HIII BLOG
THIS IS IT!!!
Here are all the links to my CCR and the OFFICIAL FILM!!!
ENJOYYYYY
OFFICIAL Film Opening!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p9B9JNellsWY-nC24VeM8uc3DUEZQgjm/view?usp=share_link
CCR Questions 1 & 2!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PE4qalZ7sP1y-h0aHfKPF55EVfjQkNu8/view?usp=share_link
CCR Questions 3 & 4!!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1665IlVayzZlp7yb5jUQljNcPdGG6OnDv/view?usp=share_link
HII blog!!
For this blog, I'm going to be talking to you about my reflection on working on this project for the past two months. Looking back, I kind of surprise myself with this because never in my life did I ever think I would be working on a project like this; however, it was such a fun and cool experience to be able to go through the whole production process on my own for my very own film. I have truly learned so much about production and how movies are made, and it definitely tweaks my perspective on how I view movies now.
I would definitely do a project like this again, especially with the knowledge that I have gained. I would love to see how much I have grown. And I'm excited to see my comments back from my teacher after grading, so that I not only have seen how much I learned over time, but I can have someone who knows what they're talking about. Tell me what I am doing wrong and what I did well to help me grow. I'm excited to see where this class takes me next!!
HII BLOG
IT IS EDITINGGG TIMEEEEE!!
As part of the instructions for editing the CCR, it is to be visually pleasing and engaging. As you saw in the last blog post regarding filming, I was walking around my school hallway, explaining to a classmate the CCR and the questions. But if I just did my walking-around-talking, that would be boring, and at that point, it would be better off as a talking head, which is also pretty BORING. So I incorporated charts and videos of the real film when discussing the techniques we had used. We also included some other little images that you will see throughout the video.
Here are some of the edited parts of the video!!
HIII BLOG
As the portfolio project is coming to an end, the production of my CCR's is beginning.
One small change in one of my CCR's is that, rather than doing a podcast because I could not find an appropriate podcast set, I am doing a presentation. Which I know CCR has "creative" in it, and you're probably thinking to yourself, "a presentation is BORINGGGGGG". But do not fear because I'm going to make sure it will not be boring but will rather be funny, so stay tuned for my final blog post regarding that CCR link to see for yourself!!
ANYWHOOO
Back to the production of my CCR, let me include some of the raw footage from production!!
As part of the CCR, the creative aspect is to create two videos answering two of the questions. For example, Questions 1 and 2 would be responded to in one creative video, while Questions 2 and 3 would be responded to in a different video. So in this blog, I will be talking about my ideas for each video! In my next blogs, I will be talking about the production process of each CCR video.
Questions 1-2
In this video, my idea is to have a girl walking in the school hallway holding her books when another student (camera man) bumps into her. She drops her books onto the floor, and while the other student is apologizing for not paying attention and trying to help her gather her stuff, she sees a page about the questions and asks about it. That's where the girl (me) will be able to respond to Questions 1 and 2. To make this visually appealing, I will be inserting clips of the actual film and maybe throw in some memes or funny illustrations to make it engaging for the audience.
Questions 3-4
I will be a part of a podcast, where the host, I am known as the actress Claire, and the host will be asking me questions about the skills I gained acting in my first film and how production went (Questions 3-4). The host will most likely be my partner, Jake. Same with the other video, I will be inserting clips of the actual film and maybe throw in some memes or funny illustrations to make it engaging for the audience. The set of my podcast is still to be determined, but I will most likely be doing another small blog about the set once I have it figured out.
Hiiii bloggggg
The CCR has 4 questions, and for this blog, I will be talking about the final question!! I would just like to say, something that MAJORLYYY helped me a lot when researching and writing the script for how to answer the questions were my teacher's notes. They really helped me format how to answer and respond to each question, which was very useful when writing the script. So thanks to her, I feel confident in my CCR responses!!!
Question 4: How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware, and online – in this project?
Script:
Host: "What technologies and/or software did you use during the production?"
Me: "So, as for technologies, we used my MacBook to edit it because it was just convenient, and for editing on my MacBook, we chose Clipchamp because my partner and I have used it for previous edits of short films, so we were both comfortable. Also, as for software, we used Canva to create the logo video, along with Blogger to document the whole process".
Host "Wow thats great, it's nice and helps when you can work with tools you are comfortable with. Speaking of tools, what hardware tools did you use throughout the filming process?"
Me: "To film, we used my iPhone 16 Pro Max, and the camera quality was great. We did not use a microphone because there were not a lot of scenes that involved much sound, and when there was, it was okay without a microphone and still sounded good. As for lighting, because it was a horror film, we needed it to be dark, but it obviously couldn't be so dark you couldn't see anything, so we tried to utilize Claire's flashlight to be our lighting source, which in the end we felt worked."
