Creative Critical Reflection

 CLICK HERE TO WATCH CCR

Final Project

 CLICK HERE TO WATCH FINAL PROJECT

Blog Inventory

 Table of context.docx

Checklist?

 Hello Friends, I hope you all are having a lovely day. Its Sunday and here I am blogging after I promised not to wait last minute again. I know, shame on me. It is an evening, and might I say, the wind is a little strong today and bipolar! First it would be hot then all of a sudden in comes a strong gust of wind. I’m not complaining but when I walked outside, I was expecting and hoping for it to be hot because I’ve been in cold house all day and I needed some sunshine but when I went outside, I was just as cold as I was inside...Talk about disappointment. Anyways friends, This project is slowly coming to an end. It is due at the end of the week or so but currently editing is not done nor the critical reflection. Honestly, I don’t even know where to start on my critical reflection, and it’s sad to say but I’m lost. This week, my critical reflection is what I will be working on ONLY. By the end of the night I will finish editing and that is all there is to do. For editing, I have to add in the shots I re-filmed today, and fix the sound maybe even adding some touch-ups. I started this project strong and I will end it that way. I managed to maintain an A in this class, and I am hoping to keep it that way, now is not the time to slack off. If anything, during the process of doing this project I have become better with my time management believe it or not. Having these assignments due back to back has helped, and also the teacher making us submit portions of our work so we can have it all in on time has helped. I also will touch up my Blog and make it more presentable over the week.

Re-filming

 Hey guys, I hope you all are doing well. This is my first blog post for the month of March. This month is actually looking good because it started on Monday! Anyways, so today we re-recorded a shot and added one other shot. I didn’t have an establishing shot, and the previous shot we did in the beginning failed to continue continuity so we re-filmed to make it look better although there were a couple of shots that had some sort of blip in it, we only re-did the one we could. On set was pretty smooth and calm. There were only three people present when I was recording, my mom who came for support, big cousin who is the director, and Franchesica Jones. The waiter couldn’t make it to film, so we re-did the shots that were messed up that only had Franchescia Jones. Also, the wind was blowing hard today and while setting up we didn’t have tape so every time we went to shoot, the pictures would fly off the table and this was so annoying. I didn’t want to walk all the way around the house to get it but in the end everyone got tired of it happening so  I had to go get it. One of the shots we had to re do was the crying scene and this time we had to get it actually coming from my eye. This was hard because I tried to drop them in with my finger, but it wasn’t working; every time I tried to, it would just go in my eye and not come out as intended also causing my eye to burn because of the makeup. In the end we used a syringe to get it right. This was more sanitary, and it worked very well, we only had to re-shoot two times.

Reflection

 Hey guys I hope you are all doing good. I’m alright myself but I’m tired and I want to go to sleep. This weekend I wasn’t really able to rest, but I did as much as I possibly could. Concerning the project there is a lot of work that needs to be done, and the game plan is to get it done tonight and tomorrow so we can move on. My opening sequence is not completely edited so over the time span of today and tomorrow that is what I will be doing. This month went by super quick! We were in the postproduction stage last week, its ridiculous! Anyways, for the editing there is only minor things that need to be done. That of which adding the credits, the title and fixing the sound. Those are the only three focuses in editing and when those are complete, we will sit back and revise anything, but it’s easier said than done. I am very much longing for this to be over; I think I will do good on the critical reflection part and partially good on the blog part, but I’m just worried about the video piece. I really put my best efforts into this and its just disappointing when your very idea just doesn’t work out and falls apart. Right now, I have little and low spirits for this project but what I can’t and will not say is I didn’t try. That’s about it for today guys, I will go and work on editing now, wish me luck! XOXO

Stage 5 Already?

