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Showing posts from January, 2022

Redoing the Postcard

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       When checking off my to-do lists, I finished up the website, did good work on the social media pages, yet knew something was missing!! The Postcard. I drafted a model before but I knew that I'd redo it in the future. It had weird borders, a somewhat good-looking color palette, and felt like a matrix rather than a simple drama. Today I got rid of the old postcard and went back onto Canva to create something new.  I started off by creating new backgrounds by trying different photos or plain colors. I found an image that worked perfectly and thought of a way to tie in the movie's complexity in the postcard. In the front, there's an image of a man driving but I dulled out the color so contrast with the sun rising on the road in the background image. However, on the back, there's a woman driving and the male is in the passenger seat. I hope this is noticed and it reveals a key part of the film that the woman is driving and possesses his mind while in his phase...

Working on the Social Media Pages

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  Switching back over to the Marketing portion of the movie is really fun! Today I posted onto the Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts. I posted the same content on Twitter and Instagram that there are four days left until the movie is released!! Additionally, I posted that our Movie Trailer that I created on Tuesday is available to watch exclusively on the website.  On Instagram, I might post the full trailer through reels to provide an alternative watching method and bring some footage to the audience. It's only 37 seconds long so I'm sure it'll fit. I also posted the singular post of the countdown! I will be posting for the remainder of the time until our official movie drops. On that day, I'm planning and creating special graphics and posters through the Canva platform to be more like an actual Movie Release. I almost thought of including or having a movie premiere either virtually or just the creators with a red carpet. This is my imagination expanding and I ...

Putting Trailer on Website! and Website Edits

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       To kill two birds with one stone, I decided to make the trailer available through the website instead of posting it to Youtube and linking it. This turned out to be a lot more work than I thought it was.  I started off by downloading the trailer on the computer from Google drive. Afterward, I clicked on the Lightbox section where the Trailer is supposed to go in order to place mine there. A lightbox is a pop-up that isolates the focused content from the rest of the page to keep viewers engaged! This is great!!! I added a title to the box, "The Drive - Short Film" and saved that edit. Afterward, I thought uploading would be easy but it took about 15 minutes because of its size and necessary fitting. Then the WIX site, took me to Wix Video because I was working with a video (the trailer.) I added a cover for it, which was the beginning Studio Title and it plays smoothly and greatly from there.  My last edit was on the WATCH NOW tab on the website. I am...

Continuing the Trailer!

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  In an effort to quicken the rate I finish the trailer, I will be picking up right where I left off from yesterday. I adventured on YouTube searching for dramatic background music and after about six of seven videos, I found the most suitable one. The Music Track is called "Heartbeat" by ARGSOUND. All of their content is free and available for use. I screen-recorded the youtube video and uploaded the video onto iMovie as well. However, I only pulled the audio from it because I only need the background music. The music fit perfectly and was well adjusted. I lowered the music's sound level for certain parts of the trailer so viewers could hear some sound effects such as a car driving or door opening. I added a Western filter to the entire trailer so it could have a darker scenery as I did think it was too light for the movie's purpose and dramatic films shouldn't be extremely sunny. Afterward, I added a black clip to the beginning and end of the trailer to show the...

Creating a Movie Trailer

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      Since Cole sent me all the footage the other day I wanted to do something special for the film or an additional feature that wouldn't likely be required for a short film. CREATE A TRAILER!😁 Because short films have rising action, climax, and falling action there's not much room for extra content and enough time to establish character relationships, further details, and more. Hence doing a trailer isn't common for this type of film because it's risky to give away too much when the film doesn't have too many components. However, I believe I made it work and included the necessary parts.     Since I had the footage on my phone and was most familiar with the IMovie platform, I choose to just use my phone for this mini-project. The first thing I did was extract the clips from my gallery onto the IMovie editor. Making it easier to find them within my gallery I created a separate album with all movie-related clips and scenes. Afterward, I continuously switched a...

Behind the Scenes - Website editing

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      I haven't worked on the website alone in an extended time. Today that will be my forte as I use new clips for new use. I was able to get all the clips from Cole through text messages. Once he sent them, I downloaded them into my phone gallery. Then uploaded them to my Google Drive in order to download them to my computer.    After doing this, I saw that the "Story" section of the website was very much undone. Since I used a movie template for the website, it also had a gallery section below the defined story section of the movie. I chose to use screenshots, snips, and photos during filming for the gallery. I looked through the different content and chose a various selection of photos. I was hoping to have the image somewhat coordinated by colors,  location, and characters but I decided a random feed is probably more abstract. Afterward, I added a scroll effect on the page for upwards content to disappear and fade while users are scrolling.  A min...

Filming is DONE!

