Drawing it out

Ok, so I'm still trying to figure out an ending for my script, but in the meantime, so that I don't get too behind, I'll storyboard what I have so far, and maybe that'll give me some more inspiration and ideas as to what I can do for the ending. 

I'm not a great drawer, but as long as I understand what I'm looking at, its fine. But before I begin drawing, I want to make my shot list first so I have the full, in-depth step-by-step filming checklist that I can draw my shots from. I think this will be way easier than trying to draw it from the script. At least for me. It divides the workload of trying to figure out what shots I want in a scene and exactly what I want them to look like. 

For the shot list, I'm going to make a spreadsheet to organize everything in a way that will be most useful to me when filming. I categorized each shot into shot #, type of shot, subject, movement, and short description. Here's a screenshot of how the spreadsheet is laid out. Whenever I get to a new scene, I change the color to differentiate the scenes easily.

From this shot list, I can begin making my storyboard. Since I have the shot list, I don't have to draw out every single shot, but just the major ones to aid me later when filming so I can recall what I had in mind for each shot. 

This is what I've got so far, it's not every single shot, but just the main ones I feel the need to draw out. Most of the other ones are basic closeups or medium shots used in conversation, so I don't need to draw that out, as long as I use my shot list. Now the only thing I'm really missing is the ending. 

Group meeting

Today in class, we were put in group to discuss and receive feedback on each others projects so far. The activity is meant to get input from peers and help us move forward in our process, and know is the perfect time for me because I've been stuck trying to find an ending for my script. My group members were Victoria, Mariano, Daniela, and Manuela. I hyperlinked all of their blogs so you can also check out what they are working on. 

For my idea, the general consensus was that it was a funny idea and had a lot of potential, just need to figure out where it was going. There were a few ideas thrown out from my group members, including having him poop, then he eats again and then has to poop again, starting a cycle. Another recommendation I got was trying to figure out a location I wanted it to end on, and then writing around that, but I much rather prefer and believe in writing and then finding a location, not the other way around if possible. 

A point that was brought up that really stuck with me was whether I wanted the ending to be more grounded in reality or some absolute crazy nonsense that will lead to the protagonist pooping. An example that I brought up during the meeting of a crazy ending was that they ran into a cult when they run out of gas and they are about to sacrifice them, and the only thing that will save them is if one of them defecated, because the cult is a poop cult. Something insane thing like that. As ridiculous as something like this sounds, I don't think that this whole conflict should be settled as easily or as basically as him finding a bathroom. I think that it would feel anticlimactic. But I'm not sure if some absurd idea like this would be too much and start to detach itself from the original premise. I'm also not sure if this is necessarily a bad thing. But overall, I think it definitely did help me narrow down my vision towards ending my script. 

Another idea that they gave me for the social media was a post centered on Eduardo, who the story is based on, and I thought that was really funny and really liked this idea. They brought up the idea of making him a complete character and I thought that was fun.

Overall, this helped me get a sense of where to go next with my script, and you'll hopefully be seeing the finished product soon. 

Writing is fun!

For the past 2 weeks or so, I've been trying to chip away at writing the script as it is such a daunting task for me. But when I get in my grove, I really enjoy it. I've been using Writer Solo, a free script writing program which is really good, its super easy to format and I've been loving it so far. 

Here is what the text formatting options look like, allowing me to easily switch to whatever I need.

I have been slowly writing, but I've sorta hit a bump in the road. The issue I've hit right now is creating a different conflict. My teacher brought up a good point when I brought the idea to her, as she said that the whole poop joke will get old quick and dragging it out for 5ish minutes would be a lot. I would need something else to happen, some other event, another conflict, but it still has to fit into the story and now I have to find a way for the story to conclude with this. 

Another issue I'm having is figuring out what will lead the characters to just go home. Because in the real story that its based on, they went into a bunch of stores and were denied at all of them, but its difficult to get a shop or location to film at so I have to find a way to write around this. I think I just need to find a new conflict that will solve both the repetitiveness of the poop and also let me get around filming in a location and going back home.

Possible conflict ideas I have right now are maybe the boys running out of gas in a secluded location. I'm not sure how the story would end here, but if I go this route, the protagonist will probably have to poop in the wilderness, which I can play around with in terms of comedy. I also have this idea of the protagonist having hallucinations or visions due to how bad he has to poop. But idk, I think I'll just have to fully envision each idea and see where it would lead and end and see what I like and don't like.

Also something that I've been keeping in mind while writing is having the characters talk like real people and leaving some words out, which is something I learned from writing my script last year. People don't talk like how we write, especially teens, so writing for them gets a little tricky because it goes against how I've been taught to write. But just keeping this idea in mind helps a lot with making the dialogue more realistic. 

I'll keep coming up with stuff and writing and continue to fill you in. 

Starting my social media

 So this will be a short little post, and any posts from here on out until maybe the end of my project regarding my social media page will probably be shorter since i’ll just be talking about the posts for that week and how they contribute to my brand and project marketing. But idk, i might write a bunch for one week and minimal stuff for the other. I’ll go with the flow. 

But anyways, I created my social media page for The Dump, and now I have to figure out what I should post for the week. I think I’m just gonna post a video of a slow push on a toilet and then a coming soon text after. After this, i’m just gonna do some meet the directo and actors. Once I get to this point, I’ll be in the production process and will be able to post behind the scenes and stuff like this. 

Next, I’ll be talking about my process writing the script and my ups and down with that.

Other social media pages

 The first social media page I want to look at is the page for Forever Young, a film I've referenced and talked about in my previous blog posts. I think their marketing, and especially distribution, is really solid and works to elevate the piece not only before but also months after the film has already been released.

While not necessarily focused on the short film Forever Young, as the account is for the production company, RainCity Productions, their only film as of right now is Forever Young so it works out. The first few posts were just a teaser and a trailer of the film, which I will likely end up doing, but much later on when I've already filmed and am in the editing process. After they announced that the film was on YouTube, they began posting other stuff, such as the film being premiered and winning awards at the All American High School Film Festival and good reviews on Letterboxd. The posts that stood out to me the most tho were the announcement of the score being up on streaming services as well as CD to accompany it ANDDD a DVD with an exclusive new sound mix and color grade. I think this is soooo goddamn dope. Since they made their own score, they have it up on Spotify and other platforms (and its honestly good, like I listen to it on my free time lol), and on a CD, adding exclusivity and interactivity with the audience, I loooove it. The same goes for the DVD, it only had 50 copies, creating exclusivity for the item and its tailored for fans of the short, having special new features. I would looove to do something like this, even if it isn't a real CD or DVD, just a post about it could be really cool. Apart from that, the account also has some BTS photos. I could use a fake film fest post and fake reviews before releasing a big trailer, but probably after a teaser in order to generate more hype and generate some more posts on the page. 

Another social media page I want to look at that is more focused on a single short film is the page for The Lake in the Sky. The page is completely focused on promoting the film, even down to the profile picture. The first few posts teased the film and explained the backstory behind how the creator came up with the idea. It contained some other teases and looks into production, with actors and a teaser for the trailer. They also posted some BTS and well as storyboards vs the actual shots, which I thought was really really cool and a good look into both the pre-production and production aspects of the film. Then the page goes into more basic stuff like trailers and film festivals that they have entered. But another interesting thing the page does is have a "meet the composer" post, which introduces the composer of the film. I could maybe do this with myself, like a meet the director/writer/editor/whatever near the beginning of my social media lifespan.

This gives me a good starting point to jump off from as I have other ideas for starting my social media project before I actually start filming and have limited things to post. I think that once I start production, filling up my social media page will get much easier as I have more content to post.

hahahaha

Alright, one more time. I’m gonna be looking at the comedy genre this time tho. Again, I’m using StudioBinder as a reference like I usually do. The article defined comedy as any work intended to incite laughter and amusement. 

The article lays out what makes something funny, with the most prominent techniques that I could use being timing, expectations and subverting them, misunderstandings, and flawed plans. 

With timing, a lot of it depends on the delivery, which I emphasized the importance of when watching Crazy Cult Camping Movie. The article highlights that how actors deliver their lines can affect how the audience responds, making a joke funnier or making it fall short.

I can play with expectations as well, either meeting them or subverting them. I can meet audience expectations for whatever is happening in a scene, and it could still be funny and engaging because the viewer may know something the characters don't. But also catching the viewers off guard can work really well, and there’s a a bunch of this in Caught Up, but I already talked about this in depth so I'm gonna take about instances of this in Crazy Cult Camping Movie. 

In the clip, the characters are discussing what they think about the situation, so when they ask Gus what he thinks, the loud angelic music and Gus in a trance crying is super unexpected but so funny to me, it takes you so off guard but I think it works so well. 

Misunderstandings are another idea I can definitely play around. Since my characters are teenagers and one is in immense distress, I can have them misunderstand what he is saying and trying desperately to figure out what he wants and coming up with different absurd ideas while the protagonist is trying so hard to concentrate on not pooping his pants, he can't even speak (god I love this idea). Similar to the expectations, the viewer may know what is actually happening, but the characters being in the dark and trying to figure it out is what makes the situation funny.

The last technique that the article outlines that I can use in my short film is a flawed plan. StudioBinder describes it as "when a character comes up with the dumbest plan in the world and everybody knows it but the character." This could fit in really well with what the characters decide to do when the protagonist needs to poop. They could try and come up with some absurd idea to have him poop in public, or something of the sort. I can play around with this when writing.

This is definitely a super helpful starting point when writing, I can kinda write around these techniques when writing my jokes and progressing the story along, which I do need going into the script. From here I'm gonna look into social media pages for short films before starting my pre-production. 

I am the night

So I know I've been saying I might do music research in order to score my own film buttttt, I think I can do that later on when I am actually editing since that is when I would begin to score the piece, and I also think that I could use my research and time on something else that I need to know more urgently...which is knowing how to light an outdoor nighttime scene.

So I took to YouTube to see what I could find in terms of tips for shooting at night and how to light. A pretty solid one I found was this video by Matt Aitia, where he does 2 scenes outdoors at night and just documents the process and production behind the camera, only uses a panel and tube light. I say only but that panel cost $800...

But its fine, I have other resources that give children highly expensive equipment for free. Yayy! 

Anyway, the setup he had was pretty basic, the director and gaffer just played with the existing light in the shot and attempted to make the light as motivated as possible. This is the most realistic setup for me cause outside in the night in downtown Fort Lauderdale....I can't have that much of a set up with me. No outlets or plugs, so it all has to be battery-powered. Unless I want to buy one of those insane portable chargers that has every plug to ever exist. Which I may look into. For the main shot outside in the beginning (at least what I have right now in my head) would be in a parking lot under a street post, with the characters outside their car. I'll outline these scenes more in an upcoming post about a storyboard. 

So I also have to play with locations and location scouting, going out there with a camera and lights, and seeing what it looks like and what works best before I start filming. This also goes with the car scenes that I will have because a lot of that light will (hopefully) come from outside, so I just need to go myself and play around with how I can light a car interior at night. A video I watched for lighting a car was one uploaded by Brady Bessette, and while it wasnt too much help since he was very reliant on the equipment and lighting rig that he has, the example shots did give me some reference as to what I will probably have to work with. 

