CCR#1

 Okay so now that I'm almost done with editing and completely done with filming, I wanted to reflect on my process with the CCRs (creative critical reflections). The first question I'm addressing is "How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?"

    I started by coming up with an idea, I wanted to be talking to the camera like they were a person who just showed up at my house. I thought it would be funny and make the CCR more interesting. After that I wrote the a script for the first question. 

Script:

How'd you get in my house

Okay umm... come inside I guess

Just stay there a second, I'll go get my parents

Huh, oh you're here to see me

about my AICE media project, oh okay

umm, what do you want to know

How does my product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues

Right... how about we take this conversation into my room

Okay so I guess I should start with the first part of your question

My product is a family drama so it follows the convention of focusing on the relationships between family members and, bonus it takes place in 2026 potentially giving nostalgia for this time in the future. 

There are also many bright colors used that comfort viewers.

I chose to follow these conventions because I felt they helped boost the story instead of drawing a box around it like some of the other conventions would.

Where my project might differ from genre conventions is in the immediate deeper feelings of the characters. Family dramas are made to be fun and comforting for the most part, but in my opening I wanted to show the tension between the two sisters and especially showcase how the oldest is dealing with it. 

This emotion would typically be found nearing the end of a movie because the target audiences are kids to young teens making it necessary for the emotions to be almost watered down.

The target audience for my project is teens of all ages, I changed this convention because I wanted to be able to make the girls feelings the main conflict in the story

I guess that transitions into the second part of your question

So my main characters Makayla and Kimberley are both struggling with how they view each other and through that, themselves. 

I didn't specially mention their struggles in my opening but I alluded to them by showing the mess that is Makayla's side of the bathroom in comparison to the perfect organization that is Kimberley's side.

In this project I really wanted to represent the complex relationship between sisters during their teenage years and how just the presence of a sister could change the entire trajectory of someone's life

Yes sisters love each other and want to protect each other, but sometimes they also want their individuality

There isn't really a problem with that until they start twisting their personalities and views just to be as different from the other

These characters embody this by being the exact opposite of each other in present day, but being very similar in flashbacks.

In my story, both girls have changed themselves so completely because of how similar they actually are.

Editing:

    After that I filmed everything and put the videos into Clipchamp 

Here is the link to the first question:

CCR#1.mp4 

Final thoughts:

I really liked this question because it allowed me to really think about why I was creating this project. I knew the reason but its been weeks since I started brainstorming so this CCR was a nice way to focus on the meaning behind my project, not just the mechanics of it.

Editing obstacles

 Now that my editing is closer to being completed I wanted to talk about some of the obstacles that I'm facing during the process. 

    Really the biggest obstacle is uploading all of the clips to my computer. I filmed everything on my phone so it takes FOREVER for the shots to get on my computer. I had to find a way to work on another part of the project while videos were being uploaded. 

this is a video of all the things I've had to upload to my computer, just today!

    Another issue I've been facing is just making all the scenes transition well into each other, I'm not a pro editor by any means so I'm really trying my best to make everything look seamless. Every time I think this one transition looks perfect, I go back and watch it and I don't like it anymore. I even went as far as asking my sister to look at what I have and tell me if it was good because I might have been staring at it too long. She watched it, then started laughing. 

    Something else that is causing a little bit of an annoyance is the audio. I knew going into the editing stage that audio in Clipchamp doesn't move with the video, if it does, I don't know how to make that happen. Anyway, every single time I need to fix something about the video, the entire audio gets messed up and I have to go back and put all the sounds in their spots. Its not really that big of a deal, but it makes editing a whole lot harder and take a whole lot longer.

Conclusions:

    Basically, editing is hard. I still have a good portion of the video left to edit and my plan is to finish editing completely by this Sunday. However, by the rate I'm going and based on how long it took me to even edit this much, I really don't know if that's a reasonable expectation anymore. I'll try to complete the entire thing as planned, but if I don't I still have until March 17th to finish it. Anyway, I will keep you updated on how it goes!

group meeting #2

   Today we had our second group meeting! We all went around the table and talked about how our projects are going. I had Jacob in my group again so it was cool to see how his project progressed. This was really helpful to see how others viewed their project and compare that to how I viewed mine.