 Hola Hola Chicas! Como estas? I hope you are all doing good! Today is a beautiful day in the neighborhood but I am tired. Lately I haven’t been getting a lot of sleep, only the minimum amount required, and work has just been off lately because I’m so tired during class I can’t focus, and after school I forget about the work or I procrastinate. I’m working on doing better, so in the end it will all work out. We are currently in the end stages of the project, specifically stage 5. In this stage we focus on editing and stuff. It doesn’t really feel like the end is approaching but I really wish things were looking better. Now all of a sudden, I don’t like the way I built my project up. Even though it’s getting done, I hope and pray I get a good grade. In my opinion my blog looks well put together, my video is not so bad, and my critical reflection will be good. I’m just here thinking about what I produced, and I can’t help to feel remorseful. In the moment when I reviewed the shots, they looked good, but as I sat and watched them all together, they’re not well planned, and just sloppy. There’s so much failure to continue continuity it’s like a slap in the face!!!! I will end up redoing it but not for the rough draft assignment but most definitely for the final production piece. Besides the aforementioned, pertaining to the editing piece for the project, we are using a website called WeVideo, it’s very supportive and I like it. It provides things like sounds, and backgrounds that can be put to use! I would rate it a 9/10 because it even allows you to collaborate with others, but it’s a little difficult to use so you may have to play with its features.

Final Production

 Hey guys, I hope you all are having a lovely day! So on Febuary 21st, I finished filming, but I may have to re do them. It was a hetic day because it rained on set and as soon aw we went inside it stopped. I was angry because my crew was late, and they werent cooperating which made things harder for me but in the end it came together and it was enjoyable. As far as eqquipment goes, I used a Iphone 12 pro max as video recording; I was not able to get the tripod because I couldn’t find it in my house but it still worked out. During production and working with the camera I learned that iPhone cameras have more editing options than I thought. They have a feature where the camera holds steady even if your hand is shaky which made production 10 times easier. I didn’t have to use any outside resources to figure out how to use the camera because I’m already familiar with it. Now the storyboard was supposed to help make production simpler but honestly I’m not the best artist lol, so my mom was helping with the framing and putting my shots into action and those were my a ha moments because just when I was ready to try a different way she made it the original way. There were NUMEROUS bloopers, me and my family are goofy and we kept laughing and kept having to redo the shots.

Hair/Makeup

Hey Guys!!! So, in my previous blog you seen that we did a practice shoot today. It went really good and smooth. I did the makeup for the production and honestly, I was just winging it. I was aiming to make Franchesica Jones look tired and just mentally drained, but it looks like she got beat up XD I have never worn makeup or worked on it until today and honestly, it didn’t look too bad. I used 2 makeup pallets, an eyebrow pencil, and translucent powder to achieve the pale look but as time went on, the makeup started to look old and you could barely see it. Honestly, it hurt just applying the makeup on my skin because I was applying it rough and quick because I was kind of rushing, but It worked out in the end. In my opinion you could barely see the makeup but others said it was noticeable so I just left it alone. I also couldn't do anything with my hair because I just got it done and I couldn't have took it out.

I used these makeup pallets below. I used the shades Ashanti, Jezebel, Kenya, and a little bit of Madagascar. ( I just took off the makeup and my face hurts because I may have blended the makeup too roughly XD)

A Taste of Production

Today is Film day! Before production I will need makeup, a tripod, and pictures! I am current writing this before production and I'm nervous. I'm worried that I may not have everything I need for production considering the fact that I don't have access to all I need, my mom is bringing the things to set.

 

A couple of hours later....

 

So, filming today was actually very fun! My mom brought everything except for the tripod but that's because she couldn't find it. We went to Walmart to buy a shirt for the production and it all worked out great in the end, My favorite part of production was saying "Quiet on the set". I kept laughing and we kept having to start over! Not only did I enjoy it but the cast, and my supporters could also agree. My mom started off as the camera man but she’s pregnant an can’t stand for long, so my big cousin took over. We didn’t get to film all of it so today was basically a practice day. All of our phones were dying, and we lost track of time, and we were starting to lose daylight, so we stopped recording for the day. We took an ice-cream break which interfered with time, but it was still amazing. My grandma, and my mom sat out there and watched to support me. When we got out there it was kind of hard only because the we had trouble timing each shot and we didn’t know how to position ourselves, not to mention the TERRIBLE acting...Everyone was saying that I could not act to save my life which is so true! Down below I will insert some pictures of the process and the experience today, but I don’t think it could have gone any better. I don’t regret picking the filming location because my backyard really can pass for a café! The mosquitos were eating me up though!

