Creative Critical Reflection

The Blind Spot reflection

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRwLharhgPY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRwLharhgPY&t=1shttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oODwVw3suM8

Throughout the duration of this project I've put together all the skills learned to produce the presented products. It was a great learning opportunity and surely expanded my horizons! UNTIL NEXT TIME..... 

Film opening

" The Blind Spot." By: Ahmik Davidson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vyD0aoovpo 

Editing

 As stated in the previous blog post:  some scenes had to be lengthened by eliminating the scripted cuts, as the editing in between with all the cutting would make it feel almost unnatural. The editing scene was a lot more time consuming than expected, however it was completed. It really brought the piece together and I'm proud of the result. UNTIL NEXT TIME.....

Pre-spring break check up

 Today I worked on finishing up the script for both of my videos for the creative critical reflection. Going into spring break I'm looking to take maybe 3-4 days to film and edit both videos. I plan to spend most of those days editing as I don't want my video to be boring and editing can really liven up my c.c.r. I made the script as straightforward as I could directly answering the questions to the best I could. I plan to include behind the scene photos of the film day process to add visual effect. Most likely I'll be using my sister to be the interviewer in the video answering questions one and two. Therefore, I'll send her lines to her so she could start rehearsing and get a feel of what it is I'm asking of her. Hope everyone has a safe and fun spring break. UNTIL NEXT TIME......

CCR development

Today is the beginning of the creation of my creative critical reflection. After viewing past CCR's via a provided link from my teacher, I took to my trusty google document to begin spitting out ideas to outline how I could best answer the given questions while making it as entertaining as possible. I've decided to split up the two questions so that one video answers the first and second questions and the third and fourth. The way I decided to format the two videos was questions one and two being answered via an interview of the main actor by a talk show host. The video covering the third and fourth questions was in the format of a popular fan making a YouTube video reviewing the film and giving their honest thoughts and feelings towards it. UNTIL NEXT TIME....   https://mediamidgetchronicles.blogspot.com/2021/04/reflection-part-ii.html

https://nicolexmedia.blogspot.com/2021/04/final-reflection.html

https://biancalmedia.blogspot.com/2021/04/creative-critical-reflection.html

Links

Weekend recap

My co-directors and I (my sister and her friend) made our ways over to my friends house to record my film "The blind spot." I brought them along for their differing perspectives and expertise on how to improve the shooting session. Starting off it was pretty straight forward, after gathering my actors and dressing them accordingly to the character design I plotted, we began filming. I followed my shot list/ storyboard to a T. We really focused on and emphasized getting the desired angles needed to set the mood. The elements such as wardrobe, setting, and sounds weren't a problem, what became the struggle was the execution of the lines. We had a hard time delivering the lines with the correct emotion they were to be delivered with. For this reason each scene took numerous takes to get just right. As the scenes progress, it became more and more abstract as it was brought to my attention that some scenes had to be lengthened as the editing in between with all the cutting would make it feel almost unnatural. One thing I found most innovated and interesting was us placing a blanket behind the camera in the scenes where the light was meant to be dimmed. We figured we'd burn a lot of time by waiting for the sun to go down so this little D.I.Y trick really helped us out. UNTIL NEXT TIME.....

CCR

 Today's lesson was very useful as we went over the do's and don'ts of our portfolio project's creative critical reflection. This presentation brought to my attention the weight and significance that this very blog will have in my project. I started brainstorming on the way I'd answer the various questions and found it most creative for me to do an interview as the actor of the main character being famous. I think it's a cool concept and allows me to answer the questions efficiently. The main thing I learned from this lesson was to not be boring in the making of these responses and I can spice them up with things such as music and editing visuals. I also was given the Idea of taking pictures of my set up during the production process to show a behind the scenes look as it leaves for a good reflection. Once again great progress today......... UNTIL NEXT TIME! 

Readying the troops

Today is the beginning of when it all comes together. I messaged my friends to cast them as Williams and Blake, along with sending them their character descriptions and the script so they have some sort of idea what they're getting themselves into. I even got my mom aboard to critique my project in the filming process. She agreed to be a camerawoman if needed. So we've aligned our schedules to meet this Saturday to begin the filming process. I've researched and developed elements of Mis-en-scene, genre, script writing, shot composition, and color concepts. Now..... I'm ready!

