Daniel's AICE Media Blog

I converted the beat from one of my earlier blogposts into an mp3 file in order to use it for the intro, I am excited on how this project will end up looking like. Yey

But yeah I will definetly not finish it by today, editing takes a big while, it has ti be perfect down to the last minute detail.

I also need to learn some editing techniques, which I dont really know, but I got this.

That's all for tonight, goodnight :^)

Update tomorrow when I finish this video and then comes the CCR 🤯

Saturday, March 25, 2023

FIRST FILMING DAY

HELLOOOO

I AM VERY EXCITED TO TELL YOU THAT WE STARTED AND FINISHED FILMING IN ONE DAY

YIPIIIII

My friend who is right there, ended up getting home early after spring break, so we filmed for like 4 hours and got all the footsge we needed, hurray.

All thats left would be the editing part, which I will do tomorrow

Here are some pictures of how it went

We had some few issues though with the audio, since there were birds screeching in the background and it disturbed us. But we persevered and did well :)

Goodnight, tomorrow I will edit everything and finish this once and for all babyyy.

Friday, March 24, 2023

Start of filming

Hello, goood afternoon, here are some short videos that I filmed on my Samsung S21 ultra (it has a cool camera) for the first shots of the film opening, those being of the music video.

Remember that I mentioned the use of a drone shot in the beginning of the music video with credits and stuff, sadly I do not own a drone, so this will suffice, I guess.

Here they are.

I am clicking on these videos and have no clue how to play them, but there they are, also, notice how I dont have the everglades river shot that I had in the storyboard, also none of the ones with Alex and Jackson, that was due to a minor unplanned issue, that being that my friend who was playing Jackson left for the spring break week, soooo yeah, bummeeeer.

Anyways, here is this I guess, tomorrow he comes back, and we will film more 😈😈😈

Goodnight

Sunday, March 19, 2023

Sunday Ideas :^)

Hello my dear bloggers, and welcome to your happy sunday blog, and favorite blog, by Daniel Velazquez, wuuuuuhuuu.

My great grandma just turned 103 years old. And the party was funnnnn. Anyways. Walking at night in Orlando I had some ideas for the film opening. Specifically the flashback part at the end of the opening where the two main characters meet.

So instead of just making it so Jackson meets Alex performing on the streets, I could change it to night. Ooooooh. So it matches with the whole thing of Jackson coming out of a bar sad since his last talent messed up and he lost money.

Here are some pictures.

So the plan will be to include that scene in the night, just like that.

Thats about it for today bloggers, see you next week. I will be filming, finally. Good night.

Saturday, March 18, 2023

Saturdayyy

Helloooo my dear bloggers, happy saturday.

I just watched the World baseball classic game of USA VS VENEZUELA (9 to 7) very good game, but sad ending :[

Venezuela lost :^(

On other notes, here is an interesting pic of an extract of Breaking Bad

https://youtu.be/cODE4N6VRFI

Now, here is the link, since I am yet to learn how to put a video in this thang. Anyways, in this scene when Walter finds out he has lung cancer at the doctor, now when he gets these horrible news the audio begins to muffle, as he ignores the doctor's words.

This technique is what I will use in my film opening. I got sort of the inspiration from here and just wanted to show yall.

Thats pretty much it for today, goodnight bloggers and Ill be updating a bit tomorrow.

Friday, March 17, 2023

Update

Hello my bloggers, I have some important announcements, I will be going to Orlando

TOMORROW!!!

So I wont be able to film for this weekend :( and the blog posts will be cut short, so yeah.

But, do not worry the filming will, and I assure you it WILL be done during this week, aka monday through friday, since it is spring break week, it will be better to film during this week, and editing too.

Also I have some few editing ideas that I would like to discuss on tomorrow's blog post

These include:

Sound editing :0

Shot reverse shot ;^)

And more, maybe, hopefully

The sound one I dont know the name yet, it is muffling of the sound but I bet it has a name.

Anyways, thats all for todays blog. Tomorrow I'll update some more on the techniques and what more. Goodnight my bloggers bye bye.

Thursday, March 16, 2023

Screenplay

Hello bloggerss, today, I, will, be, doing, my, SCRIPPTTTTT

HURRAY

Finally, after all these years, the script will be done in this very blog post, I swear. Sooooo here it is

FADE IN:

EXT. RIVER WITH HOUSES - DAY

CREDITS ALONG WITH MUSIC VIDEO BEGIN TO PLAY,VARIOUS CUTS OF SHOTS AROUND THE CITY LEAD TO ONE CLOSE-UP INTO ALEX

ALEX

"Yeah, the name is Alex with an A, about to ..." (Interrupted)

JACKSON

"CUT!!!"

