Script

    I finished writing my scrpit and recorded my voice over. Below is my finalized script.

(Black screen) People always say it takes hard work and dedication to make it anywhere. But i assure you it takes much more to make it to the big leagues. 

(Start video) Take dance for example, thousands of people aim to be the best and follow out their dream of becoming a professional dancer, and thousands fail. They work everyday for hours upon hours, yet they still don't make it. Dance is one of the hardest professions, especially if you want to get paid well. Talent alone will not cut it in this industry! I remember the first time I put on my ballet shoes and went to my first dance class. I was 3 years old and from that moment on I knew that this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Every time I walk onto a dance floor my mind goes blank of all thoughts and my body flows to the rhythm of the music. For 14 years I have lived, breathed, and embodied dance. Dance is not only my life, it is who I am, without it I would be nothing. There have been many people in my life who have told me that I will never make it, that I'm not good enough, that I should just give up. It's people like that who make me want to work harder, to prove them wrong, so that one day I can say "don't ever tell someone they can't do something, because people will always surprise you." I challenged myself to be the best, working twice as hard as everyone else, I have danced every day for at least 5 hours for 10 years. Dance at this point not only consumed me but made me the person I am today.  All I have ever known is dance. My name is Hannah and I am a dancer! (Fade out)

Finalizing My Script

   I have come to the final process of writing my script. In order for me to know if I need to add more, I need to record myslef reading my script. Hopefully what I have currently written will be long enough to fit my entire opening scene. 

   I have asked multiple people to read over my script to edit and critque any issues they may have found. I found this very helpful with writing the script, because thy gave me good ideas to incorporate. I am planning on adding a few pauses in the script where I will stop talking for a few seconds so viewers will just focus on the dancer. After I have recorded the script and added it t my video, I will post it on my blog so you will have a preview of what my story is about. I really hope this turns out great, I hope to record my voice over tomorrow and add or fix whatever may be needed.

Group Meeting

   The other day my class had group meetings to discuss our project among a a few people. This was very helpful for me becuase I got feedback on my video. My group members suggested that I add more angles and shots to my video to show off my technique more. They also said that I need to show the main characters face more, so people can really see who she is. I agreed with there comments and know that I need to film more. I am going to have to finish everything other than the rest of the filming and editing for my project. I am not worried about my blog becuase everyone said that they thought it is great, which is very reassuring for me. After taking into consideration my critques on filming, I am going to try and focus on more tecniques we have learned during the year, to show off

my full potential for this film. 

   It is just starting to hit me how little time we have left to complete this project. I am starting to get nervous that I will feel rushed and won't create my film to its full potential. I really hope that I finish everything before the due date so I don't stress out over not being finished. I am excited to see how the rest of my film turns out. When I film next week I am going to make sure I film the dancers face more and add different shots of her body. I have started looking through my class notes at some of the different shots I can do, such as a close up of her face while she is dancing, a mid shot of just her torso/legs, and some different angles looking down at her feet and up as she jumps over the camera. The group meeting helped me a lot and put me back on the right track on how to improve my film.

Finding A Song

   I started researching songs to use in the background of my video. I need a song without words since

I am going to have a voice over. My friend suggested a song that I think could work very well if I can find a version without words. The song is called 'Runaway' by AURORA, it is slow paced but picks up some towards the middle. If I do decide to use this song I will have to email the owners of the somg becuase it is copyrighted. I was hoping I could find a song that would work that is not copyrighted, but I did not like any of the songs I listened to. I listened to the instrumental piano version of the song, and it is slower than I wanted it to be. I am looking through karaoke versions of songs to see if I like the way any of them sound. Currently I am at a dead end for finding a song. I am going to look through more youtube vidoes and, if I still can't find amything there, then I will look on more websites with non copyrighted songs. I am currently listening to the song 'Let It Go'by James

Bay, I love the song with words and I like how it starts off very slow but then starts picking up towards the middle and then slows down again at the end. I feel like it would fit in well with my video and may be a good choice. I am going to continue my search to see if I can find any songs that I like better, but of not I am most likely going to use 'Let It Go'.

Sources:
"James Bay - Let It Go (Karaoke Version)." YouTube. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. <https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nhv788BMisk>.

