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Final Film -- The Inner Workings of the Teenage Mind

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Final Film -- The Inner Workings of the Teenage Mind

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Photo from our film "The Inner Workings of the Teenage Mind"

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During the production process for our film, I learned a lot about how necessary it is to film more than you may need. By this, I mean filming the same scene a few times, just in case one shot is blurry or something goes wrong. I also learned the importance of certain shots so that they can show what we are trying to convey in our film and what our actress is feeling without her saying it. As the editor, I have firsthand experience changing and cutting up our film. I changed the speed of the car moving out of the driveway and had to fix the volume on some of the clips. Some feedback we were given from our rough cut was that our audio quality was not the best, but we were expecting that considering we didn't have a boom microphone or any audio equipment and we were outside. Also, a clip in our movie was blurry, which we were told would have to be fixed. This is why I adjusted the audio on some clips, and we re-filmed the scene that was blurry so that the audience could hear what the actors were saying and could see what was happening.

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Independent Distribution and Film Marketing Plan

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Independent Distribution and Film Marketing Plan

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1) If I were to independently distribute our film, I would try to get a film distributor. A film distributor can get our film shown on VOD platforms and feel that this will get more people to watch our movie. This is because I feel more people watch movies at home on streaming platforms. Some streaming platforms I would choose to put our film on are Hulu, Netflix, and HBO. I would choose A24 because they distribute and produce around 18 to 20 films a year, some of the biggest being Hereditary, Lady Bird, Moonlight, Everything, Everywhere, All, etc. They have successes spanning several genres, from award-winning drama pieces to daring and risky horror films. Since 2019, A24 has distributed 26 films in the genre "dramas." Some films that A24 has released with similar target audiences and the same genres would be Lady Bird, Hot Summer Nights, Eighth Grade, and many more, leading me to believe that this studio would be perfect for our film which is also targeted at female teens and young adults, that is also a drama that depicts the "most precious stage of life". In terms of film festivals, I would choose the Cannes Film Festival because the Cannes Indie Shorts Awards would be most interested in seeing our film because it is a small indie film with no big stars. This festival also has an award specifically for students, and since this is a film made by students, we would easily qualify for this award.

2) The title of our film is "The Inner Workings of the Teenage Mind". This title fits perfectly with our film and everything it represents. I am aware that is a longer title, and most film titles are short and pithy. However, I feel since we have not come up with a better title and there have been no improvements, this title is permanent as of now.

3)Tagline: In a room full of people I still feel alone.

4) Our target audience is females 18 years of age and older. The education level of the target audience is university students and graduates. They shouldn't have any income or a very low income because they are students. The target audience should be interested in music, and I feel people who are interested in reading, specifically tragedies, would enjoy the film. This is because our film is more of a slow film, and it needs people who have patience and aren't expecting to see a lot of action. Also, I feel like they are very creative and into art because most artists have mental health issues, and our film targets mental health. Our target audience is constantly on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Twitter because they are still interested in social media and have the need to be constantly posting their lives and seeing what their friends are up to. They are following their friends and other influencers and celebrities, specifically actors from Netflix. Our target audience isn't really into video games, but if they were to play a video game, it would be The Sims. Sims is a universal game that everyone loves, and it is a game that is a great way for people to express their creativity. Our target audience loves online shopping, specifically Amazon and Brandy Melville; you could say they are basic.

5) 10 places I would distribute our film would be Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, billboards, bus stops, train stations, schools (flyers), on trains, and in malls (flyers).

6) To engage audiences online and turn passive audiences into active ones by having influencers post about the film and our actors also post about it. I would also create a hashtag that can be used on posts; the hashtag would be #fillthevoid. This hashtag will be for the movie and for people to be able to post and interact with the movie and actors. The hashtag will be for people to post about they do to make them happy when they are sad or to distract themselves from being sad. To get influencers to promote our movie, I would send them a hoodie with our film's name, tagline, and cover art.

7) For my poster for The Inner Workings of the Teenage Mind I would make it so people could somewhat understand the plot of the movie, but not fully. It is reinforcing that she is mentally ill and uses music as an escape. It is different because she is not making the music; she is listening to it to help distract her from being sad. The use of color in our genre is usually darker colors with hints of blue. The background will be very plain and dark. For iconography, I will put earbuds and a small person to enforce how helpless she feels. The design of the poster will be a black background with a white side profile, but where the brain is, it is black, and the person will be wearing blue earbuds. The font would be Razor Sharp.

