Sunday, April 7, 2019

CCR

here my link to my CCR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JTTy-lX43Y

Link to movie opener!

Here the link to my long-awaited film opener to "Shedevil" on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YGLk5Vgo48

Reflection

For my AICE Media Studies project, I chose to work by myself and create a film opening. I chose to work by myself because there was no benefit from working in a group, whereas everyone has to do the same amount of work and I wouldn’t have to rely on as many people in order to film. I chose to do a film opening because I was more interested in films than I am into magazines and felt as if creating a film opener would be more fun. During the creation, I ran through many obstacles so which some preventable while others were out of control. Whether it was problems with the weather, schedule conflicts or technical difficulties I was able to overcome those issues and create this opening. The biggest problem during production was scheduling, the actresses and I work part-time jobs, played sports, and in school clubs so as a result, we would rarely have chances to meet. Most of the scenes required both of the actresses to be present. However knowing we were on strict schedules, this allowed us to focus strictly on the opener. The title of this opener “Shedevil” was inspired by “Acrimony” where the word had a deeper meaning, the dictionary meaning for “Shedevil” is “a malicious or spiteful woman.” and I felt as if that word captured what I wanted the ex-girlfriend to be, someone who’s out for revenge and looking to cause problems. After brainstorming the title, I created a storyboard and jotted all my ideas and began putting the pieces of the puzzle together and moving around where I wanted each scene to be and what angles/shots I’d use in the scene.
When filming, I always made sure to take at least two shots of every scene in case as a form of insurance for me, along with allowing me to pick whichever one I believe came out better. For certain scenes I wanted to reshoot the same scene in different angles, to see which one I felt best captured the story. Since I chose to be by myself for this project, I asked two of my friends if they wanted to act in it and we began scheduling when we could all meet up. My friend Isabella offered to be the crazy ex/ stalker so that left Callie with the role of being the new girlfriend. The locations I researched in my older blog posts weren’t used as my idea for the film changed once we got together. Originally I planned to use a park for a majority, however, I scrapped that idea and used my house and the local town center to film. For my mise-en-scene I had to go out and buy some clothes to fit for all the actors, I wanted us to be wearing something relatively young, but for the girls I wanted them to have opposites. For example, in some scenes, Isabella is seen wearing a sundress while     Callie in another scene is wearing a long sleeve. This was done in order to show a time difference but as well as showing how they are different in their sense of style.
My opener contained some similar conventions as my genre such as ending on a cliffhanger. Most movies in my genre contain a cliffhanger as a form of suspense and I felt it would be a necessity to follow that format. I end with the crazy ex sneaking into my room and catching me by surprise, in order to leave the viewers guessing on what would happen next. Like I’ve mentioned in my previous blogs, “13 Cameras” and “Acrimony” planned huge roles as inspiration, they both end on cliffhangers in their own manner. A different approach I took was the way of narration, I have Isabella narrating as a diary, which allows the viewers to realize she’s becoming crazier as the days go by, from her journal entries. I wanted to follow some of the norms for my genre but also do some things differently. From the way she’s “writing” in her diary to the way she's acting, you’ll be able to tell she’s forgetting who she is as a person and losing self-control. Normally the crazy ex is either killed or talked some sense into her, but with my approach, I’m offering something out of the ordinary by having Isabella narrating from her point of view however not filming for a majority through her view, along with not having her dying or getting talked out of her personal mission.
Shedevil would be a movie targeted for young adults and teens since the movie is a psychological thriller riddled with suspense. With the movie centered around a happy couple, those in a relationship can somewhat relate to the couple in the film and those who have a crush on someone. With my movie have suspense within the first two minutes of the movie, the viewers will know more will be coming and have them on the edge of their seat. Not to mention the plot twists, factors and cliffhanger the movie would be containing. Since the target audience is young adults and teens, all the actors were dressed to fit the target.
Throughout the production of "Shedevil", I learned numerous tricks and tips in editing and how to properly film movies. Before this opener, I wasn’t the best at editing and filming but I feel as if I got better during the production in order to try to master the opener. This also required me to think outside the box when it came to certain problems. One issue that is well documented was the sage I encountered with the audio from my camera. I ended up having Isabella do a voiceover which required me to get the timing to match the voiceover ultimately, requiring some skill in editing and timing. Since I was the producer I paying attention to detail and as a result opened my eyes on the process of filming, I would be looking at the background, take double takes, use various shots/angles and look for the best lighting.
Throughout the production of “Shedevil”, I believe I grew as an editor and producer and am proud of the end result. I believe my film is unique and is something the viewer would enjoy for various reasons.

Sunday, March 31, 2019

Week 6 pt. 4

After my opening scene where Annique is already crazy I'm living my best life with Cristina, going out on dates and hanging out together. We run into Annique on one of our dates, which is where Annique puts 2 + 2 and realizes I left her for Cristina, the girl she saw on my phone when we were friends. At first Annique had a shrine about me and was crazy but it could've been worse, once she runs into us at a shopping center. She snaps to the point of obsession of her plotting how to kill Cristina and she hasn't decided whether she wants to kill me or "get back" with me. She ends up seeing my car and follows me back home and stalks me and Cristina. She decides its now or never to make a move on Cristina and I and tries to break into my house. The moment we realize she's watching us from outside the window. The short film ends I wanted to end it on a cliffhanger to add suspense for it, since its a short film.

Week 6 pt. 3

My short film opening begins with me and Annique (the crazy ex) before she goes crazy. We were dating for over a year and she was looking through my phones camera roll looking and all the fun dates we've gone on the past. While reminiscing of the good times, she keeps scrolling and see a picture of me and another girl (Cristina). She insistently gets triggered and throws a tantrum, yelling and throwing things around. From there it fast forwards a few months ahead to where Annique and I are broken up and took different approaches on how we handled the breakup. I start dating Cristina and are happily where as Annique slowly starts becoming crazy. I took some of the inspiration from the Tyler Perry movie that I've mentioned in the past on my blogs. Annique over time gets crazier and crazier over time. This is how I wanted to  going straight into the action and trying to cover the main plot.

Week 6 pt. 2

This weekend we were able to accomplish I'd say around 80% of the short film. We don't have school on Tuesday (!!!!!) so hopefully, if schedules don't conflict we can finish it then. If schedules do conflict the last scenes will be filmed final on Wednesday. Once that I can start editing and hopefully finish before the weekend and only have to do my reflection on the weekend, where I have a lot of free time. I don't think I'll have a problem with editing since I've been editing all my group project all year round and got pretty good at it. I did a little bit of editing but not that much since most of the of the film took place this weekend. I have about two more scenes to take and I'll be done with my short film. I edited the scenes I had when I filmed in Pei Wei, since I had so much free time but couldn't do much because of weather or conflicting schedules.

Week 6 pt. 1

My crew and I had different things going on at different times since it was spring break however, we were able to accomplish buying some of the clothes that we felt were necessary for the shots. I bought some clothes from PacSun since it's a "trendy" type of the store and I want my character to give off that vibe. Girlfriend #1 got some clothes from forever 21 and girlfriend #2 got some clothes from Nike and other workout stores. My reason behind them wearing different clothes is because I want everything to be complete opposites of each other. For example one of the girls is more of a sandals type of girl while the other one prefers sneakers.  I planned on shooting this weekend and if I didn't finish then I would meet one more time during the week to finish up. The biggest challenge I've had was scheduling, since all of us either work or play sports, as well as it raining to the point where we would have to cancel for the day.