Ebanie’s Blog

Write about issues you had during your project and how you fixed them.    - While making our movie we went through a couple challenges. The first challenge was procrastination. We waited a while to start which was not good but since the due date was getting closer we finally began doing it. The next challenge was getting together but we fixed it by deciding how to split up the work and making sure we all did equal work.  Write about changes that had to be made within your story.    - The one change that was made was the location of the story. In the beginning, we planned to do it at a camp but then we changed it to be at a house. Write about things that you learned during the process of your project.    - During the entire process of making our movie I learned how to edit and how to do time management. I learned how to edit after downloading CapCut and playing around with it to figure out all of the buttons. I learned how to manage my time better becau...

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFvJNdhwygc This is the link to our film opener on YouTube. We decided to upload it to YouTube since it would be easier for the people at Cambridge to open it and see it. The title of the video is "When It Watches - Media Studies Film Opener 2024" and it is posted by an account with the name Ebanie Rojas.

  This time in editing Anneliese and I went over the video just to make sure we all liked it and were ok with it. After watching it we changed one thing, the ending scene. We wanted the beat drop of the song to synchronize to when the title popped up so we changed that. In the pictures you see us going through the movie and editing the song to match with the clip. We did not have to refilm or put anything in our take anything out. 

  This is the updated storyboard for our film. Isabella was the one who illustrated it. We did not change much just some of the more important scenes, since now we know what the actual important scenes were,  the characters, since some of us couldn't make it, and the end scene, since we finally decided on our title. The rest of the storyboard is otherwise similar to the old one. In the new storyboard we included the details about all of the scenes.  

 We finally finished the film and we all were happy with the results. When we first got the assignment we procrastinated but when we finally started to work on it we all did our part. Isabella and Anneliese were the ones who were respobsible for filming and Carolina and I were responsible for editing, so we all pulled out weight. Someone who helped out in filming is Anabella Gonzalez-Lopez, who is in another media studies class. Throughout the entire filming and editing process I felt more challenged by having the time to do it. Since I have other difficult classes I had a lot of work to do so it was difficult to find time to work on the project. In the end however we all put aside some time to work on the project and we got it finished.

 We chose the title "When It Watches" because we felt it fit with the movie and the vibe it had. We knew it was going to have a white font since it was going to be on a black screen and that it was going to appear big we just needed to find a good font to go with it. We chose for it to just appear on the screen suddenly to add to the scary effect. We decided all of this so it can add to the horror effect of the film opener. It took us a while to find a font but we finally chose one after we thought it was the right fit for it. This was the font that we ended up choosing The rest are some that we looked at but did not choose because we didn't like it and it did not fit with the movie.

 In our film we did not use any specific lighting. For one scene we just used the normal light Anneliese has in her room which had a specific type of colored lighting which is what is shown in the film. In another scene we also just used to normal kitchen light and the normal light in the bathroom. In post-production, while editing we did not make any changes to the lighting.

 For the editing of the movie Carolina and I did the majority of it. We used an editing application, CapCut, to edit the sound, scenes, and more. For the sound, which is non-diegetic, we used one song from a website that will make the movie not get copyrighted. The website was Uppbeat and the song we used was by Alex Besss. We chose that song because we felt it fit with the vibe of our movie and the beat drops were good for the two parts where we wanted to add them in. For other sound we used that was diegetic was the dialogue, the rain, and the movie. The rain was not planned but it did add to the movie and the movie and. dialogue was planned to be heard while filming the movie.

 In the blog mostly dark and gloomy colors to add to the film. The film is in the horror/ mystery genre so we needed to use more dark colors to make the film seem more scary. Colors like black and grey were used the most. In one scene the lighting was more gloomy light which added to the color use in the film and, in another scene, the lights being bright brought more attention in a scary way to the film especially when the lights turned off.

  In the film, we did not use a lot of video effects it was mainly transitions to make the different scenes look smoother when combined and we just cut some of the videos. The only transition that we used was mix so that the scenes would flow together. The biggest problem was getting the timing right with two specific scenes, the one where Isabella turned off the light and when the title was revealed on a black screen. We solved this problem by being patient and doing test trials to see when it would finally line up.

 Throughout this entire process there have been some challenges. One problem is that some of us have not been able to make it to Anneliese's house to film. Carolina and I were not able to meet up which was not ideal for the group but we have decided that we can edit what was shot so we can pull our weight in the group. Another challenge was that while filming it was raining which made it hard to film the scenes that were needed outside but after figuring it out they got the shots that was needed. The last problem that was faced while filming was the battery of the camera but that problem got resolved because of Isabella's dad since he had packed an extra battery just incase. As of right now, Isabella and Anneliese have pulled more weight than Carolina and I since they took charge while filming but Carolina and I ae now going to start editing the film so we can pull our weight for the group.

 For the first day of filming Carolina and I could not be there so Anneliese, Anabella, and Isabella were filming. From what they said filming went very smoothly. They used Isabella's dad's camera which is a more advanced tool for filming which let the sound for the videos be heard clearly and for it to look good. The first scenes were outside which was a little difficult because it was raining but after those scenes were shot the rest of them were inside. They said no re-shooting will need to be done. So, now that all the filming is finished Carolina and I will be in charge of editing and presenting the final film. These were some of the photos taken while filimg: