Documentary Critical Reflection

 The goal of my documentary Scrapped was to show what unfinished art projects reveal about their creators, specifically when those creators are young. I think that I succeeded in accomplishing this goal while creating an engaging piece, although there are some areas for improvement.

 When it came to research, it was mainly research through other documentaries as opposed to research of the subject. The subject of unfinished art projects didn't have any facts or history I needed to mention, and I wanted the film to be all about the personal opinions and emotions of the subjects. This is why there are no statistics or facts mentioned in the film, which illustrates the emphasis on personal feelings and attachment. Of the documentaries that I viewed in class, Exit Through the Gift Shop was the biggest inspiration, as I took a lot from it's chaotic and raw aesthetic when it came my editing choices and b-roll. Above is a shot from that film, where the unpolished nature of it's shooting style is noticeable. That film uses a handheld camera and tight close-ups during b-roll to give a sense of rawness, which I replicated in my b-roll, although mine was staged. When filming Scrapped, I chose not use a lighting kit, as I wanted things to look as natural as possible and traditional film lighting would create to much artifice. It's also part of the reason I chose to use alternative rock music. That style of music isn't common in documentaries, but I felt like in both Exit Through the Gift Shop and my film, it's used to illustrate the chaos and freedom of creativity, and in my film specifically, the feelings of anxiety and stress.

 On the subject of the unconventional editing choices, like the colorful filters and big text that appears over people's faces, one reason for their inclusion was to engage the audience at the beginning of the film to get them hooked. When there's this loud music combined with all of this fast and chaotic editing, it excites the viewer and makes draws them into the anxiety fueled world of young artists. One thing that I would criticize about these editing choices, however, is that they can be a little too distracting for some people and lead to them not properly comprehending important information as they're to focused on the music and visuals. I should've either toned it down or had it happen in a place where total comprehension and focus is less vital.

 The entire film is structured using interviews. I alternated between the two interviews so that the documentary would be structured around the progression of topics, going from introductions to detail on the topics of specific projects and why they went unfinished, and then concluding with advice to artists watching the film. I chose this structure because it would be natural and satisfying to follow, progressing like a three act story or a speech. During these interviews I had the subjects look directly into the camera, which I did because it would establish a more intimate and personal connection between the viewer and subject, which makes what they say feel more impactful and makes the overall documentary feel more like a conversation, which enhances the theme of personal and emotional connection to art.

Most of the interviews in the documentary are indirect, but there are some instances of direct interviews, like when Jaden is asked about the role time plays in the creative process and how it leads to projects going unfinished. These moments are mainly in follow-up questions that the interviewee didn't prepare for and therefore didn't rephrase, so to make the film flow better I had to include myself asking the question to create context. I also included moments of direct interviews to create emphasis on certain responses that felt especially poignant. An issue that I noticed looking back on these interviews is how much you can hear me saying "yeah" or some other kind of brief verbal response while someone is talking, especially during Sawyer's interview. I didn't realize that I was doing this when I was filming, but it definitely is an element that feels unprofessional and is distracting to the viewer.

 

 Scrapped is a documentary that primarily represents two social groups, those groups being artists and teenagers. One way that I represented these groups was through the doodle images that appear in multiple places in the film, as they represent both youth and the creative spirit. The haphazard looking design of the doodles represents the energy and anxiousness that many young artists have to get their work out into the world, as well as a sense of youthful nonconformity. These feelings are also illustrated by the editing in the beginning of the film, which is meant to represent the stress and pressure of being a young person and balancing all the aspects of your life, including creativity, and the mere aggressiveness of it is a visualization of teen rebellion. Rebellion is also illustrated through the choice to feature alternative music, although the intensity of the music I used, especially in the beginning, may be too much and distracting for people.

 Representation of teen artists is also shown via the interviews themselves, where the subjects talk about school life and balancing it with creativity. I felt like the experience of scrapping projects because you need to focus on school is mostly universal to teenage creators, so I highlighted it in the film. At the end of the film, the idea of artists being a part of a greater community is illustrated by the subjects giving advice to any artists watching the film about dealing with unfinished projects.

Even though there are some issues with it, I'm very happy with how Scrapped turned out and I believe that it successfully achieved its goal. 

Documentary Production (Part 2)

  Editing the documentary took two days. Day one, November 13th, was all about making a line edit, which is an edit that just contains the interview without any b-roll. This part was harder than I thought it would be. I had to intercut Jaden and Sawyer's interview together and make it coherent, like it's a continuous speech being given by both voices. I tried my best to alternate between the two subjects, but in some places I had to show two responses by one person back to back, as it just flowed better. This is also where I did the color correction of the interview clips. Jaden's raw footage looked fine, I didn't really need to do much. Sawyer, on the other hand, had some lighting in their house that didn't look the best on camera. The main correction I made to it was giving it a white balance, which made it match more with Jaden's footage and improved it noticeably.

Before

After

 The next day was the day the project was due, meaning I had to add all of the b-roll and the music and the "special enhancements" (don't worry, we'll get there) in one day. I began with the b-roll, adding in clips to mask cuts in the interview, act as transitions, and prevent the audience from getting bored staring at talking heads for too long. I realized that I had undershot the amount of b-roll I had needed, but the bright side to this was that it gave me an excuse to implement something that would really make the documentary stand out.

 That idea was doodles. I went into Microsoft Paint and made little sketches based on the unfinished stories. I added to the DIY, Exit Through the Gift Shop inspired aesthetic I was going for, and like I said earlier made the film more visually unique and interesting. It also illustrated the idea of young artists trying to get their work out there, and I used the doodle aesthetic for the end credits as well. All things considered, I'm proud of my artistic accomplishments.

 Once that was done, I added the music. I already gathered a number of stock tracks (pictured on the right) a few days ago when I had free time in class, so now it was just about adding them in. I didn't use every song that I downloaded, but I overprepared enough so that I had something that fit each moment in the film. The first song that I used was this alternative rock one. I wanted to feature alternative and punk music in the film because it would represent the chaotic feeling of being an artists, having all of these ideas screaming at you in your head and struggling to get them out, all while having to balance your life as an artist with other responsibilities. Naturally, by using that kind of music I had to lower the volume on it significantly so it wouldn't overpower the subject's voices.

 Finally, I had a functional documentary, but there was still a piece missing. A secret sauce, if you will. You see, as I edited the film, I knew something was missing. I wanted this film to capture the chaos of being young and being and artist, as well as the aggression and frustration that both leads to and comes from leaving things unfinished. In it's current state, I felt like it wasn't going far enough to do that. On a more petty level, I also wanted to eliminate every possibility of the audience being bored, especially during the beginning.

My solution to both of these problems was simple: go crazy. For the first minute of the film, as well as in a few other moments, I employed some pretty unexpected and nontraditional editing tricks (like colorful filters and a repeated split screen effect I call "bug eye view"), and that combined with the thrashing alt rock that plays during that section really works to give off that off-kilter, anxious energy that's just shy of causing most people a headache.

 And with those finishing touches done, I exported the film, submitted it to my teacher, and took a deep breath. I had finished "Scrapped", my first documentary.

Documentary Production (Part 1)

   Right before the weekend where I was scheduled to film, I ran into a problem. Two of my four subjects had conflicts and wouldn't be able to participate, meaning I was down to two. Then after that, I learned that of those two, one of them was out of town on a family trip (one they didn't know about until now) and wouldn't be returning until after the weekend, meaning I was now down to one. With the availability of my interviewees out of my control, I set off on Monday, November 11th (a day off from school) to make the best of what I could get. I figured that I would make myself my own second subject, knowing that the structure of the film wouldn't feel the same if there was only one.

 That one subject was Jaden, a fellow student filmmaker. Jaden has been my best friend for years and I knew that if there was anyone I could rely on, it was him. I arrived at his place in the afternoon and we set up the interview in his bedroom. He had a shelf containing his desktop and a display of Funko Pop bobbleheads and Lego characters, which I thought would be an interesting background. I told him not to clean some of the clutter on it because it would make it look more natural, plus there was a box from our theater program that was labeled "Write the Story" that I thought should be visible because it fit the film's subject. The equipment I was using was rented from a place called Becon, which lends filming equipment to students in South Florida for student films and news stories. I got a camera, a lens, a mic, a pair of headphones, and a tripod, which were the bare essentials I needed for the documentary.

 Jaden's interview went smoothly. We began with a practice run so he could get a feel for how he wanted to answer the questions before we filmed the real thing. He talked about his writing process, an unfinished scrip called "Bury Harry", responded to some follow-ups I asked to get more detail on certain things, and before we knew it we were done. The next step was to film b-roll. I got some shots of Jaden working on his computer at various angles and some other ones of the posters and props littered around the room. Those computer shots were annoying, as no matter what I did to adjust the settings on the camera and the computer, the text on the computer wouldn't appear properly visible. It wasn't a big deal as it wasn't necessary for the audience to be able to read it, but it still bothered me because I wanted them to see that Jaden has written screenplays. Once that was over, I packed everything up and went back home.

 I needed to return the Becon equipment tomorrow, meaning that now was the time to film myself. I did in my bedroom, which was barren compared to Jaden's, and responded the questions that I had written. I focused on this video diary project I had began but never committed to and eventually abandoned, and I intended to use footage from that as b-roll. I'll be honest with you, it was late at night when I filmed this, I was tired, I wanted to sleep, and I knew that I looked and sounded like a mess and I dreaded having to edit it. It was all I could do without my other subjects, though, so I filmed my sleep deprived self and accepted whatever result that would yield. Now as much as I would love to show you the disaster that was the footage, I deleted it all. Why? Well, the next morning, a miracle happened.

 Sawyer (the person who was out of town) texted me to say that they got back home that night and could be filmed afterschool. I quickly texted the guy in charge of Becon and got him to let me extend me rent on the equipment, and when school was over I headed to Sawyer's house to conduct my second interview. Interviewing Sawyer was basically the same as interviewing Jaden, I asked the same questions but asked different follow-ups. Sawyer's responses were a lot more in depth and and felt a lot more personal that Jaden's more technical responses, which isn't to say anything bad about him, it's just to highlight how different people have different ways of expressing ideas. I liked this contrast, as it would make my documentary have more variety. Once we were out of questions, I got some b-roll, a lot of it being of Sawyer's digital drawings. Finally I was done and headed home, knowing that I now had two quality interviews, and didn't have to use the terrible one of myself. I felt confident, and all that was left to do was edit and export.

Documentary Planning

  From the beginning I wanted my documentary to stand out. When it came time to pick a subject, I realized that given the time frame of two weeks, I had to pick interviewees who were people I already knew and lived close by. I wanted to be efficient, I didn't want to waste time and energy making phone calls to people I've never met who may or may not be willing to be filmed or available when I needed them to be. My best bet was to center it around people from my summer theater program, as they're basically my inner circle who I feature in a lot of my projects, and they all have something interesting to talk about. Working backwards from there, I now needed to decide what these people would be interviewed about. 

 One of my first ideas was to make it about fans of obscure and independent music, which could've been interesting, but I knew there was something else I could think of that was more... I guess the one word I can think of is special. I thought about the demographics I was working with. I would be interviewing people who do theater, and a lot of them also work in other artistic mediums. That got me thinking about making it about those artistic pursuits, but that subject has been done numerous times and I knew that if I did, I would be one of multiple in the class. I needed a unique angle. 

 And then it came to me. So many documentaries are about young artists, focusing on the joys they take from their work. As a young artist myself, I know that joys don't come alone, they come alongside frustrations, especially when it comes to struggling to finish a passion project. That's what my documentary would be about: unfinished artistic projects.

 Now that I had my subject, I reached out through a group chat to get people who were interested. I got four people, which seemed like a good amount of interviewees, and I sent them a document for them to give a brief description of what they would be talking about, as I wanted each person to have a specific unfinished project that their interview would focus on. I also asked them to list their availability to be filmed so I could make a schedule

 While I waited on everyone to respond, I worked on making a shot list. My idea was to film at the house of each subject, and have them show of their work to the camera. I had only been to one of these people's houses before, so I didn't know what would be there to film. When I made my shot list, I listed a lot of generic things that would fit the theme of unfinished art projects, like shots of people typing on computers and sketching in notebooks, with the knowledge that once I got there I would film that in addition to b-roll I would come up with on the fly based on what I saw. This production would require a lot of staged b-roll, but I didn't want it to look staged. I planned to shoot using a handheld camera to make the footage seem more natural.

 Now it was time to make the questions. This part was pretty simple. I knew that I wanted to focus on what unfinished projects reveal about their creators and the personal reasons they go unfinished, so I made a series of questions that focused on that. After getting feedback on them from my teacher, I reworded them to be more conversational sounding (i.e. changing "what is" to "can you tell me about"), as that would lead to me getting better responses. I put these questions in the shared document with the subjects so they could read them and prepare ahead of time, and I made them aware that I intended to ask follow-ups.

 After making the questions, the final step was to make the outline for the film. This was pretty much the order of how I would present the information. I decided that I would rather structure the documentary based on ideas rather than the individual subjects. I would begin with an introduction to the artists, which would naturally progress to a general discussion of unfinished projects and then to their personal and emotional significance. I thought that the best way to end it would be with advice to artists, as they would be a target audience member of the film and I liked the idea of ending things on a hopeful note. I felt like it would make it more meaningful. 

 

Documentary Viewings and Research

 The first big production project we had this year to create a documentary. Obviously, to do that we had to watch some documentaries to learn what one should look like. One of the big take-aways was that documentaries can come in various forms, and while there are conventions of the genre, there are no written rules as to how it should look or feel.

Take the first feature documentary we viewed in class, American Promise from 2013. This film showcases the lives of two black boys living in New York City and attending the prestigious Dalton Prep School. It highlights the stress put on students in high pressure school environments and the experience of growing up black in New York. A very interesting aspect of this film is how it is filmed by the parents of one of the boys, and thus the entire thing can be seen as a really long home movie. Describing it like that may be an exaggeration, but there is something very raw about the handheld footage from average cameras that makes the movie feel more real and immersive. The interviews were mostly conducted at impromptu moments and it had a strong honesty to it, with people saying things on camera that others may not because it may paint them in a bad light. Watching it, I knew that for my documentary I wanted that sense of rawness. I wanted to show something real, and something that people may not often think about or want to show.

