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As we are nearing then end of our final for Aice Media Studies, and after going through the production and editing process with my group, I have concluded there is an abundance of topics and concepts to reflect on. During the production process, my group and I quickly learned that organizing the way scenes should be filmed, and when, was quite the challenge. We had a hard time figuring out what type of shots we would need and how we would portray our script. We also learned that it is important to get reliable actors, in a not so great way. After our first shoot, when going over with Mrs. Marquis about what could be improved and changed, our actors decided they didn't want to do it anymore and quit. This then resulted in us having to re-shoot the entirety of the film with brand new actors, one of them being me. From this, I also learned acting is not easy, and not for me. In fact, we believe our original cut improved would be better than what we have now, which is a struggle as our final cut is creeping close. Editing wise however, we learned that angles are extremely important. For example, we had a shot of just the top of our actors heads, which when put into the movie, is not fitting at all. We also learned that there is no need for extra scenes such as walking from place to place. In the final cut it just drags the film on and looks unnecessary. Though, we also learned that editing can help turn a potentially bad shot into the perfect fitting once. With the ability to change duration, speed, sound, and size of a shot, we are able to make scenes perfect matches to the rest of the film. Overall, the film making operation is a learning process, and with the use of team work and great feedback, we were able to figure out how to plan and shoot a film, find out what works best for certain shots, conclude how sound is best used, and see what a difference good editing makes.

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Independent Distribution and Marketing Plan - "Lover from the Past"

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Independent Distribution and Marketing Plan - "Lover from the Past"

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1. If our film were to be distributed independently, we would most likely go the route of streaming services and film festivals. Our film is majorly geared to a specific audience rather than a vast one, so getting a content aggregator to find specified services would be more beneficial than distributing our film theatrically. The film aggregator we found that would best fit our genre and audience is FilmHub. We think it would work best for our romantic mystery movie because we would be able to get onto The CW and Prime Video which are geared towards our genre of romance and mystery. RedBox and PopcornFlix, smaller streaming services, could also work for our film. This specific aggregator would not take payment; but, would receive 20% of any income, which is better because if our film does not do well, we do not lose as much financially. As for film festivals, Berlin Film Festival would be the most promising in entering. We say this because in past years, romance genres have been high winners compared to others, so romance films, like ours, are more likely to be seen. Overall, we decided that reaching smaller and more target audiences would be of most profit and most promising, which is why streaming services and film festivals are our route rather than a theatrical release.

2.  Our film is titled "Lover from the Past", and entails how a women's childhood love comes back into her life. The title fits extremely well to our film due to its closeness in relation to the synopsis of our film; as well as through its short and sweet makeup which fits incredibly well in the romance world. Our title adheres directly to our main genre, therefor aiming itself directly at our target audience. However, we could improve our title by adding elements of mystery within it. In our film, the childhood love comes back in mysterious ways, so adding elements of mystery to the title could attract new viewers and grow our audience. Despite possible improvements, my film group decided to stick with our original title because it suites our genre and film greatly.

3.  The tag line my group came up with to advertise and entice audiences to watch our film is "I lost a piece of my heart that day, and somehow it just might be back." We decided on this tag line compared to others because it clearly shows how our main character lost a love that mysteriously may be returning. Another factor in our decision making was audience and genre; to which our chosen tag line clearly adheres to. Overall, our tag line distinctly shows the genres of romance and mystery through love lost and found, which greatly adheres to our target audience, growing our viewers.

4. As for our target audience, it is vastly women ranging in ages 14-30. This is because younger women, specifically that of adolescence, go crazy for a good teen/young adult romance. From this, we can gather that our audiences are most likely in either middle or high school, college, or are just starting their life. With that, their income is, in all likely hood, little to none. This is due to young age, schooling, and the start of building a resume. Based on our knowledge of our target audience, we can also assume that they are into relationships, self care, music, social medias, Tv and film, as well as fashion. They probably like to keep up with trends on what to wear and watch, and also like to keep up with social medias such as Tik Tok and Instagram. They may participate in activities such as hanging out with friends, reading, getting dressed up for fun occasions, shopping, and taking photos. Basically anything that sparks romance, is visually appealing, and has an aroma of light and fun. Places like parks, beaches, cute clothing spots, and restaurants such as ones like The Hampton Social, would be on our audiences radar. However they would most likely dislike things such as extreme horror films, intense sports, dark musics, and anything that opposes healthy life style and healthy relationships.

