CCR

Here is my Creative Critical Reflection!!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ct0SX8KJsH3UnB40P918_kil9c3ZNjit/view?usp=sharing

Erased

Our short-film "Erased" is finally finished!!! It has definitely been a crazy roller coaster ride to the finished product but I am proud of the work that I was able to do. Coming up with and executing this whole idea was definitely fun and I am really proud of my family for putting up with me through all the retakes. This film was a fun one to make and I'm excited to look back on it in the future to remember these crazy times.

Anyways, here are all the links:

Short-film

Postcard: Front
                Back

Website

Reflection

     I would have never guessed this project would turn out the way it did. When we first got assigned the Portfolio Project in class and started brainstorming Raul and I were really having a tough time coming up with a story. We settled with a story that was adventurous and creative, and I even wrote up a whole script detailing events in a group of teenager's lives. But suddenly, a big scary virus known as Coronavirus shut the entire world down, including all possibilities of Raul and I filmed at public locations with actors let alone each other. School was cancelled too, and our fourth quarter was to be finished via online learning. With my senioritis raging at full capacity, I had to find a way to come up with a story that can be filmed at my house, include only my family as actors, and fit within the five-minute cap.

     Somehow, I did it and spent a lot of time just kind of thinking of new stories that I could tell. Don't ask me how ended up making a story about the government being taken over and forcing you to remove everything individual in your home, but it is something new and spicey. After some mental planning, I got the filming done around two weeks before the deadline and I don't think it could have gone even smoother. I was filming with a purpose, and I knew exactly how I wanted the story to develop in my head. My parents kinda killed it with the acting and I barely had to reshoot the scenes with them in it. Heading on into editing process, I fixed my computer storage issues by getting a flash drive, and started with laying all the footage out on Premiere. I was extremely happy to get permission for the song Chapels by Giant Rooks as I feel it really fits with the footage and the overall vibe of the film. I basically edited the non-dialouge footage completely around the song, and I made direct edits to the song such as slowing it down and rearranging the chronology of it in order to match the direction of the movie. Color-corretion was pretty simple, I just added some orange and blue highlights, added in some fade, and adjusted the exposure and contrast accordingly. Overall the edit went smoothly and I comfortably finished the film before the deadline.
     
       Working with Raul as my partner, he definitely took a lot of weight of my shoulders by taking control of the website and the post card. Staying connected with him has been extremely vital throughout this process as we have continuously been bouncing ideas off of each other and collaborating since this project began. I think we really stepped it up from what we did last year, and I think that says a lot knowing we had to complete this film under lockdown.

Song Permission

Going into the editing process, I had a pretty good vision in my head of what I wanted the end product to look like. I big part of that process for me is editing around the main song that will be included throughout the movie. So I knew before I started editing that the song I will be using was Chapels by Giant Rooks. As such, I sent out an email to the management of the band, Giant Rooks asking for permission for use of their song.

After sending that email nine days before the deadline for the project, I definitely got a little lucky getting a response so fast from Alex Ruhl so I am able comfortably to edit knowing I can actually use the song I am basing my edit around. Here is the email he sent back to me:

{Edit: I am not allowed to upload images of the email due to privacy}
He sent back a short email saying that we can use the song as long as we do not make money off of it.

So basically I am free to use the song as long as I don't make any money off of the film. Works fine with me! 

Second Day of Filming

Today I just filled in the blanks from what I did not film from yesterday. I thought a cool idea to get rid of photos was to burn them, so I got out the fire pit in my backyard and I really got some cool images! Behind some music, these videos will look really nice in the finished project!

Editing Begins

This is the part of the process where I am the most excited for. I know I'm not the best at cinematography, and I know the acting was a little troubling looking back on that first day of filming. Based on that, I'm really going to have to do my best to make this look like something that wasn't just thrown together by a family who has no idea what to do when it comes to standing in front of a camera.

Going to import all of my footage onto my computer, I realized that I had zero storage to store the nearly 6 gigabytes of footage I took onto my laptop's hard drive. So I went on a little quarantine road trip to Walgreens to get myself an external hard drive.