The second film we saw was Exit Through the Gift Shop from 2010. I'm gonna get it out of the way and say that this was my favorite of the documentaries we saw, and it might be one of my new all time favorite movies. Exit Through the Gift Shop takes on an odd structure, being a documentary made by the street artist Banksy about videographer Thierry Guetta, showcasing the footage he shot of other street artists and Banksy himself and discussing the relationships he formed with them. Around halfway through, the film shifts focus to Guetta's attempts at becoming a street artists himself, the instillation he created, and the controversy that sparked from it. What I love about this film is the style of it, using handheld camera movements, jump cuts, b-roll edited into hard hitting montages, and a soundtrack of punk and electronic music to represent the boldness and aggression of the street art community while being always exciting to look at and listen to. I also love the choices of b-roll regarding Thierry Guetta and the interviews of him, which let him be himself and show his eccentricities, making him one of the most interesting people you could learn about. Like American Promise, Exit Through the Gift Shop is raw, but it's also stylish. I immediately decided that my documentary would be inspired by this film, both in having a strong aesthetic and identity and showcasing interesting subjects and letting them give insight into who they are.

After viewing these two film, we moved to episodic documentaries. In class, we watched a 2019 episode of the Netflix series Abstract: The Art of Design. The episode we watched was about costume designer Ruth Carter, discussing her career, her background, and what her work represents. This series uses a lot of staged b-roll to represent what the voice over is discussing, which is something that would become very important to my documentary once I decided what it would be about (more on that in a future post). Overall, while I found the episode well made, it didn't stick with me or impact me the way the other documentaries did. It felt artificial on a visual level, it's crisp cinematography and bright colors look nice but only served to take me out of the realism and make me think only of this as a staged production. If I was to have staged b-roll, I didn't want it to look staged.

The last documentaries we watched were two opinion documentaries (op-docs) from the New York Times. We had the choice of which two we saw, and the ones I chose were Modern Goose and Roach's Lullaby. Looking back on them, they both had similar subjects, both relating to the relationship between animals and humans. The way that they each portrayed this idea, however, was very different. Modern Goose has no dialogue, and shows the life of geese in a city through a verité style, simply filming them partaking in aspects of their life like searching for food and swimming in the lake. Roach's Lullaby uses interviews to discuss how New Yorkers in the 70s deal with roaches, and has a far more gritty look and feel than the sleekness of Modern Goose. Despite my love of 70s grime, I would I say that I preferred Modern Goose mainly because of how it tells a compelling story with no dialogue, and the beautiful way it humanizes nature. Watching these back to back, it solidified the truth that documentaries can look and feel like anything.

Been a While

 I'M BACK! Yes, you heard that right, I have returned to this blog, this time to document my journey through AICE Media Studies A Level. This time the blog is gonna be bigger, it's gonna be better, and it's gonna show all the amazing things I'll do in this high level course. Get ready and strap in, because from this point on it's full speed ahead with no turning back.

Film Opening

 It's done. It's finally done. After however many weeks it's been I finally finished the film opening. Here it is! Really proud of what I was able to accomplish with this. The Summer of the Swarm!

Creative Critical Reflection

Here are my CCRs, where you here me talk about my creative process and other stuff relating to the film opening. Hopefully you find these very insightful.

Goodbye

  Well, it's over. Unlike the films I intend to make there is no last minute twist or a guy popping out to scare you at the end, this is the end of my journey through AICE Media Studies AS and the film opening project. It's been real fun making this project, as well as all the others I've made throughout the curriculum. It's also been really challenging, and there are certainly things I would've done differently with hindsight. That's not the type of thing to dwell on though, as this has been an amazing experience for me. I've learned a lot about film technique and production, and I feel a lot more confident in my abilities. I'm really happy with how my final project turned out, and I'm really happy that I took this class. I'm so excited to continue my filmmaking journey and to share my creations with the world.

 Thank you, and goodbye.

Yes, I Did Film the CCR

  Good news and bad news, which I notice has been a bit of a theme. So I DID film the CCR, using this old greenscreen that I've had for like four years. It's old, but it works well enough. The problem, as you might be able to tell, is that I don't have it on my computer yet. It was some kind of storage issue, so I deleted a bunch of files that I don't need, and right now I have the videos uploading from my phone. It's not giving me any kind of prompt saying that I don't have enough storage, so hopefully I'm fine. I'll try to get this whole thing edited by tomorrow night.

CCR Approach

  For the CCR, I'll need to make two videos for two different approaches. The idea I've came up with to the two videos represent a kind of "old versus new". The first video will take on a very modern aesthetic, capturing the look of celebrity interview videos posted by publications like Variety and Wired. These videos tend to have sterile, white backgrounds, and feel very formal. For the second video, I'm going to take inspiration for vintage late night TV shows, specifically the ones that would play horror movies with a host that introduces them. For this video, I plan to play the parts of both myself and the host who is interviewing me. I'm excited to film both because I have a lot of things that I want to say about the project and I think this will be a fun exercise in expressing them.

