Changes to CCR + Organizing Thoughts

     During class today, we went over the Creative Critical Reflection and I got a better understanding of how it should be. Seeing the examples in class was very helpful for reference on how to produce it all together. I enjoy the aspect of speaking to the camera and then cutting to different visuals. That might make it easier to edit. 

    I decided that I'm going to put a hold on creating the presentation and instead, I'm going to focus on finishing the script, and then I will create the presentation, since I have a couple different ideas and I'm not sure how I'll approach it yet. Oh, also, my internet is STILL out so I'm back at Panera Bread trying to finish this script. 

     The four compulsory questions are my main focus at the moment, so I've been thinking about how I will answer these questions within my CCR.

    For the first question about genre conventions, coming-of-age genres are mainly following the journey of someone who, by the of the movie, will have developed as a person. I think my film opening matches the conventions of this genre since the subsequent plot will show how the main character grew as a person. I do think one way that opening challenges the whole movie industry, is the representation of race. As the main character is Asian, this goes against how Hollywood mainly consists of white people.

    In the second question that talks about target audience and distribution, I'm going to emphasize that my film opening is geared towards teenagers and more specifically girls. For distribution, I would say that my film should be given exposure through film festivals, YouTube, Vimeo, etc.

    The third question is about developed production skills. I'll start by discussing my work with research and storyboarding. My approach to production was planned out well, and filming went pretty smoothly. I would say that editing was a difficult part since some of the shots didn't look as good as I had hoped or I had to shorten the opening through faster-paced editing, and these are some of the major changes I had to make.

    The fourth question talks about the different technology I used. The major software I used would be iMovie, Google Docs, Google Slides, Blogger, and the internet. Some hardware I used is a phone and tripod. I would say some obstacles would be adding text to iMovie, setting up the tripod, etc.

    Then for the ending, I learned a lot about editing and the software I have used. If given the chance, next time, I would maybe try to experiment with another editing software. Finally, a major thing I would try to improve is not procrastinating filming! 

Now that all my thoughts are put together, hopefully, this will make writing the script a lot easier. My next couple of blog posts will be the final ones, a bittersweet moment.

    

    

CCR: Work in Progress

     On my last day of spring break, I went to Panera Bread and I was able to make huge progress on my Creative Critical Reflection. I started to organize my thoughts and the answers to the four questions. I also started the presentation that I will record and have a voiceover too. Just so happens that my internet dropped out today, so I'm at Panera Bread... again while writing this blog and hopefully I can make another huge dent in my CCR. 

    The picture below is a sneak peek of what my presentation process looks like!

    

    I'm nervous to edit this because it is going to be such a pain to have to align the audio since I was thinking of recording the audio first and then separately screen recording the visuals. I know that sounds like making the process more complicated than it actually is, but I feel like I would be too overwhelmed and get frustrated fast if I were to do both at the same time. We will see, I'll try out both ways and see what sticks.

Editing DONE

    Yesterday, I got home from a vacation and finished adding credits to my film opening. This means, that my film opening is done! Of course, I may make minuscule changes as I rewatch it another fifty times, but the overall is finished. 

Adding Credits

    Adding credits to my opening was a lot harder than I expected it to be. I guess I kinda did that to myself because I wanted to tit be a very specific way. Basically, I could have easily used iMovie's text feature, but each title had this really cheesy fade (or other transition) at the beginning and end of the text, which I did not like because it just makes it seem less professional. I tried to find a way to get rid of the transition but I could not find a successful solution, so I found another way to add text. 

    Well, this Youtube video gave me another way to add text. Shoutout to the creator of that tutorial because I would've been stuck for a long time. Although it was slightly annoying, what I had to do was make a Google Slides and write the credits and then make the background green, and then make it a green screen image on iMovie. This had some annoying quirks to it. For example, having to arrange the text in a specific spot so that it would fit in the right place on the actual opening. I also found that saving the slide as a PNG makes the quality slightly poorer than just taking a screenshot of the slide itself, so I had to take a lot of screenshots. Making the credits took a lot of trial and error, but we made it.

