Credit scenes

 One of the final parts of editing our film opening is including a credit scene, which we were taught about in the beginning of the year. Credit scenes from the beginning of a movie differ from those at the end of a movie, so let's talk about it. 

Credit scenes are used to appreciate the work put in by contributors to the movie. The reason for putting them at the beginning is because not everyone is going to stay around to the end of a movie, so putting them in the beginning gives people the credit they deserve. 

"Today’s screen credits are almost an art unto themselves—more than a simple list of names"

This stuck out to me, because it will help me keep in mind that incorporating the names into the film is going to be more complicated than just inserting them. They have to be put in in a cohesive, yet noticeable way. According to this website I researched on that shows a full guide on film credits, there is a known order in which film credits are typically put in.

1. Producers/production company

2. Film title

3. Lead cast

4. Supporting cast

5. Casting director

6. Music composer

7. Costume designer

8. Assosicate producers

9. Editors

10. Production designer

11. Director of photography

12. Executive producer

13. Writer

14. Director

The font and movement of these credits is especially important in opening scenes to establish the mood and emotion for the rest of the film. For example, in the 2011 movie "TinTin" by Steven Speilberg, the credits slowly appear throughout different parts of the opening and match themselves to it with font color and movement. For example, the name of the producer appears in the shadow of a doorway. This makes the credits blend in with the movie but still be noticeable, as well as establish the immediate mood for the movie. 

TinTIn opening

CCR part 1

For my first CCR, I decided to go with an interview format. My sister was the perfect candidate for this, since she is visiting from college right now and not only has a lot of free time, but loves being in front of the camera and "acting". I needed someone who was not afraid or embarrassed to act like a host or an interviewer, so this worked out perfectly. 

I started by using my dining room table to set up what I thought was closest to an interview set.

Inspiration:

The first thing I noticed is that in a lot of interviews, both people seem to have some sort of drink or matching cups. I decided it would make mine more realistic if I added this to my set. They also have minimal decoration, and everything is kept neat and close together. The tables are matching, and there is a table in between them. Here was my final set:

I have two matching mugs on each side, and a simple centerpiece. I decided to add the camera because the interview is related to film, so I thought it would be a nice touch.

The hard part of this interview was coming up with my script to answer the questions. I did not want to rant for too long, because that would make the interview boring, and I wanted to not only answer them creatively, but I had my sister switch up the wording to make it less stagnant but still fully answer the question. Here was my final script:

I didn't memorize it word for word, which you will see in the final project since I switch some things up, but it was a general outline of what I wanted to say and it helped me out. My sister also did me a favor and got me a little microphone off of amazon that plugs into phones, which made the audio quality of the CCR amazing. We each had it clipped to our shirts throughout the interview, which I also think added to the realness of it. 

For the framing of the shots, I put my sister in the right third of the camera, and she put me in the left third. This made it obvious that we are having a face to face conversation.

Throughout the video, I used VN, the same editing website I used for my film opening, to include light background music, as well as clips from my original project to add context. I did not add many other images, since this is an interview style video rather than just me talking to the camera. However, when I was talking about different inspirations, I added small images of the movies and genres I was talking about during the question. Filming this was a really fun experience, and not only helped me to reflect on my overall project but taught me about filming interviews and informing an audience about your overall process in a creative way. 

Sound in movies

 Like I mentioned in my last post, something we have to start editing into our opening now that we have combined the clips together is sound. So, I decided to do a little research on how sound, specifically music in our case, is incorporated into films. 

What does music do for a film?

1. Creates plot relationships: this can be done by associating certain sounds/ sequences of music with a character or an idea. For example, when Tina is looking at her discoveries, we can add a very specific piece of music that is played later again in the film when looking at these equations to provide a theme for the audience that goes with that idea. This can also be used for different characters, such as using villainous music when looking at the antagonist of a film.

