Filming Progress Check 1

 Filming Progress Check 1

    Today, my power cable for my monitor arrived today. It came in a very simple box and I took the cables out right away. I tried plugging the cable into my old monitor. As I had hoped for, the cable fits and my monitor is now being used by my brother. I am glad it works again and that we have the necessary equipment to start filming in my room. Clearly we need to set up a date and my environment so it can look professional. I also do need my Fortnite content recorded first because the content will be displayed on our screens when we film in my room. The Fortnite content should take maybe one or two weeks to get all the recordings completed. School will be starting on January 4th and on school days there is not a lot of time I can be playing games.

    Also, I played today with my brother who will be being my duo partner. We tested our recordings, and they look fine. We clipped both of our recordings. I have downloaded both of our recordings of one of the 1v1 fights we did in game to practice. The recordings could look much better. I don't want to ask too much of my brother, though I want for both of us to get a free screen-recorder that records in higher qualities. I could definitely tell that our customized stream settings did not appear in the actual stream. The 1080p and 60 FPS I had put for my stream did not look as well as I expected it to. The video's resolution looked pretty low and the recording had drops in the 60 FPS I wanted. I am glad we can actually record this part of the film easily. It only took me and him to clip this part of the pre-edited film in 15 minutes. Of course when we actually get into public matches, it will take longer. With practice, we can pull off the clips we need without that many problems. I will again blog again tomorrow, see you soon on Happy New Years!

                                             Me and my brother's practice duel in Fortnite (1V1)

Social Media Improvements

 Social Media Improvements

    Today, I figured it would be a great idea to work on the studio's social media. I decided to post a picture of myself, one of the two main actors, on the studio's Instagram, nirascreationhub. This is my first post on there and providing more content to my audience is a great way to connect better with them. I would have been blogging about my monitor more today, but unexpectedly I realized that my new power cable will be coming tomorrow. I have checked a few times out my door expecting a delivery today. I also have come across the absence of a logo for the film. Some films have their own logo, and it would look nice for my film to have one as well. Also the studio's logo needs a new profile picture on social media because it does not look professional enough in my opinion. Overall, my Instagram is looking better, though I also have to start Tweeting more and posting on Facebook. I will post videos on YouTube of things like the teaser trailer, trailer, and maybe a few clips of the film. YouTube is the social media account that I will be posting the least on for my film.

    Next, I have also worked on my website today. Since I posted a picture of myself on Instagram, I put a similar picture up on my studio's website. On the page "Cast and Crew", I put pictures of both myself and my brother on there. We are both the main actors for the film and we both have important roles in the studio. I filled out a description for both of us and we both have our own personal quotes listed there as well. Since the last time I worked on the website was a while ago, I shall work more on the social medias to make my connection to my audience stronger. To my surprise, my website has received interactions. There have been exactly 34 traffic cases in the month of December, which makes it seem like people are getting interested in my film. This is great news, which shows that my work is being noticed by people. My studio's social media will be having more content soon and I will blog yet again tomorrow, see you soon!

Music Choice Selection Progress Check 2

Music Choice Selection Progress Check 2

    Yesterday I mentioned that I would blog about my music choice selection progress today. Here I am with not a lot of new information about it. I had sent an email previously to a band called EMPiRE to ask them if I can use use one of their songs in my short film. It had been sent in English, so I decided to try translating my writing into Japanese via Google Translate. I sent them a new email, which is now in Japanese. I tried making it more formal and to the point, and I hope it worked. I am not even sure if they are the ones I should be contacting, though it was a good idea to send two emails to them. I will be checking my email many times in the next month or two for any response from them. Hopefully, I get a response that at least directs me to what email I should contact for permission to use their song in my film.

    In the last hour, I have also decided to go to the internet for help again. I have sent out a post on Reddit asking for a simple way to get permission to use a copyrighted song in my content. I have listed some specific details on it, though I left the topic broad enough so that I have a higher chance of getting a response. There is also another Q&A website that I use called Quora. I have just now posted the same question there so that I can have more luck in getting the response I want. I definitely believe Quora will provide a better and faster response than Reddit. Until it comes, I will keep on thinking about other songs to use for my film. I am an anime fan, which means I have many good songs in mind that I can try using in my film. I will keep on working on my music choice selection.

    Regarding my filming, my new power cable will be arriving shortly and I hope it works. I will most likely start recording the majority of my Fortnite content tomorrow when I am not busy. I will blog again tomorrow, see you soon!

Filming Setup Completion Progress Check

Filming Setup Completion Progress Check

    Just earlier, I have officially ordered my monitor's power cable. I have blogged before that my old monitor needs a power cable that is currently missing. I took the initiative to check the specifications of what power cable I need and searched online for a good one for around 10-15 minutes. I have found one that suits the port on my old monitor and I ordered it. I really thought that ordering the cable now is a great idea as New Years is around the corner and it would suck if my package contributed to make someone stay away from home for the New Years celebration. It will be coming on Tuesday, which is two days from now, and a few minutes exactly. Now with the cable coming and my old monitor will finally be able to turn on again, I have made progress.

    Regarding the Fortnite content, my friend and I confirmed to each other that he will be able to help me to produce the content. It will go well and I hope the quality of the recordings will look amazing. When I have time next month, I will be surely able to start recording. I need to organize a date, my room, and the specifications of how we look and our equipment.

