FINAL FILM PRODUCTION!!!!

 Finally after all the long 6 weeks of hard work I am able to present to you my groups final film production. Although creating the film was difficult I had lots of fun creating it and learning along side my friends and classmates.

CCR

 Hello viewers of my blog this video is my CCR or critical reflection review. I had fun creating the PowerPoint and recording i hope you enjoy.  

Postproduction- editing

 Post-production is known as the final phase in creating a film. While in the post production phase most of my time has been spent in editing. 

After filming using my iPhone as my camera, I sent all the shots directly into the editing software known as adobe premiere pro.  Everything was going as planned as i was getting prepared to edit. However there was one small but detrimental problem. The school computer that has the editing software was outdated with some system functions. At first i thought it was a problem only with my computer so I switched but found all the computers have this problem. So my class had to switch to a web based editor known as wevideo, which is the same editor that we used to create our holiday music video.  

Editing phases 

As I was editing the shots, i tried to arrange them in a way that would resemble a story almost. But i made sure to follow common conventions of my genre. as i composed the shots i made sure to order them in a way that not only will a story show, but also have edited some shots using special effects and filters to enchant the shots and make them appear as something different. This is what i used to create the flashbacks that add meaning to film as the main character is reminiscing on what event had accrued.

Learning the software 

Over the course of editing I had to relearn how to use the wevideo editing software. Since my teacher purchased the premium version of the wevideo. With the premium a lot of new features, so i had to take some time to relearn how to use the editor with the advance settings. Which made use of the software better. Once i learned how to use the advance settings the construction of my film opening was easy 

Production

 This week is all about the production phase of filming. at this point all research and learning is complete and it is time to apply what I know. 

This week I have created my first draft of my film opening and I have learned a lot from creating it and i know what I can do better.

I learned a lot of new information now that i have got the chance to apply it. one of the most important things that I learned is how to play with the lighting of an area. I learned by using lights in different areas of a area I can create different levels of lighting. 

Another thing that I learned that I can improve on is the dialogue between characters. One of the main problems that i had while filming was audio limitations. I was not able to pick up all the audio on my recording devices (my cell phone).  in order to solve this problem i recorded audio on a different phone to allow the dialogue to be herd. This is known as a voice over. 

However, the biggest problem I faced was a set relocation. During filming one of my group members became sick. And this group member was going to be our key into renting a office space. Since he was sick I had to find a new filming location. This set back production by 3 whole days. However, I have combatted the issue by getting a office in the jrotc hallway, that was given to me for the time. 

Overall, I learned a plethora of new information and how i can apply it to my final version of my project.

Scheduling our shoot

 Now that our storyboard is created, we have a estimate of how long it would take to film the shots. With this information we know that filming will take about 3 days. and if we need to clean up shots it would take us 1 day. So this film will take for days to produce, this should be completed by next week Thursday.   

This processes is known as scheduling. Scheduling allows for a film creator to manage shots and keep tract of film dates and what days we as film makers can film. 

It also gives a rough estimate on how long a film will take to record before moving into the filming process.  

The first stage of scheduling was creating a strip board. The purpose of creating a strip board is to help manage a films shots and keep track of what shots you will film on what day. 

For me personally I had trouble creating the strip board, however after getting help from my teacher i was able to better understand how to create the strip board.

Overall, the creation of the strip board helped me in the long run of creating. And it would allow me to stay on track in creating my film opening. 

Storyboarding

 This week My group and I created our storyboard to start the filming process of our film. 

What is a storyboard 

a storyboard is something that is used by film makers to help visualize the shots of the film. Storyboarding is a imperative part of the filming process. It allows film makers to change shots for the film if the are unsatisfied with the current shots. 

Our storyboard 

 Our storyboard consist of 20 shots, this is the amount of shots that would be in our opening scene. The storyboard allows my team to see our shots to help us plan to film them. Bellow there is a photo of what our storyboard looks like , it was created with an app known as studio binder, this is the app that we have been using to help organize and create our film. 

