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Creative Critical Reflection -- Aice Media

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During the production process, I learned never to expect the image in my head to look identical to the final footage. While filming, I had this idea in my head of what the scenes and total clip, in general, would look like. Unfortunately, it was not identical once viewed, and we had to reshoot countless times to align the shots to the script well. We particularly struggled with the beginning of our film, which was the running scene. It was tough to shoot this, as the sun was very bright and caused a glare on the camera, and produced unnecessarily bright lighting. We had to move around numerous times until we found an excellent place to shoot semi-in-the-shade without the sun's glare. In the editing process, our editor struggled to fit the news anchor scene on the television, and in our rough draft, it was smaller in dimension than the actual tv. Another issue was creating the national weather warning notification on Tracy's phone; our editor had to extract an image of the official warning and place it on Tracy's phone. The feedback that was given to us was to make the clip's storyline make more sense, which we understood, as the editor had put the shots in the wrong order, producing a confusing clip. To fix this, I ordered the correct shots by numbers to fit the film's timeline so the story would make sense, and the ending with the audience, would not get confused.

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Independent Distribution and Marketing Plan - Sun Explosion 

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Independent Distribution and Marketing Plan - Sun Explosion 

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If I were to distribute my film personally, I would be more inclined to want it released on a streaming service rather than in the theater, as I feel more and more people are staying home to watch movies instead of going to the theaters, therefore releasing my film that way would most likely be more profitable. To achieve this, I would first enter a film festival, particularly the Telluride film festival, in Colorado and hopefully get permitted to show my film. I would be interested in getting my movie available for purchase through amazon, as it is one of the top film aggregator services and provides a variety of movies for viewers to choose from. The current title of my film is "Sun Explosion," though it is not definite and will most likely be changed as we get closer to finishing it. The title aligns with our targeted audience of science fiction viewers and is intriguing, but it needs to align with the film well and could be improved by relating more to the film. The tagline for our film is "the end is near... 5 billion years too soon" The target audience for this film is men between the ages of 18 and 35, with a majority of them having attended graduate school along with receiving a satisfactory level income; they would preferably be involved in environmental activist groups; they would have already had an interest in science fiction, along with science in general, prior to seeing this film; they would be active on social media, and follow accounts who pique their interest (relating to science/science fiction/video games.) If my film were to be self-distributed and available on youtube, I would reach this audience by promoting the film on social media platforms they would most likely be on. I would advertise online through: trailers on youtube shorts, trailers on Instagram reels, TikTok, and social media accounts with information regarding the film on the platforms: Instagram, Youtube, Twitter, and TikTok. To reach them nonvirtually, I would place film posters in places the said targeted audience would typically go, and that would be: video game stores, bookstores, and the mall. There are multiple ways to engage the audience and anticipate the film. The first and most popular way would be to give them a discount while renting/purchasing the film; another way to get viewers to rent would be to have a portion of the money received from the purchases go towards an environmental awareness group, one that helps protect our planet. Finally, the movie poster would be designed with bright, high-contrast colors, such as: red, orange, and yellow, which differ from other science fiction posters in this genre, which usually have darker hues, like blue, purple, and black. The font would be significant and eye-catching, and both the title and tagline would be high in the center, which is the most prominent and most straightforward position for text to be placed in order for it to be easily read. The foreground would most likely be the sun, and the background would be space.

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Preproduction Requirements - Editor, Producer, and Director

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Preproduction Requirements - Editor, Producer, and Director

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My group and I are creating a Science fiction natural disaster film for our final film project. The opening script I wrote is based on the sun prematurely becoming a red giant, which is estimated to happen within five billion years, when the sun runs out of fuel within its innermost layer, its core, due to the dissipation of the hydrogen fusion process. The rough draft of my script is attached here:
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EXT. CITY STREET - AFTERNOON

TRACY, (18, Dark hair) walks along a busy city street when

suddenly everyones phone buzzes. Tracy, along with everyone

near her, pulls out her phone.

TRACY

(reading from her phone)

Caution: excessive heat warning in

your current area. Stay indoors

until further notice.

Tracys ringtone goes off, as she is holding it, and quickly

answers the call.

TRACY (CONT'D)

(on the phone; her moms

voice isn't audible)

Hey mom, yes I saw the warning. I

know, the temperatures been

increasing all week. Its only

January and its already 102

degrees, this is insane. Okay, Ill

be home soon.

