My Film Opening

Week Nine: The End is Near

Here is my baby. Handle her with care. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AouQm4Sy9oilJTh8kojgCs-qqyXMTpl3/view?usp=sharing

What We Changed... Sorry

Week Nine: The End is Near
The end is so close I can almost taste it. Am I stressed? A tad. Not that I want this project to be over with, but it has been time-consuming, and I am exhausted. The marvelous thing about procrastination is that your deadline likes to creep up on you and stab you in the chest. April. Fourth. 11:59 PM. I am on the brink of tears. Editing has come along nicely, besides Hannah's laptop crashing every time we exported it. Hannah started petting her computer just to make it work. I will give you guys a quick little sneak peek. 

Oh, yeah! We moved the title from the end to the beginning. Our intro now seems more like an intro and less like a short film. It looks nicer here too. Also, look how beautiful the font title is :)
SHOUTOUT TO ADOBE FONTS!

One aspect we did keep was the music, but BOY, is it brutal to find decent royalty-free music. It simply does not feel the same as songs we are accustomed to. Hannah sent me one audio to see if I would like it, and I peed my pants. It was horrible. Hannah knows this, by the way. She, too, agreed that it was gross. 

It sounds like a Disney Channel Original Movie Intro

Disgusting.

Literally, spot the difference. 

Our new audio is MUCH better and actually matches our movie's mood/tone, but I am not going to show it to you because it isn't time yet (Yup, I am that type of person). It is crazy how credits and music can tie an opening together. I am relatively confident with the final product, but Hannah and I wonder if the end needs tweaking, so it may not be TOO final. We might add a quick narration -- something along the lines of "The world likes to lock people in closets, but I decided to choose happiness. I chose her. But I haven't told her." Too cheesy? Maybe. That's what we are afraid of. 

Creative Critical Reflection

I am going to be transparent with you all. I created the script for the CCR, but I am dreading filming and editing. I don't know why. I think I am procrastinating, but also I know that this is the last THING to do, which means a grade will soon follow. I have grade anxiety. Anyways, IF YOU LOOK RIGHT. That is proof of the script being done!

It's Complicated movie opening coming soon!

CCR Crazy, Again

Week Eight: Time Crunch

I honestly am more excited to film my creative, critical reflection than I was my film opening... oops. I don't want my CCR to be rigid or me staring at a camera answering four questions. I would like the information to come out naturally and allow each question to flow into the next. I plan on doing one take in front of the camera but then add inserts of me doing funny tasks that correlate back to my question. I also plan on including examples from the coming-of-age openings I watched and screenshots of data I found within my research. Both of these will be overlapped by my narration. The CCR doesn't seem too complicated: basic editing, personality, and information that I already wrote about in my blog or notes. 

My CCR notes. Yes, I handwrite my notes because I am a nerd. As I took notes, I wrote down what applied to my project. 
For example, question four asks how technology was integrated into our project. I quickly jotted down a few: Blogger, Adobe Premier, Google Docs, and Canva. 

The Four Questions Outline

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

• Coming of Age Conventions (Research Necessary)
• Representation 
• Costume:
  Sami and Maxx - Grunge
• Setting:
  Nature and Suburban 
• Groups:
  Teenagers and LGBTQIA+ youth
• Challenged and Unchallenged Conventions 

2. How does your project engage with audiences, and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

• Discuss Target Audience (Research Necessary)
• Does the age of the characters matter?
  
• Does the costume of the characters matter?
• In short, were choices made that target your audience?
• Distribution
• Based on the Coming-of-Age genre, how would you distribute it to your target audience?
• Youtube, TikTok, Twitter, etc. 
• Film Festivals (Research Specific Ones)
• Genre Based Festival?
  
• Student Admission?
• Pop Up Event?

3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

• Discuss Research and Planning (Refer to Blog Post)
• Discuss Obstacles (Refer to Blog Posts)
• Discuss Modifications (Refer to Blog Posts)

4. How did you integrate technologies - software, hardware, and online - in this project?
(Discuss any technological obstacles)

• Adobe Font
• Adobe Premiere
• Adobe After Effects
• Blogger
• Google Docs
• iMessage for Communication 
• Canva

I Hate It

Week Eight: Time Crunch  

    I have been thinking, thinking hard, and... I don't like the opening. Of course, it isn't a final copy, but it seems more like a two-minute short film focused around a concept, that concept being teenagers. That's a problem. Openings don't give away the film in two minutes. Most of the movies I have seen contain very minimalistic film openings. And you may be thinking, "Hey! Maybe she just watches bad movies!" No, most of the movies I watch are coming-of-age, which is terrible BECAUSE THAT IS MY FILM OPENING GENRE. And it is not like I am breaking genre conventions or thinking outside of the box. It is simply a bunch of shots and information thrown at our viewers. 

    I feel defeated, but I am not entirely hopeless. I need to speak with Hannah. Half of being a teenager and growing up is your environment, where you live, and who you interact with. So maybe we edit it to focus less on the storyline/concept and more on the initial stage of who these girls are. In short, who are Maxx and Sami, and what makes them who they are. Before we began this project, our instructor, Mrs.Stoklosa, showed us a TedTalk on creating ideas from scratch. "2 plus 2 but not 4" was the big takeaway. Our current opening SCREAMS FOUR. When I tried mentioning this to Hannah, she almost seemed insulted, or maybe she felt helpless too. I can't blame her. We are running out of time, so how would we fix it? 

The current opening has six sections: 
Beginning nature shots, bike riding, running into the house, records, reading, love attack on to the bed, girls pause and have an intimate moment. 

I think it needs more in between, more details embedded into the significant sections. Also, remove one extensive selection. The long, drawn-out pause and Maxx brushing Sami's hair to the side. I know. I sound like I have lost my mind, but hear me out.