Shooting the film 

Now that our storyboard is created, we have a estimate of how long it would take to film the shots. With this information we know that filming will take about 3 days. and if we need to clean up shots it would take us 1 day. So this film will take for days to produce, this should be completed by next week Thursday.   

Pre- film Process

 as my group enters the pre-production phases of creating our film there are some things that need to be accomplished before filming week. 

Planning for filming 

in this phases my partner and I had to come up with shot locations and how we would set up said shots. Since our film is a horror film and our film opening will be a prologue we decided that we would have our opening take place in a therapist office, which follows our overall script idea. 

Set Design and Location 

For our film opening we choose the set location of a therapist office, in order to create the office my group members and I will make use of a family members office. To make the office fit our needs we will make use of lighting and editing if we are not able to build our set pieces. The reason we choose a office is to set our film in a way that will give viewers context about our characters seeing a therapist often creates the message that a person has something negative weighting on their brain. 

The overall idea is to create a office that allows for tensions to build as viewers watch the film opening. We plan to accomplish this by making use of lowkey lighting within a dark area. We will also make use of dark and suspenseful music to help set the tone of the film with a shallow focuses to hide characters faces raising question about who they are.   

  

Actors 

Finding actors will be a difficult task considering we have a set of requirements that must be met.

Requirement 1: the actor must go to our school 

Requirement 2: the actor must have good communication 

Requirement 3: the actor must have good attendance. 

even though we have these requirements for our actors we will still need to gain access to the students. In order to do this we will have to ask teachers if they would allow us to take some of their students. We have to go through this process to ensure that our actors are responsibly and dependable.  

Audio

For this film there will be dialogue between characters, since there will be flashbacks that we want this dialogue to play over the flashback as it happens. To complete this task we will film our audio separately from the film then combine the audio with the film within the editing process of post production.     

Filming 

for the filming aspect of the film we will make use of all available technologies we have at our deposal. This will include smart phones, the cameras provided, and any other way of storing or playing back media content. However, this limits our ability to achieve the quality of the film we will create. to combat this we will try our best to create sound capsulated room to achieve the best possibly sound quality. 

  

  

Script Writing Research

This week my group has been in the process of writing our very own script for our film. But before we could write our script we had to conduct research on how to write a script and what exactly is the scripts purpose within the film industries. 

While conducting said research, my group and I came across other scripts within our genre for example the film that my group took inspiration from final destination 4 my group saw that there were a lot of similarities although the script is longer we learned a lot from reading the script.

our script 

Open Case Study

 In order to better understand my movie genre I will conduct a open case study on one of the films in said genre to allow me and my fellow group members to better understand how to create our film and what film opening type we will use. 

The film I will conduct my study on is the film called final destination 4.

History of the film

Final destination 4 is a film that was made in the year 2009 and directed by David R. Ellis and written by Eric Bress. this film was created at a sequel to the film fancies previous films. This film was given the rating of R meaning that this film is rated for adults or mature viewers. 

Production

This film was produced by new cinema films which is a film label owned by Warner Bros Studios which is a part of the big six. the film took place in multiple areas of the USA including Orlando, new Orleans, etc. the cost to create and film this movies was 43 million dollars also, the film was released on august 28th. 

Distribution

this film was distributed all over the world and mostly shown within movie theaters, while it was in the box offices around the world it made a total of 186.2 million dollars in revenue as the film was extremally popular due to fans of the last films. 

Marketing 

although this film was not the greatest film with it having a 28% on rotting tomatoes the movie was successful due to the film being one of the first films in its genre to be a fully 3-d film. film makers used this to advertise their film. 

Cross-media convergence and synergy 

as I conducted my research i saw that this film had merchandise that included tee-shirts, pillows, Blu-ray sets in full 3-d, etc. although there is not alot of merch for this film the merch helps to bring viewers into watching the films and it also allows fans of said films the ablility to get items that are related to the film.  

 

Finance processing of a film

 Intro into Finance 

During the process of creating general films, film makers are faced with the task of acquiring funding for their film.  during this process film writers think about the ideas they will use to pitch to a posable funder of their project. 

