Creative Critical Reflection

     Here is my Creative Critical Reflection! Hope you enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UduFNQpsobI

Film Opening

     Here is my Film Opening! Hope you enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMorlVJ2l5I&t=36s

The Final Measures

     Next week is it... After a little over a month of working on this final film opening project, the final product is due next week. This is what me and my classmates have been looking forward to all year. Moving forward, I plan on filling a plan up until the due date which is April 14th. So starting tomorrow, I am going to begin editing my film and I will keep at it until I finish which I hope to be by Thursday the latest. I will be editing every free time I have and allocating a certain amount of hours each day to do it.
     After I finish editing my film opening I will have one more thing left to do and that is my CCR. I plan on doing a video talking about my movie and then editing that as well. I feel like this will be easier to edit than the film opening so that's why I am not too stressed.
     I didn't think it would come down to the wire like this but knowing myself I guess I should have seen it coming. I can't wait to turn in the film opening and CCR and be able to say that I completed my AICE media studies final project. This week I will grind!

Shooting is a Wrap

     After several hours of filming, many snack breaks, and a few naps later I have finally finished filming my film opening. I was able to start and finish all the shooting today. We had several last minute changes. For one, the roles of each character switched as well as the actors I had in my movie. I played the role of the first teenager and my good friend, Brylen Sanin played the other teenager. The role of the mysterious character was played by my girlfriend, Emilia Helguera. At first I ran them through the idea of my story and I took in any criticism they might have.
     The only part about the film that changed was the roles of the characters as I mentioned above and then for the end I decided to end it on a cliff hanger to make the audience want more. The filming process went a lot better than I thought considering it was sort of last minute and my friend and girlfriend thankfully came through for me. I can't wait to edit this movie together and see what it looks like!

Group Discussions #2

     So today we were once again put into small groups with our classmates to discuss our projects and to help each other out. Compared to the last group discussion, this time I felt much more confident going into the discussion because I knew more about my project and I was able to share more information and in return I was able to get more feedback. This wasn’t even the best part about the group discussion.
     In my group, we were talking non-stop sharing ideas and discussing information without having a second of silence. This time it was even again in terms of magazine to film project ratio. For whatever reason, this time I was able to provide more constructive criticism to my group members and genuinely help them improve their project. I think that I felt more comfortable with my members and some of them were really passionate about their project which I can appreciate. I’m very happy that there was another group discussion because it was very helpful for everyone and it gave me some new ideas to consider!

Cutting It Close

     With the deadline fast approaching, I am beginning to stress more and more. I am confident in my story and how my film is going to go down however, I am very nervous that something will go very wrong. That is me just being paranoid and overthinking. In the next few days I can confidently say filming will begin and editing will happen during the weekend or sometime next week. I maybe should have finished filming about a week ago but sometimes my best work is done last minute. The good news is that this isn't too last minute so I have room to deal and manage errors or problems.
     The scene I cannot wait to shoot is the ending in which I will leave the audience with a cliff hanger. Cliffhanger's have always been an awesome and horrible way to end a film opening or show because it leaves the audience wanting more. I hope to make my viewers wish my film opening was longer than two minutes.

Prop Gathering

     So for my film opening I will need some basic props to enhance the narrative and to make the film opening more interesting. Since the beginning of the film starts off with the teenagers playing basketball, I will have a basketball. I will also include a couple of video game controllers and definitely a cell phone which is one of the main points of focus in the film. Since I will have the mysterious caller in a car talking on the phone, I am going to use my own car.

     My film opening is not filled with props and out of the ordinary tools, but my reason for doing this is because I feel the actual content of the story is more important and should be focused on more than silly props. My main focus is what is being said in the phone call and the props will serve as enhancers to help the story. Most of these props I have at home but I am going today to buy the rest!

Location

     So finally I was able to start filming and I couldn't be more thrilled. I decided that in my film opening there is going to be a total of three characters and I have already casted each one. The two teenagers will be played by my best friend and my little brother. I am the third and final actor and my character is the mysterious person on the phone call. In order for my film to connect with my target audience, I have the film start with the teenagers playing basketball outside and the next scene is them playing video games and just relaxing. Most teens are active and love video games so this is a good connection.

     The photo above is the location/setting where the two teenagers will be playing video games and just relaxing. I found the space to be ideal because it is simple but very compact which will help put the main focus on the two characters. This is the room where the phone call will begin.

Realization

     So I know I said before how I will have the beginning of my film idea in mind and then I will figure out the rest as I film. I have come to a realization that it is not wise to follow through with this idea in the off chance that I don't come up with an idea as we go along, so I figured I would generate a good idea and if it works as I am filming then that is what I will go with. This new plan also allows me to share with friends and family so that I can listen to their ideas and constructive criticism.

     So for my idea, I was thinking that after the teenagers make the prank calls and after they interact with the mysterious person, they will decide to go back outside where they just where to investigate. As the two teenagers are walking around the house investigating this mysterious person, who sounds as if he is outside, a teenager will suddenly go missing and the other will be alone. We will then have some sort of climax where the teenager finally sees the mystery person and they have a confrontation. I am yet to decide what will happen in this final scene, for example I don't know if I am going to kill of the teenager or leave the audience with a cliff hanger.