Host: "That sounds so easy when you say it like that, but it was probably easier said than done".
Me: "Believe me, trying to work with my other actors and get the right shots and everything was infact eaiser said than done haha".
Host: "To finish off, and to finish the topic of technology, did technology solve any of your problems, or did you learn any new skills?"
Me: "Yes! In some scenes, the lighting up against the building was too bright and was making our actor look too visible as he ran away, so with the help of Clipchamp, we were able to put filters on top to make it look a little darker and less visible. Funny story about how technology solved one of our problems: when Jake's dad cancelled on us, we would've never been able to get in touch with Jake's friends to help play the role of mysterious strangers or stalkers.
Hiiii bloggggg, hope all is well!!
It is time for question 3 of my CCR!!
Question 3: How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
Script:
Host: " So, Selena, now that you have officially published your very first film, looking back, how do you feel compared to first starting out?"
Me: "To start, it is so crazy to think that I have officially made my very first film, which is pretty awesome. Looking back, so much has changed. Before this project, I was kinda thinking this was going to be easy, and i jsut have to come up with a story and film it. Now I have learned how much brain power and brainstorming of how shots are used to help portray my film, and how every little detail matters to get your point across to the audience. Most projects I have done were something simple that could be done in about a week. Then, now making AND planning a whole 2-month project and working around obstacles that came up throughout the process seemed insane in the beginning, but in the end every thing went fairly okay and our planning was not what we intended it to be becasue of some of our obstacles of characters, sets, and availablity but in the end we pulling it together and got it done.
Host: "In the end, what did you learn?"
Me: "In the atmosphere of film I learned, rather than focusing so much on how to film what I have envisioned for the film, consider the audience and how even if it's not entirely what you have envisioned, the audience doesn't know that. The goal is to get your point across.
Hiii bloggg!
This is question 2 of my CCR and the script for the question!!
Question 2: How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
Script:
Filmer/ other student: "wait so if exaplains the genre, how does your film engage with the audience?
Me: "A Deloitte study found that 28% of Gen Z claim that horror is their favorite genre. Primarily seeking an age range of 15- 30. Production companies tend to draw in their targets via social media, marketing the product by posting the intensity of a film or the universal fears of the film. Now, as for my film, AB11 decided to produce (Title Name) on popular streaming services such as Paramount+ and Amazon Prime".
Filmer/other student: "wow thats really smart. I really hope your film makes it out to your target audience. It seems you did what was right!"
Hiiiii again blogggggg
So we are still continuing editing, and a small part that I feel is going to take a while for my partner and me to not only come to an agreement, but also figure out which one fits best is the font and where the credit should go, and what the credit should be. For right now, I am keeping it as the Rock Salt font in Clipchamp, which I was unable to find on Blogger. Which is okay because you will see a video at the end of the blog. But due to the fact that the fault isn't very horrible related and my partner and I cannot come to an agreement, the font that is currently our credits may not be the fault we used for the final film. Right now, my credit scene consists of our production name, the producer (s), the editor, the cinematographer, and our character.
I will be adding more to the credit scene and more scenes to the film. Once my partner and I are together so we can go through the editing process together and express our opinions on different elements of the scenes.
Butttt here is what I've worked on right now!!!
Hi blog!!!!
So my partner and I have officially started editing, and before I'd start telling you about her editing process, I'm going to tell you about another little hole in the road we had ran into.....
So Jake's father no longer wanted to help us due to some complications in scheduling, so we had to improvise rather than having a park ranger. We decided what if there were multiple figures and they were haunting Claire individually until they teamed up. We felt that it was the best idea we could come up with in the short amount of time that we had, and I expressed my feeling that this could create a more of a suspenseful storyline for the rest of the story. However, obviously, this is just the opening; it would be left on a cliffhanger. So last minute, we were able to grab two of Jake's friends and my younger brother, who is tall and skinny (I know... crazy my YOUNGER brother is taller than me...), to help us by being our mysterious figure. We had them wear all black and stand under different lighting positions, which you will see later on in the editing process.