CCR Prep

 Now that the actual film opening is done, it's time to make the creative critical reflection, or CCR. For this I'll need to make two videos that each use a different approach to answer each of these four questions:

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

• How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

• How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

• How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

I've given it some thought and I've came up with basic ideas ideas for how I want to answer them. This is of course not exactly how I'll express these thoughts in the videos themselves, but it is the core of it.

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

Answer: The Summer of the Swarm uses a variety of horror and thriller genre conventions, such as shots from the point of the view of the monster, a dramatic zoom in, creepy static establishing shots, and a character who serves as the initial victim. There's also the initial black screen and subsequent opening shot with ominous buzzing which is meant to feel foreboding. In terms of challenging conventions, one way this is done is through the film's bright, daylight color scheme and the upbeat music which plays when the park is introduced, which is uncharacteristic of the genre. The other way is through how the first victim is an average looking woman of middle-age, as opposed to a younger, conventionally attractive person

Q: How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

A: The product engages with audiences through establishing the setting, then creating suspense and establishing mystery. The setting is established through the weather report voice over as well as the numerous establishing shots of the park and the surrounding South Florida area. The upbeat music during the introduction the park is used to illustrate how it's a popular place during the summer, even if the hot weather can be considered dangerous. The juxtaposition of the weather report and the park introduction creates irony and a sort of dark humor, which also engages audiences. Ironic humor also occurs through the juxtaposition of the calming music playing through the victim's headphones and the danger she is in. Suspense and mystery are created through the POV shots, which inform the audience that danger is present although the victim doesn't know, as well as the fact that the audience doesn't know exactly what the danger is. For distribution, the film would start by premiering at film festivals, possibly some genre specific ones like Fantastic Fest, Beyond Fest, or TIFF's Midnight Madness. There it would be able to get the attention of a distribution company, where it would get a limited or wide release in theaters before being released on a streaming service.

Q: How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

A: One thing I learned was the importance of casting people who are experienced with acting for roles that require actual dialogue, as this lead me to having to rerecord the weather report with someone more skilled. I also learned that editing takes longer than I thought it would, especially because there are certain small details, like sound, that take a lot of time to get right. Cutting a shot at just the right time is a skill in and of itself, and I needed to learn how to establish a good rhythm of shots through editing.

Q: How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

A: The entire project was filmed on my iPhone, which was very convenient, as it allowed to me to not have to worry about lugging around big and expensive filming equipment. It also allowed to conveniently pull out my phone whenever I wanted if I saw something that would make a good shot, which is exactly what I did for many of the establishing shots. For software, I used Adobe Premiere to edit the project, which was provided many useful tools to allow me to achieve my vision. I also used Canva, an online graphic design program, to create the studio logo and title card. Lastly, I used the online slideshow program PowerPoint to make the presentation slide which is shown at the end.

Branding! Branding! Branding!

  Ok I'm basically done with the film opening, and I know that you're dying to see it. Before I show you that though, there's something else I want you to see. I decided that to make my film opening seem more realistic to how actual movies begin, I would create my own studio logo. This was a relatively simple process, although it was somewhat frustrating, given that I'm not the best at graphic design and will never claim to be. Before I designed it, I had to come up with a name. I settled on the name Livewire Studios, which was inspired by one of my favorite song lyrics ("Don't touch me, I'm a real live wire", from the song "Psycho Killer" by Talking Heads). Plus I just think it sounds cool. Anyway, for the logo itself, I wanted something with a kind of vintage look. This led to me choosing a 50s style font, with a quirky alternating color scheme and lowercase "i"s in the text. After making the logo in Canva, I downloaded multiple versions of it so I could edit them to be slightly animated in Premiere, as I wanted a quick, snappy animation. For the logo's audio, I searched "electric" on Pixabay and found this VHS start up sound effect, which I thought fit perfectly. All that was left was to add some grain to complete the vintage aesthetic, and bam! There it was!

The Final Clips

 On Monday, I filmed the final two shots that I needed for the film opening (finally!), seen below.

 For the shots, I filmed in my media studies teacher's room and used her projector to display the Powerpoint slide that I created. I brought a white polo to wear over my shirt because it was important to me that the character, Todd, looked professional because it fits the personality I imagine he would have in the actual film. I went with blue and white as the color scheme for the presentation because those colors fit the theme of health and safety, which not only fits the presentation itself but further establishes those things as being important to Todd. The shots both total around 30 seconds when combined, which when added to the rest of the footage I shot will get me to two minutes in total. 

We Are Almost There

 So here we have the finished editing timelines for the two of the three scenes that compromise the film opening (the third I'll film tomorrow). Now one thing that isn't present in either of this is the credits, as I haven't yet decided how I want to include them I would like to have the whole thing edited and in front of me before I make that decision. I'm also still unsure I want to have this mosquito sound effect play over the title card as the music fades out. There are a few variations of how I can do the sound for that and I still need to decide which. Lastly, I tired to make graphics for the weather report and display using this green screen effect with the actor's phone, but I just couldn't get it to look good. I just decided to keep the weather report as being audio only, with a little news report sound effect at the start. Even with the changes I had to make, I think it's coming out really good, largely because of the shots I was able to get.

