Creative Critical Reflection!

Hi! My name is Carey Joyce and I am in 10th grade in the Cambridge program and throughout this year I developed with my partner Aden Mangones the film opening ALONE. To start off, I will begin with discussing how our products challengs uses common horror genre cliches and how represents differen social issues.

I would say that going into this project we really looked at so many of the classic horrors such as Scream, The Shining, etc. Going into this we knew it was super important that through this film opening we hooked our readers. So, to do this we PLAYED into the genre.

How? The ominous music, dark ambiance, and the unsettling angles. All of this was super important to us in the way we used the conventions of the genre to work FOR us. However, I would say that despite playing into the conventions considerably. An angle we didn’t use purposefully were any extreme close ups. We wanted to always keep a stalking distance between the victim and killer... until the very end.

The idea of gender played a role as well. We wanted to play in that stereotype “girl home alone” and give our own spin to the story! It is quite well known that women * home alone are often targeted as a victim. And I would say in our short film opening we played this fear considerably.

Another thing I would love to talk to you guys about is how our product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

This whole film opening was built on SUSPENSE. From the beginning, we introduced Ella to a vulnerable position. Outside alone with her tiny white dog. All be it the dog's name is Fang... BUT the dog is a white small fluffy dog. We did also include the dogs name being fang to add a sense irony and humor as most thrillers will include as well. BUT we defiently do know Fang is not going to do much to protect Ella.

Another considerable aspect of hooking the audience was that we used angles alluding to something that MAY happen. Not to mention suspenseful music. AND all the foley we included to add depth to the film. This was such tedious process, as the lead editor, I will say this process KILLED me. But Aden and I learned early, ESPECIALLY, to horrors that we cannot skimp out on the detailed digetic and non-digetic sound. Obviously, to get this distributed we’d begin finding a company willing to fund and release this film. Whether it be DreamWorks or Paramount pictures we would find a good fit for our film. As we start out small and get on our feet to produce this thrilling horror. Following that trailers, cross-media convergence, advertisements. Such as working with Matel to develop a barbie of me as the main character Ella. Partial the barbie idea comes to mind in order to develop a wider age range considring horrors rarely meet older kid or twens eyes and including would defiently increase profit. Even including PLENTY of advertisements on social media is something we know would have to include. I would also display plenty of trailers through every social platform we would could get them too. At the end of the day, we’d get the word out!!

 

Question 3: How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

Moving on, how did my production skills grow through this project. Where to begin... I have grown through this entire process. From the research to editing. The amount of growth is mind boggling. As an amateur film maker, I have grown to find a clear appreciation for shots. For instance, our use of still shots and Dutch angles. Were all super important and took quite a few tries to get right. The intricacies of these scenes were also a learning curve for me. Learning to be hyper-vigilant seeing the inconsistencies between shots that need to be the same. Obviously, there were some things that were out of our control. For instance, the scene of me walking inside had our pool. Unfortunately, it had developed a leak days before we taped that scene. It was huge bummer given that there was a clear continuity issue within the film opening and being outside taking out the dog. However, this would not have been an issue if this was a major motion picture we were making because we would have been able to control this variable.

Expand on the creation and use of audio?

Now, when it comes to editing. SO much was learned from this process. For starters, creating, importing, and placing ALL the sounds. Aden and I included the use of every little sound. For the footsteps, I used my crocs on the concrete outside and recorded footsteps. This sounds simple, however, to match the footsteps up correctly with the film. I had my iPad set up nearby to look at each step taken in the rhythm I took it. Not to mention, there was a singular step taken in grass which I recorded! When it came to importing them into cap cut. I learned that once recording them I saved them to my designated Media studies file. After that, I clicked import audio in the top left which I imported any needed selected files. Then I synced and matched each footstep shown on camera. As you might expect this was a little tedious but a rewarding process. And I did this to every little movement, such as taking out the mail or taking the leash off “fang”. Then through trial and error, and more trial and more error. I learned what looked good in the movie and what didn’t. For instance, I learned how to match and find music that really added to the film opening. Also, how this music lines up and blends with the different audios and sound effects. My partner Aden pointed out that the blend between the shot of the list and still shot of Ella taking out the dog would be better fit with an L cut from music to crickets! To specify, while both of us were included in every single aspect of this project — I took the lead an editing but Aden was giving ideas and helping throughout the entire process like the team player he is.

 

Another major part of our project, was editing the text this was done at the end of the editing process! We shuffled through many of the options that were included for the text options. We ended up choosing a slanted crisp font that showed the level of regalness we wanted to bring based on our setting. Aden and I landed on a white font to counterbalance the black background. And while the names were spread through the entire film opening. We also really did enjoy how the stop motion ALONE flipped through frames along with the names.

 

For our final steps, of uploading to Youtube and embedding our video. I had to learn how to export it correctly to my YouTube account from Cap Cut! That involved a bit of mistakes and too many saved files... But! Once I figured out that to export you must export first then sign into YouTube; I was able to upload!!  As well, before uploading I titled my film opening and used the last title sequence picture as the cover.

To continue, technology has obviously been super important in this class! From our cameras to our computers!! Today, I would love to expand more on how the use of editing and computers were integrated for me!! When it came to edit ing, I went through a whole rollercoaster with the use of software. I began using Hit Film after doing research and discovering it had good reviews! However, ... After beginning to use this program we quickly ran into clear issues with the software all around. It simply had a lot of “premium” features and was slow to run. We knew this software was not for us. So!! We downloaded Cap Cut!! This software was more user friendly. I learned how to import audio, files for media, add effects, and time ALL the audio. I expanded on this much further in my blog posts. But learning to edit this film to what would look and sound the best was a HUGE process. Also, add in J and L cuts where it was needed for a more cohesive sounding film. This was an amazing learning experience to understand the process of recording much more clearly. And I loved doing it with my partner with Aden. And I really hope you enjoyed this director's commentary and our film opening Opening which you can check out in my last blog post.