adrijaroya2

[adrijaroya2]

Final links-

Trailer 1

Youtube link- https://youtu.be/TZFQCaaAluY

Trailer 2

Youtube  link- https://youtu.be/tAp1ZwWaJMM

Website

Website Link- https://canvas2k20.com/

Creative critical reflection(Prezi)

Prezi link- https://prezi.com/view/BeVWGijW47ov2gqzaRg9/

Note:-  Due to linking issues between Prezi and Tumblr, the Prezi link may not open through direct click on the links above. A cordial request to copy-paste the mentioned above and below link onto a new browser tab to access my prezi. 

https://prezi.com/view/BeVWGijW47ov2gqzaRg9/

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Sound links-

Trailer 1Ae Dil Hai Mushkil

Trailer 2 Joker Title

Crystal tinkling

Chirping of birds

Rambo music

Beautiful Crush

Glass breaking

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Week 18-Completions

In this week... All we did was finish the unfinished work, be it the group work by completing the second trailer with proper colour grading and sound mixing or sitting through to get our blogs and ccr enhanced by creating to add gifs, post our stills and frame the ccr answers placed well onto Prezi.

As soon Vedant was done with editing both the trailers fully though we had made certain changes to our trailers by adding film gates to our trailers by changing the ratio to 16:9 and this is not ordinarily seen in trailers but we wanted ours to be slightly different. The sounds involved in trailer two greatly vary from trailer one as it has loud yet soothing background music unlike the first which is has lyrics. We realised issues with voicing the dialogues for our male character Avinash and luckily as the actor himself is a teacher from our school we talked him and got the dialogues recorded, matched and fixed into our trailer.

Sushant Dabholkar revising his dialogues along with Keyosha overseeing and Vedant recording

We then showed our trailers, website and poster to principal ma’am. Seeing her appreciate and feel so proud of us and our efforts really impelled us. At the end of the day, we only wish to make sure our effort and hard work on creating the outputs payoff through compliments and can impact the viewers positively. 

Her glee on our project was a sign to say yes to the further work left and with that, I settled myself along with Keyosha to look over as I created the Gmail account to get out trailers posted on youtube moreover get Canvas’s website completed with all pages filled with proper evidence and information.

Discussions with Keyosha before uploading the trailers on the recently created youtube channel

Getting ready to accomplish our individual tasks were a bit tough for me, as I had a few blog corrections to make moreover due to unknown reasons Tumblr was not allowing to me post one of the week’s and it made work tough for me as my Tumblr on the fair page appeared incomplete but I’ve (managed to resolve it) although I too have work on Prezi to finish my creative critical reflection questions along with information. This time for making writing the ccr I have tried to induce my presentation in a different manner by keeping it crisp and short along with pictures to act as evidence and describe my informative mentioning,

With this being the last post to document my journey of Media studies for over a year comes to have a happy, thoughtful and emotional end. I am glad to have the opportunity from school to chose this subject and get to study it from a wonderous teacher like Shritej sir, who at all times mentored and motivated us to achieve our best and teach us to work to cooperatively in teams,teach us how to deal with tough times and be optimistic at all times. Each media lesson and each shoot taught me to be better than before, I bettered myself at keeping patient(however still have a long way to go), being agreeable to others thoughts most importantly knowing the vitalness of a film crew and role as a production designer superiorly. 

Huge credit to Keyosha and Vedant, my team members who supported my decisions and ideas plus suggested me with feedbacks to correct and help me. We have grown as a team, especially on having mutual respect towards each one of our ideas.

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Week 17- Making of website and trailer, speed writing practice

In this week…With sir helping me and Diya to get access of a domain from a domain builder named GoDaddy.com and thereafter I started sorting and segregating the content onto the website builder.

As discussed with sir this website needed to be in a particular format with each page consisting of to the point content on pages as too much information on a page would make it look dull. With the discussion, I moved ahead to work on the content and placement of them on the pages to make the wesbite appear subtle yet catchy.

Page 1/Home-Index, logo and poster

Page 2/Film information-Synopsis, information and branding

Page 3/Trailers-Trailer youtube link and brief descriptions

Page 4/Cast & crew- Information about our cast and us 

Page 5/Gallery- A few behind the scene pictures from our shoot

 Creating this website was really effortless in comparison to how I presumed it to be like time-consuming and confusing.

Fixing website building issue

I faced a little difficulty wherein I was surfing across different themes on the website builder and by mistake changed the theme to which the placement of content and images changes and I was unable to retrieve and recall the folder theme hence with a little bit extra surfing I was able to come across a theme and hue variation that suited our genre, film and the cause we were looking forward to. 

Theme options

Vedant sat through with Keyosha to start editing the trailer one with the help of the screenplay, although certain changes were made according to how the output appeared. Alongside we had our first trailer fully edited with the all the cuts and sounds added.

Vedant editing

A super fun activity was devised by sir to help us increase our writing speed for component 4 and it was through listening and writing the lyrics of a song in the time span of 3-4 minutes and by hearing it only for 3 times or so.

The song we did our today’s activity was on the film Tubelight’s radio. The activity was fun however very very tough,this is when I realised how much practice I need plus how easy is it to be humming to a song than writing and remembering the lyrics.