    Sebastian went first and his idea was pretty cool. He is actually in the same group as Alejandro from my first meeting. It was really cool seeing how they both described their project differently. For his project we mostly talked about how he was going to get the different cars and where he was planning on filming. He found some good spots to simulate a car show and race because a real car show would be too complicated to film around.

    Next Hayden went and she had this really cool thriller idea. She needs access to a classroom to film, so its a little bit difficult, but we all suggested different ways she could film. I actually suggested using my old math teacher because I know she would let her film in her classroom. Another option for her is our Drama teacher, I thought this would be a very good idea because she can act. Another reason why this might be the best option is because Hayden has been in the program for a long time and her main actor is also in the program so this teacher might be more willing to help her.

    Jacob was next up with his boxing movie idea. He had some of his ides from the first meeting fall through and he no longer has a place to film so we suggested a few different locations in our home town that might let him film. The rest of my group was a little bit confused on Jacob's idea so I helped them understand it better. 

    Then Chase went, his idea was really cool. He wanted to do this car crash and have the rest of his movie be about how the main characters' wife was dead and he was hallucinating her. He had this plan to drive and then slam on the brakes to make his phone fall and simulate a crash, I really liked the idea of it but I was nervous that someone would get hit in the head with a flying phone. He reassured me that he was going to be careful. Other than that I loved his idea.

    Vitor went afterwards and basically had his entire thing done. He has this whole plan for a band movie where the main character is the only one who actually knows what he's doing. I can tell he's thought a lot about every detail of his project. Really the group was just making sure that one little part of his idea could be clearly represented in the opening of his project.

I got this picture from Pinterest :

How I picture Vitor's project

    For my turn the group was surprised how much I had done. They said I had a good idea and knew what to do with it. However, they made a few suggestions about my CCR, they said that they liked my idea but that I should be carful with how I film it and that I should remember to add pictures of my actual project to it. They thought that I was doing good but I should make sure to manage my time correctly. Their critiques were really helpful too see what I need improvement on and fix it for the remainder of my time working on this project.

Final thoughts:

    The advise they gave was really helpful and made me feel better about what I've done for my project because they really liked it. These group meetings are so helpful in helping me organize my thoughts and think from the viewers prospective. I hope my input helped the rest of my group the same way they've helped me with mine!

1st day of editing!

     Hiii! Okay I'm finally starting the editing process!

    I wanted to use a software that I'm familiar with to make sure this project is the best I can make it so I'm using Clipchamp to edit the videos together, add the sound, and add other effects. 

    I started out by choosing the takes that I wanted to use in the final product. I knew I wanted the final take of the scene with the younger version of the girls, but I filmed a lot of takes for the other shots and needed to choose which one I liked best. 

    After choosing the videos I was going to use, I added them all into Clipchamp and started playing around with the order of the videos. I already had a plan based on my storyboard; however, I looked at the actual product and realized I could make it more visually interesting. 

Time lapse of editing today:

Part 1

Part 2 

(They were too long to do them in one part, sorry)

color grading 

Conclusions:

    Because today is the first day I'm editing this project, I wanted to get a feel for it and have an actual vision for the final product. I got around halfway through the video portion, started playing with the colors, then called it a day. Most of my posts this week will be about editing and finalizing my portfolio project, so don't worry I'll work on it more throughout the week and update you later!

Filming is finished!

    In my last post I said that I had completed filming for my project but I wanted to to talk a little but more about some of the challenges during the filming process. But first here is a screenshot of my camera roll with all the different takes!

    Before filming I planned everything out, inevitably some things didn't go according to that plan. There were a few main issues. One thing that caused an issue was that it took WAY longer than I originally thought it would to film the takes of the younger version of the characters. We started really late because even though the girls agreed to it, when their mom dropped them off she didn't know what was happening. That was entirely my fault, I should've talked to her directly instead of asking the girls to confirm that it was okay. Eventually she agreed to let them do the scene. Another set back with this scene was that I planed for it to be at most 30 minutes of filming, but no matter how much I explained what I wanted them to do, it wasn't exactly what I wanted. I eventually got a product I was happy with. The reason why this was such a setback was because I was planning on filming other scenes that day, but by the time they went home it was almost midnight and honestly I wanted to go to bed.

This is a screenshot of me showing one of the girls what she should do.

    Even though this was inconvenient, I was able to catch up by filming the scenes I wanted to film on a day I had extra time. I ended up filming those particular shots after my cheer practice so that's why I was in my cheer uniform in some of the behind the scenes shots.

This is a photo of me making sure the camera was straight in my cheer uniform.

    Another thing that went wrong was I didn't account for the mirror in the bathroom, I know I should have but I just didn't think about it when planning. I needed to find an angle that showed all the makeup, without my phone being in the shot. 

This is an example of one shot where my phone was in the screen.

    I also didn't realize how much the makeup would irritate my eyes. They were watering the entire time I was trying to film. Because of this I had to redo my makeup in between shots, by the time I was done filming my eyes were completely red.

this is a picture I took showing how my makeup had already come off and how my eyes were irritated from it. (don't mind the bad angle, I only took one photo but I felt I needed to include this part of the process in my blog) 

Final thoughts:

    Despite these few challenges, I'm really happy with the shots I got and excited to edit! I also wanted to say how thankful I am for all the actresses who agreed to be a part of this. I'm especially thankful for my sister who was initially reluctant to help with this, but eventually agreed. I honestly learned a lot and had a great time filming this. I can't wait to see the final product!

Filming!

 Okay so, I've more or less had an idea about what I wanted to do sense the beginning of the project. Because of this I started trying to figure out how I would film this early on. I had already done my storyboard and script so I had a plan for how I was going to go about filming my opening

Day 1:

Here I wasn't in costume but I was trying to figure out how best to act in this scene.

In this video I was doing the same thing except I was also trying to figure out how to make the shot look good. (I figured it out later).

Day 2:

    After I knew what I was going to do for that, I wanted to film the shots where the credits are primarily going to go. As I've mentioned in previous posts this would be the close up of makeup.

these are screenshots from some of the shots I filmed that day.

This is a photo I took before I started filming that day (I wasn't in costume this either because I was only filming scenes without me in them)

This is a sped up version of me talking to the camera before a take.

Day 3:

    The next day the other actresses came over and I filmed the shot with them. I wanted them to look like they were playing and having fun together as they ran past the camera.

This is one take of this shot

Day 4:

    After I was done with all of the scenes I wasn't in I got into costume/ makeup and filmed the shots with me and my sister in them. After this day I was done with all my filming!

This is a selfie I took in showing off my costume and makeup

This was a video of me talking to the camera about my makeup and the scene.

This is a sped up video of one take of the scene

Conclusions:

During this time I learned so mush about how difficult yet rewarding filming can be. There were a lot of challenges during the filming process but in the end I'm happy how all my shots turned out. I'm so excited to edit them together and complete the opening part of my project. I'm getting ahead of myself. Anyways, I'm going to talk more about the challenges in a later post. I had a lot of fun filming and I'm happy with the outcome.

Planning fonts

 So I already discussed the font I used on my company logo but I also want to discuss the fonts I'm going to use for the rest of my opening. I used the app Canva to look at different fonts and decide which one would be best for my project. Fonts need to have a few main things, they need to be readable, they need to either enhance or blend in with the tone of the film, and they need to look good with the visuals behind them.