Little to my surprise, Walgreens did not sell external hard drives so I just bought this pretty hefty SanDisk flash drive that can store 32 Gigabytes, which is the perfect amount of storage I need to comfortably get this project done.

As seen from the screenshot above I am pretty much trying to organize all the footage and sort of quickly get the spine of the storyline on the timeline. For right now, I have just enough footage but I have noticed there are some holes in the plot that might need some refilming. So my next steps are to continue editing and tighten everything up before I make the determination that I need to film additional footage.

Progress on smaller components

Since I was finally able to shoot, I quickly sent Raul some cool screengrabs and photos relating to the film so that he can get to work on the website and the postcard ad. We have about nine days to submit our complete project so its important Raul has the time he needs to really make something cohesive and professional.

Here are some of the photos I sent over:

Since I have a lot of work to do with editing, I'm giving Raul total control over the art direction for the postcard and the website. For more images to be put on the website, I will be soon sending Raul numerous screengrabs to be displayed.

First Day of Filming

So today was my first day of shooting for the film we have still not figured out a name for. My friend Irina was able to come over so she helped me a little bit with filming and also is going to be briefly appearing in the film. I was really excited going into it knowing I had my new and improved camera setup!

Today I filmed the beginning shots where the credits will be rolling. I used my zoom lens to take videos of the many pictures frames in my house. I'm hoping to use this to open the movie up in order to foreshadow the importance of photographs in the storyline. (Here is an example)

Next, I moved onto the daunting task of filming with my family. I filmed a large dialogue scene with them in the kitchen and then moved to the master bedroom where my parents had a scene of their own. Based on just my initial thoughts, my family did an okay job with the acting, so I am really gonna have to do some good work with regards to editing. 

Screen Play... sorta

So I know I need to map out what is going to be filmed and overall details of the plot, but I don't really feel like making another screenplay. I just need something quick and easy to look through on the day of filming to give me some sort of guidance. So I'm gonna do that here...

Scene 1 (opening credits)
- close-ups shots of family photos
Scene 2 (MC room)
-Establish the main character
-Close-up of calendar establishing the year
-Gets called in by Dad to the kitchen
Scene 3 (Kitchen)
- Father reads notice from the government to family
Scene 4 (Parent's Room)
-Initial reactions
-Father plans on hiding some important things in a lockbox
Scene 5 (Kitchen)
-An alarm starts going off, loudspeaker starts playing instructing that any attempts to lock away any materials will result in immediate arrest.
-The family is frightened by the invasion of privacy and begin freaking out
Scene 6 (Numerous locations)
-Montage of family erasing all traces of themselves (throwing stuff away)
-Scene in slow motion
-Soundtrack playing in the background
Scene 7 (Living room)
-Next morning
-Whole family sitting in the living room waiting nervously for the inspection
Scene 8 (Front Door)
-A single inspection worker comes to the door
-Door closes behind the worker showing the front house
-The camera slowly drags away from the house as you can hear the conversation of the inspection worker and the father.
-A gasp is heard and you can hear the agent call for reinforcements.

For right now, this is all I really need to get to filming, I feel like I have a clear picture in my head of what I am going for. For filming dates, I need to consult with my family the best times for them but I know for a fact filming needs to be done by Friday, April 10. Nine days will be plenty for editing, wrapping up their smaller components, and of course recording and editing the CCR... I hope!

New Plot!!

So after that whole mishap Wednesday where I realized I don't even have family footage, I've spent the past few days constantly thinking about a new plot idea that is going to be able to be completely filmed at my house, with the limited cast of my own family. This is definitely going to be a tough one but as long as I really focus on the details and put in the work I'm sure it can be done. Luckily I'm not going to be alone, because my friend Irina is going to be helping me with the filming and maybe even make an appearance in the film. With regards to my partner Raul, we have been communicating back and forth and have determined that he won't be able to help me with filming and editing this project. However, we have agreed for him to take the reign of the two smaller components of the project.