Tracy looks up, and notices everyones in a hurry to get off

the street, and indoors. Tracy, putting her phone in her

pocket walks at a hastily pace away from the camera.

CUT TO:

EXT. TRACYS HOME - LATER

TRACYS MOM (40's, dark hair) is making dinner in the

kitchen. Tracy is sitting down at the kitchen table, the TV

is visible in the background.

The TV turns on suddenly, and a siren starts blaring, as the

TV reads "breaking news" An ANCHORMAN (40's, in a suit)

comes on the TV.

ANCHORMAN

This just in, scientists from NASA

have confirmed and alerted us that

the sun is now transforming into a

Red Giant Star, five billion years

before it was expected to. We have

approximately 12 hours before the

sun expands, and with it the Earth

burns. Stay calm, be safe, and

farewell.

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This draft needed to be revised, as it included too much dialogue, that became repetitive at a certain point. I finalized the script with approval from my Aice Media course teacher.

Here is the final script:

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EXT. CITY STREET - AFTERNOON

TRACY, (18, Dark hair) walks along a busy city street when

suddenly everyones phone buzzes. Tracy, along with everyone

near her, pulls out her phone. The phone is visible, along

with the notification that can be clearly seen saying:

!Caution! excessive heat warning in your current area. Stay

indoors until further notice.

Tracys ringtone goes off, as she is holding it, and two

messages pop up.

One from her friend complaining about the harsh heat this

past month: Ugh! I hate this weather, it's too hot to even

go outside! And one from her mom telling Tracy to come home:

Tracy, I don't want you outside with the excessive heat

warning in place. Please, come home!

Tracy looks up, and notices everyones in a hurry to get off

the street, and indoors. Tracy, putting her phone in her

pocket walks at a hastily pace away from the camera.

CUT TO:

EXT. TRACYS HOME - LATER

TRACYS MOM (40's, dark hair) is making dinner in the

kitchen. Tracy is sitting down at the kitchen table, the TV

is visible in the background.

The TV turns on suddenly, and a siren starts blaring, as the

TV reads "breaking news" An ANCHORMAN (40's, in a suit)

comes on the TV.

ANCHORMAN

This just in, scientists from NASA

have confirmed and alerted us that

the sun is now transforming into a

Red Giant Star, five billion years

before it was expected to. We have

approximately 12 hours before the

sun expands, and with it, the Earth

burns. Stay calm, be safe, and

farewell.

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As the producer, I looked at the script and decided where the best filming locations would be; the first scene, which takes place on a busy city street, will be filmed outside one of the shopping districts near us. Regarding the crowd, in that scene, our group cinematographer is currently looking into 'trick' shots to try and make the few actors we have to appear more in terms of numbers. The leading actress, who will be playing Tracy, is experienced in the acting department. She, along with members of the crowd, will be wearing typical 'sunny weather' clothes, such as tank tops and shorts, to draw attention and emphasize the extreme heat. For sound effects, our editor will use the already created excessive heat warning that appears on phones made by the national weather service and implement it into the crowd and Tracy's phone. Tracy also receives text messages that will appear on her phone with the standard 'ding,' commonly heard. The second scene, which takes place in Tracy and her mom's house, will be filmed in one of my group members' houses, with the mom being played by one of our moms, who fits the description and is not camera shy.

Finally, as the director, my goal is to strike realization within the audience, making them see that this will happen to the earth someday, which makes the film even more exhilarating and frightening. The film my group and I are using for inspiration is 2012, which was released to theaters in 2009, and was directed by Roland Emmerich. 2012, is based on the ancient Mayan calendars that recorded every day and year up until December 21st, 2012, which is assumed that is when they believed the world was going to end. I found this interesting, as this is, like my group's film, based on the events that occur when the earth is ending or experiencing an apocalypse. However, due to our limited skills and resources, we cannot see the sun transforming and the earth experiencing the impacts of this.
Nonetheless, we will edit heat waves into the background of the wide shot scene on the city street with the crowd to try and emphasize how hot it is. Additionally, some crowd members, and perhaps the leading actor, will dampen their shirts with water so they appear overheated and as if they are sweating. Lastly, we will mainly use bright lighting with warm undertones, wide and medium close-up shots, an over-the-shoulder shot, and a point-of-view shot.