Here you can see that Brady used the motivated lighting of street lights and the dash in order to light the scene, which is definitely what I will have to play with. I can use things like the dash, streetlights, the radio/screen in the middle, overhead light etc. to try and light the scene as best I can. 

This will probably be the hardest part about filming. I think I have the resources to pull it off, its just planning and making sure it looks natural and real. But I think I'll go into this more on a later planning post when I start location scouting. 

More Shorts

Caught Up

With this short film, they get their humor from subverting expectations. The premise is that this girl is upset about a guy ghosting her and talking to other girls and her friend tells her to get revenge. At first, the film sets itself up as a rom-com, with the story appearing to be the protagonist trying to get her love interest back, but then quickly pivots when her best friend says "we should kill him". This quickly changes the tone of the entire film and turns into pure comedy from here on out, subverting what the audience might have expected from the beginning and keeping them on their toes.

This continues throughout the humor of the film, when the protagonist's mom ask if Nikki's, the best friend, mom is out of the hospital and doing ok. From this the audience assumes that Nikki's mom might be in the hospital for an illness or accident or something health related, but the film quickly disproves this and catches the audience off guard when Nikki says that "her bbl was a huge success". This is so funny and works so well because its the last thing you expect to hear and is so absurd. 

This subversion only ramps up when the two girls ask Tony, the guy that ghosted Claire, to send pics, and they, as well as the audience, is expecting him to send nude pictures of himself as the phrase "send pics" usually insinuates this. But a complete curveball is thrown when he sends a picture of his feet. This is so goddamn hilarious. Especially in my generation since Gen Z tends to believe that feet are gross and should be kept covered. The reveal is elevated with a sting, a zoom into the picture, and the sound of Claire screaming. Again, not only is things like subverting expectations important, but these moments can be elevated with camera work and editing. 

Apart from the subversion of expectations, Caught Up also has a really solid physical gag that made me die when I saw it. When Claire and Nikki are selling Tony fake Adderall, the police show up to stop the sale, and when Nikki runs away the police tackle her so unnecessarily aggressive and fast, you can't help but laugh. 

The main takeaway is just to keep audiences on their toes and don't let them guess what's gonna happen next, keep them engaged and entertained throughout. This goes for both the jokes and the writing. 

The Film AND When in Poughkeepsie

I want to talk about two different techniques from both of these shorts that I can combine to use in mine. 

The Film centers around two best friends that have a falling out over debating whether a donut or a bagel is better. When the two get into their argument, they begin arguing and talking over each other. This overlapping of dialogue creates more tension in the interaction and heightens the intensity of the fight. I can use this when my characters are arguing about where to go and what the best course of action is.

When in Poughkeepsie focuses on a dad and his son on a college tour in the town of Poughkeepsie. In a scene where the two are eating breakfast at a restaurant, the dad makes his son, who is an 18 year old about to graduate high school, order the kid's buffet, which is 12 and under. They get into a debate about whether he is gonna order it or not, and in this interaction the camera whip pans back and forth to increase the pace of the scene while simultaneously elevating the tension of the disagreement. I can pair this technique with the overlapping dialogue from The Film to make the situation as ridiculously tense as can be.  

Overall, I can use the techniques that I observed and dissected from all 4 shorts that I watched in my own short film and try to make it the best it can be. I honestly think that this research into more shorts was super useful and helpful in informing my own decisions moving forward. Next, I'm probably gonna do research on how to create music orrrr redo my genre research...but for comedy this time. 

Watching shorts

Like I mentioned in my last post, I watched a few shorts from the All American Film Fest YouTube channel and examined what they do well and what I can learn from it for my project. 

Forever Young

The first film I wanna talk about is Forever Young, a coming-of-age drama centering on a senior in high school learning to love life again in the suburban Mid-West. Although it isn't a comedy, I still feel a need to talk about its cinematography and music. This movie is pure eye-candy. It looks amazing. It has this film overlay applied to it which immediately creates a warmer tone throughout. It also has a hazy look, most prominently with the lights during the night scenes where lights look blurred and out of focus. This would apply to my idea as it will be filmed primarily in nighttime downtown Fort Lauderdale and I can emulate a lot of the stuff that they do here.

In terms of music, one of the creators of Forever Young, Maxamillion Cope, scored the film himself, mainly consisting of guitars with soft rising synths backing the strings. This works extremely well for the coming-of-age approach that they took for the film. Knowing that the creators scored this film mainly just gave me some inspiration and drive to go through with making my own. Here's a link to their Spotify.  

Here's the short film on YouTube

Crazy Cult Camping Movie

This short is a comedy centering on 4 teens on a camping trip and then they get kidnapped by a crazy cult. Its literally in the title. The film achieves its comedy through not only dialogue, but editing and shots. The characters are 4 male teenagers, so a lot of their lines are stupid jokes like "50 babies or 50 babies with ray guns?!". They really just embrace the stupidity of the situation and the characters. Although dialogue and writing is important, delivery is EVEN MORE IMPORTANT. The delivery these kids have is fantastic, just the way that they say a normal line sounds funny, so casting is important. 

Editing is also another big, big factor. Cutting from jokes to reaction shots, letting a line simmer a little, MUSIC and STINGS. For my film, I'm not sure how true this will hold, but for Crazy Cult, stings are pretty important for whenever the cult character are around. The use of super wide lens on closeups is also something I would love to do. I think it creates uncomfortable intensity, but also just elevates the humor when used in the right moments, like in this short. Here is the link to the YouTube video.

