Portfolio Project Fifth Reflection: The Creative Critical Reflection

Here is my Creative Critical Reflection for my film opening The Family.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y23dlHcBrKLbUkdugjpprvcZ8Yx-eWXr/view?usp=sharing

Portfolio Project Fifth Reflection: The Final Cut - Opening

Here is my final cut for my opening scene of my film The Family.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UVZohfig4VnUEaPAUB-vNHZamJqPE3Pf/view?usp=sharing

Portfolio Project Fifth Reflection: Final Reflection

    I am just posting this to reflect a little on the project. There were many things about this project I honestly was not expecting pretty much at all. There were way more highs and lows in the project than I anticipated, I genuinely thought that this would be a little fun, but mostly boring to get through. The highs were definitely in the pre-production. That is where I had the most fun writing the script and creating the storyboard, but that was because my mind created an image I don't think I was prepared for so I found myself disappointed a few times with how the project was towards the end. The lowest being viewing the first cut of the opening, that was depressing to say the least. 

    There I felt like I had messed up the whole thing and I didn't even have time to reshoot, not to even mention how stressful the actual shooting as considering we only had four hours, but that had both a little bit of fun and a little bit of stress intertwined. Once I added all of the effects into the opening then that is when I started to feel better about it, the shots looked better and the tone was finally there. 

    I really enjoyed making this project even if demotivated me for a few days, I definitely learned a few things and I am excited to reshoot the scene a different way because I personally want to expand on the idea I made.

Portfolio Project Fifth Reflection: Rest of the CCR Questions

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

     My product does not challenge conventions but instead uses them. The two characters out in public are the exception to this entire thing, they do not challenge or use conventions to help the story. They only way they do that is in the concept itself, I was inspired to make a public assassination because of films like The Irishman and The Godfather. The Irishman has multiple scenes of public violence where they simply walk up to a man and at times don't even let them finish their sentence. In terms of clothing the character titled "Father" in the screenplay most noticeably uses them. This character is wearing a suit, as many do in mafia films and on top of that he has a glass of wine on the table. This was because of how often I would see members of a family in films eating an extremely elegant dinner. Most of this was because of The Irishman, the reason I chose to do that is because of how recent of the film is and Martin Scorsese's history with this type of film. The character of "Father" also fits into the drama genre conventions because of how easily it is to see he is the antagonist in the film for dramas that are character based. The menacing tone of his lines helps to convey this. Those few elements gave the impression that people would likely figure this out much more quickly visually without the need to use dialogue. It also ties in a lot for the assassination for those who may not understand watching it the first time.

    The entire scene brings up a social issue on violence and how comfortable people are in doing it now due to poor security. There are many officers misusing their authority now and many get away with purposefully doing bad things, officers have been fighting against wearing body cameras and even when they are forced to wear them, many still turn them off to do certain things without people knowing. Especially now with the pandemic happening, violence, including homicides, have risen in their commonality. I don't give any shots of the surrounding area because a film that takes place in the present day does not need to do that and would only waste time.

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

    My target audience is that of teenagers to young adults, which more specifically is roughly 15-25 or 30, but that would be rare. My target audience usually consumes media through social media or streaming services like Netflix, meaning I can distribute my film with something similar. The target audience is a little older now meaning that they are able to pick up on more things in a film. I attempted to include a mystery element into the scene in order to go off of that idea from my target audience. The audience would also be looking for something more mature, which is why I made the film black and white, it brought out the tone much better, the same reason being why there is a slight amount of violence in the scene. I would probably market the film through social media and maybe upload the film to YouTube, so there would be a possibility at an increase in its popularity. There are much higher chances of it happening there than anywhere else. Part of the reason would be because its free to watch and audiences would not have to pay for a ticket to a film festival or something similar, although trying to enter it into festivals is another way I would promote and distribute the film. Festivals like the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival and Orlando Film Festival on top of many more.

    How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

    Technology obviously had a major role in the creation of this project. First let us look at the online area. I researched a lot and had to use multiple websites on the drama genre before I even started writing the script. Researching did help me in the long run and the websites I could easily go back to any time I was writing or doing the storyboard to make sure they fit the genre and story. The hardware I used during the production were a tripod, a handheld stabilizer, and my mother's phone since it had a better camera. I heavily storyboarded so going through the shots would be a lot easier because I knew when I had to use what item, the tripod was used first and we didn't need it after filming the last still shot. The stabilizer was used whenever the camera physically moved but it hadn't been cooperating with me the whole time so I eventually switched to my hands for one of the shots. Although software is where everything came together, it is where I wrote my script on a script writing website called Celtx. Although the first cut of the film was awful, it was simply a shot for shot remake of my storyboard. I personally felt it didn't capture any of the things I was looking for and this is where Abode Premiere Pro saved me, I used it to add a bunch of effects that helped with the film's tone or in other cases just the look of the film. I did not have to learn how to use Premiere besides watching a video on the occasional effect I was thinking about making. The crashes the program had were extremely infuriating at a certain point, I had to take a break before trying again at that time. The only piece of software I did have to learn was Blogger but that is extremely simple so it was fine.