Film Project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROajH4iM0IA&t=17s

    So for this project I am doing a CCR. It will be in the form of an interview, sort of like how you see actors do to promote a movie. I will have a host invite me in, then I’ll sit down and answer questions while images are played over my voice showing what I am talking about. Now, as for what those questions and responses will be, that is the rest of this post. 

1. How do your products use or challenge conventions and how do they represent social groups or

issues?

1. Well from a technical aspect we used horror conventions. We had a dark color scheme and low lighting, as most horror movies do, to create the sort of creepy mood we were going for.  We used the convention of cutting away from a death scene back to our group with a soundbridge to also mimic this sort of trope present in a lot of early slasher films. For our title sequence and credits we followed the general conventions by having the credits play a bit over the very beginning with the opening scene ending with a cut to title card. When we were choosing how to position everything we made a point of positioning our main character of the opening apart from the group to signal/foreshadow that they were alone, which follows the horror trope of the person going off alone and dying.

b. From a cultural aspect, however, we never really considered it when casting for              our movie or assigning roles. We did not really have a cultural representation based on race or gender, as everyone in the  opening was a white male. I guess this kind of falls into the conventions of horror movies having a white cast, but this is due to the clear white preference in hollywood then having anything to say about race or gender themselves. We did not have a message about society, other than littering is bad.

2. How do your products engage with the audience and how would they be distributed as real

media products?

a. So when we were searching for a distributor, we needed  a company that would best help the film, and was also reasonably willing to accept to produce us. What I mean is while disney is popular and would be great, our movie doesn’t fit their brand,and their target audience doesn’t match ours. So we looked into indie film producers, and landed on A24. A24 was perfect, known for horror movies and producing indie projects made it perfect for our film. We sort of landed on it quickly, as Ethan knew a lot about A24 before the project began, so he was already sure they were a good match. A few other options were tossed around, but A24 was the only one that stuck.  

b. To avoid exploding our budget, we would market our film fairly minimally. An emoji pack, some posters, interviews, and a single trailer. This would keep our budget low, and while it may seem like it isn’t enough publicity, The Lighthouse did similar marketing and ended up making a massive profit. Our brand would be like old horror movies but in a modern setting with modern equipment, so sort of like a throughback to “the good ol days”of horror. As for release, we would have a theatrical release, and depending on the success a DVD release.

c. Our target audience would be those who love the older classic horror movies. We based our creation off of them, so it only makes sense that people who loved them should be our target audience. A24 produced many classic horror movies, so they have our target audience’s attention, thus we chose them as our production company. I’d think people would watch our film to sort of fill the void modern horror leaves, as fans of the older movies may not like the direction horror is taking and thus dislike modern horror movies.  

3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

a. I became a better filmmaker by learning more about how to set up locations and use appropriate mise-en-scene to create meaning, as well as camera positioning/framing to make scenes more impactful. As for learning through experience, I learned how to coordinate a team to actually film scenes, how to control my imagination and set reasonable goals for our film, how to operate the camera we used, and how to schedule around a bunch of people. 

b. On the topic of making a movie, I learned that the shooting is probably the easiest part. Planning takes longer, coming up with a plot, marketing production company, etc. And editing is way more difficult and time consuming, as you have to mill through hours of footage for a few minute clip. 

C. Speaking of planning, we planned to shoot a few days in advance, which was NOT a good idea. On multiple occasions something went wrong, and an entire day of shooting amounted to pretty much nothing. As for planning the film itself, that part at least went great. It turned into a brainstorming session where Ethan and I just started writing down cool ideas that we later chose which ones to implement. Directing was certainly easier, as most of the cast were friends they trusted my judgement and typically didn’t question me, which made things move smoothly. Shooting went terribly due to poor planning, as stated earlier, so when we had reshoots we made sure everything was ready on time, so we got through it, though just barely.  

d. All in all, this experience gave me a lot more, well, experience in filmmaking. And, as I said a minute ago, taught me a lot about the ins and outs of cinema.