Creating My Script

   Today I began to think about what I want to say in my voice over. I want to be inspirational and be from the dancers perspective. I want her to tell the audience her story of how she made it as a professional dancer. I want to add some knowledge about dance, for example facts and percentages about how many dancers actually make a living as a professional. This will let the audience acknowledge how difficult it is to become a dancer. This movie is a story that is ment to inspire people. I want it to seem like it is real and based on a true story to make viewers connect too the main character and her story. If it sounds realistic then it will be more likely to inspire more people. I have already shown you my rough draft of the first few smetances in an earlier post, so hopefully you already have a little idea of the introduction. I am having issues of thinking of what to add and where I am going to add the facts. The voice over is what is going to bring the entire video together so people know what the movie is going to be about, without it the movie would just be a clump of dance videos placed together.
   My script needs to be intriguing so that people want to continue watching. The opening of a movie is one of the most important parts because, if it is bad or boring people wont want to continue watching much more of the movie. However I chose to word my script I need to make sure it is extremely powerful and attention grabbing. After the script is finished and I start recording the voice over I need to make sure I speak with passion and don't sound boring, becuase talking is a huge part in making the voice over great. Since I am making the script in first person I need to act like I am the dancer speaking to her audience, I hope by thinking this way I can perfect my video. The script is the most important part of my movie, so I need to spend the majority of what time I have left to perfect it.

Editing Day 2

   I continued editing last night. I made a lot of progress and am about 1:30 minutes into my opening. I am not sure how long I am going to make it, but I think it is a good length. I asked my friend to view it to give me feedback, there were some things that she did not understand that I need to change and make clearer. I need to get more viewpoints from different people so that I know that people understand the concept of my video. I changed a the order of many of the videos from how I previously placed them the 1st time I edited. I tried to place the videos to look like the dancer is progressively getting better the more she dances. At the end she is wearing a full ballerina outfit and doing more intricate dance moves. I am going to try to explain the dancers  progression in my voice over to make it clear to viewers.
   I rewatched the opening scene of the blind side and there were multiple moments that froze on a picture of a football player before continuing the clip. I like the idea of freezing multiple images instead of just one at the end. I also liked how Sandra Bullock used the title of the movie when she was explaining part of the game in her voice over. I am considering putting the title of my movie as part of my voice over if I can make it flow and sound good. I need to write more of my script so that I can record the audio and place it in my video. After I do that I will edit the video clips to flow with the voice over nicer. When I asked my friend for feedback she suggested that I get rid of the darker footage because it is too difficult to see. I agreed with her but I really like the footage so I tried to find an editing app to lighten the video. I downloaded about 5 different video editig apps and unfourtunatly none of them helped make the video much lighter. I am going to try to find a way to lighten them, but if I am unsuccessful I will take the videos out of my opening. I also thought it was a good idea to fade out to a black screen at the end of the scene. I thought this looked nice, I am thinking of possibly saying my final words as the screen goes black. I will have to see how it looks after I add the voice over. 

Editing Day 1

   I began editing yesterday, March 22nd. I started by looking through my footage and placing the clips in imovie. Then I started breaking down the long clips into smaller clips that were only a few seconds each. I removed some videos completely that I did not like, or didn't look very good. I only

worked on editing for about an hour, but I got a good 20ish seconds into my opening. I still have a lot left, and noticed that I may need to film some more, but I am not completely sure yet. Hopefully I will be fine with everything that I have already filmed. When I was playing with different speeds for slow motion, I learned that I can freeze an image for as long as I like. This gave me an idea for the closing of my scene. I want to freeze on the dancer in the middle of a move and then fade out to a black screen. I think this will look nice and I will end my voice over with something that grabs the audiences attention with the frozen image. I started piecing the order of my footage together from how I placed it on my story board and whats in my head. 

   Editing has helped me start to imagine what my script for my voice over is going to be about. I started writing the first couple lines. This is just a rough draft but I started by saying "People always say it takes hard work and dedication to make anywhere. But i assure you it takes much more than just hard work to make it to the big leagues. Take dance for example, thousands of people aim to succeed and follow out their dream of becoming a professional dancer, and thousands fail. They work everyday for hours upon hours, yet they still don't make it." I am going to discuss the difficulty of making it too the top and how it not only takes skill and hard work, but it also takes passion and never giving up. I think this idea demonstrates what not only dancers, but everyone with a dream must go through to succeed. I want these words to really make people want to work hard to make their dreams come true, and think "if she can make it, then so can I!" Since this is an inspirational movie, it needs to inspire people by making them aim for their dreams and hopefully want to make their dreams become a reality. Editing has made me change my story line slightly and helped create the idea of showing a girl who dreamed of becoming a professional dancer, and watching her dream become a reality. Throughout the movie the girl slowly gets closer and closer to hitting her goal, until the end when she finally makes it to the top by never giving up even when it seemed impossible. Hopefully I can accomplish getting this idea across when I edit the rest of the scene. 

