Blog 69: PLANNING: Details of Scene 1

 Planning: Details of Scene 1

As you guys know, I told you we would do multiple in depth blogs of each of our 4 scenes so no details were left out. So, here is that blog. Welcome in scene 1!

Scene 1

In scene 1, we are stationed in Tati and Adrian's safe house. (This is really just my house). This scene opens up with Adrian playing his game on the TV, which will most likely be Black Ops since that's the whole theme of our film.

This scene will show both Tati and Adrian in the frame and then the phone will ring. One of us (we haven't decided who) will pick up the phone like normal. 

On the other side of the line is Diego. He says he's heard of our work before and wants to work with us. He sends us a pin to go to and head out.

Overview

Introduces Tati and Adrian living together

After getting kicked out of the military a couple years back for underground illegal missions BTS.

Diego calls to introduce himself & give them a mission he calls a "Redemption"

Diego: Undercover cop disguised as a kingpin

Conclusion

We are very excited to get to film this scene, as this can be a scene we can film in 10 minutes. We also don't need to drive 30-45 minutes away to get to Diego's house in this scene.

Blog 68: PLANNING: Change in schedule

 Planning: Change in Schedule

As a lot of you know already, we already completed our December-January schedule which included filming dates and editing dates. That schedule sadly had to change after our group meeting today with the entire cast.  Some people thought their parents wouldn't like them driving 30-45 minutes away every weekend, so we had to space filming weekends out.

What we didn't change

Starting off, we didn't change anything in the December schedule because we believe that one is good to go still. So here's a recap on that one if you want to see it! 

January

So, we get back from winter break on the 5th of January, which is coincidentally when I start both my new semester of MDC dual enrollment classes, and my SAT prep courses on the weekends. So, on top of it already being a very busy week, we're revising everything that we worked on before break, and having one of our last cast meetings to make sure everyone is on the same page.

Next, on the 17th and 18th, we will be filming scenes 1,2, and 4. This is because in all of these scenes, we need to be at Diego's house. Diego was the one who said his parents wouldn't like it if we drove 30-45 minutes every day of the weekend to film, so we're going to him! (I also think he said that to try to get out of it, but it's not gonna work) Then, we will slightly edit the videos to make sure it's good to just piece together at the end.

On the 31st, we will be filming the 3rd scene, and since Diego didn't have to drive anywhere the weekend before, we think it's fair he come to us this weekend. That's all for January, so let's talk February.

February

February is another busy month. On the 1st, we will be polishing up any filming errors that may have occurred on the days prior. Then, on the 2nd and 3rd we will be doing voiceovers. The 4th-6th are designated to pure editing and finalizing the film.

The 9th-11th, we will still be editing and finalizing. Again, we need a lot of time to edit this because since we only have 5 minutes to make an entire movie production, it needs to be golden. 

Then, from the 12th-27th we will be doing pure CCR work. This time around, we'll be doing an essay style CCR instead of a whole production like last year. I'm not sure how this one is going to turn out, so I need to make sure this CCR is golden as well.

That is our final schedule, and we're so terribly sorry for all the changes, but that's media! I'll see you in the next one where we do a deep dive on each scene, scene by scene.

Blog 67: PLANNING: Storyboard

 Planning: Storyboard

Hello ladies and gents and welcome back to the blog series. Today, me and Adrian finally created our storyboard! I'm going to walk you guys through the behind the scenes of the storyboard making because that's a lot to talk about in itself. Then, in the next blog we'll go into full detail about the storyboard and what it entails.

Getting started

First things first, we didn't even plan to make the storyboard today. We originally planned for me to just go to Adrian's house like normal and start on our scenes. We had a last minute idea of just getting it over with.

Our plan was to make our storyboard look like a murder crime solving board, something like this picture below.

So obviously for this, we needed red twine and thumbtacks along with some clothespins. Turns out, all of that is way harder to find than it seems.

First, we went to Staples because last time I checked they sold red twine and definitely clothespins. Turns out, they don't. Apparently the last time I checked was 7 years ago because that's when they stopped selling clothespins, and they never sold twine.

Next stop was CVS. I thought for sure they'd have something since they have a crafts section but turns out they didn't either. All they had was glitter glue and notepads. BUT!!! We did end up getting 2 types of sticky notes as we wanted our board to have some color.

Next stop was HomeGoods/Marshalls. In all honesty, I completely thought this was Micheals craftstore. So of course, we found nothing.

Our last stop was Target (my favorite place). Turns out they had everything we needed. We could've just gone to Target and be done with it, but instead no, we decided to go on a 3 hour field trip all around town.

After we got what we needed, we headed back home and started bringing our story to life.

As soon as we got home, we spread out everything on Adrian's bed like this so we could clearly see all of our products.

We then got onto the computer and went to Canva to edit up some pictures for our storyboard so it wouldn't just look like a bunch of words.

Here is a behind the scenes picture of me writing all the notecards. It was my job to write the notecards since I'm the only one out of me and Adrian that has legible handwriting. On the notecards was just a summary of how each scene will go. We thought this would be simpler so we could go back and refresh our brains after our 2 week long winter break. 