Production Name

    I named the production company "Hugo Productions" and you might be wondering where "Hugo Productions" came from, it simply comes from my favorite book "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" by Taylor Jenkins Reid. It's an amazing book, I recommend it to everyone! The name was so fitting, I got paranoid that the name already exists, but a quick Google search proves that the name is authentic. 

What's Next?

    The final piece of the project would be the CCR. I am a little scared for this part because this seems like a bigger job to edit than the film opening. I'm creating a document to attach all my thoughts. I really want to try to use examples from real films like I saw in an example CCR, but we will cross that bridge when we get there.

Editing

    Alright, as I said in my previous posting, the timing is still an issue. I was able to cut it down to 2 minutes and 37 seconds, so if I can somehow find a way to get rid of 7 seconds then I will be golden. I figured out the best way to cut down clips was to make them like jump cuts, I'm trying to use them sparingly but shoutout to whoever created jumpcuts because I would be screwed without them. 

    Like a true professional, I use iMovie to edit. It's just way too tempting. Considering that I basically grew up using iMovie, and the software is so easy to use, I cannot find myself using any other software. I know that if I were to pursue a career in media, then yes, I will move on from iMovie, but for me, a novice, I will stick to what I know (shoutout to Mrs. Stoklosa for engraving that into the brains of all her students). Anyway, the photo below shows the progress I have made so far in editing.

    Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I just need to work on shortening it and then I will be done with the film opening! Hopefully, I can finish this up tonight or tomorrow.

Filming: DONE

     Yesterday, I was able to finish compiling all of the clips for my film opening! Super proud of myself. Basically, I got the taping scene, the final scene, and the photo wall scene. I also filmed the establishing shot last, which is ironic since that is the first clip that is shown. Then I filmed the "walking into the house scene" and the photo below shows the behind-the-scenes of that shot.

    A couple of issues that came up with filming was the photo wall scene, which was super frustrating to film, because if I wanted to change one thing I had to refilm the whole thing since it is pretty much impossible to line up the photos in the exact same way. Another huge pain was the last scene with the closet because I used books to be pushed out of the way and they would push the phone to the point where the phone would just fall over and it got annoying very fast.

    Now editing, I put all the clips together and edited them so that the shots were tighter, but the issue is... it is too long. Right now the clips go up to about 3 minutes and 10 seconds, so I need to cut it down by about a minute. We'll see how that goes. I think I can finish editing by the end of the week and hopefully, I will have started the CCR.

Progress

     Very proud of myself at the moment, I made a lot of progress in filming. I got done with the car scene and the stairs scene.

Filming in a Car: Humbling Experience

    It was especially hard to film in the car since there was way too much sunlight and it did not look pleasing on the camera. I pretty much had to take a paper and cover up the sun just enough so that there was no glare in the camera.

    Shockingly, one of the harder shots I had to film was the first shot I tried to get, which was the close-up of the gear shift being moved to park. It was particularly difficult because it was hard to set up the camera from where I was sitting and have the camera stay stable. There was definitely an easier way to get the shot that is completely different from the way that I did it, but what works works. The rest of the car scenes were pretty simple to record. Little shoutout to myself for doing a slow zoom-in on myself when the back camera was on me. That definitely says something about my spatial awareness of an iPhone.

Inside Shots

    The shots indoors were pretty easy to film. I think the hardest part of attempting not to show every part of my house because of obvious reasons. It was also difficult to film the scene where I take off my shoes because my dog decided to guest star multiple times.

    Tomorrow, I will probably film the photo wall scene and then the taping scene, I will prepare the letter tonight and then all the filming should be done soon!

Clips

    I finally started filming my opening! I got home from school at around 5:30pm and thanks to Daylight Saving Time, there was still sunlight. I borrowed my dad's phone because he recently got the iPhone 13 and he has way more storage than I do. I also have a small tripod that is a part-tripod and part-selfie stick, but what works, works.

    There was one scene where I wanted a high angle, but the weight of the phone would pull down the tripod, so I ended up having to tape down the tripod. If you're curious what that looks like, check out the photo below!

    I really only filmed the parts where the character is putting photos in the box and I filmed multiple angles in case some of them didn't work. Tomorrow, I might focus more on the scenes that lead up to her putting the photos in the box. Probably not the car scene though, because the weather has not been cooperative recently, but we will see. It feels good to finally have some of this production done!

