Director's Commentary

Director's commentary was the first CCR I wanted to tackle since it's the easiest...or so I thought. Before even starting the commentary, I had to get the absolute final edit that I was going to submit for my project. Since I was still at around 2:15, I was trying to cut off AT LEAST 5 seconds. It was a struggle. I go to 2:12 before just sitting and looking at the project file and pretty much giving up. At this point, I was just cutting up frames and it was pointless. This is when I checked in with peers and see how they were doing. This is when I found out 2:15 was acceptable...

Minutes. Hours. Days. The amount of time I've spent trying to cut it down to 2:05. And I could've stayed at 2:15 this whole time. I was relieved and fuming at the same time.

Oh well, luckily I made another version that was perfectly 2:15 that I could use, just had to fix up the credits a bit. 

So now I could finally do the Director's Commentary. So I had to figure out how to screen record on my computer and have audio at the same time. After figuring out how to record my screen to point out certain things in the opening, I decided I would just have to record on my phone and sync up the audio later. 

So I did my first take and it was pretty poop. I kept stuttering and messing up and it was longer than 5 minutes which is not ideal since the max for the entire thing is 10 minutes. So I did another take. This one was a bit better but I knew I could do better. When I recorded my 3rd attempt, it was perfect. The time was good, and my cadence was perfect. Everything about it was beautiful. I looked back at the screen recording and it had been recording the wrong tab the entire time. 

If the 4th attempt didn't work out, I would just use the 2nd. Luckily the 4th was good, not as good a #3 (rip) but it would work. 

This project file is starting to fill up with a bunch of sequences... Next up on my list...the interview. I lowkey only have one day to do it, but it should go well...hopefully. Wish me luck. This is the home stretch. 

CCR...

Unfortunately, my CCR has been neglected and become an afterthought thanks to STN. It's also my fault too, but let's just blame it on STN for now. Since I had to film and am still finishing up editing right now, the CCR has been something I've put on the sidelines, but I have to knock it out eventually. 

The other day in class, our teacher taught us what a CCR was. With a CCR or Creative Critical Reflection, we have to answer 4 big questions reflecting on all the choices, progress, and troubles we faced while making our opening. We have to use at least two creative media products to respond to the 4 questions, so I'll just do 2 and 2. The first 2 big questions, asking about genre conventions/representation and audience/distribution, and the other 2 smaller questions, asking about the development of skills and integration of technology. I'm thinking of doing an interview for the big questions and a director's commentary for the ladder. 

First Question

To approach this question about genre conventions and representation, I would have to research the genre conventions of a thriller, but thankfully I did a lot of the heavy lifting in my first few blogs about the opening. In my response to the first part, I'll explain what the thriller genre is and what it sets out to do, "elicit strong emotions, mostly dealing with generating suspense and anxiety" as explained by StudioBinder. I'll then go into the conventions and how I follow or break them. Story Grid explains how some conventional themes include murder, crime, robbery, all things in my opening. Other conventions include cinematography (tight and closeup shots), lighting, time crunch, MacGuffins, Red Herrings, and types of characters (serial killers, police, criminals, etc.). I will explain these and explain how I follow some and avoid others and why. 

Next would be representation. For this, I can just look back at my character development blog since there I talk about how my character represents different ideas or social groups.

Second Question

The second question asks about the target audience and distribution. For my audience, it is the same as the thriller and drama audience, so I'll explain that. I'll then move on to how I target that audience (characters and the dialogue).

In terms of distribution, my options are pretty much theater, streaming or online websites like YouTube. I would have to stay realistic with my decisions and explain how that distribution method relates to my audience.

Third Question

This one focuses on how my skills developed throughout the process of making the opening. I'll talk about how I'm experienced, but nothing as big as this. I'll then move on to how pre-production, production, and post-production all took a part in developing different skills throughout. Can end with how the overall project helped me get a grasp on how to work out a big production.

Fourth Question 

Since this question asks how I integrate technologies, I can talk about Blogger, Premiere, After Effects, Sony camera, dolly, lights, all that. Explain how each contributed to the project and any advantages or disadvantages that came with each and so on.

