Creative critical reflection plan

    Regarding the creative critical reflection, I have decided I need to make a script to condense all my research and ideas in a way that answers all four questions adequately (my plan for the first two questions which I have worked on for today underneath this). For the actual presentation of the CCR, I want it to be more serious, almost like an interview, inspired by the director's and actors' commentary at the end of Euphoria season two episodes.

    The script will likely not be word for word in the CCR as I can not be actually reading it but will rather review it several times before filming. I want the lighting to be bright and plan to sit in a well-lit area of my cousin's house in Mexico where I am staying at. My person will likely be sitting on either the right or left third and two phones will film facing me at different angles to avoid one continuous shot of myself. Editing the questions in one of the fonts utilized in my film opening will also aid in adding dimension to my CCR.

CCR Script (part 1):

Hello, my name is Paulina and this is the process of how my film opening came to be.

Question 1: How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

The genre of my film opening is coming of age, such films, according to the Princeton Buffer, focus on a main character’s personal growth whether it be mental, emotional, or romantic. These types of films often revolve around a big change or decision such as graduating high school or young love. It is also common for coming-of-age films to be semi-autobiographical and occur during the teenage years. Most films are dialogue heavy and or utilize narration to portray the shift in the main character's emotions. 

In regards to the setting, it is everyday ike so the audience can relate; for example, clueless is set in a high school where learning, gossip, and fun emerge, an experience everyone can connect with.  

In my film opening, we chose to challenge the romance that is typically linked with the coming of age genre. Although the ending may hint that the main character is off to see someone, the film opening does not show a special someone that is part of her life. She exists in a world independent of others and romance, making her personality and emotions the main focus.

The lack of dialogue and narration gives a more raw insight into Berkley’s private life. The audience gets to see her simply exist in the bounds of herself.  As a young teenager, she still holds on to some childish traits; she is the center of her own world, she is content with just being herself and doing ‘dumb’ girly things like taking her time getting ready or meticulously picking out an outfit. Her youthfulness also hinders her ability to properly understand and respond to the situation around her which has grown to be a major crisis much bigger than her as a person.

In contrast to popular coming-of-age films like clueless, Berkeley is not filthy rich. There is no outfit generator housing millions of pairs of denim, skirts, and dresses. She is part of an average middle-class family, representing both the creators and the population at large. Additionally, since she is Hispanic, the character steps outside the typical blonde American teen like Regina Geroge in Mean Girls. 

Most coming-of-age films follow the typical white girl with meaningless issues and fail to experiment outside such bonds. The conflicts teenagers face are often cast aside due to their young age, but despite them being hidden behind a young face they are still as real and valid as problems adults face. 

Question 2: How does your product engage with audiences and how will it be distributed as a real media text?

According to the Independent Cinema Office, coming-of-age films have a target audience of teenagers between the ages of 12 to 18 due to the current sense of reliability the audience shares with the characters. 

According to the guardian, such audience consumes media that is easily available and fast, commonly on the internet. A combination of social media sites such as Instagram, Twitter, Google, and Youtube are go-to resources. 

The global pandemic issue within our film opening engages with our target audience as it is an issue that they too have faced. The audience can relate to being a different person pre-pandemic and having to adapt and even grow up in the face of a pandemic. The sense of bliss established at the start of the film opening mirrors the ignorance and naiveness that teens were once part of. With time and maturity, material things like a new shirt or a pair of boots become detached, one's needs shift to things that actually matter which is what the film opening eludes to at the end. The very foundation of the plot addresses a real issue that has dramatically changed lives and altered the meaning of being a teenager and as one I can attest to this.

Since we are amateur filmmakers, it is realistic for us to distribute our media opening through resources such as Youtube and Instagram given their easiness and availability for creators paired with their already established presence in the daily use of our target audience.

Editing plan

     Now that we have organized the unedited footage, we can start to edit and since we are working in a group of three it is only fair that we divide up the editing. We agreed that Berkley was going to edit the first third of the film opening being the establishment of the setting by depicting the main character's room. Dani got the second third which consists of the main character getting ready and choosing her outfit for the day. This means I got the last and third part of the video where the main character is walking out of her house and reacts to the news of a new global pandemic.

    To edit my part I used iMovie and first imported the best takes from our organized files. After organizing them into chronological order, I cut out the ends and start of the scene where you can hear both Berkley and me directing. Even though it was not yet finished, I sent my teammates what I had edited so far for a second opinion and I subsequently changed a fade between scenes to a direct cut. I then finished editing making sure that the continuity between the flipping of two shots depicting the same scene was smooth. I then sent my teammates my video again for their approval. Dani and Berkley also sent their videos in our group chat and we all liked each other's work. 

Credit font vote

    It's time to finally move on from the title and focus on the other visual lettering of the portfolio project, the credits. We made three pages of font options (looking back on it maybe three was too much, two would have sufficed) on canva. To narrow it down, the three of us picked one or two of our favorite fonts which we then voted on. As a team, we were left with two options and decided to hold a poll consisting of our nearby families (including the maid that works at my cousin's house in Mexico which I am staying at over spring break) to come to a decision.

