Creative Critical Reflection

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Final Project

Editing Time :)

   Our group has started editing and everything is coming out just like we imagined it would. Or i guess how I imagined because I'm the only one that hasn't seen any of the shots because I was on camera the whole time. The forest scene has definitely been the hardest to edit for a couple reasons. The first is because it is a very fast paced scene with  many many shots.The scene is very hectic and intense so we will also need to add some fast yet creepy music too it.

     The second reason is because of our final shot in the forest where Daniel's parents disappear when the camera trucks to the right behind Daniel's head. This is hard to edit because I moved a little further down from the first shot to the second and even though it was only a slight move it is enough to notice from one shot to the other. To fix this we will have to just use one of the shots but when the shot moves over to my right shoulder we will have to mask that whole part of the image so my "parents" don't show up. 

     These have really been the only problems we've had while editing but I'm sure we will work through it and it will look great. Im really happy with how our film opening is progressing everyday and I honestly can't wait to see the final product (which will be my next blog post). Till next time!

    

Filming Day 2!

   Today we filmed our final scene with Daniel in the doctors office. We started the scene off with a point of view shot of Daniel waking up to bright lights and dozing off in the Doctors office. Daniel then begins to have flashbacks of his parents accident. The transitions we are planning to use will be very subtle and therefor will help show how Daniel is not sure what is reality and what is not.

    Daniel wakes up in the doctors later after his hallucination in the woods. He seems very nervous  to be there and is looking around the room tapping his feet and hands. Daniel then his name gets called to go see the doctor and the scene ends. We are very happy with everything we filmed and are excited to edit this part of the video along with the forest scene. In my next blog post I will be talking about the editing process of our film intro :).

Filming Day 1!

Today we filmed our first two scenes in the forest at Markham Park. one is the scene after Daniel passes out in the doctor office and wakes up in the creepy forest and the other is the car crash where Daniel's parents die.

Over the shoulder shot of Daniel (me) reaching out to parents

     We came in with a story board of the basic things we wanted to film but we also came up with many new ideas on the spot. For example we thought of a great idea to have Daniels parents (played by two other group members Gaby and Felipe) standing all creepy next to each other in the forest calling his name and saying "Daniel come with us" while they are walking away. Daniel proceeds  to chase after his parents but can never seem to catch up. He gets closer and closer until he trips over a log, in a last ditch effort he extends his arm towards his parents, shown in an over the shoulder shot but they are too far away. The camera begins to move from Daniels left shoulder to behind his head till his parents aren't visible anymore and finally, when the camera gets past Daniel's head and over his right shoulder his parents are gone.

Car Crash Scene

    The next scene we filmed was the car crash. To make it look somewhat believable and for some cool shots we bought a glass bottle and broke it to look like broken glass from a car window. I ended up cutting my finger in multiple places but then i just continued to rub the blood on the bottle (as you can see in the picture) to make it look even more believable but then Agustina made me put a band aid on :(. We filmed this scene with close ups in and outside of the car and with a shot from the floor of me walking over the broken glass and going a picking up  what are supposed to me my "mom's" glasses that were on the floor after the crash. We are really happy with what we accomplished today and cant wait to start editing these scenes and film the last one in the doctors office tomorrow!

Daniel Trama

One of the most important thing to do while making a film is establishing the main characters background, and that's what we decided to do. His name is Daniel Trama and he is 19 years old and currently attending college. In mystery films, the main character usually has some sort of important issue or is attempting to solve a crime or mystery. So, I think of it as one type of mystery movie being from the detective point of view and the other from the victims. Mystery movies don't have to involve a crime, rather just a series of events that the viewer doesn't understand and needs to be tied together. 
   Our main characters as I stated in previous blogs has PTSD and experiences strong hallucinations of him being in places he really isn't. I will need to be wearing very dark clothing and wear makeup to show bags under my eyes (or actually stay up for two days straight.....just kidding) to show the dark and creepy feeling.
    It is important for me and my group to further expand Daniels image to help establish the tone of the scenes to draw our viewer in. In my next post I will be talking about acting and hopefully research some tips to help me portray such a complex character.

the deadline is near!

Soooooo the deadline for this project is coming a lot quicker than expected. It also doesn't help having a group member missing for a whole week after Spring Break. Nevertheless our group is still confident that we will finish this project on time and it will come out just as we expect it will :). 

    Since I will be the main actor in this film I have been doing some research on PTSD and how people with it act. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that can develop after experiencing a traumatic event, or learning that a traumatic event has happened to a loved one. People with PTSD may experience other problems as well, including depression, other anxiety problems, or acting-out behaviors. To play this character I will need to act very distant and "in my own head" most of the time to be portrayed as someone with PTSD. Some common situations  of people with PTSD are: 

·       Avoiding contact with, or reminders of, the traumatic event

·       Declining grades or academic failure

·       Engaging in high risk or dangerous behaviors

·       Trouble making friends, dating, and development of meaningful relationships

·       Restricting life plans or reduced ambition

·       Social withdrawal

     I do not have much acting experience so it may be hard to play such a difficult role but I am usually a fast learner so it most likely wont be a problem. (:
p.s I don't know why it won't let me fix this^ :(

Acting

    As I stated in my last blog post I will now be talking about acting.I researched some things that I think will help me be comfortable on camera and portray my character well. One of the tips is to relax and just take a deep breath. I read that It helps a lot of people to tense up their entire body and keep it that way for a few seconds. Then, just relax all your muscles. "Box breathing" is also Another method you can use. You Breathe in for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, and then breathe out for 4 seconds. The overall effect will calm you down.
    Another thing I can work on while on camera is to think about the little things my character would do such as picking at his finger nails or tapping his foot to show that he is nervous to be in public. Another thing I need to do when playing Daniel is to talk like him. Even if he doesn't have an accent you still need to consider their age, social status, beliefs, ect.
    Two of my other group members Felipe and Agustina also both have experience with acting so they can always give me some pointers too while we are filming. Acting will be a key role in establishing the tone and genre right from the start.
"How to Act." (with Pictures). Web. 02 Apr. 2016.

Lighting Research!

  I'm starting to research popular conventions throughout mystery movies. Suspense throughout the movie is often maintained as an important plot element. This can be done through the use of the soundtrack, camera angles, heavy shadows, and surprising plot twists. Alfred Hitchcock used all of these techniques, but would sometimes allow the audience in on a pending threat then draw out the moment for dramatic effect. 

 You can get these heavy shadows by using low key lighting to create a somewhat sinister look. Felipe just told me that if we film at his dads office we can use professional lights which would help us a lot in our production. For the scene in the forest we are going to use more natural lighting either from the moon or we can use high key lightning to create what looks like natural light for our film.

"Lighting Used in Thriller/Mystery Films." Prezi.com. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.

 "Blog." Low Key Lighting. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. 

I am the chosen one

    Today our group discussed what we would like our main character to look like. We decided that we wanted the kid to look like a young Jason Bateman. Jokingly I stated that it should be me because people have told me i look like him in the past. To my surprise my fellow group members were fine with the idea. 

     We decided that I would just be how I normally am but just dressed in dark clothes to try to set the mood. Our main character Daniel will be very distant from everyone and somewhat of a loner. Obviously, with his mental condition it isn't the easiest thing for him to make friends. Daniel doesn't know what his issue is yet and that's why he is at the doctors office. Daniel has flashes of memories but he can't seem to place them. I think this character will be pretty easy for me to portray and I'm excited to be the main subject.

Locations

   Location will be a crucial aspect when it comes to the production of our film opening. Our setting will help set the tone of our film right off the bat.
 
   For the opening scene in the doctors office I think it should be very well lit in the beginning but once he falls asleep and wakes back up it should be very dark and scary. Our group thought that we should film this scene in our school nurses office because it is the most reasonable and convenient location.
 