Ending

Should end with a reflection overall. What I learned, what I could do differently, and how could I improve for next time. 

Here is my link to the script. It's pretty rough, but it will help me stay on track and not ramble on and keep my ideas and topics concise and to the point. Will get to recording these as soon as possible and finally finishing up this project!

Edit Hell

I have the basic line edit done and it's looking pretty good. I just have to add sound effects and music. And also the news segment at the end. I ended up recording yesterday along with the opening wide shot and both went well. But now I am just struggling to cut it down on time. I sort of knew this would happen, I was just hoping that it wouldn't. I am about 30 seconds over the 2-minute mark, and that's with some revisions already. I'm not exactly sure what to do at this point. Right now, I made a "director's cut" with the full dialogue and everything included, and I'll make a revised version where I cut as much as I can. I'm going to have to start cutting into dialogue and see what is unnecessary and can be removed. Hopefully, it comes out alright.

BREAKING NEWS

As I'm making the revised version, it just feels like the pacing gets thrown off by the cutting of dialogue but I think this also may have to do with the fact that I already had a vision so it feels a little empty without it. For a first-time viewer, it may not seem bad at all. At least that is my hope. I'm at around 2:15.

But right now, I'm going to just try and finish everything else, and then continue trying to cut up what I can. So this means putting the news on the TV and making the breaking news graphic. Putting videos on the TV was surprisingly easy. Since I use Adobe Premiere to edit, I just had to select the corner pinch effect and adjust the corners to fit the screen. On the right is a screenshot showing the effect. I think it turned out pretty good. I think I still may play around with it, dimming the screen a bit, making it more realistic in the scene, etc. 

The hard part about this was masking Malcolm as he was crossing the screen. Since I overlayed the video over the TV and the original clip, it would come out on top of Malcolm. So I had to manually rotoscope Malcolm's body and reveal the TV behind his body. It was a hassle. It didn't come out perfectly, or else I would've been sitting there for at least an hour just trying to perfect it, but since it isn't the main focus of the shot and it moves pretty quick anyway, it works out. 

The next big step was the breaking news graphic. For this, I went on YouTube and searched up a tutorial for a breaking news graphic for After Effects. I just followed this and it went easily. I'm already slightly familiar with After Effects so it wasn't too bad. For this clip, I just put it right before the news anchor section I recorded and put that on the TV as well, making it seem like it was interrupting a broadcast. 

SOUND

Next step, sound. Sound effects, music, all that good stuff. I first tried to find music that fit because that was pretty important to me. Throughout this whole process, I tried to decide if I should make the music myself since that gives me more control of the mood, beats, etc. But I lowkey don't have the slightest clue on how to make a suspenseful piece of music or any music in general, so I kinda gave up on that early on. 

I didn't touch it again till now, so I decided to try and find something on sound websites, like slipstream, artlist.io, etc. Only issue with these is that they require a subscription, and I kinda wanted to avoid that. Plus, a lot of them felt too dramatic, grand, or just didn't fit the mood. There were only like one or two out of the dozens I looked at that I really liked, but I didn't want to commit to anything since I was scared I could find something better for free. So I turned to YouTube to see what I could find. 

YouTube is usually hit or miss, and mainly miss when it comes to music. Most copyright-free tracks sound like they belong in a Home Depot ad, but on the rare occasion that you find something, it may just work out. And for me, it did. The suspenseful tracks on YouTube aren't that bad, they get the job done and are a solid background. I found one that wasn't loud or extravagant but it worked. With the help of some risers here and there, it should be fine. 

So the next step was sound effects. I got them from a few different places. YouTube isn't that bad for a lot of things, sometimes it can sound like it was recorded on a microwave, but other times it works just fine. Just depends on what you're looking for. I also used tune tank, free sound, etc. Really anywhere that was free and sounded good. 

My timeline ended up looking like this for audio, so I'll take that as a win. 

I'm pretty much done at this point, just doing some minor revisions and trying to cut down as many more seconds as I can. Wish me luck. Once I'm done here, I will tackle my CCR.