ALEX

(Drops microphone, startled)

JACKSON

(Angrily pauses camera, goes over to Alex)

"Alright man, do that one more time for me, please"

ALEX

"Ok"

JACKSON

" 3, 2, 1, ACTION!!!"

ALEX

(Takes deep breath, short silence) " Uh huh, the name is Alex with an A, and I'm not here to play..." (Interrupted once again)

JACKSON

"CUT!!!" (Angry)(Walks over to Alex) "Alex, my man, you are starting way to early, go along with the beat, ok?, One more time please (agitated)."

ALEX

(Shakes, scared, starting to get tired of it)

JACKSON

"3, 2, 1, go"

ALEX

"Yeah, it's Alex with the great bars, stronger than ... "

JACKSON

"No!!!" (throws camera to ground)

"What do you think you are doing here you idiot, this is not a freestyle session, stick with the Goddamn script, and stop wasting my fucking time ok? Got it? (walks away)

ALEX

*tsk

JACKSON

(turns around) "You little shit!!!" " Did I hear that right over the sound of you being a little fucking pussy???!!! Huh?

(Pushes Alex into the ground, aggressively) "You are a worthless scumbag who cannot even comprehend the easiest of directions, hence why you have achieved nothing in life, you absolute dog water, continue sabotaging the production, and I'll shove your stupid camcorder, and tripod straight up your ass!!!. (starts walking away)

ALEX

(Shaky, begins to look at the silhouette of Jackson fading away, then looks at his microphone on his right hand side, on the floor, he begins to imagine a weapon)

CUTAWAY INTO TITLE CARD:

CUT TO BLACK SCREEN

FADE INTO A FEW MONTHS AGO

JACKSON

(Walking by the street)

ALEX

(RAPPING IN THE DISTANCE)

JACKSON

(DROPS PENNY)

ALEX

"Thanks man"

JACKSON

"Hey champ, listen, wanna go for a drink?"

Sooooo, that was my super awesome script for this super awesome production, watcha think!!!

Anyways, now that I have this final piece, I will begin the filming process soon, lets go :)

That was all for the moment my peeps, stay tuned, goodnight.

Sunday, March 12, 2023

Getting ready to film

Hello my peeps, I hope you're having a good sunday, because I am :)

Filming time is getting closer and closer, and I can't wait to start filming this idea, so I can turn it into a real video.

But first we have to get our equipment ready, and script.

EQUIPMENT

This is the main prop of the hour, my little camcorder with a shotgun mic, so the whole project will not even be filmed on this, I will film only through my phone camera, which is way better than the camcorder.

This is just the main prop that the producer Jackson will use to "record" the music video in Act 1. I will talk more about the Acts and outline in the next blog.

This will be the tripod that I will be using both for filming from my phone in some scenes, and also using as the stand for the camcorder used by jackson.

And lastly this will be the lights that I will use for the garage scenes, if I end up doing any.

Just as a notice, I will try and publish the next blog post with a description of how the acts will be divided and such, kind of like an outline, since the storyboard alone is not enough obviously. Afterwards I am planning on doing the screenplay, and to finish next week a blogpost on how the filming days went.

But thats pretty much all folks, thx for tuning in and have a great Sunday restday.

Friday, March 10, 2023

Storyboard part 2 Electric Boogaloo

Hellooooo bloggers, welcome back to yet another week with me, myself, and I, in this blog I will be announcing some great news, and those are (drumroll), I FINALLY FINISHED MY STORYBOARD, yipeeeee.

In all seriousness I have finally gathered a complete idea on how the actual opening will look like, shot and angle wise. This will actually speed the whole development up, as I didn't really have a sort of outline or complete storyboard before, and that's something I should have done a while ago.

But now, with this beautiful peace of art finished, I will be able to film with little issues, now that I look more organized, lets goooo.

Here are the full 3 slides that I completed of my film opening project.

Apart from making it, I got some great inspiration in the middle of writing the storyboard. When I was drawing Jackson and Alex fight, I remembered of the Whiplash scene, of getting on my f*king tempo.