Developing Mis-en-san

 In order to organize the mis-sen-san elements in my film I decided to jot down the specifics on a google document. I missed the unit where we were taught the elements of mis-sen-san, therefore, I took it upon myself to research the concept via YouTube.

I watched this video for the basic breakdown: What is Mis-sen-san along with the video: Understanding Mis-en-scene . The videos informed me that mise-en-scene is more than just the literal environment around the characters; it can tell a story on it's own and further develop the plot. This is through lighting, props, and wardrobe, therefore, I sectioned off my document by those categories.

Creating my storyboard

 Hello blog, today(as you can tell from the title) I created my storyboard. I'm by no means an artist but I found it would be useful to create a story board to create a visual of my film. It allowed me to implement specific angles, and transitioning techniques to further enhance my project. I think by doing so, when it comes to film day, the process will be made much easier. I included my specific shots/angles, and my estimated time for each scene. Until next time...

Group meeting post

Today I was given the opportunity of pitching my ideas to my peers. I was  very nervous about how other would view my project, however, everyone was super supportive and helpful. They helped redirect each other in the right direction. What surprised me the most was that advice was given to someone in my group on how it should be filmed, specifically how they felt the person should  place and angle the camera. I'm also glad that I could help some people with their own individual processes, and I felt like this helped me do some self evaluation and in return helped me develop my story. My group was able to help each other condense their story, not only helping them meet the time limit, but help them organize their ideas making their piece more focused. Overall I enjoyed the experience and look forward to future meetings.

Genre research in depth

 Today I delve into various examples of movies to see the key elements of a crime film. Looking for repeating elements primarily as those are the exponents that make up classic mystery films.

After researching "The Guilty" and "Hypnotic" I've noted key components to the film.

Starting with "The Guilty" what I found interesting is the fact that the duration of the film takes place in one location, the emergency dispatch center. This tightens up the atmosphere causing heavy tension as it's all built up in one place., causing an almost claustrophobic feeling. 

"Hypnotic" is a film centered around psychological suspense.

Although these films approach storytelling from different angles. As "The Guilty" focuses on one event and location, and "Hypnotic" diverges in psychological themes and perception. Both films rely evoke suspense and tension to heavily engage the audience. I've also noticed the pattern that in most crime movies the main protagonist goes through major character development.

DRASTIC CHANGES!! 😳

As you can tell from the title there is much to be caught up on the development process of my project. To start, I made a change that alters my plot entirely. Upon discussion with my superior and self reflection I realized that the original vision for my film was predictable. This all started when discussing my press conference scene. It was brought to my attention how difficult it would've been for me to manipulate sound in terms of perception, this along with the need for extras to accurately depict the scene. Combining all those elements and evaluating those issues...…  I CHANGED THE ANTAGONIST OF THE FILM, this along with the replacement of a scene is cause for me to describe this process as a drastic change. 

In order to change the antagonist, I created an entirely new character. This character is a young bright spirited intern who sets out to frame officer Williams in the murder of the police chief. This change eliminated the need for the press conference while also throwing off the audience with an unexpected twist by putting suspicion on officer Williams early on in the film. 

Along with these monumental changes I made, I made little progress as well by formatting the screenplay and creating a separate document for it. 

Who knows what big changes come to the confusing mind of mine but I can't wait to see, until next time...

Sound research

 Today I decided to start building the soundscape of my production. To begin I put together a list of websites where I could find different specific sounds. This sites were all pulled from my notebook where I copied down them, recommended by my teacher Mrs. Stoklosa.

After this was done, I thought of the sounds I needed. I wrote down all the sounds down in my google doc where I organize my ideas.

In search for a car chase sound I used the website freesound.org  where I found a sound I believed best fit my picture of the film. The chosen sound is titled "High speed police chase on a noisy freeway".

Continuing on, on the same website I searched for a "handcuff sound effect" which took a little more precise searching. However, I was able to find a suitable enough titled "handcuff.wav". 