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Week 16- Adobe is back and poster finalisation

In this week… We got great news and that was to get the Adobe issue resolved. We were extremely glad to have got the application working as we were close to component 3 submissions and had to begin the trailer and poster editings.

The week had an amazing start as our school and sir gave us the opportunity to visit the head office of UFO Moviez India Ltd and we were toured by Mr Ram Iyer. 

The organization is one of India’s largest cinema distribution company and they have more than 9000 screenings in the country. A tour of the place was informative and fun, we were first settled in the preview theatre for an icebreaker session about our syllabus, overview of the mechanisms of UFO Moviez and general functioning, importance, advantages, and disadvantages of a distribution company. 

Mr Iyer and us besides the map of UFO screenings in India

The questionnaire round was highly interesting as I got to know a lot about what distribution in the film industry is all about and how it is equally a prominent factor, I found work fascinating when Mr.Iyer said to us how strong security and protection of data is. With prior knowledge we were aware watermarks help track the place from where the leak happened but the what was new to us was knowing about the coding done on files of the material which are locked and will only be encoded with a code leading to the projection of the film on the screen.

Preview room with Mr Iyer

Progressing ahead, we were shown the projection room in the theatre and learned how films can only be projected on the screen after unlocking code as it is to maintain the security, we were also taken to a colour lab and preview testing room.

Inside of the projection room

Due to security and privacy reasons we were told to keep our electronic devices aside as we enter different rooms to see hence we too couldn't take many pictures of the place. Although we got the opportunity to glimpse trailers of 3 films, Prassthanam, Housefull 4 and Mardaani 2 and a bit of colour grading on a bengali film.

Now with the return of adobe being functional, Vedant and Keyosha respectively continued work on editing trailers and pictures for the poster. Keyosha revamped the entire poster and recreated a better version as we didn't find the projection of our previous poster idea satisfactory and impactful. 

Editing trailers and poster plus planning website draft

Keyosha completing making the poster

Hence she started making changes aptly and the poster was entirely made on adobe photoshop.  I started typing and making a draft website with content in order to have my work easy and use the draft as my referral page. 

Official poster of CANVAS

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Week 15-Comp 4 answer drafts, work on CCR & pep talk

In this week… I had a lot on my plate due to negligence and lack of effort on completing the blogs and a part of my component 4, my ignorance got me burdened with too much work to be resolved in too little time. My stress wasn't supporting my health either.

However, I could and was able to stand back on my feet and face the situation with motivation from Shritej sir. I had to face a point where I was extremely low and had  little hope in myself to have faith in meeting my deadlines and perform well although it was  sir who encouraged me to not lose hope simply because I was unhappy with my AS grades or because due to some issue I lost multiple blog pages of mine, as I should face my fears and such challenges as it will only help me grow better. Plus what I realised is having to sulk into my problems will never allow to me progress ahead and I believe this zealousness was important for me to be energised and bucking up.

Moreover, with this I also assigned my needs and submissions orderly and set to be able to meet deadlines and not spend a minute on regret and sorrow of any kind, likewise by this week I got all my component 4 answers drafted and too started noting my CCR answers.  

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Week 14- Component 4 preparation

In this week…After almost having our Section A answers completed, we began understanding what the Section B question asks us to do. This part requires us to chose one main topic and the topic chosen by us is Media and collective identity in youth. Meanwhile, as the notes and theories document was emailed, I skimmed through it understanding the theories. 

Remembering theories is a huge task, especially as I was getting them confused with theories are given for Section A moreover finding the cases was challenging too as all of them have to youth-orientated and needs their primary characters to be age ranged from 15-year-olds to 25-year-olds specifically.

Unfortunately, somehow I lost my blogs from the 5th-9th week on Tumblr and couldn't retrieve it back hence I had started working on them again which was getting wearisome.

Alongside we had a small written test and once again I was unable to manage time to be able to attempt both the questions. 

External lecture by head of department, Aparna ma’am

To get better clarity on how on attempting and comprehending component 4, we had a lecture with Aparna ma’am moreoever she had last year prepared us for component two. She got our doubts cleared and explained via mindmaps and a few examples of real-life films.

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Week 13-Practice test and meeting deadlines

In this week… We couldn’t continue editing due to the prolonged unsolved issue.

Hence sir conducted a test on section A to check our interpretation and understanding of the questions. I didn’t perform well as I still wasn't getting a hang of the pattern too well plus I hadn’t been focusing too well and had difficulty in managing time for all my subjects. Although by now I had drafted my answers for Section-A, part-A.

Class discussion

Other than that, we were given deadlines on our CCR answers for the four questions. Last year for AS I made my CCR on Prezi and this time I wanted to try something new, such as to create it a directorial commentary, though I feel conscious and not too confident regarding how I could present my work finely.

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Week 12-Post production working and component 4 planning

In this week… Vedant began editing the trailers with the basic alignment of the clips and minor cuts and Keyosha who was now in duty to create the poster went ahead with editing the picture for the poster as we decided upon.

However, due to technical issues with adobe, we couldn’t work further, we are hoping to have it fixed soon so we don’t lag behind.