More Stuff

  Yesterday I filmed the last of the footage I needed for the beginning of the film opening, which is a man on a bench watching the weather report on his phone before drinking water. What I did was I filmed his phone screen as a green screen so I can insert the weather report graphics later. 

 My plan is to finish editing the first two sections of the film opening by the end of this weekend (The weather report and the mosquito attack in the park). On Monday I'll film the final clip because that's the day I'll have access to the projector prop I need, and hopefully I'll have the whole opening done by the half-way point of next week. 

Where we're at now

 Right now I'm nearly done with editing the park scene, which you can see here:

 I got some good mosquito sound effects on the website Pixabay, as well as some upbeat sounding rock music to play in the beginning and some calm piano music that's meant to be playing through my mom's headphones. I'm using Adobe Premiere to edit, which gives some great options when it comes to manipulating footage and audio

 Now you see I tried to film the weather report scene again, as I couldn't do it Monday because I was sick to the point that I couldn't go to school. When I tried to do it today, the green screen I wanted to use wasn't available, and and won't be for the rest of the this week. With no good place to film, my solution to this problem was to record audio of my friend Lee, who was supposed to play the weather reporter, and have it play over graphics intercut with the actual outdoor footage. Given that I originally planned on the weather report being voiceover, this isn't a damaging change. I'll just have to make more graphics. 

Look at all this filming I did

 Yesterday I went out to film the park scene, which makes up the bulk of the film opening. I couldn't get anyone to play the person in the chair who gets bit, so I had my mom do it considering that it's a character who literally just sits there. I was actually lucky because there was some kind of event going on at the park I went to, which allowed my show the crowded parking lots and visualize how popular the place is in the universe of the movie. My methodology for filming the scene was that I would get the scene on the chair first, and then walk around to gather establishing shots afterwards. This is what I ended up doing, however I also got some shots from out the window of my mom's car as we were driving in, allowing me to have some usages of motion. Getting the shots with the chair and the initial mosquito attack went great. The lighting really accentuated the scorching summer heat I was trying to illustrate, and the area where the chair was provided me with a decently lengthy path to run down with phone, getting the mosquito's POV. I got multiple variations of that shot, some with me running in a straight line and others being more erratic. 

 As for the establishing shots, there were a lot of visually interesting places in the park that I was able to capture. What I did was a just walked around and filmed stuff that I thought would look cool. In total, I think I got way more shots than I need, but it's better to have more than less. Here are some of the shots that I got:

Good News and Bad News

  As the title suggests, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that I tried filming the weather report scene, and it just didn't work out. I had a friend in my media studies class play the weatherman, and I now know that I need to make sure the people I get to be in this video have some kind of experience or knowledge of acting. I also filmed it outside, and the lighting just wasn't right. I need to film it on a green screen to get the true weather report look. I did begin to make graphics for it though, as you can see here.

 In terms of good news, I got some footage to be used as establishing shots in the very beginning of the film opening. For whatever reason the colors got kind of messed up when I downloaded them on my computer, but I can fix it in editing. I plan to get more shots, but these are three that I have now.

This weekend I plan on getting the footage at the park that makes up the bulk of the film opening. As for reshooting the weather report, I wanted to do it today but couldn't, however I do have a person who I know can act willing to play the weatherman. Possibly Monday we can get the footage using the green screen in my school's TV studio. Because of this delay my whole schedule is going to shift somewhat, but I'm not that concerned considering that I'm a fast editor.

Every frame a doodle

 Although I find it to be a pretty tedious process, I think that it's important to have some kind of storyboard to use as reference for filming. Naturally, I made a storyboard for this film as well, which totaled to three pages with eight panels each. Looking at it, I think that I might have more shots than I'll end up using, and there are definitely some that I'll do differently in some way. To me, the storyboard isn't meant to be an exact one to one model of the film, just a set of guidelines. Anyway, here it is:

Group Meeting #1

Good news! The feedback I got from our first group meeting was very positive. The people in the group said that they liked my script and story concept very much, and they also praised the photos that I provided in my "Storytime" post. Some of them said that they thought that they were professional photos that I googled, and the fact that they thought that makes me confident in my cinematography skills. One piece of advice that I will take into consideration is to further illustrate the intense heat of the scene by having the man on the bench drinking water and sweating, or by showing people suffering from the heat in some of the establishing shots. Overall I think that the first group meeting went very well, and it's given me a good idea of what I should be doing moving forward.