The plentiful options

    My people, the maid and my aunt, both voted for the second option which ironically I was leaning towards as well. Berkley in addition to her dad and sister all liked the first option more; this left Dani's side to be the tiebreakers. Dani, her mom, grandmother, and brother voted for the first option while her dad and grandfather voted for option two; this left option two as the clear winner 5 to 7. We plan to have the first font announcing the position such as editor and actor, and the second font creating the actual person.

Winner font!

Second choice

Title tweaking

    The title has been a work in process, every time we think it's done there is always another detail or component that comes to mind that can enhance it. Previously, we had added a fade effect after the candle letters melted which we plan to have at the end of our film opening to close it. The aesthetic and look of the title as well as the letter editing all seemed on point but there was still something missing to truly finish the title editing as well as the opening as a whole.

    Since the whole theme of the title is meant to resemble a birthday cake as well as birthday candles to go with the plot, what was missing had to fall in line with these elements. Well, what does one do with birthday cake besides eating it? Blowing the candles out and making a wish of course! The title will now fade out with a blowing-out candle sound after the candles melt with fire noises in the background for the candle flames.

 

Organizing the footage

    We have so much footage, I mean there are well over a hundred videos in our shared google folder. There are about four takes of every shot as well as a couple of bloopers. When we uploaded all the files they were titled with numbers such as "IMG_1820.mp4" which piled up to become an infinite list of meaningless numbers. From my experience in past media projects, it can become quite difficult to find certain takes and it is so easy to reopen the same file a couple of times on accident.

    To combat this we had planned to organize all our footage by labeling it according to the scene it contained. The labels we made were shot summaries of the scenes as it would be easier to edit chronologically knowing what scene was next. Such names include "leaving room," "leaving house," "eat," and "dropping phone". Some files also include "a," "b," "c," and so on to further differentiate the videos of the same science which will hopefully make the editing process go by smoothly. 

Tittle editing

    Editing, the long process of taking all of our ideas and formulating them into something tangible and real outside of our minds. The title of the film opening is obviously a major component to the film opening as it represents the piece as a whole physically. Our film title font has gone through a long evolution regarding fonts, coloring or lack of, and incorporating a candle or not. We are now reconsidering our idea of editing the title so it appears to be melting off the screen like a birthday cake and candle wax melting.

    To make the melting more realistic, we decided to add more flames to the font on four more of the letters. We are also going to change the "birthday blues" title from having them be right next to each other to having the "blues" be under the "birthday". Subsequently, the font will drip from "birthday" to "blues" and finally off to the screen and will end with all the letters being blown out. To create this effect, my team edited the font, candles, and melting motion using the editing app procreate. 

Staying on schedule

     Since we are officially shifting from the research and planning stage to the production stage, it is important to take a step back and organize ourselves to make sure we stay on schedule without feeling pressed for time. This calls for yet another schedule but this time with a twist, there's also a to-do list! Using a shared canva document, my team made a to-do list with the components we still have to tackle paired with a schedule, focusing primarily on editing, to remind and envision us of the portfolio project as a whole. At this point, we will mainly be focusing on editing but have left almost a week to focus on the creative critical reflection.

    We plan to organize our unedited footage by tomorrow, March 17, as we do not anticipate it to take long and believe it will make the editing process less of a hassle by reducing the need to sift through over a hundred (literally, we filmed it all of it in over four hours) videos. The font for the credits needs to be decided by March 19 as we want it to be separate from the title font. By the end of the weekend, we plan to have the editing of the production and distribution companies set so by spring break, we can fully edit the film opening itself and include the credits since all the artistic choices will have been decided. This strategically leaves us four days to fully dedicate to the creative critical reflection. There are extra days built into this schedule just in case we run into an error. The project is set to be completed by April 2, even though it is not due until April 4, which leaves two days of leeway as a precaution to the pressure of deadlines.

Group Meeting!

     Today in class we focused on doing group meetings the whole period; I got paired with four other classmates, non of which were my project teammates, and we spent the class period conversing about our portfolio projects and the obstacles and uncertainties we were facing. Since the groups were random and the individuals were not my teammates, the recommendations and suggestions were completely unbiased which meant the advice was honest and refreshing. The group I was in suggested that I use the second and third production and distribution companies my team had created for our project.

    My group felt the luminance logo with the neon strings in the background fit the vibe of my film opening really well based on my blog and explanation. The starlight company which they also liked just had something captivating about it, likely the spotlight-like yellow specks in the background. My portfolio project team was quite unsure and overwhelmed with our options of companies so I really appreciate my classmate's input. It was also nice to listen to my classmates projects and learn from their mistakes whilst offering my own advice.

Here is a photo of my group in class!

Finally filming

     Alright, the time to commence filming has finally come. All the brainstorming, research, planning, and failed attempt has led us here. My team and I decided to film at Daniela Garcia's house since her bedroom already fits the early 2000s vibe. Berkley Morris and I both brought props to Dani's house based on the research and prop planning we had done prior. Such props included a clock, calendar, wardrobe, nail polish, etc. Before filming we set up the bedroom to incorporate the props and reviewed our script as well as the storyboard.    