Here is our finished storyboard in all its glory, so I hope you enjoy. The total process took us about 5-6 hours to complete but it was worth the sweat and gas money.

Here's a spoiler too: we picked the name for our film so stay tuned to find out!!!!

Blog 66: PLANNING: A shift in the storyline

 Planning: A Shift in The Storyline

As many of you may know from keeping up with the blogs, our original idea was to make it a military based theme like SWAT. Me and my partner Adrian got to thinking and decided to scrap it. Let me tell you, a lot has changed, so buckle yourselves in and get ready for this crazy adventure.

Jumping straight in

At first, the plan was that our characters worked for a secret law enforcement group with Diego as the boss. That idea is still around, but we changed the details around. Instead of Diego being a mafia boss type, he is now more of an undercover cop. He sets up Adrian and Tati on mission to steal a car, not because he's trying to break the law himself, but because he's secretly trying to set Tati and Adrian up so he catches them doing something illegal.

The new twist is that Adrian and Tati used to be in the military, part of Black Ops. They were well trained until they started doing missions they were not supposed to do, got found out by the military, and were kicked out. Now the military couldn't exactly prove they were doing something illegal, but with the suspicion, they fired them. They get a call to go work for Diego because they have nothing steady left, and he knows how to use people with their skills. In this short film, Diego tells them to break into someone’s house and steal something very valuable for a cash reward. That moment kicks off the whole story.

Right now we are trying to figure out how the audience will learn about their past. Do we add a flashback like we did in Fading Into You, or do we let everything come out slowly through talking and little hints. A flashback is still possible since we have done it before and know how to make it look good. We want everything to feel natural and not rushed, especially since it is only a five minute film.

And on a fun note, the mask should be arriving tomorrow which is making this whole project feel even more real. I will show you guys as soon as it gets here. More updates coming soon.

Blog 65: PLANNING: Schedule

 

Planning: Our Schedule

Today was my groups first day back from Thanksgiving break, so we came prepared and refreshed. We thought the first thing we needed to do was finally sit down and make a schedule. You can tell we've been dreading this part because this part actually takes full communication between team members and planning who is free on what day. This is harder because me and my partner Adrian can only see each other on weekends, so we had to try to make it fit. Let's just say December was a hard month to plan in, and January is jam packed full of activities.

December

As you can see, we are obviously starting off in December since we are currently in December. From today to the 5th we are catching up on blogs and finishing up planning out our scenes. So far we have most of our film planned out already we just have to spruce it up a bit and add finishing touches. We also have to go over it with our entire group, so that is what we are doing on the 6th. On the 6th, we will meet with our entire group - Diego, Cesar, William, Enmanuel, and of course me and Adrian - to make sure everyone is on the same board and is free on filming days. Me and Adrian made sure to plan filming days more than a month in advance so no one has any excuse not to show up.

Next is the week 7-13. During this week, we will be finalizing our scenes and start on the script making. This takes all week because like mentioned earlier, we have to go over it with the entire group to make sure everyone is clear on what they will be doing, when, where, what outfits they're wearing, and most importantly be comfortable with what their doing. We want each scene to make it seem like the character is real and alive, so having our actors feel comfortable is our main priority to make the film seem real and active.

The week of the 14-20 will also be a jammed week. We are still going to be finalizing the script because the script takes at least two weeks especially with other classes we have plus homework, tests, quizzes, and after school clubs. We we also take the 19th to fully catch up with the whole cast before we are sent off to Christmas break on the 20th.

The week of the 21-5th of January is also jam packed and we'll have no time to do any work. Me and Adrian leave on the 23rd to go to Colorado and we'll be jumping around from AirBnb to AirBnb the entire two weeks. Obviously the 24th is Christmas eve, so we'll most likely be roaming the town of Denver, and Christmas is the next day. We're going skeeing and sledding, along with snowmobiles! Then, the 26th is Adrian's 18th birthday, so we'll be celebrating that as well! Then, it is a Happy New Year to all! We come back on the 1st of January, but don't get back to school until the 5th. That is when we will commence everything once again.

January

As you can see, this is our January schedule which is way more fun than the December one media wise. This month, we start filming! As I mentioned before, we come back on the 5th of January, so we will take that entire week to plan everything out, revise everything, and refresh ourselves on everything having to do with the project. On the 10th, we will have another cast meeting with everyone to make sure everyone remembers not to make plans on filming days.

The week from the 11-17, we are taking basically the whole week to prepare for the 1st scene filming. We will be filming the first scene on a Saturday, so we can have a full day of pure filming. While filming, we are also going to be making sure every clip looks amazing.

On the 18th, we will film the 2nd scene. If you look closely, you can see that we are filming the entire weekend for 2 weekends in a row. This is because we want to have full days to film with everyone available. On the 24th we will then film the last scene, and on the 25th we will polish up our scenes and fix any errors that may occur in filming. The week of the 25th-31st will be the week we take to edit everything together.