Filming schedule

 Hey guys! I hope you are all good. The project is sadly coming to an end quickly. We are now in the filming portion of the movie opening  and honestly, I just want to get it over with. I still don’t have my movie title picture made but it is coming soon, I do have an Idea of what I want though. We are filming this upcoming Thursday and I don’t know how to feel about it. Maybe grateful that we are almost done, or sad that we are almost done. How I approach it won’t change the fact we are almost done! Pertaining to the project, as you can tell by the title, we are talking about my production schedule. I will insert the document below but, there’s not much to say about it Its pretty self-explanatory. I have only one scene, but I have to shoot two times because of the phone conversation with the detective. I recently found out that my partner will not be able to come out and meet me to film under any circumstances, so I will be on my own. We are filming in my backyard, and at Saneash's house but I won’t be there when she films the detective scene. My scheduling is basic as it comes but it’s there present, and complete.

FILMING SCHEDUELE:

(I am not able to put the link into the blog, so I uploaded a screen shot of it instead.)

Sound/Lighting

 Hey Guys! Welcome back to another episode of blogging with Serena! Today’s episode will be about sound and lighting. So far as sound and lighting goes, we are wanting to keep it regular. We are making a thriller film, so it has to be suspenseful majority of the time. For sound we decided to open up the scene using a buzzing/humming music to make the scene intense. The goal of this technique is to give the audience a start off thought to think that this is a thriller. We want to introduce the genre right away. This will be continuous only for a portion of the scene, the rest of the sound will be low nature sounds music. The sound of the humming in the beginning of the scene came from Mixkit.com and others such as the phone ringtone, and dial tone which you hear near the end came from WeVideo.  As for lighting when we shot the film it was very bright on set. The sun was beaming and still shinning bright in the evening. We want to go for a kind of soft but dark lighting so while editing we darkened the video.

Location Scouting

 Hey guys, I hope you guys are alright....No your all left! It is another lovely day, another day to be grateful to be alive! In this blog we will be talking about Location Scouting. So, our film opening is at a café but due to COVID-19 we don’t actually want to go out and film because we will have to wear mask, and that will just ruin the whole opening. I’m having issues with my partner on this because she says her mom won’t let her come out and it’s kind of upsetting me. We have been having small issues in the run but it will all work out in the end. I just don’t understand why and how we would do a project together if we can’t link to film together. I choose to shoot the film my grandmas’ backyard because it is the safest place, and it’s kind of resembles a café. I picked this place because my parents aren’t too keen on me leaving the house either so the backyard option is much safer.

Above you can see pictures of the backyard. It has fake grass, and lights draping above it. I think that it will be the perfect scenery because we can just dress it up to look like an outside café. We will add tables, and chairs to make it look presentable. We have had numerous amounts of parties back here and all of them turned out to be a success! If this idea doesn’t work out, and it most likely will we will just go to our local Starbucks or something. Also, the café we will have set up is called Starrlight café.

Casting

Hello Everyone! I hope you all are doing good. I'm doing fine this beautiful Sunday evening! I didn’t really do much today but getting these blog posts done will be the highlight of my day XD. As you can see in the title, we are going to be discussing casting. In our opening sequence of our film "Decipher", there are only three main characters with lines and are present on the scene. Them being Franchesica Jones, Detective Margret Smith, and the waiter. Now Franchesica Jones is 28-year-old women with a 5-year-old son. She is a single mother, very protective, hardworking, and determined. Detective Margret Smith is 41-year-old women, with no husband and a deceased kid. She is a retired detective that struggles with mental illness, very quiet, and secretive. Now the waiter isn’t of significance or a main character, but he is one to consider because he is in this scene. The people that will be casting in this scene is I myself, my partner Saneaseh as the detective, and my sister Crystal as the waiter. I decided to be the mom myself because the mom is supposed to look tired, and worn out in the scene and I have these bags under my eye that are long lasting because of a facial product I used a while ago, and no one else wanted to be the mom so I took the role myself. My partner had to be in the film opening regardless so she choose to be the detective. I asked my sister to be the waiter because she looks a little old enough to work as a waiter, and she also looks good in black. She is 16 and it’s a perfect match because high schoolers usually work at these types of places while in school.