Next post I'm gonna be looking at 2 more comedy short films and dissecting their choices and see what I can learn and apply to mine

Change of plans

Ok. So. I think…I’m gonna change my genre. Slightly. In my research of films, I've just been constantly trying to come up with another idea, trying to come up with something, anything, because although I like the radio idea, I think I can do more. I know I can do more. And in my research for a short film, I got reminded of an old idea I had.

Sorry radio idea

The idea is based on a true story. My close friend Eduardo (he’s actually in my CCR from last year lol) told me how he was in downtown Fort Lauderdale, and the immense urge to poop came over him. But he could not find not one single bathroom. He went to a walgreens, a gas station, a McDonald’s, all closed or out of order or some other excuse. At one point he genuinely thought he was gonna poop his pants. At the time he was with his friends in the car and he told them to just go back home and step on it, because at the rate they were going, he had a better chance of making the bathroom if they just went back home….a 25 minute drive. And in that car ride, Eduardo was losing it, rocking back and forth in a fetal position in the backseat of the car while his friend was going as fast as he could. I imagine a pure fever dream happening. I have no idea how, and neither does he, but he made it to our friend Jared’s house and he slid under the opening garage and booked it for the toilet. The toilet had seen better days. 

As soon as I heard this story, I immediately started thinking about how funny this would be as a short film…which says a lot about me. But anyway, I kinda started writing it but not fully. This piece was pretty difficult to write for me cause it just authentic teen talk, which should be my strong suit…but idk, maybe now that I’d have more of a focus on it, I might be able to push through and write it. 

The piece would be more of a comedy…with some dramatic moments lol. So I will look for short films more in that vain, and also redo my genre research and focus on comedy this time. 

I’m highkey really excited to make this. I think this can be really really solid, I just need to put in a lot of work writing. 

I do it for....the plot

From my genre research, I have a couple of basic ideas, but one that I just keep coming back to. I find it pretty difficult to write and come up with stuff, it's definitely my weakness when it comes to production, which is why its important that I push myself to try and do it more often. And a problem I have is that I just get stuck on an idea or two and then fail to branch out or think of new things. But I think I just need to write down this idea and flesh it out a bit in order to see if I want to stick with it or try and move on. 

So from the drama research, I talked about tragedies being a subgenre, and this fit in perfectly with an idea I've had for a while now and I think this may be a good time to put it to paper and try and make it.

Kinda the eerie look I'd be going for

The basic premise of my idea is a really lonely kid who shuts himself away from the world in his room and is looking for an escape, a way to distract himself. He has this radio that he speaks into to pretend that he's an astronaut, or a pilot, or something, and then someone answers back. A girl. They begin talking and then it becomes a daily thing. It becomes something the protagonist looks forward to everyday. It doesn't matter how much his day sucks because at least he'll talk to the girl when he gets home. He begins to conjure up this imaginary relationship, he thinks that their connection is deeper than it is. She becomes all he cares about, its not like he had much going for him before. The protagonist does something to creep her out, maybe asks to meet in person or just says something weird or maybe calls her by something that makes her uncomfortable. Then she stops coming to the radio. A day. Two. A week. A month. The protagonist starts to lose it, shes all he had, what more is there to his life. At this point, I think that he would break the radio and then cry in his bed or end with him alone in the shot, just something to cement this loneliness,  at which the credit would roll. 

I like this idea and I think I can make it stronger. I can definitely flesh this out more and a lot of it is reliant on dialogue so I would have to make it most engaging there. But I don't want to limit myself to this, so I'm gonna sit on it for a little bit and see if I can come up with something else.

In the meantime, I'm gonna watch a few student short films to get some inspo. I'm mainly gonna use All American High School Film Fest youtube channel as my resource since there is just soooo much good stuff there, but I will come back. 

Genre Research

The first step to coming up with my idea is to pick a genre. Last time, I tried to create suspense and anticipation in my audience with my film opening, Bungled. This time, being able to create a full short film, I’m more focused on creating a compelling, engaging film with a beginning, middle, and end. And this is extremely basic for a short film and kinda a given, but it’s still important to keep in mind. With this in mind, I’m leaning towards creating a drama, with a focus on a character-driven story. It’s what I have had the most experience in making with the short films I make every Saturday for STN.

A drama is defined as a film genre that tells a serious story about characters facing a conflict. So super broad. But it keeps me contained to a more serious plot and that’s what having a genre is important for, to create a structure to keep myself and my story organized.

A resource I often use when researching different aspects of the film is Studiobinder, which is what I used when researching the genre more in-depth to get a better understanding of what I would be making. A quote from the studiobinder article is:

“Through compelling narratives and vivid portrayals, drama not only entertains but also stimulates deep contemplation and introspection.”

I think this is an important idea to keep in mind moving forward as it encapsulates what a drama means. It’s not just a compelling story, but also a way to share my thoughts and ideas about the world and different concepts.


The Studiobinder article explains that there are different types of dramas, with some of the most prominent ones being tragedies, comedies, and melodramas. Although there are many more different sub-genres I can go down, tragedy and comedy are the ones that call to me the most. The article explains that a tragedy showcases a protagonist’s downfall, evoking strong emotions of pity and fear. I looooovee this idea and playing with how a character will go to extreme depths over some event/inciting incident. And comedy is pretty self-explanatory. Although I could implement elements of comedy, I want to keep a darker tone for my piece this time around. The comedy would have to be dark or dry.


This overview gave me a clearer insight into the genre of drama, and also gave me a few ideas for my short film, which is what I’m gonna talk about in my next post.

Schedule for the next few months

 To keep myself as organized as possible in this rough and complicated process, I have to make a schedule for the next 2 months and have goals to accomplish each year.

Week 1:

• Choose my project (already did this)
• Make a schedule (what I'm doing right now)
• I want to choose my genre for the short film or a basic idea of what I want to do with it

Week 2:

• Want to develop my idea more and focus on short films in the same genre or that capture what I'm going for (might split these two)
• Look at more short films and dissect their production more in-depth
• Depending on my idea, I want to learn how to do something that I will need for my project. As of right now, I want to look into how to create my own music for my short film and develop this skill throughout these weeks until I feel comfortable making my own to use. Music is one of the hardest parts of making a piece and being able to make exactly want I want, hitting specific beats, conveying the exact mood I want would be ideal in making my piece what I want it to be. But again, this may change depending on my idea and what I need in order to fulfill my vision.

Week 3:

• Look at other social media pages for short films. I have one in mind that I saw at All American High School Film Fest (Forever Young). This project also recently released the project on DVD and also made a CD from the soundtrack that the creators MADE. So stuff like this would be good to look at
• Begin planning out the short film EXTENSIVELY: first want to tackle basic storyboard with the big main shots scattered throughout the 5 minutes, getting a rough idea of the progression throughout the school. I would make a basic outline along with this storyboard to get a clearer idea of how I want the story to go and how I want it to look.
• Want to begin writing the script cause this is lowkey the hardest part for me. Making dialogue sound good is not very fun for me. But I'll try and get it started early so I can do some tweaks. 

Week 4:

• Finish up writing the script. Once I have this ready I can start making a super in-depth storyboard with every, single, shot. This is super important to me because first and foremost, I am a cinematographer. It's what I want to do and what I love the most. And with this piece I really want to push myself to making every shot eye-candy. It will NOT be easy, but I'll try my best.
• From this storyboard, I can make a shotlist which is crazy helpful on set, I used it for my film opening, Bungled, and holy crap what a godsend. I can also start looking at shooting schedules and seeing when my actors are free. 
• In these week, I'll be meeting with my classmates in groups and get some feedback on my idea and also get feedback on theirs. I'll be talking about this and what changes or realizations it led in terms of my project

Week 5:

• I will hopefully be starting production around this time, or at the very least start collecting props or other things I may need for the film 

Week 6: 

• God I hope I'm filming by now
• Hopefully starting to edit as well
• Also gotta start look at the critical reflection

Week 7:

• Should be editing in full force
• Chip away at critical reflection

Week 8:

• Wrap up editing

Week 9:

• Write my final thoughts on the entire process
• Post my critical reflection

This is great...but I'm not gonna be looking at my blog every time I want to see what I have to do...so I'm making a google calendar!! 

This is way more accessible to me and will help me keep on track way more than just making this big schedule and never looking back at it again. So next I'm gonna start looking at what genre I want to do and the basic ideas I might have...

So many options, so little time

Starting the portfolio project for this year and I'm excited. I have way more freedom this time around which I appreciate a lot. Instead of just a 2-minute opening, I can do a music video, doc, movie trailer, or full short film. 

That

is

bliss.

I pretty much already know that I'm either gonna do the documentary or short film cause those are just the ones that interest me the most. The movie trailer is like...ehhhhh cause if I'm doing all that, I may as well just make the short film ya know. And the music video sounds fun, but I would have to find an artist I know, and while I do know some musicians, they're mostly just wannabe Miami electronic artists soo....idk about that one...

For the documentary, it would have to be something that truly interests me or something that I am passionate about: like homeless people having such an insanely negative stigma around them when a lot of them are just everyday people, or furries that get so much hate both online and in person for just doing what they love and it being the form through which they express themselves. I think these groups getting such a bad rep is crazy and just sad and I would love to be able to give them a platform to highlight how they are no different from everyone else and let viewers see them in a light that is often not seen in the media. This is similar to what I did with my doc I made earlier in the year, A War At Home, as me and my partner, Gabi, gave Yousef, a Palestinian student, a platform to discuss his perspective of the war between Israel and Hamas. However, both of these are pretty hard to accomplish as I do not know a homeless person OR a furry...and finding both of these is kinda difficult. I have tried...

Heres a shot from the All American film

This is a reason that I lean towards the short film option heavily. I also just love this stuff man. I love being able to make short films and other projects that I am so passionate about. With the short film, I have full creative control over every piece which is so damn liberating. I first experienced it with my film opening last year, and having so much control over your vision and being able to execute it (to the best of your abilities..😅) is so so cool. Since then I have made a bunch of short films, all in groups. I went to New York in October to compete in the New York All-American Film Festival where I made a 5-minute short film with a crew. I'll put the link here. Over the past few months I've also been making short films every Saturday to practice for another competition I have at the end of February and that has given me so much practice and time to hone my skill. But this would be the first time I'd be creating something on my lonesome again and that is so exciting. I love being able to make something from scratch on my own. I love being able to make something that evokes emotion in someone else. To be able to do that with something that you have created is, pardon my french, fucking incredible. It's why I do this. So I think I'm gonna do the short film package. 

So that means I'm gonna make a ~5minute short film, along with a social media page to market the film, as well as a post-card advertisement, so this should be an exciting 2 months. 

Documentary Critical Reflection

Over the course of two weeks, my partner and I had to develop a 5-7 minute documentary, planning it, shooting it, and editing it. In doing so, we shifted ideas, had obstacles when filming, debated over editing choices, etc. However, in the end, we created a cohesive piece of work that I can say that I am proud of. 

