Eleonora Kirilova's Blog

 Sound - Day 17 Today is day 17. Sloan was absent today and will be tomorrow so Sydney and I decided to make the most of our time and look for the music that needs to be added into the film to enhance it. I searched through many music websites that had the perfect music for the film like discordant music for the scenes with Serena and ambient music for the scenes with Grace in them. This is being added in the background because it will give more to the characters and really show what they are like. By incorporating these musical elements to the film, it plays a crucial role in flushing out the characters. Their outfits and looks also show what type of person they are. So, today I went looking for the perfect music to make the viewer really understand the characters so we can aim for a stronger emotional connection with the viewer. I looked on YouTube, Spotify, and other platforms for some music. I had a productive day but without Sloan's opinion I had to wait until she came ba...

 Reflection - Day 16 Today is day 16. I will be talking about the reflection on key moments from the last couple of days. When we were filming on the 4 separate days I had a lot of fun and laughed a bunch. I think that having to do this project with friends is what makes it better since we know each other and we work well together. But at the same time we know when to stop and focus on out film opening. When filming at Sydney's it was very fun and we really saw our film starting to come together. Sydney did a really good filming and I think my advice on how we should shoot it on what the background should look like was what made it all come together. And of course Sloan's acting! Some other key moments were when there was a need for other actors and I had to help them really try and envision the role and get the scene done. This was funny because it took multiple takes! I loved the car scenes because Sloan had to drive really slow since it was my mom's car and it was honest...

 Editing - Day 15  Today is day 15. The date is February 27th, 2024. I started to edit all of our videos together to make the film opening since we are all done with filming. Before any effects, music, cuts, etc. our opening was 3 minutes and 30 seconds! Which is way over the time. Now I  know we did a lot of filming but we thought better to have more for now just in case. But I have to cut down quite a bit, which is not a problem since most of the clips have some extra stuff in them. After consulting with our Media Studies teacher, Mr. Z, he told us some suggestions to make it shorter and what we should add. Some things I need to add is ambient music over Grace's scenes and discordant music over mine. This is to add to the nature of each character.  I need fade ins, ellipsis, fade outs, action matches, dialogue, and of course our narration. This I will do with Sloan's help since she is very familiar with the Adobe program. What I was envisioning with this film is to...

 Reshoot Day- Day 14 Today is day 14. Today was reshoot day. My group and I had to reshoot some scenes that we didn't like and thought were awkward or poorly filmed. This included the scene of Serena waking up late and rushing to get to Grace's car outside. Originally the scene had a background filmed with our equipment so we had to shoot it to show no equipment and matched the vibe. I helped with giving the props and the location to my group. I made sure that this time there was not equipment in the back and that the setting match the scene. I also decided to try and make both the scenes of the girls waking up to be parallel which means to make them do same actions and wear the same outfits but different "fonts". When Grace was getting ready she was wearing a hot pink sweatshirt while Serena is now wearing a grey one. Both shots showed the girls waking up and putting their feet on the floor but in different ways. Grace was calm and slow while Serena was fast and in a...

 Filming Cont. - Day 13 Today is day 13. My group and I have finally filmed the school scenes! It was honestly a lot of fun and I enjoyed doing this project. Now I all still have to watch back the clips and make a decisions if we need to refilm but I do not think we do. The scenes we filmed were Serena and Grace walking into school and Serena completely ignoring Grace and leaving her to go with her other friends. This is to show the little regard Serena has for her and Grace's friendship. I helped by giving a microphone muffler to block out the wind in the background. Sydney filmed this with the Steadicam. Some struggles I faced were the very windy background and trying to get the shot right of me walking to my other friends. This was because there was always something in our way since it was lunch time. Next what was filmed was a master shot of our school so the audience knows the location. This is important because it notifies the viewer of the location change. Next, filmed how S...

