⋆˚࿔ Creative Critical Reflection ⋆˚࿔

 

Hey guys!! 

So, today's very last post is my Creative Critical Reflection! 

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

 

A Red Christmas is a mystery thriller drama, and there are many ways it uses conventions from these three genres. For instance, a common characteristic of the drama genre is a storyline, often about societal issues. In our case, A Red Christmas has a storyline about the social issue of crime. This also reflects the popular characteristic of mystery films, where a crime is often committed, and is displayed in our opener during the scene where poison is strategically put into a plate of food and served to a specific person. Additionally, more often than not, the thriller genre includes plot twists that lead the film in a whole new direction. They are usually unpredictable and unexpected. We utilized this convention in our film opener, as shown in this scene where it is revealed that Christy is the perpetrator. However, the placement of the plot twist and the reveal of the perpetrator is also a way that challenges the conventions of these genres since it is at the beginning of our film, rather than in the middle or near the end, like most other films.

My group and I were the actors in our film. Since we are all 15-16 years old, our opener represents teen social groups. As a cast consisting of only girls, our film is also a representation of women. Additionally, our opener represents the Black, Hispanic, and Asian community, with me as the starring actor and Christy, Tiffany, and Zadie as the supporting actors. 

Question 2: How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

Our film has a mystery aspect, and there are things we included that are exciting, compelling, and unexpected. For example, our audience is left on a cliffhanger in which it is revealed who the perpetrator is. However, the audience still doesn’t know what happens next to the victim and may have an interest in knowing when the rest of the group will figure out that the criminal is right in front of them. It allows them to generate their own ideas and theories that they will want to know if they end up being right or not, making them want to watch the rest of the movie. To distribute our movie as a real media text, I would work on building an audience using visual advertisements like posters and trailers. I would also use social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter to share information and content about our film, as well as collaborate with brands and influencers to create a community of potential watchers and cater to our target audience of teens and young adults. I would then enter our film into film festivals to build more traction towards it and potentially gain the interest of a distributor that would like to sign with us since we are independent filmmakers. This way, our movie can also be shown in theaters and on streaming platforms such as Netflix. 

Question 3: How did your production skills develop throughout this project? 

 

This project has taught me many new things that helped to develop my production skills. When I first began this project, I had no idea what storyboarding was, and I learned that it is an important aspect that allowed me to visualize my ideas and gave me an organized plan to follow when filming. Even though I had experience in editing prior to this project, I learned new skills, such as importing fonts. The font we used for our title sequence, Trade Winds, was not available in Capcut, so I had to go through a series of steps to put it in there myself. Additionally, I also learned how to convert files. The music we used was from non-copyrighted videos on YouTube, which were in MP4 format, and I had to convert them to an MP3 file to get them into audio format. Additionally, I also learned how to share projects. My group and I took turns editing on Premier Pro the first time we edited, and I learned how to use the Team Project option to give them editing access from their own devices. 

 

Question 4: How did you integrate technologies- software, hardware and online – in this project?

 

I used a series of technologies to create this project. For example, I used my laptop and my school’s desktops to learn how to maintain my blog, “Behind the Scenes”, on Blogger.com, where I shared my experience and new knowledge of film that I learned in class. I also used these technologies to edit our film on the software’s Premier Pro and Capcut, where I was able to apply my newly learned knowledge of the use of transitions. Lastly, my group and I used a vlog camera to film, and I learned how to move and position it to get specific shots and angles, like POV and low-angled shots, to give off certain feelings and moods. 

Thanks for staying tuned!! Byeee!!!! :) 

⋆˚࿔ Final Project ⋆˚࿔

 

Hey guys!! 

So, today marks the end of an era :'( 

We have finally completed our movie opener! This entire process was such an incredible experience. I am so grateful to have had this opportunity and have the ability to create something of our own. Through each step of the way, I learned so many new things. Doing this project really increased my love and respect for film and the industry. It made me realize that there is so much thought and planning that goes into this craft, and I appreciate it so much more now! 

Working with my group was amazing and so much fun!  I am so lucky to have been able to work with such talented, driven, and dedicated people. We each supported each other through this journey and it really tested our abilities. Even through the most stressful situations, we never gave up on each other and worked through it together. This project helped us to learn and develop our skills in teamwork, communication, and creativity, all while strengthening our bond and deepening our friendship. It allowed us to create many fun memories that we will now be able to look back on. 

It has also been fun seeing the work of all my peers and watching them go through the same journey as me. Yet, their different ideas and the process they went through to create their own work make it so different, which I think is super cool to think about! 

Thank you guys so much for sticking around and watching us learn and grow through each step of the way! We have worked very hard to get to this point and we hope you enjoy our creation as much as we enjoyed making it!!

