CR Research (part 2)

 H blog!! OMG I'm scared we are so close to the FINAL week I mean we are nearly there!! Anyway, last week I began doing my research on my the critical reflection that I must write to conclude my portfolio project. This research honestly helped me a lot to better understand the questions by breaking them down and analyzing what answering each question entails. 

Last week, I analyzed questions 2 and 3 so this week I will be doing my research for questions questions 1 and 4. Once again here are the questions: 

1. How does your product represent social groups or issues? 

2. How does your product engage with the audience? 

3. How did your research inform your product and the way they use or challenge conventions? 

4. How do elements of your product work together to create a sense of branding? 

And let's jump straight into it!  

Question 1: To answer this question I must first have a clear understanding what sort of social groups/issues are acknowledged within the product and how successful we were at representing such topics. This question is extremely important as representation is a crucial part of the media sphere. The main topic being presented in my product is the idea of grief/guilt. This is an extremely difficult subject to represent as such experiences are extremely subjective. Regardless of this, because of how extremely sensitive such topics can be, it is important that they are represented correctly. 

Question 4: This question is honestly very similar to question 2 in that branding and target audience often go hand in hand. However, to answer this question I must first describe that the brand is and the goal we have for brand to be. Then, I must analyze what sort of elements were used to develop it. This includes color schemes, overall themes, social media presence, and the overall marketing of the product. 

example of social media presence

FILMING!!

 Hi guys!! We FINALLY have footage to show. Today we filmed the scene between Cameron and her mom (starts on page 4 of the script.) **NOTE: Cameron was originally written to be a guy so many of the directions use he/him pronouns when referring to the character. 

Today honestly went really well, it took us an hour and a half to get ready and film everything we needed to get. I learned my lesson from last year and shot each take at least 3 times. The overall creative process was very productive as the actors were well informed on their characters current situation, feelings, and motivations to carry them through the scene. Audrey and I were able to effectively communicate with each other and with the actors to get exactly what we wanted out of each take. 

Our main concern was getting the right angles for each shot to make the overall film look as seamless as possible and so editing wouldn't be a TOTAL pain. This is why it was really important to me to film every shot at least 3 times and I often had our actresses repeat their previous line before getting a new shot. 

Overall, I'm so happy we are finally almost done with filming (only 2 days left yay) especially because it was definitely a big weight and Audrey and I's shoulders with all the casting and scheduling issues but yay we're here and we can almost see the finish line!

Group Meeting #2

Hii! Today we had our second group meeting and it honestly went very well. We all shared our ideas and progress with each other and gave each other advice. The general consensus was that we all needed to keep developing the print components of our projects. Below I'll attach some notes we took during the meeting before elaborating on each persons progress.

  

 David- His short film is about a guy who can teleport by flipping a coin and tries to do a kind act along the way but it keeps back firing on him. David is almost completely done filming. Over spring break he filmed in Madrid and London.  His main concern was working on further developing the social media for his short film.

Ryan: His short film is about a school custodian who finds a body at school tries to cover up a murder. He is completely done with the filming portion of the film and has begun editing and has even made a teaser (which was really good). He also composed his own music for his short film. Most Instagram posts have been designed but not posted yet. During the meeting the group helped him fix the layout of his post card.

Lauren: She is doing film promo for her project. Her film is about a girl who is consumed by OCD and her desire to be perfect. She filmed the majority of her trailers over spring breaks and is now almost done filming. The Instagram posts she has created fr her film promo are very well developed, she has a consistent color palette and theme throughout all the posts that correspond with color palette of the trailer she has created for her film promo. During the meeting the group helped her with the thumb nails she had created for the her project as the text has hard to see do to the lack of color contrast between the background and the text so we suggested certain colors she could use that would fit into the color pallet but still make the title of the film stand out more. 

Nico: His short film was basically explained to be similar to the film "mean girls" except they are witches (we didn't get much explanation beyond that). He has most of everything filmed with just a few scenes left to do. He explained that his biggest issue was the script and that he had to re-write it multiple times. Instagram posts are tarot card inspired to match the theme of the film (very creative).