Now for the actual plot, it is a little bit out there but here we go:

So the movie is set in the year 2040, a year after a radical form of government rapidly gained control in the United States with a totalitarian focus on community and dismantling any sense of individuality. Normal Americans are forced to give up their sense of self and quickly adapt to the government's radical new rules in order to stay safe and avoid government eye.

The movie follows a middle-class South Florida family as they get an inspection notice from the government. Being only a year since these insane government rules have been put in place, talk of inspection has mostly just been a rumor. The inspection notice gives the family 24 hours to adequately remove all markers of individuality from their house or else they will face the full consequences of the national government. Over the course of 24 hours, life becomes a living hell for this family as they go through a soul-crushing journey to erase any trace of themselves. Photographs, art, and everything in between has to be trashed. Will they make it through the inspection?

Though this plot idea does seem to be a tad intense, I do want to add some lighthearted aspects to it knowing my cast will be entirely made of amateurs. I'm pretty proud of this idea because I know it is something new and hasn't been done before. With a little bit of editing magic, I feel like this story can really come to life.

Another Mission Failed

So after a brief period of procrastination, I decided to try for the daunting task that I knew I had to do: look for the old home videos of me as a kid. I could have sworn I remember watching tapes like these in the past so I just assumed my parents kept them in the garage. So with my Mom's help (sorta), we whipped out a ladder and began looking through numerous storage boxes in my garage.
(Here's a photo for reference...)

Five minutes in, my Mom was already gasping over her old high school photos so I guess I was on my own. 

(Here's another photo for reference lol...)

So after an hour of looking through all of our old CD's and picture boxes, I came to the conclusion that we no longer have any of our old videos. So yeah, that is pretty much it for this plot idea because the whole film is based around the use of old footage. I'm just happy Mrs. Stoklosa extended the due date because I am literally back to the drawing board. Wish me luck :/

New Plot

Raul and I have finally come up with a general idea for our new adapted plot. We wanted to maintain the key plot components that made up our last script. More specifically, we wanted to still tell the story of a teenage leaving for college and what they are leaving behind. 

Here is an overview of the changes that are going to be made:

Characters: The main character of this film will be me! The other characters included (my family) will be seen in the archived footage. 

Setting:  All the footage shot in "real-time" will be entirely done at my house. 

Plot: 

-The main character finds a box in the attic with a bunch of CDs, and discs, filled with past footage of their life.

- The main character will be recollecting their past before they make their next step towards the future. 

- Emphasis on the family bond.

Changing the plot like this was definitely a challenge, I feel these changes had to happen in order to start making some actual process even during a pandemic!

 

Filming Cancelled

Due to social distancing and COVID-19 concerns, Raul and I were unable to gather our cast in order for filming. Most importantly, our main character is not going to be able to film. Thankfully, Mrs. Stoklosa held another online meeting so that she can reach a consensus on where everyone is at with the project.

As of now, AICE exams are all canceled due to the virus. Knowing that this project is a component of the AICE Media Studies A Level Exam, I was definitely a little concerned with what to do next. In the online meeting, Mrs. Stoklosa explained to us that we still will be completing the project and doing everything as normal. We were also informed that we may have to alter our plot to only have one actor. Additionally, we were told that we could use archived footage in order to combat the inability to film.

Since our whole plot revolves around a group of people and involves going to different public places, Raul and I are going to have to go back to the drawing board. Man, this is hard...

More problems...

It is crazy how fast things have changed with regard to this virus. Just over a week ago we were told we will be not having school for two weeks to stop the spread of the virus. Today, the school may be postponed indefinitely, mostly all restaurants and public areas are closed now due to the new social distancing measures put into place by most local governments. There are around 500 cases in Florida right now and I do not think it will be too long before we get put in a statewide lockdown. With all that being said, we are now unable to film at most of our filming locations. I have been talking with Raul a lot and he has been telling me how strict his parents have come due to the virus. He pretty much hasn't been allowed to see people ever since the news started recommending social distancing.


There is some good news though!!!


Thankfully, I will be able to film with Irina where we can film the main part of the film as well as take pictures so that Raul can work on the print component. With regards to our plot, we may have to scrap it or at least change it to locations that we would be allowed to film at.

