Freesia Lockheart's Blog, page 11

Do-It-Yourself Trailers (My Wattpad Diary 4)

I’m a do it yourself person. I love trying out stuff and figuring out how things work. And because of that, I learned how to make trailers too. I first did this when I was in college. Our group doesn’t have excess money to spend on getting our mini-movie for literature edited. So I kind of volunteered in editing instead of acting and such. It was hard at first, for like the the first few days of figuring out how the Movie Maker works. But after I got to know everything, it became a lot easier.

That’s how everything works at first. It’s hard and intimidating. But you’ll never learn unless you try, right?

So here I’ll show you all how to use the Movie Maker and create your own trailer. Here’s my fourth addition to my Wattpad diary and I hope this will help all those wattpadders who are asking me how I make those trailers.

In this blog, I’ll talk about making clips and trailers for your story. Don’t expect me to discuss complicated and totally pro clips or ads. I only make simple trailers that I’m sure everyone can easily do on their own.

First, in order to make a trailer or clip, you need to have a theme. It’s like attending a wedding or your friend’s birthday bash. A theme makes the whole thing a bit special and extraordinary.

Theme Song

Background music creates the mood for your story. It speaks, in its own way, what your story will be about. So in choosing the song, select one that will be appropriate for your story. Or better if you have a particular song that inspired the whole story plot you have in mind, like the way I do most of the time.

I’ll show you some examples:

ღ Humor Story about a jock who is so full of himself.

“King of Anything” by Sara Bareilles

ღ Romance Story about a guy who fell in love with a dying girl.

“Tonight” by Fm Static

ღ Science Fiction about a girl falling in love with a superbug.

“Decode” by Paramore

ღ Action Story about a girl who was kidnapped and fell in love with her kidnapper.

“My Immortal” by Evanescence

ღ Teen Fiction about a nerdy girl and a hot guy next door.

“You Belong With Me” by Taylor Swift

I know you guys have more appropriate songs in mind, but that’s the best I can come up with haha. Okay, so when you have the theme song, you can now decide whether to use a certain part of it, the whole length of the song, or a mash-up of different ones. It’s all up to you.

For me, I use a certain part of it like two verses and the chorus since most of my trailers are only one or two minutes long. And it works better that way, I found out, rather than doing the whole song itself.

Theme of the Story

Think what the story’s about. If it’s dark, make the colors or background images/clips eerie. When you’re making a light and humorous story, play with the pastel colors. It just needs to be in accordance to the story itself. Remember that your trailer introduces your story. You don’t want to scare readers by creating a spooky trailer with mysterious vibes oozing all around it when your story is about summer love with humor as the main category.

Clips

When you’re finished finalizing the themes of your story. It’s time to choose clips that you’ll use. I use movies since I have tons of them being a pronounced movie addict myself. I use the ones I think suit the story I’m creating.

In example, for Like Yesterday, I have chosen the movie Soul Surfer because the story is about a very inspirational surfer, Bethany Hamilton. And being a surfer, the movie was set in a beach which I needed in creating the summer love-hate story of Jace and Reese. There are other clips I used, like random videos of Josh Hutcherson, to bring Jace to life as well.

Another example is the one for Getting It Straight. The first clip is from Sydney White, where the lead girl is a redhead, sort of. And Fiona is an original redhead. Then for the middle part, there’s Prom, Step Up 2, and still Sydney White because they were the ones I found to have clips who showed school happenings. And of course, there was Ariana Grande’s music video, Put Your Hearts Up, which I really loved and used as well because Ariana was listed as the Fiona in the cast.

In choosing the clips to use, picture your story in your mind. If it will be made into the movie, what are the things that you want to show in the trailer? Will it be a scene at the beach? Or probably, it could be lockers, boards, chemistry lab, where some scenes from your story will take place. Or if you’re creating a mystery, it can be something like silhouettes of creepy guys following someone. Create a visualization in your head and choose some clips from movies you’ve watched before that can be used for it.