2. Creates atmosphere: This is one of the most obvious uses in film, and one that we are going to be focusing on in our opening, since it is establishing a tone that the audience should be immediately drawn to. Music can be used to build anticipation, curiosity, a sense of calmness, etc. In our opening, we are looking to build a sense of anticipation, since it is not immediately clear to the audience what Tina, our main character, is looking at or studying.

3. Portray emotions. This is used in short segments, specifically when focused on a character's face. A score of music may be used to portray sadness, anxiety, etc. In our film opening, we have a clip of Tina's eyes wandering around anxiously and frantically, in which we can incorporate this.

From the website I researched from, these were the 3 main points that I related back to our own film opening and what we need in it. 

We already have a couple of music scores we're looking into, but we need to discuss this further as a group before I finalize it.

Not only is music important in our opening, but we also have to foley or find online segments for some sounds in our footage that got lost. We organized this as we were editing our clips together, and we found links that would work for all of the missing or muffled sounds. 

Media Sounds 

Book closing :

https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/book-closing-48311/

Dropping pen: 

https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/tossing-pen-down-78369/

Chair Rolling: 

https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/rolling-office-chair-sitting-standing-up-rolling-again-64831/

Footsteps: 

https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/footsteps-solid-wood-female-barefoot-on-toes-slow-pace-34352/

Opening Marker: 

https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/068364-marker-openingm4a-44841/

Clock Ticking: 

https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/clock-ticking-60-second-countdown-118231/

Turning book page:

https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/paper-flutter-5933/

Group editing

 Hey blog! This past Saturday, my team and I got together to start editing the clips that we have for our opening film. Our screenwriter, Clara, is out of town in Brazil, so she could not make it to this editing session, but we missed her and decided to include her in our selfie...

HAHA. Anyways, the editing session was really successful and really got us ahead in our process. It was also cool to see how our work was coming together. Something I noticed is that editing really brings all that we have been working on to life. Before, what we had were just random, disorganized clips, but we brought them all together to create the story we had planned, and it was cool to see. 

We started off by organizing all of the clips into different folders. For example, any clips from the scene of Tina in her office, we labeled "office scene" so that we could use just those when editing that scene. Vanessa and I were mainly using VN to edit, which I researched on in my last blog post, but Zain showed us a couple of tricks on Adobe Premiere, which was really informative. 

Here is a glimpse into the timeline in the adobe editing site.

Another hard lesson I had to learn during this editing process is just how long it really takes. When editing the first two establishing shots together, it took us at least 15 minutes to locate the clips, trim them down, color grade them, and conjoin them on the timeline. And this was for just 5 seconds of our opening. Thankfully, Zain is experienced with editing so she was there to guide me. So far, all we have edited are the clips together. Now we have to incorporate sound, text, credits, and all of the other details. 

Editing

 Time for the part of the project I have honestly been dreading the most... editing. 

We finally have all the clips of our project filmed. I helped to film and set up both the opening shots and the news segment, but I unfortunately couldn't make it to the other parts of filming because of my dance schedule. However, I was aware before they started filming of what all the shots would consist of, and was sent pictures of costuming/angles throughout. Anyways, now that we have all the clips finally filmed, it's time to start tackling editing. 
In class, I was recommended an editing website called "VN". The girl who recommended this showed me how her editing is going, and it looked really good. Therefore, we decided to use this platform to edit. Now for the hard part, learning how to edit well. I have a little bit of experience from projects that we have done throughout the year, but I mostly stuck to simple apps like Imovie for the editing. That will not cut it for this film opening, which we want to be more professional than our past projects. So, I decided to do a little research on how to use VN. Here's what I learned:

Tutorial

• Similar to how adobe premier is, you have to "lock" your video in place when converting it to different formats. This is equivalent to adding a key to your videos in adobe. Luckily, I am already familiar with this. 
• You zoom in on the timeline to trim certain clips. Get rid of bloopers, retakes, etc. Leave it with only the clip you need.
• You can make cuts in between clips, and it will automatically close the gap for you.
• You can layer footage on top of other things, which would show the new clip but still have an audio from the original clip. Useful for flashbacks, adding context to the film, etc.
• Adding titles and text is easy and customizable. Useful for the end credits, opening title, etc. You can even add motion to the text. 
• You can use speed control to slightly speed up/slow down clips, depending on the effect you're trying to create.
• VN includes many copywrite free sounds, which is extremely helpful for our opening, because we won't have to import from separate websites.

