When Corina (my project partner) and I began to think of our genre of choice, we immediately thought about a few movies we both absolutely adore. These movies have helped us understand the overall genre of comedy because these movies have great comedic timing, which according to this article is very important. Comedic timing is important so that the actual delivery of jokes is funny, we must work on this so that our short film can be funny. The following movies are great at this timing.
One of Corina and I's favorite movies is Bottoms, it is a comedy that surrounds two girls who are starting a fight club at school to get their crushes to join it. This film has romantic aspects (trying to get their crushes) but it is a comedy first, which is something that has inspired us since we want our short film to be a comedy with some aspects on romance. This movie is also big on lgbtq+ representation, which we plan to have in our short film.
This film makes fun of conversion therapy, how terrible it is, and how it does not work. It involves a cheerleader being sent to it but has a lot of comedy aspects, it makes fun of the ridiculous things that are done in the films conversion therapy and how they are useless. This film also represents lgbtq+ relationships and has aspects of romance, but again, it's main focus is comedy. Even years later, this film is funny, it has jokes that everyone could laugh at. It is a great example of a comedy that has aspects of romance.
As we begin this project, we know we need to stay organized. Last year, i developed a project schedule to stay organized, which helped immensely. Since it's been a while, i found an article speaking about tips for making a schedule for a short film. It speaks about how though there may be obstacles, we must try and stick to the schedule the most that we can, which I agree with, for the most part, i stuck with my schedule last year, and I think if i hadn't I would've been a lot more stressed.
I thought this image was very true to how life can go when you have a schedule, but, it's totally possible to stick to it.
Anyway, here is my schedule for now:
2/15 to 3/9:
During this time, my project partner and i will be doing genre research, making our story board, script, and any sort of outlines. We will also make out shooting dates based on our availability and what we have going on outside of school. We will also be figuring out how we will go about the social media pages we must make. This time will pretty much the planning stage, which is really important so that we can make a good production. People underestimate how much planning can help a production, but it is crucial so that things can go smoothly.
3/10 to 3/30:
During this time, we will be shooting our short film, we will be taking weeks to do this since over shooting always helps when making a piece. We want it to be a comedy and have a very specific vision for this short film, so we want to make sure we do things right. We will also begin to edit during this time since that may take a while. Spring break occurs during this time, so we will try to use this time since we won't have school. I will also begin to research for my critical reflection during this time.
3/30 to 4/9:
Here, I will continue my critical reflection research as well as writing it, I will finish the project and post everything to my blog!
Hello! It's time to start my portfolio project, yay!! This is year I will be working with one of my best friends since the 6th grade, Corina (we have the same name, partially the reason we became friends). Corina and I have decided to partner up because we want to make a comedy short film (with aspects of romance). We have similar humor and like similar things (since we basically grew up together) that can help inspire our short film. We decided to do a short story because we had an idea for a story with a beginning, middle, and end.
We also both want to study communications in college, therefore, we both love marketing, which we need to do for this short film by making an instagram and a post card for a film festival. We both have good ideas for this aspect of the project that align, so we are also very excited to begin this aspect of the project.
Though we want our story to have some aspects of romance, we found this to be a really solid example of comedy, especially since that is the main premise of the film. I loved how this short film had a clear beginning, middle, and end, which is something my project partner and I really need to make sure is clear, and may be difficult to do in only five minutes, but this example helps me understand how that can be done in a short amount of time. The short film aspect is perfect since we know we want to have a full storyline, we had thought about doing trailers but we ultimately decided this would be the best choice for us. I'm so excited to begin this project!
My partner and I's documentary "The Stressful Application" focuses on the difficult college application process through two high schools senior's point of view.
We began our process by viewing documentaries in class as discussed in this blog post. We viewed documentaries such as American Promise and Exit Through the Gift Shop. Through these documentaries we were able to see the usual conventions utilized in documentaries, such as indirect and direct interviews. We also were able to view how and when b-roll was necessary and how it could help a documentary be engaging. Through these documentaries we realized how to properly structure our documentaries, which made our process go by a lot smoother.
