CCR’s and Film

 Well here’s my last post. Here are my CCRs and the film opening itself.

CCR1: https://youtu.be/wvDQ1iz0Dbs 

CCR2: https://youtu.be/xRl00s_F0xU

Film Opening: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F3gv49QFqFH0A7b93Aor1cPA9yA87EA3/view?usp=drivesdk 

Reflecting time

Here we are, the edn of the project. My group and I have come a long way and now we are finally done. I can start off by saying I couldn't have chosen a better group, we all worked together so well and everytime we were together it didn't just feel like a project but almost as if we were just hanging out and doing a task throughout. 

 We Had a great time comparing luis to jj from obx. We all had great ideas and different skills of our own. Luis was the main editor and I took care of all the filming. I told them when i didn't think the lighting was right or where they were standing was good enough stuff like that We all grew in the knowedge of film making whether it was editing or filming itself. I for one became  much better at editing than I thought I always thought that it would be something that I could never do but it turns ut that it is somehting that is actualy fun and doesn' t have to feel like a time soncuming mind killing task. Things were going super wonderful until the dreaded day of February 3rd came along... I had tragically torn my acl during backetball practice and required surgery, this surgery took place march 18th and i can definetely say that the night after was the worst pain I had every felt ever. My whole leg was on fire. Thankfully we had finished filming and things were already done with that. 

The project helped me form a better awareness for planning and and better time management. I was able to balance this project as well as I could before and after the surgery and I hope I did well, I'd say I did. I grew so much throughout the project helping me broadenden my knowldge on film making, although I am still an extreme beginner I can say that I now have some experience with this and that I could use these skills one day in the future for whatever it may be. I feel as everything that we had done helped us in one way or another whether it was better time management or being able to work better with others, we all gained something out of it.

I am so glad to have had an oppertunity like ths especially with such amazing poeple to help along the way and I hope to look back on this and project and have it be something that I think very fondly of as it was a very fun time for me. I hope that my group felt the same about it and I hope that they had just as much fun as I did because I couldn't have done it without them. 

post ccr production

 Soooooo a little set because of this unfortunate knee surgery yet moving along, I have finished filming my ccr's and can I say I felt absolutely terrible the past couple of weeks with this project constantly on my mind. 

BUT its okay because we finally got it done!! I used my brother for both ccr's and he was a very good actor honestly, he did a great job fitting the roll of a uninterested podcast cohost who played alogn with what was being said but also engaged pretty well. For the second ccr he did pretty well keeping the energy up and sticking to the script while making sure everything sounded well. We used my mini mics which he also enjoyed along with myself because they honestly are really fun to use and just hold in ur hand for fun you know.. Anywho it honestly didn't take that many times to shoot each ccr because we both just wanted to get it over with, we kept the laughing toa minimum and got the job done. I would honestly say I am very proud of  myselfr because I never really was verry good and/or fond of editing and I somehow pulled it off pretty decent I would hope to say.

  Overall, the ccr's were the most fun to film in my opinion as they got to include mine and my brothers sense of humor, and well my mini mics of course. 

CCR productions

 For my CCR's I am going to be doing a podcast to start with. I have m own mics that I am using and my brother will be the second person that I am going to be conversating with. We both have a distinct sense of humor so the conversation of the podcast will flow even though we will both have scripts. I am going to try to make it interesting because as I mentioned a while ago I tore my acl, and tomorrow I have knee surgery. 

I had to add that, I've been waiting for a while to use that joke, A trend isn't over until I do it I guess. I am going to record both CCR's this week with the help of my brother. For the second CCR I am going to have my brother come into my room recording and I am going to be laying in bed with my helpless leg propped up and he will say for a dollar answer these questions.  I will answer these questions in bed yet while also adding inserts of clips and sound effects. As unfortunate as it is that my leg is like this I am going to incorporate it to make things just a little more interesting instead of boring and sad. 

CCR#4

All the things integrated into  the project were all used separately to work together to create our production now of course. So for the film I really had to get creative. Basically, we used our phones for everything! I found some cool free pictures and videos on Pixabay to set the scene, and recorded some rough sounds and voice bits with my phone's voice memos. When it came to filming, yep, phone again! I even used the screen as a light, which was surprisingly effective. Then, I used Soundboard Tuna to grab some sound effects to make everything sound more interesting. Finally, I put it all together in Adobe Premiere Pro, which was where the real magic happened – editing, syncing the sound, adding effects, all of that fun stuff. We also used my own mics that i’ve had for a little fun of my own, but overall I think our production definitely turned out how we wanted it for the most part. 

CCR#3

 The second half of the CCR's I am going to be doing something like Billy On The Street. Its almost like an interview in a way where a man walks through the streets of New York and other cities with a microphone and a huge camera asking people questions in exchange for a dollar Billy On The Street. I like this idea for the question because i can add my own spin to it and make it unique in a way 

CCR#2

Question for one my first CCR is, how does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text? As I mentioned before for my first two questions I am going to be doing a podcast and I listed the conventions that I am going to be using and/or challenging. My product will engage with audiences through humor and almost through a conversation with the listeners. I am going to be speaking directly to them along with my cohost at the same time. The podcast reflecting the film opening  can engage audiences by also offering a behind-the-scenes look at the process. It would dive deeper into the project, scriptwriting, filming, editing and sound design, featuring the discussion of the production itself and after. This allows the listeners to understand the challenges of filmmaking. To distribute it as a real media text, the podcast would use the school's website and popular podcast platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts, ensuring that more people had accessibility.

