Diarise - weekly update

24.04

During the Easter holidays and finished today, I started setting up the page of the FMP. I decided to create a page separately as this would be the final and most important project. Like my blog, I wanted for it to look 'professional' so I kept dark colors and simple designing.

25.04

Today I wrote down my proposal for the project, which I posted then on its page. More than a proposal, I think it is just a short presentation of what the year is been, how I ended up on the final project and what it is going to be till the end of the project. Although I haven't finished it yet, I also created a table on the fmp page about what I will do week by week.

26.04

I finished today the weekly timetable and I look up to some movies and ideas to make clear my thoughts. I found out some movies which my tutor spoke about like Love Actually. It is a movie I've always been interested on because of the list of actors who took part of it, but never found the occasion to watch it so I'll probably do it tonight. I also re-re-re-re watched Paperman and like always, I loved it!

I added them on my page and then I wrote down what my general idea is and a map I created with some ideas and I created a collage of other movies I'm interested in and that I will probably look out after.

02.05

The day after bank holiday. During the weekend I wrote on my page about two directors' first shorts, before their careers had gone up and up. Spielberg and Nolan, the last one is my favorite and it's known by now as my blog and page are full of his movies. Spielberg really surprised me as I found out how he started, from dropping school to be enrolled at the Universal Television at a young age. I was really amazed about it. I finished off today some bits that I was missing about the twos and I made up the layout of the images on Photoshop.

03.05

As Wednesday is a really short day, today I wrote down the synopsis of the idea I chose, which is the first one, and the target audience.

08.05

Today I started writing down my primary researches and some questions ideas which I will use to interview some people who are in the same/similar situation of my character who doesn't speak English. I also posted the same questions on my account instagram so I can have two different types of media to post on my blog.

09.05

Tuesday is the longest day, so I decided to work on my secondary research and leave the primary for later. While looking around on IMDB for Rom-Com movies, I found 'Spanglish' which is exactly what my idea is! I had watched it years ago while I was still in Italy and today finding it again was blowing up because lots of others ideas came out on my mind. I looked up at the trailer and some clips of the movie, I looked at the main character so that I could identify my character on her. I searched then deeper on Love Actually, about Aurelia and Jamie' love story and way to speak to each other.

10.05

While updating the primary research with a comment someone posted on my instagram about the questions, I finished off the secondary research about movies. I started then to research about some posters and to break them down analysing details, font and pictures. I added then everything up on my FMP page( primary and secondary). I then started to look up at locations ideas, my characters' personality, English-Italian language differences so I could build up my dialogues on it and to finish I wrote a paragraph about lighting and sounds.

15.05

Today I made some sketches about my short's poster. I thought it would be nice to have the three flags and then something representing the countries or to have the two characters on the foreground. I made went then around the college to have some opinions on which one is best. I looked up then on some fonts on DaFont.com and ideas of titles by referencing to the campaign "London is open" made last summer by the London's Mayor who encourages to be open to every single kind of culture.

16.05

I finally started the preproduction of my movie. I wrote about the locations which will be mainly my house and a bus stop near my house, as it is a quiet area it will be perfect to record, and the restaurant for the final scene. I wrote down the risks assessment and the shotlist and I started straight away my script, mainly to have a certain idea of what the dialogues will be.

17.05

It took me a total of two full days to finish my script and I still need to do my storyboard and the budget list.

22.05

During the weekend, some complications happened. The actress who was supposed to act for me cannot do it anymore so I have to look up for another girl who is willed to do it. However I started to play a bit on photoshop for my poster and by the end of the day I deleted everything because it just looked awful. I will try again tomorrow.

23.05

Yesterday night while talking to a friend, she told me she could act for me but just during the half term as she was going on holidays. Calculating the days left, I accepted even because she was the only and last person who could help me. I tried again using photoshop and creating my poster, but it was just so frustrating because after all the ideas I looked at, my one didn't look at all like those. I will wait then to have my two characters and I will use them two on my poster.

24.05

Today I finished off all the interviews I had to do for my primary research and I put them all on a video.

HALF TERM:

During this half term I found some problems with my story and production. The girl who had to act for me prolonged her "holidays" till the end of the half term. I had to refuse then her "help" as I was already late to film and she kept saying to me to film another and another day. Lost and stuffed and mad, I asked then one of my classmates (Noelia) if she could help me. With my surprise (just because she is running her project too) she accepted to help me and the next day she came to my house to film. I cannot be more grateful!! So if you're reading, really THANK YOU!!

However, as if it wasn't enough, my friend(the restaurant's owner) called me saying he couldn't let me film at his place because of some reasons. One more problem.

Because of that, I had to change my story and probably cut couple of minutes. At the end of the week, I filmed Noelia's scene and the other actor, my brother, scenes who complained ALL the time because he wasn't happy at all with the story.

5.06

Although I've been working at home, today I came back to college with plenty of work to do. Firstly I tried to set up the movie. I chose the best clips and then put them on premiere. I'm quite satisfied with the works I got from the shooting during the half term and I think I can still make a good work, even if I think I don't have much shots.

6.06

Today I started editing the movie. I want to try to keep it as simple as possible because for what I got, I can't aspire for something really big. I put it in order, trim what I didn't need and I started to add the subtitles for the Italian sentences, which according to me are the best part of the movie. Although I don't much dialogues, I think it's something no one as done before and so different. Meanwhile I updated my FMP page with screenshots of the editing.

7.06

As I still need to work on my poster, I try to be really quick with the movie. Today I tried to fix a bit the audio but still you can hear the windy noises. I think anyway the audio isn't that bad. I also added an Eddie Vedder' song as background (yep, still him. If you don't know him, really check him out! I watched him in concert yesterday night and it's amazing!!) as I think it kinda fits the ambience.

12.06

Today I added some filters and transactions. I gave it a kinda of blue color because to me it looked nice with the morning time. I also added the title, credits and the logo for my videos. Tomorrow I will start for sure my poster.

13.06

Today I started my poster. As my idea, I used the Italian and UK flags as backgrounds. Then I took a screenshot of my two characters, pasted them on the respective flag and then I made them look like cartoon as the quality of the screenshot was pretty bad. Playing with both of them, I ended up by putting just the Italian character as I couldn't draw well Noelia.

Tomorrow I will probably make the background look like a cartoon, just as my character.

14.06

On this final day, I finished my poster by editing the background and adding the title. I'm really happy about it, mainly for the position of the typical Italian person.

I recorded then a video of my final evaluation and I posted everything on my blog.