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Last week we had to analyze the first two minutes of a film adhering to our final film genre. In this case, it was science fiction and I chose to analyze the opening scene of The Day After Tomorrow. At first glance the first two minutes of the film appear to be just opening credits, but if you look closely it is foreshadowing the natural disaster that happens later on, with the shots of ice and water. Because this films genre is science fiction, it was made in pursuit of the science fiction audience demographics, which are Men between the ages of eighteen and thirty five. The opening credits were in large white letters, aligning nicely with the ice and water in the background, thus producing a calm effect. This is meant to build up tension and suspense within the audience, causing them to wonder when something is going to go wrong, and when it does what is going to cause it. The background of the credits appears to have been shot in one long take, with the camera constantly moving and progressing over ice and water, eventually landing on an icy landscape with a sunset behind it as the final shot. There is a soft high voice singing in the background, this enhancing the aspect of peacefulness and calmness which sets the audience on edge. Followed by this, is a piece of music that seems like it is preparing for something extravagant or mystical to appear on the screen, like an adventure waiting to happen. One question that I have regarding the opening is: why the ice and how exactly does it correlate with the rest of the movie?  The editing style of this however was fairly simple, with no special effects visibly noticeable, besides the text. These first two minutes adhered to conventions by showing a beautiful setting, along with anticipating music. It was evident that it was purposely done to add suspense. However, what I found interesting was how no characters were introduced in the opening scene, this breaking standard movie conventions.These first two minutes represented a feeling of adventure and its exhilarating feeling through the music. It represented the beauty of nature as well.
It was distributed the way it was because it was a way for people to see an adventurous title, with similar scenery and feelings. It was put out for people's enjoyment. Furthermore, characters are introduced quite quickly in science fiction films, leaving not much time to figure out the setting and analyze the meaning of where it is and how it could affect the characters. In this opening, the people who created the movie really made sure to implement it into the audiences' heads that the setting is important and could have an effect later in the film.

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In November and December of 2022, I learned an extensive amount of information regarding editing, sound, and screenwriting/ screenplay format. Additionally I completed various informational assignments, that taught me about at least 20 different types of editing techniques. In class, we watched two documentaries. The cutting edge, which gave us an insight into editing, and Making Waves, which taught us about sound basics. We also read the screenplay for The Incredibles, learned how to correctly format screenplays using special software, and wrote a two minute film opening about someone having a nightmare as a part of our midterm.

For our midterm we had to create a one to two minute opening of a horror/horror hybrid film. The film had to have minimal dialogue, and a lot of sound effects/incidental music, along with an opening of black, with our own logo, and then the title following. For video effects we had to have no long takes, straight cuts, dissolve transitions, minimum of cross cuts between the nightmare and actor, close up, one dutch angle, one high or low angle, one low key light set up or one silhouette, one pan or tilt or track/push or spinaround, one zoom or dolly zoom,  one subliminal cut or multitake or smash cut, one match cut, one  J cut or L cut, and one use of slow or fast motion.

I adhered to horror conventions, codes, and audience expectations  by having a teenager as my main character, using the jump scare sound effect, and creating scenes where there was suspense. I broke horror conventions, codes, and audience expectations by having the main characters bedroom have multiple vibrant colors, using warm lighting, and having the scenes loop and repeat. In my film, I tried to represent the life of a teenager, by having my main character experience the same day over and over again, in correlation to how many teens feel. Which is as if they repeat the same day again and again, especially with school and activities. I turned this into a nightmare where the main character woke up, realized she was late, rushed to get ready, and was then stopped short by a scary woman appearing. I had this repeat two more times, with slightly different endings both times, but each met with resistance and denial of some sort.

In my opinion, I succeed in the sound effects, having the jump scare sound just as the scary woman suddenly appeared. However, I feel as if there are several errors in my film, all having to do with camera work and filming. One thing I realized too late was that I filmed in portrait mode instead of landscape, and because of that my film doesn't fit the screen correctly.
The software and hardware I used for my film was my MacBook Pro to edit on, Adobe Premier Pro, My iPhone to film on, Arc Studios to write the script on, and several sound effects from YouTube to add to my film audio. One thing I learned was that screenplays do not have much detail, and instead can be very broad in terms of description.