Along with this a small advertisement in the middle of the podcast, connecting with the audience more and also utilize the convention of a podcast. I was thinking about advertising an energy drink which has been a popular thing to advertise in the past three years. Most influencers and other content creators of all kinds have been sponsored by different drink companies like Ghost, Monster, and Bang being a popular one for a couple years. This uses the convention of a podcast and also brings a sense of familiarity to the audience. I am going to be advertising Monster as it is in fact my favorite one of them all, especially the white one!  I am going to advertise a new flavor while incorporating that to my  topic, I will even be drinking something to make it sound like I am drinking the new flavor as I continue to speak throughout the podcast.

Group meeting

Well, meeting with my group we all had good insights on each others projects giving decent feedback. My group spoke about the struggles that we faced filming, and I shared the disgusting first try at making our fake blood. We spoke about a better way of editing and we shared our preferred techniques and our favorite ways to handle things. We all have different preferences like some of us said that we are going to start editing now even though our filming is not done just to get it going, and then others said that they want to completely finish filming before they start editing anything. 

We showed each other our projects and they are really good so far, majority of my group mates did dramas or comedies, and another did a coming of age involving peer pressure. I don't know if we should feel unique and original or left out because my group is the only group I know that is doing a horror type of film. I am trying to keep the mindset of original. Another group mate told us about their project and the story idea kind of made me laugh, it was about a younger unathletic brother looking up to his older and athletic brother as inspiration and the younger brother just sucks at sports, so they definitely got the comedy part down. 

For the rest of meeting we all enjoyed our time talking about how things were going and our plans for our ccr's, most planned a talk show, one of them planned a game show I don't know how that would work but he's creative with it I guess. I plan on doing a podcast which I know may be seen as the "easiest" thing to do but I dont think its about easy or hard but about creative or not. SOOOO I am going to make it creative and put my own spin on it as much as I can. 

We were all sitting in a circle just talking and I honestly had  great time talking to them, they were funny and we had some pretty good conversations about our projects and even school.

post production pt1

 Alright here we are editing…! we’ve finally finished the filming and we are putting everything together. Luis is going to add a lot of the things to the editing itself because he’s had very wonderful ideas of what to add like sound effects and I suggest the music to add, it’s eerie and definitely will go well. The editing will be very well thought out because that’s where a lot of the magic happens, the actual film isn’t where everything come to life in my opinion it’s when everything is put together and all the little details and final touches are put in, now that’s where the life it. Although the most tedious though, it’s all so important and we’re hoping to create a really good production. 

Here is the start of the editing process, seems a little empty now but soon it’ll be filled up with all the little elements and ingredients if you will to bring this production to life. 

production #4

Soo this week we finally recorded again at nicks house and it was a couple of trials and tribulations. At first we tried to make a blood concoction and it suckedddddd. It was not the right color it was disgusting overall, but then we finally perfected it and it started to look really good. Nick cut off the arm sleeves of the costume that he had to make it look better than it was before because the only costume and the way he conveyed the zombie character in the original scenes were also bad so he redid them and it turned out even better. The scenes of the mom dying were done and the new and improved blood was put to much use everything turned out the way we wanted it to and it went very well. 

 This is the revised blood concoction that turned out to be better. 

And this is nicks beautiful costume that we used. 

CCR #1

 So for my first question I am going to be going with a podcast. Most podcasts start with a intro then moving on to the main content and then an outro. I plan on introducing myself as someone who always does podcasts and has already established their name in this social atmosphere, introducing myself to the audience as they already know me saying a slogan of some kind. Obviously this one will be interview based so for that format there will have to be another person which I will be using my friend for and using the convention of the podcast being conversational between me and whoever is interviewing often a cohost. The audio will be clear as I do have my own small mics that we will use. Using another convention of a podcast is that I will have background music to kind of set the mood, something like this Background Music. I will also add sound effects to match with the conversation and the question being asked. Challenging a common convention of podcasts, most are made without a script and are freely spoken. For this project and to stay on task and sound clear and concise while still answering the question fully, I will be creating a script for me to read from. This does not exclude the use of humor as it is a very common convention that is often if not always used in podcasts, I do think that I am  funny person and it would be a shame if the listeners weren't able to hear my jokes when I am still answering the given questions. Podcasts can provide a platform and build a community around the topic being spoken about providing a safe space for the listeners. The depth of the conversations can dig deeper into possible issues or relating to social groups in a friendly relatable manner. This could also help promote certain ideas and/or concepts to the listeners who may not be educated or fully interested in the topic being spoken about. The interview provides insight on the details of the production and helps the listeners connect with what's being said even though they may not relate they are able to grasp an understanding and grow an interest on what is being spoken about. Some of my favorite podcasts I am going to put below are some that I hope to emulate in my own way. 

Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!

Podcast But Outside

Production pt 3

 Sooooo… we haven’t been able to film again this week because of our busy schedules, we are going to go and buy blood for the rest of the scenes this week unfortunately we weren’t able to film again this week because well we all had something going on. But AHH sadly earlier last month I tore my acl and partially tore my meniscus with other injuries to like every other ligament in my knee playing the sport I loved just so much! I’m not going to let this stop us from filming though because our group chemistry is just way too good for anything to stop us now we’ve come too far we got this. So we’ll just take it one week at a time and do all we need to do and do it right!!

production pt 2

 For the film we planned that everything would be rather dark including the colors of our clothes so everyone that was in the film itself had to wear dark clothing to match the majority of the films lighting and theme. 

production pt1

 Soooooo last night at our beloved group member nick's house, was our first day of filming. Without blood for now we only filmed the scenes thats didn't include it but we made sure each detail was well thought out. Everyone featured in the scenes yesterday showed up in dark clothing to match with the color scheme of the film. 

Planningggg

 So we went to go find fake blood but I personally couldn’t find it anywhere and sooo another day i’m gonna have to go to find it myself at some costume store so we’ll be able to film those scenes. BUT I did make a day out of it even though it was a fail. 

script!!

 Soooo we now have our script and it’s pretty good if I do say so myself. 

Audio

 Audio: For the audio of the film we have a multitude of foley sounds that we wish to include. These are screaming, sirens, glass breaking, the sound of the parents being eaten, and slasher sounds when the knife is being used. In the beginning of the film the title and the credits will be shown and then by the end of the title the sound of glass breaking will be heard, following this will be sirens and then it will be cut to the first scene where the parents are crawling into the window of the house. We want to add the foley sounds of the parents getting eaten to intensify the actual scene. The slasher noises will be included so that we can hear every time a weapon is used it is just the loud pitch sound of metal slicing through whatever it may be.  I had the great idea that when the knife is being engulfed by the blood there should be a song that carries on from there until the last scene where the son is hiding and then it just cuts out when the film is over to add a little more intensity and also show a lose of hope since there will be no more words. 

foley horror sounds

Horror music

Mise-en-scene pt2

 Costume: For the costume of the characters in the film the parents are wearing torn up clothes of darker colors to emulate the mood of the horror that they are enduring. There will be blood splattered all over them, their clothes will be torn up as they break through the window. Their clothes will be darker because it matches with the other mise-en-scene elements such as the lighting and the fact that its the apocalypse. The son on the other hand would be wearing all black but will still have blood on him. Since he is the only survivor we feel as if his costume should be different in some sort of way even if it is just color. 

Composition: Everything will be placed in a certain way, and everything featured will have a meaning in the film. The knife that will be used will be shown in the beginning in a part of the frame to give subtle foreshadowing of the son soon wielding the knife as his weapon of choice. All of the blood splatters and and pools that there will be will not be random as they are going to emulate a story of their own. An example of this is the splatters on the clothes will show how they got injured and where. At the end of the film the knife will be placed strategically near a light source so that it could shine in a certain way and then a pool of blood will rush in engulfing the knife as a whole. This will all be planned and placed with all intention to make it look as real and dramatic as possible. 

 

Mise-en-scene elements!

Lighting: For the film itself we want low-key lighting to fit the mood  of the whole film. Most horror movies with that type of theme usually don't have bright lights a bunch of bright colors everywhere. We are using our group-mate nicks house because his house has actually a lot of dark and dim lighting all around and in some places the characters can slip into darkness smoothly. We are aiming for a scene like this for example. The lighting will play a huge role as it gives the mood and also implies a slight intensity to the scenes. We chose this style to help convey the seriousness and also slight vulnerability of the characters at times through the opening.  Through all of this paired with the other elements we hope to replicate at least even a good low budget horror film..!

Props: For the props we are going to make sure al the details are perfect and the blatant props good too. Of course with a horror film 9 times out of 10 there is blood smeared or splattered somewhere. We of course plan on doing this in a way that can also convey the emotions and plot well. We want to make a hand smear the blood as they are dragged off and the son covered in it to show what he had went through. There will also be a knife being the weapon of choice of the son during the apocalypse. 

 

Character development

 Essentially in the film we will have three characters. There will be a mom heather, the dad and a son, the parents die right at the beginning and then it will just be the kid left. He is going to witness the death of both of his parents and will be traumatized throughout the rest of the opening. He also has to work through the apocalypse after watching his parents die making him more mature and developing him mentally to grow up and get through what is going on.  

Dad: 

Name: Jason Gray 

Age: 41 

Birthday: 6/9/83

Mom:

Name: Heather Gray 

Age: 36 

Birthday: 4/29/88

Son: 

Name: Owen Gray 

Age: 10

Birthday: 10/31/14

The zombies do not have a particular identity but they are featured. The parents have an impact on developing the sons character and his traits yet don't have specific development of their own.