AICE Media Studies

 Hi! This is my creative critical reflection. I decided to film a video as though it were an instagram live, but I wanted to have a way to include clips and pictures of what I was explaining. After careful thought, I decided to make it as if someone had recorded the live then uploaded a video of it themselves on youtube, but they used behind the scene clips and images to further enhance the live. Enjoy! Video Link:  https://youtu.be/WVZv4qVVmoM

My Movie https://youtu.be/dV1kBvKC-fo  

 So production has finally stopped. I have to say, this has been quite the experience. From choosing my partner to adding the finishing touched to the title sequence, I had fun the whole way through. I'm so happy that I was able to go through this experience with my friend Wren. The filming process was definitely fun, but we had our challenges. Having to go back and re-film scenes was exhausting, but we pulled through. Editing was my biggest challenge. I worked on editing the film for a solid four hours straight one day. Over time I think I grew better at working my software. Being behind the camera,  however, is something that I will always enjoy. It was fun to play around with all the different angles and lighting. My favorite to shoot was for sure the birds-eye view shot. I had to sit on Zeke's shoulders in order to get the shot and fell over! We laughed a lot and a I was very grateful to have fallen on the bed. Directing the shoot was also great. I like being able to have ...

 After hearing all the input that Paola gave, it was time to make some changes. We had to start by re-filming some scenes. We had a lot filmed with day light, and decided to switch it all to the night. With the darker lighting throughout, the film looked much more put together. having to re-film was really tiring but in the end it was definitely worth it. While re-filming the scenes because of lighting, I worked on the shaky ones as well. We all had to work really hard on putting on our serious face for this to work. I was much steadier and you could really tell the difference. I also utilized the stabilization feature on iMovie, helping to stillness a lot. Next, I decided on a song. I never heard an email back so I went to look for music on a royalty free website. I got a song from the site https://artlist.io/category/92&59/dark&soul-rnb/, there was a song called "purify" by roniit and it fit the film very well. I had to cut and edit the song to it would space out co...

From the very beginning of this process I was thin king about music. The scenes came to me in my head and all I could think of was the right way to capture the moment. I searched all over youtube looking at different genres of music to try and get a general feel for what was wanted. Eventually I came up with the fact that I KNEW there needed to be a sense of buildup in the music. This story is about this girls life and the inevitable almost fall of her life. The story itself, from an outside perspective, is to see slow fall and burn once the idea of drugs enter her mind. However, in the girls mind it is evident that the drugs initially enhance her mind with this artificial dopamine immediately upon taking them. Thus, the music to capture her emotion would be great and powerful, like tapping into another part of the universe. I searched for songs with beat drops and heavy vocals, I finally though of Me and Your Mama by Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino). This is a heavy soul and rnb s...

Filming and editing is finally complete! I am so relieved and exited to showcase Wren and I's hard work. I asked my friend Paola to review for me. She has taken this class before and is completing her second course this year. All of her work has been done very well and trust her thoughts and opinions. I knew her insight would help a lot and be very valuable. When she reviewed she said the loved the finished product! However, there were a few things that had to be changed. First off, there was no song, this I knew as I was holding off until a possible email back and just explained that to her. She mentioned that the scenes going right after each other had different lighting so they story line didn't match up that well. We filmed different scenes at different times, causing the film to not seem very consistent. Next, Paola was easily able to see the shakiness of film in some scenes. I think we may have had too much fun filming because I was laughing a lot so my hand wasn't ve...

 Today I will finish editing the film. Now that all the clips are picked and sorted, it is kind of a fun process from here. I began by editing each individual clip, trying different brightness settings, exposure, filters and more. I wanted the clips to blend cohesively and make it distinct that they were part of the same movie. Some clips would be better dark and others light, but they all had the same general theme.  I edited each clip so in a cold blue sort of tint and make to progressively darker, to try and represent the progressing hardships in the title. Next I started working on the transition between clips. I didn't want things to look choppy or poorly done, so made sure the flow was cohesive and fitting for each scene. In the birds eye view clip, I wanted it to be slowly spinning around and zooming in. I went through many different editing apps to try and accomplish this, when I finally did I uploaded the fixed clip back into iMovie. The most important task was defini...

 Today beings the editing process of this video. Neither my partner nor I are very technologically inclined, so this would be a challenge. As Wren did so well acting and while I filmed, I felt it was appropriate for me to take the lead on this subject. I edited the last two projects by myself, and they have help me prepare for this. To start off, I went through all of the film. There were plenty of the same scenes just shot in multiple runs. I went through these scenes and kept the best of each one. There were a lot of different angles and lightings to choose from, but I made the best choice. Next, I went through the selected scenes and decided which ones to cut and which to keep. There was well over two minutes worth of film in there, so it was in need of some cuts. I took out complete clips that just were not fit, as well as trimming some down. After selecting all the suitable film, I began to put it together. Using iMovie, I edited the film. I wasn't sure of the order I would us...

Today was the last day of filming. Everything went so well the day before, so I was confident in out abilities the second time around. Today we filmed scenes 6 through 10. Each of these scenes involve Wren in her lonesome so Zeke helped us behind the scenes. There are many different periods of time filmed today, meaning a lot of makeup and costume work. The first scene of Wren looking into the mirror was rather difficult to get because of the camera getting in the reflection. Finally, I was able to to hit the perfect angle, capturing the scene. With my new phone, the high res camera was great. During the scene where it is zoomed on on the girls dilated eyes, the iPhone 13 camera was perfect. We took many different takes of scenes throughput the day in order to get the adjusted lighting. Filming Zeke's scene where he was meant to be drunk and passes out on the couch was very difficult. It was fun to film, but he just could not stop laughing. We have well over 20 takes but it was wor...

Today I filmed with Wren. We had a plan to go through the first 5 scenes which only required the father and daughter pair. This was a Monday after school so there wasn't a whole lot of day light time to shoot, but that was perfect because we were mostly going for the dark. My brother, who was playing the Dad, went to the gym right after school, cutting into some time with him. During this time Wren and I went through the setting and adjusted everything to our liking. I took the camera around and played with different angles while she was in the shot. I gathered up all the props that we needed and sorted through them. I got different variations of everything to go through a sort of screen test on camera and see what worked best. After making sure everything inanimate was perfect, I focused on the actress. While waiting for Zeke, Wren went over various lines with me as we tried to perfect the tone and volume in which she spoke. Finally, Zeke was back. We had plenty of time so it wasn...

Today I spent my time working on costume and makeup. There is a very precise run down sort of look that is needed to try and capture the alcoholic and abusive vision. For the father I know I wanted tattered, maybe stained loose clothes. With this in mind, I went through my own dads old work clothes. He works in construction and does many odd jobs around the house so I know there will be things that work. I went through and picked out anything I felt would be a good fit. Old stained t shirts and jackets from his closet, some sweatpants and jeans from my brother's, and a few flannels from mine. With that I put together possible outfits. Now for the daughters character I knew I had everything I needed. I sorted out my sweatpants, baggy clothes and jackets. I wanted her look to progressively fall more and more worn and unbothered. So i began with some jeans and fitted tops and went down the line, reaching simple pajamas. I also experimented with some makeup looks. After heavy substance...

Today begins the first day of production. There were no major things I accomplished but I made sure to do a run down. I discussed the movie with favored actors. I went over with my partner who we would be choosing to act. After making sure of our choices I continued on. First I talked with my brother Zeke. I showed him the written script and let him go over it. After he had time to read, I went over characters. I asked if he would consider being the father in the movie. He was in media before and in addition to acting in his own films, he acted in others. In every film he did really well in portraying his character. He played a toxic, abusive boyfriend in one film and it was very convincing. Knowing that he was able to play this sort of role had me confident in his skills acting as an abusive father. After discussing everything with Zeke, I was able to secure him in the role. I then talked to Lily. I discussed the story and daughter character. After hearing what I had to say she was re...

Working Title: The film name is likely to be "Bad Habits". It will be in edgy writing,  SOMETHING LIKE THIS.  The writing will most likely be capitalization. It could also be some capital letters and some lowercase. For example something like this. (Just showing the style and size of letters) I want to make the title come up and look  staticky almost. I want to use a light background with dark words or vise versa. When the main title comes up it should be bold and make a statement because the film is very deep. I think the main ideal color for the title card font should be black. All the of the title scenes will be inputted in like slamming into the screen. The main title will stay for 5 seconds. However the other titles in the the title sequence will be 2-3 seconds. The credits or the other titles will be smaller than the main title.The background of the opening credits will be just a video going through a low-income town. The credits will appear in the corner. Also...