 Group Meeting - Day 12  Today is day 12 of the project. I have have planned out our opening, set a script, made story boards, set times to film, and have filmed more than half of our project! I think we have made a lot of progress so far. In this post I will be talking about the plans for the rest of the scenes we need to film and what choices that have been made so far in the production as we have discussed today in our group meeting. So far we have filmed all the separate scenes with just Serena and with Grace. For example, scenes of their daily life and the scenes of them in the car. The only scenes left are the schools scenes which we will be shooting on Wednesday February 21st. For the scenes we have filmed this is what I did. For my character, Serena, I dressed in dark colors and was not very well groomed. My hair was messy, I had last nights makeup on, and my room was a mess. The lighting was low key to show the gloominess of my character. I made sure to mess up my roo...

Filming Cont. - Day 11  Today is day 11. Today is also the second day of filming. Me, Sloan, and Sydney all met up today to film Grace's scenes but at Sydney's house this time. I felt like since Sydney's house is more nice it will match Grace's character better. Since Grace is nice, put together, and ambitious. Sydney's house matches her vibe perfectly. A nice house for a nice girl! And since my house is less of Sydney's it will match Serena's character. Run down, kind of messy, and looks the opposite of Sydney's. This is all to help the viewer understand each of the characters more and how their living situation is like. For example, Grace wakes up, she isn't in a rush, gets some breakfast ready, and even has a conversation with her mother. While Serena is running around trying not to make Grace and her late for school. We filmed the aerial shot of Grace's neighborhood, the master shot for Grace's house, Grace waking up and getting ready for...

Filming - Day 10  Today is day 10. This was the first day of filming. We filmed most of the scenes for my character, Serena. The location was at my house. Today I woke up extra early and filmed the master shot of my house since it is taken place in the morning. I had the Steadicam, so I used that for this shot. I also filmed a bunch of shots of me sleeping in different lightings since this was also one of shots. I tried my best with taping my phone to the ceiling but eventually just asked Sloan for help once she got to my house and she recorded me from above. Then once Sloan and Sydney came to my house we filmed the rest of the scenes with Serena in it. This included me being awaken by Grace's phone call and rushing to get ready, my part of the fight at the end of our film, and the car scenes, driving to school, and my distance towards Grace. Props included a Steadicam, tripod, car mount, and microphone. What I specifically did was help set up the room to be as messy as possible an...

 Group Meeting - Day 9  Today is day 9 of the project. My group and I today started to take action in the production of filming. Me and my group started to plan out which shots we need to film and where and when. I  wrote down all of the days and separated what shots will be filmed, with what equipment and when.  So, all the shots for Serena will be shot at my house and my neighborhood on the 17th. I will need to use a tripod, microphone, car phone holder, Steadicam, and a phone to record on. I will use my mom's car for the shots of Serena and Grace in the car on the 17th also. All of Grace's scenes will be shot at Sydney's house on Monday the 19th. This is because the different houses match each of our character's aesthetic. My house is smaller and my neighborhood is not as pretty and nice as Sydney's so that is why it will be used for my character while Sydney's house and neighborhood is very beautiful, it is by the water and it really just matches Sloan's...

Filming Schedule - Day 8 Today is day 8. Today my group and I choose these dates since they work best with our work days, practices, and homework times.

 Meet the characters of Best Fri(end)s Ellie Kirilova playing Serena  Sloan Cox playing Grace                                                 Sydney Dalton playing narrator 

 Script Day- Day 7 Today is day 7. I did a draft for our script. I am hoping this will be the final one, but of course as we go on there may be some changes. I tried my best to make it as engaging as I possibly could. I wanted there to be some drama but also some solo screen time for each character so the viewer can ready get to know the character. Here is the script. First is the printed and then it is it bigger for you to see. Typed up script Best Fri(end)s Scene 1: melodic music and birds chirping   Narration: Serena and Grace have been best friends since they were 7 years old.   Scene 2: sprinklers spraying and melodic sound continuing   Narration: Grace was always the more disciplined one out of the two   Scene 3: Grace is getting ready, music starts to fade out, sink starts to run   Narration: While Serena was more rowdy .   Scene 4: S erena sleeping, discordant music starts to fade in   Scene 5: music continues to play and then fades out...