My Final Project

Film Opening:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/dtwv8nzciyrub1dj1ed1p/April-Fools.mp4?rlkey=3jw53lmzi5yyyk87xlwqyk4c5&st=iqc8yegq&dl=0

Critical Reflection:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/zr6o9u04nn3nl7spzxq5e/Creative-Critical-Reflection.mov?rlkey=wwjxy55cvrns200zv044cvyd0&st=3gi7uswz&dl=0

Filming my Creative Reflection

 To film my creative reflection, I want it to be a personal story video in which I speak to the camera as my audience. In order to keep from this being a boring video while I answer the questions I will be driving around in my Jeep. I have a phone stand where I will be recording myself and I have a portable ring light to support the visual quality of the video. In the editing process I am going to insert shots on the film as I talk about it to add visual effects and have the overall result be an attractive and entertaining video.

Preparing my Critical Reflection

My goal is to finish the project by tonight. I am currently looking to write myself a little script for what I am going to talk about. I am obviously not going to do it word for word it is mostly to have a layout of what I want to say. There are four important questions I must answer in the video and this is how I will do so:

• How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

The cast in my film consists of a social group of teenage girls, the film focuses on issues would appeal to their personal lives and teenage mind. As teenagers have a lot of emotion towards things and situations, this would be portrayed in the film through personal obstacles that the audience would relate to where they can create personal connections with the characters and enjoy the film on a deeper level.

• How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

My product is advertised for teenage audiences. This is done through the main characters being high schools students. It creates a common reality and similar though process and understandings in which the audience will often feel identified throughout the film. When it comes to distribution, I feel like theatrical releases have diminished since the pandemic and movie theaters don't fill like they used to. My main source of distribution would be video on demand platforms and streaming services. 

 

• How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

I have previously created a short film. Comparing to this one I feel like I have improved in a variety of areas. I have learned to cooperate better with the cast members to help them understand the delivery I am looking for as the director. I used a better quality camera for this film which helped me develop more creative and elaborate shots. When it comes to post production, AICE media has taught me to edit sound and color as projects in class gave me room to play around with editing software's and learn to use them, for this film I was able to develop overall better sound production and I believe the end result looks as professional as it can with my limitations as a high school student. 

• How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

In this project I wanted to give the illusion that the audience was also with the characters but I felt that filming the whole film with a handheld camera and characters constantly breaking the fourth wall was going to lower the quality of the film. Therefore, I decided to add my digital camera footage in some scenes as to show what the characters are vlogging. 

Editing Problems

 I just spent the last two days trying to figure out why my DaVinci Resolve software wasn't working and I ended up using CapCut to edit the finishing touches to the film. I am very happy with the result. While editing I wanted to make the difference between camera footage more noticeable so with DaVinci I edited the saturation and color while with CapCut I added the date for the digital camera and added grain to the film. Here is an example of what each one looks like.

Canon Camera:

Digital Camera:

Editing Day 1

 A couple of days ago I began the editing process of my film on Davinci Resolve 19.1.4 

I have compiled all the clips together and managed to finish editing the introduction portion. There is still much to edit and I am planning on finishing by tonight or tomorrow night. I prepared a production title introduction to the film and made the title of the movie a different font, more related to the film. It is the same font I will be using for the title sequences shown throughout the video.

The background of the image is actually the last clip of the short film. I just edit the color and blur to prevent spoilers but the idea of this being a easter egg to the film intrigues me.

Behind The Scenes - Part 2

For my film I had my friends take pictures of me while I recorded. There is a moment when I needed my friends to act surprised all at the same time and so I played really loud music and I scared them, their reactions were funny. Overall the whole filming experience was super fun!

Behind The Scenes!

Behind the scenes of my short film, to create the fake blood, I blended corn syrup and food coloring, until the mixture looked dark enough under the lights, messy, but oddly satisfying. Once that was done, I shifted my focus to the kitchen itself, reorganizing it to be clean yet visually interesting. I added props to add color to the atmosphere. I added my red record player and vintage telephone that added a slight color to the background. Every detail, from the placement of the fake blood to the choice of props, was thoughtfully arranged to bring the scene to life and make the space feel like a messy play room for arts and crafts.

A short video of the set design process: