CCR creation of Aren't I Lucky

Here is my reflection towards my whole journey from the beginning of researching genres to editing its final touches, my creative critical reflection explains in through movement how it was all possible. And to finish off, always remember to write what you know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuvF88r-hOs

Aren't I Lucky? Film Opening

For the moment you've all been waiting for......

I present to you the grand finale of my......

FILM OPENING!

With hard work and dedication I transformed what i never though I was capable of making. Thank you all for sticking around to see this journey.

https://youtu.be/zDHZ7CNNDhQ

 

Development

 How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

As I mentioned in prior postings, you don't understand how much you've accomplished until you've finished. We're always attempting to finish things, but now that I'm almost done, I can state that my progress over the last three months has altered dramatically.

Even in earlier projects from my AICE media class, I was able to use foley sounds, shots, and composition to make my film bigger and better. I suppose you could say I processed a lot of challenges, but it's only because of that that I realized I've come a long way since we started this project in February. I'm also glad to state that working on this project as a single person provided me a greater understanding of what working alone might be like in the future. We won't always have others' approval or encouragement, and this initiative demonstrated a level of independence that I hadn't seen in previous projects.

Again, because I am so used to working on two-week deadlines, I have never worked on a long-term project. Working on a consistent project for a long time will undoubtedly teach you a lot more. You not only grow as a person, but you also discover how much you are capable of. I've always lacked independence, but now that I've completed this project, it's one of my strongest assets.

Challenging conventions

How does your product use or challenge conventions?

I could not help but realize hat as I was writing my script for my CCR I realized my research was able to challenge the genre convention of dark comedy and superstition. Not only by mixing both genres onto my product but also crating a unique reflective pattern. Dark comedy is a type of genre that mixes elements of comedy and tragedy. They often have death, war or illness as a central theme. Within the genre industry I also researched on superstition, superstition is mostly categorized as horror and the majority of films are scary, since it is an example of belief in ghosts. However I decided to take a turn of events and make my film translate more to real life situations. This way I challenged media conventions to portray the same idea with a different meaning. 

The questions asked on the creative critical reflection made me realize how far into this project I had gotten. I sat down began writing and it was so unexpected , I worked myself up about this project when in reality all I had to do was enjoy it. However, this does not mean that I did not value every second of it. Our stress sometimes gets in the way of what we do that we do not really get to enjoy what surrounds us and what we learn as we grow. 

This being, I wanted to in a way, preserve this purpose onto my film opening. With a repetitive cycle of Lucas's tire popping, and his expression towards the situation helped translate a stronger meaning. 

CCR creation

GOING BACK TO THE BEGGING

 You guys remember before I started my production i wrote down my scrip in this website called 'Celtx'? Well I did not think of a better idea to write down my script for my CCR. Although last post I talked about how I was going to start a Power point presentation embedding illustrations of my journey, I decided to write down my experience first therefore it would make it much easier to elaborate up the slide. 

To say the least I am not the best person when it comes to sitting down and talking to a computer or a person answering questions. If you were to tell me "lets sit down and talk about this topic' then yes that naturally flows within me. But having to answer specific factors about what when where why or how I tend to get somewhat nervous. Crazy since this project is all I have been focusing on in February, I mean you'd be surprised to think I can talk about things smoothly. But anyhow, I used Celtx to help me write down most... well allow f my thoughts to later on elaborate a bigger meaning.

I'm not going to lie to you, I was pretty intimidated by the Creative Critical Reflection at first.. But as soon as I got to writing my thoughts flourished from there. i mean under an hour and thirty minutes of elaborating on my journey I felt pretty accomplished as well as surprised with my outcome. Yet This this only the beginning, I still need to record myself and finish that power point. 

 

Finishing touches and Corrections

Final Fixes

Hello everybody! It's been sometime since Ive spoken with you.

Not to mention this past week was Spring Break and things got a bit hectic with posting. Now it is all about getting back on track and discovering new ways to improve my portfolio project. 

Time is indeed crunching up and theres is only a few days left until i show you guys my masterpiece. Well... what I think will be a new and fun experience I get to share with anyone out there. Without further or do, let me give you guys an insight of what is going down this week. 

Editing:

I guess you could say  editing is not my strongest suit. Thank god for youtube and their DaVinci Resolve tutorials because if not my film opening would not turn out the same. But in the image above I was trying to incorporate my foley sound without the clip of me popping the ballon to be on the screen. Not until later that I found out you can unlink clips and leave them on their own to just rearrange one of them.

 Foley: 

For for my actual foley sound, remember how I talked to you guys about incorporating a balloon pop as a way to symbolize Lucas's tire popping, well I did exactly that and it turned out even better than I expected. Lucas's expression after the tire popping makes the sound feel more vivid and engages the viewer to a further extent onto what the film is consisted of. 

Beginning of my CCR

For my Creative critical reflection, I'm mixing and shifting a few of concepts I had. Yes, I'm going to write a script so that I can put down all of my points and not get anxious about what to say next. But it was my overall presentation and analysis of my journey that I thought was most significant. Until I discovered a template in Google Slides that was ideal for the concepts I wanted to communicate. I'm going to show you guys an inside look at this timeline I made to highlight the progression of my journey. Despite the fact that you have seen everything, the timeline is only a summary of my story.

Embedding Credits

Honestly, I could not be any more proud of myself. Things are coming to an end with my film opening which is sad but these following days have filled me with knowledge and learnings which will carry on with me forever. However, this is not the finale ladies and gentleman. I am here to talk about my experience with credits.

Ever since i was a little kid credit scenes were not visible to me.  I didn't wonder why they came before the movie started, in other words. After years of uncertainty, I received an answer with open doors after taking this class, AICE media. Credit scenes are used to demonstrate who did what and how their work can be admired and acknowledged by others who are familiar with the concept of credits.

 

With that stated, here are some text snippets I've been experimenting with in order to insert my credits beneath my clips. Instead of having a separate clip for the title scene, I decided to make it more intriguing by included it in the same production footage.

Here are the following credits in order:

 A. T Productions

Directed by: Agustina Tolosa

Produced by: Agustina Tolosa

Cinematography and editing by: Agustina Tolosa

Starring: Santiago Valencia as; Lucas Paine

Running Short On Time

 After editing all my clips I came to the realization that I am short on ten seconds! The more I tried for my shots to look longer to waste more time, the worst it looked. Luckily,  I have a few more days to finish the production process, therefore I asked my friend who acts as Lucas (the protagonist) to help me fill in a few more shots in between, with as well, a little more enthusiasm...

Ever since my classmates gave me feedback on my idea for the short film opening, I could not stop thinking to myself; Will this look like a montage? Will people think I am just trying to get across a point rather than telling a story? Then it hit me, I had to start filming shots with more enthusiasm more meaning. I also have to have a meeting with my friend to run him down some cool ideas and movements he could do for the next production day.  

The first clip showing Lucas running late to school, for example, begins in the video above. However, the audience is unaware of this because there isn't enough dialogue or context in the first few segments of the next day to clarify what's going on. To depict the protagonist's stress, I may need to film additional close-up shots of his face emotions.

Lucas is sprinting out the door in this clip, in contrast to the first morning, when he appears calm and in his natural setting, saying goodbye to his mother as he heads to school. The reader infers the difference between the first and second days in this case. He's getting unluckier by the minute as the days pass.

Another idea for filling up the time I had left was to record the protagonist arriving for his school, giving viewers a clearer understanding of what Lucas is going through and how his day-to-day life looks like, or perhaps how it is ruined.

Setting/Atmosphere

    The funny thing about the weather is it comes unexpectedly, especially if you live in a state like Florida. Things an go from sunny to cloudy in less than five minutes! 

    Lucky for me! I realized the days my friend and I met up to film where drastically different. One day it was sunny yet, the other was nonstop raining.  I realized this only after we were done recording and I had already started editing. 

    From then on, I only imagined things could get worse, but after some consideration, the rain scenes coincided well with the plot of the film. When something tragic happens to Lucas's (the protagonist's) car, the outer climate is gloomy, nearly rainy, symbolizing negativity. As soon as he changes his tire, the sun reappears, symbolizing that everything returns to normal. This is the start of a never-ending series of bad luck for Lucas's automobile. Will this horror ever come to an end?

Shots and Angles

 

Filming and school have kept me quite busy this week. Timing and process were two of the project's drawbacks. Because my friend Santiago Valencia (shown) and I both have very hectic schedules, it was difficult for us to meet at specific times to film. However, I'm happy to say  that the filming process is going just as planned.

