Final Film and Creative Critical Reflection Link

Final Draft of Film:

Creative Critical Reflection Prezi:

http://prezi.com/5lpfckk2cje7/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Revised Film

The link to the video is below:

Creative Critical Reflection Prezi Draft

Here is the link to my creative critical reflection of my film:

http://prezi.com/5lpfckk2cje7/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Question 4: Creative Critical Reflective Draft

4. How did you integrate technologies-software, hardware, and online-in this project?

I was able to integrate technologies into this project by using a Sony HD video camera, which I used to film the project. I also used an hp computer laptop and windows editing software to edit my film and complete it. I also used my hp laptop to conduct research in the areas of marketing, distributing, and viewing other similar film productions (like viewing different types of credits from different movies). I used the internet on my hp laptop to post blogs through my google blogger. I also integrated the use of technology by using an online forum for blogging (Google blogger). I also used Google to conduct my research on marketing and distribution. I also utilized my Iphone 4s to do research occasionally and also used it for film shot pictures that were posted to my blog. I also used Youtube to upload my film for others to view.

Question 3: Creative Critical Reflection Draft

3. How did your production skills develop throughout the process?

My production skills developed throughout the process through camera work, editing, and also the overall process that goes into making a film. I learned how to shoot certain camera angles and shots and how important they were to changing the aspect/mood of the film. Through the editing process I learned how to edit properly, like learning how to trim down certain shots and put them all together "smoothly". I also learned how to create jump shots. I have become better at editing; I had struggled to edit clearly in the beginning, but now I am able to edit the film more clearly, making it more fluid than before. I also learned the difficulty of coming up with an idea for the film and then the writing of the actual script. Through the filming process I improved on script writing as well as camera work and editing. I still need to improve my sound mixing skills though.

Question 2: Creative Critical Reflection Draft

Question 2: How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

Through the use of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, my film would engage audiences. I would put ads of my movie on twitter like other movies have, like the avengers, to catch the attention of people on twitter. I would do the same for Facebook by making a Facebook page for the movie and promoting the film through ads on the page. It would engage audiences through film posters and film trailers. These film trailers would be shown on television, like other movie trailers that have been featured on television. Some recent movies that have engaged audiences through film trailers are Bridge of Spies, Zootopia, and Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. After being marketed on television my film would be engaging to audiences by being released to theatres for a short time and then to DVD and video on demand, for the audiences to view at home.

My film would be distributed through a major production company like 20th Century Fox. It would then be shown in theaters for a short period of time and released to DVD and video on demand. If a major studio didn't pick it up however, it could be released on Netflix or I could keep it on YouTube and generate revenue through the ads featured on that channel.

Question 1 Creative Critical Reflection Draft

1. How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

My film product uses conventions by following the typical course of a film, from beginning to end in chronological order.I used my setting and costumes to give the film a sense of realism. I utilized camera movements and angles that are typical to other films. The plot of my film is along the lines of today's movie conventions. It follows a regular plot line that goes in chronological order and is real to life. The audio used in my film also uses media conventions. The credits I use in the beginning of my film follow the typical film convention use of credits. Other movies/films that have similar credits in the beginning are James Bond Skyfall.

My film mostly represents the younger age group, those in their teenage years, but also those who are able to drive. The film specifically targets young drivers who are more likely to get easily distracted while driving, similarly to the main character in my film, who displays bad driving techniques throughout the opening scene. The film also showcases the issue of reckless driving amongst young drivers through comedy/humor. For example one bad driving habit the main character displays is going on her phone while driving, which is a common topic among what young drivers should not do currently.

Film Revision: How to make it more realistic:

I was told that, to make my film more realistic, I should probably make the car appears to be moving. In the original, first draft of my film, the car is sitting in basically in spot almost the entire length of the scene. This is very noticeable because of the parked car next to it, that remains there the duration of the scene. To fix this problem I had the car moved slightly, or to different places occasionally to make it appear that the car has moved, as if someone is actually driving. This makes the entire scene appear to be more realistic.

Film Shot Revisions

After the viewing of the draft product of my film, I was told that to improve my film, I could shoot part of the scene where there in the car as shot-reverse-shots and forma few different angles. I recently re-shot parts of this scene with different angle shots from the driver's side this time instead of from the passengers side. I also tried to shoot part of the talking scenes as shot-reverse-shots, to add more reality and better sound to the film. Along with this I added a take of the view out of the car window to show the car driving.