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In our Aice Media class, we recently studied and presented 25 film genres. We learned about the conventions, codes, and audience expectations of the following genres: Romance, Drama, Horror, Biopics, Thriller, B-movies, Animation, Musicals, Indies, Superheroes, Comedy, Sports, Family, Film Noir, Mystery, Historical, Westerns, War, Adventure, Science Fiction, Young Adult, Crime, Fantasy, Documentaries, and Shakespeare. Some of the films under the examples of the genre, were "hybrid" films, meaning that they consists of two or more genres.

My group, and I's first film was young adult, as it consisted of teenagers overcoming challenges. However, we somewhat broke conventions with this as the characters were not quirky, or unusual as they typically are in most Young Adult films. Our second film, which required us to recreate another group's film in our class, was a hybrid of Drama and Comedy. We inhabited this by doing a lot of over the shoulder shots, medium close up shots, and additionally conflict and confrontation within the storyline. For the comedy aspect, we added some humorous jokes and sharp track left and right shots. However, we broke audience expectations as the main character in this had different qualities, than the one in the original film.

One genre that definitely intrigues me and I may do for the final project, is horror. I find this genre extremely interesting, as it is not only unique in terms of settings but also characters. Additionally, this is a genre that catches audiences of all ages, and will keep them intrigued throughout the film. A potential idea regarding the beginning of a story for my final project is; a school setting, specifically in a classroom, as that is one of the only places available to film. However, I would not shoot there only for ability but also because of the lighting that can be easily adjusted, and the mood/ eerie feeling it provides, that is well suited for a horror film. Characters would consist of high school students, most likely stereotypical characters with not much depth to them. The horror aspect would really be put into action by perhaps having the school be haunted, sound effects and minimal lighting would help achieve this.

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In our Aice Media class, we were assigned to remake another groups film. We had to rewrite the script, and come up with 10 different movements and camera shots. The original movie was about bullying, and focused on the main character with red hair. The redhead, is bullied for her unusual hair, and throughout the film we see her bullies apologize for what they said, and at the end they all became friends. In our group, we did not have an actor with redhair, so we had to come up with another unusual quirk. This happened to be the main character wearing Christmas sweaters, when it was only September. We kept the original point of the film, which was to create a film on bullying. I played the main side character, as I did in our last film. However, I also helped direct shots, which I was unable to do last time. I really liked helping direct this film, as it was a fun and unique experience that I hope to do again in the future.

We did a variety of shots in our film, which are; close up, depth, over the shoulder, 2 shot, track left, track right, tilt, 3 shot, establishing shot, and and pan left. I think we executed all of these shots well, except the track left and track right. Those shots were too sudden, and almost had a dizzying affect on the audience, which was not intended. The over the shoulder shots turned out well, as they were easy to film once we figured out how to do it. The 2 shot was also one of our best camera shots, as we were able to properly get two actors to fit well in the frame. Our overall purpose, was to film the process of bullying from the victims perspective. We were able to achieve this, but I do think that our film could definitely have improved in areas regarding acting.

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Recently, I worked in a group project with Luca Monteine, Leilanni Redriguez, and Maddie Bowling to record a short film. We all had specific roles best suited to our talents. Luca recorded all our footage, Leilanni was the designated director, Maddie was the main actor, and I was a minor actor. The film's main focus was the effect of parental disputes on children. The film starts out with our main actor, Maddie, upset over a minor inconvenience with the vending machine. Her reaction was clearly not a normal reaction, and me playing her friend, being there to witness it, asked if anything was wrong and offered comfort. Throughout the film we see Maddie's character get progressively worse, up to the point where she finally admits that she has been having a lot of issues at home, and that her parents are currently fighting. In this film we get to see firsthand how children with domestic disputes at home behave in a school environment.

Our film was relatively good for our first try, though it lacked a lot of qualities that would have improved it. In my opinion our biggest issue was the sound. Since we have never filmed before we were not sure how our voices would pick up, nor how well you would be able to hear us. Unfortunately, because of this you are not able to hear us clearly. Our next fault was the comedic aspect. With no exact script Maddie and I had to improvise most of our lines. Because of this, at the end of the movie the improvised lines were viewed as humorous by the audience, and that was not the intention. However, Maddie’s acting was phenomenal which made up for our faults. Her acting was definitely the highlight of our film.