Box1-    Father shouting at his child(6 year old girl), too drunk, cursing. Dark lighting, heavy clothes/dirty, harsh dialogue, wide shot Setting: Kitchen Box2- Little girl is crying, holding her stuffed animals Dark lightening, fade in, zoom shots(slow),  Setting; Young girls' room' Box3- Dark silhouettes of both characters(showing growth) More dark lighting, heavy clothes, adding dramatic effect Time is passing Setting; Unknown dark room Box4- Father is very drunk, throws beer at daughter School clothes, dad in dirty clothes, beer bottles Setting: Kitchen Box5- Dad watching TV, nearly blacked out, ignoring daughter Daughter is calling for dad, dark lighting, somber music, school clothes Setting: Living room/Kitchen Box6- Continued from 5, father storms out, leaving daughter alone, screaming Jump cuts, fast editing style, bright lighting(contrast from scenes before) Setting: Outside, front door  

schedule 3/19 - we will begin filming all the shots that require the dad, scenes 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. 3/20 - we will film the scene where the main character begins to fall into her drug addiction, scenes 6, 7, 8, 9. 3/20 - In the same day we will wrap up by filming the running through the alley in scene 10. 3/25 - we will record the voiceovers for each clip 3/26-4/10 - we will immediately begin editing and work through the film day by day together. location The location of our video will take place in my house, primarily my bedroom. There will also be a shot in the alley behind it. participants Actors     Zeke Morales - Father     Lily Ferner - drug addict daughter Filming     Riana Morales     Wren Ruby Editing     Riana Morales     Wren Ruby Directing     Wren Ruby health&safety To ensure the safety of everyone we will make sure there is a first aid kit at hand, at any given moment. there will always be people wat...

*Voice over of girl narrating plays through scenes 1-4*  Scene 1: Dark lighting, only black silhouette of characters, long shot Father: *incoherent shouting* Girl: *Muffled cries* holds stuffed animals and covers her cried in room behind door Voice over:  Scene 2: Dark lighting, only black silhouette of characters, long shot Few years later (around 10years old) In drunk fit, father throws beer bottle at child Voice over:  Scene 3: Dark lighting, only black silhouette of characters, long shot Father:  Scene 4: Father: *screaming at girl Girl: *screaming back* Scene 5: Father: *passed out on chair, pills and alcohol surrounding him* Girl: taking pills, drinking smoking Scene 6: Medium shot, girl looking in mirror, holding pill, thinking to herself... Girl: "We always say we're going to be the ones to break the cycle, to change, to be better" Girl:"...but what if it's too late now? What if I don't want to? What if I just... gave in?" Scene 7: Music intensif...

  1.  How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film?  Which ones? Twister only had 4 title cards. These included two being the production company (Warner Bros) and the specific production. The last title was the main film name, Twister. The last title card, the main name, appeared with each letter, not all at once. This is a cool editing style that went along with the background.  2.  What connotations do the images carry?  ( how  do you they make you feel) The images make me feel a little scared. The also give the film a lot of suspense. The images weren't extremely descriptive towards the eye. It was wind/sand blowing around like a tornado. The words were put in place in front of the blowing winds. They overall make the movie more scarier and seem like it will have a good plot. 3.  How is genre reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset?  (Can you tell what genre the film is) You can tell the fi...

  1.  How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film?  Which ones?    Many titles over 40 were shown. This title sequence started with the cast and ended on the directors and other leads of creation, unlike the Queens Gambit. The last title scenes were the directors and producers. Ending with the big name of the film. 2.  What connotations do the images carry?  ( how  do you they make you feel)     The images are extremely eerie. They are dark and in places like prisons, scary fields, or weird objects. They make me feel a little nervous and scared. Having the images all be at night, and in random areas make it scarier. The film is definitely going to have good visuals based on this intro. The images also being random and having no extreme correlation with each other leaves me a bit of suspense of where the film will take place and who will be there.  3.  How is genre reinforced through symbolic and techn...

1.  How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film?  Which ones?     There was a total of 18 title scenes, 20 including the two quotes at the very beginning. It started with the quotes then went to the main production company(Columbia), the production, who the film was by, finally the cast. They showed two cast members then the main title, Gattaca, then the rest of the cast. It is assumed that the two first cast members listed are the main actors. Then finally, the other important people that added to the film at the end. 2.  What connotations do the images carry?  ( how  do you they make you feel) The imaging at the start is most just blue screen. It shows something falling and bouncing around in the background. Then at the end you can see a main shaving his beard. The movie is starting at the end of the title sequence. The imaging at the beginning make me feel wonder as to what's going to happen and leave me sus...

What titles are displayed during the opening sequences? American Zoetropes presents, a muse production, and in association with eternity pictures is showed first. The title of the movie was presented more in the middle. What images are prioritized in the opening sequences? The first prioritized images are those of the neighborhood that the story takes place, views of neighbors walking their dogs and watering their lawns. They are all very serene images in a basic sunny setting. Then it goes into the bathroom where Cecilia had an attempt, and the ambulance come to save her.  What connotations do these images carry? The images carry an unsuspecting connotation. They show the dark or hidden side of a seemingly normal, happy neighborhood and family. Many people may think nothing goes on in their normal suburban town, but there are always dark sides and hidden truths. It is a rather mundane connotation to it at first, but turns more interesting. How does the film establish a feeling of ...