Genre conventions:

    Fonts that are common for a teen and family drama, they are easy to read and not memorable. Its also common for the font to look like its handwritten. They also display the content of the movie in one way or another. For example "Mean Girls" (2004)  has orange font, most likely referencing how Caty's personality is before American high school. "Cheaper by the Dozen" (2003) uses a bold serif font that isn't very memorable in and of itself; however, the accompanying images make it stand out. More modern movies tend to stray away from serifs, but the genre is known to use both.

"Cheaper by the Dozen" (2003)

"Mean Girls" (2004)

Credits:

    I wanted the font I choose for the names in the opening credits to be reminiscent of childhood, but still mature. I achieved this by choosing the font "Better Saturday". At first I thought I just wanted a font with serifs making it look more elegant, but then I started going through the fonts and realized that they didn't match my opening. I started thinking about some cursive fonts, while keeping in mind that it needed to be legible. I started looking at fonts that looked delicate and could remind me of little girls, but were also intricate enough that they could remind me of teenagers. I was between two fonts for a while because I thought both looked like they could match the tone and the feelings I'm trying to get across with my opening. "Amsterdam Three" was the one I wanted to go with at first because it was bolder and larger than the other fonts but I didn't like the way it displayed some specific letters. In the end I went with "Better Saturday" because I thought it matched my vision well and I liked how all the letters looked (specifically the M and the F).

Timelapse:

time lapse of credit font choice

Final Product:

Title Graphic:

    For the title graphic I wanted it to have the same tone as the rest of the film because the title is supposed to embody the what the entire film is about. I chose the title "Dust Bunnies" because it's a description of the sisters' relationship. Both the girls are unique in their own way but they're hiding their feelings and thoughts from each other. They're like the dust bunnies under a couch, they left each other severing their connections to real life. They are both trying everything they can to not be like the other. That was a little off topic but I wanted to give context for the title.

    Anyways, the fonts themselves represent the two different places the girls minds are in. The past where one is trying to forget and the other is clinging on, and the present where they are entirely different from each other. The cursive font has gray on its edges because it represents the whimsy of childhood being slowly consumed by the passage of time. The sharp and professional font with pink on its edges represents the present being held back by clinging to the past.

    For this font combination I was inspired by the movie "Love and Monsters" (2020), I liked how the words looked like what they said. The word love is pink and romantic, while the word monsters is bold and looks like its made out of stone.

"Love and Monsters" (2020)

Timelapse:

time lapse of title graphic

Final Product:

Conclusions:

    The fonts I chose for my opening didn't exactly follow genre conventions, but I think it was worth it because these deviations were made because the opening was enhanced by them. Of course I need to edit these into my final product, but I know exactly what I'm going to do now.

Domestika. (n.d.). 10 typefaces from movies. https://www.domestika.org/en/blog/3589-10-typefaces-from-movies 

Creative Market. (n.d.). Theatre fonts. https://creativemarket.com/blog/theatre-fonts

Indieground. (n.d.). Movie logo fonts: Exploring the typography of 30 classic films. https://indieground.net/blog/movie-logo-fonts-exploring-the-typography-of-30-classic-films/

Fonts used in film [Slide presentation]. (n.d.). SlideShare. https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/fonts-used-in-film/14524391

Company logo

     For my company logo my main goal was to create something that was animated. All the company logos I've seen have had an animated element to them so I wanted to mirror this with my own logo. A company logo doesn't need to be related to the project in content, but its important because its part of the credits. The movie needs to credit all the people who worked on it, but most also credit the company that produced or distributed it. Because of this, I wanted to create a logo for the fictional producer of my movie.

I started by using adobe express to figure out what I wanted to do.

Then I started brainstorming ideas for the name of the company and eventually came up with "Falling Star Studios".

Then I started going through different fonts, I liked Andreas Std but it was too light.

Bebas Kai was more like what I wanted, but I was really looking for a font with serifs.

I ended up choosing the font Girassol because it matches the idea I had for my font well. I also like that you can capitalize letters but the non capital letters also look like they're capitalized.

I tried to animate these lines to make it look like they were shooting stars but I didn't like it and got a better idea instead.