5.  Based on our notes and research on the topics of target audience as seen above, a great way to reach said audience if we were to distribute our film on a platform such as YouTube, would most likely be through social medias. To reach our audience we would post dramatic and enticing trailers, featuring pivotal film moments without giving things away, as well as creating accounts for our film, posting regularly, and interacting with our audience. As for advertising digitally, we would post trailers/clips on YouTube and Instagram stories, post target ads on Instagram regularly, make behind the scenes tik tok's, make tik tok's in the audiences POV, release teasers in comment sections on both Instagram and Tik Tok, and post ads on Facebook for our more millennial audiences. Physical ads and teasers, however, would be displayed in local public areas such as parks and shopping malls, would be distributed through flyers and word of mouth, and would be shown in public trailer screenings at places such as the movies or a park. Though, all of this would only be done if we had to self distribute and did not have someone to aid us in the advertising process.

6. We would engage our target audience online by commenting and posting on social medias in correlation with and about our film. We would turn and keep our audience members active and engaged through clips and teasers on a film account, and then we would interact with the said audience through comments on the film account as well as audience member's accounts. To get our viewers to actually click on our ads, we would make promotions for our film appear with cute child love, teen relationship moments, and aesthetics, all of which are portrayed in our film. Within these promotions, we would offer the audience a chance to see the life of our main character, mainly focusing on its romance aspect, something our target audience thrives to see. To get the audience to share our advertisements we would provide incentives such as merchandise and objects related to our film. This merchandise could include clothing, signed pictures from the cast, and clever memorabilia relating to big notions within our film. Overall, audience engagement is extremely important in the outcome of our film, so we would need to do as much as we could to get our target audience to like and share.

7. After doing a google search for the CLIO Key art awards online, we decided that our art piece would be a movie poster that enhances the love life and romance of our film. It will show a picture of the main actress, and the two boyfriends behind her. The three main colors we would use for our poster would be red, pink, and white. We would use these colors because they are distinctly associated with romance, especially with a deep and connecting love. Subsequently, we would also use a cursive font to display our words and writing in a more romantic way. To which all of this will help build our genre. However, to relay the mystery aspect of our film to our audience, we would need to show multiple facial expressions on the actors, as well as dark moments such as pops of grays and blacks with the art work. These two portrayals of romance and mystery word work hand in hand in reaching our target audience by creating a feeling for a perfect love story where something is just not right.

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For my final Aice Media Studies film, I was assigned the role of director. With this position I will need to be able to make all types of decisions on types of shots, positions of scenes and actors, editing techniques and further specifics. To start my role as director, I met with my cinematographer and producer, to form a formal vision statement. We decided that out film will appear as a mystery romance that is constantly intriguing the audience, we want our film to keep the reader interested into the characters relationships. As inspiration for this film, we will use many CW shows, such as Nancy Drew. This is because they portray everyday teens/young adults experiencing romance and tragedy with drastic elements of mystery. With that being said, our costuming and color will need to look as modern as possible except for our closing and cliffhanger scene where a character comes back from the dead. This scene will have low key elements gray and gloomier colors.

As for specific shots and compositions, I as director want to include multiple variations including but not limited to high angles, low angles, natural lighting, low key lighting, tracking, montages, and pans. I want our piece to appear as an introduction to the life of our main character, as you are experiencing it with her. Therefor, I am looking for very clean and seamless editing, not really anything high tech or complicated. Our film is portraying the life of a women and her missing best friend, in real time, so I want clips and editing to seem extremely realistic, and not necessarily close to to fancy editing, sound effects, and CGI. Within our film, we will represent social groups through the average everyday person and family experiencing a real world problem and tragedy. Bringing in many age groups and mainly women as high interest audiences. Within conventions, we are going to adhere to them by adding elements of mystery and romance through straight cuts, montages, and cliffhangers, as well as by establishing setting and storyline. However, we may break conventions by having a man come back from the dead which is not adhering to realistic and real world life. To relay all this to my actors and crew I will speak clearly and throw out many ideas up for debate, if something doesn't work for one actor or doesn't fit their abilities, we can find the next best solution. All in all, I have an idea and vision for my groups film, and am willing to work with my partners and actors for accommodations and ideas.