Types of funding 

when it comes to the funding of a film, film makers have some options on who they would like to fund their film. Some film makers would want their films to be funded by one of the big six: the six major film production companies that control 90% of the media we consume. these companies are paramount pictures, universal, 20th century films, warner bros. pictures, Walt Disney, and Columbia pictures.  However, if you did not want to be funded by one of the major 6 you could sin to a independent film company. Independent companies have an advantage over the larger six as with a independent label you could advertise anything you would like unlike the big 6 where you have to follow certain guidelines. Examples of these companies are Summit entertainment, film 4 productions, icon productions, etc. The final way of getting a film financed is via mini majors: smaller labels owned by the big 6 these companies are DreamWorks, Lionsgate films, etc.  

What is Production and how does it work? 

Production is refers to the stages of creating a film. Production is a multi step process that includes 5 major steps.

Stage 1 Development: This is the first and most important step when it comes to production as it allows you to plan and create the concepts of your film. this includes: drafting a script, casting characters, film locations, costuming etc. this stage allows film creators to develop and brainstorm posable ideas to create into a film. 

Stage 2 Pre-Production: similar to the first step this part of film production allows film creators to come up with basic ideas; along with pitching the idea of the film to a film producer in this step, film creators are finalizing their ideas, locations for filming, actors, scripts, budget, etc. once finalized film creators pitch the idea to a producer label (the big 6) depending on the type of film a creator would go to different labels. For example if a creator wanting to pitch a family friendly film they would pitch the idea to Disney which, is more likely to produce the film. 

Stage 3  Production: this step is when things start to pick up the pace in the film creating process. In this step film creators are creating the film, using cameras and recording their film part by part. This is also where the ideas of film makers come to life and are reviewed for later steps.

Stage 4 Post-Production: After all the filming and hard work in the field this is when things start to calm down. in this stage movie film that has been shot goes on to be edited, in the editing process the film is taken shot by shot and then arranged with the use of editing techniques that match the flow of the film. 

Film distribution 

As the last step in the process of production this step entails the distribution of a film to generate reviews and profit for the film. This can be done in a plethora of ways one which includes the selling of merchandise related to said film, just like star wars fans buy lightsabers the same rule applies to all films: clothes, toys, games, posters, etc. are some more ways of how films do this to bring in large amounts of viewers to generate profit for their film. 

Portfolio project

 Now that time is approaching closer to create my class portfolio me and my group have come up with ideas for our portfolio project. 

Our project 

for our project we will be creating a film by the name of dead in the end. This film is a horror/phycological thriller, about a group of high schoolers that eventually be killed by a psychopathic killer. Some of the basic conventions of horror films that we will make use of in our film: lowkey lighting, slow camera movements, horrid sounds etc. 

Our inspiration

for my group we wanted to take inspiration from one of our favorite horror films known as the babysitter: killer queen where some of the film takes place. This film mostly takes place in the wilderness with the mix of abandon cabins, haunted beaches and other places. We took note of this because horror films have the tendency to take place in abandon places. 

For our characters we decided to take inspiration from stereotypes we have found within all horror movies however, one that we closely took inspiration from was scary movie using the stereotypes: dumb blond, the nerdy guy, the sports jock, and the quite kid. we hope to find a way to use all the stereotypes in our film to help give context to it without giving too much away.  

Our Goal

for this film we hope to target the age group of teenagers just like us as we feel it would be the perfect film to watch when your having a spooky slumber party with friends; or a film that you could watch and still be able to go to sleep without being too afraid.  

  

Music video poject

 This year for a little Christmas fun our class had decided top create music videos. For the assignment we were told to use what we had currently learned about mise-en-scene cinematography and sound, the only reequipment for the music video is that we had to use a Christmas theme song.

Choosing our song 

The fist step for our group was to choose a Christmas song although, it may seem to be an easy task me and my fellow group members were having trouble choosing what type of Christmas song would we use would it be soul, rmb, or rap? . After consideration and talk our group choose the song Santa Claus is comin to town by Jackson 5. 