 

Franchesica Jones                                             Waiter

Storyboard

 Hey guys, so in this blog we will be talking about my storyboard. First and foremost, the process of doing it wasn’t as challenging as I thought it would be. I took my time to think it through, but I am not the best artist! XD, I had two options of websites to use but I couldn’t figure out how to use them, and they didn’t have much to offer. Like I would sit in front of the screen and stare at it because I did not know how to piece it together, so I ended up drawing it. It was much easier on me and it was simpler. Some would say that the website was easier, but I think drawing it was better. I will like the storyboard below.

Research and script

Hey guys! I hope all is well. I just want to document to you guys how my group is going. Now I know I have complained about my group members in previous blogs, but I am only working with one other person due to issues that have been resolved, so we are doing good at the moment. Pertaining to the script, I worked on it alone, this was hard but manageable. I only had two days out of the four that were given to work on it because I was busy to the point of exhaustion. The script for my film opening is short but I believe that I did a good job because it took a lot of time and effort. The script for my film is simple (It will be linked below), it reveals partial about the characters but it’s to keep the minds of the audience wondering. The mission is to always keep the audience in a state of confusion. I will do this by revealing little by little to keep their minds wondering. I strive to make this film as suspenseful as possible. Some films that are similar to mine are breaking in, which is similar in story, and invisible man which is similar in budget. These movies are usually financed by presales, taxes, and investors. The film company we considered to do was Sony, but me and my team member settled on Blumhouse Film productions because we thought that they have produced similar movies to ours which have all became big time movies. Our plan was to go small with the movie and let it become what it will be, whether its popular or small. When it came to distribution, we choose to go let everything fall into place, so depending on the size of the movie is how we will distribute it. For film production I will use my iPhone 12 and a tripod.

SCRIPT:

New Scipt.docx

Film Pitch

 Hello Guys!!! In today’s blog we will be talking about my film pitch. If I'm being completely honest, this wasn't my best PowerPoint presentation BUT... I'm still proud of the way it turned out because it took a lot of time and effort. Now, one of my team members did not complete their portion of the project so I filled in their spot. Pertaining to the actual presentation we did a PowerPoint and we made a video voice over explaining the project. This will be included below. If you didn't know, our film is called "Decipher" and our chosen film company is Blumhouse Film Productions. This company has produced movies such as The Lie, The Invisible man, and Evil eye. All of these films are have become big time films and have reached high numbers in marketing. We believe that Blumhouse film productions is able to produce our film because they have made a total of 4 million dollars in World box office. This film company has kept a low budget for all of the films they have produced, so for this reason our budget is 4 million dollars. This is perfect because our movie won't necessarily include much violence, action, and destruction. Our synopsis, which is a basic summary of the film is a mother’s child goes missing and she hires a former detective that was fired for reasons that were always a mystery to help her search for her child, but when they find the criminal that took her child it turns out that it’s an unexpected old friend with sinister secrets to be revealed. We believe that our plot is what makes our film unique because there has been nothing like this produced. For the distribution portion, the film company first tests out the movies with the senior staff to determine whether or not they should go big when distributing the movie to the markets. This technique is used to save money.

FILM PITCH:

FILM PITCH (1).pptx

Case Study

 So last week we were working on our case studies, and I am proud of the way it came out. We choose the movie "Den of thieves" and I will not lie, there was not a lot of information, but we kept having to change the movie and I did not want to change it again. For our case study we had to research production, distribution, marketing, history, target audience, and cross media convergence and synergy. Now my teammates and I split up the work so we each had to do a portion of the case study. One of my teammates didn’t do their part so it was left blank because I refuse to carry the weight of others when I choose to work in a group to make it easier for myself. Some of the things I found while researching the movie "Den of Thieves" is that this film was inspired by true events. It was filmed in the city of Los Angeles by Christian Gudegast. This movie took 15 years to produce and its budget was $30 million which presales covered over 50% of the budget. The movie is distributed by Netflix, and Amazon Prime video. Movie marketing is the way you promote your movie to the public. Movie marketers work to develop an interest in audiences to attract them to their production. There are different ways to  market something, ways such as posters, interviews, and movie trailers. Film producers may use techniques like target marketing to give greater value to their campaign. This film, “Den of thieves” used the technique called target marketing to attract an audience of Hispanics and African  Americans. This caused them to spend $25 million on  marketing alone.

