 Good evening, and welcome back to another video. If you haven't heard it already, I have some good news to share with you. A couple of weeks ago, I joined Mani Hapoe's film festival that had 1952 submission. I submitted my short film, The Hacker, and this is what happened. In fourth place, we have Bennett Grazer, it was this hacker getting important stuff about Corona, a little short film, super creative, especially since pretty much all of it has been shot in the same spot. Really interesting storytelling, very much enjoyed it. Good job, Bennett. Fourth place is yours. This is just amazing, and I don't know what to say other than thank you so much for the opportunity. I'm really happy that it was well received by the audience. That tells me that I'm going the right direction as a filmmaker and storyteller. So once again, big thanks to all of the people that watched the video and showed their appreciation by commenting on it. That is something that really motivates me and keeps the channel running. If you're wondering what I did with the 500 bucks, I immediately spent it on a quality studio light. All right, guys, so let's get into the behind the scenes of how I shot The Hacker video. Download. What inspired me to create the short film in the first place was the effect that Peter Linger used in his speed ramp video. It actually wasn't Maddie's film festival that wanted me to do that because ironically, I finished the video before I even heard of Maddie's challenge. But thanks anyway, Maddie, for the opportunity. Since everybody was creating videos at home during the lockdown, I thought of doing one myself with that cool effect, which is a third party plugin that is called M-HUD 3. This effect is only available for Final Cut Pro users. And if you want to buy it, that will cost you 100 bucks. I started out by brainstorming a few ideas. Everything starts with one idea. Once I had the idea, the next thing I did was writing down a script for the quarantine short story. I wanted to make sure that there was a beginning, middle and end. The story had to be simple enough that only required one person. I had gone over the script a couple of times and I wasn't really satisfied with the outcome. But I thought to myself that nothing is perfect, so I just went with the script I had. And if I wanted to, I could still reshoot parts of it. The next thing I did was preparing the set design. For this, I looked up different pictures on Google on how a hacker should look like. I specifically looked at how the hacker was clothed, how the scene was lit, and what props they used in order to make the story more realistic. After I set up the whole scene, I started to move things around in the apartment. I was thinking of creating a set that would look like a secret hideout where the hacker would execute his plans. For this, I have simply set up a table with a laptop and Alexa beside it, who, like in real life, plays a virtual assistant AI. The walkie-talkie symbolizes control and sort of keeps track of the police giving the scene more tension. I wore my dominance hoodie, shout out to my old crew dominance and a store mask, which fit perfectly. I actually had filmed everything before with a different setup just to do some testing. This is how it looked like at first. Analyzing coronavirus. Analyzing complete. Cena is the antidote. Initiating download. I just didn't like the lighting and the setup with the two computers. It really made it hard to integrate the effects. I wanted a setup that was simple and had better lighting. So the next day, I created a new setup and started to film. For the key light, I have set up a daylight close to the table to illuminate the hacker's face. I added a honeycomb on top of the softbox to create a more focused lighting. I added a small tungsten fill light, the desk lamp functions as a practical light in the background. I then decided to place the walkie-talkie under the lamp to make it look more interesting. Also, by the entrance, I placed an LED light to give the scene more depth. The outcome was better and I was much more satisfied with the lighting and the set design. What I still wasn't happy about was the ending. I wanted an ending that would leave the audience thinking sort of like what will happen next. So I rewrote the script and filmed the ending the next day, which came out pretty good. Sometimes you need to do multiple takes in order to get the shot you want. The hardest part was filming myself. Preferably, if your camera has a flip-out screen, then it would be much easier to film yourself. Since the A73 doesn't have one, I used an external monitor to check myself and the framing. I used my obito stand to set the composition and focus. This is probably the hardest part and took me the most time. I always had to check the shot and retake it if I was out of focus. For the table shot where the hacker was sitting, I used the autofocus expand flexible spot to set the focus bone on my face. This worked out pretty well since my face was well lit. I used the rule of thirds to set my composition. What you want to look for when setting your composition is foreground, mid-ground and background so that you have more depth in your shot. I wanted to capture as many angles as possible to make the scene more dynamic and have more room when editing in post. I created a master shot where I captured the entire scene from start to finish, starting off with a wide angle, then repositioned the camera and filmed everything from a medium shot. After that, I played around and tried out different shots. Don't be afraid to experiment around. This is where you can get really creative. It's hard to create camera movement when filming yourself, unless you have some motorized slider or gimbal. In my case, I wanted to keep it simple and focus myself more on the story. Since all of the shots were static, I was able to create smooth push in or handheld like shots in post. For the audio, I used the road wireless go. This came in very useful as I was able to move around, capture ambient noise, as well as my voice. For the lines with Alexa, I memorized the dialogue and acted in a way that would fit the scenery. Fuck! The police is behind my ass! For the robotic voice, I used an online computer voice converter that I would then edit into the scene. To make the story even more realistic, a lot was done in sound design, especially to match the special effects like the hologram or me connecting the USB stick or the door exploding scene in the end. This is how it would sound like without the sound effects. And now with Music and sound are very important factors to consider when making your short story. So don't neglect that. Overall, this was a great experience and I will probably do more in the future since you guys like it so much. And that was it for today's video. I hope you guys got something out of it. If you have any questions, please let me know. It does take a lot of practice, but you will learn a lot from it. I think this is a really good way to get better at filmmaking. Thanks again for watching. If you haven't subscribed to my channel, please do so. That would really help me. Follow me on Instagram at bennardgrazer and I will see you soon. Goodbye.