Ending

Now that you know our full schedule, we can't wait to give you all the inside scoop on what's coming next in those scenes of ours. Stay tuned for more updates, and I'll see you in the next one!

Blog 64: PLANNING: Group Interviews

 Planning: Group Interviews

Today in class, we did group interviews. This involved going up to all the other A level groups in our class and interviewing them on their work. Let's just say..my group is the farthest ahead. Stay tuned to find out how and why!

Group 1

This first group involved Noah, Madison, and Rafael. Their project genre/category is Drama. They said their plot is about a girl seeing her guy best friend dead, and they have to figure out why.

The expressed that their plot is not fully developed (and neither is ours) and they have had many changes of ideas.

They have yet to make a storyboard or script, and have not bothered to cast anyone or figure out a location.

He told us their best and most detailed blog would have to be the scheduling blogs.

Some advice my group gave them was to communicate with their group more, lock down their final ideas, and start on their script. They have plenty of work to do!

Group 2

The second and last group included the other Madison, Gaby, and Ethan. Their project genre is a crime/thriller. Their plot consists of a masked serial killer and a detective. They mentioned the details are still "fuzzy".

Like the first group, their plot is not nearly finished and there has been many changes in details.

Neither their storyboards or scripts are completed, but they have their actors in place. All they're missing is locking down on their film location.

Like the first group, they also said their schedule blogs are their most detailed blogs, but one group member hasn't finished hers yet.

Some advice my group gave was for them to communicate more as we saw communication wasn't their top priority.

Reflection

Looking back on how other groups in our class are so behind, it makes me feel better that we don't yet have our script. Although I do think our group is ahead, we definitely share similarities as a class. Some similarities include not having our script done, not having a set location, and not starting on storyboards yet.

Our group plans to have our schedule out by tomorrow, and our storyboards done by the 6th of December! Stay tuned for more updates and our finalized storyboards scene by scene.

Blog 63: RESEARCH: Epsiode Watching (The Rookie)

 Episode Watching (The Rookie)

Welcome back, now let’s drive straight in! For this research entry, my partner and I kept going with the same idea we had earlier: studying how different government-style police shows handle action, tension, and teamwork. After breaking down three episodes of SWAT, we wanted to see how another show approaches the same kind of situations. So we sat down and watched three episodes of The Rookie to look for patterns, similarities, and anything we kept seeing pop up across multiple episodes.

Right away we noticed that The Rookie has its own way of pulling characters into chaos. Every episode starts pretty normal, but something always goes wrong fast. A call turns unpredictable, a suspect does something unexpected, or a routine situation turns into a problem. It’s not instant action like SWAT, but it still gets the tension started early.

Another thing my partner and I caught was how much the show focuses on character reactions. The camera always stays on the rookie officers when they’re overwhelmed or trying to figure out what to do next. That reaction based style showed up in every episode we watched. It adds more emotion and makes the situation feel more personal. It’s a different kind of intensity compared to the tactical, mission driven vibe in SWAT.

We also noticed how The Rookie mixes seriousness with humor. Even in tough situations, someone throws a quick comment or a sarcastic line, which makes the characters feel more real. That blend of light and heavy moments kept showing up in all three episodes. It’s something you don’t really see in SWAT, since SWAT stays straight-focused and mission-ready the whole time. Another recurring thing was how the characters move and operate under pressure. In The Rookie, they’re not perfectly coordinated or flawlessly trained. They hesitate, they look unsure, and they make mistakes. That makes the action feel more grounded. SWAT, on the other hand, moves as a clean unit. Everyone has a position, everyone has a job, and the communication is tight. Seeing both styles back to back gave us a better understanding of how different types of police shows create their own rhythm.

Comparing SWAT and The Rookie

This was the part of the research that stood out the most. Watching both shows side by side showed us just how different government-style police shows can be while still sharing some of the same basic structure.

Here’s what we noticed:

Both shows start conflicts early.

- SWAT does it with action. The Rookie does it with unexpected problems. Different approaches, same goal.

Both shows rely on teamwork, but in different ways.

- SWAT uses military style coordination.

- The Rookie focuses more on partner to partner communication and personal growth.

Both shows care about tension, but they build it differently.

- SWAT builds tension with speed and precision.

- The Rookie builds tension with uncertainty and character reactions.

Both shows use POV-style moments, but for different effects.

- SWAT uses it to intensify the mission.

- The Rookie uses it to show stress, confusion, or mistakes.

Seeing all these differences and similarities helped us understand how action scenes can be shaped depending on the tone you want. SWAT feels sharp and tactical. The Rookie feels human and unpredictable. But both still create strong intensity in their own way.

Overall, breaking down The Rookie right after studying SWAT gave me and my partner a way clearer picture of how government style shows structure their scenes. Even though the styles are different, you can tell they follow certain patterns that keep the viewer locked in.

We’re keeping all this research in mind as we keep testing ideas and building out more small practice clips. More research entries coming soon, so stay tuned!

Cited Sources