Hooria Said's A2 Media Blog

I tried to produce a smooth zoom-in transition effect. All this clips used had a dolly in motion towards the centre of an object. To the clips that were unsteady, I applied the 'warp stabilizer' effect. Then, to all the clips I added a lense distortion effect that faded away in the start and end of the sequence of clips. 

Out of all the websites I looked up; including that of Pharrell Williams, Bruno Mars, Beyonce; Selena Gomez's website was my favourite. Her webpage is clear, simple and very functional. She has prominent buttons for different features and pages and has her latest song displayed on the landing page.

Today I filmed all of Aroob's scenes at the house. I called my friend to help out with one shot where the camera tilts and the frame gets black. For that, my friend held a black pillow right below the camera, so that when the camera tilted downwards, the lens was covered with the pillow (causing the screen to turn black).                     

Today we had to shoot the police car and dinky scenes. No matter how much you plan a shoot, some problems may inevitably rise. Today I had to deal with two unfortunate situations and make quick decisions. I had cut the letters in the word 'POLICE' out from black chart papers and pasted them on the 'police car'. However, while moving the car from one location to another, the letter 'O' fell off the car. A friend went in his car back the same route to find the cut-out but he couldn't. Subsequently, I decided to remove all the letters from the car and carry on with the shot to prevent wasting further time and decided to add an animated title during editing.  Another problem that I faced was due to the fact that I was swept away in taking care of other stuff and I forgot to double check the costume of my actor, Sheece.  We carried out the scene in which a police officer arrests him. Afterwards, I realized that he had worn a hat which he wasn...

I created a vertigo effect from a dolly-in shot. This was done by animating the position and scale of the clip, according to the dolly-in motion (If the clip is zooming in (dolly-in), the number on scale option is decreased from a larger to a smaller number (a value that would allow the clip to fit in the frame).  I added a red color matte with an elliptical mask (to reveal the clip underneath) on top of Aroob's video clip. Its opacity was decreased slightly as well. 

Today I filmed the scenes that were left from yesterday's shoot, as well as today's scenes. I made a list of the props required for today's shoot and messaged my actors a day before. All the actors were called at 8am at Gloria Jeans. With today and yesterday's work combined, all the shots of Sheece, Aroob, and Hassan in Gloria Jeans Cafe and the area around it (including the parking lot) are completed. After a tiring morning, we had food in the same cafe and took pictures in the park. The same day at noon, I took dolly-in shots, of different doors inside my house and of the main door on the second floor by moving up the stairs, with the stabilizer for the zoom in transition effect.

Yesterday I made a list in which I organized all the scenes to be filmed according to different days. Today and tomorrow's scenes mostly included the stabilizer shots so that I could be done with using the stabilizer and return it back to the school's media lab (because other groups would want to use it as well). The numbers written in the list are the same as the numbers I wrote with the scenes drawn in the rough storyboard. After today's shoot, I ticked the scenes that were successfully filmed so that I could complete the ones that were left tomorrow. Yesterday I also made a list of all the props and people required for today's shot and messaged my actors accordingly.  I had informed my actors to arrive at 8am. This was important since today's shots were taken in a public park and an area surrounded by restaurants and cafes where it gets crowded after 11am. I stabilized the stabilizer before the actors arrived. I filmed those shots first that re...

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1WlHvz0behsMbVwDsYtZ_rvwq-v6bGiEd

In class, our teacher taught us how to make a website on wix.com. We created a title, personalized bio, and added a background picture. I played around to find out how to customize the website further. 

Through a friend, I was able to get in contact with a man who had a personal drone and could fly it. The drone was supposed to be used in this week's shoot. However, today I got a call from him in which he informed me that he has to leave to another city day after tomorrow and wasn't going to come back any time soon. This obviously was a massive bummer! However, I tried to control the situation by thinking of other creative shots I could add in place of the two aerial shots in my music video. I decided to shoot from extreme angles during the 'running scenes' and maybe shoot from the terrace of a restaurant or cafe in the area to get an aerial shot. Many ideas are produced during the filming process, therefore, I'll have to wait and see what I can come up with while shooting. 

Gloria Jeans Cafe is the location where major scenes of the music video are to be shot. Since it is a private business, it was important to take permission for shooting to prevent any complications afterward (during the actual production). Thereafter, I sent an email to them, asking for permission to shoot. The next day I went to Gloria Jeans to ask the manager as well. He didn't allow us to shoot inside the cafe, however, we were allowed to film scenes in the area outside the cafe where tables and chairs had been set. Due to the sudden change in plans, I had to change some of the scenes that were originally included in the storyboard. Rather than shooting indoor, now all those scenes are supposed to be shot outdoor. Moreover, the scene in which the girl (Aroob) asks the manager about her purse had to be changed to Aroob asking another customer (who had been seated in front of her) about her purse. 

I added the sketches, of the performance clips and a clip I thought of later on, at the end of all the sketches (after Game Over).