Captions and Sequence

Your trailer needs to have a story. What do you want to say to your viewers? The captions can be the summary of your story or a totally different stuff. It can be words exchanged by the leads that will be the highlight of the story later on. Or if you want, you can make something like a teaser.

Here’s an example:

I don’t want you to go. (caption 1)

Clip of a girl looking at her window.

I don’t think I can. (caption 2)

The girl turns around.

But you told me you have to.

You said you have to. (caption 3)

She started walking.

And if by going you’ll find what you’re looking for, (caption 4)

She curls up in bed.

then I’ll have no choice but to let go. (caption 5)

She hugs her pillow.

I’ll let go, even if all I wanted to do is hold on. (caption 6)

She cries.

It can be something like that. Either ways, it has to follow a sequence, like the captions themselves can stand on their own.

And that’s about it. Those are the elements you needed in making a trailer. Next, we’ll talk about creating the trailer itself. For this one, you need a program or an application that you can use. Here’s the one I use: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-live/movie-maker-get-started

All aboard. Now we’re ready. Let’s go and create a trailer!

1. Upload the clips you wanted to use using the Add Videos/Photos option. The first feature we’ll use is the Video Tools. There are several things you must take note here.

SPLIT – Use this to split a whole video clip into pieces. It’s like cutting your favorite cake and getting the slice you wanted.

SPLITTER – First, put this where you want your clip to begin. Click SPLIT. Then, put it a the end of the clip you have chosen to use. Clikc SPLIT. And ola, there you have your piece of cake, I mean clip!

Do this until you get all the clips you wanted to use for the trailer. Go and grab all those pieces of cake!

2. Add the Music

In the Home button, choose this option. Just click it and choose the song you wanted to use. When you’re done, your screen  should look like this and you should be working under the Music Tools option.

3. Add more clips, photos, or even your story cover. Like for example, this clip you also wanted to use is in another movie, then just add it and slice slice until you got everything.

When you’re satisfied and have all you needed, you can now head on to the story telling proper.

4. Add the captions.

5. Click Visual effects and add some glamour to your clips.

6. Make transitions. Transitions are like entrance effect seen when switching one clip to another. It’s like the design of the door leading you to the next room. To do this, click on Animations. Also, included in this option are some effects you can apply to the clips, like for example, zoom it to the left or right, make it move from top to bottom, etc.

7. When you’re finished, click the Home button again and save your video! That’s it! You’re done and ready to display your trailer for all to see. 【ツ】

εїз Thank you for reading!!  Until next time! Just tell me what you guys want me to make a blog about. εїз

Coming out soon…

Coming out soon.

3 Steps on How to Make Your Story “Famous” (My Wattpad Diary 3)

You have a very nicely written story and you’re 100% confident that you deserve a spot in the What’s Hot List! You’ve read and reread all the stories there and wondered when will it be the time for you to shine. So how do you get there? Well, it’s easy. You only need to do these three steps and you’ll be on your way to Wattpad Stardom. Wait, shouldn’t we be asking skatergirl or kirsty for this one? But for those who asked me how I came out of the world of the unknowns, here’s how.

1. On the upper part of your screen there’s a certain button named “Community”. From the drop down box, you just need to press the button called “Clubs”.

Okay, don’t panic. We’re not heading to doom. It’s not the end of the world (flashback of awful read for read bargain, people ignoring you or just spamming your stories, etc.). Keep calm and eat a chocolate marshamallow (like me) and we’ll be clubbing the right way.

2. In the clubs, there’s the featured ones at your right. From there, you can already see the one that can land you a spot in the coveted WHL (What’s Hot List). It’s there. Your eyes are not deceiving you. It’s really there. Don’t you see the sparkles and butterflies flying around it?

No? Maybe you want to look again.

So there you see it. Yes, this is your lucky ticket to the ride that can change your life.

3. And so here comes the moment when you have to do some kind of ritual. You need to stretch your fingers, get a comfy pillow, relax your eyes for a minute or two, and ready, set, go!

Why do all those?

Do you know the saying that goes…

(Disclaimer: This image is not mine. It belongs to its respective owner.)