Keeping aside this issue and the delay we took it positively and started drafting our component 4 answers. Understanding how exactly to format my answers was challenging however sir shared across documents of notes and exemplars so we could revise through and he was open to solving our doubts. Alongside I started thinking about ideas and reviewing various film websites as I was in charge of making the website for Canvas our AL film.

Practice test

Furthermore, another writing practice test of component 4, section A part 1 & 2 was conducted. I was unable to complete my paper fully and after the test ended and I thought through my weaknesses and realized, I am lacking to complete my paper not because I am unable to interpret the answer but because I have insufficient practice with writing fast and structuring my thoughts and words together.

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Week 11- Writing practice only

In this week… All shoots over and the only thing we had to focus was on editing and writing our answers.  Learning from our AS was neither of us excelled extremely well in the writing paper hence we targeted this week to primarily get our section-A,part-A answers ready.

This was challenging, as I was simply unable to understand the questions and how I’m required to write my answers moreover be able to communicate my doubt to sir. A lot this doubtfulness raised from my anxious nature which made me self doubt my answers and stop me from being a risk-taker to simply began writing so sir can at least give feedback, I was feeling my overall performance deteriorating and feel myself being demotivated but wasn't ready to leave hope.

Me writing the practice test

However, I continued reading the notes sir shared and tried embedding them into my answers and grasp a rough idea on how my answers should be like although only one good point was I was able to write and comprise my section A part A answers which focused o my AS production. Maybe as it is my first filming project I remembered a lot of its details plus it is a finished project hence work on it could be nicely reviewed and written on. 

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Week 10- Dis-order shoot and revision of component 4

In this week… My team assisted the other team for their shoot, the team consists Paarth as their director, Diya their cinematographer, Vedanti as editor and Tanya as production designer. The genre they chose was drama and they named their film “Dis-order” cause the storyline revolved upon the lives of two identical brothers Kabir a stay at home person as he is mentally unstable and the other brother Sahil who is a writer.

Alongside we all too learned the concepts of component 4, section A divided into 2 parts a & b moreover we were also told about media theorists and their theories to learn and apply to our answers for part b.

Section A, part a is all about our AS & AL products and productions and precisely it has 4 questions of which 1 would occur, the questions are regarding;

Part b is where we need to know the theories according to the question asked and linking it to only 1 product of ours, either AS or AL and the questions for it are based around;

The shoot day arrived and their’s too like ours was divided into 2 days, day 1 shoot at a restaurant and home while day 2 at home and garden.

This being team two’s shoot my team assisted them and helped them with offscreen work.

Keyosha and me making the diffusers

Day 1

Began with us and Sir reaching the restaurant. Meanwhile, I helped Tanya set up before the actors arrived as from the little experience I have, I know being organized is the best way to start anything however there was not much production stuff to organize as costume, air products and makeups were with their casts itself. On the other hand, sir, Paarth, Diya, Keyosha and Vedant walked around the restaurant confirming and finalizing the camera movements, angle, shots to be taken along the ideal lighting needed and character marking.

Group discussion and planning before the shoot

Their shoot began soon and the shoot went smooth and undisturbed by any external factors. It was interesting to see their impromptu modifications by using a cloth to take a trolly shot (one of the longest and hardest shots captured however we imagine the shot would impact positively different on the trailer) and use gelatin papers to distort the light colouring showcasing the characters and mood appropriately. One of the most creative and interesting shots captured at the restaurant was a trolly shot performed using a cloth placed on the floor with a camera ad tripod placed right behind the wooden divider decor. The idea for the shoot it this way was completely impromptu and we all agreed on how the clip would help create a dramatic effect.

Trolly shot through from a cloth

Shoot at the location got over and we headed towards Paarth’s home, which was their second location to complete a few scenes there to manage time for the next day efficiently.

Holding the diffuser which reduces the sharpness of light and brings out a dramatic effect

Reaching the house we simply relaxed and discussed the plan ahead. Soon we all got going and started unpacking the bags and setting up the particular rooms the shoot was to occur at.

Alongside Paarth and Tanya guiding with the setup of the typewriter as I am aware of its mechanism

The second half of the shoot at this house location went well and all the scenes involving the detective was completed, most the scenes involved Sahil typing on the typewriter and watching the typewriter being worked upon made me feel really happy. Only as this Remington typewriter belonged to my late grandfather and somehow having to help my friends who required this property for their shoot made me feel gratifying and have his blessings as my team and I work along.

Ensuring the actor gets a hang of its working and scene seems realistic

Plus it was a clever idea and great planning to complete as much of the house shoot in order to not have the next day overloaded.

Rugs used to avoid natural light to interfere

Day 2

The last day of shoot for the team and also the very last shoot for the seven of us. This shoot was at the same house location. As we settled we started organizing and readying the place as last night the discussions and rough markings for scenes were done.

Today’s morning shoot revolved around the brothers and their neighbour. The shoot progressed quickly however there were certain scenes which were difficult to shoot as one of their cast playing the neighbour was unable to understand the mood and need of the scene although it was impressive to see Paarth’s clear vision to snap this part as he assumed it to establish great emotions and suit the drama genre showcasing the difficult life Kabir leads moreover seeing the team stick by and patiently to keep re-explaining until they achieved recording as wished.