As far as genre, we went for a more informational route, we wanted our audience to be enlightened about the application process. This was due to our purpose, which was to help upcoming seniors have a look into the process and to have seniors who are going through the process now feel less alone. We wanted to have specific statistic to include within our documentary so we could fully comprehend the process, therefore we began to research. These were the articles we utilized for our research:
As discussed in this blog post the first article allowed us to realize how many mental health issues come along with the stressful process of college applications. Though we already understood how stressful this process is since we are seniors, this article further reinforced just how terrible this process was. We learned the reason college applications affect teenagers mental health was that we simply do not have enough time for ourselves since we not only have these applications but we also have school work. The other article allowed us to comprehend just how many seniors are worried about this process. It also discussed how much little mistakes could completely make or break your college application, hence why so many seniors are so worried about their application being "perfect". This research lead us to discuss the juggling school work seniors have within our documentary and how stressful it was on them, however, in the documentary we realized we spoke too much about our experience rather then the general experience, which we didn't realize when originally making it.
Our target audience was individuals ages 15-18, all gender expressions, and those who were going through the college process. Originally, we wanted this documentary to be about how all seniors felt about the college process, but after some class feedback, we realized we made this documentary far to personal when speaking about our experience. Since we were both the makers of the documentary, the documentary might have came off as biased which was a problem. To fix this, we could have interviewed another subject, like a college councilor or another student. Interviewing ourselves made have made our actual overall purpose be less clear to audiences.
Here's us (the creators and interviewees) during our interviews
A lot of class critiques also mentioned the lack of music used in our documentary. During our b-roll we typically did voice over speaking about what we had found through our research or we made it silent because we thought it would work as a transition from one topic we were addressing to the other, however, according to class critiques without music incorporated it felt a bit awkward. Though most of our feedback was good for the footage we used for out b-roll, people did discuss a certain seen that felt jarring to them. The scene consisted of different flyers being thrown. Here's a photo of what it looked like:
Due to these mistakes, our audience did not always engage with our documentary in the way we wanted. We should have included more interviews with various perspectives, had stronger audio choices, and fix up our b-roll a bit in order for this documentary to be stronger and more engaging. When making this documentary we hadn't realized just how much mistakes we had made, but now knowing these small but important things we could fix, our next documentary could be much stronger.
We wanted to represent all students and the immense stress they have to go through, at first, we thought we were helping to represent all of seniors even though we were talking about our experience. But after reflecting, we've realized that when talking about our experiences, we we're far too specific and spoke about it from our perspectives.
Originally, we were going to interview people who were applying for very specific majors, like musical theatre and those applying for film programs, but we thought our documentary would be too messy that way. However, we should have stuck to that plan so our documentary would have been more broad and not just about us. We didn't realize how much of our bias was included within our documentary which made the piece not so generalizable to other upcoming seniors.
My project partner and I filmed interviews. These interviews were set up in my living room and we had used questions we had previously written. We tried to have the most authentic answers we could, so we didn't practice our responses too much before. We shot our interviews in the same place because we thought it looked better that way, but after some class feedback we realized we should have done it in two different places so it would've looked more interesting.
After filming our b-roll, we had to get started with editing, the outline we made when planning really helped us during this process since we knew how to structure the documentary. I did the editing but my partner helped a lot with creative direction since we were together at the same place so she saw me editing. We knew we wanted to add b-roll that was related to our responses while we were stating our responses, these clips would also allow for context and engage the audience. We added things like rolling credits at the end of our documentary and a intro which I made with Canva. Here is what the intro and rolling credits looked like.
My project partner and I began production for our documentary by filming some b-roll in school. We looked for college related flyers and also included our schools college and career center. This is some examples of what the footage we got looked like:
We also had to film more b-roll at home, we wanted to use these flyers my parents had gotten for me last year when I was researching colleges. We also filmed some b-roll of us looking at common app and of us scrolling through different college websites.
We thought these different shots of b-roll would be entertaining yet effective when conveying our message. We wanted the documentary to be entertaining and engaging so we tried to add b-roll to make it more fun to watch and help build context when discussing our different topics. The b-roll showed in the various documentaries we viewed in class helped us understand what type of b-roll would help the documentary properly progress and be more exciting.