I decided that I would take the star at the top of the logo and make it move around the screen so it looked like it was getting closer to the camera until it eventually took up the whole screen. At first I only had 11 different pictures, but I realized that if I wanted to make it actually look like its moving seamlessly, I needed to add more images.

Then I decided to go into ClipChamp and edit the pictures together. This was to see if I could even animate it and get an idea of what it would look like finished.

This is what my first attempt at animating it looks like! I liked it but I wanted the background to be black not white and at the end I tried to make the star move in a circle and I didn't like how that looked.

This is the final company logo, I like it because it looks more professional than my first attempt. I also like the animation of the growing star better.

This is the link to a time lapse of how I created the final product:

Company logo editing time lapse 

Final thoughts:

    

    Overall I think I did a good job making the company seem real. I'm going to put this at the very beginning of my film before the opening credits start. On top of this, I also want to edit and create the title for my film, so I'll post about that soon. I think this logo will make my opening look more realistic and give a scene of professionalism to my project. Before creating this logo I had never animated before, so this process contained a lot of trial and error. Despite this I am very happy with how the final project turned out.

Moore, S. (2024, August 28). The basics of film screen credits. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/schuylermoore/2024/08/28/the-basics-of-film-screen-credits/ 

Sounds!

        

    So for my opening, sounds are an integral part of making it make sense. I know that I want to have different clips of the girls laughing and playing layered together while the video shows Makayla remembering these times. Along with that I wanted to have a little bit of screen time dedicated to the girls eating dinner together after the opening, so I would record the sounds of forks hitting plates, chewing, breathing and bracelets hitting the glass table. Other than those, the foley I have to record are mostly things like breathing and footsteps. I don't want any diegetic music to be playing during these scenes because I want to focus on how the sounds and then awkward silence, influence the sisters.

    I wanted to go shot by shot and explain what sounds I want for each part. This will help me know what I'm planning to record, and get a better idea of what I'm going to be doing in each part.

• breathing
• footsteps
• air conditioning
• Makayla bumping into the door frame
• The background audio of the girls when they were still young (I talked about exactly what was going to happen for this in the script)

• breathing gets louder because she gets closer
• elbows hitting the counter
• air conditioning
• the audio of the girls (this is all in her head)

• Just the younger version of the girls 

• The same things as before 
• breathing
• air conditioning
• the girls (but this time they're more upset with each other)

• just the sisters making up and being happy again

• Just the air conditioning (this is such a quick scene, like two seconds long)

  

• footsteps
• laughter

                                                                                                                

• the audio from the past gets really loud and blocks out any sounds that might be happening in the present

• doors slamming

• breathing
• air conditioning

• door opening
• handle twisting
• the creak of the hinges
• hand falling to side
• air conditioning

•  footsteps
• shoulders hitting as Kimberley pushes Makayla out of the way
• air conditioning

• forks hitting plates
• chewing
• breathing
• bracelets hitting glass table
• air conditioning

Audio:

Children playing

Giggle #1

laugh

Giggle #2

Fighting

Background noise

company logo sound

Forks

Conclusions:

    So this is my plan at the moment for all the sounds happening, but once I film some of these scenes I might want to add some sound that makes it more realistic. Overall, I think I did a pretty good job including every sound I want the audience to hear in each shot. However, I will keep you posted about any changes I make. I included all the audio I found on Freesound.org and the rest I'm planning to do foley of. If anything changes, I will post about it here.

Beverly Boy Productions. (n.d.). How to layer sound in film. https://beverlyboy.com/filmmaking/how-to-layer-sound-in-film/ 

costumes!

    For their costumes I wanted the girls to have outfits that accurately display their different personalities. Just like the props the outfits for their older selves need to also show their separation but the younger actresses can have more similar costumes. To start out I wanted to create a mood board specifically for each one of their outfits. I was able to make these mood boards using photos from Pinterest and compiling them into one place on Canva. 