Helping in setting up with Tanya and Diya

Once shooting for the trailers completed, the team began preparing the male protagonist to get in the right frame of mind for the poster shoot. This is when team distributed work and Tanya got to arrange the needed attire, while Paarth explaining the kind of attitude and personality to be portrayed and meanwhile Diya and the rest of us helped in setting up the lights, camera and tripod. The shots were taken without much waste of time as Tanya was responsible to make the poster and her idea of the photographs were precise which made work for Diya easy to get the apt focus and shot.

Applying artificial blood to their character Kair’s face for a realistic appearance

Day completes with everyone being satisfied and happy with the output as it was positive and we were all really excited for editing as we wanted our hard work, effort and dedication presented well.

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Week 9- Beginning of editing and AS results

In this week… We had all the raw footage gathered and all we had left was Vedant to prove his skills and do a great job at editing to beautify and create the two trailer.

Besides now I was in charge to make the website, I was thrilled as I love writing and consider myself expressive through words and with this I had started looking upon official websites of romance films to get ideas and understand the format of a film’s website. Sir talked about the format of the content required on our website however I personally searched upon how the content is placed and what kind of a vibe does the website give. What brought my attention was to keep the content crisp and subtle simply because a jazzy and flashy page won’t suit our theme and story.

Searching and noting website references

Meanwhile, Keyosha had to glance through posters to make one of Canvas. Initially, Janhavi, our cinematographer for both the years was responsible for it however our as AS results released this week and to our shock, she couldn't clear AS hence she had to leave our group and get going by herself to redo the AS curriculum again. Personally, I felt a bit dishearted and upset with my marks as I was hoping for it to be better however I was happy to have seen improvement in scores for my component 2. 

In short work on Adobe creative cloud begins, as trailers to be made on Premier pro CC 18, posters on Photoshop and I had to make the website through the use of Illustrator and Photoshop, a bit nervous because I am still a novice with the functioning of adobe but was ready to take the risk and make mistakes to get myself improving.

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Week 8- Filming Canvas

 In this week… We had our shoot for Canvas on the 9th and 10th of August.

Before shoot day, we had immense work and planning to do moreover we also found a female actor called Resha to be Kiara, she’s a budding actor and herself the age of Kiara and she liked our plot and the character she got with this we also found a male actor to play the role of Avinash by a teacher in school who goes by the name Sushant Dabholkar plus we came to know he is a former bollywood dancer and has worked in famous films such as Devdas and Bhool bhulaiya. To play the role of Ayaan (son) we found Priteesh Sharma, Janhavi’s brother apt and enthusiastic for the role.

In between planning and all, one of the days we scheduled to do a location recce of the garden however Vedant was busy at the moment so Keyosha, Janhavi and I went ahead and got all the visualization of costume, camera, location spots, and other things ready as we after this check we directly come during the shoot, hence we thoroughly checked and skimmed through everything.

Last few changes and plans being made before shoot

For the last few planning and shopping to do before shoot, Keyosha and I went ahead to settle and arrange all the production needs which where the basics such as purchasing of stationary to be able make our own diffusers and reflectors, bottle of glycerin so the actors can use it to moistened their eyes and make it teary for the shots which are emotional and need them to cry however sadly no nearby pharmaceutical had glycerin but eventually our actor Resha had it and was kind enough to share it, printing the documents for our crew, sir and the actors script for our actors to refer and be vigilant about when they perform. As planned we were to have our shoots in three different locations and we divided them into two days to avoid any burden on us and our cast as we needed to have rest to be able to perform the next day.

The other team was helpful and hence we delegated minor tasks of making the reflectors, diffusers, getting the extra pair of hair clips and most importantly needed Vedanti to get the bruise pallet as out of all she had the makeup pallet with all the ideal colours needed for the bruise look plus she helped as she knew the technique.

Preparations before departure to first location

Other than that my team and I had to look into the details which directly impacted on filming and regarding our casts although a thorough check on the checklist was enough as to make sure we all carry the responsible belongings and be prepared at the spot. 

Amongst all this, we still continued learning the photoshop but only the primary or basic most windows, such as the file, edit, image, layer and etc. Alongside we had a revision on component 4 too.

Counting the last few hours to our shoot was exciting me as much as nerve-wrecking as we knew our pre-production was much stronger, better and efficient than last times however we had professional casts and didn't want any mishap during the shoot which would delay or be a hurdle in between however the monsoon weather was a huge concern. 

9th, August 2019- Day 1: Garden & House shoot

9th is a Friday, we had school and however all of us had our lectures ending early and for that, we got permission from the school to attend our lectures and leave for our shoot and that is what we did. Although we had quite some time for our actors' call time and so during this time, we organised our required items for day 1 and day 2 into two different bags and for the things needed for both shoots we kept it with us in our personal bags. The day 2 bag was packed and left at school, as that shoot was on the next day moreover we could estimate our shoot end timing would extend by a few hours by keeping in mind the external factors of weather, punctuality of actors or location managers hindering our shoot. At the time of planning in school before reaching the garden, we divided ourselves into halves while Keyosha, Tanya and I worked upon sticking the pages(book lines to be highlighted by Preeti) into old giveaway books which we’d reuse as our property meanwhile Vedant,Diya and Paarth got along to make the diffuses.

