Editing process

 The editing process was one of the parts that my skill set really did not fully apply to. However even though out of the two of us I was not the better editor this did not mean I was not involved in the editing process of the opening. 

As I mentioned I am not the one that will be doing the editing, even though I am competent and even twice Adobe premiere certified my teammate Ava simply knows it better and is much more efficient. Efficiency was also key due to the limitation of time we need her to edit as she was much faster. 

The program we used was Premiere on its latest version as it was what we were most familiar with and what our teacher recommended. The first step was to get all the footage out of the SD card and get all the audio files from our phones. So Ava could lay out all of the shots into a timeline. From this part on my role in editing was much more advisory as she would edit she would show me what we have so far or a part she's not too sure about and I would give feedback on what we could improve or alter. This allowed me to still be involved with the process while helping us be more efficient. 

We also had some technical difficulties with the project file deleting itself a quarter of the way through, however, we had an autosave an hour before which saved us from having to redo that much work and not hindering our efficiency that greatly.

Group Discussions

One day in Class instead of our usual time dedicated to working on the project we did a group discussion. This gave me a chance to understand where other people are in the process and discuss the possibilities for our creative critical reflection. 

A lot of my teammates were in the editing process at this point while we had not filmed any footage yet which made us aware of how behind we were on our project and served as a wake-up call for all the processes that is going to be made this week. However, we are much more experience in editing than other teams which assures me of our ability of finishing. 

Then the creative critical reflection which everyone including me where quite confused about. However, this discussion gave me everyone's thoughts and interpretations on each question and their methods of approaching which will allow me to be able to have my own method to plan my CCR which I will reveal in an upcoming blog.

Pre Filming process

 To get started on filming there is some issue I have to iron out, this is the most involved part of the pre-production process. Now here's how the situation stands right now. We need to film the footage before the weekend starts as that is not enough time. Filming Tuesday is too early to get everything together so the earliest we could film was Wednesday. However, filming it all on Thursday is simply far too much. So we are deciding to split it between two days Wednesday and Thursday. This is also beneficial as It means I get to split all the scenes with just me and the scenes with extra people needed. 

The first hurdle we have to overcome is getting extras for the scenes. I decided to message 10 of my friends and see their schedules and what times they are free. There were 10 people asked Martin, Jared, Julian, Christian, Falla, Alula, Ceph, Daniel, and Santi. Out of all of them Santi, Christian, and Alula could not do any day of the week while the rest could only do Wednesdays. So with this, I have successfully convinced all of them to help me film Thursday. 

Then it is to actually start altering my living room for filming tomorrow. First I have to construct a blackjack table for that we got a regular table, a green table cover. The other aspect is the fact we need a shelf which I had to move out from my room and take out all the various items that were on it. In terms of equipment, my teammate ava checked out the Canon DSLR T8I camera, along with a tripod, Rhode mic, LOV mic, and RGB lighting. Below is an Image of my room with everything from the shelf on it.

Storyboard process

 In today's blog, I will be discussing the process we went through with storyboarding. This was made right after the final plot line was done as we wanted to visualize everything that had to be represented in the opening while keeping it interesting with our use of the technique. We also of course had to introduce the casino setting in that our movie will take place.  These were all the elements that we had in mind while storyboarding. 

First, instead of using paper, we decided to use technology to our advantage, by that I mean that we used an iPad for drawing the storyboards. The illustrations were rudimentary just used to see how a specific part of the shot would look and to collect our thoughts cohesively. 

While doing them we were in the space itself where all the shots would take place. This allowed me to visualize the scene and to picture what shots would best represent it.  I would describe the shots to my partner Ava who would then give me her version of how to do it and we would discuss the best way of approaching it. She then illustrated it, completing the storyboard process. 

Overall this now gives us an outline of what we're going to be filming in the upcoming week which will begin the process of production and getting together everything to film.

Plot outline

In today's blog, I will define the final plot using the three-act structure which will allow me and Ava start storyboarding and working on the production aspect.

The three-act structure is a storytelling classic within films, being used in movies  Raiders of the Lost Ark and Die Hard. It is an incredibly common tried and tested storytelling technique. This is why I think it is the best option for plotting out my plot  

Act 1

The beginning inciting incident will be his gambling ways, the film will start right at the peak of it with him playing blackjack in a casino playing blackjack. Which will lead to him winning but there is a time skip to him being in debt. Then he gambles further and just managed to gain enough to pay back the debt. 

Act 2

We then him successfully paying it off and having a clear chance to leave which he ignores seemingly for no reason indulges further. We then see a look into his past seeing him slowly fall in love with a woman. This then goes back to further gambling. 

Act 3 

He gains a great amount of debt that will now anger the mafia that runs the casino now threatening his life. He gambles further now not even playing engaging games just slot machines interlocked with flashbacks further developing that story. He gains enough money to pay back the debt but bets it on a horse he wins it but dies right after due to having angered the mafia.

Ironing out details

There are some parts of the movie development process we still haven't quite ironed out. Which is the purpose of today's blog. 

First a bit about the main character and his name. His name is Ian Miller and he is in his 20s wearing a suit of a black blazer and cream-colored pants. His appearance gives off a failed attempt to fit in with the wealthy casino people. 

The film will be called Spin to Win, of course satirizing the perspective of a gambler who wants to gain as much money as possible. The look of typography will also attempt to look retro due to the setting.

The setting of the film will be the Las Vegas strip during the late 1970s. That way the casinos will have the presence of the mafia majorly which will make for interesting conflict. Also, we deal more with gambling that's more interesting to show like Blackjack instead of slot machines or sports betting.

With all of this established we can start wor.

Inspirations

 The idea for this project did not just come out thin air. What resonated with it me about the idea of doing a project about a man with a gambling addiction in a Casino came directly inspired of two films for greatly different aspects. These two are Uncut Gems (2019) and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

Firstly Uncut Gems which follows a character portrayed by Adam Sandler as he dwells deeper into his money problems with sports gambling. The entire movie functions off more and more pressure coming onto himself as he gets into more and more gambling debt. This is where a lot of the themes of stress that we want to incorporate for our opening originante from. 

Then there is Fear and Loathing is Las Vegas, a less straightforward film directed by comedic genius Terry Gilliam. It follows an eccentric writer and his Samoan attorney through a psychedelic fueled trip through Las Vegas. In the surface there is a lack of connections with what I want my film to be and this film however, what I want to take away from is its Post modernist approach to storytelling as in the surface you just see characters spiral as the main plot. Which is an idea I want my film to adapt. 

Overall both movies serve as great inspiration to my project.