Our documentary centers around a high school student, Yousef, whose family is from Palestine. The piece centers around how the Israel-Hamas War has directly and personally affected his life, both with his family in Palestine and the reaching effects in the U.S. Through this lens, we were able to capture and represent Palestinians in the conflict in the most neutral light that we possibly could, giving them a platform to speak about their experiences. In the beginning, we have Yousef talking about his family and trips to Palestine that he goes to every year, creating empathy between Yousef and his family and the viewer. From here, we go into the effects of the conflict on him and his family, with his cousins and grandmother being raided frequently and Yousef himself receiving harassment here in the U.S. This view into how Palestinians are being treated not only in Palestine but also in the U.S. showcases aspects that are sometimes not often seen in the media. Allowing a Palestinian who frequently visits Palestine while also living in Florida allows an accurate picture of both sides of the issue to be created. Because of this, we represent these social groups in the best way we can. 

When examining the conflict between Palestine and Israel in general, we also tried to establish a neutral representation of it. We designed questions for Yousef to give exposition and background information on the conflict, ranging back to the early 1900s. This paired with old archival footage of old wars and conflicts that have happened for the past century gives the viewer a clear understanding of the Israel-Palestine conflict before getting into how it has affected Yousef. A fault with this is that Yousef, being Palestinian, explains the conflict mainly from a Palestinian point of view, but acknowledges that Israel may see the history of the land disputes differently. Had me and my partner ended up doing an interview with Yousef and an interview with an Israeli student as discussed in my previous blog post, Research for my own blog, this would have resulted in a more accurate and unbiased representation of the conflict as it would have taken both sides of the issue into account and given both a platform to speak about their point of view of the conflict. 

This representation of Palestinians and the conflict in general creates an accurate depiction for the target audience. The target audience for the piece is teens and young adults, ranging from ages 15-25. They are any gender and have a common interest of global peace and educating themselves. They want to learn as much as they can about different situations or issues in the world. This piece does just that by providing an in-depth look into the effects of the war in Israel and Palestine on a teenage Palestinian boy living in the United States. The documentary engages with the audience and appeals to pathos from the start with Yousef talking about his family and how he is loved and accepted whenever he visits. This paired with pictures and videos of him happily spending time with his family in Palestine works to immediately connect the viewers with Yousef. 

Here is a video of Yousef having dinner with his family in Yousef. This video was used in the documentary as b-roll when Yousef explains his trips to Palestine.

As the piece continues, the montage of the news segments takes the viewer by surprise with its abruptness, almost like how a war abruptly changes one's peaceful life into a world of uncertainty, and shifts the piece into a more serious and somber tone. 

As Yousef has been in Palestine while the war was ongoing, his anecdotes work to demonstrate to the viewers that everything they see on social media or the news has been personally seen and experienced by a person not that far in age from them. While being in Palestine in his grandmother's village, Yousef witnessed multiple raids where Israeli forces would come to the village in trucks and harass and imprison Palestinian civilians. What made his account have so much more impact was the use of video that he took while the raids happened as b-roll. 

The video that Yousef took of the raids. 

This makes the audience understand the reality of what he is speaking about and the true gravity of the conflict. The same family that Yousef talked about at the beginning of the piece is getting arrested and raided, making the audience sympathize greatly with Yousef and his family. 

Yousef also explains how he has been affected in the U.S., with students harassing him while representing Palestine during a school multicultural day where stands were made for multiple countries and presented during lunch. Hearing Yousef explain his interaction may have been staggering for the viewers to hear, as the media often doesn't report on the harassment and repercussions felt in other parts of the world due to the war in Gaza. This anecdote also makes the audience sympathize with and feel bad for Yousef as he explains that he did not want to offend anyone and that he has come to expect this kind of behavior, making the viewer consider how often this happens. 

Apart from just Yousef's anecdotes and the use of b-roll to expand upon this, we also used music to set the tone and set the mood throughout the documentary, enhancing the emotions that the viewer experiences throughout. We used soft and subtle piano pieces that create the somber tone, and we used it sparingly, only at the beginning when describing his relationship with his family and visiting Palestine, when he explain the background of the war, and then at the very end when he describes what he hopes for in the future. We exclude music from some parts to allow the viewer to really focus on what is being said, such as when he is describing his personal experience with raids and how his family and people he knows have been arrested. 

Notes that we took in class regarding
the conventions of a documentary

All of our choices were influenced by our research of documentaries prior to the creation of our project. When researching the genre of documentaries, we explored many different pieces (which I talked about here) that both conformed to and challenged the conventions of the genre. Out of the pieces I talked about, the documentary that we resembled the most was Abstract: The Art of Design, which contains standard interview shots and uses staged b-roll as

 well as archival footage as b-roll, similar to A War at Home. When learning about the conventions of a documentary in class, we also learned about indirect and direct interviews and saw examples of both in productions, with some even containing both in one, such as with American Promise. With our interview, we wanted it to be indirect as the focus was on Yousef and his experiences, and inserting our voices as creators would've taken away from that. Another common convention that we took note of was the use of music to establish tone, which is what we did throughout our documentary to create a somber tone. Another convention that we learned about was the use of handheld camera shots which evoke a sense of realism, as if the event we are watching unfold is unscripted and not set up, but someone just got a camera and pressed play to capture the moment. However, we challenged this convention as it didn't translate to our documentary. All of our b-roll was existing, archival footage as b-roll would've been impossible to film for the subject manner. 

Considering all of these different aspects of the piece, my partner and I set out to do what we wanted to accomplish with the project and I believe that we did so successfully. Although not perfect, as every piece can improve, I am very proud and pleased with what I have created. 

The Best Part

The most sastisfying part of the whole production process, at least for me, is putting everything together. Seeing your piece that you've planned out and have been thinking about and imaginging for days or even weeks finally starting to come out how you imagined. Its great. I mean just look at this timeline.