Styling casts hair to as per character needs

As our last minute tasks got done, we all headed towards the garden location and start preparing and arranging things around so no time is wasted when the actors arrive and we can start shoot dot at the right time.

Our crew and sir arrived the location on time however the actors were a bit late, meanwhile they came sir instructed us about the workings of the lights and once the actors arrived we then introduced ourselves, our course and our project to them once again with everyone around so each and everyone is aware their task and of the plot of our story. It was important for the actors playing Preeti and Kiara to know their characterization and personality in order to portray their emotions along for which, while they got ready I helped them with the hair, jewellery and for make up they wanted to do by themselves hence I recommended them what the shades and style, to suit the character plus side by side prepared Resha to play Kiara while Keyosha did the same with Poorvi who played Preeti. 

With the team, close up shot and need of glycerin to help moist eyes and get the teary-eyed sensation

As the actors prepared, I personally organized their costumes for each costume,jewellery and properties to be kept aligned and next to their bags so when the there’s the costume change there is no hassle in the house looking for things rather I and Tanya come with the actors and they change within minutes and soon their hairstyle is fixed and a touch of make is done to make the look  perfect and we don’t waste too much time in that interval, sir and the other members went down to the garden area to assemble and once they settled and we began shooting as early as possible because the weather appeared fine and there didn't appear any sign of rain. However, we carried a bag of a few towels and an umbrella for precautionary purposes as rain here is very unpredictable.

We had quite a few shots were taken at this location and as an impromptu idea, Keyosha thought to have 360-degree handheld shot while the two actors stand parallelly facing towards each other. At that time for a moment the wind gushed across our faces with so much force, it literally pushed us steps behind and had out reflectors and diffuses flying away but in some time it stopped and the shot was executed and captured beautifully within a few takes. 

360 degree hand held shot

Things went smooth and having the shot division help of the shot division takes the shots required with certain sudden changes as per the wind or other factors of natural sunlight. Moreover as I strategized to previously pair and settle the costumes for the actors, we saved in a lot of time in between and as the actors were done shooting in one costume they changed within a few minutes and slight touches on the face and fixing of hair was all it needed for them  to be ready for the next part of the garden location. Staying organized there also made me calmer as I wasn't panicking regarding anything going wrong I had a lot of times read through the master breakdown and had assembled their costumes as the sequence the scenes will be shot. 

During this location of the shoot, we also had a scene where Kiara caresses Preeti’s badly hurt face and speaks a few words of wisdom and love to motivate her. For this makeup to be done, I had Vedanti beside to help me with the bruise make up look on Preeti, this scene was to show the bruises on Preeti’s face due to tortures faced by domestic violence. Moreover in this glycerin was used by both and it helped ignite emotions better as it was an extremely emotional scene needed both of them teary-eyed which was helped by the use of glycerin and the act looked real.

Bruise make up look

We presumed the shoot after a small break due to heavy winds and we then  had been successfully taking all shots however suddenly the rain was immense and without any call the sky being dark hence we packed up from the location quickly because if the costume gets drenched we’ll have major costume continuity errors.

Move ahead to take a break before leaving for our next location, at the house for the shoot. Vedanti was the assistant editor was responsible for the food and beverages for the cast, crew and sir. With that we packed bag of the actors and were pretty sorted as I didn’t allow anyone to scatter clothes around hence Keyosha leading the actors, Janhavi, Tanya and Vedanti went forward to try and previously establish the shots we would take their meanwhile the rest of us stayed back a little longer as I did a last quick survey of the house to see if we have forgotten anything,as we didn’t we too left for the house shoot location.

Touch up to male actor’s face for appropriate appearance on camera

At the house shoot, I found the house spacious and found my own corner to settle the bags of the actors and other bags and all the production stuff meanwhile Tanya too helped me assemble and organize the costumes, jewellery, makeup and hair stuff for the actors according to their scenes to be shot. While assembling, our male actor Sushant to play Avinash entered and we broke the ice by introducing ourselves and project. While Keyosha and sir talked to the male actor briefing him about the plot and how his nature and emotion should be put forward. As soon as I was done with assembling I went and helped Priteesh also known as our Ayaan with to prepare him for the role he had and how his reaction should be

The actor playing Avinash had difficulties memorizing the lines and getting the emotion hence needed a little more likewise we gave and cooperated Kiara and Preeti’s shots till then and once the male actor was ready we halted the further scenes with Kiara and Preeti which required em-meting deep emotions and completed Avinash and Preeti’s scenes. 

With Tanya fixing hair and jewellery before the pillow fight scene

We were nearing towards the end of day 1, and the last few shots were of the pillow fight scene between Preeti and Kiara, during this scene Janhavi’s mother helped me get matching and aesthetic pillow covers for this shoot. This scene was supposed was to have feathers flying depicting it from the playfulness and force of pillows however we didn't get permission to do so from Janhavi’s parents as is dirty the room to which I came up with an alternative to have the fight with pillows without any feathers and go forward with as thought through before.