Group Meeting

    Today in class, we met with groups to discuss each of our projects and give feedback to each other. It was nice to hear everyone's ideas and hear everyone's thought process. 

    Specifically to my project, I explained my whole project and explained some of my new ideas, including the changes with the live photo instead of the flashback. I also explained my issues with music because I think that the song I originally chose (Alone) doesn't fit with what the character would be feeling at that moment, and I got helpful feedback. For example, Emma told me I can go through iMovie and pick one of the copyright-free songs and I can pick the genre of music that I want to use, such as sentimental music.

    I'm also glad I got to hear everyone's progress. Some people were done filming, some people (like me... oops) haven't started, and others were in the process of filming. Listening to everyone definitely motivated me to start filming ASAP, I would've started filming the car scene today but the weather outside is gloomy, so maybe I'll get some of the box scene done with. Overall, the group meeting was a huge success for me!

Filming Progress

 Production

    This was the weekend I started production. On Saturday, it was very gloomy and cloudy outside so I decided I couldn't film any of the outdoor car scenes of the film opening. However, I was able to gather the photos of the "ex-friend" in the film opening. I also put together a bunch of objects that can be seen as "memories" and then these will be used when I throw them in a box together. It was very convenient that my parents had unfolded boxes that I could use because now there won't be the possibility that I accidentally show my address or use a very rundown box. The photo to the right shows off some of the items within the box and the collections of pictures I will be using.

Change of Plans

    One thing that I ultimately changed from my original storyboard is the flashback scene. Since it seems like I'll be doing a majority of the filming during spring break and the friend in the photo is going to be on vacation so I didn't want to bother her with it. The new approach is that one of the printed photos I have is still in my camera roll and it is a live photo. The only issue is that it's a vertical photo, but this problem didn't last long because now I decided it'll be the character looking at the photo in her car, then looking "nostalgic," and the character will grab her phone, scroll through her photos and then play the live photo and that will be the substitute for the flashback. 

Time of Day

 Filming Times

    One thing that I thought of when figuring out my filming schedule is the time of day I should film. Especially with daylight savings time starting, this is something I should think about. I envision the film opening would be in the daytime with sunlight. I thought about noon just to make sure there's enough time. I am trying to decide whether or not it is a better idea to film when daylight savings time starts because, on the one hand, I can have better lighting for filming for a longer amount of time, but then, on the other hand, I would have to wait till Sunday and who likes to do anything on Sunday? 

    I probably need two days to film, unless I am very efficient, which hopefully I will be. With filming indoors, although it is a lot easier than filming in a car, there are small obstacles. For example, I have to clean my desk, which seems like an impossible task because it feels like even if I clear my desk, it will still look cluttered. I might end up using an unoccupied room that doubles as an office and a "guest" bedroom. Next time I blog, I'll hopefully have clips ready for the film opening!

Props

Preparation

    In order to film this, I need to prepare multiple props that are fairly simple, but I definitely need to compile and organize. I'm hoping most of these things I already have at my house and won't have to go and retrieve from a store.

    For example, the easiest prop I need is the box that I will put all the memories and photos inside. I will use a cardboard box that I can easily find from my house's garage.

Photos

    Back in 2020, I decided I would be artsy and nostalgic, so I ordered way too many printed photos from Shutterfly. Like... Way too many. For reference, check out the photo below, It's about an inch tall of just photos I had printed two years ago. From photos, I found on Pinterest to photos I had with my friends. With my collection, I need to pick out the photo I have with the friend that will be in the flashback scene. These photos will be put in the box, in addition, I plan to also put in various physical items that can signify importance between the character's old friendship, such as movie tickets or jewelry items.

New Idea

    While writing about the flashback scene and how I have to collect all the photos into a box in the opening. I thought of also putting in physical items and then putting an overlay when editing that shows the "flashback" that is associated with that item. For example, let's say I put in sunglasses, the overlay can be a video of the character and the friend in a store trying on sunglasses. I actually, don't know how possible this idea is on iMovie, but we will see what happens. If I end up wanting to continue with this idea, then I will let you know how it goes.