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

1. For this project we used adobe premiere to edit, a Canon EOS Rebel T4i camera for shooting, and tents, bookbags, boxes, and well, standard clothes for props and costuming. 
2. I learned how to use the Canon EOS Rebel T4i, as I had no idea how to before this project. 

[What did you learn about using technology?]

3. So before I wouldn’t even know how to take a picture, but now I can switch between picture, video, and camera roll at will and know how to work the focus and flash, basically I learned the ins and outs of the camera. 

Then to end it of have the host say “That’s all we have time for today, please give a round of applause for Chase Milam!”

So I am going to reflect on our rough cut. Basically I have some questions i am going to answer based on how I view the rough cut. Soooooo… yea, lets jump right into it.

Q: How Much Continuity Does The Video Have? Can it Be Improved Anywhere and How?

R: The opening has good continuity in costumes, background, prop location, etc. Seeing as everything was shot in one day, nothing was moved during shooting and so everything is in the same position throughout, making this very consistent. However there is an improvement to be made, and that is the lighting of our last 2 shots. While shooting our camera died, so we had to charge it before getting our last 2 shots, meaning they are much darker than the rest. This can and will be fixed in editing, but for our rough cut it remains a problem.

Q: To What Extent is The Video Readable Within Your Genre? Can You Tell? How Can This Area be Improved?

R: I would say very readable as horror. While I am biased as I made the opening based on horror tropes and therefore know they are there beforehand, I would like to think that they come across very well. The setting, cast, and lighting all contribute to a horror vibe as a campsite with teens at night is basically horror 101. This could be improved with sound such as creepy ambient music to help set the mood and give a more sinister context to the fact that it is night in the woods. Overall the lack of sound makes the scene feel, well, without feeling. Without sound it doesn’t inspire an specific emotions such as suspense like we want, but like with the lighting continuity this will be fixed in editing.

Q: To What Extent is The Video Readable as a Film Opening? Can You Understand It’s an Opening? What can You Do to Make it More Readable?

R: As for readability that this is an opening, this doesn’t do well. This scene could go maybe 1/3 of the way into a film to set the beginning of the actual murder part, and without any credits or a title sequence there is nothing that screams opening in particular. While it can and does function as an opening, this fact is not abundantly apparent, however this is easily fixed like the other problem: in editing. By adding credits and a title screen, all of the problems mentioned above would be solved, and we would have this as very recognizably a film opening.

There we go, self reflection done and dusted. I’ve worked on a script for my CCR, and that will be posted tomorrow. The, I will film my CCR and hopefully, if all goes according to plan, have that up by Tuesday, March 31st.

So, in accordance with Mr. Engles wishes, Ethan and I had someone peer review our rough cut. So, without further ado, here is Sebastian Ameerali’s peer review!

Peer Review: Sebastian Ameerali

1. What is The Setting Time and Place? How Can You Tell?:
Withlacoochee river park from the start the sign says so.

2.Who are The Characters? How Can You Tell?:
Campers because of the setting and the props such as a tent and campfire.

3.What is The Movie Going to be About? How Can You Tell?:
Most likely a slasher based off of the standard conventions of campers in the woods and somebody dying right off the bat.

4.What Genre is The Film? How Can You Tell?:
Horror because of the suspense and dark theme of the film.

5. To What Extent is It Readable as a Film Opening?:
Creates suspense that will later be revealed whats happening creating the opening to a story.

6.Overall, How Might The Clarity of Meaning in The Video be Improved?:
Add audio so that it’s easier to follow but other than that all good.

Now having read this, you’d think our opening was great, however I think the rough cut was kinda meh, and he was just being nice. However I still have high hopes for our final project! Editing should be done shortly, and I am excited to see how it turns out!

Things are not going well. At all. So, school has been canceled due to the corona virus, and overall things are very hectic, which hasn’t left much room for work. However this isn’t the biggest problem. Ethan is in charge of editing, and his only computer broke. So editing has come to screeching halt. There is some good news however, and that is that Ethan is going to get his laptop repaired, if all goes according to plan, today. Until then, however, I have nothing to report on for our project. I am currently working on my CCR, and plan to have it practically done by the time our final video is. This way I will only have to make a few adjustments before having to submit it, as we probably won’t be done with the video until close to the due date. Sorry for the lack of posts recently, everything has been really stressful trying to figure out how I am going to be ready for my AICE tests without going to school. I hope to have more updates shortly, but until then, have a good day.