Now for the shots... I've been attempting to select a diverse range of angles and shots in order to make my film appear significantly more intriguing. When recording from the same angle, the viewer can become out of focus with what they are watching, which makes it less enjoyable after a while. During the editing process, though, I noticed that the character's face isn't displayed as much in these shots. This was not my ideal strategy because removing my character from the scene would make him appear insignificant and unimportant . Especially if no other characters are present. I'll have to work on my shot composition and possibly include more close-ups, if not extreme close-ups!

Editing transitions and techniques

 Research, research and more research! Today I spent most of my time reflecting and researching how to improve the quality as well as the shots I am incorporating in my film. Since I am not very used to editing with "Davinci Resolve" I did a little bit of exploring before I went straight on to research how to use different effects and transitions in the app. 

For my opening shot of the time lapse sunrise, I had to find a way to reverse the clip since I filmed a sunset just to make my life a little bit easier. As you can tell by the left side image, I researched how I could change the clip to go the opposite way. The guy in the video was quite hilarious and I enjoyed that it's time limit was not too long, this helped me keep going at a faster rate with the rest of my project. 

It was only a few years ago that I remembered  when I took a film class in middle school they showed me about the fade in- fade out effect. Usually with background sounds or music videos this technique is primarily used to sooth out the sound of whatever the viewer might be watching. Since I will be using background audio in most of my clips I decided to research how to implement this transition onto an actual video. This will help me in the long run since the protagonist is talking most times, therefore instead of cutting the audio sharp, the fade out creates a continuous outline. 

 Okay, enough about transitions, I have been looking for representations of foley sounds that could help me with the sound of my popped tire. In my film opening Lucas Paine (the protagonist) is driving on his way to school when all of the sudden he hears an instant 'pop'. For the viewer to hear that 'pop' noise it has to be implemented in an audio. Therefore, I was thinking of making the sound as realistic by popping a ballon. I mean it can't get better than that, can it?

Group meeting and help from peers!

    Today during class we had group meetings!

As my classmates and I gathered up into groups we went counterclockwise for everyone to talk about their own ideas and weaknesses within their projects. I felt productive, relieved as well as useful! I am relieved because talking to my classmates they made me realize how my film may look from a different perspectives, they were a big eyeopener. I was also glad I got to help with the script outline of one of the people in my group table. 

I also noticed I wasn't falling behind with my blog posting and editing time. However I did realize that the week to start shooting and editing will be finalized as of this week, so stay tuned for the next few blogs on my process. 

Here's a group shot of all of us!  I believe we all benefited from each other's constructive feedback and ideas for improving each other's projects. Their comments on my project were extremely helpful and i also took the chance to ask them about the credits scenes. Since I will be the videographer, editor and more I was questioning wether it was a good idea to put my name above every line. This was only until my classmate John told me it was okay to place the name multiple times and you can also switch it up by naming all the credit sections and finally put your name in front of all of them. 

Another opinion my classmates gave on my film opening was the production itself. I never realized but the purpose of my film can come out as a montage. For those of you who don't know what that means it is basically choosing, editing, and putting together pieces of footage to produce a continuous whole. Instead of my shots coming out to look like something portrayed, I have to make the viewer 'wait for their meal' now that is a saying that one of the producers in Disney said when making a TED TALK. Basically this saying portrays how the viewer is going to feel when they are looking at the first minutes of your story. Are you going to keep them captured inside? Or worn off into space. 

Representation Shots

SUNrise/SUNset   

 Since the first few clips of my film opening are going to be based on credits, I decided to create a time lapse of the sun rising since the plot of the film takes place in the morning and gives the viewer a better insight of what is likely to happen next. 

 

  

  Although the sun rising is soothing to watch as well as relaxing. Time lapse, which is a technique of the frequency at which film frames are captured is substantially lower than the frequency at which the sequence is viewed. Time appears to be flowing faster and hence lapsing when played at normal speed. Time lapse visually symbolizes what my film is going to be about. Since catastrophic sequent moments happen to the main character, Lucas Paine, the fast motion of the sun rising represents just that. Here are a few examples from Youtube that I think have helped me endure a better perspective of what my shots could look like. Underneath the credits scene will be short clips of the sun rising. Although this will be a short clip it introduces representation, of the opening scene.