Anywhooooo
GREAT NEWS! WE ARE CHANGING SETS
After discussing the issues with the park closing with my partner and some other classmates. We agreed that we are going to need a new set, which isn't entirely hard, which is a good thing. Due to what we already have filmed is deep in a wooded area thats all we needed. The rest is filmed outside the woods. So all we would need is a Parking lot with a somewhat secluded section with trees to film her "coming out" of the words. That's when one of our peers, Kai recommeded us where he filmed part of his opening, which he claimed was a good spot for what we were describing. I will insert a picture below. Also big PLUS, we will not be in a crunch for time because it is in the back of a church, meaning there is no closing time. As for the park ranger, we realized that Jake's father looks a lot like a park ranger, and we would just have to get him a costume. SOOOO there is, in fact, always light at the tunnel, and I'm really glad we were able to find a solution and continue our shots and plot seamlessly.
And in the next blog, I will be telling you about our editing process!!
HIII BLOGGGG!!
As a part of my portfolio project, we also have to do a Critical Creative Reflection. We are given 4 questions about our productions that we must answer creatively. I still haven't thought about how to make my answers to the questions creative, visually pleasing, and entertaining, so I'm going to focus on crafting my answers. Specifically, today's question 1.
Question 1: How does your product use or challenge conventions, and how does it represent social groups or issues?
My answer!
Unfortunatly since we haven't filmed yet, I cannot show you the conventions we have used in our horror opening; however, I can tell you about them. Within one of my very first blogs regarding starting this project, we researched institutional conventions, as well as genre conventions with techniques. But to answer this question, we are going to focus on genre conventions with techniques.
In that blog, I stated the different techniques that are most used in horror and supernatural horror films. Some of these techniques we are actually going to use within our own film, such as close-ups on terrified faces, slow zooms to build dread, and sudden whip-pans to reveal apparitions. As for the second part of the question about how it represents social groups, I am going to speak about the techniques that provide horror-loving audiences with what they want by using these techniques to build that horror suspense or fear of what is to come.
Group Meeting #2
Hiiii Cambridge, today we had our second group meeting! Once again I had a amzing group who were all very happy, intrested and willing to help provide feedback. My Group members were Santi, Ethan, Camila, Isa, Macie, and Andre.
Let me tell you about everyone's plots! Ethan is making a sci-fi stop motion astronaut film, Andre is making a thriller on technology going wrong, Santi is making a story about a doctor who makes a medicine to save the world, but then something in the medicine goes wrong, and the doctor can't take the pressure and commits sucide and a man has to fix it and save the world. Camila's story revolves around a girl whose sister died, and she is reminiscing but can't move on. Isa's story is a drama about a cheerleader who appears to be a popular, normal-seeming girl, but is actually involved in drug dealing. Macie's story is about a janitor who finds himself in a magazine while cleaning. The article is about a government preservation experiment, and he is trying to figure out what this experiment was and how/why he was in it.
Feedback:
I got tons of great feedback on my opening and how to improve it. Macie and Andre also recommended some shots to include to help with my mysterious figure. This was really helpful as Jake and I are going to begin filming in two days. They also helped me with coming up with ideas for my CCR and how to make it comedic, which is what I am going for.
Once again id say it was another success, and I'm so grateful for all the help my peers provided.
For the second production blog post, after further conversation with my partner, we are going to film this Wednesday, the 25th, for sure. I know the mice-en-scene blog post about the costume design of Claire was a lot of maybes, and what ifs, or possibly's, but we have a definite idea of what we will be doing, which is what I will be talking about in this blog.
As mentioned previously, we wanted Claire's costume design to be bright and colorful. With this being said, after looking through my closet, I found two pieces of clothing that are somewhat colorful but could represent her cuteness. I also thought about brand, Lululemon is an athletic wear brand that was trending for those stereotypical "white girls" who get starbucks everyday, who are super cute but can be evil within a second. Although Claire doesn't become evil or anything like that, she is a cute girl. SOOOOOO I found two Lululemon pieces of clothing that match, have somewhat bright colors, although the pants are navy blue, with the lighting we are hoping to have in the parking lot, it won't be too dark to see that the leggings are blue and not black. On top of that, I found a fitted jacket that is a cream color with a gold zipper. I feel the light color of the cream is very cute, and the gold is a very nice touch, and I feel with contrast with the setting of the forest.
Without furtherado here is the outfit.
As a part of the whole production process and the filming process, our production company logo and name should also be incorporated into the opening. I sent my previous blog, or production company name was gonna be AB11, no changes have been made to that, and we have decided to keep it.
However, after looking into research about how A24, the production company that inspired our name and their openings, incorporates its logo with the theme or main idea of its films. So we decided to go for a similar approach, but rather than making it feel included in the film. We are keeping it like A video sort of, in the very beginning. After the logo/video is shown, our initial idea is to incorporate the name of our full opening itself, right after which the name of the film is still to be determined.