During this scene of Preeti and Kiara, we planned an intimate scene however not showing anything inappropriate as we are aware it’s for an educational purpose. However, we needed both of them to get close to each other’s face for an intimate seen but only till it's close and not any further, although both of them have never been approached with such a scene or topic hence they felt extremely uncomfortable to perform it with our male classmates around. Hence Vedant and Paarth had to move out till we didn't get the right shots this made me realise and learn performers get conscious too but it is important to take it up as a challenge and make only certain changes than quitting it. Within a few minutes then we got the right shots, as gradually both became comfortable and were less conscious about the environment.

Holding lightstand to avoid it from falling preparing to change light colour according to scene requirement

With this as Resha had to leave she took the posters shots before completing Preeti’s solo scene. However a few adjustments had to made to Kiara’s top as it looked simple and that’s when I got an idea to  make look appealable by making her wear a leopard print scarf gotten by Janhavi I wrapped it around her neck rather than doing the usual jewellery complimenting which is done too often and from there we went forward shooting pictures for the posters and this time the pictures were taken by Vedant as he wanted to try his hand at cinematography.

Everything’s going even and fine and we were only left with the last scene for day 1. Which was Preeti’s solo scene of shivering and panicking to the action of Avinash who in the background is screaming loudly and throwing utensils around abusing her. The scene felt extremely emotional and realistic when Poorvi used glycerin which helped her eyes moisten and get the teary eye look and she being an actor from the industry performed phenomenally well and we were done within a few minutes as we got the correct shots making the scene beautiful and heartbreaking to watch.

Vedant capturing shots for poster

And the day 1 shoot comes to an end with all scenes completed successfully and the pictures for posters were taken too which came out pretty. Moreover I was glad and happy with the effort I put in, the hardwork and teamwork my team up along with sir who keeps guiding and correcting us at every stage, special thanks to Diya and Paarth from the assistant team to treat shoot as their own and constantly help us and make sure we are calm and composed.

10th, August 2019- Day 2: Library shoot

From receiving good wishes from everyone on putting a good show up yesterday, we are once again excited to pull it off better here as the library is the base to our plot.

The day began with everyone meeting in school and gathering the day 2 bag which had all the required necessities and the other items from the day 1 bag like the documents, sweat spray and a few more little things. However I reached the library directly due to delay in traffic and with managing travel and traffic our crew and sir were at the location, we walked in and showed everyone the interiors of the library and discussed the cinematography and lighting as we had planned then we had the other team and suggesting to better it. Our actors Poorvi and Resha were stuck in traffic too and took time to come but in between the interval, Tanya helped me organize and unfold things in the bags with all the production requirements, properties, and costumes too because we had consecutive days of shoot the actors handed over their costume bags to us. Meanwhile, sir, Keyosha, Janhavi, Vedant, Diya and Paarth looked further in the placements of cinematography,lights and characters to do the marking to save time and work efficiently. 

Tear drop shot from top angle view

While doing this we had our actors arrive and from there Keyosha and I took in charge to inform and notify but about their characteristics and plot to be shot in this location moreover, then I too guided them with their costumes and how the hair and makeup should suit the location and the activity their character is doing. As they got ready, on the other hand, the shoot began for the scenes in which no actor had to be on the frame, such as the teardrop falling on the next scene. With our actors ready, we began our shoot with Preeti hesitating to highlight a text however Kiara joins her and completes the highlight, in this manner, it can be looked upon as Kiara filling in Preeti’s loneliness moreover from there we were constantly shooting so get as many shots within the duration we had. 

We had a continuous use of glycerin tear gel for our actors to portray the emotions especially the sad ones through their teardrops and with this  I learnt how a little quantity of the gel is strong enough to moisten the eyes and get it teary to create the effect also that it dries quickly so I with the bottle had to be vigilant by  being close to the actors so they can add the gel again when it dries for the next take while I had to be careful with not being seen in the camera frame. More specifically I understand is, as an actor to get hold and maintain an emotional scene is really tough as hence we were instructed to be silent so not disturb the actors as they got into the mood and with this the tears play an important role because if I were a bit late with the glycerin the emotion needed may have swayed away. We had individual shots with both our actors, a few with them together and these changes meant a lot of costume change and lighting change because for different scenes and we had different spots in the library to be shot.

With team, capturing shots of Kiara reading and getting teary

At this moment after so many shots being captured we took a break and made sure our actors are energized for the next scenes. Besides lunch, our crew also discussed further shots and if any improvements to be made, luckily as I was organized and everything ready to be put to place before the shoot starts.

Glycerin to rescue to get the emotional scene fitting

At last we came to the end, shooting our final scene which was heavily crucial and had to be filled with immense emotional expression, so while the characters changed and got into the mood, sir and us got into setting the location with lights and this scene was to show the night interior scene when Preeti and Kiara are attacked by goons hence we had Paarth,Vedanti and Tanya stand by the window pile holding opaque the rugs making sure the natural light to not intrude meanwhile Diya held the blinder in front of the light stand to create the light distortion on the faces of Preeti and Kiara who were shown to be hiding behind a wall. With the burning of Loban, cones were interesting to create the smoke and mist however we had to deal with it carefully as it was burning and very smokey unlike our last years incense sticks which was milder to create smoke. Seconds before the first shot I had to spray the sweat spray bottle water as we needed both of them panicking and sweating badly due to tension, I was helped by Poorvi who’s experienced regarding to spray on the sides of the forehead,neck and T zone only which makes the scene look realistic plus again glycerin had a huge impact on the scene for the particular shot which required them teary.

