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AICE Media Studies | The Closet - Final Film

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AICE Media Studies | Critical Reflection

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During the filming and editing process of this film I have realized how much work and effort has to be put into this profession. I have learned that not everything will go to plan and you have to do your best to work with it. My team have had many issues with the scheduling process of this film. It is very hard to plan a day to have everyone come together and film. This includes the actors and equipment as well. Along with this it is also hard when we have different ideas that we want to express but we aren't able to express all of them. When we reviewed our film our teacher reflected to us that there is some things that needed to be changed. We had some issues with the audio that we hadn't noticed at the time of the recording that we noticed during the editing process.

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Independent Distribution and Marketing Plan - The closet 

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Independent Distribution and Marketing Plan - The closet 

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1. I believe my film should get theatrical distribution, meaning I would get a film distributor with experience with other big movies that I know would be able to distribute my film for many eyes to see. Screamfest Horror Film Festival would be the place to get my film seen my our target audience.
2. The title that we have right now for the film is not very good. We need something that is unique but important to the film.
3. "won't be able to come out the closet." I think this tag line works well because it literally relates to how tragic the movie is you will not be able to come out of the closet. Along with this the movie is about kids getting trapped in a closet.
4.  Female teens 13-18 years old. Highschool kids who have a tolerance for horror.  They care about women empowerment. Usually hanging out with other girls of similar hobbies and interest. Station in a city or town with not that many people.
5. For females I will distribute ads to the mall physically on posters. And ads on social media like Instagram, Snapchat, Tikok. Since I'm doing this if I had to self distribute, this method would be used so I can reach as many of our target audience as possible.
6. To interact our audience I would incorporate a reward they would get for, lets say, sharing with 5 other people. They will want to interact with it because of this idea. Along with this, the advertisement would be very bold to attract the consumer to it.
7. I would design my movie poster to be scary but also give some detail of what the film is about. Dark colors would be used to depict what type of genre it is. Along with this, the image would be unsettling to scare the viewer but , not to much to where the viewer is scared to see the movie. I would use the colors; red, black, white. Iconography would be in ofrms of blood, weapons, scary main antagonist.

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daily routine chart daily schedule for age meme routine for dress clip art summer schedule

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Pre Production Requirements- Cinematographer 

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Pre Production Requirements- Cinematographer 

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Lighting/equipment: Low exposure lighting, this will be done with the settings in my camera. And a microphone, given to us by our teachers.
Sound effects: Punch, car screech, bicycle tires against the pavement, and girl screaming. This will all be achieved by real-life sound or effects by the editor.
Shot script:
1st shot - Lylas house
2nd shot - Lylas closet
3rd shot - Stone Creek sidewalk
4th shot - Lylas closet
5th shot - Stone Creek parking lot
6th shot - lylas closet

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The Film is about people going missing. The editing will be done with the point of creating a scary, fast past horror. I will use fades to transition to a new character. I'm doing this so the audience knows that these are not the same people. I will use a smashcut to transition from when it is very quiet to when Girl #1 is being dragged to the closet screaming. I'm doing this with the intent of scaring the audience. This film is going to be heavily influenced by "The Black Phone". In the beginning/ opening credits, there is a filter giving the shots a grainy, eerie, old film-type feel. I like how the filter and soundtrack made me feel, so I will be using something like that in my film.

I will be creating the logo using the Cap Cut app on my phone. It will contain our company name in bold white lettering over a background so it pops. I am still not sure if I want it over a black screen or a shot from the film.  This also goes for the credits. Like I said before wipes, fades, and dissolves will be good transitions to separate the lives of the three girls and the three different instances, situations, or victims of the kidnappings. My team and I  have not yet picked out the music we would like to use in the film although we do know where we want to have the music. For whatever song we use I will use it at the beginning of the movie for the opening and the end of the movie. Cap Cut has sound effects that I will be able to implement into the editing with no copyright.