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Preproduction Requirements - writer and editor

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Preproduction Requirements - writer and editor

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the inner workings of the teenage mind script
The final copy of the script is different from the original copy because I included what song will be playing in certain scenes. The song is Space Song by Beach House I picked this song because I feel like it will create more of an ambience. I also added more to the ending so it left the audience wanting more. In my original script I left it with Charlotte sitting in her car staring at the camera, but in my updated version I changed it to someone knocking on her window and asking if the car she is in is someone else's. I was very inspired by Girl, Interrupted and how minimal dialogue it had along with the darker lighting in the first few minutes. I am considering keeping my original ending because I like how it broke the fourth wall.

As the editor I plan to use straight cuts and a few J and L cuts. I feel like it would create more of a cinematic feel with the music not coming on right when the picture is shown. The music should fade in at some parts. Also, I feel straight cuts fit the plot better because everything is very straight forward and there are not any scene to show past events or future events. I also think transitions other than straight cuts would make the film look tacky. I am taking inspiration the editing style of Girl, Interrupted because I like how only straight cuts were used and how it kept cutting back to the main character. As for sound I will use a school bell ringing as a sound effect and there will also be music playing at some parts. The song that I chose to use will be Space Song by Beach House. The song is copyrighted but you can use the first 1 minute of a song from YouTube for free. I also think I will put a darker filter on the entire film, but that is only if it is not a cloudy day when we film.

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The first 2 minutes of "Girl, Interrupted" is Susanna, Lisa, and Polly sitting in a dark room. Polly is crying and holding her doll. While Georgina is sweeping up a broken light bulb. There is also a black cat inside the windowsill. Then the camera shows a gate that has security with flashlights searching for them. ​The Genre of "Girl, Interrupted" is a drama and the target audience is females that are 16 and up years old. At the beginning of the film, it shows the Columbia Pictures logo and also states that it is a Red Wagon Production. The first two minutes of the film consists of 9 shots. Shots 1, 2, 5, 7, and 9 are close ups of Susanna's face. The other shots have low angles, pans, tilts, raises, and long shots. Furthermore, the film starts by playing the song "How to Fight Loneliness" by Wilco, then around one minute and forty seconds, the music quiets down and a voice over of Susanna speaking starts. Susanna asks questions about whether you, the audience, have felt the same way she has in certain situations.
The end of the first two minutes leaves you wanting to know what happens because it shows guards searching on the other side of the gate. It can only lead to assuming that the guards are searching for them. So, you want to know why the guards are searching for them and whether or not the girls will get caught. The editing of "Girl, Interrupted" is slow paced and after every other shot it would cut back to a close up of Susanna's face. Conventions in dramas are usually the over showing of emotions. Also, you can tell at least one of the girl's mental health is suffering (Polly) because she is old enough to not be crying and holding a doll. ​The first 2 minutes broke conventions by not creating a relatable character. In most dramas, it is about someone who people can relate to but being in a dark room with three other girls who are not mentally stable, and a cat is not something common in drama films. The first two minutes of this film represent the struggles of mental health. ​
Girl Interrupted is now distributed on Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, Redbox, Apple TV, YouTube, and Google Play and Movies. I know Girl Interrupted was on Netflix, but the window for it to be played on Netflix closed, so now it is available on Amazon Prime Video. Amazon Prime Video is one of the most popular streaming websites, so it is no surprise that the movie would be on there to gain more views, which will lead to more money.​ Another realization I had when re-watching the first two minutes of "Girl, Interrupted" was when Susanna was asking whether you have stolen something even though you had the money to pay for it was her connecting to what the therapist and doctors had told her, which is that she is a spoiled girl who is creating her problems because her life is too boring. ​

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In November and December of 2022, I learned a lot about editing, sound, and screenwriting/screenplay format. We did assignments featuring over 20 editing concepts, like jump cuts, smash cuts, subluminal cuts, etc. To help us visualize and understand, we watched a documentary called "The Cutting Edge." This movie discussed the editing process and the relationship between editors and directors. We also watched a video on color that explains how color can represent specific emotions and archetypes in film.
Additionally, we watched a documentary about sound in film called "Making Waves" discussed cinema basics. This documentary talked about how everyday objects can create certain sounds, and sound can be one of the essential parts of a film. Furthermore, we read "The Incredibles" screenplay to illustrate how a script should be formatted. To get first-hand experience in writing a screenplay, we used a platform known as "Arc Studio Pro." This platform is where I wrote my script, "Wide Awake," for my short film midterm project. The horror film was about someone having a nightmare of being haunted.

