"The Happier Times" - Creative Critical Reflection

The Happier Times - AS Level Film Opening

We Made It

I cannot believe it. I'm done.

I just did my final exportation and just uploaded that onto YouTube in order to link onto here.
I mean...I've exported and uploaded onto YouTube at least 3 times prior, but I know that this is it. I am completely satisfied with my product and could not be happier.

It's up and soon to be put on Public instead of Unlisted

So what's next?

I wanted to begin with my Creative Critical Reflection tonight, but I think it's best if I just wait for tomorrow. I've been trying to decided what I want to do for it, whether it be a director's commentary or another type of presentation. For a few moments, I was sure I'd use a VoiceThread, but after watching my friend Samantha's reflection from last year, I was inspired by the way she did it. It was still a presentation, but included excerpt from her opening. This allowed her to bring in other videos and images to properly reflect on her creation.

I was also inspired by another previous CCR from last year, Ben Siegel's VoiceThread, since I really loved his film opening. I loved the way he incorporated so many aspects and his research as well as his reasoning for majority of his shot choices and just choices for the opening overall.

Creative Critical Reflections???

Disclaimer: This is not my official reflection, just my brainstorming. 

So for the Creative Critical Reflection, we are supposed to answer these 4 questions. 

1. How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
2. How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
4. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

For this blog post, I will just be answering them through a rough draft. For my final reflection, I will most likely be branching off what I'm writing here. Shall we begin?

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

- Since my film mainly features one main character, there isn't much to challenge with character stereotypes, except that she would mainly be conceived as the Artsy Antisocial. However, my product does strive to represent a few social groups as well as issues. One of the two of the main issues portrayed is the pressure and stress on LGBT teens, with the second being the Americanized assimilation struggles within traditional environments and families, mainly focusing on the religion of Islam.

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

- Recently I've noticed the trend of Polaroids and film cameras coming back and not just for the obscure, more "hipster" type of people. A lot of my target audience, being teens and young adults, are fascinated with the practice of instant photography. This film would latch onto the large hype, which would help generate popularity in audiences. As for distribution, it would mainly focus on limited release, but would heavily be promoted within the art and underground scene.

How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

- I am already pretty experienced with editing and the subject of media and film, have taking a class in film last year. However, to work with just a film opening rather than a short film was a tad more difficult. I had to think about the story a lot more and how to foreshadow it within two minutes. The technological aspect was also challenging for me as well. Even though I work with Windows Movie Maker, I was trained better with IMovie. I had barely used Movie Maker except in my younger years and was not really familiar with it at all. So having to basically improvise with what I knew and relearn such a simple editing system.

How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

- My project was not just simply shooting and editing, even though it may seem. Working with such a simpler editing system than what I"m used to, I had to figure out ways to get around a lot of the problems I encountered. For example, when I first started editing within IMovie, I had reversed a clip, but once I started editing within Movie Maker, I did not have that option. So, I took to the internet for help, where I found a website that will reverse clips that you upload for free. Websites were mainly what I relied on for help, especially when it came to the stop motion shots. For them, I actually turned them into GIFs first, then exported them into MP4 files so I could import them into Movie Maker.

Alright, how'd that go? I know it's very wordy, but I'm just brainstroming. I think I want to do a director's commentary, since I feel like that's the easiest route, but I guess I'll have to see what my options are. I'm more a visual person and I've always liked director commentaries myself, but I might do a little more research on them to better my own.

Are We There Yet?

Surprisingly, I seemed to be done editing, but that just seems too good to be true. I'm not sure how I feel about my final product. While I like it, I feel like so many things could just be better. Everything just feels rushed and too quick, but if it goes any slower, it will be over 2 minutes.

Also, I am unsure about the audio. I feel like the levels are too high, so I definitely want to fix that. I also think I want to add narration, possibly a inner monologue. I guess I'll just play around with the final product.

The new shot I'll be using

Also, I know I need to make a few changes. I asked a few of my friends and classmates to watch and critique what I had so far. While they liked it, there was some parts they felt were too fast and didn't necessarily understand, such as the pills on the record shot. Everyone who I showed it to, did not make the connection that they were pills and just assumed she was going to sleep. I've never been so happy to have overshot. I actually filmed a shot where the iconic orange pill bottle was also on the record as well as the pills. When I showed that to my friends, they definitely agreed.