Its just so beautiful. I love color coding timelines. The editing itself tho can get a little tedious and exhausting. 

I edited the doc with Gabi, and we both have been in a tv production class for the 3 years we have been in high school, so we both know how to edit an interview. We made the general line edit from what I captured and what I remember being his best points and moments. We polished it up a bit, moved some stuff around, took stuff out, leveled audio, yada, yada. This is probably the most important part of the editing process, since I believe the structure of the piece really has an impact on how the piece is received by the viewer. If your just kinda throwing stuff around willy nilly, then the piece is gonna feel disjointed, the interviewee may repeat points, some parts may feel drawn out or irrelevant to the topic. A good structure helps the piece flow from one topic to another, and this comes from not only the questions you ask, but what you end up deciding goes in and where. This becomes even more important when taking into account the doc has to be a minimum of 5 minutes, which is a lot for just one person to be speaking, so Gabi and me had to really make sure that the doc flowed well. 

Once we got the sturcture and line edit down, we started putting in b-roll. This was mostly archive footage of conflicts in the past and the current conflict today, so me and Gabi would scour YouTube to find videos and clips of the conflict throughout history that fit what he was talking about. So many Youtube downloads. So many. Apart from this, we had come up with the idea that to transition from the exposition of where Yousef is from and how often he goes there and all that to him talking about the conflict, we would make this bulid up of news clips talking about the war in gaza and have the clips up for shorter and shorter time, ramping up the speed until we couldn't anymore. This paired with a riser made for a nice transition into Yousef speaking about the war and his connection and thoughts on it. 

In order to fix the lighting issues I had while shooting, we would have to manually color grade each shot so that they looked similar enough so that the lighting change was not noticeable. I think it ended up working great since nobody ever said anyhting about it, especially since the clips usually have b-roll in between so that it is not very noticable in between shots. 

Since Yousef is the only subject and is speaking for the entire time, we wanted to add some music to improve the piece and establish the tone for any given moment. We used it sparingly, only in moments that we believed needing it, and letting the rest of the piece breathe a little. All the music choices were soft and subtle pianos and can be easily missed if you arent paying close attention, which is the goal here. 

Last, but not least, the opening. At first, I thought that the piece could open with the news montage I talked about earlier, but then Gabi fought against it and preferred having it later and having Yousef be the first thing they see, which I came to agree with. But since thats what we had in mind for the opening, we didnt really know what to do. But then I remembered the b-roll shots I got of Yousef when I filmed him and found some stuff there that fit pretty perfectly as a little intro. Closeup shots of his hands and eyes, and then a wide of him sitting down, looking right at the camera. I was really glad that I ended up getting that b-roll. The wide shot was the perfect place to put a title, and we decided that "A War at Home" would be pretty appropiate since it was not only a war in Yousef's homeland, but also the repruccusions of the war that Yousef is feeling in his own home and in his own life in the U.S.

Here's the title shot

And thats it. I really enjoyed this project and it definetely opened up my eyes to the possibility of doing a documentary for my final. I'm quite proud of how it turned out, so here is the link to the final product. 

Interviewing Yousef

OK. So after planning everything, I went to Yousef's house to film the interview. Unfortunately, Gabi was busy the whole weekend, so I had to do what I had to do and go film the interview on my lonesome. I have a lot of experience doing interviews tho, so it ain't that bad. Still shooting an interview alone can be a hassle sometimes. Focusing on the shot and the audio and asking the questions and making sure the interviewee is giving solid responses that you can use, and all this while trying to be engaged in the conversation. It can be a lot. But thankfully it went pretty well. 

I set up my shot in his living room and his window was right behind us. Big mistake. It was only 4pm when I was interviewing him but thanks to daylight savings the sun wasn't too far from setting. I DESPISE DAYLIGHT SAVINGS. I hate it so much. It is so pointless. So so pointless. Do not make my day shorter, that is so stupid. And it was made so some dude could catch more bugs. Ridiculous. I hate it. Anyway, this put the sun almost perpendicular to the window and made it so that whenever the sun was partially covered by even the smallest cloud, the living room would get slightly darker. This was like tenfold in the camera though and it looked like it was switching from day to night for some shots, it was annoying. I tried my best to fix it during the interview and tried adjusting the ISO when I was asking questions, but nature still had its way with me. 

The shot in question

Apart from this, I asked Yousef all of the questions and his responses were great, he even showed me some videos of him in Pakistan after the interview was over that I thought could be used as b-roll. After the interview, I got a b-roll of Yousef, close-ups of his eyes, his hands, him sitting down outside, a Palestinian flag, etc. I knew I probably wasn't going to see any of it since all of my b-roll would be archival footage, but I got it anyway just in case. Next step was putting it all together.

Research for my own doc

This was a little rough not gonna lie. Coming up with a solid idea was difficult because there is a lot of stuff that I want to do, but most of it is just inaccessible to me. Some of my ideas included covering a individual who is a furry and trying to portray them in a unbiased and truthful light, as the furry community is often looked down upon and judged while many of these people are just like everyone else. I think this could make for a pretty interesting piece, but finding a furry is...not really easy. I don't know anyone that is a furry and even if someone I knew was, its not something people are very open or adiment about due to the stigma associated with it. 

R.I.P. Furry Doc, I'll make you one day

Many of my ideas were like this, or me and my partner I worked with just didn't agree on a topic. I wanted to make our doc about something we cared about and not just some dull topic no one would care about. I started thinking about different things or events that I cared about and came to the conclusion that the Israel-Palestine conflict going on would be an interesting and compelling thing to cover. I had a friend that was Palestinian and was the co-president of the Muslim club at my high school so he would be a great interviewee. My partner, Gabi, liked my idea and so we decided that we would go with it.

