Voice-overs

As Conan, the main character, Jin probably had one of the most parts out of us. However, most of her parts were actually voice-overs. From the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, a voice-over is "the voice of a visible character (as in a motion picture) expressing unspoken thoughts" (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/voice%E2%80%93over).

What's unique about voice-overs is that Conan is filmed thinking, not actually saying the part, but in the film we can hear what is considered his "thoughts". This is a difficult production technique to film because if Jin didn't speak and we recorded her speaking later, the film might not match with sound. Thus, we decided to film her speaking, then afterwards Meghan will edit the video to make it look like she's thinking what she's saying. Check out this unedited video of Jin (with a slight blooper at the beginning).

Epilogue Preview! (Unedited)

I think nothing needs to be said about how nice the ending is :)
This was taken with my Canon camera (better quality than last time I hope)

Digital Portfolio

Hi everyone! Erin and Erika have created a digital portfolio after suggestion by Scout Chung. Here is the link: http://totsashrewinscarlet.weebly.com/
Right now, it is a work-in-progress. They will be updating and working on it as much as possible!

ToTS Family

Our first group picture together! <3

Thank You for the Support

After 3 times of filming, I wanted to dedicate this post to Sally's family. Thank you so much for letting us use your house to film! We really appreciated it. Additionally, thank you Helen for being a cameo! :)

Sally and her sister are so cute!

Filming, Day 3

Today, we all worked hard and finished producing Act 3. Day 3 has concluded all of our filming! We finished!

One thing I think we all learned is that it actually takes more time to set up for a scene (ie, set up the background, get into our costumes, find props if needed) than to film it.

Some tips for future film groups:
1) Never choose a scene that's supposed to occur at midnight and film it in the afternoon where sunlight is nice and bright.

2) Always split acts into smaller sections or actors/actresses will struggle to remember their lines. It really helps!

3) From Conan himself :) "This is just a LA project, not a professional filming class or job so take it easy and have fun!"

Updated

Scout Chung has leveled up one of our members! He has introduced a special role, and one of our members is up to the challenge! Jin has decided to take on role of psychologist instead of helper, demonstrating thorough research pertaining to the trends and social structures on the roles of men and women during Elizabethan England and the 1990's! She will be working closely with Erika, our historian (sociologist), and Erin, our director (both twins). As the only one out of our film production groups with this role, we are all looking forward to reading her work!

Jin randomly holding up a camera during our outdoor scene from Act 2 #photogenic(:

Learning about Shakespeare's Act 3 Scene 1, Conan episode, and our film

This is a short summary that I took off of Shmoop for everyone to easily grasp the meaning of the act:

• At Baptista's place, Hortensio (as Licio) and Lucentio (as Cambio) bicker over who gets to tutor Bianca first. Bianca interjects and tells the men that she, not them, decides when, what, and how she will learn. Licio will tune his instrument while Cambio finishes his Latin language lesson.

• During the Latin lesson, Lucentio (as Cambio) reads from a Latin text and pretends to translate the words into English. He reveals (apparently, not for the first time) his true identity and his plan to win Bianca.

• Instead of telling on Lucentio, Bianca plays coy and says she can't promise him anything because she doesn't yet trust him.

• Hortensio (as Licio) takes over and begins his fake music lesson. He gives Bianca a love letter (disguised as a set of music instructions) while Lucentio (as Cambio) watches and worries that Bianca will like the music tutor instead of him.

• A messenger arrives with news that Bianca has to help Kate prepare for the wedding, so she leaves. 

Works Cited (so that this is not plagiarism):
Shmoop Editorial Team. "The Taming of the Shrew Act 3, Scene 1 Summary."Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 2008. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.

Basically, Bianca is being courted by numerous suitors. In our film, we have taken this simple plot and added many twists from Conan episode 39-40, “Wealthy Daughter Murder Case”. However, instead of Bianca being courted, our film shows Katherine being wooed. If you want to see the original Conan episode, this is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc8I7TN8aAA

Also, for our film we have split it up into 3 sections: Acts 1, 2, and 3 (which is why we have 3 filming days, one for each part).

