Researching for CCR questions #2!

Hey Cambridge peeeps! My day was great today! Quick update on my movie intro and OMG I’m actually really excited about how it’s turning out. I got SO MUCH editing done and I finally see the end!!! For today's blog post though, I'm gonna be answering  one of the four CCR questions: How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues? 

My product is an edited psychological thriller movie intro and I used a lot of conventions from that genre. For example it starts in a therapist’s office which is pretty common in psychological thrillers because those stories usually focus on a character’s mind and emotions. The main character is telling the therapist that she has been seeing things and feels like she might be going crazy, which already creates tension for the audience. Then when the therapist asks if she has been taking her medication and the main character stutters saying uhhh and the scene cuts to her house, but it is actually a flashback showing what happened the night before. I like this part because it challenges the normal way stories are told since the audience has to slowly figure out what happened before she got to her therapy session. 

In the flashback she is alone in her apartment eating cereal and the tiny sounds like the spoon clinking and the fridge humming feel way louder than normal. Then things start getting really weird. A random actor on the TV suddenly says you were not supposed to hear that like they are talking directly to her. The TV fills with static, the doorbell rings but nobody is there, and her spoon somehow appears outside and then back in her cereal bowl but bent. After that the TV fills with static and the movie title appears before she panics and calls her therapist. My intro also represents the social issue of mental health because the main character feels scared and confused about what's happening to her. It also shows how isolating it can feel since she is alone when everything happens. To make things worse, although her therapist is showing support, her loud pen scribbling is judgmental enough.

 So overall my intro uses psychological thriller conventions like suspense, sound, and confusion about what is real, but it also challenges them because the audience does not know if the events are supernatural or really just happening in her head. And honestly that mystery is exactly the vibe I wanted. This is pretty much it!

 

FINAL EDITING!

Hey Cambridge peeps! I have good news... I FINALLY FINISHED FILMING TODAY!!!

I am literally so excited because everything is finally coming together and editing is going SO GOOD. I've been working with coloring, effects, and filters to execute my idea perfectly. 

Okay so I changed my idea just a tiny bit. Instead of the hallucination being like a random moment, I turned it into a flashback. And honestly?? It makes SO much more sense now. It feels deeper and way more emotional.

For the flashback scenes, I added this filter called “Filmic” and it makes everything look softer and kind of dramatic, like how memories feel in movies. It gives it that vintage, dreamy vibe that immediately tells you “okay this is the past.” I love it so much and I feel like it aligns perfectly:

I’ve also been overlapping audios, which makes it even cooler. I layered heavy breathing over the scenes and added the sound of a phone ringing in the background. When they overlap, it builds so much tension. It feels intense in the best way. Like you can almost feel the anxiety through the screen:

And for the non-flashback scenes (the present tense ones), I’m editing the lighting to be really bright and saturated. The colors pop more and everything looks clearer and sharper. I did that on purpose so you can visually tell what’s happening now versus what already happened. The contrast between the flashback and the present scenes is actually so satisfying to see:

I’m just really proud because it’s starting to look like a real movie and not just random clips put together. Seeing the idea in my head actually come to life is the coolest feeling ever. Tomorrow, I plan on editing in the credits with this very strict font called "Bebas Neue" and adding a glitch effect to it:

Researching for CCR questions #1!

 HI BLOG!!!! 

For today's post, I'm gonna focus primarily on researching one of the questions I have to answer for my CCR: "How did your production skills develop throughout this project?" 

For starters, I would like to say that I am very much of a noobie when it comes to filming and editing. I'm pretty new to editing on apps apart from CapCut, which makes everything so easy and accessible. Since we don't use CapCut in my class of AICE Media Studies, I would like to say that being introduced to ClipChamp has easily been a life saver. ClipChamp is super easy to use and I am starting to find my way with the app. As for filming, the lessons we have been taught in class have been super helpful. For example, us students have learned different shot, angle and composition techniques which has allowed me to really capture an image vividly and collect the emotional side of it as well.

With time, I know my editing and filming will be much better with more practice and knowledge. To acquire this skill, I plan on watching video tutorials or read articles. For example, I can watch a tutorial on how to make my content have better quality: 

Also, if I want to learn how to truly capture character emotion in cinematography I can figure it out using articles such as this one.  

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10352452/

I ultimately hope that my product satisfies my expectations even though it'll be a difficult task to complete. Im just kidding, but seriously I do truly hope I take what I've learned and will continue to learn and put that into my project! BYE! Until next time, :)

Pt. 1 Editing Process!

 Hello people of Cambridge, welcome BACK to my blog! So to recap, I started filming on Tuesday of this week and got a lot done, but there is still much to be filmed. So, for now, I'm leaving blanks in between scenes that have and haven't been filmed yet so then I can fill them in once they've been recorded. So far, we've filmed the "living room" scene where my lead role is serving herself dinner. Tonight, we plan on recording the "therapist office" scene and the "front door" scene. 