Online Meeting

Hello, blog! For this post, I just want to give an update on the Coronavirus situation. Today Mrs. Stoklosa had an online meeting with my class however I was not able to attend due to a family matter I was dealing with at the time. Luckily I was able to come in contact with a classmate of mine who did attend the meeting and they told me what Mrs. Stoklosa said with regard to the future of our projects. Basically, the project’s due date is going to be moved to April 19th, a week later than the initial due date of April 12th. We were pretty much told to continue working on the project as planned so I guess that is what I will do.

Currently, our filming dates are still set however I’m constantly communicating with the actors in order to see if they are still able to film knowing the new social distancing recommendation initiated by the CDC. Everything is good so far and but it is important for us to film before Florida gets put into lockdown in a similar suit to states like California.

COVID-19

Things are going to be changing. 1 month ago, the threat of Coronavirus seemed like a joke and an across the pond type of problem. On Friday, schools all across Florida and the country have shut down as this virus has continued to spread rapidly across the globe. If this virus spreads how it did in Europe and China we could be forced to begin online school and possibly have schools shut down for months. 

Thankfully, this project can be done without having access to school, however, my chances in rounding up my cast for filming have dropped dramatically. Many parents have begun not letting their kids out of the house as this virus continues to spread, especially in Broward County. For instance, Raul wasn't allowed to come to my birthday party today because of his parent's concerns about the virus. 

With a problem like this one, I am definitely a little bit nervous knowing the due date for this project is right around the corner. As of now, film dates are staying the same, and I am definitely looking forward to an update as to the next steps from here in terms of due dates and how COVID-19 might alter the timeline of this project. 

Filming Schedule

After creating a group chat with our actors Raul and I sent them a google form to fill out in order to figure out which days are best for filming.

Our results are shown here:


We have reached the consensus that this project will require two days of filming, and 5 of the possible 7 days of filming can be attended by 80% of our cast. With that said, we do have some flexibility for choosing when we want to film.


The two dates we have chosen for filming are 3/22 and 3/23

Cast

For choosing my cast, I more or less based the characters more of the actors. The reason I did this is that none of us are really that good at acting so I thought it would just be easier to play ourselves.  After much anticipation, I am excited to announce the cast for our new short film:

Stevie- Irina Blanco

Raul- Raul Passarini

Diego- Diego Machado

Sara- Sara Briones

Location Brainstorming

Doing a plot that includes numerous different locations is certainly going to be a big challenge. According to the screenplay, there are five different locations that we need to film at. I thought I should do some brainstorming so that we can get on track with our timeline and begin filming ASAP!

1. Stevie's Bedroom
This location will appear the most throughout the film, so I know the lighting has to be decent and the mise-en-scene elements need to be aligned with a teenage girl. I was thinking we could film in my friend Irina's room, who may or may not also be starring in the film (Spoiler alert). I will get photos of this location on the blog as soon as possible.

2. Volleyball Court
For this location, I was just thinking of using the public courts at Regional Park here in Weston. They are usually pretty secluded at certain times of the day and would be perfect for filming.

3. Dining Room

I am pretty unsure about this location, however I have been conferring with Raul whether we should use his house for this scene. His house has really good lighting which I think would be perfect for shooting indoors. However, this is something we have yet to figure out and update in a future blog post. 

4. Suburban Home

For this location, I was just thinking we could use my home and room. I will link a blog post that I created last year that does a good job detailing the location and mise en scene elements. 

https://pearsemediastudies.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-set-for-younger.html

5. Field

I am split between two different places for this filming location. I am looking at Everglades Holiday Park due to its location after it is a perfect place for capturing amazing sunsets. Also towards sunset,  there is nobody there so I think it would be a great option. However, there is the other option with going to Vista View Park, which I think would produce a better quality view. We do face the problem of being at a height and dealing with wind.

Vista View Park: 

Everglades Holiday Park:

Final Script

Here is our final script, I made a big change in the ending and a few alterations in the formating. Very excited to start filming!!!