Another Preview!

This is Erika playing the piano for her "glorious moment" in Act 1. She is playing George, one of Katherine's suitors. In order to woo his love, George plays the piano (badly) as a funny attempt to get Katherine to appreciate him. Even though Erika deliberately played "badly" as her role of George, it sounds to me like a great, sophisticated contemporary piece! (In reality, Erika plays the piano really well :) )

Mr. Truong's Teacher Cameo Experience 3/25

Hello! Today we successfully filmed Mr. Truong's part of the script! Here are the pictures (: Special thanks to Mr. Truong for only collaborating with us.

Mr. Truong, reading over his lines and getting ready to film his part. He is Katherine's father, who doesn't show up on her birthday. Instead, he calls (apologetically) to say he can' t make it to Katherine's party.

This "glare" of Mr. Truong's is golden :P

A Little Film Crashing?

After school today, we encountered another film group working on their project. Hope these pictures bring a little bit of laughter to your life! (Special thanks to Alexander, Ethan, Shalin, Eddy, Ashwin, and Spencer for letting us crash into your filming heh...and sorry if we disrupted you guys for some time)

Mr. Parker's Teacher Cameo Experience 3/23

These are pictures from Mr. Parker's cameo today!

Mr. Parker posing for his close-up! :P

Mr. Parker excited to hit Jin (Conan) on the head with a Precalc textbook! Mwahaha (No worries, he did not actually hit Jin)

Mr. Parker "hitting" Conan afterschool with Meghan filming.

Teacher Cameos!

Hi everyone! Lately, we have been going to teachers to ask if they were willing to be a cameo and got a few teachers to say yes! On our cast as extras we have gotten Mr. Myovich, Mr. Parker, Mr. Truong, and Mr. Shenton to agree to do small parts for us. On Monday, March 21, we filmed Mr. Myovich's cameo. Unfortunately, the sound on the camera did not work for some odd reason, so we refilmed it on Tuesday, March 22, after school in Mr. Myovich's classroom. On Wednesday, March 23rd (today), we filmed Mr. Parker's cameo after school. Tomorrow, March 24th, we are planning to film Mr. Truong's part. This is a chart of the cameos we have as of now:

Cameo Chart

Character Name:	Role:	Person to be the Cameo:
1. Katherine’s dad  - Mr. Baptista	On the phone w/ Katherine	Mr. Truong
2. Random servant/maid	Discovers that the tires of some cars have been punctured	Helen (Sally's sister)
3. Bianca	No lines Makes appearance in Backstory 2 - falls in water	Undecided
4. Professor Brown	Gives Conan his watch & bowtie in Backstory 1	Mr. Shenton
5. News Reporter	During the TV scene in Act 2 Scene 5, will be the reporter on screen talking about the fall of USSR	Mr. Myovich
6. Man in Black	During Backstory, comes up behind big Conan & hits him on the head	Mr. Parker

Filming, Day 2 Pictures

Sorry this was posted a little later than I had hoped!

Jin, Sally, and Emily discussing the scene before filming.

Emily playing on her DS while relaxing on the sofa during our short breaks.

Meghan taking videos during our outdoor scene!

Meghan (Harry) doing "push-ups" to woo Katherine. (This is a refilm from Act 1 because we wanted to make Act 1 more funny with the glorious moments of the suitors)

Sally (Detective Moore) reviewing her lines.

Erika (Rachel) looking for sugar to put in tea during our filming of Act 2, Scene 2.

Jin (Conan) holding the teacups (she looks like a waiter haha).

Sally, Erin, and Jin posing during our outdoor scene.