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This week in Aice Media we were tasked with finding a film in the same genre as our final production, and to evaluate and analyze the beginning of that said film. The film I chose titled "Reminiscence" similar in genre to my finals romance, mystery, and sci-fi starts off with the title of the movie fading into ocean waters, which then pans upward in a long shot so you are able to see buildings and skylines. A man is narrating as the camera moves throughout the active city that appears to be underwater. The target audience for this film would most likely be young adults both male and female, but leaning more towards a female interest. The title in the beginning of the film is in fluorescent blue and fades mysteriously into the waves of an ocean. The sounds along with the movement of the fading give the film a dizzy and mysterious feeling. There are however, no opening credits in the film as it enters straight into a voice over by the main character. While this character is giving his voice over, you are panning and moving through the city seeing an overview of boats moving, lights turning on, and the sun setting. As the camera moves lower throughout the city from a high aerial view, it begins to focus on on a specific alleyway with people moving and onto a man (the main character) walking towards a playing card floating in the water. The camera then zooms and tilts downwards onto the card where we discover it is a queen. Adding onto the voice over of the film , there is a mysterious and suspenseful background music playing with beats as a constant, however as we move past just ocean waters, a guitar strumming is added, and as we reach the bulk of the city, the beats silence and a calming version of the guitar lingers on. At the end of these two minutes, I was left wanting to know more and what and who this guy was. He was giving a very melancholy voice over and seemed to have some importance. I was left with a mysterious feeling and wanted to know the significance of all surroundings especially the playing card. I didn't notice any particular editing techniques besides a time-lapse of the sun setting over the ocean covered city, however, the whole first two minutes is one long shot and a smooth aerial view with select zoom-ins. From what I noticed while watching, the film did not break and only adhered to common conventions. The introduction built up mystery aspects and established a setting within the film as well as left the audience wanting to know more within the camera select zoom-ins and focuses. The first two minutes of this film showed representation to culture, social groups, and issues, by showing how a very populated city had become water born for some reason that is so far unknown, as well as showing the everyday person living their life. I believe this film was distributed particularly on most streaming services such as HBOMax, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video because it is geared to most audiences specifically young adult and adhered to multiple genre interests. After viewing this clip, I came to the realization that film openings have minimal dialogue and action, and manly focus on building a foundation, storyline, genre elements, and audience interest.

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Over the duration of the second quarter and mainly the months of November and December 2022, I have learned so much to further my studies in film production and editing. In class we focused on the basics of editing, sound, screenwriting, and screenplay format. As for the editing sector of Aice Media Studies, we watched a documentary titled "The Cutting Edge", studied concepts, and created documents displaying 20 plus editing techniques. We spent multiple days watching a film on color and watched a documentary on cinema sound called "Making Waves" , as well as participating in further sound studies. By far my favorite thing we did though, was reading the entire screenplay for "The Incredibles". Within reading we saw basic layouts of screen writing and what and how things worked.  We then learned how to format screenplays on a special software called Arc Studio Pro, and were tasked with writing, filming, and editing a horror film based on a coma patient having a nightmare as the basis for our midterm project. My film is titled "Swipe Right for a Coma" and had many successes and challenges for it being my first self production.

Going deeper into the aspects of our midterm film, there were many guidelines and requirements to fill. For starters, the film had to be an opening rather than a finished product, had to contain minimal dialogue with the films made mostly of music, sound effects, and ambience, could contain no wall-to-wall music, and had to be in the genre of horror or a horror hybrid with the actor in a nightmare. The film also had to include crosscuts between the actor and the nightmare, and had to be accompanied by a blog post reflection. Cinematically, the film had quite a few necessities, some of the few being: a close up, dutch angle, high or low angle, a pan or tilt, a zoom, a multitake, and a an intentional use of color and costuming. Through the editing process, I was required to to have a title with a compony name or logo, a minimum of three sound effects, one piece of incidental music or sound motif, and ma match cut to subliminal cut. We were also given extra credit opportunities through additives such as color filters, fisheye lenses, montages, quick cuts, poverties shots, and intentional breaks of the fourth wall and rule of thirds.

While planning, producing, shooting, and editing the film I had to keep in mind and adhere to many horror conventions and codes, as well as audience expectations and engagement. It was a challenge to fit to all, so there were instances where I strayed from the path. As for horror conventions, I included nightmares, chase scenes, a stalker and flashback scenes. I then broke these conventions by not including visible violence or gore, or common scary aspects such as woods and abandoned buildings. I applied the codes of horror to my film using low key lighting, dark figures, and high pitched sound effects but broke them by not using common aspects such as quick and smash cuts and underexposures. The audience overall expects to be filled with fear, confusion, shock and anticipation, but I only adhered to that minimally. I strayed from the guidelines of audience expectations and engagements because I lacked the factor of suspense and the act of leaving audience members on the edge of their seat. Instead, I left the audience in slight anticipation and suspense but not enough for complete engagement.