    Yesterday, I blogged about my music selection progress that ties in with my editing process for my film. So far there has been no feedback on my requests from the producers and publishers of a few songs to be able to use them in my film. I hope I can at least use one or two copyrighted songs that I feel will match my film very much. I shall keep searching for new songs to use and I will keep emailing the necessary people to get permission to use their songs. Recently, I have come across an ad on YouTube about a service that gives you access to unlimited amounts of songs to use for your content by giving you different licenses. It costs money and I am thinking about if I should use it. I really am not sure if when my possible subscription to it ends, my license for permission to use copyrighted songs in my content ends as well. I will find out more information and if it seems reasonable, I shall use it if I really need it. Until the time comes when I really need to edit my film and I have a deadline coming up, I shall continue sending out emails for copyright access for songs. Overall, I think the progress I am making is a little bit slow, though it shall surely speed up when I get more good news on my music selection for my film. I will keep you updated again tomorrow, good bye!

The Start of my Filming

 The Start of my Filming

    I have successfully started to film. Today I wanted to start filming something, at least the Fortnite content. I had asked my friends if they would be interested in helping out with this portion of the film. One of them, hopefully, will now be helping me to move on with the trial stage of filming. I had started the game and I checked my storyboard for what content I should be recording. The first thing I put was myself being eliminated in the game. Eventually, as I went into a game, I got eliminated. I recorded 9 minutes and 28 seconds of content and I only needed the last 10 seconds of the recording. When I get into the editing process is when I will be editing my recordings. I play Fortnite at 75 frames per second, because my monitor can't support more than that. Though, Fortnite is actually pushing for 120 frames per second because of my settings. This can cause "screen-tears" so that the recording may look weird. I checked the recording, and the main thing that popped out to me was the choppiness of it. The FPS, frames per second, on it is most likely 30 FPS. This would look terrible when I film myself playing the game.

    Luckily, I know of another way of filming, through my Twitch streams. I can stream my game onto Twitch in 1080p and 60 FPS, which is what I want. When I finish streaming, I can download my stream and save it. I tested out this feature and I streamed in 720p and 60 FPS. When I finished the stream, and checked it over, it looked better than the other recording in terms of FPS. The resolution was not high enough, so when I will switch it to 1080p, it will look amazing. So far I have successfully completed my trial stage of filming and will now begin to film as the days go on. I am more relieved now to be past the trial stage and I can now start filming. I will blog more about other news relating to the music content soon, stay tuned!

(This is a screenshot of my Twitch recording for the test run on the quality of the video)

Preparing to Film Update 2

 Preparing to Film Update 2

    I have been checking my Gmail constantly to see if any of the YouTube channels and music creators/publishers responded to my requests for copyright permission. None of them have responded, which made me a little bit worried. I then took some time of my day to go on one of the songs that I believe would match my film really well. I checked the publishing company and both of them are from the Asia region I believe so I could not find them online to contact. I then went on the band's website to see if I could contact them and there I found their contact. It was in Japanese so I had to translate the page, and when I did, I saw that I could send them an email. I wrote out my message, put in my contact info, and I sent it. Hopefully they respond and hopefully allow me to use their song. I do not want to use the complete song, I only want to use the instrumental version of it. I commented under the instrumental version of the song on YouTube, though there was no response until now so I went and personally emailed the band, EMPiRE. Hopefully they respond soon and that my message will be read well because I sent it in English, not in Japanese.
    Regarding my monitor situation, I have looked online for a new power cord I could use. I noticed that I have one of the pieces to the full cord, and that the other piece may just be something that I missed. I need this cable to make the monitor turn on so my brother can use it in the film. If I don't find it soon I will need to order a new cable. I really need to film soon so I can fix anything that does not look good before I can not fix it anymore. I will continue planning who will play the games and how it will go. I will continue to request songs to use earlier on so I can get their permission to use their music hopefully on time. My brother has to practice Fortnite on a controller still. I will keep my progress preparing to film as time goes on, I will blog tomorrow!

Preparing for Filming

    Preparing for Filming

    My filming process has not started yet, so I am still preparing to film when I am ready to. Recently, I have been setting up a few things around my room to start filming. In my storyboard, I have drawn my room and my brother has his own gaming setup on his desk. I pulled out my old monitor last night trying to set up his setup, though I could not find the power cord to it. I checked in my closet, drawers, boxes, and cabinets for it and I have not been able to find it. I remember I wrapped it up a few months ago and put it somewhere. I am not going to be buying a new monitor for my film when I have one already, so maybe I will find it or buy a new power cord. I already have my Xbox 1 X ready for my brother to use, though he has to know how to actually play on it. I have been playing Fortnite again recently and my skills are the same as before, mediocre. To make my gameplay look good, I should get better at the game first. I also need to record my gameplay. I already have my recording software ready, though my game isn't running as well as it used to. I will go over my settings and make it run at 70 fps rather than 60 fps so it can look better.

    The Xbox gameplay is already excellent and it can record a lot already, so I that is good. Once my brother learns how to play Fortnite on Xbox, we will be ready to start filming. I will most likely start filming in January after break and after we are both ready. Until then, I need to plan some more as my film will not look identical to the scenes in the storyboard as the gameplay is random. Hopefully my brother will be good at playing on controller, so I won't have to change the plot that much. I am also wondering which camera to use because my phone camera is not as good as it used to be. My mom has an awesome phone with a crisp camera, so maybe I can use hers. All these ideas and things will become organized sometime next month.