Friday 17 April 2020
Monday 13 April 2020
Music Update
Change of Plans and Speedy Replies
So the soundtrack I wanted to use for my film opening was under copyright, and I messaged the creator on Facebook asking for his permission to use it and he very kindly obliged within a matter of hours! I will post the various content platforms he is on below.
Facebook:
Youtube (soundtrack and channel):
https://youtu.be/Zxh9nyScdHk
Sunday 12 April 2020
Project Reflection
Looking Back
Hi, my name is Dario and today I'm here to discuss the course of my film opening project which I have worked on from February 13 to April 13. During these two months, I have covered many aspects of film making, from genre research to scriptwriting, and casting to shooting locations. Below I'll be taking some time to discuss the process and go over what has gone into the making of Midnight Run.
At the very beginning, I knew I wanted to make the movie have something to do with cars so I decided to focus the first part of the production on researching movie genres that were related to cars, mainly the street racing genre. I looked at movies related to street racing such as the Fast and Furious franchise, Baby Driver, and others. In addition to these, I looked at other movies within the action genre that contained chase scenes. The movie Ronin was one that offered great insight with its magnificent BMW 535i. However, not being able to perform stunts on public roads what I was mainly interested in was capturing the aesthetic of street racing with a hint of crime thrown in. One show that helped in choosing angles and general choreography was the iconic anime Initial D, influenced by one of the pioneers of mountain pass racing (toūge).
This also influenced my decision to use my car as the focus of the opening, which is an old 1999 Toyota Corolla CE. Although it's pretty slow, I pretended like it was a sleeper (a normal car with a highly tuned engine) for the sake of the opening, and as an underlying joke to those who understand cars and racing. I then moved onto deciding my plot, which would involve two crooked mechanics who have the car in their shop. One wants to keep it, and the other is angered, saying it jeopardizes their side hustle. Agreeing but taking the car anyways, the mechanic sets out driving, on the run. For casting, I had the commitment of one of my classmates Dom to play the second mechanic. I thought I had the commitment of another friend as a cameraman but later on with the quarantine due to COVID-19 I had to depend on Dom and his tracking tripod. In addition to the tripod, I gathered other equipment and props such as tools and the cars jack and wrenches. For cameras, Dom and I used a GoPro Hero5 and our phones. As one of the props, I briefly contemplated a fake gun in a scuffle scene, but I wasn't sure how safe it would be since we would be shooting in a public place.
Moving onto the locations, I originally packed a handful of parking garages, parking lots, and rest stops, but quarantine narrowed down those options to just two locations: the first parking area on I-75 and Meridian Business Park. This would make it far easier to shoot as both locations are close to and within the city. Getting to shooting itself took some time. Both Dom and I for both our respective projects constantly had to postpone shooting due to several delays at first, and then because of quarantine. Eventually, we did get out and have two separate days of shooting. Both days went fairly successfully and we got good footage, but unfortunately, we could not get all of Dom's shots. After this was done, I got Adobe Premiere Pro and began to edit my footage, reaching the point that I am at here.
Looking back I would have done a few things differently. These include shooting everything at one location, Meridian Business Park to save time and I would have addressed my editing software earlier to avoid last-minute issues like I did. Overall, I enjoyed making Midnight Run and had an awesome experience learning about film making from it.
At the very beginning, I knew I wanted to make the movie have something to do with cars so I decided to focus the first part of the production on researching movie genres that were related to cars, mainly the street racing genre. I looked at movies related to street racing such as the Fast and Furious franchise, Baby Driver, and others. In addition to these, I looked at other movies within the action genre that contained chase scenes. The movie Ronin was one that offered great insight with its magnificent BMW 535i. However, not being able to perform stunts on public roads what I was mainly interested in was capturing the aesthetic of street racing with a hint of crime thrown in. One show that helped in choosing angles and general choreography was the iconic anime Initial D, influenced by one of the pioneers of mountain pass racing (toūge).
This also influenced my decision to use my car as the focus of the opening, which is an old 1999 Toyota Corolla CE. Although it's pretty slow, I pretended like it was a sleeper (a normal car with a highly tuned engine) for the sake of the opening, and as an underlying joke to those who understand cars and racing. I then moved onto deciding my plot, which would involve two crooked mechanics who have the car in their shop. One wants to keep it, and the other is angered, saying it jeopardizes their side hustle. Agreeing but taking the car anyways, the mechanic sets out driving, on the run. For casting, I had the commitment of one of my classmates Dom to play the second mechanic. I thought I had the commitment of another friend as a cameraman but later on with the quarantine due to COVID-19 I had to depend on Dom and his tracking tripod. In addition to the tripod, I gathered other equipment and props such as tools and the cars jack and wrenches. For cameras, Dom and I used a GoPro Hero5 and our phones. As one of the props, I briefly contemplated a fake gun in a scuffle scene, but I wasn't sure how safe it would be since we would be shooting in a public place.
Moving onto the locations, I originally packed a handful of parking garages, parking lots, and rest stops, but quarantine narrowed down those options to just two locations: the first parking area on I-75 and Meridian Business Park. This would make it far easier to shoot as both locations are close to and within the city. Getting to shooting itself took some time. Both Dom and I for both our respective projects constantly had to postpone shooting due to several delays at first, and then because of quarantine. Eventually, we did get out and have two separate days of shooting. Both days went fairly successfully and we got good footage, but unfortunately, we could not get all of Dom's shots. After this was done, I got Adobe Premiere Pro and began to edit my footage, reaching the point that I am at here.
Looking back I would have done a few things differently. These include shooting everything at one location, Meridian Business Park to save time and I would have addressed my editing software earlier to avoid last-minute issues like I did. Overall, I enjoyed making Midnight Run and had an awesome experience learning about film making from it.
Saturday 11 April 2020
Final Status Update for Production
Switching Software
Due to some compatibility issues, I had to switch from using Adobe Premier Pro to Apple's Final Cut Pro. Unfortunately, this meant most of my progress in editing was erased, but thanks to the smooth and simple design of Final Cut Pro, I caught up to where I was without too much trouble or time spent.
Editing
I am in the middle of editing the footage and audio, and I expect to finish by or just before the due date of April 13. I still have to decide specifically what tracks I want to use from the mixes but it's just a matter of finding which flows best. Previous posts related to this subject include the ones on editing software and the music in the opening.
Project Reflection
Towards the end of the week, I will be posting my project reflection on the blog. It will involve me looking back on the journey of this project, and walking through all of the steps for the production of Midnight Run. For those just starting to view my blog posts, this will serve as somewhat of a summary of events.
Sunday 5 April 2020
Music
Film Music
For the music used in the film opening, I have decided to give it an 80s theme appropriate for the use of cars and crime. This is more directed to the synthwave and retrowave genre of electronic music. While I have not decided on specific soundtracks, here are a number of mixes under my consideration.
Friday 3 April 2020
Filming Update
Second Day of Filming
Avoiding any further delays and setbacks (for the most part), we headed out to Meridian Business Park for our second day of filming. The lot we filmed was empty again and perfect for filming. We shot a few of Dom's scenes and redid a few of my scenes, and then we headed out to the first rest stop on Alligator Alley to get the rest of my scenes. Unfortunately, this took longer than anticipated and we didn't have that much time to shoot Dom's scenes. He decided to get the remainder of his shots on his own. To view the previous filming day's posting, please refer to here.
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