The Filming Process

   I started filming yesterday, Friday March 18th. I was able to find a studio to film in for a couple hours. When I started filming I tried using different lighting such as low key lighting in a dark room with just a lamp as light. As i started filming and watched back some of the footage I found that it was difficult to see the dancer clearly, so I decided to film the majority with high key lighting by turning on the studio lights. This made the video look much better and easier to see the dancer. I wanted to make it look like the girl was dancing through a process of various days, so I asked my dancer to bring different outfits to change into. I took many different takes from different angles, trying to find the best view of the movements. 

   For recording I used my Iphone, since I don't have a nice camera to film with. I tried to test out my slow-mo on my phone to have an idea of how some of the dance moves will look slowed down. I found that the slow motion didn't look very good with the lighting in the studio and looked very grainy and unclear. For the parts I do choose to put in slow motion, I will have to change during the editing process. I tried to take different shots and angles into consideration when I was filming, too see which looked the best for specific dances. I took close up shots of the girls face while she was dancing to show her concentration for the sport. I used a close up for her feet, showing her skill and grace. I also used many long shots of her entire body showing movements of every feature from her face to her feet. 

   I asked her to change after every couple shots or so, into different dancer outfits to help viewers understand that she is not just dancing one day, but over a span of many. This will help develop her passion for dance. After looking through the footage I fell like I am still missing something, but I am not sure what that is yet. Maybe when I start editing I will think of an idea to improve my film. 

I got a lot of good shots with various dance moves. When I was filming I told my friend to just go for it and dance how ever she wanted, minus me asking for a couple techniques. I think that worked out very well, and gave ,me a lot to work with.

   When I start editing I am going to only slow some parts down, for example, her spinning, because I think it will look very interesting without over doing it. I am going to start editing and hopefully get some more filming in, possibly in different locations, during my spring break, so that I can finalize and get feed back on my project when I get back to school. The images shown are some screenshots from the videos I filmed yesterday.

Editing

   After filming and viewing all of the footage,  I am now ready to start editing. I am excited to start this, but also nervous because I want my project to be perfect and a lot of that comes from the editing. I have to make sure everything is in order of how I want it, add the title and names of people involvedmin the film, different effects to the video footage, voice over in certain parts, and music that ties in with the story. Editing is a huge factor and I need to make sure I have plenty of time to get it exactly how I want it. Editing is going to take hours upon hours to finish, so I need to make sure I use my time wisely.

   I plan to start editing tomorrow and work on it during my break. I want to make sure I get feedback from a wide variety of people, so I can reach my full potential of creating, what I hope to be, an amazing film. At first I am going to play around with different techniques to see which ones I like the best, then I will apply the to my movie opening. Once I have all of my video in order and how I want them, then I will add the text with the title. After all of that is done, I will finish off with adding music and my voice over, which I need to record after I edit. I am going to record my voice over after I finish editing the film because I want to know exactly what the film is going to look like so I know exactly what to say. I need. To figure out if I am going to do. The voice over, or if I am going to get someone else to do it. I am thinking about making the voice over in first person from the girls perspective. I feel that this will connect the audience closer to the main character, and makes more sense than the voice over being someone elses perspective. 

Planning Time

      I have finally chosen a plot to my story. The dancer is always alone and sad except for when she is dancing. Dancing is the one thing that makes her life happy, it is how she expresses her true self. I have decided to establish my scene with a long shot of a street showing a dance studio and the girl crossing the street, heading towards the building. The background music will be sad and slow, and the scene will look dark and dull, showing that her life is very sad and depressing outside of

dance. As the scene progresses, she enters the studio and starts to put on her dance clothes, the music slowly starts picking up and the lighting becomes brighter, emphasizing her happiness she has while dancing. Next I plan on showing different dance moves in slow motion. I hope by doing this, my audience will understand that dance is her passion. Also I want the slow motion to capture the intracacy it takes to perfect these moves. I plan on inserting different dance moves throughout the entire scene. The image shown to the right is the start of my storyboard process, describing my scene layout that I disscussed above.

Step One Complete...On to Step Two?

     I found an amazing dancer whose also my friend, that agreed to dance for the film. Next I need to find a dance studio that will allow me to film her in motion... but i'm hopeful. I am going to start communicating to studios near by. I don't know where I am going to film if I can't find a studio, maybe a grassy field somewhere? Either way I need to find out soon because I start filming on Friday! I can't wait to see how the process goes, hopefully all goes well.

Sources:
"Difficult+ballet+moves - Google Search." Difficult+ballet+moves - Google Search. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2016.  https://www.google.com/search?q=difficult+ballet+moves&client=safari&hl=en-us&biw=1366&bih=928&tbm=isch&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjSvsLYmcbLAhXGHB4KHVA2D3cQ_AUICSgC&dpr=2

The Next Steps...

