Second Entry

The film is coming out good. We have advanced a lot in our project. By today 2nd of May, we have advanced a lot. We have recorded most of the film, but we haven't edited anything by now. Time isn´t a concern anymore because we are already finishing recording and we have plenty of time to edit. Editing is what now has me concerned. By looking at the recordings there is too much to do and it has really concerned. Although I am not the editor this has me really intrigued. The sound editing is going to be cool, and I am actually looking forward to it. While recording the movie I have been always thinking what music and what sound effects are going to be needed, so I have an idea on how to do it. I will work with the editor for this job to have a good edition.

So this week we did many things. on Thursday April 27th, Tomas (producer) and me went to buy the implements, like fake hair, red chinese ink that we used as blood, fake mustaches (although we didn't use it) and some other stuff. On Saturday April 28th we started recording. We literally travelled across Bogota to film in the different settings. It was fun but it took a lot of time. Firstly we recorded the first scene, in the outsides of the city. We took a really long time because for one part of the scene we couldn't stop laughing. Our main character makes really funny faces, so it was really hard not to laugh. It toked a long time but we made it, and then we went to Chico ti record some other scenes. This ones were quicker to record and in the end the final result was also very good.

In english class we have been watching "The Birds" and we have studied different kinds of shots to record. From the 23rd of April to today we have been doing this. "The Birds" is a very interesting movie. It has a lot of suspense, because you know why some things are happening, like the attacking of the birds and stuff like that. I have been noticing a lot in the sound. In class we saw that microphones are recommended, but we decide it is better like, because we don't waste to much money and the sound is not to bad. I have noticed that the movie doesn't have any background music at all. But the mood is created by different factors. This is weird to me because I am used to hear music of any kind in movies. Another thing I've noticed is that the dialogue between the characters is very clear and there are always bird sounds in the background, but when there is dialogue it is still clear. We can see that sound effect like birds crashing or the engine of the car are very good. They are clear and sound very good. Hitchcock uses a lot of shots in this movie, he varies them a lot. Background images in the movie are photos, which look very fake, but it didn't bothered me.

We have been also looking at filming theory, in a site called video101.com. We have looked at the different kinds of shots that can be made while recording. We have used many of them, we have used high angle, close up, extreme close up, medium shot, long shot and others. A thing that really help was the advice of not zooming. Before starting recording we thought on doing it but it was better not to. We actually did it on one scene but it was a little bit and it didn't look to bad, so we decided to leave it, but we are not going to do it anymore. What we have studied about shots has been applied while recording. It has been really useful and we have learned a lot. Without this guidance we wouldn't have done any of this, so it was a very good advice.

Juan Felipe Mendez
9.1