Because I need to incorporate some kind of multi-media into this, here are some more photos of the location I want to use for filming:

Editing the Script

 Maybe I was a little too enthusiastic earlier, as I did end up making a number of revisions to the script. Firstly, I changed the weatherman dialogue to just be from one person, and I also made it sound more dry and serious as opposed to the darkly ironic humor I was going for previously. Next I changed the static shots to be from various areas surrounding the park, progressively closing in on it. The specific of upbeat music is to illustrate the lively nature of the park without necessary having to show crowds of people. It's also to create a sense of situational irony compared to what's about to happen. When the music fades out, it gets the audience ready for this shift to a darker tone, highlighting the isolation of the character who is about to become the first victim of the mosquitos. Everything after this point is the exact same, with the death of the man on the bench and the introduction of Todd. The only other things I changed were a few formatting mistakes and typos.

I wrote the script!!!

 So I wrote the script, and it was a pretty easy process as I basically already knew what the events in this opening would be. One new choice that I made was to have the main character, Todd, have the profession of health inspector. The idea is that he deals with his germaphobia in an unhealthy way by constantly trying to make spaces clean to his liking to an obsessive degree. I also came up with a title for the film: "The Summer of the Swarm". Without further ado, here's the script, which I wrote using a script writing software called Celtx.

Storytime

 Finally we reach the point where I have to write the script for the film opening. Before this, I need to think of what the overall plot of the movie would be. I've came up with a brief summary that goes as follows:

The Plot

 Todd is a timid young man from the Midwest who has an intense fear of germs and getting sick. One summer, he reluctantly agrees to go with his girlfriend, Ellie, on a trip down south to Florida, where the two will stay in a rental house by an Everglades tourist park. Part of the purpose of the trip is to held Todd get over his fear, as advised by his therapist. Things take a dark turn however when a rare species of mosquitos begin to emerge, biting victims at the park and infecting them with a deadly toxin. When the park refuses to shut down, it becomes up to Todd and Ellie to stop the swarm, teaming up with a local entomologist named Mike and the park's down on his luck gator wrestler named Dan.

Approach to the Opening

 In the first two minutes of this film, I want to establish the threat of the mosquitos and character of Todd, highlighting his specific phobia. The opening will begin with static shots of the Everglades park. The idea is to use these shots to create a feeling of curiosity, as the shots being static encourages the viewer to scan the frame, trying to fins something out of place. It's a technique used by two of my favorite directors, Ari Aster and M. Night Shyamalan, as well is in the film Paranormal Activity directed by Oren Peli. Here I have some photos that I've taken that will inspire me for the introductory shots:

 While this is happening, a voice over of a weather report will be heard, describing record breaking high summer temperatures. This helps to establish the film's primary setting, and the description of the extreme heat creates a sense of discomfort. After these first few shots, there will be a shot of a person sitting on the bench, possibly reading or listening to music. Whatever they're doing, it makes them oblivious to what's about to happen. The camera switches to the point of view of a mosquito. A buzzing sound is heard as the camera flies through the air, approaching the individual. It lands on them, waiting for a bit before delivering the bite. Once the audience is shown the bite, the scene immediately transitions to long shot, with the person still sitting on the bench. Then they close their eyes and fall over, before the title card appears. The idea here is to use the normal looking wide shot to give the viewer a sense of hopelessness and powerlessness, as this initial death is treated like a normal occurrence that can't be impacted. In the last shot of the opening, we would be introduced to the protagonist, Todd. At the moment I'm not quite sure what he will be doing when introduced, but I want it to establish his germaphobia without it being super obvious or generic, like having him washing his hands.

What's all this buzz?

 Alright, so after my research and planning it's now time to come up with a story for this thing. By that, I mean that I need to have a basic idea of what the story for the entire film will be, and then I'll decide what I want the opening itself will be. Once I do that, I'll begin scripting and storyboarding the opening. 

So as I've stated before, I want to make a thriller/monster movie. One of those classic kind of killer animal movies like King Kong or Steven Spielberg's Jaws. Why do want to do this? Well I just think that it'll be cool, and it's the type of genre that I think will really make my project stand out. Monster movies are an interesting subgenre of thrillers because they automatically provide a tangible threat for the characters (and audience) to be afraid of, and there's much spectacle to be created when it comes to ways that the monster is visualized and much suspense to be created in the ways that it's hidden. 

To get even more specific with my monster movie, my original idea was that I wanted the monster in question to be a gator, partly because I live in Florida in a suburban community built on the Everglades, so I wanted to get some home town representation in there. That was my plan for a while, but then I started writing this post and really started thinking. My original thinking was that yes, killer gator movies have been done before (Alexandre Aja's film Crawl comes to mind), but there was no monopoly on the idea. I felt like it hadn't been done enough that it had become oversaturated, like shark movies or spider movies. Then I started thinking: spiders. Why are they the only bug that gets the monster movie treatment? Certainly there are others that are scary enough to be thrilling antagonists? Then I really started to think about and it all began to come together. I had the idea of getting a shot from the gator's POV in my original idea, but one from the perspective of an insect would be far more creative and possibly easier to accomplish with simple resources. I thought of ants, which could work but I felt like I needed something better. Something scarier. Then, like a stinger to skin, it hit me. Mosquitos.