THATS A WRAP

Filming went PRETTY smoothy. Thank GOD. No equipment issues, actors showed up on time, and props came in. All good. The only dilemma I had was deciding where to film since my time restriction prohibited me from filming in my intended location, but I think it worked out pretty well. 

By the way, my final actors ended up being my friends Andrew and Bryan.

Bryan (Sam)

Andrew (Malcolm)

After deciding where we would film and figuring out the composition of the shot (honestly the majority of the time), the close-up shots for the dialogue of each character went by pretty fast. We were able to complete all lines within an hour. It slowed down a bit when I moved on to the remaining shots, but that, again, was just figuring out the composition I wanted.

My house is all bland beige walls, mostly empty, which makes it kinda ugly to film in, at least in my opinion. So me, Bryan, and Andrew figured that using my door leading to the patio would look nice for one shot, and we had to move some furniture around to make the counter shot of the other robber look visually interesting and add some depth rather than just have him against a solid color wall. I think this ended up looking pretty decent for the most part. 

The shots in question :)

The background ended up looking HELLA green for Andrew, so I had to set up similar lighting for Bryan's shot, or else it may look weird or out of place. Luckily I had a handheld RBG light PLUS the huge key light I was using. I used that to create a green accent on Bryan's left side and I think it worked out pretty well. 

Some photos of the shoot ^^

As you can see, it was a pretty small crew handing all the equipment, just me and the actors swapping depending on the shot. I also guess now would be a good time to explain the equipment and where I achieved all of these valuables. So I borrowed it from my friend, companion, classmate, Armesto, but technically he got it from BECON. BECON (Broward Education Communications Network) is a media production resource for students in our school district. From BECON, Armesto got an RGB COB Light, Softbox, RGB Cam Light, 2 light stands, omnidirectional mount for light, headphones, Sennheiser boom mic, XLR cable, XLR adapter, boom pole, slider, Sony A7III, 28-70mm zoom lens, F1.8 50mm lens, ND filter. All this good stuff was SUPER nice to have. 

In terms of props, the phone came in time and worked pretty well. Setting up that shot was HELL, but hopefully, it works out. I got fancy with it and used a dolly so hopefully that looks pretty nice. The clothes for Sam changed up a bit, mostly because I didn't have a red jacket for Bryan. I had one that was a small bright vibrant red cotton jacket which doesn't fit what I had in mind. The jacket is my fault, I should've gotten it before, but it's fine, the black jacket and beanie Bryan wore worked out. For the low shot looking up at Sam and Malcolm, I decided to not have the hand since it may have looked weird/out of place/forced or all the above. So that also means, I won't need blood. 

Oh, I also made a poster just...because. 

Thought it came out pretty good. Not really a poster since it's landscape, but it's just for me anyway.

The title of this blog is a bit of a lie. I still need to film the news segment and the lady walking into the home. I have to film these in the next two days since I return my equipment on Wednesday, 3/27. But during that time, I'll get ahead on editing and all that good stuff. I plan to be pretty much-done editing by Wednesday/Thursday. This means I need to lock in and do my CCRs by this weekend. I'll talk more about that in the future. Now, I film my final two shots and edit!

It is so over (hopefully not)

Alright, quick little post here. I underestimated the power of spring break. Severely. All my intended actors (by all I mean my two) are gone for spring break. So, I needed to find new people. Which is fine, I already had a few friends in mind in case of something like this. BUT, spring break truly has a grip on every high schooler I know. My backups, if not already gone, were going to be gone on the date I wanted to film. So...yeah. I needed to come up with something. Fast. 

Damn spring break.

One of the backups was open to filming, the only complication was the time. The only time he could was Sunday, 3/24 but I was intending to film Tuesday 3/26. I didn't really have much of a choice so I decided to go ahead with it. But this kinda screwed up some of my plans. I didn't have all my props and would have to settle on a location really soon. Luckily, I had all my equipment today, THANK YOU ARMESTO. If I hadn't, I really don't know what I would've done. 