Here it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nRp8cVXRJk

Basically in this scene the drummer, Andrew is put through trial and error by his teacher (Fletcher) who clearly has some anger issues, or at least is just really strict on his students. So Fletcher keeps on telling Andrew to repeat the section of the song which he made the mistake in, and Fletcher even gets aggressive at a point, and throws a plate at his head.

I got inspired with this scene since the whole gist of it is really similar to my idea, I thought I should include this in the blog as I feel it helps with inspiration and stuff, yeah.

That's all, Bye bloggers :()

Sunday, March 5, 2023

Updaaate

Hello bloggers, I have some exciting news, earlier today I decided to go for a run, and when I went to the park I saw some great opportunities for some shots for the beginning of the Music video.

With short videos of these two pictures in drone shots, or even just a dolly shot, I would get great footage for the film opening sequence

Luckily this park is right next to my house, so getting footage would be no problem, and just to be sure, I made sure to record tiny bits of this scenery, with pans and tilts maybe just as reference for the actual filming days, and maybe to use this short footage If I can't find a drone to do drone shots :(

I also got some ideas, I might not use them but they are useful to have if I cant continue with the main project by x y or z.

So one of the shots before Alex starts rapping he can like be running towards the camera on the track field

It sounds and looks and really is corny, but just in case I could have that footage in, because when editing I just like to put everything in and start like crafting my art from a scrambled sea of videos and images. Its more fun that way ;)

But yeah, that's pretty much it, Goodnight bloggers.

Saturday, March 4, 2023

Re-Scheduling

Update

Hello my bloggers :)

Today I will be re-scheduling the filming of the opening sequence, since I think the last scheduling was waaaaay to early.

Also, I spoke with my teacher about two classes ago and she gave me some sick ideas to continue with my project, I'm not sure if I mentioned this in another post, but here it is again :))

Instead of building my own DIY camera like I described in one of my first blogs. I will be using a camcorder that I own, attached with a shotgun mic, and a tripod.

This will be used once again as one of the main props of the whole scene.

Re-Scheduling

Monday 13 - I will, finally, begin the darn thang (Film)

Tuesday 14 - Probably will take two days to film the whole thing

Wednesday 15 - Still film some more ( I forgot it actually takes long to do these things)

Thursday 16 - EDITINGGGG

Friday 17 - break

Saturday 18 - more editing?

This is not a rulebook for myself by the way, more like a guideline, since I cannot strictly follow it, that's just not how I work, but it helps at least a little bit with organization

Final announcements

I forgot to mention, that I found my actor. YAAAAYY. A classmate, he is not in my group, but he offered to help, so he will be playing Jackson, and I will be playing Alex, but I still need the crucial, Camera man (doesn't appear, just films)

Also I will be filming some scenes for the beginning of the music video in the Everglades, I though ot a really cool shot, I will show you a picture now.

I included this on the storyboard, but didn't develop on it, so here it is.

Well, thank you for tuning in bloggers, and have a great and excellent night :)

Citation

Craig Pittman, F. P. A. 19. (2021, August 19). Raising the dam-nable road that ruined Florida's Everglades. Florida Phoenix. Retrieved March 4, 2023, from https://floridaphoenix.com/2021/08/19/raising-the-dam-nable-road-that-ruined-floridas-everglades/

Friday, March 3, 2023

Storyboard

Helloooooo Bloggerrsssss. How are you doiiiing, I know it's been a long time, and that you miss me ;)

So sorry about that, I had to do the SAT on Wednesday so I focused my mental prowess mainly on studying for that, so yeah.

So today I will be pretty much discussing the outline/storyboard of this beautiful film opening, I know I promised it last week but, yeah, sorry about that.

Here is a picture of my storyboard my peeps.

Some progress has been made and I like where it is going, also on the drawing and developing of the storyboard I got some sick new ideas, I got some of the content for the 2 minutes, so instead of being one cut, it is going to be several, not in a montage because it wouldnt fit for the genre, but more developed cuts to emphasize the rage in Jackson, the producer.

I will update more on the storyboard tomorrow. Goodnight peeps 😉

Sunday, February 26, 2023

Font Choice

Hello my bloggers, today I will be discussing what the adequate font choice would be for my film CUT, and it's credits in the opening scene.

The font that text is displayed in plays a huge role in the marketing of a product and the impact it actually makes on the consumer.

For example, a formal piece of text for let's say a newspaper article would typically be this font that I'm using right now, this font shows formality and a bit of classiness, now a comedic font would be more like this, the unevenness of the letters and the size makes it different, more round, more fun, texts can also be used for the purpose of a drama film

Here is an example:

Hello

The first Hello is more cursive and fancy and sort of "feminine" could be used for more of a romantic film

While the second Hello is strict, and more sharp, sort of "masculine" can be used for more action-like films.