Writing the script

Our second step in this process was to write our script for the music video: it would be used to give our video direction. For the script we used a site called studio binder, the site allowed for a simple and easy to use platform that is capable of creating scripts. Personally i find the software to be helpful as it gave instructions to format and writ our group script.

Creating the story board 

     For the third step of this process we had to create a story board or what I like to call a concept drawing this allows us to see what types of shots we would like to incorporate into our video, it also allows us to get a visual idea of what we would be doing in our video. 

Filming 

For the fourth step of the process and what I see as the most fun of the steps is filming, this is my favorite step because it allows you to combine everything together in a fun way. My group got to film all around our school which also allowed us to show off our school. 

Editing

Editing is the last step and the most complicated of them all in this stage my group and i had to find out how to use the editing software wevideo as it was our first time using the site, secondly we also had to find out how to match our shots with the fast pace music of the song. I find that editing is the most rigorous part of the processes and even though it was hard I still had fun learning how to use editing apps so in the future i could use them for personal reasons.

here is the final results of our music video!!!

Editing Software research

 While searching for a editing software to use for my editing project I came across three options, as I looked through each software I had to make sure that they met a set of requirements as later on i would be using the software for my portfolio project.

The requirements 

1. must be a web-based site that is free to use 

2. Must be able to lay multiple tracks 

3. Must be able to pull audio off video tracks 

4. Must allow for collaboration 

The Three Sites 

For this project I was able to find three software  that i would potentially be using for the portfolio later down the road they are Videopad, Openshot.org , and Clipchamp.com 

Videopad 

Videopad is a free to use and beginner friendly software that is downloadable for usage, although that there is so much good things on the app it doesn't meet the requirements that i need it too. This editing app is not web based and it does not allow for collaboration. 

Openshot.org 

Openshot.org is another free to use program for editing, however I feel that it is aimed for more seasoned editors usage, after playing with the program I found it too difficult to use. Similar to Videopad it is a program that is not web based and requires a download to use, it does have the abilities to lay multiple tracks and cut audio from clips but instead of having collaboration it has cross platform. 

Clipchamp.com

Clipchamp.com is the only editing software that i was able to find meets all requirements, it is a web based site that allows for multiple tracts to be layered and provides what I need for audio. Also it allows for collaboration which is super important. its free to use and its also simple to use so it meets my personal requirements as well. 

My choice

After conducting my research I have come with the choice to use Clipchamp.com as it is the easiest out of the three software for me to use and is also meets all the requirements that are needed along with my own. So I think that it would be the best for me to use that software.

 

3 favorite films

 My top 3 favorite films of all time are freedom writers, star wars the force awakens, and jump in.

Freedom writers: A drama film that is based on a true story about one teacher by the name of Erin Gruwell that worked in a school that was in long beach which at the time, divided by race, dugs, and gang warfare. The teacher was told that the class she would teach had little to no hope of graduating high school because of this but, Ms. Gruwell saw this as a challenge to teach the students beyond the classroom with something similar to what they would go through in daily life, that something would be the tragic events of the holocaust that brings the students to better understand that they were all the same in someway that allows them not only to become better students but better people. The opening in this film last for 1 min and 56 seconds, this opening is a flash back opening that shows us memory's or past experiences of a main or important character in a film. The opening of this movie connects with the rest of the film because it gives backstory to some of the events that main and important characters had to go through in their lives showing plot and character development at one time.

Star wars the force awakens: this is a sci-fi film that is about the return of the magical energy known as the force as a new Jedi prodigy is found. The opening scene for this film is a opening credit scene, this type of opening is used to show credits before a movie has started, in the case of star wars it is used to show what happened in the last episode or last film. I know that star wars is a sci-fi film because it has a futuristic elements like different planets and advance tech like x-wings and tie-fighters, this is a convention that is purely for sci-fi films. The opening in this film is about 9mins long that is a scene or a war breaking out, the purpose of this is to introduce the newest villain to the movie and also show other characters that would become important later on in the film this is called enter the villain. 