      I have started planning out how I want to set up my film opening. The first step I need to take is finding a dancer who is willing to be part of my film. I have started asking people I know that are dancers. Once I find someone who can do the moves I envisioned in my head, then I can start planning my step by step filming process. I have already decided how I'm going to open the film, and have a vivid image in my mind. 

      For the setting, I want to film the girl dancing in multiple locations: a dance studio, a grassy field, and at school. I believe that the changes of scenery will help convey the idea that my main character  will dance whenever and wherever possible, showing her strong commitment.  I am hoping to find a dancer that can do intricate dance moves, grasping the concept that she is an incredible dancer and has worked hard her whole life to get to where she is. I plan on filming her doing difficult spins and leaps in the air, shown in slow motion, to show the beauty of dance.

     I am hoping to start the filming process this week, over Spring Break, so I have plenty of time to edit and film everything needed to make my film as perfect as I can imagine and create it. Since my deadline is April 10th, if I film everything I need over Spring Break, I will have about a week and a half to edit and perfect my film and the rest of my project. I am going to be working on this project everyday from now until April 10th. I am excited to see how my final product turns out, and I hope that my creative image comes through in the way I am imagining it.

Forming an Idea

After figuring out what genre I want my film to be based on, I started thinking about the idea and content of the film. The idea of making a film about a struggling dancer fighting to rise to the top and overcome many obstacles came to mind.  I envisioned the opening scene; a dancer spinning in slow motion with a voice over describing the girl's life and her struggles to become a dancer.

After reviewing multiple dance movies, I couldn't find any that I had envisioned in my head. I still don't know the major theme, content or conflict of my movie, but I have an idea how the scene will start. I chose a dance movie because I love dance, I find them fun and energetic to watch and I am a big fan of movies about dance. I'm amazed how our bodies move, how flexible and bendable we can be. I want to show a different take on how much dancing can impact a person. I know many people who live, breathe, and eat dance. They are always in the studio practicing in their spare time. 

Making it in the dance industry is extremely hard, some people work almost 24 hours a day to make their dream a reality. I want my audience to feel like they are part of that journey to the top. To understand the amount of work, sweat and rejection they face on daily basis.

Dance is a language, a way of expressing yourself. Some "professional" dancers show a story through their body movements.  I find this very beautiful and interesting, which is why I chose dance as my topic. Dance is expressed in many different ways, by many different people (as seen in these images). In my movie, I not only plan to show the power of dance, but also the internal strength and determination you must have to go the distance.

Why Dance?

As I have previously expressed, dance is a beautiful art form, however I don't believe there are many dance movies that are inspirational and truly show the audience a dancer's true struggles and daily rejection. Most movies like "Step Up" and "Footloose" are centered around people who already know how to dance, or dance competitions.

There are a ton of movies about aspiring singers that try to make it to the top, which is why I chose something different. There are millions of people who can sing,  they are mediocre or amazing, but there are not many people who can really dance, in a way that catches peoples attention and tells a story. It is much harder to become a dancer than it is to become a singer or an actor, and lets face it, concerts, movies and plays wouldn't be the same without professional dancers in the background.  

Sources:

"The Top 25 Movies That Will Inspire You To Dance." Hollywood.com. N.p., 03 Sept. 2014. Web. 10 Mar. 2016. http://www.hollywood.com/movies/best-dance-movies-57160266/#/ms-235/1

http://iwontdance.com/

Finding the Genre

After searching through many of websites with multiple varieties of genres and themes, such as drama, comedy, sci-fi and fiction, the thought of doing an inspirational movie came to mind. I looked up the top ten inspirational movies and saw the movie "Blind Side".  The opening scene gave me the idea to do the voice over for the entire opening of my film. I like the idea of having the voice over because it will help the audience really feel and understand what the dancer is thinking.

Why Did I Chose Inspirational? 

When researching the movie genres, nothing really jumped out or moved me at first. But the more I thought about an inspirational movie, the more it made sense.

Even though I don't know the exact direction of my movie yet, I do feel strongly about it being inspirational so I can express the life and struggle of a person in a clear and memorable way. Inspirational movies like the "Blind Side", really move an audience and grab their attention from the beginning to the end. Inspiration movies provoke so many feelings, some good and some bad but they make you feel. Many inspirational movies are based off a true story and told in a way that can make even the toughest person cry. I want to create a film that people will remember for the rest of their lives, and share with their family and friends. I want to inspire people to follow their dreams or try harder to succeed. I want this movie to mean something to people, and make a difference in someone's life. I don't think that any other genre can accomplish this the way an inspirational movie can.

Sources:

IMDb.IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2016. http://www.imdb.com/genre/

 "Top Ten Most Inspirational Movies of All Time." - TheTopTens.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2016. http://www.thetoptens.com/most-inspirational-movies/