Case study link:

CASE STUDY.pptx

 

 

Updates

 

Hello guys, It’s been a while. I know I promised that I would not be blogging on Sundays anymore but it’s so hard! It seems that my scheduled times to blog haven’t been working out. I’ve been all over the place, and honestly, I wish things can be better. I’m in a point of my life where I just can’t focus and it’s not a good feeling. I will be updating my blogging schedule and working at later times. So, to update you guys, we have found a film company called Blumhouse Film Productions. We think they are prefect to shoot our film opening with because they have previously made a lot of popular Thriller movies, which were big time movies, and they are in a similar category to ours. Now if you did not know, our movie is going to be called Decipher which means searching. Our movie is going to be based on a mother’s child goes missing and she hires a former detective that was fired for reasons that were always a mystery, to help her search for her child, but when they find the criminal that took her child it turns out that it’s an unexpected old friend with sinister secrets to be revealed. There may be minor changes in the future so be on the look. Our scripts are due today and honestly, that is a ridiculous. I may be overthinking, but we had 3 days to complete it but I’m a busy person and that is not enough time! My group members have yet to say anything about the script itself, and its due tonight! All I know is I’m submitting it late, and I’m praying that nothing goes wrong, but I will show you guys the finishing product. That’s all for right now, Bye Guys!

From Drama to Thriller

 Hey guys! It’s pretty late as I publish this but it was in my drafts, I just have to touch some things up. So I’m the beginning of this project I started off solo and researching about drama movies. Now, I am working in a group with two others and we have all agreed on the genre thriller. I took notes and looked up a couple of things about thriller movies which will be below.

Thriller Movie Genre

 

“Literary Terms.” Literary Terms. 1 June 2015. Web. 3 Nov. 2016. <https://literaryterms.net/>.

 

A thriller is a genre of literature, film, and television that’s common feature is to express strong feeling of excitement, anxiety, fear, tension, and suspense.

(Basically it thrills the audience)

 

Types of thrillers

 

Psychological Thriller

-Focuses on characters that have extreme psychological disorders (psychopaths, people with split personalities) this causes person issues that eventually lead to conflict in the film

 

Crime Thriller

-Thrillers have crime and justice as their primary focus. Topic like murder, kidnapping, drugs, robbery, mistaken identity, stalking, etc. characters may be cops, lawyers, detective, superhero’s …

 

Mystery thriller

-A thriller that begins with a mystery that needs to be solved, possibly with something at risk. Suspense and tension builds as the Audience gets closer and closer to learning the answer to the mystery.

 

Thriller Movie Common Conventions

Randall Follow, Chole. “Codes & Conventions Of The Thriller Genre.” SlideShare, 26 Feb. 2016, www.slideshare.net/ChloeRandall/codes-conventions-of-the-thriller-genre.

 

Shot types

• Use of closeups and extreme closeups used to show emotion or can be used to focus on a prop
• High and low shots will be used to indicate power
• Dutch angle shots may be used to make the audience feel uneasy or build tension 
• Tracking and pan shots used in the beginning to create interest in different characters

 

Editing

• Flashbacks can be used to confuse the audience, this also displays what happened in the past to give characters an insight on the characters past
• Quick shots are used to create suspense and tension
• Jump cuts and cross editing is used to build suspense 

 

Sound

Used to set the mood of the characters 

 

• High pitch music is often used to make the audience uncomfortable and it can indicate that something bad or unexpected is going to happen
• Many films use Diegetic sound to create more direct tension and to make it more realistic 

 

Common characterizations\ characters 

• Brave male who seeks to restore balance 
• Criminal on the run 
• Police or detectives
• Innocent victims 
• Lawyers