So Ethan finally got done with the rough cut, so here it is. It is extremely rough, no sound, kinda hard to see, it just is bad basically. Ethan did a rough beta version of day to night editing, so the view will be different in our final video, but other than that these are our “best” shots.

https://youtu.be/Gn-XhTpZSkw

SO as I said in my last post we had to reshoot. Well, we did, and it went great! We got there around 3:30 this time, and got things set up way earlier and started shooting at like 4:30-5:00 ish. We cut it really close however, as we had charge the camera for our last 2 shots because it died, and it was getting dark. We took the camera off to early, so we had to charge it again, and it was sort of a panic over whether we would get done it time or not. However, luckily enough, we NAILED our drag scene, and had enough battery to catch our final scene as well. From there we packed up and headed home, and boy was it a relief to get everything done today, because given we are a week behind already, I don’t think we could afford another setback. You may be wondering why this post is going up late on Sunday rather than closer to the time we shot, and this is because A.) by the time we got packed up and I got home it was like 9:00 so I wasn’t making the post then, and B.) I wanted to have some footage for this post to show how it went. The problem is Ethan has the camera with all the footage, and he was supposed to have a rough cut done by today. Well, it’s not 10:35 on Sunday, and still nothing, so I decided to just have the footage in another post once I get it. So yea, now I’m just waiting on Ethan, as he is our Editor. A few things to add of note: Huge thanks to Anthony Rizzo, Coleman Crutcher, and Danny (IDK how to spell Danny’s first or last name so I will just call him by his middle name) for helping us shoot, set up, and generally plan on filming day. Without them this would not have been possible. Also, huge thanks to Dwayne, the park employee who helped us. He was super nice, and asked if we needed anything enough to be a noticeable help without becoming annoying. Seriously, he was so nice, his man deserves a raise. So yea, expect a post with footage soon! (I hope)

So we obviously need to reshoot seeing all of our issue with our first attempt. We have decided this will be Friday, 3/6/20. This time we have ensured everything will be prepared ahead of time, and Ethan has written down a checklist so he doesn’t forget anything. Instead of shooting at twilight, we are going to cut our losses and film as early as possible, so our lighting doesn’t flee too fast for us to shoot. So yea this is a brief post, will have a more detailed one after shooting is done.

On Friday me, Ethan, Danny, Coleman, and Connor all went to shoot. Danny, Coleman, and Connor are friends and agreed to act as our extras. Now we had a lot of issues. I made sure I brought more than enough stuff, and was fully prepared on time. Ethan, however, was not as ready. We had to drive in circles because he forgot things, then left his house again, only for him to realize he forgot more stuff. This caused us to be late getting to location, and as we shoot in the evening with natural lighting, we have a tight schedule as it is. Then we started setting up, and struggled to A.) Get a fire going, because everything was slightly damp and nothing would stay on fire, and B.) Set up tents, as Ethan brought a tent that was missing pieces and didn’t have instructions. SO we were late on set, and struggled to get set once there. Then we started shooting, but it was too late. It was too dark to get any good shots, but we tried anyway. After an hour or two of shooting, we gave up. None of the shots were bad per say, but it was too dark to see a background so we just had figures in pitch black. So as you can see, it went miserably. Luckily enough I thought ahead and brought hot dogs, buns, chips, and stuff for s’mores, so we managed to salvage the night. We set the dogs to cook as we cleaned up, and they came out great. To be honest, I think Ethan really needed the dogs. He took the failure pretty hard, and I could tell he was upset. We hope to reshoot soon, because now we are behind. But hey, you win some you lose some. I am cautiously optimistic that next time we will have learned from this and get a successful shooting. Well, that’s basically what happened. Chase signing off.