For this project, we were assigned with making a story, not a montage, based of a randomized assigned tone word without the usage of dialogue or text. We were paired up with a partner to brainstorm ways to convey the tone to the audience and develop a storyline that illustrates the plot and characters appropriately. This short film would have to occur within 60-90 seconds real time.
When filming, we had a storyboard that was really useful when figuring out what shots we already had planned. When breaking down the scenes, we decided to film the first half of where the two girls meet on the first day of filming and film the second half indoors when they pass each other in the hallway greeting each other. We thought about how we could incorporate the composition and movement techniques along with the different shots and angles into our project. For example, in the scene where the popular girl goes to the talk to the lonely girl, we used two over the shoulder shots to indicate the two characters having a conversation and establishing the personal relationship they have with each other now.
After filming our scenes, we proceeded with the editing process by ourselves. We were instructed that each member of the group must edit the footage filmed. I decided to do my editing with Adobe and put my scenes in order so it would be easier for me to visually see what else I have left to edit. Me and my partner made sure we shot every scene at least 3 times to have a variety of different possible outcomes of our final project. Consequently, the editing techniques I utilized were very similar to my partner's but not exactly the same because we had different ideas. For example, I used technique of continuity editing when the popular girl turned her head to look behind her and the scene cut to a point of view shot of her looking at the lonely girl sitting alone. Another technique I resorted to was a graphic match of a zoom in of the lonely girl drawing a smiling face on a thank-you card for the popular girl and cutting to the lonely girl's actual smiling face showing the same composition, creating a symbolic representation of the joy she had making the card to the appreciation she had for the popular girl.
Something I think was done very well was the editing techniques I incorporated when the lonely girl was imagining ways to appreciate the popular girl. I included a shadow around the borders to indicate we are inside her mind as well zooming into her eyes. I believe me and my partner did a very good job developing the intended message of the tone. However, something I'd like to improve for next time is giving me and my partner more time for us to film. On our last day of shooting near the end of our scenes, the shots were choppy and messy due to us running out of filming time. For future reference, more time for us to film will most likely produce better results when it comes to the editing process.
Final Project: OWF_Romero.mp4