Marketing and Distribution Research Revised

There are four main types of distribution for films: Standard Release, Simultaneous Release, Straight-to-Video, and Internet Release.

Standard Release-
-A movie is first released through movie theatres, then after about 16 and one-half weeks, it is released to Blu-Ray and DVD and VOD services. "After an additional number of months , it is usually released to Pay TV and approximately two years after its theatrical release date, it is made available for free-to-air TV."

Simultaneous Release-
-A movie is made available on multiple media platforms at the same time or "with very little difference in timing. Simultaneous releases bear advantages to both consumers...and production studios that only have to run one marketing campaign for all releases." However these distribution efforts are often regarded as "experimental" and don't receive substantial investment or promotion. "Among relevant simultaneous release attempts are Bubble (2006) by Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh,EMR (2005) by James Erskine & Danny McCullough and The Road to Guantanamo (2006)."

Straight-to-Video Release-
-A movie is released on home video formats without being released in theatres first. "As a a result of strong DVD's sales, STV releases also achieved higher success and have become a profitable market lately, especially for independent moviemakers and companies. 

Internet Release-
-When a movie is released directly to the internet through online movie bases like Amazon or internet affiliated apps like Netflix.

2016 Superbowl Commercials: Examples of Marketing

Marketing Technique Examples from the 2016 Superbowl:

1.  Product: Doritos
     Target Audience: Males; middle-aged demographic; parents to buy for their children
     Persuasive Technique: Appeal to humour; emotional appeal



2. Product: Heinz Ketchup
    Target Audience: Parents; late 20's to middle aged;
    Persuasive Techniques: Humour; Appeal to emotions; Use of the Family; Cute puppies



3. Product: Amazon Echo
   Target Audience: Adults/older people who can afford product
    Persuasive Techniques: The use of celebrities like Alec Baldwin; Appeal to humour; Connection to football, specifically to the superbowl; Music by Missy Elliot

Peer Review And Comments

After presenting my film and blog to the class I was informed that I will need to revise certain aspects of my film. There were parts within the film where the sound/dialogue was muffled and weren't audible enough. To fix this I will just have to re-shoot a few of the sections in the film. Another aspect I could change to better the film, is to shoot from different angles. This will also help with help with the sound. Instead of shooting the majority of the film from the passenger seats view, I could change the angle of the camera and have shot-reverse shots from the driving side of the car, which will show the scene more clearly and help make the sound/dialogue more audible. A classmate of mine also recommended adding sound effects to make parts of the scene more believable, for instance when Jess loses control of the wheel and swerves a car horn and traffic sounds could be added. Another thing to change is to make it appear that the car is moving, so I will have to move the car slightly or to different locations every once in a while during the scene to make it appear like the car is actually being driven.

Mid-Year Draft of Movie

Editing Continuation

During editing, I added a fade in from the beginning title and production company name to the beginning of the scene. On the last section of the scene I made the pictur move slower so that it gives the actors reactions more emphasis, and then I added a fade out to black to signify the end of that scene. I also had to add the sound effect of a car horn going off (honking) and sound in the beginning during the title. At first I had a difficulty adding all the names and music credits to the beginning scene without running over two minutes. To fix this however I just made the credits go through the opening scene on the bottom left corner of the screen. This way the credits are seen, but do not cause the opening scene to run over the time needed (two minutes).

Editing

I have begun the editing process for my film. I have needed to cut down a few scenes due to insidficient lighting or unwanted sound in the background. I need to figure out how to make the film run smoothly after editing certain parts of it, because otherwise the cuts are not "clean".

Filming Problems and Solutions

I ran into a problem filming the car ride scene, as I had to make it believable that the car was moving, this was difficult because the angle at which the camera points shows the view from the driver's seat window. I fixed this problem by pointing the camera more towards the girl driving the car, which blocks the view out of the window a little. This makes it more believable.

Another filming problem I ran into was filming the part of the scene where the car rides fast over a speed bump. Filming it just from inside the car didn't give the audience the idea that the car had driven fats over a speed bump, so I decided to film this section from outside the car using a wide shot to show the entire car going over the speed bump. This way the audience will be able to see the car almost "flying" or lifting off the ground a little after driving over the speed bump and then I will have a cut back to the reactions inside the car as the car went over the speed bump.

