CCR Question One

How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

CCR Question Two

How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text? 

This Instagram video was designed to promote the film and engage the target audience. I was pointing out who would definitely watch the movie. "Action lovers and ones who want to crack a laugh" this shows the target audience who are interested in these genres. I also used Micheal Jackson's "Black or White" to align one's tone and upbeat connection.

CCR Question Three

CCR Question Four

 

Day 2 of Recording (Reflection)

Reflection

My day two of recording went very successful and was the end of production. I got all the clips in my phone of both days. This day two of recording was a huge success, I think I did a good job of choosing what I wanted to show for my film, a very productive day of filming that originally had one unexpected problem easily solved with a proofed plan-B. I didn't want to waste the day if I only had two actors. Showing my progressed chart of the scenes done below I completed all total shots for the three scenes.

Skills reflected, conclusion

My skills as a director has increased over time planning these events and I feel like a better leader than before with more careful planning and making sure there is always a backup plan. After the day of recording, I watched each accepted shot that was going to be used for the film. I compared them to what previous attempts had and put them into a google drive filled with all the clips in order with instructions to ease the quality of my editor.

I put the clips in order based on the alphabet so that my editor knows which clip goes next. I also linked in the script with my editor having the voice lines and music already. I think the production process was a huge success with minimal problems regarding technology thanks to some background knowledge. Now what's next is the post-production of the film, me and my editor will both discuss how to edit the certain shots that I want to perfectly be. My editor has lots of experience in editing and so do I, it's just going to be a check of what I want to see in the film.

Scene disinvolvement

One concern came to me while thinking about the state of the film. My film might be too long to contain all this recording. As the video is exactly two minutes long, the third scene might not make it to be seen. I put some time into thinking what the third scene will contain. Now if I don't show the third scene, then the point of the film will not really change. All I wanted to do is to provide suspense of a phone call that is shown in the scene.

What I was trying to do in this scene was to have a OTS shot of the phone that is the main focus of the scene. The suspense of the call then rings which I wanted to apply to this film. I have to act that this is the start of a long movie that is shown only of the first two minutes, I hoped that this scene would make it to show a conflict that will be revealed soon. Even if it doesn't make it, it would show that I didn't want to under achieve the time on the film. I would overdo my recording to not be in the situation of rushing to extend the film in some way. This reflects that scene three was always a plan-B made to prevent possible panic that avoided.

Day 2 of Recording - Part 2 (Implementation)

 As I discussed with my group I showed them what to expect, where to go, when to act in certain moments, and when to speak. 

First shot of the film

First I needed to get the base idea of what the first shot was going to work. As previously discussed, the protagonist would walk pass a door and walk towards the camera with frontality. Below is a picture of what the setting will look like in the first frames of the film.

The protagonist will open the door and close it and start walking towards the camera where its placed. Then after that, the camera is going to have to move out of the actors way. So when the actor gets close enough to the camera, I will move to the left following the protagonist behind them which reveals the guards and makes a OTS shot. Below will first show how I moved out of the protagonist's way and the OTS shot revealing the guards.

Both of these pictures are from failed attempts as this first shot took more than ten attempts to pull off because of precision and how my actors can't keep a straight face. Now moving on to the remaining shots we had to make. The next shot follows with a cut to the protagonist pocket facing the guards. Below is what the shot looks like in a still. 

The actor then takes out the candy then cuts to a POV shot of the actor holding the candy to the guards. In which they let him through because of the candy given. Below is what the shot looks like.

Then the next shot is right in front of the protagonist face as he walks pass the guards with a smile. And that concludes the first scene of the film. After many attempts of trial and error based on what I wanted, we were done with the group scene. As the actors left my house I got started right away on the remaining shots needed for the second scene. Because I purposely left the shots that don't need anyone in them to record them. After I finished all those scenes, that concludes my film's production and a very successful day two of recording.

Day 2 of Recording (Implementation)

 The second day of recording has come to a start. This time things are different... 

First minute impressions

The message is out of the time needed to come, my main actor that plays the protagonist comes first, then the second one, then the third one. Now the third person actually couldn't come, but I knew this might happen again, so I pre-planned to get my neighbor into it, they happily accepted my invitation. Now having all my necessary actors with the clothes, I was ready to record.

A picture of my roster for the first scene

Discussing each character 

We were going to start shooting for the first scene of the film. But first I have to discuss what each character is going to do and look like. First, let's start with the protagonist known as Tanek. My actor who lastly played as him came with the same clothes as before. But this time we needed to add a prop to his pocket. A bag of sour skittles, this prop will be used a moment in the first scene. Looking closely at the clothes of our character below you can see the candy in the right pocket which will be there. 

Moving on, the next people we are going to discuss are the guards that will be acting as company security guards. Now guards can have fancy attire clothing, which is what I went for in this case. I also gave one of my actors some sunglasses so that they look more serious as guards. Below will be both of their clothing worn.