We now present to you: A red Christmas 

Stay tuned for one more!! ;)  

⋆˚࿔ Editing In Depth ⋆˚࿔

Hey guys!! 

So, today I will be talking about how I got the font for our title into CapCut!! 

When we first created our title sequence, my group and I went through a few fonts we thought would be a good choice. We ended up agreeing on a font called "Trade Winds"! Zadie found this font on Picsart but when I went to search for it in CapCut, they unfortunately did not have it. However, I knew that there must be a way to import a font onto CapCut somehow, and after doing some quick research, I was able to figure it out! 

Here is how I did it: 

The first thing I needed to do was download the font to my Mac. I searched for the name of it and was able to find it through Google Fonts. Once I clicked the download button, a file was saved to my computer. Next, I opened the file by double-clicking on it. This opened up the Font Book app which gave me a preview of the font I downloaded. Next, I clicked the install button in the bottom right corner. 

In order for the font to show up in CapCut, you have to close the software and reopen it. After I did that, I opened up my project again, clicked on the text tool, and inserted a textbox into my project. On the right-hand side with all the text options, I clicked on the drop-down menu that has a variety of fonts and searched for the name of my font! Lastly, I selected it and there it was! 

I hope this is helpful to any of you who would like to try this or want to use a font that may not be available in CapCut!! 

Stay tuned for more!! ;) 

⋆˚࿔ Shot Order Changes ⋆˚࿔

 

Hey guys!! 

So, today I will be talking about how the order of some of the shots in our opener has changed!! 

During editing, there can be a lot of experimenting. There were times when we realized that some things looked better a different way than the initial way we had planned them to be. For instance, we removed the clip of the Santa Claus decoration from shot 4 of our storyboard. This is because we would be able to match the clips to the beats of the background music better. Additionally, our storyboard originally showed me coughing and then collapsing. Then, it switches to a POV shot of the same event. We decided to change this during editing to give our opener a more dramatic effect. 

To do this, I first kept the shot of me trying the food and starting to cough. I then cut it in the middle of my coughing to the POV shot of me coughing and trying to grab the drink. It then cuts back to the other angle of me coughing, but this time it shows me falling out of my chair with the camera following. This created a canted angle which helped showcase my character's disorientation. It then transitions back to the POV shot of me continuing to fall at that canted angle until I hit the floor. We feel that this change really added to the suspense, drama, and thrill of our project. 

Overall, I think these changes really made a difference in our opener! We are really happy with how it turned out and are glad we came up with these ideas!! 

Stay tuned for more!! ;) 

⋆˚࿔ Added In Editing ⋆˚࿔

 

Hey guys!! 

So, today I will be talking about some things that I added to our opener during editing. 

I found that once I began editing, I noticed a lot of things that were missing. I also had lots of ideas running through my mind on how things could be improved and what changes could be made to achieve that. After bringing these ideas to my group members, we agreed on a few things we should add to our project. 

To start, we decided to make some sound additions. In the scene where the food is being plated, I edited the pitch of the Christmas music to gradually go down. We thought this would help to make a smoother transition into the next scene and add drama. Next, in the scene where it is being decided which plate will be poisoned, I added a suspenseful build-up sound effect that eventually goes quiet to make the scene more chilling and mysterious. I then added in some non-copyrighted creepy Christmas Music that would play throughout the next few parts of the opener, as it felt a bit empty without it. The one we chose is called "Snow Wonders", and adding this music really helped to step up our film to a different level. Additionally, in the scene where my character collapses, I added voice effects like echoes and slowed down the dialogue to portray the feeling of losing consciousness, as well as a heartbeating sound. Near the end of the opener, we also decided to add some suspenseful action music that complimented the chaos occurring within the scenes. This really tied everything together! I think adding more music and editing the sound elevated our opener and made it better than it was before. 

Moreover, I also added a few visual edits to our opener! Also in the collapsing scene, I added a blur effect to show disorientation. There are also a few cut-to-black transitions and a fade-out and fade-in transition to add suspense and make the scenes flow better into each other. 

There are so many different things you could do while editing and it was fun experimenting to see what would work best for us!! It was cool to see everything slowly come together too!! 

Stay tuned for more ;) 

⋆˚࿔ Re-Editing Experience ⋆˚࿔

 

Hey guys!! 

So, today I will be talking about my experience re-editing our film :D 

Allow me to explain: 

 We had already begun the editing process, with a large portion of our opener edited on Christy's computer. We used Premiere Pro on my account so I should have been able to access the project on my own device. However, when I went to open our project, none of the clips showed up... I thought I had done something wrong or that maybe it was just my computer. I tried multiple times to go in and out of the software and refresh it, but still nothing. I also tried doing some research but I did not get any helpful answers. This was a problem, and I quickly messaged Christy to see if she could still access the project. Unfortunately, she could no longer see it either. Christy also tried multiple times to refresh but nothing worked. This meant that we would have to start over. 