 
The other main location we decided to use is Markham park for the forest scene the second time the main character wakes up. I've been all throughout the park and can already think of so many creepy areas we can film this scene.
 
We are very confident that these locations will get the job done for our production because of how accessible they are to us and they will help set the tone for our film.

Sound check 1, 2

One other thing my group and I haven't really discussed is the sound we will be using throughout our scenes. Given that our character has social problems he probably won't be talking to other characters and therefor we will be using a combination of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds.
    Diegetic sound is sound clearly coming from the narrative world. Examples of this are dialogue, music in a car, or footsteps. Non-diegetic sounds are sounds not visible in the narrative world, which means that the character on the screen does not hear or does not make the noises the audience is hearing such as music to help dramatize the scene.
     Another thing our group thought would be cool to use is an internal  monologue so we still have some sort of dialogue but is just in his head. While this may be an interesting idea it may not seem very natural and either way we will be including lots of diegetic sounds.

   To create an interesting film for your audience to thoroughly enjoy, one must  choose specific camera angles and transitions between these angles that help best tell the story. I feel that how one tells a story is infinitely more important than what that actual story is. Although it's the overall story that makes a story good it is the directors way of showing the information that makes the film great.

   Although we've chosen a variety of angles in our storyboard we've constructed, the point of view angle is clearly something we would like to incorporate in this film. The point of view angle is personal and intimate and allows to viewer to immerse themselves in the film. We'd like a point of view angle to be the opening shot, with a black vignette symbolizing blinking. This will immediately put the viewer in the head of the character and It also establishes the location of a waiting room.

      Transitions between the waiting room and the hallucinations in the forest and other settings are also very important. We would like to be creative in these cuts and maybe even cut from his eye in the waiting room to his eye in the forest or something in the shape of his eye like in the bathtub scene in the movie "Psycho"  starting at the 2:50 mark. 

 Newcarscent7. "The Famous Shower Scene From "Psycho"" YouTube. YouTube, 2009. Web. 03 Apr. 2016. 

Pod Meeting

Yesterday our class met in the pods at the Media Center with other classmates to discuss the progress of our projects. It was very helpful to brainstorm with other people I haven't talked to yet and although we are kind of changing the direction of our project I think it will come out very well. 

We decided to change our idea to a psychological thriller. Our main character gets diagnosed with PTSD and has been having paranoia since his parents death. He suffers from hallucinations and flashbacks so the viewer never really knows if what he's experiencing is real or not. We decided to start off the film with a pov shot of him in a waiting room of a new therapist office, trying anything to help his condition feeling that everything is hopeless and nothing will ever work. He wakes up and his name is being called by the therapist and thats when he starts having severe hallucinations. The viewer isn't sure what exactly is wrong with him but they know something is up. 

I think this idea could be very good and we will obviously continue to work with it. This will allow us to work with different techniques to have a "trippy" effect and I believe it will come out very well.

Excited To Be Back

3/4ths of my group has just arrived home from Atlanta. We are all excited to get back to our lone group member at school and finally get this project rolling. We understand we are a little behind but we are willing to work hard to catch up and don't think it'll be a problem.

Inspiration In Atlanta

I haven't been in school all week to work on the project because I am out of town for a television production/film convention in Atlanta. While in Atlanta i got the pleasure of watching many student made videos and one in particular I saw today stood out for this project. One of the contests you can compete in is Movie Trailer and the one I saw was for a mystery movie. The shots that they used to show suspense and mystery gave me and my other partners there with me great ideas for shots and how to introduce our characters.

Day 1 Final Project

My group and I have decided to do a mystery film opening. We are all really excited about this because we feel it will be different from all the others. I have been looking at examples of mystery shows and movies such as Sherlock, Clue and And Then There Were None. Im excited to use different elements from these examples in our own production.