A quick Google search of "the most dangerous insect" will bring up the mosquito as the top result. Honestly, it's a wonder why their hasn't been a monster movie about them yet. The way they consume blood makes them a lot like vampires, one of Hollywood's favorite creatures of myth, they're presence preys on the same fear of disease as zombies, and their small size creates a perfect opportunity for suspense, with the possibly that they could be flying around anywhere and you wouldn't see it. There's a lot of potential in the idea of having a swarm of these tiny little pests, which reminds me a lot of the film Arachnophobia.
Additionally, mosquitos habitats are warm, temperate environments such as Florida, so I can still incorporate the familiar setting that I live and breathe (I like the idea of starting the film opening with a weather report on record high temperatures). So that settled it. This film will be giving a starring role to one of earth's deadliest creatures: The mosquito!

The Plan

 So now comes the time where I need to make a schedule for how I want to do this thing. Obviously, there's a lot of components to the project, so I tried to make it so that each week focuses on a specific one. At the time I'm writing this, it is Sunday, February 18th (the end of week 2) and I have until Tuesday, April 2nd (Two days after the end of week 8) to finish both the film opening itself and the creative critical reflection. Here's the schedule I came up with:

2/19 - 2/25 (Script Week)

Come up with the story and begin working on the script. Keep practicality of filming in mind in addition to incorporating genre elements and keeping it engaging. Also make sure it realistically functions as the opening to a film while staying in the 2 minute time constraint. Get feedback on the script from peers and other people I know.

2/26 - 3/3 (Storyboard Week)

Finish writing (if necessary) and begin storyboarding, making sure that various visual techniques are incorporated while, again, making sure it is realistically doable. Find locations to film in (this should be considered when writing the script) and start contacting people who can act in the film and have schedules that work with mine. Begin to gather and create props and costumes.

3/4 - 3/10 (Filming Week)

Begin filming the film opening. Try to get as much done as possible (if not all of it) during this week. Be prepared to make edits to script and/or storyboard if needed.

3/11 - 3/17 (Editing Week)

Finish filming (if necessary) and begin to edit the project. Get feedback while I work on this process, so I know if things are coming along well, if things need to be cut, or if things need to be added or reshot. Make sure my actors and I have time for any possible reshoots.

3/18 - 3/24 (Reflection Week)

Finish editing (if necessary) and begin planning for the CCR through research and examples, and plan how it will be presented and what I'll say.

3/25 - 3/31 / 4/1 - 4/2 (The Home Stretch)

Create and finish the creative critical reflection, publish it along with the film opening itself to this very blog.

Thrilling Discoveries

  After some thinking, I've decided that I want my genre to be a thriller. Specifically, one that involves a monster (or in my specific case, a really vicious animal) that the characters must survive and defeat. When working in such a specific genre, I naturally did some research on these types of movies to gather ideas for how I want to approach my film opening.

Deep Blue Sea

Yesterday, I watched a movie called Deep Blue Sea, which is one that I feel is somewhat similar to what I want to do. The opening features a common feature in these types of movies, which is a set of characters who only exist to be victims of the central threat, in this case, sharks. There are POV shots from the perspective of a shark swimming underwater, which build anticipation before it's grand reveal as it breaks through the bottom of the boat. There's also the visual of the boat rocking, an element of motion which also builds anticipation in the audience in relation to the shark's size. This technique of hiding the creature from the viewer is one that I want to use, both for the purpose of building suspense and for practical reasons. One thing I like about this opening is how it subverts expectations by having the shark hit with a harpoon before it's able to kill anyone, which goes against what the audience would expect.

Life

Life is a film that I found during my research, and from what I can gather is a thriller about the crew of a spaceship who discovers a lifeform from Mars. The opening scene is done primarily as a long take, showing a team of astronauts recovering the lifeform from a capsule. It builds mystery, as we don't know exactly what's in the capsule for a majority of the scene. The suspenseful nature of the spacewalk one character goes on to retrieve it establishes the tone for the majority of the film. One common thread I'm noticing in these movies is the theme of science. Although it's not shown in the opening, Deep Blue Sea is set on an aquatic research base doing experiments with genetic modification, and Life is about astronauts conducting research in space. The idea here is that the film's monsters are the results of science gone too far, which is an idea that I find fascinating and would like to incorporate into my project.

Malignant

So in all honesty, Malignant is a movie that I don't really like, but I do have to admit the opening scene is excellent, so after it popped up in search results I rewatched that scene for my research. The main element of this opening that I love is the chaos. The way that the viewer is immediately dropped into the action, and the way the camera frames the action in off-kilter angles with frantic cuts puts the viewer on edge as soon as the film starts. It also establishes the mystery of "Gabriel", as the audience knows that he's dangerous even though they don't know what he is. Like the other films, this one continues the trend of science and medicine gone wrong, which seems to be very important to these kind of monster thrillers. It also contains the trend of minor characters who exist as initial victims. I've come to the conclusion that these are both elements that I want to include in my opening for a thriller movie.