For the re-editing process, I decided it would be better to use Capcut and not risk losing our project on Premiere Pro again. I have quite a bit of experience with CapCut so it was not as difficult this time. I made sure I had all the clips we filmed and imported them to begin editing. I had volunteered to re-edit our opener by myself, so the entire process took me about 7 hours with a few short breaks. I wanted to make sure our opener was the best it could possibly be, so I really took my time and paid close attention to detail. 

Although this situation was stressful, we were able to finish editing on time. One thing I learned from this is that sometimes it is best to just stick with what you know. Premiere Pro is more on the advanced side and takes a lot more practice than we had to be able to use it efficiently. Our group decided to use it in the first place because we thought it would give us a better quality product. However, we think that our opener turned out amazing using Capcut! 

Stay tuned for more!! ;) 

⋆˚࿔ A Director for Our Film ⋆˚࿔

 

Hey guys!! 

So, today I will be talking about which director I would most want to turn our film opener into a full movie/TV show!! 

The director I would want to work with on our film is Max Winkler! Born in California, Max Winkler is an American screenwriter and director. His talents have been shown in many films and TV shows. He has done a lot of projects which focus on mystery and drama. Winkler has a great way of displaying these aspects on screen, as shown in his many projects. For instance, he is the executive producer and has directed two episodes of the show School Spirits. Additionally, he was an executive producer and directed many episodes of the show American Horror Stories. His work is also displayed in the show Cruel Summer. 

My group's opener is also a mystery, teen drama film. I feel like Winkler is one of the many directors with experience in these genres. He would be able to help develop some great ideas on how to further our film. I also think he would be able to capture and implement these ideas in a unique way that would keep the audience engaged and interested! 

Overall, there are so many talented directors and creators out there! Although, I do think that Max Winkler would do wonders for our film and would help us get it to where we want it to be! 

Max Winkler: 

Stay tuned for more! ;) 

⋆˚࿔ Favorite Editing Software ⋆˚࿔

 

Hey guys!! 

So, today I will be talking about my favorite editing software and why I did not like the other one as much!! 

For our opener, my group and I used two different software to edit. The first one we used was Premiere Pro. This was not my favorite. As I have previously mentioned, Zadie and I are the most experienced with the software, however, it was still fairly difficult to navigate. There are so many panels and different ways to do things, which just made it all the more confusing for us. Additionally, I found it a bit difficult to keep our clips organized and there were many instances where I would move a clip and it would disappear. Our clips were also really skinny on the timeline which made them hard to move. Another thing I disliked about this software is that even though our devices were logged into the same account, I was not able to edit on my own device because I did not have the original clips that Christy imported into the project, even though I had the very same clips saved to my own computer. This made the process longer, as I would have to wait until the next time I saw Christy in order to make any edits. Premiere Pro is a software that requires practice to fully navigate, though we decided to use it just for the basic aspects of our editing. However, we realize now that this probably was not the best choice for us and led to a really big issue. 

The other software that we used was Capcut. I have much more experience with Capcut than Premiere Pro, as I have used it numerous times in the past to edit videos. I feel that Capcut is much more organized and simple to navigate, while also having all the tools needed to efficiently edit. We were able to keep better track of our clips and they appeared much larger on the timeline. I also love how Capcut has a large range of effects that you can put onto your videos with just a click of a button, and it looks really nice! It was a lot easier to find what we needed and the rest of my group members were able to figure out how to use it in just a few minutes. I think switching to this software was a great decision for us! 

Overall, I think both software are great if you know how to use them, although I personally prefer CapCut. 

Stay tuned for more!! ;)  

⋆˚࿔ Favorite Scenes to Film ⋆˚࿔

Hey guys!! 

So, today I will be talking about my favorite scenes to film in our opener!! 

The entire filming process was fun and interesting but there were a few scenes in particular where I had the most fun filming. 

Here's what they are: 

1. The Poison Scene

Out of all the scenes we filmed, this was my all time favorite! In this scene, my character gets hit with the effects of the poison and collapses onto the ground. Although this is a bit of a graphic scene, I had a good time getting into character. It allowed me to put myself in the shoes of the character and really think about what she would feel in that situation. I tried my hardest to project the fear, confusion, pain, and panic by tapping into my emotions and utilizing body language. I do not typically act so it was a bit challenging, but I think I was able to get the message across well. There was also a little incident during one of the takes where I scared Christy's mom because she thought I was actually choking :o ! 

2. The Dinner Convo scene 

This scene was also one of my favorites to film! We just sat down and enjoyed some food together, which was very delicious. We needed something to talk about while we ate so it was really funny since we just brought up random stuff. This scene took so many takes because we could not hold in our laughter! It was so fun to film and lightened the mood for a bit! 