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      Starting our project our group split up the workload in an efficient and amazing way! Cole films and acts, I do marketing and touch ups on editing, while Samuel edits and works on producing the film. Through this organized process, our main difficulty was meeting together to film due to many factors as well as living far apart. Luckily everything is turning out very well and we are definitely on track.  GREAT NEWS: OUR FILMING PORTION IS COMPLETE! Cole was able to finish filming and re-shoot the minor scenes I participated in with Dara. He sent me the footage and its coming together. The only complaint I had was that it was filmed in the day instead of night however, everything else is fine. Although this is a small issue, it worked out because we don't have lighting equipment to use once it gets dark outside. Dara was great for acting and particpating on such short notice and Cole's acting was spot on.      Now that i've recieved some footage I ...

Creating the Social Media Pages

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   While working on the website, I realized I made the contact page a while ago but didn't link the social media pages to the site because I haven't created them yet. Therefore, that was today's task. I started with Instagram because I knew it'd be much simpler than Facebook's system because I'm unfamiliar with it.      I created the account and used the planned tag "@thedrivefeature." Keeping the branding unified, I used the same cover image across all platforms for the profile. Following this, I created the Facebook page next. Because I don't have a primary account I created a media account first, then created our short film its own Facebook page used for brands, businesses, and promotions. I didn't know how to use this so I read a blog for the next steps and page tips. I wrote in a bio and info section to both. Lastly, I made the Twitter account again with the same material. I'm glad that the drive's tag was available for use or else...

Unable to film!

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      We've done much planning and have had full class periods full of brainstorming for our film. Were trying to decide on our film's location, timing, necessary props, and more. In doing so, we concluded that Cole found a road close to his home that was a perfect fit for the feature.     While my weekdays are eventful, so are my weekends. Because I work on the weekends, I am unable to film with the crew however, so does Samuel. I think it'd be best to probably film on a weekday evening as that is the best time frame in the interest of the film. Because it has an eerie and dramatic vibe it'd be best to film at night for dark scenery.      Our team communicates through a groupchat in messages for updates or suggestions to work collectively. It was hassle to try to plan a filming day where we could all attend. Me and Samuel were available after our extra-curricular activites but Cole had a soccer game and couldn't come. With him as the main acting ...

Switching to the Postcard

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        Taking a break from the website and meeting an assignment deadline. I choose to switch over to our movie postcard. I choose to do the design on a Canva. I'm familiar with this website as it's a great design site for all kinds of promotions. I clicked on the postcard template so it could keep its dimensions and be great. I wanted the postcard to connect to the website's color palette. This way all marketing can coordinate and it'll keep the movie's branding intact. I started with the cover photo and used its dark, neutral tones as backgrounds for the postcard. I used the echo/mirror effect on the front of the postcard just like the website and used the same font for the title.      Afterward, I added a shadow to the white text because it didn't stand out enough in comparison to the dark background. Switching over to the back of the postcard, I kept the same formatting as the contact page on the website. I reused the downloaded jpeg logos of the ...

Next Section of Website!

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     After working on the homepage of The Drive's website, I choose to start the "Contact Us" or "Follow Us" page. This is necessary as you're giving viewers and interest groups a way to track your film and keep them engaged. Consumers want to feel included and this created a direct line as a website is usually a film's home base.     Designing the Contact section wasn't that hard. I used a three-block base with different images that correlate with events or senses of the movie. After downloading the pictures, I edited them by tints to appear darker. I used the three-block base as a background to display the three social platforms that we'll be using. I then searched through google to find transparent jpegs of the Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter logos for them to look good on the site. Once found, I downloaded and uploaded them to my Wix gallery to be placed onto the blocks. Underneath each platform's logo was its title and tag in the "...

Creating a Website!

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  After Tuesday, I began creating the website for the short film. I used the WIX platform and it has so many features and templates ready to use. I customized a minimal template and changed certain things to fit The Drive's feel and persona. I started with choosing the website's variant of colors. The film is centered around a drive at night therefore, the colors will be dark and neutral such as brown, black, and dark blue. Correspondingly, we want to relay the mysterious feel onto all socials and online profiles to correlate with the movie as much as possible.      Starting with the home page, I added the background photo and it'll be used as the profile pic on all the platforms we use. Since I used a template, I filled in our movie title and wrote the group members' names. I pay much attention to detail and something as minor as a font is so crucial. I chose Helvetica Bold for our title font for its simplicity while being refined. The boldness acts as a contrast to...

Time to start marketing the Movie

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       There are three major parts of creating a film. Production, Filming, and most importantly Marketing. Today I wanted to start the marketing portion of our media production as one would do in the real world. A key part of promoting a movie is bringing content to a potential viewer's everyday life. Such as Instagram ads, social media pages, or keeping open interaction between fans. I took on this portion of our media project as it's my favorite. My second favorite is the editing process. I plan on creating a website, three social media accounts on various platforms, and using Youtube as our Netflix once we drop our movie. I'm undecided on whether I should create a trailer because our movie is a short film and it's hard not to give away major content beforehand.  I will be using Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for the social media pages and if available the tag will be @thedrivefeature.