MY CREATION

Now, leaving your phone outside recording for the whole night hoping that your phone films a clip of the sun rising, is very complicated, and I say that because I put my phone outside my back yard and let something record, when all along I wake up to see no clip filmed. Therefore, I came up with a different idea to time lapse my video on reverse, I recorded the sunset on time lapse and then reversed the video to to play from finish to start. Creating the 'sunrise' effect. 

PRE- production scenes

TRANSITIONS

I am glad to say my film opening is starting to come together, most of my clips synchronize as they keep the same context of its lighting and angles. I was able to place my shots and audio above the same line therefore the audio plays as a background for the shots being produced. 

 

As for my overall editing, I'm still undecided on which transitions to use for each clip. I did, however, limit it down to two possibilities that are both modest and include a soothing response to each subsequent clip. 'dip to color dissolve' is a transition that blends in with the deepest shades of the shot and color matches them. Because my shots are dimmed in the dark, the black covers the majority of the frame, giving it a smooth appearance. When I use 'cross dissolve,' however, it mixes in with the main shot. 

I've seen movie opening sequences with a more cross dissolve effect, so I'm aiming for that, even though a drop to color dissolve mixes the video making it look aesthetically pleasing. Here are examples of the two transitions being incorporated in within the shots.

Background Sound

AUDIO
     Funny thing, I was studying for my biology test with different videos that my teacher embeds for us when all of the sudden I found the perfect background audio for my Cambridge AICE Media portfolio project! 

    Hi everyone, and welcome back to my two minute film opening production, 'Aren't I Lucky'. Although my film consists of short dialogue I decided to increment background sound from a video I found while studying for another class! The funny thing about the sound is it represents a contrast of entertainment and humor. 

    Since the base of my theme is related to superstition, dark humor and bad luck I thought I could represent all three in a rhythmic beat. Which that's all there is to the audio, a sound with no dialogue but instrumental sounds that could create an introductive perspective to my film. 

'getmp3' is a website I discovered that will help me convert the audio from the youtube video onto my editing surface which will be documented on 'DaVinci Resolve'. This sound will be the background audio to most of my films production. Here is a representation of the audio I embedded and the pitch I decided to make it so it fits with the beginning scene of my film. 

Cutting Things Short

 After hearing feedback from my Cambridge advisor, Ms. Stoklosa I have tweaked some errors and cultivated new and improved ideas into my project. 

Since my video is only based as a film opening the outcome/ resolution to my film will not be necessary. With this being said, film openings are kept to be short but persuasive and entertaining. 

 

Although story board was a very useful website it did not allow me to note all my ideas into one board. Therefore, I used the classic old fashion story template that allows me to draw pictures and explain its purpose and shot movements. These same shot movements are what will portray meaning into my two minute film opening. As i was drawing my shots into paper,  I realized I had to take off most of my shots and make my film opening shorter since it was going to overly reach the time limit for the production therefore without changing the story outline I was able to come up with simple shots that represent the same meaning to the theme of my film opening. 

I brought my drawings into reality and began recording short clips. These are going to be used for the introductory credits of my film opening. I planned to film these clips with low exposure to dramatize the lighting effects of the room. Since the films starts off in the morning I created the allusion of the sun rising and shining through the sheered curtains. 

Title and Fonts

    Title Creation

Arent I Unlucky. Catchy right? After long nights of searching I have created my own title for what is soon to be my own film opening. 

    The theme to my poem is bad luck and superstition, with this rhetorical question I am able to incorporate meaning and a bit of insight to the actual film. Unlucky symbolizes bad luck and by just viewing the title viewers get a better perspective/ visualization of what the story will be about. Down below are the two main websites that caught my eye. 

 https://www.moviequotes.com/topic/luck/

https://www.inspiringquotes.us/topic/4947-bad-luck

These two websites extract quotes from movies related to bad luck as well as superstition. What is mostly seen are questions, people asking themselves 'why does this happen to me?', " what did I do to deserve this unfairness'. I was able to take some of these ideas and amend them into my own title; Arent I Unlucky.

CREDITS AND FONTS

Dead Island THE MOVIE (2006) 

Dead Island's film opening credit scene has a 'shaky' camera movement implying that there is a person holding the camera behind the screen, therefore, giving it its 'shaky' effect. This is mostly used to portray "unprepared, unrehearsed filming of reality, and can provide a sense of dynamics, immersion, instability or nervousness. " https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/bxcqu5/why_is_the_shaky_camera_effect_so_prevalent_in/

Raging Bull (1980)

Raging bull's opening starts off with one subject in one constant setting the shot and angle of the camera does not change however its credits are constantly moving through the screen but its movement fades in and out. representing how films were recorder back in the 80's. I used this as my example for my film opening since the credits are simultaneously fading in and out of the frame.