Then with my press conference scene in mind, I searched for "photo press conference"  on freesound.org . I figured that was suitable for my film. However, I realized that my vision of the press conference included the press continuously calling the main character's name would have to be replicated by my voice.

I'll continue building my soundscape another time but for now, UNTIL NEXT WEEK!

Creating a timeline

 As much as I'd like to create a visual by drawing out a timeline, rationally thinking that'd be unnecessary work. This is because most likely I won't be checking up and updating it, therefore I've decided to manage my schedule on my phone as I use it everyday. This process was one of the most difficult and time consuming stage of my planning stage thus far. This was because in general time management is an area of struggle for me. 

I've decided to dedicate two days of the weekdays(most likely on A days as that's when I have privilege) to blog posts and  the written planning going into the film. I also have a reminder set on Saturday mornings at 12:30 pm to film being that around the time I am free and light is at it's best for filming parts of the opening.

Looking for inspiration

 I started looking into more examples of movies with detectives in them to get a sense of what font would be appropriate for the credits. I did this by typing up "detective movie intro credit fonts" which led me to the website Fontsinuse.com . The website provided a detective movie poster from "True Detective" including credits. I dove deeper looking at other shows such as " The Outsider", "Silent Witness", and "Endeavor".  Upon viewing the examples, I picked up on the type of style  they all shared. With this information I took a mental picture and opened up a new tab searching " different types of fonts" being that I'm unexperienced when it comes to dealing with fonts not knowing the names. This took me to tools.picsart.com This website helped me match a font name that I felt closest to what I saw on the example posters. I decided to go with the font known as "fancy monospace text". I feel as though there may be something better out there so I'll keep my mind open to more preferable alternatives.

Organizing my ideas

 I wanted to make sure that with all the coming in ideas and visions I had for this film, I wouldn't forget any. It's really easy with all the different aspects I'm trying to input into my film to get disorganized and out of order. So for this section of my planning process, I found it most productive to create a google doc to jot down any ideas I had in the creative process in the making of my film.

Initial story planning

 Hello again, continuing from yesterday's post, I moved more into the planning of the story line.

So I thought long and hard about the opening scene. I think the reason it was so difficult for me to come up with the opening shot was because opening shots in a lot of cases though they may be short can tell a lot about a film. So original my approach of thinking of a scene from scratch led to a mix of many ideas. I thought of all the elements that would make up my story so this made it hard for me to decide on one particular shot. So then I thought of how I wanted my film to be symbolic and thought provoking. Then i thought wouldn't it be clever to choose a title that cleverly represents the themes of the film. So I thought of the theme of deception. What's a better representation of deception than an eye, this is because people are deceived by what they see, so you can't have deception without eyes. So I decided to come up with the title first, and once again keeping the theme of deception and eyes, I came up with the title " The blind spot". This now helped me organize my thoughts and come up with the opening establishing shot I found most suitable. This shot being what you could easily guess..... an extreme close-up of the protagonist's eye.

Picking my genre

  Hello, this week is the beginning of the cinematic masterpiece that is to come known as my portfolio project! This is the creative process behind it all.

I started off by googling "movie genres". This made me look for the various examples fitting in each genre category. I then came to realize the variety of movies I would typically find enjoyable and entertaining. My goal for this project is to produce something that is worth watching, enjoyable and entertaining. For this reason I decided to narrow down my list of genres that I feel I could achieve those purposes with. Those narrowed down categories were: Comedy, Action, Adventure, Crime, and Fantasy. Along with my research, I went through tstok.net to look at sample productions from previous years where I found a project I found useful from the blog "The life of Olivia".

Comedy

Initially I thought it'd be a no brainer for me to do a comedy film. By far the genre I find the most entertaining and is my personal favorite is comedy. For example my favorite movie of all time is "Rush Hour" a movie that is also considered action packed, but is most notable for it's huge comedic presence. However, upon further thinking, I found it would be exceptionally difficult to successfully carry out funny scenarios and jokes in a two minute time period effectively, especially for an intro at that.