I've been toying around with the coloring and seeing that warmer tones are fitting best with my film opening.:

I've also been checking out the effects to see which ones I wanna add to my project. I really like the "zoom in" feature because it makes the scene feel more ominous paired with the silence. 

Ultimately, I am a little stressed with the project due date coming up buttt I know I'll feel much more relieved once I get all my filming done this week. I'll be updating back on the blogger very soon! 

Obstacles and Issues i encountered!

 Hey Cambridge people! Today is Wednesday, my birthday! I am so pumped because I started filming yesterday! My vision is finally coming to life and all I want to do is film the rest. We started filming a week later then I had originally planned on because me and my lead role, Reese, have had extremely busy and colliding schedules with dance and school. Yesterday though, we were able to meet and film at least a bit. I feel the stress because the due date for the portfolio projects is ONLY. 20. DAYS. AWAY. My biggest obstacle has been probably time management. Although we filmed a good chunk of the scenes yesterday, we still have a LOT missing. I plan on being more organized for tomorrow, because we're gonna film more. My goal is to finish filming tomorrow but if that isn't possible, I'll for sure finish on Sunday. Here is a teaser scene from what we've filmed so far: 

Another obstacle I went through was purely due to stress and trying to get my filming done without it looking rushed; we filmed everything vertically. I started freaking out after this BUT I knew that my only option was to redo the scenes and record them horizontally. Thankfully, we managed to get these horizontal scenes done much quicker since we already had an idea down. Here is an example of a vertical scene that quickly made us realize the mistake we had made:

Meeting with groups PT2!

Group Meeting number two! 

Alejandro

-Fast and Furious inspired skit. It's an action comedy where Ale is the main character (Pauley), Felipe is being another character (Mr.Clutch), and Sebastian being the main characters best friend (Jay). Costuming is like streetwear for the racers and for the dealers, suits. They plan on using real cars for their film and they want to film behind the AMC Weston 8 for that dark alleyway. In all, Jay is a troubled guy who loves cars. Mr. Clutch sells special car parts to Jay that are illegal, so it's super sketchy. The biggest obstacles have been that his two partners work so scheduling times is complicated. His group plans on starting to film today as well. 

Julian

-His story is about an 18 year old boy. He had an opportunity to go try out for a professional club but he wakes up late and drives to tryouts rushing. On the drive there, on the radio, they  announced that a 16 year old made his debut on a pro soccer team. This made him feel jealous and wanting of what the 16 year old has. His older brother is gonna be the main character, while he films. He plans on starting to film this week. 

Lina

-Project is a coming of age film about an anti-social girl who gets hallucinations of a "better version of herself". Eventually, she becomes envious and jealous of this other entity. The two entities will never be in same frame. Lina plans on using color scheme to emphasize the bright colors in the "better version" and darker colors for the "lesser version" of herself. Her biggest obstacle so far has been her lead role quitting. For her CCR, she came up with an idea of the "better version" interviewing the "lesser version". Fortunately, Lina came up with a new lead and plans on starting to film today.

Kiarmary

-Secret agent where she has to do an exchange with briefcases with a super bad entity kind of evil, but the secret agent is a baddie. The agent takes what the guy promised her but she didn't exchange her side of the deal. The film ends with a chase and the title pops in after a car drives by. Their biggest obstacle so far has been the setting for the location. They wanted to film either at the "Weston Diner" or "Lesters" but ultimately decided to film behind the town center buildings. They plan on using spy music for the chase scene, but haven't decided on what song exactly. They plan on starting to film today at night. For her CCR, she wants to have her dad or brother interview her using papers out of the briefcase. 

Character background

Hey Cambridge peeps!  I wanna start off by introducing my my main character better because you'll be seeing a lot of her very soon !!!!! 

-Ava Lopes is a young woman in her early 20's living on her own in the home her parents left her in their will. Her parents were lovely to her and unfortunately died in an abrupt car accident when Ava was 16. Since Ava is an only child and had no family to take her in, she was put into foster care and wasn't able to inherit the house her parents left until she was 18. For the two years she was in foster care, nobody wanted to take her in. She spent two years watching people come and go from her life, so she learnt not to let anyone in. In those two years though, Ava developed a mental illness that she is later diagnosed with in which made her believe she was seeing and hearing things. She was stuck in this mental block and ultimately had to get a therapist and prescribed medicine. She now lives in her family home alone and has been doing better with her medication. But, if she forgets to take a dosage even for a day, It'll all come racing back to her. It is suuuper important that Ava takes her pills for the day. And although she's been struggling with her mental illness for years now, she'll never be used to her hallucinations, unless they aren't hallucinations and they're actually real...? I guess we'll never know!

Ava has long dark hair and blue eyes. She doesn't go out much to avoid social interactions, which is why she is so pale. She is very off the radar and wants to stay that way. 

This is my inspo above! My actress, Reese Eisen looks very similar to her. 

Until next time cambridge peepppss! You'll hear from me so soon! Next up, we're finally starting to film tomorrow! I'll make sure to include behind the scene clips!