Now one clear thing that is different from the protagonist is that these guards have a logo sticker attached to the left of the chest. This is to show that the protagonist is passing through The Denouement, in which they will later find out who they are. With having these stickers on the guards provides more question of "who could they be part of?" which is exactly what I was trying to go for. Now that we know what each character does and has, we can start attempting the shots.

Day 1 of Recording (Reflection)

Conclusion

Day 1 of recording comes to an end. My progress from this day is that scene two is half done and scene three is complete. Not bad for one day. In the end of the day, I gave my actor some pizza for an award of coming and acting. I discussed when the next day of the recording would happen so that we could potentially finish all the shots. This day I felt very accomplished, for a day that didn't need three people. We got about half of the film done in recordings. My directing skills came in the first minute of the day and decided to work to not waste time. I later made this map when I was organizing all the clips in a drive of mine. 

This chart shows the scenes length and how much shots are needed, and how much are done. Scene three is shown to be done, but the finished number was 4/4. Now scene one was going to go for shorter amount of cuts but longer length between cuts. Now it was time to send these clips to my editor and see how they manage to transition a whip pan and a passing shot. 

My most passionate shot: the passing shot.

One thing I didn't show much about a passion of mine was the passing shot. In earlier blogs, I studied how to do a passing shot and how they convey meaning towards the film. I took this idea from a popular director (Edgar Wright) in which I wanted to replicate it in my film now below I will show two clips that connect with each other that basically makes up what a passing shot is.

As seen, it starts as the camera moves right in which the camera will be behind a object, in our case, the actor's hair. Then in the other clip starts blacked out then goes away to make it look like it 'passed' through an object into a different setting. That was a shot that I wanted to achieve in which in the end when fully done edited will be accomplished. In the end, my day one was a successful day of filming, and I will ensure that the second day will go smoother.

Day 1 of Recording - Part 2 (Implementation)

 This is part 2 of the first day of recording, my goal was to get done the remaining of scene two and finish scene three if possible.

A day not to waste

This day of recording started off with bad news of two actors not coming. I didn't let that stop me not record on the day I wanted too. So, me and my actor worked to get these clips done. I will show a couple of clips from different cuts and scenes that were not good enough, and my explanation. 

Whip pan attempts

This video shows the start of the whip pan at the end of the clip. Now, why didn't I choose this clip. Well, it wasn't about the background sound because that would all go away in editing. So what could be it? That the part where I tried to whip was not fast enough for it to be a blurry end. That's a mistake that I did lots of times while trying to record this shot. I later did more attempts to balance out the speed, going fast would also result in a fail of the whip pan. Now I present the other shot that didnt make it because of one expectation and quality of this shot. 

This shot starts out the whip pan on the start to transition events. Then it stays still while doing a OTS shot focusing on the laptop. Now, one reason I didn't want to use this recording is that look at the laptop, you really can't see much of what's happening. The outside can also be distracting as we don't want to put focus outside of the laptop. Well, there was an easy fix to this problem. All we had to do was to focus more on the laptop. Therefore, zooming in on to the screen. After I tried this, I was more satisfied of the result than before, its cleaner and puts a main focus on the shot which is what we were trying to do.

This picture shows the zoomed in version of the shot.

Then this concluded our first day of recording, even if it didn't go as expected, it still was a day that I took advantage of. 

Day 1 of Recording (Implementation)

 As everything is ready for us to start recording, I got ready to start. My goal was to at least get half of the clips needed done. I don't have to rush my shots, and I want to be pretty precise about them. 

Day gone wrong instantly

Once I got everything ready, I had to wait on my actors to arrive, but waiting after waiting, only one person manages to come. Why? I checked and supposedly two of my actors were suddenly sick. Moments like these are expected to come and as a director, I need to improvise. Luckly my main actor for being the main character of my film was here. Now I know that half of my film actually contains just one person being the protagonist. Therefore, I don't have to tackle on the film in a chronological way, and I can start with a different scene, for my case the second scene. As the first scene is going to have to be a different day, I stood to not wasting this day of recording. I got my actor dressed up with what I imagined of what our protagonist is going to look like. We were going to use my room as the first environment to convey the home he is in.

Photo of the actor and how they are dressed up

Here is a cut that failed to meet our film.

This is basically the first cut of scene 2, what I wanted to make out of this cut was to make it not too quick or slow of a cut. Therefore, my actor went slow than I liked for this cut to work, I knew that adding a nine second cut of someone putting buttons together would not be much appealing. I know my optimal time was around 4-7 seconds before cut. After this attempt, I told my actor to hurry it up with the button tying. With the next cut being the main one we are using. 

Here is another cut that didn't manage to be good enough.

This cut I was going for is to show the left out homework on the bed while our protagonist is watching a comedian. What I wanted is to show the homework which I needed to not be blurry at first, then I would make the background have the focus in which the homework blurs out conveying that the homework is forgotten. Now what was wrong about this cut? If we look through, its not about how the blurring was bad but more of the constant moving of the phone. I had a mini tripod on the bed, I didnt know it had much of a purpose, but after I watched that video after the take, I was minded of what tools I have to combat this situation. I used the mini tripod to hold the phone still, which resulted with way less shaking of the camera in which we found our next clip that was used afterwards.