My project partner and I did research for our documentary. Our topic was the college application process and our documentary is called The Stressful Application. We wanted to look at some articles to get a better understanding on the stress applications put on students.
In this article the psychological issues that come along with the application are discussed. My partner and I understood that the process was mentally draining on majority of students, but we wanted to do further research in order to understand how many students this really affected. This article allowed us to comprehend the toll applications can have on teenagers mental health.
This article also allowed us understand just how many students were stressed about this rigorous process, even the title was helpful to our understanding of the immense amount of students that are worried about this application. This article spoke about how even making small mistakes in a college application could slim your chances into getting in, hence why it is so stressful to complete these applications. Both of these articles allowed us to further understand just how stressful these college applicants have been going through. The research portion of this project was super interesting to do since I'm currently a high school senior and I recently applied to college.
As seen above, my partner and I also did some planning. We came up with an outline for the documentary and how we would organize it. Having watched documentaries as mentioned in the previous blog post, we had an understanding of how we should organize the documentary. We also came up with the main question and thesis of the documentary so we understood what was being addressed throughout the piece.
We also discussed our purpose, which helped us understand why we were making the documentary in the first place. We wanted for seniors to feel less alone, we wanted to show them that this application is stressful for all of us and that were in it together. We also wanted to give advice to upcoming seniors and give them a look into the process. We brainstormed twenty different shots we could do, it was helpful when filming to have shot ideas, it made the process very smooth. We also came up with some questions to ask during interviews which were connected with what we wanted to discuss.
In class, after having a lesson about documentaries, we watched some in order to visually understand the formats of them.
One of the first ones we saw was American Promise, this documentary followed two black boys through their education at a prestigious school in New York. It discussed growing up, racism, and the pressures of school such as parental pressure. This documentary really helped me understand the format used, like the indirect and direct interviews and the way the subjects were place on one side of the screen rather than in the middle. It also made me understand how to incorporate b-roll into my documentary.
Another documentary we watched that was called Exit Through the Gift Shop, this documentary spoke about famous street artists like Banksy. The documentary was originally being told through the perspective of a man now known as Mr. Brainwash but he did not know how to edit the film, so, Banksy took over the film. This documentary had a lot of hand held shots in the b-roll. which made the documentary feel more realistic, this was something I considered when making my documentary with my project partner.
We also viewed op-docs, these shorter documentaries were nice to watch since our project was meant to be 5 to 7 minutes, so it helped me understand how a shorter documentary would look. We got to watch the op-docs of our choice from the New York Times. One of the op-docs was named "Roaches Lullaby" it was super interesting and discussed roach problems in New York City. I also watched a op-doc called "Not for Money, Not for Love, Not for Nothing" which told the stories of women who did sex work in Wales, this op-doc was animated, which was very interesting to watch. Both of these op-docs helped further fuel my understanding the ways in which documentaries were formatted. The pieces included amazing examples of b-roll and how to organize a documentary so that it's engaging but it still makes sense.
Wow, I'm done with this project. I really really cannot fathom it. This felt like a long journey but it also went by so fast. I remember brainstorming for Blue Hour like it was yesterday. It's pretty surreal that this project is done. I made a few changes along the way of the project, like some of my storyboard and shot list isn't exactly the same as my opening, it's for sure very similar. This is because while I was filming, I realized some things wouldn't look as good as they did in my head. I like that some aspects changed though, I think it shows growth to be honest. I also remember I added a few accessories to Georgia's outfit but I changed them, because they just didn't look realistic on camera.
I think this may have been one of the most informational projects I have ever done in my 11 years of school. I learned so much about costuming, screen writing, planning, organizing my time, and so much more. I'm so happy I decided to take this class, it has been so fulfilling and fun. I am really proud of how I managed my time and took time to do research and plan things accordingly. I am so excited to take AICE Media Studies A level next year, YAY!
Ah! I finished editing my CCRs. I can't believe how fast this project has gone by. It feels like I just started my journey yesterday. Editing my first CCR was a bit tricky. I wanted to add a lot to me getting ready because I didn't want it to be boring, so I added clips from my opening. I also added clips from other movies and also some articles (which I credited of course) I was referencing as I was speaking in my video. This sounds a bit confusing so let me show you how the editing screen looks like.