Stay tuned for more!! ;) 

⋆˚࿔ Wishlist ⋆˚࿔

Hey guys!! 

So, today I will be talking about what I would do differently if I had a HUGE movie production budget!! 

Major movie productions typically have extremely large budgets, ranging from around $100 million. That's an insane amount of money, but it all goes into obtaining the best possible quality aspects to ensure the film's success! 

Now obviously, my group's budget was nowhere near the budget of a major movie production and there were a lot of times when we had to be innovative. But, it doesn't hurt to think about what we would do differently if we did have a huge budget!! 

With that being said, here are some things we would change if that was the case with some example photos: 

Actors: 

To start, if we did have a large budget to spend on our opener, I would definitely make the choice to hire actors. Actors are the people who bring your idea to life and good actors make the story feel real and authentic. My group and I aren't professionals and we tried our absolute best, but I do believe there are very talented people out there who could have better portrayed our characters and illustrated the story. 

Costumes: 

Next, I would also spend some money on costumes. Costumes are a way to project the personality of a character. My group and I used pieces we already had in our closets and although I do not believe there was anything necessarily wrong with them, I do think we could have benefitted from higher-quality pieces. 

Setting/location: 

Another thing I would improve with our budget is the setting and location of our opener. Our opener was filmed at Christy's house, which is really nice and spacious for the most part. However, I do believe we could have benefitted from having a larger, more extravagant space.  I also think filming in a location that's cold and has snow would add to the cozy, Christmas mood we wanted our film to give off. 

Props: 

This was one of the reasons why our opener transitioned to a more casual dinner compared to an extravagant one. My group and I did not really have a lot of money to spend on props and a huge dinner. We used Christmas decorations Christy had around her house and were only able to buy a few food items for the dinner. I do think that what we had and used in our opener works well for the new idea we had and the changes we made. It made it more cozy, intimate, and relatable. However, having access to a budget that allowed us to go all out would have let us develop our original idea of a fancy and lavish dinner. 

Film equipment: 

I would for sure spend this large budget on professional equipment, a filming team, and an editing team. Our group used Christy's camera to film and the quality was really nice. However, there are cameras used specifically for movie and TV show productions that I think would have been a much better choice. My group and I also did not use any sound equipment when filming, which resulted in us having a small issue with the sound quality. Having professional equipment would ensure that the sound quality is the best possible. Another thing I would spend the budget on is a cameraman. Our group took turns filming each other and we had to make our own tripod for scenes where we all had to be in the frame. A cameraman and professional camera equipment would have helped us a lot. Additionally, I would also incorporate an editing team into our budget. Zadie and I are the most experienced with Premiere Pro, however we are still learning parts of the software ourselves. Hiring professionals who fully know how to use higher-quality editing software would be a game-changer for us and enhance aspects of our opener. 

Although my group and I did not have access to a larger budget, we are very grateful to have had access to the things we did use for our opener. It allowed us to learn how to tap into our creativity and work together as a team to produce the best possible project we could have made!! 

Stay tuned for more!! ;) 

⋆˚࿔ Specific Camera Shots/Angles ⋆˚࿔

 

Hey guys!! 

So, today I will be talking about some specific shots/angles we used in our opener and why we used them!! 

Using different camera shots and angles is crucial to adding depth, and variety, and creating a specific mood in film. Diverse shots and angles can be used to drive the plot or even depict a character in a specific way. 

For example, the first 4 shots are static shots that show off the Christmas decorations. We did this in order to set the mood of the film. We also used a few close-up shots, an example being when we showed Christy turning on the oven and opening the door. This emphasized the importance of those two concepts and how they would add up to everything else later on. Over-the-shoulder shots were also used in the scenes where everyone is arriving to show a conversation. We also used a few overhead shots when preparing the food to give the audience a better understanding of the actions occurring. Additionally, we incorporated a few POV shots, one showing the person deciding which plate to choose. In the shot, there's a slight movement left and right to mimic the person's head shaking no. There's also a slight up-and-down movement that mimics a shaking hand. We used this specific shot so that our audience could better understand the character's thought process. We also used it to make sure we didn't reveal who the person was. Another example of this can also be seen in the shot where my character is seen coughing and gripping onto the table. This example of a POV shot brings the audience into the urgency and distress of the character, which is exactly what we wanted to do. 

Additionally, we also used a canted angle. After coughing, my character eventually faints, and we choose to display this by dramatically tilting the camera to one side. Doing so creates the effect of disorientation and establishes the uneasiness we want our audience to feel. We also used a few more shots, like a wide shot, to show the setting. 

There are a lot more shots and angles we used, but these are just a few examples!! 

            

Stay tuned for more!! ;)