My Final Film Opening!!!

 I can't believe I am finally done! Thank you for coming along on my journey as I slowly blossomed into a better filmaker! I'll see you on my next venture <3  

Here is the link to my film opening video (The Letters) 

https://youtu.be/gKm9EhzqBiM

CCR

 Finally after hours of perfecting I have finished my CCR! I am very happy with how it turned out :) Thank you for watching! I was already thinking how weird it's going to be these next few weeks without posting on my blog. (I'll have to delete my blog posting reminder :). 

Click this link to access my CCR:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/19Ul_kyhyIdX-pt1TudIYmPiLtbt3wJj7/view?usp=sharing

CCR script!!

I am almost done! All I need to do is to record my CCR and edit! :)

• How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

 

My short film " The Letters' is in the Teen/Romance genre. Though I definitely wanted it to be a unique piece of the film there are certain conventions or formulas that almost all Teen/Romance movies follow. Obviously, there has to be a compelling love conflict where one person is searching for the love of another. The characters have to be relatable so that the target audience will become emotionally attached and gave a rooting interest. The background has to also reflect the mood of the piece. My research included some of the better-known films in my genre. Movies such as a cinderella story, Stargirl, and Tall girl all followed certain conventions that audiences seem to receive well!

 I didn't really feel the need to do anything radical in my Teen/Romance film. There are such a huge amount of past films that kind of laid the groundwork for what I was trying to achieve that I knew if I actually followed conventions it would serve me, and more importantly my audience better!

My film is kind of representing the female character that has become stronger and more confident to take a chance in finding love. Normally it’s the men that tend to go out of their way to go to present themselves but in my film I wanted to show my female character  progressively getting stronger throughout my film. 

 

• How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

 

My target audience is geared to the young teen audience ages ,8-18 and primarily young girls. This is a dem that typically communicates via text and phone calls and is heavy into social media channels such as: Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube. They consume movies through streaming movie sources including YouTube streaming, Netflix, Hulu and Disney plus to name a few.

 

I decided to go with light airy colors and visually appealing props in my film opening because aesthetics are tending now a days. This is especially true on Tik Tok, an extremely popular social media app for my target audience. There are several videos that show this type of aesthetic.

 

I plan on making my film available to audiences by posting my film on Youtube, Instagram reels, and attending film festivals. 

 

• How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

I was fairly raw in how to put a film opening together. My evolution in the process came through understanding the editing process more, selecting the proper music to accompany the piece and learning what props would enhance the mood!

My research and planning for the short film was brainstorming different genres that appealed to me. After much consideration I found I kept coming back to the Teen/Romance category as I tend to be drawn to those storylines. I tapped into my memory of some the better Romance films I'd watched and ranked them on Canva as to which ones really tugged at me emotionally. I then laid out an action plan that would address what I needed to do make my film a reality.

My approach to production was to develop lists of tasks that needed to get done as the production process evolved.I ended up having to revise my schedule, change my fonts and even the name and design of my production company. These delays put a strain on the completion date I had given for my film.

At the beginning I didn't understand fully how important all the details were in making a quality film. As days progressed this became all the more real and I tried to insure that every shot had importance. The blogs we had written before really helped my writing abilities and allowed me to be more creative and the One Word film gave me some foundation for filming the right shots.

 

• How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

I decided to use my iPhone 13 to record the opening scenes of my film. As I've discussed in previous blogs, I love using Canva since it's a fantastic tool for quickly creating graphics for nearly anything. I also used Vont, Phonto, Premiere Rush, and Imovie to edit my film opening. 

The different technologies definitely helped me with my film making such as Canva making my blogs and film look more professional. It also can be a curse as when my computer wouldn't load vital information I needed for the production. Overall, most of the technology I was familiar with so there was no new tech stuff needed.

I have learned many things throughout the process of making my film opening such as working efficiently, staying organized, learning from past mistakes, and that details are important. If I could do something differently if provided the chance I would have left my self more time for editing so I wouldn’t have felt rushed during the process. 