I was planning on recording in my brother's home, but what I may end up doing is recording the exterior of that and then filming in my own house, since filming inside his with such short notice may not be possible. The missing prop is the home phone, and I just hope it comes in time. It is set to arrive tomorrow, but hopefully, that doesn't mean at like 9pm. 

I just pray that tomorrow can still go smoothly despite the sudden schedule change. Will keep you posted.

SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS

Ok, I need a shot list to make sure I'm organized during my shoot and I don't forget anything. Recently, my brother gave me a creative workbook that contains pages for brainstorming, storyboarding, and SHOTLISTS. Thank you, Derek. So I will be using that to make my shot list. I'll pretty much just follow my script and write down each cut or line of dialogue I need to ensure that nothing is forgotten, and no stone is left unturned. I DO NOT want to shoot the whole thing and forget one little thing. I would DIE inside. 

The shot list in the workbook isn't very detailed, but it's enough for me to work with. I put what kind of shot each one would be (close-up, wide, medium, etc.) and the description of each. I'll use both the storyboard for the type of shot and the script for the descriptions to help me fill it out. 

As I filled it out, I went chronologically and that made it pretty easy as I just looked at both the script and the storyboard and copied stuff down. When actually filming, I probably shouldn't go completely chronologically, since some shots should be filmed at once even though they happen at different times, like both phone scenes. The composition should be identical for the two, so I'll just film those right after the other. Below is the shot list

Hopefully, this makes recording a much easier and smoother process.

FONTS

Coming off the posts about credits, I want to lead right into fonts. I wanted to do it in one post,  but STN got me pretty behind with my posts so I had to divide it up into 2.

To do my research I used a Canva article explaining font psychology. It explains how fonts have the power to control how your product is received by audiences. The right font can make you look professional and trusted or whimsical and inviting. Choosing the wrong font can also completely mess up the tone of your piece. So using something like Comic Sans wouldn't really work for my piece.

Some of the main fonts are Serif, Sans Serif, and Script.

I can pretty much immediately take out Script since I just don't think it fits the vibe of my opening. I would want a more aggressive font as the title will lead into the intense opening. So my ideal font would be Serif.

Serif fonts establish formality and authority. Serif is also a classic font, typically used in books, magazines, and newspapers since it is easier to read. They also send a clear message and can make an impact and demonstrate power. The Canva article uses this Guardian ad on the right as an example of Serif font being used authoritatively, establishing that they have a clear message.

For my purposes, I want big bold characters, almost screaming in the viewer's face, but still using basic fonts and staying away from anything extravagant. Since I have access to Adobe fonts, I began looking for what was available on there. 

 

On Adobe fonts, there are a few tags, including calligraphic, geometric, funky, futuristic, and inline. 

I stuck with geometric, and almost immediately found my match. 

NOKA.

(this isn't the noka font btw, just the closest I can get on here)

It's sharp, loud, and aggressive, while still being simple and easy to read. It is almost exactly what I was looking for. For the title itself, I will probably have a bold version of the font while using the basic or light version of the font for the other credits. Next up, shot list, music, and FILMING.

CREDITS

To research credits, I decided to look at other films in the genre. So I turned to a handful to see the similarities and differences and choose what I think will be best for mine. 

First, I looked at Uncut Gems. When they get to the credits, they have one name appear at a time on a lower third, alternating between the left and right third. It alternates between the left and right sides of the screen. The first couple of names were the actors, in order of importance. After the actors, things like casting, score, costume designer, editor, producers, etc. So for me, I would have the actors first, then have that followed by cinematographer, editor, producer, director, etc. I would have the text in the lower third, likely 2 at the same time since I do not have much time to work with. I'm thinking of keeping the credits to only the very first shot of the wide of the house and also sneaking the title near the end of that shot, but it just depends on how long the shot is and how much time the credits will take. 

The credits for Uncut Gems are shown in this video above

Moving on to my other big inspiration, Good Time does something pretty similar. About 16 minutes in, the credits begin playing, also only showing one name at a time, starting with the top-billed actors and then moving on to production (editing, producers, directors, writers, etc.). However, for Good Time, the white credits appeared in the middle of the screen instead of the lower third. 