Progressing to take the shots, we took a few and when we checked through to confirm we realized a few things and instantly the changes were made, firstly the outfit of Kiara’s was’nt very appropriate to which I thoroughly checked through other clothing’s which would be a good replacement but nothing was there to which the last option left was I exchange my  top with hers for the time being, which did get me puzzled as deep down I knew I needed her in a blue top however now in that scene she was in a red and white mixed top but nothing could be done as it was our last resort. The change to be made was the portrayal of emotion was’nt to the mark and we needed them to be more expressive hence sir took charge and from a bit far in an angry tone read the dialogues of the goons which helped the actors feel their character and situation more deeply and with that we also got the ideal shots.

Viewing and keeping an eye on the set and costume continuity

We checked all the shots taken from the start and loved the output moreover with this we were done with shoot and it was pack up time, hence we thanked and bid adieu to Poorvi and Resha for their time, effort and guidance into helping better our project through their acting and skills. As Keyosha announced pack up we all very happy and we got packing up our stuff meanwhile I too packed up the actors bag and make sure no one leaves their belongings here and during this time I myself felt emotional as it was my last shoot with my team,however the other team’s shoot was left and we had edited on hold but shooting with my team was done and recalling all our fights and agreements made me visualize how far we have come and grown better as individuals and as a team. Alongside we were glad that both our actors enjoyed shooting with us and appreciated our effort more specifically the idea of our story as it was something very new and they hadn’t shot for something this similar and this appreciation got a glee on our face.

Final scene to shoot for the day and journey for this group

The actors left and my team sat to clear all expenses then and there meanwhile the other team helped us get the minor stuff packed and look around to see if anything was forgotten. Debts cleared, bags packed and we all left a  smiling face and immense memories, knowledge and learning from the library to get going home and getting a long nap to rest ourselves and relieve the beautiful thoughts from the shoot and be prepared for the post-production procedures.

[adrijaroya2]

Week 7- A week to go for shoot & Photoshop practice

In this week… As we are nearing to our shoot, we were in the zone to get our documents ready and checked by sir, to which we had our second screenplay ready were only left to get approval on master breakdown 1 and 2, while Keyosha searched upon the shot division and Vedant worked on the schedule and I sat through making the checklist and organizing the costumes, jewellery, accessories, properties of all characters carefully in order to not miss out anything in the next week during the shoot.

Rough checklist making

Keyosha, in charge of communication with our casts, she passed on all the information regarding personal items they were supposed to carry plus they were comfortable wearing their own clothes hence all I simply instructed them with what exact and appropriate clothes to carry and as a learning from last year, I wanted no which will leave a jittery effect on the screen. They referred to the actors' presentation and were pretty clear regarding the kind of person they would be playing and what we expect from them. Alongside I with supervision from Keyosha reworked on the master breakdown and make certain changes according to the screenplay and location recce we did.

This week one of the days we also finalized our library from the help of our Principal who recommended us to visit a school known to her and would allow us to shoot at their location. With this, after school, we left for location recce to Holy Cross High School in Kurla. As we entered and walked around looking at the details and visualizing our screenplay play alive at the spot, we were confident about this library suits our plot. Simply as it had a touch of vintage vibe however lighting was an issue because the place appeared a bit gloomy and as it’s monsoon season here the rain and cloudy atmosphere wasn’t helpful, however, there was a solution to this as sir aided us with proper lights used during shoots and these  lights had to ability to change the colour from variants of white and yellow which shall help adjust the light according to the natural light and position of the camera.

Scheduling and preparation

Other than shoot, the work on Photoshop was learning the windows available on photoshop which fell under the essentials; 

Colour, Swatches(saving and selecting of colours), Learn, Libraries (storage for gallery), Paths, Channels( 3 channels, red, blue, green and alpha elements), Layers, Adjustments(effects)

[adrijaroya2]

Week 6- Pre production enhancement and photoshop tools

In this week... We progressed quite further and got an allowance to shoot at the desired location, the house shoot at Janhavi’s place along with the first screenplay and producers presentation too got approved.

Everything was pretty much on place and only minor things had to be looked upon. I was still working upon the actor’s presentation as there were a few new slides to be added which didn’t consist at the time of AS making however with much effort and creativity I was able to come to terms with making an informative yet not monotonous for our casts. Meanwhile, Keyosha began writing the screenplay two.

Snip from screenplay two

Besides I was very clear about the costume style and colour of clothing I wanted for this project of ours and with support of my team I was able to convince and make them understand each step I took along with taking feedback from them. The biggest task for me was to make sure this time I am able to communicate clearly with my actors regarding their costume to not have certain prints, embroidery and checkered pattern which would affect my performance, hence I wanted to be very observant regarding costume, set and productions involved in this project and do my bit better than last year.