     I will ask my friends what they think bout this idea and how I should end my film because all great films and shows need a good ending. I feel confident in this idea so far but I'll have to see more in depth how I feel in the coming weeks.

Script Modifications

     Seen as though my friends were unavailable to meet up to film in person, I thought I would improvise and still figure a way to practice the script. I got in a video call with my three friends and we  started going over what I have so far for my film opening. We discussed everyones individual role and what each character would be doing in each scene. For the small amount of time that we were on the call, we made a lot of progress and I feel that when we actually do meet up to film, it will go much faster than we expect since we know where everyone is going to be and what they will be doing.
     Some minor details have to be managed and accounted for such as the costume design and character names and such. At first it was difficult to get any work done on the video call because my friends and I kept making each other laugh but when we got serious we made good progression. I look forward to meeting up and begin filming because the more time that passes, the more I can envision my ideas and see them coming true.

An Oversight

     While thinking of this idea for my film opening I didn't notice a simple key aspect about my film. If it wasn't for making the script, I still may not have noticed this till later on. I was too busy asking my friends to play the role of the three teenagers that I completely forgot to cast the role of the mysterious person or my antagonist. After giving it some thought, I figured it would be harder to have four different actors in my film so I decided to make minor adjustment to my film opening idea. Previously I had three teenagers and now I will have just two. One of my friends will now become the antagonist of my film.

     I think this oversight in my script was actually beneficial because it decreases the amount of characters in my film. With too many characters it is difficult to make the audience connect and feel emotion towards the characters. Also, with a lot of people to have in my film, it is harder to get everyone together so now that I have one character less, the times for us all to meet are more flexible. 

     Sometimes you need to fail to succeed. Sure this phrase may seem a little dramatic for this minor oversight but it gets the point across and now I will start planning the script!

Diving Deeper

     So for my film idea, I have mentioned how the inspiration for it was the film "Scream" my Wes Craven and since my film opening is somewhat related I wanted to take a closer look at the scene that is the foundation for my soon to be film opening. 

Above is the opening scene to "Scream". I wanted to look further into how the director, Wes Craven, made a scene so mysterious and how he managed to give the audience goosebumps with very little going on. For example, he uses no music and very few stings to create an eerie vibe. In my film, I hope to include these very natural sounds and make the viewers of my film feel like they are in the shoes of the teenage characters. 

     Knowing my target audience, I am going to use social media, iPhones, and maybe video games to hook my viewers and keep them engaged because all these things are relatable to them. If my film opening turns out to be successful, then I owe it all to this movie scene here. I hope I can even match the emotion conveyed in this scene in my own film opening. Lets get the ball rolling!

Miscalculation

     Here we go, our first road bump in this journey. As you know I had planned to shoot my first scenes this past week, however some problems came in the way and right about now is when all the stress is hitting me. The problem is that although I had a free week last week, my friends were drowning in homework so they couldn't come film with me. This is fine because I still have a while before my project is due except that the end of this week is spring break. So I am not too sure if they are leaving for vacation.

     This worries me because I cannot see a time as of right now where we will be able to record. Worst case scenario I'll just find some other friends to help out with my film opening. This doesn't seem like that big of a problem as of right now, but I think it may snowball into something bigger in the future.

     Hopefully, my friends can come through and help me out so that I can start filming as soon as possible. Let's see how I manage this stress ohh boy.

Group Disscusions

     Today in class we got into different groups and shard our ideas and gave constructive criticism to eachother to help build our individual projects. When I was told that we would be getting into groups to share information on our projects, I was hesitant at first and was not looking forward to it at all. I just felt it wouldn't be of much help with everyone talking about their very different ideas. To my surprise, getting into these groups actually helped a lot and personally, it gave me new ideas for what to incorporate into my film and how to change my idea to where it gives a more mysterious and creepy vibe.
     Also, I couldn't see how putting two film project and two magazine project members in the same group would work but since we all studied both aspects of media, we were able to share good ideas and mix together very well. I am satisfied with how well everything went and hopefully we end up getting together again soon. Looking back on it, I realized how important it is to share my ideas with friends and my peers to get an unbiased opinion. I look forward to building on the ideas I was given and to create a better film!

Shooting Schedule

     I believe that some of the best things in life are the unexpected ones. For this reason I am going to figure out the rest of the minor details for my movie as I go along and start filming. I know that in my film opening, I am going to have three teenagers and a mysterious caller on the other line so I am going to text three of my closest friends to see if they can help me out with my project. After I cast three teenage actors, I will explain to them my plot idea and if they have ideas themselves, I will take in their constructive criticism and develop a better film.

     This week I am finally stress-free and have no after-school activities so I can't see a better time to start filming my movie then NOW! I am going to send text messages to my friends and ask when they are available to shoot after school around 5 in the afternoon. I think I will have the setting and scene take place at my house in my guest room where I will show the three teenagers playing video games or just hanging out and thats how it will begin. I am going to schedule to meet from Tuesday to Friday so that I have span of a couple of days so that my friends can come.