Music

 Copyright Free

    I've sent out requests for licensing permissions, but to no prevail. I went through copyright-free music playlists on Spotify, and I was able to find the music that I will use for the car scene. It is called "Alone" by Asketa & Natan Chaim, and Kyle Reynolds. I chose this because not only is the song title reflective of the premise of the film opening, but the lyrics can also show match how the character is feeling. The first lyric of the song is "It's not my vibe you know I had to walk away." The song's theme is about moving on from someone and being on your own after being attached for so long. If you're interested in hearing the song, check out the video below!

Production

    I intended to start production last weekend, but some problems came up. For example, my phone ran out of storage and I now have to purge useless files and photos on my phone. I'm also very busy this week, considering club officer elections, three assessments, and academics in general, so I would have no time to edit regardless. I also have to recruit one of my friends to be in the flashback scene, and I think I know who to pick, because I already have printed photos with her, but it'll just take convincing. I'm hoping to get shots and clips done throughout this week, then over the weekend, I'll have dedicated time to gather all the clips. 

Mise-en-Scene

Importance of Mise-en-Scene

    An important part of developing a film would be mise-en-scene. The way of taking something simple and then creating it into something meaningful. For example, this can be done with costume design, psychology of color, or tones in a scene. 

Costume Design

    Since this character is going through a process of moving on, she should be wearing black which represents a loss. This character is also a teenage girl, so I want her costume to be a representation of youthful adoloscence. 

Tones

    For the tones of the scene, I know that using colder tones can show more sorrow and sadness that a person may have. With warmer tones, this can show a happier and cozier mood for the film opening. I want to have a transition in the start from a colder tone in the first segment, then this would move onto warmer tones when the character is in the house and compiling all the items together.

    A great example of color tones being used is in 13 Reasons Why. When scenes were shown without Hannah, the girl who killed herself in the show, the scenes would be very cool-toned and almost blue. However, when there is a flashback that involves her, the colors of the scene would become very warm and bright. This symbolism shows a sense of loneliness without Hannah and comfort when she is with Clay, the main character.

I want to use these techniques of mise-en-scene to enhance my film opening. For example, changing the tone of the scene is a simple way to develop the quality of the production. This week is passing by super quick, which means filming is coming soon too!

Citations

Knudsen, S. S. (2021, November 2). What Is Mise en Scène in Filmmaking? An Ultimate Guide | Wedio. Become Better Creators — Together. https://academy.wedio.com/mise-en-scene/#:%7E:text=When%20properly%20used%2C%20mise%20en,d%C3%A9cor%2C%20makeup%20and%20so%20on.

Gallagher, C. (2017, April 18). Is 13 Reasons Why a Different Color After Hannah's Death? POPSUGAR Entertainment. https://www.popsugar.com/entertainment/13-Reasons-Why-Different-Color-After-Hannah-Death-43423154

    

Fonts

     I briefly talked about fonts in a previous blog post, but now I'm going to talk about in more in-depth because I have the idea thought of and this should go by smoother. Down below are the top fonts that I chose after looking and testing through many, many different options.

    I wanted to pick a font that wouldn't be too classic but can also have a childish essence to it because of the coming-of-age genre I am going with. Considering that, I decided to take off the first font from the photo above, and now it is down to those bottom three.

Yellowtail, Gochi Hand, Permanent Marker

    To really decide which font I'm going with, I have to think about the context in which it will be put in. The plan is to put the title name when the character closes the car door after finding the photo of her and the friend, which means this comes after a period of remembering and nostalgia. 

    The first font, Yellowtail, seems classier and can represent growing or aging, which is exactly what this character is going through as the film opening progresses.

    The second font, Gochi Hand, is more childish and this is can show off how the character was, or felt, before their "coming-of-age."

    Finally, the third font, Permanent Marker, I really like the font because of how bold it is, and it almost feels like Gochi Hand, just a little more rigid and stood-out.

Final Font Decision

    I am going to go with is Yellowtail. Overall, the deciding factor was professionalism and versatility. As I have to keep these fonts consistent through the credits, Yellowtail would be best font to increase the production style in an easy and simple way.