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The opening two minutes show us a lot of missing posters giving us a feel for what the movie will be about. Also, a lot of kids are involved with these shots potentially telling us that the targets are mainly teenagers. In addition, gives us a look around the neighborhood the film will be taken in. It is a horror film and is targeted at teens aged 13-18. The company logos and idents are small like they want us to pay attention more to the footage. Use a beige color and a font that, to me, looks “old”. Depicting the time frame in this movie could be set in. Starts off with establishing shots of the city. With a short close-up of “missing person” posters. Wide shots/ close-ups of kids bleeding, playing, at school. They use a very eerie sound. Almost gives me goosebumps when I listen to it. I wanted to know who was doing all these crimes, taking all these children. Used a tint, kind of, to depict its eerie and dark story. Along with an old VHS-looking edit to show the horror feel and maybe the time this movie could be based in. The lengths of the shot were short, back to back. For a horror film it gives us a good sense of fear and what is expected to come. Quick shots, dark color palettes, gore,  and young children. There were no jump scares. Represented the crimes being committed involving kids. I think it was distributed to movie theaters to get it out to the people and give them the opportunity to watch it.

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During November and December of 2022, I learned about: editing, sound, and screenwriting/ screenplay format. During this time I studied film concepts and created documents featuring 20-plus kinds of editing techniques. My teacher also instructed me to watch a documentary on film editing ("The Cutting Edge") and a video on the use of color. In addition, I studied sound basics and watched a documentary on cinema sound ("Making Waves"). The class read the screenplay for "The Incredibles" along with learning how to format screenplays using a special software. Using this software I wrote a two-minute horror film opening about someone having a nightmare as the basis for my midterm film project.

These are the requirements for the midterm film. One to two minutes: horror or horror hybrid: an "opening" rather than a finished film product: minimal dialogue (mostly music, sound effects/ambiance): no wall-to-wall music: no long takes: start in the black with company ident and/or logo and title and (optional) credits before a straight cut or dissolve to the first image: minimum of three crosscuts between actor and nightmare; edited/hot/uploaded by the student; accompanying blog post. 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-a-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 intentional use of color for story/emotion; one instance of intentional use of costume/hair/makeup; one instance of visual complexity in setting choice (color, texture, depth, lines, shapes, etc.); three sound effects; one piece of incidental music or one sound motif repeated three times.  Extra credit to include quick cuts; montage; wide establishing shot; split screen; POV shot; reflection shot; intentional break of the fourth wall; intentional break of the rule of thirds; rack focus or pull focus shot; the 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.

I adhered to horror conventions/codes/audience expectations and engagement in this film. For horror conventions, there is an obvious "threat" to the group that presents itself as sneaky or unordinary. The theme is "scary" because it takes place in a lockdown with a killer on the loose. For the codes, there is the use of color to depict emotion along with the music. As for audience expectations, my goal was to put them on the edge of their seats and tense. I did this with the use of suspenseful music and sound effects.
On the contrary, how did I break these conventions/codes/audience expectations and engagement? I broke convections by not using darker lighting or underexposure to create a sense of unsettlement. For codes, a lot of horror movies usually contain some sort of child, which mine doesn't. audience expectations that were broken in my film are disgust my movie did not contain anything disgusting.
The idea of the woman being careless and not the smartest is a reoccurring theme in horror films. Instead, in this film, I made it so the woman is the one who escapes due to her intelligence.

Creating a sense of panic was successful in the piece. When people panic it's fast pace, which is shown in my film. When having the "montage" of Catalina and Hugo getting ready for the lockdown, creates that sense of urgency. Along with the smooth edits.
Having the props along with lighting the same in each shot was one of my flaws. The film is supposed to be smooth and not have any distractions. When Catalina is walking into the bathroom you can see that the bathroom light is off. Then it cuts to her in the bathroom with the light off.
For my project I used many hardware and software. My phone was used to film and provide sound. I used Arc Studios to create my script. And used CapCut to edit my film. Using CapCut was a difficult learning curve because it was my first time. Along with using my phone to capture sound. But eventually I learned how to use CapCut and use all of its tools.

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In class this week we studied mostly all movie genres, such as: thriller, war, animation, comedy, mystery, horror, superhero's, romance, sports, drama, crime, adventure, science fiction, and musicals. Our assignment was to study and do research on our assigned genre. We studied things such as conventions, codes, and audience expectations for these various genres. Each one of these assignments had 3 movies clips from three different time periods that represented that  genre. Some of these films watched were hybrids. This means that these clips show more than one genre. For example, a movie might be a musical but can also contain romantic aspects.