The requirements for the short film was that it had to be a horror or horror-hybrid film that was 1-2 minutes long. The story had to cut from the nightmare to the person sleeping a minimum of 3 times; long takes are not allowed. There had to be minimal dialogue but no wall-to-wall music. Also, the film had to start with a black screen presenting the company ident, title, and credits. The film must also include one 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 spin around; one zoom or dolly zoom; one subliminal cut or multi-take or smash cut; one match cut; one J cut or L cut; one use of slow or fast motion; one incident of purposeful use of color for story/emotion; one example of intentional use of costume/hair/makeup three sound effects; one piece of incidental music; or one sound motif repeated three times. To earn extra credit, the film must include quick cuts, montage, a wide establishing shot, split screen, a POV shot, and a reflection shot; intentional break of the fourth wall; intentional break of the rule of thirds; rack focus or pull focus shot; intentional use of handheld camera work; use of color filters to create a dream like quality; fisheye lens or fisheye effect; company logo with high quality graphic. Additionally, there needs to be a blog post made about the film and what we learned.

My Horror film, known as "Wide Awake," used many conventions correlated to horror. For instance, I used dutch angles and high angles to create an unsettling feeling. My entire film was filmed in very low-lighting or darkness. I also built up the suspense by having scenes of slowly walking with the music getting more and more intense the closer the person gets to the dark. For the codes of horror, I included jump scares by using subliminal cuts. I also had quick flashes as transitions between the person sleeping and the nightmare. Another code I had was making my film about the supernatural and that being built into a nightmare. The audience should expect to be scared and tense from the feeling of suspense and slight confusion at some points. The audience should have a full engagement of the film because it is enticing and entertaining, with the suspense and jump scares keeping people entertained. I broke the horror conventions by not using gore or violence in my film. I also broke the codes of horror by not having any kids in my movie, my setting not being in a large family house, not having a pathetic fallacy, and no flashbacks were included in my short film. My audience may have expected not to be afraid because it is my classmates, and we all know how low production our movies were, but they were shocked to have gotten scared by the jump scares. In my movie I represented claustrophobia in a literal and metaphorical sense. In the literal sense the main character, Jason, was trapped in a small laundry room and was having a hard time breathing because he has claustrophobia. Metaphorically it is representing the pressures of life and how it can create this feeling of claustrophobia. I think the standard that society has made for everything whether it be beauty, school, wealth, or family it is unrealistic and creates built up stress that is unnecessary and sometimes makes it hard to breathe.

I felt the build-up to the scary scenes; the suspense was very well done, along with the subliminal cuts. I also think the intention of color, the low blue light when Jason is sleeping, makes it feel eerie and unsettling. The plot of my film was not as successful as I had wished. It was all over the place, creating confusion among the audience. The hardware that I used was Arc Studio Pro for writing my script,  Apple Camera for shooting my film, and CapCut for editing, sound, graphics, and music. This project taught me how to write a script professionally. I have written a script before, but there were many errors. Also the format I used made it much more manageable. I also learned a lot more about CapCut. I never knew too much about CapCut, but after using it as my editing hardware, I can do just about anything on it.

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This is what I picture the lake house to look like in my thriller/horror film. 

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In class, we each gave presentations on all of the major genres. These genres include Westerns, Shakespeare, Biopics, Sports, Sci-fi, Young Adult, Musicals, Romance, Comedy, Drama, Animation, Family, History, War, Horror, Thriller, Crime, Mystery, Adventure, Fantasy, Superheroes, and Documentaries. For each of the genres, we studied the conventions, codes, and audience expectations. The conventions consist of stories (the archetypal theme), characters and their representations, settings, iconography (symbols commonly associated with that genre), and values (the technical merits). As for codes, those are cinematic elements including camera work (how the camera moves, the different kinds of shots and angles), lighting (how much depth is in the film, soft lighting, harsh lighting), editing, and special effects (is the editing done to make it fast-paced like it usually is in adventure films). Lastly, audience expectations, which describe what the audience will feel and how they will react. To see how these different conventions, codes, and audience expectations are put into a real film, we watched 3 short clips from movies, each from different time periods for each genre, that convey these various implements.

