Revealing my Film's title; Among Other Things

 Hey everyone! Editing is nearing completion, there's only 40 seconds left that I need to edit in sounds! Here, take a look at a screenshot of my adobe screen!

Production is coming along swimmingly! For today, I'd like to reveal a piece of the film, and explain my creative choices!

(Blogger compresses the video, so it's of a worse quality. I promise that when I upload the final product to YouTube, it'll look nicer. Also, this isn't the finished product, and it's likely that this segment will change in the future!)

I'm actually really proud of this segment. First off, the music design was a challenging part for me. I tried to learn music theory, but it's a bit difficult to do so in the span of two days. Instead, I opted to play rudimentary notes to not only serve as background noise, but to match Theo's current tone. You can't tell in this snippet, but in the past shots, the only audio was AC white noise and a somber music piece (it sounds really nice, I'll share it with you all soon!). Not only does the quiet help build suspense in what's going to happen and why Theo is despondent, it also matches his current, somber mood.

The singular high pitched music note that plays when Bakari (whose voice was provided by my lovely friend Luke, he'll be cited in the credits) asks "are you still moping around?". Alongside Theo's smile, this high note breaks the silence of the call between Theo and his father, showing that he can feel emotions, it just has to be with the right people. After this, a rudimentary melody is played as more shots of Theo's messy house are shown. This creates a relaxed feeling, as the audio juxtaposes the cold, quiet noises of the AC in previous shots. This helps signal the audience that Bakari's voice and presence calms Theo, creating a relationship between the two characters. I got this idea from my storytelling blog post, where I wanted to "make the audience work for their meal", in which case, I think I succeeded.

In the last moments of this piece, the calming rhythm brought by Bakari is interrupted by an out of tune key when Theo's girlfriend messages him. This interruption is very sudden, creating a sense of panic. I put this in because the following scene has Theo panicking as he stumbles to a picture of Bakari and him. Truthfully, I'm proud of this segment, and I think that I did a pretty nice job for one of my first major short films.

Lastly, the film's name. I'd like to introduce all of you to...

LifeLine

A WillowsWood Production

The thought process for my film's title isn't as complex as it's been for other things such as characters. First off, it shares a likeness to the term "landline", and if it were a real movie, the motif of the landline being Theo's inner struggles and conflicted feelings would carry over from the film's opening. If the landline would have such a major role in the film, I thought it would be poetic if the film's title would be similar to that word. In addition to that, a lifeline means something that someone depends on in their hour of need. When you're depressed, you need help, and throughout the course of the film, my vision is for Theo to slowly open up to his friends, a therapist, and eventually, his girlfriend. They will guide Theo to becoming more emotionally available, or in other words, they would be his lifeline. That's why I selected it for my film's title.

Thanks for tuning in guys! Tomorrow, I'll have more to reveal about the film and maybe even about the CCRs!

Thinking Out Loud

 Hey everyone! Spring Break is in session, but that doesn't mean the workflow stops. I have a shorter post for you today but I have some large announcements.

So first off, let's talk about the film. I've done around half of the editing needed. I've mainly focused on shot composition and effects for now. At first, I thought that shot organization would go by very quickly, but it turns out I'm super particular about how I organize the film. I've just finished organization yesterday, and I've started on sound today! I've utilized sounds listed in previous posts, but I ran into a new problem. How do I find audio stings? Of course, I could scan through audio libraries, but the issue with that is that it's like gambling. How can I find specialized stings tailored for my film if I'm just combing through random songs? I found a more intuitive solution than audio libraries.

Introducing, a virtual piano! The lovely people at virtualpiano.net have created an online piano interface for people to play with and create their own pieces! Let me preface this that I know absolutely nothing about music, or music theory, or anything on how to create proper songs or stings. There's no time to learn like the present I suppose? I've been combining some basic notes and testing them in the film opening, so I'll let you all know how they turn out when the film is created! From this point going forward, almost every piece of audio not listed previously in the blog will have been created by me.