Andrew- He explained their short film (I honestly didn't really understand it but it's a dark comedy having to do with cult-y, religious, anti-christ-y themes). Anyway he explained that his team member and he gave divided the work load among themselves so that each person has no specific aspect to focus on and his is the social media of his film. He also explained how they were pretty behind and were able to catch up with filming quite recently. Furthermore he showed us the postcard he designed for the project and explained that it was made to be used within the film so he will likely use the one he designed as promo and design another actual postcard for the project.

Researching sound elements

 Hi!! So I've realized that even thought we haven't finished filming just yet does NOT mean that we can't start on post-production elements such as sound! So I have taken the liberty to start searching for copy-right free music to use in the film. My two main concerns are party music and some sort of mellow music for the end of the film. 

For party music I want to find something that is especially energetic to match the montage of "party-esq" scenes. I started doing some research on some copy-right music to get inspiration from. I decided to pull some inspiration from 'Clarity' by ZED and 'Time of Our Lives' by Pitbull. That being said I knew finding something with a similar vibe would be difficult.

For the more mellow music that accompanies the end of the film I wanted something that sounded very soft and almost sad but still hopeful to illustrate Cameron's journey through grief. If possible I want it to include piano because...I really love piano and I think it would be very fitting. I have taken some inspiration from songs such as  'Suburban House' by Lana del Rey and Holly Macve, 'Thinking of You-Acoustic' by Katy Perry and 'Hey Jude' by The Beatles. 

With all this in mind below are some copy-right free tracks I think we could integrate into our film. 

Party Music #1 

Part Music #2 

Party Music #3 

Mellow Music #1 

Mellow Music #2 

Mellow Music #3 

Mellow Music #4

CR Research (part 1)

 HII! So as we are going into the final few weeks of my portfolio project I decided now would be a good time to start on my critical reflection of the overall project. This year the reflection is a 1000 essay compared to last year (AS level) which was 2 videos. I'm honestly a lot more happy about having to write an essay than making videos (I struggled so much last year with those) because I feel like it'll be a lot easier for me to express myself as well as discuss and analyze my portfolio project in this way. 

The critical reflection is 'split up' into 4 questions that I must answer in an essay format. I put split up in quotation marks because my goal is not to answer each of the questions separately but more to analyze my work while having these questions as a guide to follow throughout the essay. 

The four questions I will be answering in my critical reflection are the following: 

1. How does your product represent social groups or issues? 

2. How does your product engage with the audience? 

3. How did your research inform your product and the way they use or challenge conventions? 

4. How do elements of your product work together to create a sense of branding? 

Below I'll attach previous notes I've taken about writing a critical reflection which I will further elaborate later on. (For this blog post I will be focusing on questions 2&3) 

Question 2: This question asks for a thorough analysis and description of the specific target audience of my short film as well as discussing how all 3 components of my portfolio project work to engage this audience. This question will mainly be an analysis of the choices Audrey and I made when creating the short film, designing the post card, and developing the social media page for our project. This analysis will include what kind of groups we attempted to bring in and how successful we were in doing so as well as specific examples of what we did to engage with such audiences.

Question 3:  This question is mainly focused around genre and conventions. Answering this question will require discussing specific samples that I reviewed (including short films, social media pages, and post cards) as well as specific techniques and how they influenced the product. This research needs to be analyzed in a way that explains exactly why and how this research was done and how it contributed to developing the genre of the film and how certain conventions were illustrated or challenged with in the product.

 

Goals for the week!

 Hi Cambridge friends! So Audrey and I have been trying to play catch up butttttt we might have just run into one more set back. So you see... as you all know, Audrey and I began filming early into our spring break but we ran into some problems and decided to scrap the footage. Given this we decided to take on filming again this weekend BUT the actor who was supposed to play Cameron was unavailable. Now we are in a dilemma in which he is that he goes to another school that keeps him very busy all week. 

