graveyard of Souls shots, but they were looking at me quizzically and I decided to drop it for the sake of not bothering them any further. I may just have to walk around in my neighborhood with my lead Cathy and ask random people to stare at her. It sounds weird typing it out, but that's probably what I'll do. Hopefully it looks good, because I'm vehement about including that shot in the second trailer. The shot that I want to get is a demon running at Cathy, but that's much easier to get (I only need to recruit one person for the role).
Now, let's talk about editing!
This is my least favorite part about this project by far. Staring at a computer screen for hours at a time hurts my eyes, and I can barely sit still for over an hour. I get antsy and excited, plus I need to stretch occasionally. Me being a slow editor tends to exacerbate that problem. I have OCD, so I might just review something ten times over, change it, then review that change ten times over. It gets exhausting, and it just makes me lose just a little faith in my project, if I'm being honest. Watching the clips over and over makes me realize more imperfections in said clips and it blunts some of the impact, especially in my horror clips. This has been my little rant, I need a little catharsis (venting my frustrations and all that jazz), especially because I'm going to edit right after this.
I'll be a little more curt in this post, just because I'll go more into depth about the editing process in my next posting. I've already arranged and formatted all the clips to my liking in the first trailer. I still have some revisions to make, but I have my core structure done. I've also gotten started on the audio editing, so I'll most likely finish that today (and by extension the trailer). I might have a finished product for you by next post. Maybe. Here's some photos as evidence of my progress (in case you don't believe me):
I'll remind y'all that I'm using Adobe Premier courtesy of my awesome teacher, and though I like DaVinci Resolve, Premier is still the more polished editing software. Especially for sound editing, which is something that is going to be important in this trailer. I've already started on my sound editing, but I still have a little bit to go. I've already found this on Chosic, so I've been pretty happy so far with what I've found:
This means I might not have to make my own demonic scream after all (I still might just for fun), and I don't have to worry about creating this supernatural effect with audio. This is plenty creepy and unnatural, just wait until I link my trailer to a post.
I'm going to stay mum about the rest of the editing process for now, just so y'all don't have to read any more of my writing for the time being. Plus, I've got a trailer to edit, so wish me luck.
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