    We began to film at 4:45 and did not finish until 9:15...damn. To organize our time we worked around the sun and filmed scenes that occurred while the sun was up first and then the scenes that occurred when the sun went down later. My teammate Dani played our main character while Berkley and I both filmed. The director role was played by the collective team as we all put our input into it. Max, Dani's dog, was very friendly and playful while filming, maybe a little too playful. To keep him busy with other business we had to sacrifice two bananas, Max's favorite snack. It was all fine in the end as my team too got our own snack by ending the day with some delicious pizza.

Me fixing a prop that was the way of the shot with Dani

Dani in wardobe

Script

     The time to commence the filming stage of our film opening project is right around the corner. However, there is one more vital step to assure our filming process goes smoothly and has structure; this calls for a script! My team and I used google drive and in our portfolio project folder and worked in unison on said script. We mirrored the layout, structure, and fonts of traditional film scripts we found through research. The script has a cover with the title of our project and all the team members' names on it. The script itself is divided into six major parts.

    Each part sums up a scene in our film opening whilst considering the fades, cuts, music, credits, edits, and title. This script will of course be referred to when filming as well as the future editing stage. We also plan to have the actor, being my teammate Daniela Garcia, read the script prior to filming in order to get more into character and be able to express proper facial expressions and body language in the shots filmed. The image below is a snippet of said script. 

Production and distribution credits

     Although this project is meant to revolve around a meticulously progressed plot filled with meaningful shots, angles, mise-en-scene, editing, etc. which will consume most of our time when planning, we cannot forget that we are making a film opening and credits are a major component of it. Production and distribution companies are a part of the credits aside from actors, director, editor, and such. Using canva, my team created four of our companies, two being production and two being distribution. 

    We gave the companies creative names like Luminescence, Starlight, and Moonglade that have a common theme of light which we felt goes hand in hand with the cinematic production and manipulation of light with technology. We also gave the companies logos with bright neon colors like yellow pink and green to go with the vibe of our character and film opening. There is also a contrasting darker color pallet  for diversity. We purposefully made extra companies than needed so we will get the ability to choose out of them at the final editing stage of the project so they blend in with our film opening.

More storyboadring

    After storyboarding our context and establishing shots, my team shifted our focus to shots that progressed the plot itself. We have a series of shots of our main charter getting ready using the planned-out props littered in her bedroom. Again, we kept the shots and angles diverse as to not bore our audience... and ourselves as well. The main character's face is purposefully not revealed until she is done getting ready to keep a sense of interest amongst the audience and to reflect the childish self-obsession and insecurities of the character. (Image 1)

    We plan to play around with sound and have her phone ringing in the background that is ignored to inspire a sense of mystery over planned shots. A tracking shot of her walking through her house while distracted while on her phone will show the dichotomy between her ignorance and the new reality of the world. It is also planned to use a close-up shot to show her reaction to her new pandemic situation. The storyboard is open to changes and we suspect that during filming certain aspects will have to be tweaked. (Image 2)

Image 1

Image 2

Starting to stroyboard

    Since we already have an established plot, characters, props, title, music, research, mood board, and font, the time has come to set them into motion through a storyboard. Deciding exactly how we want to frame a shot, what we want the shot to reveal, the order, and the flow of our story is something my team knew we needed to key in on. My team got together and brainstormed potential shots, in the end, we incorporated all of our ideas into eight main points. The storyboard is not yet completed as our planned shots are estimated to be less than a minute total so the continuation of the storyboarding process is in our plans.

    The shots in the image below are all context shots that establish the bedroom of our main character and subsequently her personality. Each frame has different camera movements and compositions which are meant to keep the audience's attention. Within the shots, we have strategically incorporated planned props like pictures of friends and a calendar that will serve in revealing that the date is the main character's birthday, the character's personal life, etc. We believe less than a minute of said shots are needed, with credits layered over top of the course, and plan to dedicate the remaining time to show our main character and her passage through the plot.

Font evolution

     When it came to the font of our film opening title my group had originally planned out the first font in the picture below. The plan and depressing text paired with a bright birthday candle mirrored the plot of our film opening in which a pandemic commences on the main character's milestone sixteenth birthday. We also created a second font, the second one in the image, but was rippled much like a tear. Although my team did not love our font ideas, they still encapsulated the feeling of disappointment and uncertainty we hope to portray in our film however, we did not settle on them and kept an open mind.

    We later came up with a variation of other fonts seen below the first two until we landed on the final font in the image. We tried out more youthful-looking fonts, played around with color, and even revised the idea of mirroring our film title font to a birthday cake. The pink 'birthday blues' font captures all the ideas we had concerning the font into one. It is bright and youthful but still has a sense of sadness to it as the letters appear to be melting away. Moreover, the candle in the 'i' reflects the loneliness that our main character is set to feel in our film opening.