My group came to the agreement that the first film we made was a drama. With the second film we came to the conclusion that it is a romance drama. For our first film we wanted our audience to feel intense and empathy or sympathy for the characters. Creating a story where the bully gets bullied by a former victim of his (teaching him a valuable lesson) highlights the convections of a drama. This along with the use of certain camera movements like close up help build suspense and show emotion. For our second film our main goal was to make the audience feel  surprised and on the edge of their seats, as well as a sense of romance between the characters. To achieve this the story was about two boys going to New York and one gets kidnapped by the others' lover. Once again we used close ups, tracking, and wide shots to not only show emotion but show things happening that the main character could not see, giving the audience the inside scoop on what was happening. Although this was supposed to be a serious film we did notice that the audience did laugh a couple times throughout the film.

In my opinion, I love the feeling of being scared and adrenaline running through my body. This is why thriller is my favorite genre to watch. If I made a thriller film it would have something to do with paranormal activity like ghost or a scary looking antagonist haunting the main characters. Things like low exposure, eerie music, close ups, and disturbing settings would be what I would use to make the audience feel scared.

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My group was assigned to rewrite and improve the script of a fellow group. Along with, including 10 (or more) different types of camera shots and camera movements. The original plot followed a young girl flying to New York with her dog; she falls in love with a boy who, later on, kidnaps her dog. Our rewritten version of the film follows a young boy who goes to New York with his little brother; falls in love with a girl who ends up kidnaping his little brother. When we filmed the film, we decided to use more sophisticated camera movements and shots correctly. These shots included: Close up, depth, high angle shot, long shot, over the shoulder shot, pan left and pan right, track in, two shot, wide shot, zoom in, and low angle shot. I was an actor in this film; specifically, the older brother. I had a good experience with this role. The director was on track, making sure we were all in our place.

The film received good reviews from our class mates along with the teacher. The story line was proper and organized. There were no out-of-pocket scenes, everything was tied into the story line. The cuts between most of the shots matched up as well. This film also had many critiques pointed out by my class mates and teacher. To begin, the audio was not as clear as it should've been in some scenes. This is due to the lack of audio equipment we have been provided. Although most of the editing was good, there were some mess ups in the film. Some of the clips were not cut perfectly to match one another. Along with actors being out of place in scenes. Another problem is there are too many boring walking scenes. The scenes were basically useless and added zero to value to the film; they were not very entertaining. Symmetry was also a con in one of the scenes. The actor and the background were not in line, making it unappealing to the eye.

In the film we tried to use our expertise on camera angle and movement  to really bring out the emotion we were trying to project. In the scene where the older brother lays eyes on Ashley, we used a close up to really show how shocked the older brother was when he noticed how beautiful his lover is. Along with this, in the specific scene where Ashley and the older brother are siting on the bench as the older brother is crying; we decided to film that scene in that specific setting just to give it some depth, so it would not be as boring. When filming the scenes where the two lovers are texting each other and there is a over-the-shoulder shot of the text messages; we could've used a close up of the actual phone to show the viewers a clearer view of the messages that were being sent between them.

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This film, "Karma", is me and my group's first film created this year. My role in the film was as an actor. I played the role of the new kid. Along with my crewmates: Bella our director/photographer, Kevin played the bully's friend, and Griffin played the bully. This film follows a young teen at his first day at high school getting bullied by a fellow student. Later on finds a friend who helps stand up to the bully.
The film had it's pro's and con's. To begin, this film did a good job sticking to the plot. No scenes went off topic from the main story line, which helped make the moral of the story clear to the viewers. Our photographer did a good job capturing the scenes and the expressions of the actors; setting the mood for the whole film. In continuation, the actor's were a big part in this films success. They really captured what whole situation and the feelings of the character's well. Now moving onto its con's. Audio quality was not on point. At some points in the film you could barely hear the actors talking. This is due to the lack of audio equipment we had. We also ran into the lack of clips since we ended up short on time, along with some clips being bloopers; making the edit's and scenes choppy and unprofessional. Along with that the photographer kept changing the camera angle from landscape to portrait making the size of the scree differentiate from clip to clip. Last but not least, the editor made the title of the film at the beginning a bit too small, making it harder for the viewers to read.