Next up, let's discuss CCRs. Last post, I talked about how I wanted one of my CCRs to be formatted like a business presentation, but I left the other one more open to interpretation. I now have another idea I'd like to share! I want the second CCR to be more casual in tone, and for it to be formatted like a relaxing chat over dinner. The video will actually consist of I and other friend enjoying a nice dinner (I've already begun buying groceries, hehe) while the friend interviews me on representation in my film, my creative process, and what technologies I included in this project. This will also have some other shots and cuts to other videos overlaying the screen to culminate in a wonderful viewing experience. I genuinely love this idea, I think it's creative and gives me a way to show off my editing skills while still having a formal video!

I want to have this play in the background. It's my favorite classical music piece, it's in the public domain, and it'll set a formal tone while being relaxing! It's a calming piece too, great to listen to if you're stressed.

Lastly, I just wanted to give a little update about myself. Truth be told, the last couple weeks of my life have been exhausting. School has been rough, and I'm really tired. In other words, I feel burnt out? It's been a bit difficult to work on other projects, such as this one, for that reason. Regardless, I won't let that stop me. Spring break has arrived, I have a full week to myself, and it's lovely outside! As long as I keep at it while having faith in the belief that good things will come, I know everything will be okay.

    In case anyone who is reading this is in a similar boat to mine, take a moment to breathe. It's going to be okay. Take a walk, enjoy the weather, just be with yourself. Most importantly of all, don't give up. Keep at it, keep working, keep enjoying life. I wholeheartedly guarantee that if you do that, life will reward you. 

Thank you all for listening. I can't wait to share what else I have planned in terms of my film (I'm going to reveal the title tomorrow!), and I'm still excited to work on this. I'll see you all next week!

Discussing my Creative Critical Reflection

 A portion of the Aice final exam is a Creative Critical Reflection, or a CCR. In this blog, I wanted to explain what a CCR is, look at past submissions, and see what I can brainstorm for my CCR.

    The purpose of the CCR is to look back on your film, and reflect on your decisions and work progression. In addition to this, you are to answer these four questions in your TWO reflection pieces.

• How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
• How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
• How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
• How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

The CCR is meant to be done in a digital format, and there are plenty of ways they can be created. You can do a podcast, a PowerPoint presentation with a voiceover, a director's commentary version of your film, a monologue of you speaking accompanied with additional pictures or sounds added in post,  and much more, although the top four are the most prevalent versions of the CCR that I've seen. Despite this, I don't think any of these mediums appeal to me. The goal of a CCR is to fully employ creative use of the tools you have at your disposal to make a visually appealing selection of presentations that not only answers the aforementioned questions, but also shows off your style and talent. 

    

I haven't mentioned this yet, but I absolutely love editing and public speaking. I'm a member of the debate program, and I've been editing videos since I was in 6th grade. I like to think that I've gotten pretty good at these two topics, yet the "typical" options don't really allow me to show those skills off. The one that seems the best to show off my talents is in a "video" format, yet I want to expand upon this. Some of the examples I have seen have been somewhat stiff and rigid, in the sense that they don't really show off creativity or the maker's personality. In my video, I plan to discuss the entire creative process of my film, and explaining each individual choice. However, I want to include a lot more edits in this video, so it is an actual "video" that is entertaining to watch, but still remains formal. I feel as though this will allow me to flex my creative muscles and show off my editing skills as well, which is something I've wanted to do in this class for a long time.

    As for my other CCR, I want to format it as an actual "business presentation." I want to wear a suit and tie, and record myself as I go over the PowerPoint and explain representation in my film, and how I plan to market the film (in person too, not just a PowerPoint voiceover). This presentation will have less edits, but it will be styled like a formal business presentation, look professional, and will have tons of information, like a college lecture. I already have experience with marketing products, as I heavily worked on that for my music brand project (look at previous blog posts!), so I won't have an issue with that.