Lighting was a relatively small problem, considering I was filming on location. The sun sometimes shone through the windows too much, making it almost impossible to clearly see the people in the scene. To somewhat prevent this I attempted to position the camera as much as I could away from the sun, so that there was no glare, and if a window wasn't going to be seen in the shot I would block it off with a window shade or makeshift shade of some sort to block or lessen the sun as much as I could. Though this would not always work, so I simply had to move the car so that the direct sunlight wasn't facing the front of the car. However the day I was filming it was raining so the light didn't shine too bright.

The angling of the camera was another problem I ran into, because the car was too small for me to be in the car to film it while the other people were in it. So to fix this, to the best of my ability, i filmed through the open window of the car at an angle that showed as much as possible.
During this filming process I also realized that the sound of the dialogue was not very good. The actors had to speak louder, but in certain shots it didn't seem very audible. I will have to fix the majority of the audio sounds in editing.

Updated Costumes

Costume Examples:

-The costumes will reflect those of an average teenage girl and middle-school aged boy.

-Jess's outfit will remain along the same lines as the original idea. Ricky's is the new costume/outfit.


                                  
Jess's Outfit (More casual and laid back)  Ricky's Outfit (Casual, average middle school boy outfit)

Updated Location List/Set Design

The new locations of the film will be:

1. Inside of a bedroom (Jess's)

2. The exterior of Jess's house (instead of Sophie's)

3. The interior of the car

Updated Film Shots

Examples:

1.  Wide shot of room

2. Close up of reactions in car

3. Long shot of car driving over speed bump that transitions to a tracking shot of the car as it goes past the speed bump

4. High angle shot from over bed looking down on Jess

5. Full body shots of Jess and Ricky walking to car

Updated Script

[Opening credits play over opening scene]

Scene opens up to a teenage girl sitting in a chair in her bedroom on her phone, clearly bored. Jess is an average teenage girl (16) who doesn't care too much about responsibility.

                                                                              JESS:
                                       Ugh! There's nothing to do. I'm so bored. (flops onto her bed)

Her bedroom opens and her younger brother, Ricky, walks into her room. Ricky is Jess's younger, middle-school age, brother.
                                                                            RICKY:
                                   Hey, Jess, can you drive me over to my friend's house? Please?
                                                                             [Pause]
                                                                              JESS:

                                           Sure, why not. There's nothing better to do anyway.

Jess and Ricky walk out of the room and Jess grabs her keys as she walks out.

                                                                               JESS:
                                   Now here's the deal. You better not complain about my driving. Okay?
                 
                                                                             RICKY:
                                                                      Yeah, whatever

They walk to the front door, and Jess yells back into the house that they're leaving.

                                                                               JESS:
                           I'm driving Ricky over to his friends house! I'll be back in like half an hour.
                     [she shuts the door and starts to lock it. She turns to Ricky to ask him a question]
                                               Where does your friend live anyway?

                                                                             RICKY:
                                                       Down the street and around the corner a bit.

Ricky and Jess walk to her car and get in. Camera jumps to them driving int he car a short time after. Jess turns the radio up real loud and starts singing.

                                                                               RICKY:
                                                      Stop singing. You're not even paying attention.
                                           
                                                                                 JESS:
                                                                   I told you not to complain.

                                                                               RICKY:
                                                  Mom and Dad would tell you to stop. [turns radio off]
                                           
                                                                               JESS:
                                                                           Ugh. Fine.
 [reaches back and grabs a bag of chips from the back seat and proceeds to eat them while attempting to keep control of the steering wheel]

                                                                             RICKY:
                                                                   What are you doing?!

                                                                               JESS:
                                                                     Eating. I'm starving.

                                                                            RICKY:
                                                                 We're going to get hit.
                                     
                                                                               JESS:
                               Don't be silly. We won't get hit. [swerves a little and horns honk] Whoops.
                                                     
                                                                             RICKY:
                                         Whoops?! I told you we were going to get hit. I'm going to get hurt.

                                                                                JESS:
                                                       You'll be fine. The wheel just slipped a little.
[Car goes over a bump real fast and you see Ricky bounce up and down in the car; Ricky looks over at Jess exasperatedly]
                                                                                JESS:
                                        I don't believe in speed bumps. [smiles and takes a sip of her drink]
                                   
                                                                             RICKY:
You don't believe in speed bumps?! You're the worst driver I have ever seen. Pull over Jess, I'll walk to my friends house. It's safer.

                                                                             JESS:
What are you talking about? You won't walk there. I'm a perfectly fine driver. [starts looking at phone while driving]

                                                                           RICKY:
                                          Jess, I said pull over! [grabs phone and throws out window]

[Jess and Ricky both look at each other angrily and confused]
[Fade out to black]