For the entrance of my film video I decided to create a logo that would stand out and would represent the bigger picture after showing all credits. After playing around with some of canva's quaint features,  templates and designs I created a mood board.

MOOD BOARD

Pre- production process

I have been moving back and forth with two outline softwares where they each allow me to develop a story and idea for my film opening.

Hey everyone. If you did not check out my last two posts I talked about my overall planning of my film opening as well as my outline. Im here to update you all on my experience.

Starting with script builder, I would like to say I expected more. When I heard it from a few friends and read the opening of the app it sounded fascinating. Only to let my hopes down and realize there is more to a script than only writing down the three main ideas for your project. Of course to actually write down the script I had to start a free trail, and instead of wasting budget I decided to keep searching for a different outcome of my script. However I still used this app to break each idea and scene up into pieces for there to be the start, and rising climax of my film opening. 

Now Celtx. Let's just say I lowered my expectations on this one. Celtx not only gives you a free trial but also guides you through each step and gives you different categories to section your writing. For example on the top left of my scrip screen there are variety of choices
to section what who or when something is happening. 

Here is an insight to Celtx and the different features it offers around your dialogue:

This will be an insight of how my film opening will run down. Scroll down to view the final outcome of my dialogue document.

This will be an insight of how my film opening will run down. Look left to find the final outcome of my dialogue document.  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DJzsKuYkIk_dbSUaHrz52DQ6EXPbK_yd1ScDO80Voog/edit?usp=sharing

Shooting schedules

Lights, Camera, Action!

As of next week I will be starting the production process of my two minute film opening! Throughout just the course of these two weeks I was able to gather enough information and incorporate new ideas to make my Caimbridge Portfolio stand out. 

Starting next week things will start to get a little hectic here and there. But with the help of my friend Santiago Valencia(he will play as the roll of the protagonist, Lucas Paine) this journey will play a toll on both my experience and creativity.

I would like to get as much filming as I can done by next week so my shooting days will be 03/02/2022, 03/04/2022 and 03/05/2022. 

Therefore shooting in these three prominent days will give me a longer shot in the post production process being: editing, outlining and so fourth. 

I am so exited to keep all of you tuned for a spontaneous ride explaining my filming process. 

Outline

 As I create my two minute presentation I decided to incorporate dialogue in order to create a significant tone in the voice of Lucas Paine. 

So Script Writing, what does it consist of? you might be asking yourself. Script writing is the process of recording the characters' movements, actions, expressions, and dialogue in a screenplay format.

The process of researching for outline websites was challenging, but after talking to multiple people I was recommended a few programs where I can compose my ideas. Therefore, I narrowed it down to three websites. 

Celtx 

As my first choice I picked Celtx. 

The website gives a story writing template and shows you what to put above each line of acts, dialogue, actions, expressions and so fourth. 

It also comes with a free month trial, so you won't be wasting money! 

In other words, I chose this website as my second opportunity for improving my screenplay performance.

Here is an example of a script shown as soon as you enter the website: 

]

'Go Into The Story'

 

Unlike Celtx, this website not only allows you to take a screenwriting lesson, but it also identifies great artists who have translated film language onto paper. 

Its website publishes screenplays on a daily basis. 

The aspect I liked the most was that the posts were short, which provided me more time to look at different websites while also giving me a sense of what their website was made up of. 

They provide insight into discussions with screenwriters, such as Paul Thomas Anderson, who wrote and directed his latest film Licorice Pizza. 

Aside from all of the resources available on this website, the unfavorable aspect is the monthly membership or year-round buying option.

ScriptBuilder

Lastly, but most importantly, Scriptbuilder. Lets say my experience with Script writing is not my strongest suit. This is why I chose script builder as my initial choice because it has multiple features that help you build up your own script. For example they show a script outline we’re you label each act and location of every scene. Taking all factors into consideration I will start my outline using this website and will begin posting my experience with the site itself as well as the journey through the whole message. 

 

https://www.celtx.com/

https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/

https://www.scriptbuilderapp.com/