Fantasy

I've seen countless fantasy films in my time and I've found most of them nothing short of amazing. The drawbacks with choosing to produce a fantasy film is the level of creative genius it takes to come up with such made-up, fascinating, and unheard of concepts and creatures is something I myself don't posses. Also just knowing my strengths and weaknesses, I know I'm not the most tech savvy person. That being said, fantasy films often require a heavy amount of editing and in a lot of cases even CGI.

Action

I do believe that if I went the route of producing an action film, it definitely would've completed my goals of entertaining my audience and it being something enjoyable for them to watch. So this genre was definitely a frontrunner on my list.

Adventure

Very similar to the action genre, there was little to no reason I could find not to choose this genre. I've seen plenty of adventure films to see the premise of the genre so this was also a top choice on my list.

Crime/Mystery

The chosen genre I've ultimately decided to produce was a mystery film. I thought back to my film pitch activity assignment created earlier in the year. I just remember how quick and easily the ideas came to me, as if it were just flowing out and onto the paper. I thought to myself in that process that this idea if ever made would give people something to talk about. I've also seen many mystery movies and the thing I admire most about them all is the ability it has to make the audience really think and analyze the case along with the main protagonist. It also allows many unexpected twists keeping the audience on their toes.

Genre research activity

 Genre: Comedy 

Comedy is a genre that generally aims to entertain its audience by evoking laughter and joy through humorous situations, dialogue, and comical characters. Typical content conventions in comedy include: 

• Humorous Situations: Comedy films exaggerate scenarios that evoke laughter. These situations can range from everyday mistakes to unrealistic scenarios. 

•  Dialogue: Clever wordplay, puns, and humorous exchanges between characters are common in comedy scripts. Dialogue is a key component in delivering humor. 

• Comical Characters: Comedy often revolves characters with quirky, loveable and bold personalities. These characters can be protagonists or antagonists, contributing to the humor. 

• Satire and Parody: Comedy can use satire and parody to mock and exaggerate real-world issues or social norms to a humorous extent. 

• Timing and Pacing: Comedy relies heavily on timing and pacing to deliver punchlines. Well-timed pauses and expertly executed physical comedy enhance the delivery and humor. 

Genre Conventions - Production Techniques:  

• Physical Comedy: Slapstick, pratfalls, and visual gags are common in comedy films, relying on the physical actions of the characters for humor. Overall, usually funny moves or the character getting hurt. 

• Comic Editing: Quick cuts, unexpected transitions, and comedic editing techniques can enhance the comedic impact of a scene. 

• Musical Scores: Comedy films often feature joyful and up-tempo musical scores that match the tone of the humor. Music can enhance comedic moments and add to the overall entertainment. 

Institutional Conventions - How is the Genre Marketed: Comedy films are marketed to attract a broad audience, as humor transcends age and demographics. Marketing strategies often include: 

• Trailers: Comedy film trailers usually highlight the funniest moments to engage the audience. 

• Social Media Campaigns: Marketing through means social media platforms are recently popular, sharing funny clips, and memes. 

• Casting: Casting well-known comedians or actors can be a major selling point for a comedy film. 

Film Sample #1 - "Superbad" (2007): "Superbad" is a classic teen comedy film that displays the genre's conventions. It entails witty dialogue, comical characters, and humorous situations, following two high school friends on their journey to buy alcohol for a house party. The film uses clever humor and relatable teenage experiences to engage its target audience of teenagers/young adults. 

Film Sample #2 - "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" (2004): "Anchorman" is a comedy that parodies the world of television news. It showcases absurd characters, over-the-top humor, and comical situations while targeting a broad adult audience. The film's clever satire and outrageous antics engage viewers in its unique brand of humor. 

List of 5-7 Other Film Examples within the Comedy Genre: 

• "Dumb and Dumber" (1994) 

• “The Hangover" (2009) 

• “Friday” (1995) 

• “Mrs. Doubtfire” (1993) 

• “Rush hour” (1998) 

• “Coming to America “(1988) 

• “Shrek” (2001) 

  
  
  

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These films demonstrate the diversity within the comedy genre targeting different audiences and utilizing various comedic conventions and production techniques to engage viewers.