In terms of the title, I was thinking of just having it play over footage of the opening, during the wide of the house, but when looking into the Killing Of A Sacred Deer, the title card for the film is over a black background. This made me consider going this route for the title, but I think my opening is a bit too dense for it to be in the middle, so I was thinking if I go this route, I would just have it at the very beginning. 

Above is the opening scene of Killing of a Sacred Deer

For my personal opening, I think I will use the lower thirds from Uncut Gems since I think that looks a bit cleaner and will allow me to put multiple credits if necessary if I end up being short on time. However, I would like to avoid doing this since having one name at a time is typically a convention of the genre. Having the title at the very beginning on a black background may create some intrigue, especially with the help of sound. Putting a riser on the black background with the title, and abruptly cutting to the wide shot could be very effective in terms of creating some suspense and curiosity over what is about to happen. Next on my list is font research for these credits and making a shot list. 

STUFF

Alright, so I need STUFF for my opening. This includes the phone, the gun, maybe some blood, and possibly the clothes. I'm unsure about those last two because for the blood, the only thing I'll show of the woman would be a hand, or her in the body bag, so blood isn't entirely necessary since I'm not showing the wound or anything. BUT, the blood would make it clear that she died. For the clothes, I may have something sufficient already so I may not have to go out and buy anything. If I don't, then my actors might since the costume design isn't anything extravagant. Worst case, I can order it online or go...anywhere.

For the phone though, I will need to buy that sometime soon. I liked the idea of a rotary phone, but thinking about it, it may seem out of place since I have set the film opening in the present time through the dialogue and the costumes. So then I began thinking about modern home phones and liked that. I wanted it to be red, not only to stand out but to indicate a looming danger. 

It would end up looking something like this. 

For blood, I did some research. Looking up “how to make realistic-looking blood” may have put me on a watchlist, but it’ll be worth it. When looking at the results, one recipe seemed to be pretty consistent among a bunch of websites. 1 cup of corn syrup, 2 tablespoons of chocolate syrup, and red food coloring. This seemed pretty easily achievable, all I really have to buy would be red food coloring, so sounds good to me.

Now, the gun. So turns out, I don’t need to buy or research anything for this. Cause I already have a fake gun. To be honest, I have no idea why or when I got it, but I’ve had it for a long time. And it works perfectly for this. It’s a realistic-looking pistol that is the exact fit for my opening since I already had it in mind when coming up with my idea.

This is pretty much all the mise-en-scene elements I need to worry about as they are the big ones. My next goals are making a shot list and doing some font and credit research.

 

One step back, two steps foward

There is something I haven't mentioned that is really going to screw up my plans. That is STN, standing for Student Television Network. Pretty much, its just this big tv competition where high schools nationwide compete in Long Beach, California. And I'm going. The trip lasts for almost a week, from 3/13 to 3/18. So this kinda messes with my schedule and when I wanted to start filming and wrapping up preproduction. I would begin to film by this week or start the next, but thanks to STN, I kind of can't. 

So, I have come up with a plan to do as much as I can to help myself out in the long run since I'm at a dead end right now. For the following week that I am gone I'm going to do:

- a shot list

- figure out where to film

- research how to create and purchase mise-en-scene elements (the blood, the phone, etc.)

This is all still pre-production stuff that I want to be done with by middle of next week. But to help myself out more in the edit I am going to get started on:

- font and credit research

- finding my music and sound effects

- making the news graphic

This is just the goal, I may not get to all of these things, but if I do have the time to, it would be great help so I am not just stagnant since I can't film. 

Rewrite Time

My script...isn't amazing. In terms of dialogue and whatnot, it could be a lot better. So, I'm going to fix that up a bit and refine it. Also since I have my title, I can officially name it. 

My first step was reducing down dialogue. Getting some feedback from some of my friends and teacher, I realized that some of the things they are saying are too wordy and can be cut down quite a bit. Sometimes it would just be because real people would not usually say certain things but sometimes it just wouldn't fit the characters themselves either. Some of the changes would be as small as changing this:

To this:

This not only helped me make the dialogue seem a bit more realistic and believable but also cut down on how long the opening will be, which I'm a little scared that might be a problem. 