     During the filming process I want to be as flexible as possible and shoot whenever available and that is one of the benefits of starting to film early because it leaves space for errors or problems to be dealt with that may arise in the future. Now for the lights, cameras, and... ACTION!

Brainstorming

     Over the past couple of days I have been brainstorming ideas, hence the title of this post, for my film opening. Since I am going for a horror movie that evokes mystery and fear, I was thinking of creating a film opening that revolves around a phone call between the main character and the mysterious caller. This idea struck when I saw the film opening in class for the movie "Scream" by Wes Craven. In the movie there is a phone call between a blood female and an unknown caller. The creepy voice and strange mystery behind the character is very mysterious and sets the tone perfectly and that is something I hope to implement into my movie.

     For my film opening I will use the same concept of the phone call, however I will make my own twist and version of it. Since I know my target audience is mainly teenagers, I am going to use the idea of a prank call as the start of the phone call. So the roles will be reversed in a sense. The teenagers will be calling a random number to do a simple prank call but what they don't know is that the number they are calling is the number of a mysterious person who has been following them all along.

     I still have to touch up some ideas and go more in depth in some ideas to truly bring this idea to life but I am confident in my project now that I have a solid idea and I cannot wait to start shooting!

Target Audience

     Here we are... week two of this long but fulfilling journey. At this point some other people/groups might have their idea for their film opening and some may even have started filming. Don't get me wrong that's all great, however, I think they are going too fast. I want to research as much as possible to create the best possible film opening which will tell a good story and meet my target audience.

     Coming into this genre of horror, I already knew the target audience would be relatively young. I acquired this outside knowledge from researching on previous media studies projects. After some further research, I found an article specifying the exact range for the target audience in horror movies and reasons as to why that is the case. Teens from the ages of 15-25 years old tend to enjoy the gore and the thrill more than adults. These films bring in about 58% of males and about 42% females. I believe that the aspect of fear and suspense just entice younger male audiences who are known for being young and rebellious. I was once that age and absolutely adored these films so I can see where the facts and numbers are coming from.
     For my film opening, I will be targeting that same age range which is crucial if I want my movie to   reach the maximum amount of success. Hopefully with all this research and knowledge under my belt, I am confident in my abilities and now to come up with a plot for this soon to be great film opening!

Resource Used:
https://www.slideshare.net/isaac97media/horror-film-target-audience

Inspiration

     To gain a better understanding of the killer sub-genre and to find some inspiration, I went and researched famous films. I found an article that mentioned the top fifty horror movies according to popularity and I found some movies I have heard of before. Legendary horror films such as "Saw", "Scream", and "Psycho" are all famous for their ability to evoke fear into their audience and like my film opening, that is what I hope to do as well.
     I watched the opening scene from the movie "Saw", directed by James Wan, on Youtube and the manner in which he instilled mystery, fear, and puts the audience on edge. This style of horror is what I hope to produce for my film opening and have the audience hooked and creeped out all at the same time.

Citation:
The 50 best serial killer movies. (n.d.). Retrieved March 04, 2018, from http://www.imdb.com/list/ls000047280/

Horror Sub-genres

     After researching the genre that is horror, I discovered that there is many sub-genres and different categories of this aspect of film. For example some focus on nature and animal aspects such as "Jaws" and some focus on gore such as "Saw". While researching I found this great article that goes in depth on each genre and it talks about how each one is successful in its own way.
     All the sub-genres including examples of each are shown in the image below. I feel that for my film opening, the best sub-genre choice would either be psychological or killer. The reason for this is that other sub-genres need a lot of make up and/or computer-generated imagery (CGI) and those are things that my budget will not be able to provide.
     After some thought and consideration, I will choose killer as my sub-genre. I am confident in my abilities to create an eerie and scary film opening and I cannot wait to get started!

Citation:

Horror Genres and Sub-genres. (2014, March 20). Retrieved March 04, 2018, from http://popcornhorror.com/genres/

The Beginning

     After months of hard work and countless weeks of studying everything there is to know about media studies, I have finally reached the final task. This is where I will demonstrate my skills and knowledge that I have gathered throughout the course to produce a two minute film opening.

     Personally it was an easy choice between a magazine and a film opening. Even before signing up for this course I have been a huge fan of movies and cinematography. Here I am now producing my very own film opening where I can be as creative as I desire and to demonstrate my talents. The one minor problem is that I am not too sure of which genre I want to choose for my film opening.

     I used this article to understand a little more about each genre that there is to choose from. Of all the genres, the ones that caught my eye the most were horror and action. After lots of thinking and debating with myself I made the choice of creating a horror film opening. The reason for this was because I feel I have more freedom to do horror and with action I feel I don't have a good enough budget to make a good film opening.

Now to start brainstorming ideas for my newly chosen genre!

Citation:

Main Film Genres. (n.d.). Retrieved March 02, 2018, from http://www.filmsite.org/genres.html