Finished!!!

  I've finally finished the film opening and CCR, and am now put in a position to reflect on the past nine weeks. While content with my finished product, I let myself down by not staying on top of my priorities for this project, and using my time in a poor fashion. I allowed what was going on in my life to have an impact on my education and academics, which should have not happened to begin with. With that being said, what is in the past is done and cannot be changed. In the making of this project, I'd say I learned far more than many other students. The lessons that this project has taught me are vastly greater than any other experience I've had in schooling. Lessons like prioritizing the most important things in my life over issues that have little meaning in the grand scheme of things, or managing my time on my own in a professional manner. These lessons hold value to my life that expands larger than school and will make me into a better person.

  I'm glad to finally be finished. and I am even happier to acknowledge what this project has taught me!

Creative Critical Reflection

 CCR #1: Voiceover Presentation

https://youtu.be/zOS8tjzODYw

CCR #2: Twitter Q&A

https://drive.google.com/file/d/171ziZ1tgIn9y9xg67sPDYHAy4HZeDAAL/view?usp=drive_link

Film Opening!!!

 Here it is!! 

Shadows of Silence 

https://youtu.be/T9mO4lgfrB0

CCR Notes

    Hey Blog!! A few days ago our teacher gave us a much needed lecture on the Creative Critical Reflection portion of our project. She thoroughly cleared up many of the concerns that my class and I had. Some of those concerns that I personally had included: 

-What is the purpose of the CCR?

-What are we answering?

-How do we answer it?

    To answer these in order, the purpose of the CCR portion is to reflect on the production of my opening, respond to the four questions and to express my personality. Which leads me to the answer of the next concern I had. The four questions asks how my opening challenges conventions and social groups, how my opening engages with the audience/ distribution methods, how my personal skills on production developed through the course of the project and finally how I integrated technology into my production.

    How I am going to approach these questions is something that I must plan for. With that being said, I have some very early and broad ideas. Due to the fact that we are required to use two different media products, I have to be creative in what I choose to do. Something like one of my parents interviewing me in a podcast like setting would be a good concept, but it is important to incorporate images and videos/ graphics in general to break up the presentation. I think that combining two of the questions together in one segment of a product is something I will tackle when I get to the CCR. Here are the notes I took in class!

 

    Before the CCR however, I must finish filming and editing my opening well before the end of our spring break (30th) and take the CCR very seriously as it is worth 20/50 overall points. This project has not been the easiest for me and unfortunately it came with a rough patch in my life, but there are no excuses in life and I am going to try my hardest to continue pumping out blog posts for you all and getting on track in order to succeed. I intend on creating my finalized script tomorrow, so expect a blog post on that coming up, as well as some mise en scene elements that are vital to my opening!

Interrogation inspiration

    Hey Blog! After watching multiple videos on teens being interrogated for crimes, I've noted some common factors that are seen in all the footage. I watched these videos because I want to have realistic similarities in my interrogation scene to what goes on in the real world. Here is a list of qualities that I am going to include in my scene. 

    -Poor camera quality/Security Camera filter

    -Dim lighting

    -Blank room with very dull coloring

    -A table against a wall, with two chairs

    -Only small portion of the room is shown

    -Pad with notes on the table 

    -Captions (Maybe)

   

    As far as clothing, the investigator is usually wearing a buttoned up long sleeve and pants, while the suspect is often in casual clothing (T-shirt, jacket, sweat pants, shorts).

    Although I have a clear idea on how I picture the suspect to behave, I needed some kind of guideline as to how the investigator handles himself and his questions. When researching, I watched a 2 hour breakdown video (Very interesting) on a situation where a teen who killed his family is interrogated and denies that he did it. Eventually, the investigator gets the boy to confess. This was done by a multitude of psychological techniques used by the investigator that all rely on the emotions shown by the suspect. The investigator reads his body language and verbal language and carefully chooses how he approaches the suspect. I think that showing the investigator in my opening in different positions with his chair and with various demeanors will elevate the idea that time is passing and the investigator applies more and more pressure to get an answer out of the suspect. Going from laid back to near the suspects face is one way to convey that pressure is being applied by the investigator. Click here to watch the video :)

Outline for my opening

     Hey Blog!! Time for an outline of my story. When my teacher broke down the instructions of the project to our class, for some strange reason the idea of creating an uncomfortable interrogation scene came to mind. I had a clear vision when I began putting my thoughts together in a mind map. The mind map helped me formulate my ideas and lead me to creating a real outline for what I plan on achieving for my opening. 

     As far as my outline goes, I included the dialogue I want to have in the opening so my script writing will come easier. I highlighted the differentiation in camera shots during the interrogation between shots with the filter on (*) and shots without the filter. It is very important for me when recording to capture a variation of shots I can use to break up the interrogation so it does not feel longer than it needs to be. Different angles and distance from the characters will be key. The ending of my opening will be the boy mysteriously riding on the bike alone in all black. With ominous/eerie music in the back, credits will show and it will transition well into the rest of the film. Here is my outline (Excuse the poor handwriting :/)

    A big inspiration I am taking for my film opening is the concept of breaking up the interrogation with cutaways that display a victim in captivity. The series Big Little Lies does this with a consistent cutaway to a conference being held on a murder that is not yet solved in the town. Though viewers do not know what is going on or the context of why that person is where they are, they understand that there is something wrong and it is connected to the interrogation. This aspect of my opening is something that will hook the audience and motivate them to continue watching on the edge of their seat, in a similar way that the cutaways in Big Little Lies hooked myself and many others.

Credits in Thriller Films

    Hey blog! After doing some research on various opening credits and and articles, I've compiled a few ideas that I would like to implement in my film opening. Some key elements that are apart of the credits in an opening are fonts, color, size. These aspects all have one thing in common, they convey the mood and personality that will be expected in the film. Another feature that is constant through many film openings is the animation of the words. Although I am not the best at editing, I want to play with the animation of the credits and see what king of affect it can have on my opening.

    An opening that stuck out to me as far as the font goes, is Se7en, which uses a handwritten like font to convey an eerie mood. I want to choose a font for my film opening that will be similar to that, along with the white coloring of the words that is juxtaposed by the dark colors in the background. Additionally, the somewhat glitchy animation of the words provides an uneasy feel to the film. Although my opening is going to have dialogue and more context given in the visual, I think that I can use a similar font and editing technique to grasp the audience in comparable fashion to how Se7en did.

    Another film opening that I watched for inspiration was Shutter Island, which also uses the same glitchy animation on the words of the credits. The opening in Shutter Island goes from a red colored bold font to a white colored font. Both are displayed over a dark colored background even though there is background being shared. The red title shot is violent and can elevate the idea of blood. I really liked the change in color and will play with that in my film opening. The boldness of the font in the title shot is something I will incorporate in my opening. 

    I am going to come back to these openings once I am done filming and look for inspiration when editing in my credits. Looking forward to filming soon and finally bringing my ideas to life.