This SpongeBob title "Pickles" uses a font true to the show, and the producers had to make a choice on what font to use for all episodes, this one captures the comedic nature of the show.

Now to a complete opposite, "American Psycho" uses a strict font, looks classy and for some reason fancy, like rich person type of fancy, makes sense since the film is about a businessman who is a psychopath, the texts boldness on the word Psycho helps.

Final Choice

Now thanks to this tad bit of research I have sort of decided what font might be suitable for my film opening sequence, since this drama film will be including a main character with some issues that will evolve during the film, and a sort of quiet violence, and constant conflict between Alex and Jackson, the font has to be subtle, but intense in a way, like harsh, serious. Here are some options

CUT

I feel like these are really good font choices for both credits and the title, this might change throughout the process, but I feel like they belong true to the title and story.

Thanks for tuning in bloggers, and until next time. Goodnight

Citation

The surprising psychology of fonts - fast company. (n.d.). Retrieved February 27, 2023, from https://www.fastcompany.com/90757581/the-surprising-psychology-of-fonts

List of title cards. Encyclopedia SpongeBobia. (n.d.). Retrieved February 26, 2023, from https://spongebob.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_title_cards

Writer Lola Landekic Interviewer Lola Landekic Published August 2, 2018. (n.d.). American psycho. Art of the Title. Retrieved February 26, 2023, from https://www.artofthetitle.com/title/american-psycho/

Saturday, February 25, 2023

Character Development

Hello my bloggers, today just as promised, I will be finally developing my characters, YAAAYYY!!!

So first let´s start with our main character, the main talent, the rapper.

Alex

Here is Alex, our main guy, our rapper, born in Florida, he is a struggling young adult, having graduated High-School but not continuing college he has no job, lives in a really small rental apartment. Now this makes it difficult for Alex to pretty much achieve anything, but he is an ambitious man, he really wants to complete his dream of rapping, there is a little issue here though, having grown up in a very difficult household, without a father figure and an addicted mother, Alex suffers from mild issues, of anger, this comes in tough throughout the movie, shown in the opening sequence with a POV shot, this might ruin Alex´s career as a rapper, specially with the producer that he will be partnering up with. Here is a mood board of Alex

Now for the second main character, and the last, here we have the producer of Alex´s music, he goes by the name of

Jackson

Our second main character Jackson is a producer, also from Florida, but he is an adult, he graduated University for music production, there is an issue with Jackson, he was the past producer of a famous rapper who made controversial decisions, and ended up costing him and Jackson their careers and money. Desperate, Jackson is in need of a new talent, when he found Jackson at a street performance and listened to his lyrics, he was surprised, and wanted to take him in, nevertheless Jackson is super desperate, and also has anger management issues, including his past experience with his former talent, Jackson will become reactive whenever Alex makes anything that is out of place for Jackson, as he is a very strict man when it comes to his videos, which is what they are trying to do, to make Alex popular. Here is his mood board.

That would be all for the description of the characters, this information will overall help the development of the conflict between them in the opening sequence, thank you for tuning in my bloggers, and have a good night.

Friday, February 24, 2023

Group Reflection

Hello my bloggers, today in class our teacher decided to divide us up into groups in order to reflect about, and I just realized that I haven't been developing enough details on the characters and opening sequence.

Sooooo, I will be doing it right now, a little pause on the storyboard process for now, I will be developing characters and stuff in this same blog post.

A picture of my group in class :)

My classmates helped me a lot in realizing that my idea, is not developed, like mainly. From looking at their blogs and projects I also noticed this myself, with them including names of characters already, even the title, and an actual outline of what will happen on the scene.

I changed some ideas overall of the project, like how long the drone shots with credits are, and stuff.

They helped me develop both characters of my opening, with ideas such as Johnny Starr, as a name or such, these are all just examples.

I also need to show the specific filming locations in some of my blog posts, but the most, most, most important part, would be the development of the actual characters, I will do on next blog, instead of the storyboard, before the storyboard I need to have a name for them at least.

Alas, I have come up with an actual title for my film opening, which will be, (drum roll).

CUT

I believe it's a great title, since the film might involve my main character (the song performer) becoming slowly mad throughout the film, which is hinted in the sequence, maybe after the mean producer screams CUT, he pushes him, making the camera turn into a POV of the performer looking at the ground, shaking, in anger. These are just some developing ideas.