Here's what it's looking like-
As you can see here, there's clips overlayed on top of each other
I think these clips make the video more engaging and entertaining. I'm glad I added this detail, I think the CCR might have been boring if I hadn't. To credit all the sources I used, I had the idea to use a credits screen at the end (kind of like how movies do it).
This is what I'm referencing-
It was very easy to add this at the end of my CCR since iMovie has a template for scrolling credits-
I changed the font a bit on mine because I didn't like how they made it bold but besides that it looks super similar. I thought this was a super cute way to incorporate something that happens in film into my CCR. I didn't know how to cite my sources without it being too much on screen but as soon as I saw this template I knew I had to do it this way.
Here's what mine looks like!
Most of my resources I used I had already found due to previous research I had done ( which is shown on my blog). However, I had to do some research for my first CCR (the getting ready one), which I totally forgot to mention in the last post! I did research on target audiences for dramas and found this awesome website that drew everything out for me, I'm so thankful I found it.
Here's a picture of the website-
They also have a chart on there, isn't that amazing?! According to this website the target audience for dramas is mostly women that range from the ages 18-29. I think my film opening is perfect for this target audience since the main character is a woman and women are the target audience. The main character being the same gender as the target audience may grab their attention and create a sense of relatability. Also, being in your early adult life, i've heard, can be very emotional and difficult. So I think the fact that this piece is emotional and a bit sad is perfect for this audience.
Hi! I have officially finished filming both of my CCR's, yay! I'm so so happy I can't believe I did it. I decided to do the getting ready one and I tried to do the dog one, but me and my friends schedule didn't match up. She just got back from a trip and so did I, so our schedules were both very hectic and it just didn't work out. I'm really sad about that, but there was nothing we could do. I also tried the 10 things that made Blue Hour idea. But, it was very messy and I didn't like it. So I did a powerpoint, which I tried to make pretty and decorate and of course add examples and a voice over to so it could at least be pleasing to the eye!
I also of course did some planning-
(Don't mind the makeup smudge,
as you can tell, I filmed the get ready one)
Here's a sort of script I wrote for myself
(It's more like points I need to make, but you get it)
This script helped a lot, I was scared for mostly the first two questions, I felt like they were a bit challenging to answer. So, writing it all down helped me a lot, it helped me feel a lot better about the questions and more organized. I also used tips our teacher gave us to answer the questions, we sort of broke them down in class, this was so beneficial and I don't think I could've answered the questions appropriately without her help.
I looked through a few templates from Canva and decided this one was fitting because of all the blue of course. I'm currently editing my first CCR, I'm really liking how it's turning out so far, I was really nervous about my CCRs, but I think I did pretty good. My CCRs took a few hours to film, I started at 1pm and finished around 6:30 pm. I wanted to make sure everything was good and I was actually happy and proud of the result, and I am, yay!
Hi! So as I get closer and closer to the end of this project, I have begun finalizing most things, for one, my editing is almost complete. There is one thing that I need to add though, and that's credits. I did some research on dramas and the order of their credits in the film openings. One opening I looked at was Pricilla directed by Sofia Coppola. In that opening specifically, they introduce the production companies first and then begin listing the actors and finally the director and co-producers. Another opening I viewed was from The Florida Project by Sean Baker, in this opening the production company and who the film was by was credited first and then the actors and other roles such as editors. To me this made a bit more sense, I think it makes sense to credit who the film was by and then the actors and editors, etc. So this is the format I chose for my opening! However, I did credit the actors before the producers just because there was a shot with both actors and I felt that the names were meant to be placed there.
Here's a screenshot from me editing, you can also see one of the credits i included
Here's another screenshot of my editing process where you can
also see a credit
I also did some foley for one of the sound effects i included. We learned about foley in the classroom when we were doing a sound project. According to this article, foley makes sound feel more realistic.
I thought foley making the film feel more realistic would be helpful since my film is meant to feel real. So I decided to put my phone down and have it record while I went outside and rang my own doorbell, which is a sound effect I needed for the end of my opening. My home has a realistic and average sounding doorbell, so I thought this was the best way to get the effect. I rang it twice to be safe but I really didn't have to.
