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.