Although I felt my process was efficient opon reflection I came to the realization I needed to delegate my tasks in order of most important to least important so that I wouldnt feel overwhelmed when somethinhs werent done in the timely manner that I expected.

Key Moments and Changes to the Project!

 Hi Blog! I hope you are having a great day! Wow! I am almost finished with my film opening project! Make sure you go check out my last few blogs to see the progress I have made! In this blog I will be talking about some of the changes to my project and major key moments leading to the final string of my project! So with out further a do... let's get right into it! I have had to make several changes to my project. Originally, I planned to incorporate Emily Watts' cover song "La Vie En Rose." But she didn't respond to my DM. So I started to browse for music on the Uppbeat app. 

I finally found a song that I think will fit perfectly with my film opening.  It's also free of copyright, which is a plus! It's called: "Now or Never" by Tyler Edwards. Uppbeat is unquestionably an underrated software. I would suggest this app to new filmmakers such as myself:)  I would also like to talk about some of the key moments I have experienced this past week! I began working on my CCR script and it's going great! I can't wait to show you guys my film opening and my CCR! I would recommend to stay tuned! 

CCR (Creative Critical Reflection!)

 Hi Blog! Yay! I am so close to finishing my film opening project! Let's not forget about the Creative Critical Reflection, where I will address any questions you might have. If you haven't checked out my previous blogs make sure you go check them out as I talked about the post-production process. For my CCR I will be creating a script to help me answer the questions smoothly. I will also be using a couple apps to edit. (Voice Memos, Canva!! my all-time favorite editing app, and also Premiere rush.) Below are pictures of the research and several voice recordings I have made.

You may be wondering how I will be making my film's CCR creative. Well, I'm glad you asked! I came up with a great idea! My dad is really good at making a professional voice since he was a broadcaster on the radio. I have decided that I want to do an interview or a talk show. So my dad would ask the questions and I would answer. I will be including images, research, and videos to make it even more entertaining. I'm so excited for you guys to finally see my completed project! Stay tuned! :)

Totally Focused! (post production- editing!)

Hi! Yes, as the title implies, I am extremely focused! I've been working on perfecting my film opening project for the last several weeks. Yes, there have been several decisions to be made as well as a few hiccups on the journey, but altogether, I am happy to announce that progress has been made. Difficulties with my music selection have been one of the more rough experiences I've had. I sent a DM to the artist of the music I wanted to include in my film's opening, but she didn't respond. So my plan b was to look for similar music, which took a long time... I'm happy to say that I've finally discovered a song that fits my film's opening well!

 

 

I would like to talk about the several editing software I have used for my film opening. I originally wanted to edit on my computer but I had many issues with downloading the apps I wanted to use. So instead I ended up editing on my phone with apps recommended by experienced editors (Vont and Premiere Rush.) The editing went great! I really enjoyed the editing process since I was able to personalize and make my project unique! I'm so pleased with how my film's opening turned out, and I can't wait to show it to you! I'll see you in my next blog!

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Post Production!!!

 All I can say is wow! Time really goes fast. My project has progressed significantly, and I am so excited to announce that I am almost finished! I'd want to take a moment to reflect on my filmmaking days. The first day of filming went smoothly until I realized that the software I was using to record the shots was saving them vertically rather than horizontally. Due to this problem, instead of filming the second part on Day 2, I had to refilm every shot again.  I made sure it was horizontal the second time so I wouldn't have to deal with this problem again. Below is a photo I took on the day of filming!!

As I mentioned in my blog from last week I was still on the search for the perfect font for my film credits. As you know, I previously chose the font for The Letters, my film's opening title. (An example of how it will look is shown below.) I've finally decided on the font for my film credits! I was looking around Dafont and came across one that perfectly suits my theme. The little hearts are so cute!! It's like it was meant to be. I'm really looking forward to seeing the final result, and I'm sure you are too! See you in my next blog!

Film opening credits font!

Film opening title font!