CLICK HERE

Finding a Song

Choosing to go with a topic so relatable to all of my classmates, we want to make the piece meaningful. Knowing this, Raul and I have to pick the perfect song for remembering your last days of childhood, so we are working towards getting the appropriate permission for a song that fits perfectly with the story we are trying to tell. Thinking about the song that we grew up with, "We Are Young" by fun., we feel as if it would be the perfect choice for our main soundtrack. With that said, Raul decided to go right to the lead singer Andrew Dost himself and sent an Instagram direct message to him asking if we can use the song for our project.

I have attached the messages here!

Though we aren't quite sure how official this "permission" is, we will definitely be checking in with Mrs. Stoklosa to see if this constitutes as proper permission to use the song in our piece.

Script Progress

I am happy to say that I have finished the draft of the script for our new short film. The reason why I say the draft is because we still haven't picked a title and there are definitely some issues with formatting that I need to fix. Also, I am not yet sure about the ending.

I really liked writing the script, as it gave me a clear idea of what I had to film and what I am going to need to do to make the shots turn out decent. The script follows the similar plotline addressed in my previous post about our new plot, except fills in the details that we have left out.

The storyline is as follows: As an incoming freshman to her dream school, Stevie is torn about the idea of losing her friends to college, so she has kept her memories of senior year in the form of disposable photos. The night before she leaves, she shuffles through a box filled with her photos and is taken back to earlier times with her friends including volleyball games, pranks, and college acceptances. Reminiscing about her life before adulthood, Stevie embraces the idea of everlasting memories through her photos.

The draft is linked here

We messed up

Issues with our plot

After careful consideration, we have decided to make a pretty large change to the plot. Originally, we wanted to have the plot surface around a montage created by the main character. However, thinking of the logistics, we really couldn't think of a way to execute that in a way that will turn out decent. It will hard to create the raw storyline we imagine with our limitations in casting and overall time. We want to make as clear a story as possible and believed the combining of two parallel plots would be really hard to do. We met up today to create a screenplay for our initial plot but were stumped on a way to really make a story like that work. We realized that it is important to have a sense of humility knowing our many limits in production.

Changes

Thankfully, we came up with a plan to tweak our original story while still capturing the life of a senior and their last days before college.

Instead of having the main character create a video montage, the main story will be surrounding a female lead who is just about to leave for college with her bags packed in her room and college merch on. She walks over to a box she has kept with all of the disposable pictures she has taken over the year with her friends. As she looks through the pictures, they come to life detailing the goofy and fun-loving lives of her and her friends. We hope to make the piece light-hearted, with a bunch of funny moments intertwined in the piece. Flashbacks of their beach days, high school parties, hangouts, will all be appearing in the piece. To finish the piece, the main character will close their box of photos after looking at their most recent photo of them and their friends at a bonfire. Wiping tears away, the main character closes a chapter of their life. 

Next Steps

I am extremely excited to begin working on the screenplay tomorrow in class as we had scrap our past idea and go back to the drawing board. In the meantime, Raul will begin scouting cast members and locations. 

Our Plot

What we learned from the meeting:
-Do not rely heavily on montage footage, it will be boring.
-Focus on character development and keeping things real.
-Incorporate cinematic footage of main character creating their "movie".
-Make sure there is a clear story.
-Take a look at the techniques used in the hit movie, "Mid90s" for incorporating the effect of archived or amateur footage.

Overview:
Raul and I have decided on creating a narrative around the everyday footage that a senior takes on their phone before leaving for college. In the digital age of today, people can now see in detail moments of their life that would normally be lost in memory. Revolving around a montage that a high-school senior creates during their last moments before college, we plan to insert footage to show the connection that a group of friends has with one another. Parallel editing will occur between the montage footage of the kids and the "behind the scenes" look at their lives to create a sense of real-life and character development. At the end of the story, we want to combine the two plot lines by having a shot of the group of friends watching the end of the video together.

Other Info:
Shots needed: Hand-held camera shots from an iPhone. (For the montage with music behind)
                       Cinematic behind the scenes shot with dialogue.

