Re-Edit: Finding A Way

The ability to re-film is out of our control but we shouldn’t let that hold us back from trying to approve our film. When editing the first time around, we made sure that our movie was presentable. But did we make sure it was great? Although we were not able to go and re-film our last scene we thought it would be a good idea to look over our movie and see what we could re-edit. We already had some input from our peer reviews group, but the more criticism the better. We are reached out to two of our individual friends for them to watch our film and tell us more ways on what we could improve. Within the day everyone in the group came back with the advice. We proceeded with the group FaceTime call to talk about how we are going to re-edit with our circumstances. By The end of the call we have deliberated a numerous amount of things. Ranging from sciences needed to be cut and how a transition could be more clean.

It was now time to edit. Of course, we used the iMovie editing software. Our film was already stored here so we didn’t need to re-dump all of the shots. We used the criticism that was given to guide us on what to edit. I was the first want to get my paws on this task. I improved the film to the best of my ability. When completed I sent the film to the next member of the group. They then edited in addition to what was already done. We did this transition for about 5 times twin sure that everyone had a chance to edit. Doing this allowed for no mistakes to be left and an incorporation of the whole group. When this  process was complete we watched our film for the last time as a group to make sure that it was at full potential.

Here’s a picture of our final film in the editing software iMovie:

Re-Film: What We Hoped

After watching other groups final film and comparing it to ours, we've made the decision to re-film to improve our content. We've been planning this for weeks now. The location was going to be different from our original setting as well as the time, but this wasn't going to interfere with the footage. We've managed a way to get across that by just re-filming one of the scenes entirely. This decision would've helped our because it would've made our film stronger. With the feedback from other groups, we knew what to fix to bring our idea to our full potential. We dated this day to be the first day of spring break, but with life there is never full certainty. Over the past week us citizens has had our life changed drastically. All in the result of the Coronavirus.

A few days ago, our superintendent announced that schools will be closing to ensure our safety against the virus. At first this did not interfere with our scheduled plans because the day we were going to film was no school anyways. But as time progressed matters started getting worse. Businesses are closing, people are afraid to leave their house, and everyone is in disbelief. In a matter of just a few days, this virus has taken control of our lives. We were no longer allowed to go out and film, because everyone is so worried about staying safe. Although the intentions are believed to help us, we are only hurting in the process. Not being able to film was a minor setback, but not being able to return to school until April 15th is major. This virus is hurting many places in the world drastically.

Here' s a screenshot of an article of when the changes started to arise:

Editing: As A Group

As I've mentioned before, due to our issues as a group I had to edit most of the film at home by myself. But not to take all the credit, my group still helped in a numerous amount of ways. One way was introduced earlier in my blogs, they assisted me when I needed clarification. As a group member I didn't want to be the only one to have an input on the films selected in the movie. Whenever I had a question they were quick to any via text or FaceTime, I was able to depend on them. This resolution was helpful because it allowed everyone to have a say on the project. It also lifted some weight off of my shoulders because I wasn't the only one making all of the decisions. Some of these choice makings included transitions, fonts, and time-length. Without their help if they were a bad choice made, I didn't get all of the blame for it.

In addition, they also helped me with the title sequence. Although I was the lucky group member to get chosen to edit I wasn't really familiar with all of the hardcore stuff. Everything I did was pretty basic and easy, so when it came down to adding the title sequence I had some trouble. However, because of my reliable group I was able to lean on them yet again for another situation. When I completed the edit for the entire film I called my group to see what to do able the sequence. Immediately, they offered to take over and add the sequence in themselves. At first I didn't think this was the best idea since this part of the project was my task, but with some thought I agreed. I sent the edited film over to the group chat and the concerns were handled. In less than 20 minuets our film was completed, including the title sequence.

Here's a screenshot of my group's chat, this is the main way we communicate with each other when we're outside of class.

Editing Blog: The Full Process

In this blog I will elaborate the steps I took during the editing process. When I arrived home the first thing I tried to do was download all of the film, but the process was still going extremely slow. In the image below was way my screen appeared, but for hours.

Hours pass by as my screen stood there as if it was frozen, so I had to result in another option. As I mentioned in my previous blog, I did not fully complete the download until I was home. Which was done so with another tactic. I used airdrop between my iPhone and MacBook to  the send videos. Instead of just sending everything, I watch the videos on my phone and decided which ones I wanted to be on the  film. This made the process way easier and quicker. When this step was completed, I was ready to begin the editing process with iMovie. 

In iMovie, The first step done was removing unwanted parts of the shots. I then aligned the scenes where we were talking to make sure it sounded pleasing. Focusing on such things as smoothness between clips and no cut off sentences. I also did the same technique to make sure that our actions were aligned. When this was complete I rewatched the film to see if it was what we imagined. Our story got across and we completed our wishes, but there was one problem. The time frame, it was about one minute over what it was supposed to be. I did not see what to cut out, because I felt as if every second was necessary. Eventually I had to call in a group mate for some help. After we both watched the film over and over again, we were able to cut down the movie into its correct time length. 

Editing Blog: At Home

The editing process was not as easy as I thought it would be. To our hope, we expected it to be as easy as a breeze because of our previous projects but that was not the case. The problems started while attempting to dump all of our footage in class. There were about 246 shoots and it took forever to transfer onto the computer. As a group, we wished to at least dump all of our footage onto the laptop so we could get the editing process started. Everything was going very slow and only about 30 videos completely downloaded. I assumed maybe it was because of the school wifi or other factors. Although we wanted to get the work done in class, we had to result to another solution. I was then assigned to edit the film all on my own at home. 

Completing the editing process at home was not the best option in my opinion. I had no idea on how to incorporate everyone’s opinion on what should be in the video if we all were in different locations. As a result, I had to choose the best videos out of the all the shots to put in our film. This approach worked sometimes but was sufficient, it didn’t always work because of certain reasons. For example, if they were two very good shots and I wouldn’t be able to decide. I will then call in a group FaceTime to get everyone’s opinion. With this process all of the group members had a say in something instead of one person doing everything. As a group, this is how it should be. Even though we were not in the same location we still made a way. 

Here’s a photo of the editing software I used at home:

Peer Review

As mentioned before, the scene where the blood was shown was my favorite. In my paper, I mentioned two explanations, including the lighting and concision. These were brief reasons but there are many more. For example, it’s purpose. Without this specific scene, the whole movie wouldn’t really make sense. It allowed the audience to understand what was going on throughout the film and how it foreshadowed what may occur in the rest of the film. As for myself, I was in bit confusion on the whole purpose of the film until the last scene. In addition, the way the scene was presented was also a good thing. Compared to the other scenes, I was able to completely see the one. Everything was clear, I was able to see the blood, the hands, and the tracks where it was being smeared. Due to the fact that this was an important scene, I feel as if the presentation was very important. 

Although the film had these few aspects of goodness, there was one main point that possibly damaged the whole movie. The film had potential but because of the lighting it's potential was not met. The majority of the film was dark which caused some issues for the audience. For example, when I was watching the movie I was not really able to tell what was going on until I watched it very closely. Even though I was patient with the film many viewers may not be and completely just turn the film off because of this reason. When watching a film, you should be able to clearly see what is going on throughout the whole film even if the scene is meant to be dark. It caused less confusion and allow the audience to view and understand what is going on completely. It was until the last film where we were able to see clearly.