And that is why you need to do all those. We will be doing some actions for the next few days, weeks, and even months. It’s a long journey, not a detour.

By now, I assumed that you already followed the three magical steps. You’re there! You already arrived at the starting line. Now it’s time to get into action. A few of you must be familiar with all this. You must have frequent the clubs before, stayed there for a moment, got fed up, or don’t have an idea what I am talking about. Just put into your mind: Clubs. Can’t picture it? I tried thinking of a cafe before. Coffee… smells good!

Okay, enough coffee talk. Let’s go clubbing!

How do you get your story known in Wattpad? Most of the time, it doesn’t happen by sitting in front of the computer and refreshing your profile page and waiting for one person at the other side of the globe who is fond of fanning other people to fan you. And by fanning you, you think that they’ll choose your story among the three thousand other people that they fanned. Good news is, you can end the misery of waiting by doing some actions yourself.

The clubs serve many purposes. One, it is basically for interaction among Wattpadders. Get out of your comfy zone and press one of the links. Be friendly. Talk to people. They don’t bite and there will be Wattpad Ninjas who will guide you. You really need to ,’cause two, it provides all you need to get yourself and your story known.

Advertising. That’s the plan. You need to advertise your story in the clubs. Share your story club is the only place where you could do it (I think). So really, you’re in the right spot. All you need to do is to get started.

I’m not joking when I said that I started there too. If I can remember it correctly, I did the Read for Read thing first. In Read for Read (R4R), there are several things you must remember. First, read what was asked of you. If she asked for the stars, give it to her. Okay, just kidding. I mean if she asked for you to put the word ‘marshmallow’ in your comment on her story, do it. That’s a sign that you’re paying attention to what she said and not randomly spamming her story and hoping that she will not notice. We all have that second instinct that tells us when a person is being sincere or not. Insincerity leads to you being ignored (and sometimes hated). You don’t want that, right? So do it the correct way. If you want them to read your books, then read theirs too. Back to the saying above, life is an echo.

It’s sweat and blood, but you have to work hard for it.

Here’s how I did mine before:

Make your advertising alluring. Draw attention. So maybe you’ll ask how I did this. For the image, why don’t you sign up on http://photobucket.com/. From there, when you upload an image, you can see a link wherein you can paste it in your comment and hola! your image will appear. You just need to copy and paste it to your comment.

Then add the title of your story and probably a summary.

Remember to be attentive to what the one who made the thread asked for. If she said no horrors, vamps, and wolves, don’t advertise your next phenomenal Twilight-alike story there or your story that talks about how hot those wolf guys are. If you’re doing a romance story, pick a reader who wants to read a romance story. If she’s into something dramatic or probably a tearjerker story, then give her something Jodi Picoult-like. Pay attention and don’t randomly copy and paste your advertisement everywhere. You’re clubbing and not party crashing.

And p.s. don’t do the vote for vote thing. I think it’s still illegal and you might end up hearing from Gav (aka Ninja Master). If you’re starting a thread/discussion yourself, just do the read for read. Vote if the story deserves it. Comment and let your presence be known. If you must criticize, make a constructive criticism and not harsh commentaries.

Keep in mind that a portion of what you give is what you will receive, not the whole package so exert some extra effort. Do some more finger stretching and puff up yourself for tons of stories to read and give commentaries to. Wipe off the sweat and say to yourself, “I’ll get there soon! I can do this! I won’t give up!”

Motivate yourself!

Other types of advertisments that you could make use of are cover making offers. I once did that too. Here, take a look:

I already forgot how many covers I made when I did this several months ago. But the list is long so that’s plenty. If you have cover making skills, you can also make use of this.

I think there are several more others. You can browse the club and see what you can find. Don’t ignore it. The clubs are there for a purpose. Just think that you’d be entering a cafe, buying your favorite cup of coffee, and will read a book that will sweep you off your feet. It’s likely that you’ll find a gem in that place, the same one you’re advertising yourself.

So what are you waiting for? Click!