For the process of making our logo, we used Canva Plus to help us with the graphics and videoing of it, and we chose dark colors for the background along with the red as the AB11 to bring that sort of darkness and her feeling from the beginning. My partner Jake is a little more tech-savvy than I am, so I left him in charge of actually making it while I provided feedback throughout the process on how I felt about certain elements of the logo scene. Because this isn't just a logo, it's kind of a video, we also included some dark, eerie instrumental, or like almost weathering audio to build that feeling of darkness and suspense of what is going to occur in the following scenes, which will actually be our opening. After about two hours, we finally had a finished product, and I will be placing it below.
Due to a slight change in scheduling and availability, my partner and I have decided that we are unable to film this weekend; however, we plan to film this week. Because of this, we are allowing ourselves to focus more on the preparation for beginning our whole filming process. With all being said, we are going to discuss one of the main props to our main character, Claire.
As part of Claire's personality, her phone is a huge part of her life. This will be incorporated into the opening when, after she exits the woods and Wi-Fi comes back, her iPhone will be blowing up with messages. Because we have decided that I will be playing the character of Claire, I will be designing my phone for when Claire receives these messages. It will look more like Claire's style and personality, rather than keeping it as my phone and keeping my background and things like that. What I mean by Claire's style is including bright colors in a cute background that could be just a cute pattern background or like a cute picture of Claire and her friend, but in this case, because I am playing Claire, it would be a picture of me and one of my other friends.
Here is a screenrecording of me decorating my phone into Claire's phone.
HIII BLOG! This is my planning blog for the production of the film's opening! Its kinda crazy to think about we are about to start filming and are almost done with the project. But anyways, my partner Jake and I discussed our planning process in class tdy so now you're going to learn about our plan!
Production Name
In class, the first thing we had planned out was the production name that we will also include in our future logo. We began researching popular horror production companies to hopefully get some inspiration for our name. After tons of research, we found a production company, A24, a prominent American independent entertainment company specializing in film and television production and distribution. They have produced many popular horror movies, such as Hereditary (2018), Midsommar (2019), The Witch (2015), and Talk to Me (2023). I have seen some of these myself, and I can admit they are very well made. This production name really stuck out to us because it was something somewhat creative but also not difficult. We are odvisouly werent gonna copy it because we can't do that. So we came up with AB11, which is the first letter of my last name (Anciso) and the first letter of Jake's last name (Bass). To come up with a number, we chose 11 because 11 is Jake's Football number, and my number for Flag Football is 1, so we just felt it worked.
Casting!
For our cast, our main character Claire, we are still trying to figure out who we want to act. We are both struggling to think about who looks the part and would want to do it, along with me, and is a good fit. Yes, we have considered me playing Claire, and my only thing against it was having Jake film, which I like filming, and Jake is going to be doing most of the editting so id feel bad making him do both. The Park Ranger is our other charcter, we decided we are going to go to the park and ask politely if there would be any actual park rangers who work there willing to help us out. I feel this is really smart because the actual park ranger would look much more authentic than just buying a costume. I also think it would just be really cool and fun to. have a real park ranger to play a part of the a park ranger in our film.
In the next blog post, I will be discussing the creation of our logo and the production process as we are hoping to begin filming THIS WEEKEND!!
During the duration of the opening, Jake and I have decided to include music throughout certain parts of the scene. My partner Jake and I have been talking briefly about music and sound, and we are hoping to begin our filming this upcoming weekend. In class, we will be taking a deeper dive into our discussion about our audio choices and music.
My first initial thought for music is to include an instrumental extract for the introduction of the opening. During this time, the credits will also be displayed. Unfortunatly due to the fact that we have not actuallt began filming, it's hard to choose music to integrate if we can't actually see if it aligns well with the context or visuals of the film opening itself. But we do have general thoughts and ideas. What I am thinking for the intro music is for it to be calm, not something like cozy cafe instrumental music. I'm thinking of something a little more upbeat, but still rather calm, than something to make you feel almost sleepy.
Following later in the opening, when the first shot of the mysterious figure is shown, different music will be played. This music, I feel, should be eerie; however, not fast-paced. After doing further research on music during openings of horror genres, when there is a killing, the music is fast-paced, but because there is no murder and the figure is just standing there, I believe the music should be slow but engaging. The music should get the audience's heart rate up, have them guessing what is to come with this figure. We have also yet to consider or think about what sounds could potentially be sounds that Jake and I would have to foley. Foley sounds are very difficult and are very hard to make sure the sound is perfect and the time is perfect. There is no room for error. With this being said, if Foley sounds are needed, the process of making them will be included in a later blog post.
