Reeves AICE Media Studies

 Here is my Critical reflection #1. I put a lot of love, sweat, and tears into this and I really do hope it is successful. I used many camera angles and long hours of editing on a production app called Cap Cut. I purchased the Pro version for better quality and easier transition but it really didnt help that much. HUH..? maybe some apps just aren't worth the money for a premium version. Anyways enjoy this podcast discussion on the production and social group for the film opening "Black Out"!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5qWDCQY6ZA&t=4s

 Here it is. My blogging has been terrible. I haven't done great at expressing what has truly been going on and my planning behind my work. I lacked consistency and didnt bring much of what was being looked for. I feel that I learned much more than imagined but just simply couldn't put it into the blogs. Id even go far enough to say I retained more than some people who could write and write without stopping. Unfortunately I couldn't.  Putting my words out and saying what ive done was one thing I definitely struggled with. I mean I can express myself but as far as this project went, I was more focused on the product than telling what went behind it. I looked into editing technique, good shot angles for my CCR, and much more. At the end of the day I didnt bring my effort to the blogs and thats something that needed to be different. I really do like the result of the film opening project. I think it's what is being looked for and it represents the social group of my horror...

  After a lot of effort, Im finally wrapping up this project. I haven't done these blogs well at all . This project has been both fun aswell as stressful. One key takeaway I have from this whole profolio project is being able to always make changes and I guess be adaptable when you face struggles or hard problems. Unfortunately alot happened and I wasn't able to commit to my blogs at certain points in time. Others I just didnt give great effort and when I did they turned out really good. It's like anything in life, you will see your results based off the effort you put in.  On one of our really important filming days an actor(my close friend tho) Rui, couldn't come what so ever. In response, my partner and I quickly somewhat changed the storyline. I didnt like this much but you gotta do what you gotta do. We decided that Dan, the character im playing and a supporting character mike would wake up and see rui's character missing. This actually set everything pret...

 Filming and Outreach Plan The filming process has been rigorous and it's DIFFICULT to get right. I want to use my research towards the opening we are producing but it is requiring many takes to get it right. I guess thats honestly how it's supposed to go. As I advanced I got better at understanding what I'm trying to get out of certain shots. I explained exactly what should happen to our camera man and he did his very best to capture it. Below is a brief image of a shot taken from out filming today.  Film Outreach/Audience Age range is 15-25 When it comes to favored age for our target audience, a younger crowd becomes the desired subjects. Younger individuals tend to seek more thrilling and hyped up moments, this is why we want to reach out to teens and young adults for the success of our film.

  Filming Day                                                                   This is Jordan in the image above. Today was a major day of filming. We took our time running through each shot to ensure that the filming was done properly. We referenced and used a mutual friend, Jordan. Jordan Perez has a strong experience behind the camera and is a photographer. However, even though our camera man had his fair share of knowledge, it was important for my partner and I to still convey and describe exactly what we wanted for each shot. We believed in using the information learned from our Media Studies course to bring the opening to life. The camera we were using was also key component. We switched between an iPhone 12 in 4k 60, as well as a great camera my uncle lent us. Here is the filmi...

 Today we finished up all our filming for the party scenes. Since we have made a pretty fair dent into the editing I wanted to start the transition into focusing on my CCR. Below are the four questions that have to be answered inside 7-10 minutes. I was a bit worried about the time and not for the reason you THINK! Alot has gone on in this project and im genuinely unsure that I will be able to fit it in just 10 simple minutes. Anyways here's the questions... How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues? How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text? How did your production skills develop throughout this project? How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project I made a script for CCR #1. I wanted to make a podcast type video and have a back and forth informing conversation. In order for that to happen I would need a solid back and forth ...

     YES! We finally have started our filming and I am feeling pretty excited.   Today my partner came over and was ready for our first film day. He brought his brother and I called over two friends to help film and act. I was hoping for a highly productive first day, where we were able to put a large dent into the first few scenes of the opening. However, this was simply just not the case. For the first hour and half or so we just hung around and talked while getting everything ready. We did somewhat attempt to fully film but that just wasn't what our focus was totally on. ITS HARD.. I mean im not sure how else to say it. To set up every scene and shot and make sure the lighting remains the same and our actors are in the same state of mine. I lost my patience a few times but then I remembered this is our real first test with the film opening. I mean this whole time we have put effort into planning and were finally brining physical work to the table. I...

 Font OMG our title... What could match our script? Our theme? After brainstorming in class, I came up with what I feel is a pretty clever name to our film. The name my partner and I came up with is "Black Out". It goes along with the dark lighting most horror films carry with them. It also correlates to the boys being targeted while being intoxicates, as well as how the killer shuts off the lights when murdering Dan. Moving on, with the film title, we also need the font for it. When it came to the font we both did some research.      A font is highly key to a film title. Fonts can convey emotion, grab attention, and illustrate what the film is to the audience. I looked at certain fonts and wanted to see the titles that best represented horror and weren't basic. The films IT,  Psycho, and The Shinning all had fonts that seemed great! I decided I would come to a conclusion of the font today. I wanted to get it not only out of the way, but also feel like...

Thoughts      Today my partner and I developed ideas to incorporate into our film opening. We first approached the overall message and point behind the opening. The goal is to provoke concern and then great fear into the audience. The way we plan to do this is by first providing normality. I feel like if we give a crazed scene like partying or hanging out with friends and then switch to a quiet, eerie tone, the scene will be odd. Thats exactly what were looking for!! It will bring an uncomfortable vibe and thats exactly what I want. Props and Clothes      In order to capture this scene opening we will need props. We are going to use props to bring detail and description to our opening. When deciding what props we need, we started by breaking down each scene and component. Eventually, we nailed the props down to just a few. They are listed below! Props -Red Solo Cups -Deck of Cards -Ping Pong balls Clothing Common Teenage style We want to convey that the fil...

 A major detail and problem was faced when developing our story. For the group meetings my whole group all said the story plot and opening was good. They had great information to give and small details to address but nothing major. HOWEVER, when my partner, Sebas, came back from his project he looked almost frightened. Sebas told me that for our major portion of the opening and Film storyline in general we couldn't use "Stalking"... Oh my goodness! That wasn't our whole plot but it was near close to it. We urgently went to Mrs. Stoklosa. I asked her of this and she did say we couldn't use it but the matter wasn't as detrimental as we thought. Moving on, she told us we could pretty much keep everything the same and eliminate the shots that we thought brought the feeling of stalking. The plot then stayed the same and we changed the "sort of kidnapping" to the protagonist being harmed by the stranger in his own house. We felt like this was possibly even...

 It's coming up! We have planned our dates and locations for our upcoming start to the filming process. My partner and I plan to film at my grandparents house in Highland Ranches. The neighborhood is fairly well lit which was something that was well recommended by my peers from the group meetings. Im excited to bring out our visions and ideas with this piece. Below is the schedule for our upcoming filming, I wanted to keep it simple as simple is usually better for me. March 3rd-Plan Out all Filming March 9th -Start the filming scene and get a great feel for what will be included -Take the first few shots and perfect the establishing shot -Overshoot shots we need for the beginning of the opening  March 14th -Overview what we have and build on it with the sequential shots -Make sure the shots are being filmed with consistent feature like the lighting(Make sure the time of day remains the same for us) IMPORTANT March 21st -Build the shots together and make sure everything continu...