Mood boards:

    I wanted the outfits for the flashbacks to match the style of 

2010's fashion for children. So either bright pink and purple colors or light blues and grays. I also want one of them to wear pigtails while the other has hair clips holding her hair out of her face. I wanted them to wear either very small earing or no earrings at all, to show how young they are. In the 2010's people wore a lot of graphic tee's so I want at least one of them to wear that or just a solid color like blue or pink. Friendship bracelets were a big part of the 2010's so a sister should wear one or multiple. I also want them to match a little bit, not wearing the same outfit, but clothes that are the same style. This would show the closeness of their relationship.

    For Kimberley's costume design she should have shorts and ether a workout shirt, a crop top, or a spots jersey. The shorts should either be jean shorts or shorts for working out. She should wear her hair down and straight. For shoes she should wear either Uggs or Sambas. I want the tone of her outfit to be very reminiscent of the popular girls in high school. I want it to show that even though she's in middle school, she wants to look more grown up and in style. The only reason why she wouldn't wear something that is considered "popular" is if she is wearing a jersey, and even then she would make it match her style. Kimberley doesn't want to dwell on the past, her costume reflects this. She wears exactly what everyone else is wearing at that time showing that she lives in the present as much as possible.

    

    Makayla's outfit is very burgundy but she could also wear something white or dark blue. She she should wear a tang top but she should have a sweater or cardigan over it. She should wear flare jeans, they could be either low rise or mid rise, but I would prefer low rise. Right now I want her hair to be up, but I might also try a few takes with her hair down because I might like it cascading over her face in a few shots. I would say that she should wear boots or converse, but I know for a fact that I don't have any shoes like them and when I went shopping I couldn't find any that matched my idea for her outfit. So I went with plan B which is white sneakers. I want her outfit to be based off looks from the 2000's so it can show how she's stuck in the past. This contrasts with her sister once again showing that the problems with their relationship go a lot deeper than just petty fights.

Pictures: 

    I wanted to use these mood boards to pick out clothing that the characters could wear during the scenes. I was able to find most of the pieces in either my sisters or my own closet, but I had to go shopping for a few things. I was able to facetime the actresses who play the younger versions of Makayla and Kimberley so I could choose what they should wear from their closets. 

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

    These are a few options for Makayla's costume, but my favorite is #2 just because I really like the sweater with those jeans. I think all of these outfits fit her character except for maybe #1, but I wanted to try out that character not wearing something with long sleeves. For the actual opening, I'm probably going to go with #2 for the costume.

    Unfortunately I wasn't able to get pictures of the costumes for the younger girls because I picked them out over facetime and I thought the picture quality would be bad if I took a screenshot. However, I have already filmed the flashback scene so I thought I could put the first take on here to show the outfits.

And here is the link just in case the embedded video doesn't work: 

Flashback take #1(shows costumes)

#1

#2

#3

#4

    For Kimberley's costumes I wanted to showcase some of the outfits I think she should wear but the actress playing her is wont wear something if she doesn't like it at that moment, so even though she did sign off on these costumes, they're subject to change when I film the scenes with her. However, the actress and I both agreed that #1 looks the best. I like that one because I think it suites the character the best. She likes to wear shorts and crop tops, and I think jean shorts will be the best in the context of this scene.

    Just to give an idea of what they might look like, here are some photos of the actress. I specifically chose her because I know that even if she decides against costume #1 on filming day, her outfit will fit the character anyway. 

For the costumes of the flashback scene I wanted to consider what I was wearing during that time, and kind of translate it to the mood board and in extension, the actual costumes of the actresses. So here are some photos that I based my costume ideas on.

Final thoughts:

    Overall I think the costumes for my project are going to be accurate to the personalities of the characters and the time the scene takes place. I'm happy that I was able to find this clothing and use it to make the film opening more realistic. I think I've motioned before that I want the audience to feel nostalgic while watching the flashback scenes. I also want them to get a good scene of who the characters grew up to be, and I think these costumes are an amazing way to showcase this.