The CCR is an important aspect of this project, and as I've mentioned before I want my two products to be creative. So of course, I've been brainstorming throughout the week and here are my favorite ideas I've had this far.
My first idea is similar to this concept of an interview-
The concept of that video is for the celebrities to show 10 things they can't live without. But I would take a twist on it and show 10 things my opening Blue Hour couldn't have succeeded without. In this interview specifically Gosling shows 10 things that are related to the Barbie movie. I think it's a really entertaining way to do an interview! I think this would be far more interesting then just hearing me speak. I would of course include pictures in videos of my project and other sources (that will be cited).
I could answer these two questions with this format-
3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
4. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?
Since I would show hardware and speak about software when mentioning 10 things that made Blue Hour successful. It would also make sense to speak about how my production skills developed with all the items I would show and speak about.
My second idea is similar to this concept-
I had an idea to do an interview with my friend's dogs Sally and Frida, they are adorable and energetic so I think this could be fun. She would help me film and I could help her film in return since she also takes AICE media studies. I would play with the dogs while answering questions, which could be fun and entertaining, I might have to bribe them with treats though. I could also bring my cutie dog, Brownie, but I think she would just run around with Sally and Frida the whole time, she's super energetic and social. I would again integrate media to make the interview even more interesting.
Here's Sally and Frida, they're so adorable
However keeping these dogs still may be a little hard so if anything, here's my next idea-
This concept involves me getting ready for the day using skin care and cosmetics, usually people talk about the products they are using, but I wouldn't. I would mention what I'm doing in the beginning, which is getting ready while answering questions, and then speak about Blue Hour while I get ready. Again integrating media is something I would do while I speak to make the video more interesting and engaging, I would do this for all concepts I included in this post.
Here's my last idea-
I had the idea to do something similar to this concept, here Edebiri is mostly speaking about the food being cooked, but I would speak about Blue Hour while baking. I would cook but honestly I'm not amazing at it, so I would rather bake! I love baking cookies for friends and family, specifically chocolate chip ones, so that's probably what I would do.
AH! I'm done with filming! I cannot believe it. Yesterday was very long day of setting up and filming, but it was for sure worth it. I started setting up very early, around 5:30 pm, and the sun usually goes down around 7:15 to 7:30. Wow, I'm so grateful I did that because setting up Georgia's room took a while! I had to remove all the posters I had on my wall, which are a ton, and remove everything from my night table, and change my bedsheets, you name it, I did it! I also had to set up my camera and make sure things like the lighting was good. This was a challenge since during blue hour it's typically pretty dark outside, so I used my desk lamp which honestly worked very well!
Here's me setting up the shot of Georgia's room before blue
hour, also, here's how the room ended up looking!
Anyway, once the sun was not visible anymore, I began to film! Yay! Filming was so smooth because of my storyboard, I knew exactly what I needed. I also tried other shots I had not planned out to see how they would look, and I think they look awesome honestly, so as I predicted in my storyboard blog post, things did change, but for the better.
Here's a shot from today
I love how Georgia's room turned out. Also, as you can see, I removed and added props. I removed the tissue box I was going to put because it popped too much on screen, it has a lot of green. I also added books, blue ones of course. I though the books fit Georgia, she overthinks so I feel like sometimes she would just want to pick up a book and forget about reality.
Another thing you can see here is that I'm editing! I started yesterday, I love editing, it's very satisfying to me, so I'm having fun doing it to be honest. This article discusses how editing is time-consuming, but you really don't notice the time passing by while you're doing it. That's so relatable, for me, I get so focused I forget about everything else (not literally but you know what I mean). I'm editing on imovie just because I know how to use the app very well, I've used it for years to make random projects (not for school, just for fun). I thought it'd be a wise decision to use a program I know very well so things go as smooth as they can.
Hi! So, as promised, yesterday was my first day as filming. Yay! It actually went very smooth, I was super nervous to film since this project has been building up to this moment for so long, but everything went great. My friend who is in the class, Sophia, and another friend who took the class last year Arianna (I always call her Ari though) were both there. Ari played Ivy while I played Georgia. Yesterday we filmed the flashback scenes near the lake. I set up the camera and made sure the camera settings and shot angles looked good. Since I was in the scene, I had Ari sit were we would both sit to set up the shot and see what it would look like. I also had Sophia double check if it looked good.