    The immediate and obvious issue here is time. I only have what's essentially two weeks to edit my film, and create TWO extensive reflections, not to mention that I'll be gone for around half of March 22nd-31st (it's Spring Break and I have a vacation). Despite all of this, I want to create these projects. I know in my heart that if I put in the time, I can create something truly beautiful. I'm capable of creating a great project, and I can't wait to start editing the film. I'll see you all then, next week!

A chat about my Production Process

   Hey everyone! I haven't started editing the film yet as I've been super busy with other schoolwork, so I'm waiting on the following week for Spring Break to come, giving a chance for school to cool off. In the meantime, I wanted to talk about my production line of thinking!

The first thing that you'll notice from my film is that a lot of the shots are pretty dark. This is because I felt if the movie was dark, it could make the setting of Theodore's house to seem more depressing. If your surroundings are dark and dreary, it makes it easy for your mind to have sad thoughts as well. I created this dark effect by going into the iPhone settings of each shot, and adding 70 to the shadow setting.  As for this actual shot, a lot of the introductory shots are tracking shots, as I felt as though this was best for creating a sense of setting. This way, you could see how messy and unkempt Theo's house is, making it seem more messy.

The introductory shot of Theo is pretty interesting. It begins with a downwards tilt of Theo, which may seem like an odd choice but it was actually intentional. This downward view makes it seem as though the viewer is looking down on Theo, making Theo seem weak and small. This tilt sets him up to be a frail character, already preparing the audience for Theo's personality. A large majority of the shots of Theo in this film have him being shown in a higher angle, and this is also to make him seem weaker. I made sure the tilt wasn't that noticeable at times, or else the audience wouldn't be able to see Theo's face, making it difficult to show his despondency.

The last shot I want to show you all today is this beautiful shot of Theo taking a deep breath (it isn't that noticeable in the unedited version, I'll add a sound effect to make it more obvious in post) before coming out of his house. I added contrast utilizing another one of the iPhone's picture settings. Although Theo's black outfit doesn't change, the colors of nature are changed to be harsher and brighter. I feel as though this juxtaposes the previous shots, as almost every shot is dark and shadowy. The contrast this shot creates further outlines how different the outside world is from Theo's house, exemplifying how large Theo's decision to leave his house is.

That's currently all I have to share with you all. Thank you all so much for reading!

Prop Development and Filming Update

T Hey everyone, filming has concluded! Every shot has been taken, and I could not be prouder of the film and my team. I have plenty of articles to share with you all, but what I currently want to discuss is the additional props I had in the film. There were two props, and they were designed by Luna, my prop designer! The first was a framed photo which was needed for the "light vs darkness" shot, and the second one is an ID for the character of Bakari Durden. It's explained more in the film opening, but it's heavily implied that a party took place the night before, and that Bakari left his ID in the house. I thought it would be really cool if the ID was a prop in the setting, as that way, the audience could make the connection that Bakari is Theo's friend, rather than having the information outright stated.

    Let's talk about the simpler prop first. I had visited a party with my friend Luke a while back, and had this really nice picture of us two posing at the event. Luna downloaded the picture to my computer, and I adjusted its size to be large enough for the scene. Then, I used this neat website, Grayscale Image, to convert it to grayscale, as most pictures weren't in color back then. After that, she printed out the picture, covered it in a transparent film that she found in her office, and put it inside a picture frame. Afterwards, this was the finished product. 

I think the finished product looks super nice!

As for the ID, that was a little more complicated. This was Luna's process!

First, I saved an image of a sample Florida drivers license, 

(She utilized this one which was listed on https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Florida_Driver_License.png)

then, opening my editing software with the picture of the character I was making the ID for, I edited the drivers license to remove the current picture and identifying information (name, signature, and date of birth), added in a replacement background to fill what I deleted, and then filled in the new information and added the new picture (which I cropped and removed the background of). Then I saved the new ID, placed the picture on a Word doc, scaled it to exactly the size of a real ID card, printed it out, and folded it over so that it would be double-sided and be more firm and realistic. Then, I cut it out with smooth, rounded corners, and it was done!