Cover Making (Wattpad Diary 2)

So many of my readers are asking if I make my own covers. Yes, I do make them. Next question is where. Previously, when the site it still running, I used Picnik . That’s one of my favorite websites. And gladly, when the ants invaded them, they presented a new one created by the same amazing engineers. Kudos to you guys. And it’s no other than http://www.picmonkey.com/. So further more, some asked how do I make them? Well, that’s somewhat hard to explain in words. So instead of telling you guys how, I’d show you instead.

First off, you have to find a picture. For this one, I use http://favim.com/. Someone also recommended http://weheartit.com/ to me. I haven’t used it yet. Either one, you just need a picture. So in choosing your picture, ask yourself, what will your story be about. Of course, you can’t put spaceships in your cover if you’re gonna do a story about let’s say a nerd and a jock, unless they’re in NASA or something. So if it’s about candies, then search a picture of candies. Sometimes, listing keywords can also help.

Before, when I offered free cover making I always ask the one requesting for at least five keywords for his/her story. In that way, I’ll know what pic to use if ever I can’t fully picture out something from the summary. So maybe your keywords are candies, teddy bears, flowers, etc. Then use those same keywords to search for a picture. Somehow, a decent pic that will catch your attention will appear.

I’d like to make the current cover of Getting It Straight as the example but I can’t seem to find the feature that I used in order to lighten up the color. I used Picnik for that one. And sadly, there’s no Picnik now. The lead girl is a gender bender. But finding one pic like that is hard. So I searched for school uniform and I found this one:

But instead of using that as the example I’ll use this pic of Ariana Grande who will play the role of Fiona Pearce.

So we have an image, next step is to find a user friendly editing site. It’s easier to create a cover if the site itself is easy to use. So for me, I choose http://www.picmonkey.com/ (now I sound like some PokeMaster here). So first, you have to upload your image. And then crop it. It’s easier to do this now than later. In this way, you can balance things out just right.

In cropping your image, it’s somewhat safe to not put the center image in the ‘center’. Confusing? Why? If the image is in the center, where will you put your title? Unless your title is on the most upper part or down down, it’s safe to put your image on the side and the title adjacent to it. You don’t want to put your title directly to your center image. It will ruin the whole thing. You’re like putting cheese over cheese (I don’t think I make any sense, haha). It’s something like this:

So here’s how I did mine, I put Ariana on the side to leave just enough space for my title.

So now that we have the image, it’s time to play with colors. Now go to the flask at your left. From there, you choose any effect you want. Or if you don’t want to, you can skip it. So for this, I choose Orton and adjusted the features (Bloom, Brightness, Fade). Don’t hesitate to try. There’s always the undo and even the redo button below. So when you’re satisfied with it, you can now proceed to putting your title.

Of course, in every good cover, the title’s always emphasized. So how can you emphasized it well? For me, I use the technique of adding a background to the words to make it more readable. Remember, your reader do not see a whole 300×500 image. They’re only seeing a thumbnail. So picture your title to be readable at a thumbnail size. If you’re having trouble reading them while editing, then expect it to be a lot worse when you use it in Wattpad. So as I said, I put backgrounds for the title.

I read this thing before, there’s also the so called Right hand or Left hand perspective. If you’re right handed, you prefer to look at things that are placed at the right side and vice versa. Since the greater part of the population are right handed, maybe it’s safe to choose right over left. So why not apply it to your titles? I think it helps sometimes. But yeah, it’s still up to you. So here’s mine:

Here’s a tip in choosing what colors to use. Look at the picture. In my pic, Ariana is wearing a shirt with blue stripes, thus the blue box. And her lips are pink, thus the pink box. The yellow box is from the color of the straps of her shoes and the green box is from the color reflected in her eyes. In that way, you’re not using contradicting colors. Another technique is remembering the color combination which you learned during elementary.

If you’re unsure, it’s always safe to use black, gray, or white. Those colors match everything. There’s also the technique called fade wherein you lighten the background.

Just remember that if your background is of a light color or you faded it, be sure to use full colored wordings. And vice versa. If you have a dark colored background, use lighter fonts.