Characters: 1 main character, 3+ supporting characters
Locations: 5+

Next Steps
This is certainly a rough idea of how it will work out but it is certainly going to be what we are working to accomplish. We still have to work out the specifics in terms of the plot and title of the piece which will be done once we finish our screenplay this Sunday. Figuring out the plot has definitely been a process and we are going to have to work extra to hard to catch up with our schedule.

In-class Socratic

Today in school the wifi was out and we had no way of working on the project. So, Mrs. Stoklosa got our tired selves into action and my small class moved our desks into a circle and we just brainstormed ideas with each other for the entire period. I really thought the meeting was helpful because Raul and I got a ton of great ideas and it was nice to see where everyone else was with the project as well.

I took some notes during the meeting about what other people are working on...

Manuela: She is working on a coming of age short-film of a girl trapped in a convent. Her ideas were very much in the works so I am excited to see what she does.

Sophie: Continuing off of her work on the documentary project, she wants to focus on teen vaping. The class gave her a lot of ideas regarding ways she could make her piece be meaningful and really stand out.

Nick: Being his creative self, Nick wanted to do something creative with the plot, which led to a very confusing discussion about looped plot lines. Nonetheless, he is making a short-film in the thriller genre. So at this point, I will just have to wait and see what he comes up with.

Katalina: Katalina wanted to be creative and create a short-film in the thriller genre about a girl with OCD. The controversial part was when she stressed there be a love story incorporated in the film. Mrs. Stoklosa, not too keen on the idea of noting the unconventional nature of a thriller/love story.

Reem: Deciding on a documentary, Reem knew she wanted to create a piece on minority representation in the media. She initially wanted to make the piece focus around the Muslim community but was torn over whether or not she overuses the subject. Ideas were thrown around to address the Chinese community after recent worldly afflictions by the Coronavirus.

Valentina: She chose to create a documentary focused on special needs kids and teens. Her main premise was to focus on her little sister and her true day to day life.

Andrea: Andrea too wanted to incorporate a time loop into her story. She stressed that she wanted to take a more biblical route, with her plot involving a religious woman in purgatory making a cake and the story restarting every time she eats it. Andrea is extremely creative so I am excited to see what she comes up with!

Timeline

I felt a little bit overwhelmed with all that we have to do in such a short time frame so I found this cool website called visme.co which has a ton of cool templates to create timelines. I thought it would be nice to roughly visualize all that needs to be done in one document. So here ya go...

Deciding on Genre

Raul and I had a meeting today to share our ideas for the film. Although we couldn't decide yet on a definitive plot, we reached an agreement on our genre. Pretty much, we want to expand on what we did last year. Our film opening was meant to provide a glimpse into the life of an everyday teen, however, I feel as though it fell flat. There were issues with this piece ranging from lighting to just overall selection of characters. Despite the numerous faults from our last attempt, Raul and I think we really have some potential as long as we really focus our efforts on character development and create a smooth well-produced piece. The teen drama genre is what we are leaning to again, noting our lack of budget and access to a large pool of actors in that age range. Plus, I really just love teen dramas. Similar to our film opening "Younger" we want to have a small cast, with the main character essential to the progression of the storyline.

Thankfully, I have already done genre research on both the drama and teen genre.

Drama genre research: https://pearsemediastudies.blogspot.com/2018/12/genre-research-drama.html
Teen drama examples: https://pearsemediastudies.blogspot.com/2019/02/research.html

I'm back

I am excited to announce that I will be resuming this blog in order to document the progress of my AICE Media A Level project!!! Things have definitely stepped up from the last year, with one major and two minor components to get done. Working again with my partner Raul Passarini, we hope to improve on our work last year to create a five-minute short-film that we can really be proud of. Creating an entire short-film is something I have never done before, so I am both excited and nervous to get started on this. This year, we practiced a lot with editing and filming creating projects including a trailer and documentary so I feel like I have a good grasp on what needs to be done and the hard work that is going to be needed.

For this week, I want to put a ton a focus on just thinking about genre and what kind of story we want to tell. From then on, it's about what we are willing to do to make this thing come life. Research and preparation is something I really want to improve on this time around, so this blog will hopefully be reflective of that. Alright, I'm gonna stop typing and start thinking...