After all that, this was the finished project.

I find it funny how similar this looks to a genuine Floridian drivers license.

I think these props came out wonderfully, and I am so excited to show you all how they came out in the film. Before I go, there is one more thing I wish to share with you all. I've teased it for so long, so here is the completed Light vs Dark shot!

I wholeheartedly think these came out wonderfully. The blinds in the background perfectly cause a contrast between Theo's darkness and the picture of Bakari's light. We used a flashlight just out of frame to get the lighting effect, and we had my father go outside to cast a shadow over the right side of the curtains. I am so excited to edit these scenes into something beautiful! Thank you so much for listening, I'll talk to you all soon!

The Script is Finished!

 Hey everyone! Today, I'll be sharing with you all the finished version of the film script. I wanted to make my script look official and format it like a genuine screenplay. For that, I needed to do some research and came across a neat short guide by Studiobinder on screenplay writing tips and tricks. Here is the video now if you'd like to take a listen!

Script formatting is rather finnicky, so I apologize for the large wait. Without further ado, here is my finalized script.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/13OyF8PTLDGgVNw1FyHUksxYN8NBmh0y409B5FbN4ay4/edit?usp=sharing

I was much less specific with the shot types in this script, as in real life, most screenplays don't give exact directions on how to film them. Instead, those decisions fall to the director. I'm the director for this piece, but in the spirit of being faithful to scriptwriting, I didn't include them. I also added in some bits during the landline segment on Theo's behalf that show emotion. Unlike films like Garden State where the main character is completely disassociated, I want to demonstrate that Theo is able to improve. The purpose of including small chuckles or nervous glances from Theo is to show that although he is closed off, he still feels emotions, and with help, he can open himself up to others. 

Those are the main points I wanted to share with you all. I'm very exciting for my filming day, and almost everything I need has been completed. I can't wait to share with you all what else I have in store. Thank you all for listening.

Business as Usual

 Hey everyone! I have a bit of a shorter post for you all today, but there have been some developments in production that I wanted to show you all!

First off, let's talk props. There are mainly two props needed for production, the landline and the framed picture of Theo with Bakari and his friends. I've borrowed a nice picture frame from a friend, and I have the picture itself. I want this film opening to take place in the 90s, so the picture has to be in greyscale. I'll be editing it soon! As for the landline, it was an arduous search, but I found one!

The search for a landline got pretty scary at first. Old phones like this aren't that common, and none of my friends had one that I could easily borrow. I looked into possible ways of obtaining one, but the ones I saw listed online were rather pricey and I'd rather keep spending to a minimum. The future of the prop looked bleak, but I came across one after exploring the storage room of my father's workplace. With this, I'll have almost all of the props needed for the film, although I might spontaneously think of ideas for other props in the near future.

Speaking of filming, I have finally planned out a date to do so. Next week, the opening will be recorded! I've already coordinated with some friends of mine to help with costume selection and filming help, so filming should go smoothly! In preparation of this, the finalized script for my production is nearly completed, and I'll be sharing it with you all tomorrow!

On a more annoying note, I've encountered a bit of a problem with the audio recording I shared last post. One of the three recordings I have for the landline section of the film got corrupted, as my editing software (Adobe Premier) can no longer "find" the audio recording data. Although it isn't completely done, I do have the finalized audio for the section of the landline where Theo's father wishes him well. Take a listen!

I think the voice of Theo's father makes him sound very elitist and proper, which adds to the contrast between him and his parents!

I do want to find some stings/an audio track for a bit of nondiegetic sound while this plays, as I think that only having the audio play will be a bit quiet. I've already begun looking, and I'll update you all when I find the right fit! Thank you all so much for tuning in, and I'll see you guys next time!