So next stop, we put the words. Choose what you like. Tips: If your story is humorous, use a fun font. If your story is a historical fiction with some serious themes, then use a heavy cursive thing or stuff. And then, don’t forget to accessorize. You can’t go to a party without a pair of earrings or a necklace.

In accessorizing, there’s one golden rule. Too much is ugly and too little is dull. So how do you get it right? Balance it. It’s like you’re dressing up. Five bracelets in one hand doesn’t look good, right? It’s the same. Look at this:

See? There’s a heavy feeling around the cover. And you don’t want that to happen to yours.

Some other tips? Try experimenting.

Here’s my final cover:

So that’s how I do covers and some tips from a non-pro. Hope it helps. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below.

❤ lots,

Freesia Lockheart

Link for Getting It Straight: http://www.wattpad.com/4431713-getting-it-straight

A Million Milestone (My Wattpad Diary 1)

It all starts with something.

I remember the time when Wattpad came into my life. It was around early 2011 and I was looking for a site wherein I could read free stories. And then a very peculiar orange W sign appeared. Read what you like. Share what you write. The motto was plain and simple. And so I installed the application in my phone and started browsing it. And it took me two minutes of utter confusion before I hurriedly pressed the button which said Quit.

A few more months after that, I was talking to a friend. That person asked me what I was doing. I said I was reading. And then that someone told me, Why don’t you write, you read way too much. It was probably because every time that same person asked me what I was doing, it so happened that I was reading a book. But then those words somehow made a difference. It was like a snap in front of my face. And I was like, Yeah, why don’t I start writing again?

I started writing when I was twelve. Being an anime fan back then, I was fond of girls having super powers and saving the world. If I could remember it right, my first completed story was about four girls who had elemental powers – Earth, Fire, Water, and Light. You might ask why Light and not Air. Well, yours truly was fond of lights so I couldn’t help but make the last girl as Light. And so I finished that story and then threw it away. What? Yes, I threw it away out of frustration. It was really a crap. A real one.

And so from that day on, I never wrote again. I didn’t believe that I could actually create something good. I lacked confidence, thinking I wasn’t good enough. And I had a long list of other excuses, more on that later (like in the next paragraph). There were times when I felt like I wanted to write again, when ideas came into my mind and I shoved them away, and some other things. But thinking that I would only end up writing ‘craps’, I didn’t dare make one again. I wrote poems and random stuff but never a story.

And those words, that simple suggestion made me recall my forgotten dream, that is, to be a writer. And so ten years after throwing my first book, I started writing again. I had no clue what I was doing. I only read books. I’d never paid that much to my English classes before. I was only fond of literatures back then. And the degree I was holding was far from creative writing. If memorizing microorganisms and studying blood chemistry would make my English better, I’d never have to worry about my crappy grammar. And also, English is not my first language. I seldom use it in a day. But you might ask, why not write in my own language? It’s because I’m even worse at it, how ironic, huh?

But then, despite all those excuses, I’d decided to give it a try again. One thing that I learned in my college days was that you couldn’t say that it was impossible unless you give it a try. Science shows endless possibilities. And somehow, it also applies to life. So after a long shot of writing slumber, I started writing again.

When I first made my Wattpad account, my story was limited to my own language. I was starting This Heart of Mine at that time. I had 200 reads and twentiesh votes. And at that time, I wanted to transfer to the English language and make a new account (I wasn’t informed about the existence of support.wattpad.com at that time so I wasn’t able to ask them about it). And those 200 reads took me forever to give up. I’m serious. It meant the whole world to me at that time. Those 20 people I saw reading per chapter was everything. I counted days before I got the courage to give up that account and start again.

And five stories later, Like Yesterday has 1M reads now. It never occurred to me that this is even possible, swear! It’s like an unattainable dream. I have no idea how people in the What’s Hot List get those many reads. But things do happen, dreams can come true. It’s all yours to take. And as the saying goes, never let the odds keep you from doing what you want. So for all of you who are saying those same things that I told myself before, it’s time for you to trust your gut instinct that you can make it work. ‘Cause chances are, you can.