Mr. Myovich's Teacher Cameo Experience 3/21 & 3/22

Filming with Mr. Myovich was a special experience because he was much more educated on the topic than we were! After viewing his script he was able to put in his money's worth of knowledge about the fall of the USSR and help us make his part even more realistic! Thank you, Mr. Myovich!

Reporter Walter Cronkite (Mr. Myovich) hard at work!
"And that's the way it is."

Filming, Day 2!

Hello! We have successfully completed Act 2 today! This scene was much easier to film because it was shorter and the scenes didn't have many parts where we had to have Sally and Erika switch costumes as often as the first act! Uploads of pictures and videos are coming soon! Together everyone achieves more~

Ode to the Camera (Inspired by Pablo Neruda?)

-Focus in on what's important.
-Pictures are worth a thousand words.
-Take another shot if it's not the captured one.

Throwback Thursday

Scout Chung has always encouraged us to use our "famous" Hollywood depth and complexity icons. As a tribute, today's Throwback Thursday is on connections to our childhood. Do you remember the numerous (or few if you weren't a prolific reader/extreme fan of mysteries) mystery novels you read as a child? Nancy Drew, Cam Jansen, A to Z Mysteries, The Boxcar Children, and many more? Or detective movies and TV shows? #tbt

Itinerary

Incorporating all 5 W's to planning out details!
Who: All members
What: Costumes, scripts, film equipment
Where: Sally's house
When: 4:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Why: Filming, Day 1 (March 13, 2016)

Who: All members
What: Costumes, scripts, film equipment
Where: Sally's house
When: 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Why: Filming, Day 2 (March 20, 2016)

Who: All members
What: Costumes, scripts, film equipment
Where: Sally's house
When: 4:50 PM - 6:35 PM
Why: Filming, Day 3 (March 31, 2016)

Additional Pictures

Because pictures are golden memories to treasure. 

George (Erika) looking sleek!

Grandmother (Erin) helping Conan (Jin) with his bowtie (They look like husband and wife haha O_o)

Bringing out the wine cups

Appreciation for our wonderful producer ♥

Peter (Emily) looking cool and deep in thought.

Detective Moore (Sally) chilling out and getting drunk (on coconut water lol)

PREVIEW :)

:) This is a sneak peak at one of our scenes! It was taken from my phone camera (which isn't very good quality) since my camera ran out of battery :( One of the things we learned from filming today was: Bring extra batteries! Chargers!! Filming really takes long and without these things one could end up delaying filming entirely.

PS. This was just my taking for blog references. Meghan, our video producer, actually used professional equipment to take a much better quality one of this same scene for our official film.

Focus: Act 1 Pictures

Erin, playing Grandmother, hard at work crocheting!

Jin (as Conan), Sally (as Katherine), Erika (Rachel), and Erin (Grandmother) discussing and preparing for the scene.

Sally (Katherine) putting on makeup.

Emily (Peter) savoring the wine all by herself (Just kidding, this is a disclaimer- it is coconut water and NOT wine!)

Erika (George), Sally (Detective Moore) and Meghan (Harry) going over lines before filming.

Filming, Day 1!!!!!

Hi everyone! I just got home with the greatest news. We had a busy day with filming and have now completed all of Act I of the Murder Mystery! It was a great learning experience working out how to video and film stage. I will now be uploading a few sneak peeks at our film and many pictures!

We're Made Up Of Our Past

Remember your past! Be grateful for the technology you have now that many didn't in the 1990's! (:

The Infamous Red Bowtie!

Historical Introduction

We have picked a historical era! Our spin-off to Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew is going to take place in the 1990's rather than during the Elizabethan era.

Mad Mysteries

Today, we dive into a deeper understanding of this new film. Now revealing our persona whom we will be basing our main character off of, from our previous hint, his name is the famous detective Conan! Conan may look young, but he has a more interesting backstory than you would think. For those who are fans of Conan, we hope you like our spin-off. For those who have never seen an episode, it wouldn't hurt to Google and watch an episode or two (or many, once you get obsessed! :) )