At first, I thought of having an interview with a Palestinian student and an Israeli student and cut between each interview to showcase the opposing sides in the most neutral and unbiased view as I possibly could from my position. I thought, and still think, that this is important because I believe a lot of the information that is presented about the conflict is often from extremes on either side which can lead to disinformation. However, when discussing with our teacher, we pretty much concluded it may be better to only focus on one because it just a pretty sensitive matter and it was just easy to screw up if we did both interviews, so we stuck with the view of Palestine. 

In order to write the questions, me and Gabi did some research into the issue so that we weren't going in super blind into the interview. We watched footage from past conflicts and the current war Israel has waged against Hamas. We looked at videos and read articles covering the history of the conflict. A good and simple overview that was helpful was this youtube video by Vox. This information led us to being able to create questions that were more informed and centered around the responses we wanted from the interviewee, Yousef. Since the doc was now only focused on Yousef, we wanted to make the piece more personal and focused on his experience of the war at home, with the impact it has had on him and how he may feel the lingering effects of the war on his own life. We wrote questions focusing on this aspect of the doc as well as questions asking about general information over the conflict.

Apart from writing questions, we also made a potential shotlist for b-roll. This wasn't the easiest thing in the world due to the subject matter and since we only had one subject, but we came up with as much as we could think of. Although me and Gabi were pretty sure we would use archival and existing footage of the conflict as b-roll, we still wanted to get some just in case, and that ended up being pretty important later on when we were editing. 

Yousef, the interviewee, was a friend of mine, so I came to him about the idea asking if he was comfortable sharing, and he was super down for it. We set up a date which would be best for us, and that was that. 

Looking at docs

So this year we have a lot more options compared to last year, with the option of short film, music video, a film promo or finally a documentary. Documentary is the only one we hadn't really touched on at all in AS, so its the one we spent the most time on, watching different docs in class and getting exposed to the genre. The docs we watched in class we're the American Promise, Exit Through the Giftshop, and shorter episodic documentaries from the Netflix show Abstract: The Art of Design and New York Times' collection of Op-Docs. I found all of these super interesting (except Abstract, found it to be lowkey boring it was just like meh) and they all showcased and introduced different techniques and ways of approaching a documentary and helped me go about making my own later on. 

With docs like American Promise and Exit Through the Giftshop, they take a much more direct approach, I guess? Like they both used handheld and were mainly from the perspective of the subjects in that specific moment, such as when Idris from American Promise is getting scolded by his father for being bad at basketball in the car and the cinematographer recording the interaction from the passenger seat. 

Here is an example of what I mean with American Promise

I found these to be the most engaging and the pieces that interested me the most. I think since it was such a grounded and hands-on approach, it felt more real, I guess, like what I'm seeing is the real deal ya know. If I were to do the documentary for my final portfolio project, I would like to take an approach more like this.

I also really enjoyed some of the more abstract docs I saw on the New York Times' Op-Docs, which we were assigned to watch two of on our own and comment on. One I watched was archival footage of music videos that were choreographed by Louis Johnson. The footage was old old, like from 20-30's I wanna say, and although the doc was just archival footage I still found it really intriguing and interesting to get a glimpse into this whole different world. Another piece I watched was talking about knitting with little animals and objects that have been knitted, which was really cute and I thought was pretty clever. 

The one that I cared about the least was the episode from Abstract, which covered the costume designer Ruth Carter. I think I didn't really care all that much and liked it the least because it was just pretty basic, I guess, and didn't really have much character. The b-roll was all staged, which is needed for the subject matter, and the interview shots were all on a tripod and looked like a traditional interview shot, and there isn't anything wrong with that, but I guess it just lacked character and it made me not really care for it. Ironically this is a similar approach I took with my doc, but I think that it was necessary and I believe it worked, but I'll talk about that more later. 

Guess who's back

 Hello....

I'm back. 

But now I am in A level.

Woohoo!

Creative Critical Reflection

Alright, so for my CCR, I have two videos answering the 4 questions.

First I have a LATE NIGHT TALK SHOW that answers the first and second questions.

And then I have a DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY that answers the third and fourth and ends the CCR.

Film Opening

After months and long hours of work, here is my Film Opening:

BUNGLED

Hope you enjoy.

This is it.

Welp. This is it. Finally saying goodbye to this project. I'm exporting my CCRs as we speak. This project has become pretty special to me. It is the first time I have total creative control over something and truly make something of my own. I'm pretty proud that I was able to do it, and made something I can say I'm proud of and be happy with as well. 

I think my main takeaway is that if you plan and research extensively, then making your vision come to life becomes so much easier. 

Until next time.

Interview

 Just filmed the interview CCR and it went pretty well. The original person I was going to do it with canceled, but I just got another friend to fill in. I had him dress up and help me with filming. This time around all I had was my phone and some desk lamps. But the shots still came out pretty nice I think. Right now I'm just editing it real quick, shouldn't take very long as it's just a simple shot counter shot, maybe some audience cheering noises, show some stuff on screen, but that's kind of it.

Since I couldn't go crazy with the shots or the idea in general, I'm just trying to have as much fun with it. During the shoot I made my friend act as if there was a live studio audience and I ended it with a "we'll be right back after the break", so I decided to make a little promo/channel ID that would play before and after the interview ended, making it seem like a late night talk show. This is what it looks like. It's really stupid, but I love it. 

I pretty much got the edit done, just have to refine some stuff tomorrow. So I will do that, look over everything and then...I'll be done. 

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.