Thank you for you who’s who reading this. And for everyone who loved and supported and enjoyed Like Yesterday, thank you all! That 1M reads would still be impossible if not for all of you.

Hugs,

Freesia Lockheart

p.s. I kinda enjoyed sharing my Wattpad experience to you all. So maybe I’d do more next time. I’ll try answering common questions that I receive in my inbox each day. If you want to ask me anything, feel free to do so.

One sunny day, I’ve decided to blog ✿

Let’s start this blog with the clichéd ABOUT ME:

Freesia Lockheart is also known as Marijo Esperanzate in real life. She’s living in one of the tropical islands in an archipelago located somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Often times, you’ll see her going out in the morning for work, and comes back home before the sun sets, or at times, after it settles down. And during weekends, she goes to church and spends the rest of the day sleeping… uhmm… she means writing.

She graduated with a degree in Medical Technology, far from being a writer. But after years of ‘soul searching’, she finds out that what she really wants is to be a writer.A scientist by heart, she loves trying out new things, as you can see how diverse her writing topics are. She’ll go from humor to historical fiction to fantasy to sappy romances to mysteries. She’ll try anything. She even considers giving sci-fi a go, maybe something that involves viruses or different microorganism mutations since it’s supposed to be her specialty being a medical laboratory scientist herself.

But her favorite will and always be humor and romance stories. She loves to laugh and take things lightly. Tear-jerker stories are not her thing cause she cries easily. But if well-written and done amazingly, she’ll consider giving it a try, once in a while. She’s also into chick-lit stories. She just loves them so much that she can read a book or two in a day without stopping. And she’s also fond of rom-com movies and dramas.

When she’s not writing, she’s probably glued to a book, watching a drama or tv series, chatting with friends, idling around, staring at space, listening to music, or sleeping. Her life is pretty much boring, but she swears she’s having a good time living that way. She’s just a simple person who only wants to enjoy the life that she’s been given.

She has a thing for flowers and she sure loves them so much. For her, they’re the prettiest thing in the world. Being close to nature, she takes care of a fortune bamboo in her room. And they’ve been together for about two years now. And she also has a teddy named Ashe. That’s not her real name but she forgot her real name, that’s why.

She loves being creative, as it is an excuse for doing crazy things without even explaining. It’s an art, she often says. Sometimes her work turns out well, like making a photo frame for her friends from a pot and used notebook wires. She has some other creations that she already forgot about. You’ll probably see them in one of her friend’s room cause she loves giving it to them. Her motto is “If you can make one, why do you have to buy?” And her other motto is, “Nothing’s a trash unless you call it as one.” So there, you can just imagine what she has in her ‘treasure’ box.

Her lifetime wish is to see a shooting star. Growing up with a not so 20-20 vision, her childhood was pretty much a blur, literally. So whenever someone said that there was a shooting star, she just stared blankly at the blurred skies, wishing to see more. Sigh. But she has contact lenses now and she can see well. Kudos to whoever created contact lens. She really doesn’t use her glasses outdoors since she gets dizzy if she steps out of their house wearing one. She tried and she fell down the ground, just kidding! She’s also a klutz at times, unintentionally. But still, it catches attention, like slowly falling down the stairs. It happened to her twice. Slowly, like she knows she’s falling but can’t do a thing about it. Funny, right. Be her friend in real life and you’ll know how crazy she is.

And yes, her friends call her crazy. She’s really a quiet type of person, prefer not to speak. But when she does, she spurts out crazy ideas. They’re just ideas, she often tells herself. But all her friends find them funny. She doesn’t even know why. So at times when she’s not with her group of friends, she refrains herself from speaking what she has in mind. And so other people finds her normal.

Her motto in life is “Only believe”.

She’s just a girl who wants to touch hearts by writing. You can find her works in Wattpad. She has two accounts, for some odd reason that she can’t even explain.

http://www.wattpad.com/freesialockheart

http://www.wattpad.com/user/crossroad

And she hopes to hear from you soon. So don’t hesitate to say hi to her or send her a message. She promises to reply whenever she can