Overall , I had many successes and failures in my opening to a horror film. Starting with the success, things that stood out for me were my ability to add and the use of sound effects and music. My film had only one scene with dialogue and audio before editing, so adding music and auditory effects really brought the film together. I also think my ending chase scene and the last scene overall were successes for the film. I was able to accurately portray a stalker chasing a women and him hitting her in slow motion (it cuts before he actually hits her). The screen the goes black and returns to the patient in the hospital room and her stalker somehow with her and then him walking out. I think this was a great way to end the opening film, giving enough information and interest about it, but not giving an entire story. As for failures, I believe there were quite a few. For starters, the film overall lacks continuity, it is kind of hard to follow unless you are really focused or already know its context. I think this happened due to my lack of film clips. I believe I needed more takes of everything and more scenes connecting one to the next. I also believe that the editing from scene to scene could have been a little more complex and thought through. Overall though, my film had highs and lows, and was equivalent in successes and failures. Through editing this film I learned more about iMovie and how to add effects visually and through sound. The script I had written on an online software and then filmed on a iPhone was hard to portray the way originally intended. But, through iMovie I was able to use their sounds and software as well as importing clips from YouTube to complete my film to what it is today.

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This passed week in Aice Media Studies we learned about the multiple genres of films and covered the many conventions, codes, and audience expectations they consist of.  Me and my partner presented the genre of mystery, and the other 13 Powerpoints  presented were thrillers, war, animation, comedy, musicals, horror, super hero, romance, sci-fi, sports, drama, crime, and adventure. As for conventions, we learned basic storylines, characters and their representations, setting, values, and iconography for different genres. As well as codes such as cinematic elements including camera work, lighting, editing, and audience emotions and reactions. Within each presentation, we learned of films from three different time periods to see how the genre may have evolved or maintained. Some of these films were hybrid films meaning they fell under more than one genre category. One that really stood out was Disney's The Nightmare Before Christmas which falls under the categories of musicals, fantasies, and animations. This movie fell under three categories, however a hybrid film goes from a minimum of two genres to as many it may fall under.

I have made two films within a group this year which fall under many categories and genres. After discussing, we decided that our first film fell under the genres of adventure, drama, and just barely mystery, while the other fell under only drama. We used many conventions and codes such as stories, iconography, values, and cinematic elements within our scripts and filming while also satisfying audience expectations and emotions. In our first film, the two main characters travel through New York City on a search for a lost dog, and by the end of the film find the dog and come to a resolution. This scenario of a journey to a resolution of some sort almost always happens in adventure films to make you feel like you are on course with the characters. As an audience you get to see the character qualities and how they move past obstacles in their way. We used a golf cart within filming to represent vehicles which happened to be a staple piece of iconography in adventure films. Drama occurred within the characters dialogue and actions as the plot moved forward and up until the end resulting in the character having to show lots of strength and perseverance. Cinematography was fairly simple, with mainly just panning, tracking, one and two shots, and wide and close ups. Though, the setting being limited to just the courtyard proved to be a challenge not only for this film, but our second as well. Our second film overall, was ultimately better in cinematography, script, and editing. Our equipment for filming brought us a greater advantage, and more thought was put into how the shots were to be filmed in correlation with the storyline. This time, we used ten different camera shots some of which being povs, high angles, and tilts. This film was a drama about bullying, so the tilted angle gave the effect of a character being less than another. The main characters were portrayed in fighting and cheer outfits much fitting to the common iconography of a mean girl. Despite the good outcomes of both of the films, we did break some codes, conventions, and expectations. We did this is a few ways, but the main one being by adding slight comedy to our drama and adventure films through the use of extremely corny irony and jokes. Overall, we learned a lot about our films, and how to properly use genres, conventions, and codes moving forward.

Out of all the genres we have learned and covered, my personal favorite has to be romance. I find that a classic love story is so good to watch, even if it may be predictable. If I had to write a script for a final film it would definitely be romance. The synopsis for my final film would be, " They would be the perfect pair, at least that's what everyone says. Likeable, outgoing, funny, high school cheer and football captains with scholarships in their future. There is only one problem, they hate each other and have all their lives. Their each others competition and that's all they think they will ever be. Now that senior year is approaching, they are entering their biggest competition yet, the fight for valedictorian. Their on a path to a total blow out, but, their fight for the win might just bring them closer than they could have ever thought." This film would focus on the values of relationships, comfort, love, and chemistry between actors, while relaying iconography such as kissing and broken and full hearts. As for potential cinematography and editing in this film, I would like to see both high and lowkey lighting, close ups, montages, and two-shots. Audience wise, my potential final film would leave the watchers with their eyes glued to the screen feeling passion, empathy, hope, and possibly even sadness throughout, but joy and relief in the end when characters end up with who they are supposed to like a true romance movie.