Audrey and I discussing our little problem

Because of this Audrey and I decided to find another friend that would be able to star in our film. We also decided that if his schedule is busy this whole week we may have to switch Cameron to be girl and have one of us play the character because we are already extremely behind in filming. 

So! Our goals for the week is to re-start and finish filming so that we can begin editing into week 7. For now while we figure out the the whole filming situation I have also begun designing the advertisement card which will not be complete until I have some footage and am able to take some character photos of Sarah and Cameron Diaz. 

Anyway, that's all for now!

Script is DONE!!

 HII! The script has finally been complete and I am so excited to finally be sharing it with you all. I think the script was so far has definitely been the most difficult part of the this process because Audrey and I really tried our best to make the script as realistic as possible which is often times very difficult when it comes to dramatic scenes which our shirt film is comprised of. 

I think the most difficult scene to write was the party scene in which Cameron is assumed to be under the influence. This was especially difficult to write given that I didn't want it to sound like the actor was 'acting drunk' instead the audience should just believe or assume this based on their words and mannerisms. Cameron's lines in this scene in particular are pretty non-sensical which is what I was trying to go for and I think I did a good job at executing the idea that he is not 100% in his right mind in that moment. Furthermore, for this scene especially it will heavily rely on the actors choices which will be discussed when we film. 

As I previously mentioned, Audrey and I wanted to edit the transitions between the present day and flashback scenes to make them flow better. We did this by creating lines that seamlessly flow into one another as Cameron re-tells his story and also by incorporating voice overs into the more emotionally deep scenes. Overall, I think we did a very good job with the script and I'm very proud of us so yay!

Session One Script

Rewriting the script

 Hi! As I mentioned in my previous post Audrey and I are currently working on re-writing the script as there were parts of it that didn't really flow correctly specifically the flashback scenes. 

The main problem was that the transitions between the scenes in the therapist office to the flashbacks were very awkward and didn't really feel natural. For example, the first scene that transitioned into the party the lines that would transition the scene were too important to be brushed off or faded out as the party commenced so we had to find a way to either cut the lines or extend the scene to transition more easily. 

Furthermore, we just felt like a lot of the dialogue in the party scenes felt very stagnant and just not natural. We are planning on rewriting these scenes as well but we also know that our actors will use their creative liberties to make the scene really come to life. 

Anyway, below I'll attach a little chunk of a revised portion of the script, keep in mind that the script is not 100% concrete and we trust out actors to take the liberties they need to enhance their performance.

Spring Break Filming!

Hi!! So luckily Audrey and I were able to begin filming today since we realized that we would be pretty behind if we didn't at least get SOME filming done. So, we decided to meet up with Brandon (Dr. Black) and Jayden (Cameron Diaz) to film the scenes that occur in the therapist office.

Unfortunately we did have a few limitations as to where we could film as we couldn't film in an actual office so we really had to play with the angles we used and the spots where we filmed in since we had to film at home and tried to make it look as much like a therapist office as possible. Our day of filming was very successful we were able to get a lot of different shots and were able to do it efficiently and stay organized. Our actors were easy to work with as they both already have experience in acting so we were able to give them more creative liberty and it honestly felt like were all working on the scene together instead of us simply directing them. 

I know I had previously mentioned in my blogs that I wanted to wait until we were completely done with the script to start filming but, after finishing writing we realized that there was a lot of revision to be done regarding the party/flashback scenes (I'll discuss further in another blog) and we realized that we could not afford to be even more behind so we decided to it'd be best to start filming what we could. I have a feeling while editing the flashback scenes we will probably find other scenes with Brandon and Jayden that need to be realized so we will likely have another day of filming with just them. 

Anyway, Audrey and I are leaving for Florida State Thespians tomorrow morning and we won't be back till the 21st so hopefully we can take this time to work on some other elements of the project instead of focusing on filming. Honestly, Audrey and I have a lot of catching up to do but I have faith that we will be able to in the upcoming week. 

Creating Our First Instagram post

 Hi blog! So Audrey and I have realized that it is SERIOUSLY time to start posting on the films Instagram AND start building an actual brand for the film. That being said, I've started designing our first post to promote the film and I have a few ideas so far. 