Jump in: A classic Disney 2000s film that is about a young boy named Issy that is forced in to the sport of boxing by his father but then due to some local girls in the neighborhood he is introduced to a new sport that he quickly falls in love with and try's to prove that his true passion is jumping rope. The opening scene last 1 min and 47 secs in the first shot we are introduced to our main character with powerful music and a narrator with the main characters face hidden by a shadow as he is jump roping in a boxing ring showing that he may be dealing with something internally. The genre of this film is family friendly I know this because of who the movie is made by which is, Disney known for their child friendly movies with happy go lucky characters. the importance of this opening is to show our main character off and get a introduction to who he is before the movie starts.  

compare and contrast

All three of these movies are extremely different from one another but are alike as well for example all three movies introduce the main characters within the first two or three shots, they also have similar camera movement and shots like medium shots, close up shots, long shots, and establishing shots to create meaning.

Some of the differences in them is the setting for example in star wars the movie takes place in a different galaxy while the other two movies take place on earth, another difference is the tone of the films, each film sets a different tone in their film jump in sets a happy and joyful tone, freedom writers sets a more meaningful tone as it is based on true events and star wars tone is set with the intro of the new villain which is symbolic as there is a new generation of good and bad.   

Film Openings

 When looking at films one of the most important parts of the film is the opening. The opening of a film is extremely important to a film because it allows viewers to see basic information to learn what the film will most likely be about.

Key Characteristics/ Key Elements 

In order to understand how to analyze a films opening you must first understand the key characteristics of the opening. key characteristics of film openings or opening shots are 

Tone: the general character or attitude of a place, piece of writing, situation, etc. 

Setting: the place or type of surroundings where something is positioned or where an event takes place

Main Characters:  a central character(s) who acts as the audience surrogate

Theme: the subject of a talk, a piece of writing, a person's thoughts, or an exhibition

The meaning behide the opening

Even though there are many different types of film openings; they all serve the same general purpose which is to introduce the viewers to the main concept or idea of the film and what the film will be about. Some examples of these openings are 

Prologues: a montage or scene that is meant to succinctly communicate important backstory that happened before the film. Sometimes prologues have voiceover narration that dumps exposition onto the viewers all at once that is most commonly used in Fantasy and Epic type films. Prologues also can have no voiceover but instead have a flashback to revel a pivotal moment in the characters past (most likely from childhood). 

Inciting Incident: this type of opening scene introduces the inciting incident that sets the story into motion these events could be something similar to weddings, funerals, apocalypse or any major event of a characters life. An example of this is in the film "welcome home Roscoe Jenkins" made in the year 2008 in this film the inciting incident that gets the film up and going is a family reunion.

Day in a life: an opening scene that introduces the main character usually revealing a key strength and key liability and shows what the characters life is like before its changed by the events in the film. Sometimes day in a life scenes are not that dramatic or exciting. These types of openings are commonly seen in drama, comedies, and action films.  

Cold openings: the purpose of a cold opening is to grab the audience's attention and establish genre elements before beginning act 1. this is most common in Horror movies, Crime thrillers, and action movies. 

The similarities between theses film openings is that they all allow the viewers of films go get a basic idea of what the film they are watching would be about, they also allow viewers context as to what will happen during the film.  

Compare and contrast 

The three genres of film that I will be comparing are sci-fi, action, comedy. Some of the similarity's between each genre are that they all make use of certain shot types like the medium close up shot that is a shot of a character from the waist upwards that is used to show what a character is doing within a scene. Another similarity between each genre is the use of conventions like hero vs villain an example of this would be movies like star wars, avengers, and Brooklyn vampire. 

Some of the major differences in the genres are that all the films have different uses of Mise en scene 

for example costumes in sci-fi films are futuristic and technologically advance, while costumes in  action films could be super hero costumes that have a lot of detail like captain Americas suit. Another difference between the genres is setting of the films themselves, comedy movies can be universal and have any type of setting while sci-fi films are strictly in space or different planets or parallel universes. 

  Types of Movies / Movie Genre 

    Over the course of two weeks my class and I have been learning and studying different genres and movie types. 

What is a Genre?