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My second film for Aice Media was a remake and improvement of another groups film from my class. Our take on the film not only had to be better, but also had to contain 10 different camera angles and attributes. "Karma", the name of the film my group had to remake entitled a set of bestfriends and a new kids life in high school. One friend bullied and tormented the new kid, while the other just stood and watched as a bystander even though he disagreed. Soon, the bestfriend becomes fed up with the bully and apologizes to the new kid. They then befriend each other, leaving the bully all alone. Which is when the film comes full circle and the bully receives his karma for his poor and harmful actions.
My group of four, elaborated on this film slightly while still keeping the bullying theme. Our film, titled "The Bully" had four characters and minimal crew. I played the role of actor and cinematographer, Sophia played the role of the lead actor, Lyla played the role of lead actor and editor, and Isabella was an actor. Each of us collaboratively directed the film, as well as on the filming in select clips. Script wise, the storyline was changed quite a lot but also quite simply. For our take on the film, we had to best friends (Lyla and Sophia) drift apart. Sophia believes that Lyla is to weird and uncool so she drops her for a decently well known girl named Isabella. While there new friendship flourishes, Sophia bullies Lyla. Tessa, the most popular girl in school, sees Lyla upset and decides to become her friend. Isabella then sees this and talks to Tessa and Lyla because they are friends, she finds out how terrible of a person Sophia was being so she drops her in turn. Sophia then ends up alone, while the other three girls switch up and bully her unpopular being. Which is where our take relates back to the original and the bully in the beginning gets her Karma in the end.
For me, playing the role of an actor was pretty similar to that of my first experience. However, it was slightly easier to improv and act more natural. For cinematography though, it was very different. To get the right shots and different camera angles was harder than expected, and planning out each shot before filming took a lot of thought and effort. For our ten shots required when remaking the movie, we included depth, both two shot and three shots, over the shoulder and low angle shots, close ups, and tracking and panning both right and left.
Overall our film did end up being an improvement of plot and camera skills, however not all things worked as well as others. For example, as always sound could be improved, but also the connection from one shot to the next, and the focus on actors faces and not just the back of their heads. Our camera movement as far as tracking and panning worked out quite well though. In one shot from our film, we are filming an over the shoulder of Isabella and Sophia while they are talking and looking at a phone screen. Despite the shot turning out pretty well, it would have been nice to see the faces of the actors while they were conversating, and also a close up of the phone screen they were looking at. In the scene where we were filming Isabella and Sophia walking down the hall at a low angle, it worked very well. This was because filming at a low angle makes someone appear bigger and stronger much like a bully, which is what the girls were. The last scene that stuck out to me was classroom scene, Isabella and Sophia were perched on top of desks picking on a sleeping Lyla a few seats back. However, we never see Lyla's face when she is talking, not to mention how the positioning makes her basically blocked from camera view. Instead we should have positioned Lyla in front and the bigger bully's in back for exaggeration and better pleasure to the eye. Overall, our film portrayed the script and our new knowledge quite nicely, but still there is always room for improvement.

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This was the first film I made for aice media studies this year. I filmed within a group of four, including me, Sophia, Lyla, and Isabella. In our film titled "Where's Bruiser?", I played the role of Bertha the main characters best friend. While, Sophia played the main character, Isabella the background, and Lyla the dog, videographer, and editor. The plot of our film consists of a girl stuck in a small town wanting a way out. So, she finds her way to New York where she loses her family dog and finds possible love while on the hunt for her beloved bruiser.

After reviewing our film three times in front of the class, twice with sound and once without, I was able to take a few notes on both its strengths and weaknesses. For one, the film had moderately good editing of the clips and great integration of songs and sound effects. The plot was well thought out and was displayed well if you could follow along. However, the filming overall could be seen as shaky in some clips and allowed for heads to be cut off. We also learned from reviewing to leave a few seconds of recording before and after each scene to better connect clips. Still, for our first time, our film came out very good and was definitely a learning experience. In the future we now know how important camera angles, sound, and a well developed plot are, and how when severely they can make or break a film.