I will genuinely develop these characters, and their backstories in more detail on the next blog, until then. Goodnight my bloggers.

Wednesday, February 22, 2023

Filming Schedule

Hello my dear bloggers, welcome to week two. Today I will be discussing more of the planning for the production along with this week, it will all be about planning.

Schedule

I will begin the filming process from the week of the 27th, until the 5th, since this week will be dedicated to planning mainly, I think starting the recording after it will be crucial, since I will have time for the storyboard, outline, and more.

Shooting Schedule

27 - Begin shooting in my garage and get my actors ready

28 - Continue in the park and all other consecutive shots of music video before the "CUT" scene

1 - Begin editing

2 - Continue editing

3 - Finish editing

Storyboard

Probably sometime around tomorrow I will begin developing the storyboard, and the sooner I do the easier it will be for me, because if any mistakes occur during the production that I think would be crucial, like any changes, it would be good to change up the storyboard and document it here.

I plan on finishing most of the planning this week my bloggers, have a good night, and see you tomorrow with the complete version of the storyboard.

Sunday, February 19, 2023

Pre-Production Planning

Hello bloggers :0

Happy Sunday, today I will be discussing more of the preparation for the actual music video, specifically today, I will be diving more into the choice of music used in it.

Since the idea of the film opening is to have a music video at the start of it, I was thinking of using my own produced beat.

At first many actual songs came into my mind when this idea sparked, but then in class, the teacher mentioned about copyright, and permission, I looked into it, and it can take for some companies to give me permission to use their product, up to 3 months!!!!

That's way to much, so I decided either using copyright free beats on YouTube, or creating my own beats.

The artist that will do the music video in my film opening will most likely be an "upcoming" rap or hip-hop artist, since in America the percentage of rap and hip-hop listeners in 2021 was of 93.1 million.

Hence why I will use copyright free rap and hip-hop beats on YouTube.

Here is one of these beats with it's thumbnail

https://youtu.be/-ACv2hyfzPc

Alternatives?

If I believe that these copyright free beats will not suffice, then I could also produce my own beats since I own an electric drum set I believe it wouldn't be that hard. Most likely though, I won't do this, but it's a valid alternative.

That would be all for the music planning and research, more incoming next week, have a nice Sunday folks :)

Citation:

How long does it take to get a copyright? Miller IP Law. (n.d.). Retrieved February 18, 2023, from https://milleripl.com/blogs/copyrights/how-long-does-it-take-to-get-a-copyright#:~:text=Copyright%20registration%20is%20effective%20on,a%20copyright%20to%20be%20registered

HeadphonesAddict. (2023, February 17). 46 Rap & Hip-Hop Statistics 2023: Listeners, demographics, industry. HeadphonesAddict. Retrieved February 18, 2023, from https://headphonesaddict.com/rap-and-hip-hop-statistics/

[free] freestyle type beat - neko: Free beats. YouTube. (2020, December 20). Retrieved February 18, 2023, from https://youtu.be/-ACv2hyfzPc

Saturday, February 18, 2023

Mise-En-Scene

Good night my bloggers, today I will be describing some of the details that I've been just thinking and writing down throughout the week, that I think would be influential to the film opening.

Props

First of all, I was thinking of the props used in the video, since the opening scene involves the recording of a music video, I needed to have a professional camera with a tripod so it looked professional, since I don't have those kinds of resources, I was thinking of building one like DIY, out of cardboard and stuff, making it look real though.

Also having a green screen (which I do) is going to be crucial, making it stop working for the "CUT!!!" scene.

Filming Locations

Now, the filming itself I was thinking of doing in the garage for the scene in which the music video is cut, so in short, the music video will include various zones, such as the park, while the "CUT!!!" scene will be inside the garage, and the rest will develop there.

It won't be as elaborate and professional as it looks here, but it at least gives you an idea.

That would be it for some of the brief Mise-en-scene planning, I know it's not much, but I will be doing more when I develop more of the video, such as the storyboard and more, that will be coming in the next week.

Citation:

Studio and broadcast cameras. Sony Pro. (n.d.). Retrieved February 18, 2023, from https://pro.sony/en_IE/products/studio-and-broadcast-cameras

Behance. (n.d.). Small garage cyclorama. Behance. Retrieved February 18, 2023, from https://www.behance.net/gallery/8698489/Small-Garage-Cyclorama