The word genre is originally a French word that means type or kind. Genres are category's best used to describe and analyze films. Genres are also convenient terms that develop informally.

The class assignment

in order to better understand the different types of genres our class did genre PowerPoints explaining and  teaching them to us. the genres include: horror, action, sci-fi and many more.   

Background research 

while researching what I learned...

Action films include high energy, physical stunts, big budgets and always have a good guy and a bad guy fighting to rather save the world or destroy it. 

Comedy films: are light-hearted plots that are consistently and deliberately designed to amuse and provoke laughter by exaggerating the situation.

Drama films: are serious plot driven presentations portray realistic characters settings and life situations normally with high stakes and lots of conflict

Horror films: are designed to frighten invoke are hidden and worst fears often terrifying ours with our worst fears and nightmares the theme of horror is to not take things for granted and be very careful what you wish for some of the techniques that are used in four films are jump scares mirror reflections tight framing etc.

Sci-fi films:  include a wider variety or futuristic concepts since they're so imaginative anything goes, some of the most common elements of sci-fi are time travel, teleportation, extraterrestrial life forms, and parallel universes. re genre incorporates hypothetical and science-based themes

Our project 

after doing our research in class we were tasked with creating a PowerPoint for the genre we choose 

we did this to show what each group learned about the genre and to teach it back to the class, with every little detail: the history, who created it, why and how is it used, etc. 

Reflection 

Before this project I didn't really know a lot about the different types of genres in films, all that I knew is film makers use these different types of genres to make the different types of movies for entertainment.

After doing research and learning about the different types of genres on a deeper level I can say that I have learned how to makers put together the different types of genres to create meaning in their films by using different techniques like camera angle, shot type, setting, lighting etc. 

    

Mise-en-scene 

What is it? and how is it used?

Mise-en-scene is a French word that means everything in the scene. it's used to create mood and feeling within a scene. 

Components of Mise-en-scene 

the main and most important components of Mise-en-scene are design and composition 

design: the look of the setting, props, lighting, actors, makeup, hair style, and costuming all come together to create the scene and overall tone of the shot in the film.

Composition: the organization, distribution, balance, and general relationships of actors and objects within the space of each shot. 

Why is Mise-en-scene important?

Mise-en-scene is important because it allows the viewer to be in a certain place at a certain time it also affects how we think of characters and story of a film. 

examples of Mise-en-scene in play 

here in class we had a project on creating photos using elements of Mise-en-scene to create a meaning for the pictures and shots we had took. 

 

Here is one of the shots that my partner and i had took using some toys that we had laying around at home. using these props we were able to create this shot of a teddy bear riding a motorcycle on the open road. The shot implies the feeling of freedom something that every American teen dreams of.   

 Our second shot is one just showing the motorcycle by its self on the open road during a sunrise. Just like the last shot we used this shot to represent freedom. 

What I learned 

what I learned from the project is the different ways that you can use elements of Mise-en-scene to create meaning for shots. the project also taught me why using Mise-en-sence is so important to films 

without it a viewer would be lost and confused about the message the film is trying to tell.

 Cinematography 

What is cinematography?

Cinematography is the art of photography and visual storytelling in a motion picture or television show. it it uses all on =-screen visual elements including camera motion, camera angles, framing, lighting, and composition. 

Why is cinematography important? 

Cinematography is important because it sets and supports the mood and look of a film narrative. 

How cinematography is used?

Cinematography is the composition of different types of angles for different shots, we use the different angles to get different feelings or emotions out of each shot. 

Class application 

in class we learned how to identify different types of shots and what they look like. here in the photo is shows mutable examples of the different shots and angles used in cinematography. 

some of the shots that are included in this picture are:

close ups: fill the screen with the majority with the character's head or face 

medium shot: frames a person from waist up

long shot/wide shot: shows character from top to bottom

What I learned 

What I learned is that cinematography is important because it allows directors to create different shots to help create meaning within a scene ,also mark that the different shot types help make scenes in movies. One of the most important things that I learned is how to identify the different shot types I feel that it will help me in the future when creating my portfolio.