Before Splitting

After Splitting

I'm also working with the timing, since in exportation the opening just ended right on 2 minutes. Since the opening is mainly a long shot, I found it hard to just speed up the entire shot, especially since the some parts felt slower while some too fast. For example, when shooting I told her to change her speed to go faster when I noticed how long it was taking. So when I speed the long take up, these parts look unnatural and obviously edited. To get around this, I split the clip up into smaller pieces and individually edited every shot to make it flow smoothly. In the end, this actually reduced the overall time by 4 seconds, which even though doesn't seem like a lot, means a lot to me because it gave more leg room for editing other shots.

Just editing the long take improved the overall opening, since I had previously taken out a few shots I really liked to reach the correct time limit, but now I have the opportunity to play around with him. As well as the fact that most cuts and editing were so rushed. Shots were cutting too fast and nothing was left up on screen for too long. This "fast editing" removed the intimate feeling I was longing for since the beginning, so I'm pretty ecstatic about being able to fix it.

So right now, I feel like the only other things I need to do are finalize the editing changes I have made recently and edit the coloring, which I will have to do within IMovie. I already asked Summer if I could finish up using her laptop and she was okay with it.

Endless Editing

.

So, I've filmed it all. (I hope)

Yesterday I reshot a lot of the shots from Tuesday and then finished up everything I needed. The opening sequence was a lot harder to shoot than I anticipated. The hardest part, I believe, was trying to explain my idea to Summer, who has never really worked with anything in film. For example, talking in technical terms to her made no sense whatsoever.

Still of Mia taking out Polaroids

I also made a lot of changes within filming. (I know...I know) At first, I wanted to just have Mia scroll through her journal and be so moved by one photo, but before filming I decided that I wanted her to remove the Polaroids from the journal, since it just felt more intimate. We started out filming the second idea, but it just seemed to be too time consuming. So, for a few other shots I just had her leave them in. At the time, this seemed like the best idea, so I went with it and filmed around the fact that all the Polaroids were left inside the journal, which required to change majority of the shots.

However, while showing Summer what I had edited last night, it just didn't sit right with me. It just didn't evoke emotion and felt boring and uneventful. So I decided to watch the shots with her taking the Polaroids out, but just sped it up and I LOVE IT. It still is really long, nearly 2 minutes, compared to a minute. However, I feel like if I set my mind to it, I can achieve anything.

A preview into my own personal hell

Right now I'm just reediting everything. Since I have Windows and don't want to pay for any editing system, I asked Summer to borrow her Mac in order to use IMovie to edit. At first, it was fine, but now I have complications. So at the moment, I'm just going to edit the entire film on Windows Movie Maker and then touch it up, in terms of coloring and cropping with IMovie.

Progress(!) + Changes + Overcoming Obstacles

So on Tuesday (3/29) I was able to squeeze some filming in. We were originally going to shoot the picnic at Vista after school as well as take some Polaroids for the journal, but due to the terrible weather, we were not able to shoot that scene.  I didn't just want to shoot nothing however, since I knew this would put me even farther behind then I already am. So, I just made a few changes to what Mia's memory would be.

Alex & I at PeiWei

For the Polaroids and filming, I just decided to keep with the aspect of us eating together, mainly because we had already bought the food for the picnic. So, we started filming and taking pictures at PeiWei while it poured outside.

We also continued the filming outside into the rain and the car, trying to be as goofy as possible (which isn't too hard for us).

Alex & I in the car.

Within editing, I really liked the way the stop motion memories looked, they looked a little disjointed and fun, while still disoriented.

Since Alex had to leave shortly after we filmed, Summer and I went back to her house to get as many shots as we could at the moment, since I am not yet done with Mia's Journal. We hope to continue shooting today and might reshoot some of the images since I am constantly changing my mind on what I think is best.

The lighting with double sheets.

For instance, we shot Mia looking at a Polaroid of all three of us in PeiWei, but we also took one in the car and I'm starting to like that one better. Especially since the memory montage just looks a lot better and happier than the PeiWei montage, especially with coloring. So I might have to reshoot the images that the previous Polaroid was used in.

At first, the time we were filming was bringing too much light into her room, so I tried blocking the window with one of her scarves, but that still wasn't working. So I just ended up tatking off her curtains all together and placed a thicker, white sheet over the window and then replaced the curtains, to have double the blockage. This created the perfect lighting that I was looking for. I fell in love with it immediately, but when it started to get darker, it became harder to see, even when the curtain was removed. So, next time we have to start shooting a little earlier since the images that we shot without natural lighting, were not on par with the ones shot with. When we used her ceiling lamp, the shots became too yellow and too lit. With natural lighting, they were less saturated and darker, but brought in the perfect amount of lighting and shadows.

Still of Mia with natural lighting