I also changed the body dropping on the remote and turning the TV on. Looking at it now...it is pretty dumb. Instead, I just have the TV on in the background for the entire thing, and as they are leaving, a breaking news interruption about them will catch Malcolm and Sam's attention. This feels more realistic and a lot less cartoony. But now I have to decide what to do with the TV. I would need something playing beforehand so I can show that it's an interruption, even if it's only a second long. This also allows me to have some sort of sound in the background of the scene coming from the TV, letting me play around more with the soundscape. BUT, now I need to make a graphic for the breaking news interruption that would play as Malcolm and Sam carry the body before noticing the interruption is about them. 

Something like this would work well. So I have to find time to do that. Anyway, here is my revised script, with title, character names, and all! 

The Title

So I’ve been writing my script, doing my storyboard, developing my characters…but now I need to actually make a title. It’s something I’ve been dreading for a bit now. I typically dislike picking a title for some of my works since I usually really want to make it a good and solid title that fits the piece. Which is not really easy for me.

When doing some research, I found that titles can focus on three basic elements. These included the story idea, the character, or the theme. These aren't things that are set in stone, but I think it will provide me with some guidance. I wouldn't really want to focus on characters since I just don't think it will convey what I want it to. I'm more inclined to look at titles with the story idea or overall theme. 

So my first thought was connecting it to the robbery or stealing and all that. So I was thinking maybe “Breaking and Entering” but I thought it felt a bit corny and just didn't really fit. So I shifted my gears to the theme. Since it will be a stressful piece, I began thinking about what may convey this. I looked up synonyms for "stress" and "misfortune". But I couldn't really find much I actually enjoyed. 

Coincidentally, my media teacher had called me up to check on my progress and I asked her about any ideas for a title. She suggested something like "Bungle", meaning clumsy and incompetent, which I like as it describes the characters and how they get into this mess. Another suggestion she gave was just naming it "Malcolm and Sam" since the opening focuses on the two. But again, I don't really like the "name" title. I liked how Bungle sounded, so I put it in the thesaurus and began looking around. I found Mangled, to have the same definition as Bungled, and I liked it as well. 

And then there were two. So now it's between Bungled and Mangled. And since mangled also means to injure severely and mutilate, I think I'm settling on Bungled. I like it. Even though it sounds a little silly, I think it fits with the sillier aspects of the opening, like their ridiculous suggestions of what to do with the body. So now, my opening is called BUNGLED.

Drawing Time

I think storyboarding is probably one of my favorite parts of pre-production. As much as I love coming up with an idea and really developing it, I love drawing it out even more. It helps visualize my ideas and shots which is helpful because I think I am a pretty visual learner.

Typically when I make a storyboard it is the first time I am writing out my ideas and the rough dialogue if there is any. However, in this case, it is a lot easier since I already have my first draft of the script. 

 

...Nevermind. Drawing this...is not easy. I didn't really process that the storyboard and the type of shots and order of them would be like...really important. And I'm a little stumped. After the first shot inside with the tight close-up of Malcolm, I'm not too sure what to do next. I guess I should show the body but I never really want to show too much of it because I think with my limitations, I can't really make a body look good dead. I kinda want to show Sam as well, having a more angry and concerned face than the shock on Malcom's. I think that may work. This is kind of a editing Mateo problem so I'll leave that for him to decide. I just have to ensure I get the shots I need to have the ability to do that later. 

 As I continued, it started getting a lot easier since it mainly consisted of only close-ups, so the shots weren't changing THAT much, it's more the composition and the emotions of the actors ramping up that will be changing throughout the scene. 

The rest of the storyboard went pretty smoothly. As I thought, having a rough draft of the script written out helped quite a bit. The scene pretty much consisted of all close-ups and tight close-ups with the exceptions of the long shots including the body, the phone ringing, and Malcolm and Sam carrying the body. This is pretty intentional as the close shots will intensify the drama and emotion in the scene. Below are pictures of my storyboard.

My next goals are to finally decide on the title for the movie so I can stop calling it untitled robbery and finalize my script.