This video made me a lot less stressed about the editing process of this opening. VN is a very beginner friendly tool. A lot of the effects and editing tools are simple and do not require you to know specific terms or keys, like Adobe does. For example, if you want to add a certain transition, there is literally a whole folder that says "transitions" and offers different options. This is just an amazing tool that I am so glad I came across. If we want to do anything more complicated, our group member Zain is going to show us how to do it on Adobe, since it does have a bit more advanced features. I have also decided to use this tool for my CCR's. 

Representation

 Hi blog, and welcome back

Today I want to discuss representation in the media, since that is one of the important topics I have to answer not only for my film opening, but for my creative critical reflection. The lead character of our film is a female, which is something rarely seen in science fiction movies. The women roles in science fiction movies typically take on the "damsel in distress" role, like in Star Wars A New Hope (1977). In this particular movie, Princess Leia is held captive by Darth Vader, and she is later rescued in the film by the main, male character. 

Another role females in science fiction movies typically take on is, surprisingly, the antagonist. One example of this is in the 2014 movie Ex Machina. Although she is not an outright evil mastermind with an army like portrayed in other movies, she is shown as a very manipulative person throughout the movie, where she uses her intelligence to harm others.

In our film, we wanted to represent a more niche character that is almost never seen in science fiction movies, which is a female lead that uses her intelligence for the greater good. Our female is portrayed as a protagonist. Not only is that aspect of it not common in science fiction, but "women in Stem" (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) are also not often represented in movies. Our character, Tina, is a character that is much more intelligent than the average person. However, instead of using this intelligence in a manipulative way, she is shown solving important patterns in history that are vital for the government and people of the world to be aware of. 

In general, the portrayal of women in media has been a controversial subject for many decades. Many movies tend to portray them in a stereotypical matter, for example being obsessed with the color pink, shopping, and gossiping (Mean girls 2004).

As the years have gone by, women have started to ask for more variety in the representation they receive, since men are seen portrayed in such various ways in movies. Our character is something not typically seen, which may be beneficial to women who have wanted a portrayal like the one seen in our film. Specifically in movies that center around adventure and problem solving, they have been a male-dominated field for many years. Our goal is to normalize a woman solving a factitious problem in our movie and going through an adventure, like seen in many science fiction movies with men as the lead before. 

CCR (creative critical reflection)

 Hi blog!

I have exciting, but also stressful news. I am going to be vacationing to Istanbul, Turkey, during spring break, about a week before this entire portfolio is due. As fun of an experience as that is going to be, I really have to plan ahead if I want to get this done on time. 
So, I am going to be starting to plan my creative critical reflection, which is something we learned about in class on Tuesday. Essentially, a CCR is meant to respond to specific questions given by Cambridge about what went into the process of making our film opening.

We were told that we have to answer at least two questions in each type of CCR, whether we do it in the form of a podcast, interview, YouTube video, etc. After watching some samples in class, here are some of the do's and don'ts I took away for my own CCR.

Do: 

• Include background music (when appropriate)
• Include movement to make the product less stagnant (if in video form)
• Include video clips from the film opening to help explain
• Answer the questions fully

Don't:

• Read from a script while talking to camera
• Have a plain, boring background
• Sit in front of a camera with no movement
• Just talk for 10 minutes, enhance the video with editing

I already have a couple ideas for what I might want to do. I plan on getting an "interviewer" to participate in my video and ask me questions in a creative way, that still answer what Cambridge wants to see.

For example, my sister and I were thinking we could film the interview while on a run or bike ride, which I have seen on Youtube. I need to start filming these as soon as we finish editing and filming our film opening, which we are luckily almost done with. 

First scene filmed

I am so relieved to say that we have finally shot the first portion of our film opening! This was very much a learning experience for all of us, to say the least, so let's talk about some of what went into it.