1. Nature Shots

2. Bike Riding 

3. Arrive at House/Run Inside

4. More Nature/Setting Shots

5. Sami Looks through Vinyl

6. Shots of Maxx's Room

7. Maxx Reads a Book

8. More Shots of Maxx's Room 

(This is where it gets rough)

9. Love Attack Scene 

10. Laughter from Maxx and Sami 

11. "It's Complicated."

Everything I listed above has already been filmed. It would simply be a matter of re-ordering our footage and dragging out certain shots to emphasize location or a character trait. Instead of the ending revealing that the girls are lesbian, that would be revealed or hinted at through Maxx's room shots. If this were to be developed into a full-length production, the details would be developed later in the story. I am glad I could write all my thoughts out. Tomorrow I see Hannah, and we have the entire class period to work on it, so I will re-order the shots and hope for the best. 

Editing Dilemmas and CCR Crazy

Week Eight: Time Crunch

Hannah and I compiled all of our footage and initially created a really rough copy. This first draft highlighted continuity errors and issues within our opening. We noticed two mistakes right away and had to decide if we wanted to reshoot or edit around them. If you've been following along, scheduling a production date was horrific; therefore, we chose to edit around the problems.

ERROR 1:

Gomez is riding her bike ahead of me, indicating that she will arrive on the grass before me.

I arrive on the grass before Gomez. 

ERROR 2:

Wrestling Gomez in a medium shot.

Immediately cuts to this close-up high-angle shot. There's no flow. It's too abrupt. 

Hannah gave me most of the footage, and I am still playing around with it to tweak the errors. As I continue editing, it flows smoother, so I am not too worried. Basically, the opening is done. We just need to add the credits and overlap the opening with royalty-free whimsical music.

CREATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION

I have begun writing my script for my CCR. I can answer most of the questions based on research from my blogs or my own knowledge from the filming process. I want to make it uniquely me. I am thinking of doing lots of cuts and sprucing the script up with my annoying verbiage. I want to devote one sitting to filming my CCR, so I plan on doing it one day over the weekend, especially since our film opening will be finalized by then. Side note, I am glad the CCR is done independently. Through this experience, I have learned that my creativity feels inhibited when I work with a partner. Now that's a reflective point. 

Production Day Part 2

Week Seven: It's Coming Together

Happy Sunday! As I promised yesterday, let me talk about the bike scene/nature scenes. Hannah and I didn't have bikes, but Gomez did, so we took a little trip to Gomez's house and filmed there. We needed four people for this process. Hannah to film, Gomez to play Sami, Me to play Maxx, and Gomez's mother, Dawn, drive a car forward. We stayed safe, guys, I promise! Hannah sat in the vehicle's trunk with the trunk open. As the car moved forward, so did Gomez and me.

Hannah safe in the car, waiting to film.

The bike scene! YAY!

The bike scene took a few tries. There were cars in the way and people driving by, but once we got a good take, we were satisfied. Then, we filmed the running in the house scene, which didn't take long, but we wanted a few of the same shots just in case. As you can see, I hate continuity errors. And then we filmed some nature shots. 

Hannah and nature shots!

And that was the second half of the production process! It took around three hours and then we got lunch. Now, we edit. We will compile a few REALLY rough drafts and go from there. Talk soon!

Production Day Part 1

 Week Seven: It's Coming Together

What a day! We all woke up bright and early to film. Hannah and Gianna Gomez arrived at my house at ten in the morning. Hannah came bearing gifts, coffee, of course. We couldn't have done it without you, Starbucks! Not to stereotype me, but my room is very spot-on for a grunge teenager (that statement was gross). They entered my room, and I first gave Gianna Gomez a complete run-down on the storyline. When I asked if she could be filmed, I gave Gomez an overview, but I wanted to clarify anything she may have been confused about or uncomfortable with. I then asked Hannah if there was anything in my room that would be out of place for our character Maxx. We took down one item. My pride flag. Unfortunately, there is nothing closeted about having a pride flag in your bedroom, and Maxx isn't out, so it wouldn't make sense. 

My pride flag literally ended up in my closet. How ironic!

I also wanted to point out that I texted Gomez what I needed her to wear on Friday night. Gomez sent me a bunch of options. I knew that I would wear baggy jeans and a band t-shirt with converse, so I wanted a little bit of disparity without making it too obvious. 

Gomez, our Sami, ended up wearing boots, cargo pants, a crop top, and sunglasses. Although Hannah was behind the camera, she came dressed up too. We all looked cute. 

The bedroom scenes were... fun?! We started by taking shots of my room and then moved on to the girls interacting. Having to be both in front of and behind the camera was aggravating. I am a bit of a control freak, so trusting Hannah wasn't easy. There was a lot of bickering. 

Statements that left my mouth:
"Film me at this angle." 
"Okay, let me see."
"No. Twist the camera this way."
"A little higher."
"A little lower."
"Switch spots with me. Let me show you."

Me filming my room scenes.

Hannah filming me reading. 

Me correcting Hannah. Sorry, Han!

And then... the intimate scene. Full disclosure, Gianna Gomez has been my best friend since I was 12, so this scene was a little hard to film, but we both act, so it wasn't complicated. We had to reshoot it a few times because the pillows made our heads look abnormal on camera, and Gomez and I kept laughing. 

Sami jumping on Maxx. 

We got one REALLY great shot of this scene, but it wasn't close enough, which made the moment too distant from a potential viewer; therefore, we had to redo it. I almost cried, but we ended up getting it. The whole process took roughly three hours, and then we drove to the second location. The bike scene (BUM BUM BUM)
I will talk about that tomorrow. Goodnight Shoes!