Here's me setting up the flashback long shot
Here's a little sneak peak of what it looked like!
We also filmed the long shot where you see both Ivy and Georgia speaking, this is the shot I was most nervous about, since it included dialogue. We tried to be as accurate as possible with the script, but my favorite shot we got was different from the script, we still followed the overall format, but improvising made it feel so much more natural. As i've said the conversation needs to feel raw and realistic since the overall film is, so I was willing to improvise in order for it to feel that way. Also, me and Ari have taken film classes together before, so we have experience in working together and I knew she would take this seriously. We also have good chemistry so I thought it would look authentic.
Also, something worth mentioning is blue hour is very short, so I had to use my time wisely. According to this article blue hour lasts about 20 minutes at most (it felt more like 30 though, maybe since winter is almost over) , but I had plenty of time since I set up way earlier so we would have a good amount of time. We went about 25 minutes early to set up the camera and walk to the park. It was sunset when we started going there and we had just the right amount of time before the sun went down.
Here's me beginning to set up the shot during sunset
I also got plenty of footage, we overshot so I could have a lot to play with, even if we got it right the first time, we would do it at least another two or three times. I want to have more then enough footage during editing so I think this was a smart decision, it's better to be safe then sorry.
Today I'll be doing my second and final day of filming, I'll be mostly focusing on Georgia's at home scenes today, I'm pretty excited.
Okay, sooo tomorrow is my first day of filming, ahhh! I'm so excited yet so nervous. I plan to also film on Wednesday as well, since I want to have plenty of footage. Me and my friend Sophia who's also in my class will both be meeting up to help each other film along with another mutual friend of ours. So I have planned all my costuming and mise-en-scene so that the filming goes as smooth as it can go.
So let's get into costumes! I previously made a blog post about costume design research where I learned from this article that you must consider the characters location and colors. Which I for sure did when coming up with these outfits.
Here are Georgia's outfits-
Here is her outfit when hanging out with Ivy
Here is her outfit at home
And here are accessories for when she's out with Ivy
These outfits look simple, but a lot of thought was put into them. Georgia's outfit reflects on her character a lot, the flared jeans symbolize her trying to fit in, according to this article, flared jeans are back since they are easy to pair with tops and shoes and are comfortable. Many teenagers wear flared everything now. However, the shirt contrasts these jeans. I actually chose one of my mom's shirts, that she gave me permission to use, since it's not very trendy. Just Georgia's costume shows us she really tries to fit in and be perfect, however, but it doesn't work out for her. Also, the outfit is blue of course, as I had always planned. The accessories are simple because Georgia doesn't want to stand out, she tries her best to be the perfect girl in every way. The bow again represent Georgia attempting to fit in, according to this article, social media has really popularized bows as of recently.
Georgia's at home outfit is very comfy and has of course a lot of blue aspects. Again, the pajama pants are originally my moms (I got permission from her to use them) and the sweatshirt is mine, which again shows Georgia trying to fit in but it not really working. I feel like Georgia's outfits are casual and comfortable but you can tell she is still trying, especially the one she wears when hanging out with Ivy. Speaking about Ivy, my friend currently has the outfit she will wear, it's a gray sweater and jeans, very normal, which is what Ivy is like, she really fits in.
Lastly, I added a few mise-en-scene elements! Here they are-
Bed sheets for Georgia's bed
Some items that will go on Georgia's night table and desk
Of course, keeping the theme consistent, everything here has a blue. Some items have hints of green but that's on purpose since the piece is realistic and in real life it's very likely not everything would be completely blue. The bedsheets shown are from Target, I got them a while ago but i thought they fit perfectly with the aesthetic of the opening, and of course, the theme of blue.The other items include the note book Georgia will write in, a few blue pens and Sharpies, a candle, some tissues (since I feel like most people have them on their night stand and also since she's very emotional), and a frame of a butterfly my older sister gifted my family. According to this article, butterflies represent transformation/change, which really fits Georgia, since she is clearly going through some hard changes in her friendship with Ivy and internally.