DESK (Vanessa) 

• 

  Establishing from table (redo)

• 

  High angle of her writing  

• 

  Extreme close up of her eyes looking all over the place 

• 

  Over the shoulder shot of writing 

• 

  Close up of her finishing book

• 

  Medium of her her closing pen

• 

  Close up of her closing pen

This was the scene we filmed last week (finished on Friday), where Vanessa acted as our main character.

This was meant to establish the equations she is working on that relate to pseudoscience, which is what the

whole film is going to be about.

First of all, we had to check out a lot of equipment at Broward Schools free provider, beacon, where we

were able to get three lights, a camera, tripod, and microphones.

We set the lights to a warm, orange tone, because we wanted to give a cozy vibe, as this opening scene

is filmed in the comfort of our main character, Tina's, secret office. Although you can't see it in the picture,

there are lights framing all three sides of her face to ensure the scene is well lit.

• 
  
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  
  
• As you can see in the pictures, we also carefully set up the desk to give the idea that she is working
• on something very complicated, and not quite understandable. Her papers are full of messy, unreadable,
• equations and she has computer screens set up with random lines and equations, that show a pattern
• in history. This was part of our set design, as well as a history book by her side.

One of the trickier parts of this filming process was the audio. We wanted to get close up sounds of

her writing, since this scene included almost no dialouge, Therefore, we wanted the sounds to be

clear, sharp sounds of things like her pen writing, or a page turning. Therefore, a simple mic stood up

from far away was not going to cut it.

So.... I had to get down there.

Me holding up the mic to Vanessa's hand while filming.

This part was especially hard because we had to make sure I was not seen in the frame holding up the microphone, but that we got it close enough to get really clear sounds of her 

writing the equations.

Overall, this process was really fun, and I loved seeing all the different elements that go 

into producing a film. Even in this one scene, which was about 15 seconds, we spent

over two hours setting it up, filming it, and packing everything away.

Shot list

 My team and I created a shot list, where we essentially broke down our scene into four different sections that would help us stay organized when filming, and also manage our time better. When discussing the different shots, we made sure to talk about the different angles we would want, as well as the feeling that each shot should evoke. What you see crossed out are scenes that have already been filmed, which I will begin showing the process of in the upcoming blogpost. This shot list has been super helpful so far, and when we film Clara always has this document open so that we can be crossing off what is finished as we go along. 

It is also super satisfying to see the list being slowly crossed off, because it shows how much progress we have been making with this film opening.

DESK (Vanessa) 

• 

  Establishing from table (redo)

• 

  High angle of her writing  

• 

  Extreme close up of her eyes looking all over the place 

• 

  Over the shoulder shot of writing 

• 

  Close up of her finishing book

• 

  Medium of her her closing pen

• 

  Close up of her closing pen

WALKING TO COUCH AND GOING TO SLEEP (clara)

• 

  Close up of feet pushing chair out 

• 

  Wide of her getting up and walking 

• 

  Medium of couch (she sits down)

• 

  Close up of her rubbing face

• 

  Close up of lamp shutting off

• 

  Wide of lamp shutting off

PHONE CALL AND NEWS STORY (Nadia)

• 

  Close up of face right when phone ringing (eyes shut)

• 

   Close up Phone ringing 

• 

  Wide of tina grabbing phone

• 

  Medium of discussion

• 

  Film 3 different angles of discussion 

• 

  Wide facing tv, tina walks towards tv

• 

  Medium of tv while she bends down to get a closer look

• 

  Tight close up of shocked face

LEAVING AND OFFICE (Zain)

• 

  Close up of grabbing keys

• 

  Wide walking out and slamming door (BLAZER AND PANTS ON SHOULDER)

• 

  Close up of tire pulling in

• 

  Establishing??

• 

  Close up of her getting out 

• 

  Tilt up fixing pants out car

• 

  Close up of boss angry

• 

  Over the shoulder of tina walking in 

• 

  Medium of boss “we are fucked”