Here is what I have so far! 

#1

#2

#3

Funny enough, #3 was actually my first design but then I realized it might be a better idea to have the production company name in the post and have 'coming soon' in the title. I personally, am leaning more towards #1 because I like the aura circle and the I feel like the purple and blue can be representative of the two character (Cameron and Sarah) and also I didn't love the plain black and white idea. 

Anyway, I'm waiting for Audrey to get back to me on what she likes or if we want to make any additional changes so I'll keep you guys posted!

Film Name + extra stuff

 HII! So Audrey and I finally decided on a name for the film (which has honestly been super hard to find). I think the most difficult part was that he wanted find to find something that was relevant to the film but didn't sound cringey or too long or just didn't flow right. 

Initially, we were thinking of naming the short film the main characters name , Cameron Martinez, but we realized that this name made it seem more like the whole film was centered around his WHOLE life instead of this one specific aspect of his life, that being his grieving process of the loss of his sister. So, then we tried to find words were synonymous or had something to do with grief but nothing really stuck and honestly sounded kind of pretentious. 

Finally, we realized that the whole premise of the short film is that the lead character, Cameron Martinez, is seeking therapy for the FIRST time since his sister left. So, that's when we decided on naming the film "Session One". I honestly LOVE the name and it's crazy how the simplest ideas can make the best names and we didn't have to go out searching for words synonymous to grief and different words for grief in another language. 

So YAY! The film had been named now the ball is REALLY rolling. 

Side Note: On my last blog I added an image of the beginning of the screenplay and forgot to mention that the name we wrote is COMPLETELY made up. Audrey and I just couldn't think of a name at the moment when writing and decided we'd write down something random and later on go back and change it. So NO, the films name is NOT gunpowder milkshake:)  

Script Writing

 HII! So Audrey and I went to Panera (If you don't know what that is it's basically a magical place where you can get all your work done and get slightly higher quality hospital food and COOOKIESS) to write our script and I'd say it went pretty well although it's definitely been a slow and steady process. We got the first scene done but truly what's taken us so long that is that we are trying to be as specific as possible with the screenplay so that we easily visualize what the viewers see by reading it.  

Cookie + Mac& Cheese in a bread bowl from Panera

Being completely honest, I don't know if we are going to be able to film during spring break like we originally had planned because I really want us to have the whole script finished and down to perfection (or as close as possible) before we start filming BUT my goal is to finish script by the end of spring break so we can send it out to our actors and we can hopefully start filming the week after. 

Overall, I KNOW we're pretty behind on schedule but truly I think we'll be able to catch us quick because I don't think filming will take us more than a couple of days as we want to split up filming so that we can work only with actors we need on given days and not have to worry about extra people when they are not being used. In the  mean time Audrey and I will be working on things like designing logos and posting on Instagram (coming soooon!) 

Anyway, below is the very beginning of our script, just as a little sneak peak. 

Catching Up!

 Hi Cambridge ! Here is a little update on our progress before we start week 4 (how are we already in week 4). So honestly, this week was not super productive other than meeting with groups and getting insight on our project. To be completely honest Audrey and I have both been extremely busy the past 2 weeks with rehearsals and shows that we just have not had time to sit down and talk about our film. 

Given this, our plan for this week to play catch up and basically work double time to get back on schedule because we really want to start filming before winter break because we are both going to Tampa for a competition for the majority of spring break which will make it a lot harder to film. 

My main goals for this week are as follow: 

• map out social media plan (color scheme, posting schedule, create account, etc.) 
• Go to Panera and knock out script writing (and get a cookie)
• start and finish rough draft script (and edit) 
• plan out filming dates/ talk to actors about any scheduling conflicts 
• finalize filming dates 

I know this might seem like it's not a whole lot but Audrey and I only have 2 class period together this week and one of them is an early release day so we really need to get the ball rolling with production. 

Anyway, I'll keep you guys updated on how the week goes and hopefully we are able to get everything done. Good night!