So far this year we have composed two short films; my group's first film is "The Cure" and our second one is "Bird and The Taxidermist". The genre of "The Cure" is a hybrid genre because there are multiple genres associated with it. These genres include drama, young adult, animation, comedy, and family. The conventions for "The Cure" is that the story is an archetypal story of the protagonist being on an impossible mission. In this case the main character is on a mission to find a cure for blindness and get into his dream school. The setting is in a High School and the school's lab. The most common shots and angles in "The Cure" are tracking, wide shots, long shots, and medium shots. There were uses of special effects by using laser eyes and an animated scene. The lighting was natural sunlight because that was all we had, but it made it seem more real. For audience expectations of "The Cure" is that the audience will feel good and inspired after watching someone work and accomplish their dream. However, the end of "The Cure" brings in comedic relief because of the side effects of the cure. The genres in "Bird and The Taxidermist" are animation, drama, adventure, young adult, family, and comedy. The conventions for "Bird and The Taxidermist" is the protagonist is a naïve, young bird and the villain is the taxidermist who hunts the bird, it is a typical story of a mice and cat chase. The setting was outside to create a wilderness-like setting to fit the story better. The codes for "Bird and The Taxidermist" that we used were tracking, over the shoulder shot, panning, long shot, and a lot of depth. There were uses of animation that brought comedy into the film. As for audience expectations, the audience expected it to be more of a sad story, but in reality it was funny and more of a lighter story.

My favorite genres are thriller and horror, but more specifically physiological thrillers. My film would be about a group of friends when they are in their teenage years like 16-17 and they play on an Ouija board and it works, so they get freaked out and stop. They talked to spirits at the protagonists family lake house, that he/she only visits every once in a while. Then skip 10 years into the future, he/she goes back for the first time since. The reason it took so long him/her for go back is because her life got busy, he/she went to college then got caught up in his/her career. He/she wants a weekend away, so he/she decides to go to the lake house to relax. However, when he/she is there, a bunch of strange paranormal things happen. But he/she never see anything; it's just little things moving, doors closing, and footsteps. He/she think they are going crazy and starts getting very paranoid. In the end, it turns out, it was one of her friends that went to her lake house 10 years ago and participated in the Ouija board. This person was jealous of him/her and wanted to destroy him/her life because of it. The person performing all these devious acts ends up getting arrested and the protagonist now knows he/she isn't going crazy. The title of this film is undetermined, but that the moment I think I would call it "Untrust". The first few minutes will be the group of friends going to the lake house and finding and playing the Ouija board. Some shots and angles that I think would be beneficial to the film would be an aerial shots, establishing shots, tracking, and panning shots. I feel the characters, when they are teenagers need to be juvenile, dumb, and like typical care-free teenagers. The setting being at the lake house will help create an eerie feel. The audience should expect to feel scared, confused, and shocked. With the twist and turns of the film it will keep the audience on their toes.

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My group was assigned 'Birds in the hood', but we changed the title to 'The Bird and The Taxidermist'. Instead of having both characters be birds and one of the Birds is the ruler of the hood, we made on character a human who was a Taxidermist. Another thing we changed was we had props, while the original film did not. Anabella, who played the main character, had handmade bird wings from a tapestry, so it was easier for the viewer to identify who the bird was. We also improved the script by having more of an explanation of what was happening. The 10 different shots we used were, over the shoulder, long shot, high angle, color, POV shot, track in, tilt down, pan left, raise up, and depth. We used these specific shots and angles to enhance our film and make it more aesthetically pleasing to the viewer. I was the cinematographer and I wrote some the script, and what shots to use and where to put them. It was the first time that I was the cinematographer, but I previously wrote the script. It was a fun experience and I realize now how much thought goes into being a cinematographer.

The understanding of the plot of the film was greatly understood. Everyone knew what was happening and there was no questioning why a character was doing what they were doing. Also, the visual quality was much better than the previous film. However, the sound quality was some what better it was still hard to hear certain parts, so we had to include subtitles. The high angle shot worked really well with showing how belittled the bird felt when she fell. The raise up then showed how she gained back her confidence and had hope to be able to fly like the other birds. This was after she fell and the Taxidermist encouraged her to try to fly again. The POV shot was used to show a certain characters perspective. For instance, when it was the bird's POV the view could see how scared she was from the Taxidermists.

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In Aice-Media Studies our first class project was a short film. We got in groups to create a 5 minute or less movie and we had creative freedom. My group decided to create a film called The Cure. In my group there was Abby I. who edited and played the Guidance counselor. Then Annabella who was the director and Cinematographer. Alexis who created the animated montage and was the main character. Lastly, I (Addison) was the one who the script and played Alexis best friend.

The Cure was about a boy who wanted to get into Harvard, but he had to do something excellent and never done before. So, inspired by his bestfriend he decides to find a cure for blindness. After many long days he achieves this and gets into Harvard.

This was a valuable learning experience for me because I learned how hard it is to create a film from scratch. I also learned how much of a necessity good sound quality is. You have to have special sound devices or be in a controlled area in order to have professional sound quality. Also, having different angles within the film. We had to many body shots and it made it less artistic