Me and my actor were not stopping to take any breaks but just to continue trying cut after cut to get the imagined results I had.

   

 

Title Design (Planning)

 Iconic films have title screen designs that are unique and rememberable. Since we are going to introduce the title in our film, we have to make a design that will also work as the thumbnail of the film. To start, I have to think about what the words mean in the title. Based on what we are trying to say, our protagonist is a comedian as undercover of a spy. The use of sunglasses is something we establish as a iconic symbol in our film. Therefore, it should deserve a spotlight into the title screen. I will put an image of a pair of sunglasses on top on undercover to link it to the spy job. Then, I want to make the font different for the word comedian. Comedians are less serious than spies, so I will put a informal font that can be cartoony and big. To add more style into the title, I will replace one of the 'I's' in the title with a microphone, this is because comedians use microphones to speak with people, making a link between the word and the picture. Below is the finished product of the title screen and will be used in the film.

The title screen of our film.

Making props for the film - Part two (Planning)

 Starting off the second hand of prop we are going to make in order to use them in our film.

Comedian list

This comedian list is used in a scene in which we show that our protagonist didnt make as a comedian in this list. We can see multiple names on the list including our protagonist's in which red x's and green check marks decide if you made it through. Sadly, the protagonist did not make it and therefore got a red x on the list. I also put the rating to further add information on the list with a small description of the comedian's doings based whoever is grading the comedians.

Agency Hiring List

This list provide couple names of people including the protagonist of whoever fits the best for the job. Since this paper will be used to shoot 5 consecutive shots, each of them applying an X and lastly giving the check mark to the protagonist. This picture is the finished version that will be used. Now I put a description again to provide more meaning behind the comments of the failures and the acceptance of the protagonist. Showing that they are surprised of how the protagonist made it to secure the job.

Denouement logo and slogan

This picture provides two pieces of paper that are combined with each other to replicate a sign with words on the bottom. This prop will be used to show who The Denouement is. We also first see the logo in which connects to the first scene of the guards having the logo on their chest. So this tells us that the protagonist was dealing against The Denouement in the first scene, in which this prop is to tell the audience that.   

Making custom designs (Planning)

I'm going to make a story in a couple pieces of paper. These designs inside the paper will be made to convey a sudden suspense and plot-twist that will happen later. As the screen time for most of these papers will be low, ones who pay attention may be able to realize that things might be wrong.

We start will the folder itself, the only thing that I made different is that the name part of the folder is redacted with black market. Now, I made this because it provides a question of who does this belong and who used to have it? It's a small mystery itself, but the contents inside is what get people started.

The first page of the folder is presented with a document by the agency that the protagonist is working in. We see that the agency tried something called "Mission X" in which failed and the picture on the top right showing a piece of paper. The document also comes with a description. This is two provide at least some meaning and context behind what the mission is. The description talks about how this failure should be kept hidden with the whole of the company except for some people, "what's the secret that they could be hiding?" this is the question we want for people to think when they see this.

This next page goes deeper into what the agency is hiding. It is a document in which is called "Turning into a new direction" This was suppose to be a summary of the agency's status as of the current mission the protagonist is dealing with. The focus is on the description. As we can see, there is different writing between black and red. When you study the description more, you see that there is two different people talking in the description. Each taking a different color of the writing, it is also noticeable that one word appears to be redacted. In which the red text tells a certain "It" hinting its someone important. Also the red text symbolizes a bigger opponent that is writing in the document, whoever is this, they are serious and powerful.

The final page of the paper is back on focus of what the protagonist is going to try, the mission is to get a microchip that belonged to the agency but got stolen. It is labeled as top secret with the description having the person that will do the mission. The picture of the microchip is shown top right of the page. Now, I plan to use the unknown secrets of the microchip to provide a question of "what is the point of the microchip they are trying to get back" It is a ride of questions that will later be revealed.

Making props for the film (Planning)

 In order to start production of my film, I have to make some props that will be necessary to be used. Many of my scenes rely on some sort of prop that will be used to show more meaning and development. 

Sunglasses

These sunglasses will be worn by the protagonist of the movie. The point of sunglasses is to make the protagonist more mysterious. Its also creates a expectation for the audience that spies wear fancy sunglasses. Without this prop, it wouldn't bring much variety to the film, we planned it to almost be like an 'icon' of the film.

Denouement logo stickers

This prop is going to be used on the two guards that will appear in the first scene of the film. I planned to put these stickers on each guard to represent that they are guards of The Denouement. Putting the logo and applying tape to the top would be enough to stick it on the left hand side of the chest. 

Two awards

These two props are awards that the protagonist won when he was in high school. These awards will each get one shot only focusing on it. We made this to explain that the protagonist was very smart back then, to show that, we made two awards that show serious amount of intelligence to achieve. An honor roll and an valedictorian award.