Materials that may jitter or leave glitch on screen

Facing failure to get any library demoralized us way too much as our primary setting is in a library moreover our entire story is a love story of two people connecting over books. Hence we talked to our school librarian regarding any contacts and got few which were school libraries neighbouring to our own school.

Keeping aside the filming project we completed knowing about the last few Photoshop tools. The tools dodge tool, burn tool, sponge tool, zoom tool, liquify tool.

Understanding of more tools on photoshop

[adrijaroya2]

Week 5- In search, continuation photoshop tools plus study of component 4

In this week...We were pretty much searching and looking for most of the things, be it locations, cast or a title but good news rang us when we approached a female actor from the Marathi film industry to be a part of our team and play the role of Preeti the primary character. Poorvi Bhave is her name and when Keyosha being in duty to communicate with casts, spoke about our story she readily agreed and was very enthusiastic which lead to us being positive too. 

Till now we only received validation to shoot at one of location, which was the house shoot at Janhavi’s place. Meanwhile, I worked on the character sketch for Kiara a college student as I was pretty sorted with the look and personality given to Preeti.

Snap of character arc from actors ppt

While Keyosha searched up on libraries around alongside Vedant searching for garden’s to permit us to shoot. We had major difficulty in looking for a library, as we came across contacts and understood how wrongly people misuse the internet and spread wrong information or by themselves don’t have the correct information such as bookshops labelling themselves as libraries and putting fake library images as their own.

Keeping the search aside, we had to begin functioning our pre-production, hence duties were allotted and I took responsibility of creating the actors' presentation as the production designer, I had an extra edge on understanding the look and personality of the film’s characters.

Snap from actors ppt

 On the other end, Vedant making the producer’s presentation and Keyosha completing the screenplays for our two trailers. 

As a group we also agreed upon the title for our project. After dozens of options given by each one of us such as Heart bound, Strings, Uncaged, Words to love we decided upon to go with the name CANVAS. Why such a name? because it implicitly solves our purpose and doesn’t give out much about our story. From the title we want to represent our primary character Preeti’s (more importantly every individual’s) rightful freedom to create her own destiny and follow what her life wants without fearing anything.

In the Photoshop lesson sir taught us another bunch of tools and how they can utilized.The tools were Clone stamp tool(S), Eraser tool(E), Gradient tool(G), Paint bucket tool(G).

Learning photoshop tools

 Another important thing learnt is to always perform any editing and change to a duplicate layer and not the original image saved, as it can be extremely tedious and repetitive moreover working on a duplicate layer would help us compare the quality and quantity of changes made from the original image. Alongside we too brushed through component 4 of our syllabus.

[adrijaroya2]

Week 4- Grasping photoshop tools and trailer story approved

In this week... We started with distributing work between our team and setting deadlines to avoid lagging behind. I was responsible to complete writing the story after the points discussed with my team and using my own creativity. Meanwhile, Keyosha responsible for making the screenplay for the two trailers.

 At last, we have got our story approved by sir plus the screenplays were in the making. Alongside I am personally working the character sketch of our primary characters so I can begin making the actors presentation.

Character sketching for the primary two protagonists

To study and get a better understanding, we also looked up at more film trailers on the genre of romance and a few more based on the theme of LGBTQ. Among the many trailers watched such as Fault in our stars, La la land, Carol, Margarita with a straw and Brokeback mountain.

A few really inspired me to grab ideas to develop our film’s characters while making their character sketch.

Carol,2015

Brokeback mountain,2005

Besides working on building our trailer, sir continued teaching the photoshop tools through examples and shortcuts. It was a bit challenging for me, seeing so many icons and their functions being different yet with classes progressing I got my doubts solved and I hope to understand the working a little better.

The tools we focused on this week were;

Marquee tool, used as a selection tool to select a part of the image, mostly of geometric designs

Lasso tool, used for selecting a part of the image, mostly for freehand designs

Magic wand tool, used for selecting pixels of an image to work on

Crop tool, used to snip a part from an image

Eyedropper tool, used for sampling a colour to be used elsewhere on the image

Brush tool, used for painting a part of or the whole image

Spot healing brush tool, used for blending a certain texture onto an image

As assignments to work on which boosted my confidence and understanding Photoshop, with practice I felt working on photoshop was fun and now I am excited to learn more and create more stuff however functioning of the application is still a challenge but hope to be better with practice.

Assignment 2: Clear of acne from an image of a face using spot healing brush tool. This tool and assignment both were very enjoyable hence I understood the working this tool easily though hope to sharpen my skills with time.

 Assignment 3: Change the position of an object/character in an image using a patch tool and content-aware tool. I found this assignment tough and it was troublesome changing the position of the rock but after a few tries, I did try to make it look a little less edited. 

Assignment 4- Desaturate an image and then add colours to specific areas using the lasso tool and colour balance. By now I had got a bit used to photoshop and editing becomes fun especially this assignment I got to edit an image of my favourite female actors Anne Hathaway though getting a few strokes wrong got me upset nevertheless it was all fun to try new things. Plus I too tried practising the same rules on an image of a sunflower.