Episode Final Submission - Marshall Hunt

 After 9 weeks, I have finally finished my film opening. Here is my 2-minute film opening for Episode

https://drive.google.com/file/d/162QZ-pn5881IRoRJC0Tx0QqPYI-Or5gr/view?usp=sharing

Creative Critical Reflection

 Here is the link to my CCR for my film opening episode - https://drive.google.com/file/d/16pqW7rai4YnMgC1QIke0nG28DQ2iJDh_/view?usp=sharing

This CCR video discusses my planning, problems, changes, distribution, and technology that was a part of my film opening. 

Final Review

     Over the 9 weeks I worked on this project, my ideas have changed a lot. I started off thinking about an action genre film opening with transitions between live-action, stop motion, and even animation. After taking a second thought about it, I realized that the stop motion and animation alone would take way too much time for it to look good. I bit off a little more than I could chew so I decided to change my story. I wanted to use cars and fast-paced shots but I realized that it's a lot harder to tell a whole story in a 2-minute action film than I could in a drama film. Rather than just going with a typical drama film about a happy-ending love story, I thought it would be more interesting to take a twist on it and give it a more negative vibe. 

    After researching the drama genre and its sub-genres, I felt that psychological drama was the perfect genre for my film. I knew that I would be the one acting in my film so I wanted to step out of my comfort zone a little bit. I have never been a huge fan of expressing and showing any kind of sad or depressing feelings, so filming myself while doing it was definitely something I wasn't used to. While I knew my acting was going to be a little lacking, I thought it was worth trying. 

    In terms of my actual work, I regret how I managed my time and wish I would have given myself a true schedule that I followed strictly. I fell behind a bit on time and had to rush a little bit. I still have 2 days before I upload my film and I'm fairly happy with it. I need to add some music and change up some coloring and I think I'll be satisfied. Overall, I'm not too disappointed with how my project turned out, and I might begin to really like it. I could definitely tell a difference in my work from when the year first started to where I'm at now. I'm not upset with the work I did, if I could have done a few things differently I would have, but in the end, I'm happy with my project,

Filming Overview

 I have all of my shots completed that I could do on my own. All I have to do is put everything together and cut some excess parts out. In all honesty, I'm pretty behind with my film, but I know everything will be done by Saturday at the latest. I'm just waiting to film the "flashback" shots with my girlfriend. I asked her to film with me tomorrow, it won't take any longer than 30 mins total and then I'll have that part done. My one big problem now, I don't know how I want to end it. I filmed a shot that could be my ending but I don't love it, so I need to think about what I really want to do that could end my opening. The editing really won't take long. I have a free class period next class so I should be able to do 90% of the editing in that class and have most of it done by the time I leave school today.

I liked how most of the shots came out, I was just hoping it would rain, but I can't control the weather which kind of stinks. I have been waiting for it to rain at night for over a month, but it hasn't. The longest part of the editing process for me is to probably create a title for me to use. I want to lay it over the opening scene along with the credits. I already chose a font that I think I will stick with so honestly, all I have to do, film a couple more shots with my girlfriend, film an ending, spend an hour putting clips together, and I'm done.

CCR

 The final thing I need to work on is my CCR. Although my film is not 100% completed, I can still begin a script that talks about my research, filming process, technology, and a bunch of other stuff. Rather than writing a script that I can read word for word, I would rather create a bunch of key bullet points to help me base my ideas. Writing a whole script seems like it would be a little too time-consuming, but if the bullets don't work, I wouldn't mind writing a script. My teacher recommended that we answer these 4 questions to help us create an efficient and satisfactory CCR.

I'm aiming to have my CCR be around 5-7 minutes so that I have enough time to say everything I need to, but not too much time to a point where I'm saying nonsense to make it seem like it's long enough. I began writing a script about the first question and based it off of my previous blog posts about genre research. Rather than bullet points, I ended up writing an essay-type response that I may be able to read off during filming. I also started a Google Doc to keep track of all my citations and websites to add at the end of my CCR

Color

 I'm trying to think of other ways to add more detail and meaning to my film. I wanted to use color in my film to build on the detail and emotion of my opening. I wanted to look up what certain colors meant in film and how they should be used. This website showed a bunch of examples and guides of the meanings of each color. I wanted to switch between some colors to show a change in emotion throughout the course of the film. 

I really wanted to use the color red in my film because it includes all meanings and ideas that my film is supposed to represent. The love the character feels, or the lack of it. He feels angry which could easily turn into violence. This violence could give my character a sense of power that he may try to take advantage of until it hurts him instead.

In addition to red, I wanted to incorporate some blue colors in my film. Some kind of space blue color can give the idea of isolation that the character lives through. It gives the idea of loneliness and a cold dark feeling. I have LED lights so I was thinking I could use those somehow, or possibly use the clothes to help use color.

Acting

 My plot sounded really good to me and I liked my plot until I realized that I'm the one that has to act it out. Every time I have done some kind of film for my classes, I've been the cameraman or editor. I have no experience or idea of how I'm supposed to act. I chose to do a psych thriller, which includes a ton of emotional scenes, which is going to be a pain to try to act. I'm not the most outgoing and extroverted person in the world, so I'm sure acting is going to be a little outside of my comfort zone, but I'll get over it. I tried to look up a couple ideas to help me with my acting because I need to include a lot of emotion and feelings in my film, which really isn't my specialty. I found this website which gave some very basic, yet pretty helpful tips.

Although my film opening is supposed to capture the emotions of my character, I need to try not to force it too much. I'm not always the most emotional person, but I feel like I can make it work. I need to be sure to not make it look so forced and make it more natural so it doesn't look weird. I want everything to flow well so I need the acting to look a little more smooth and well flowing. Instead of my facial expressions, I want to use my mannerisms to capture my emotions. I used one or two close-ups of my face to show my facial expressions, but the rest should show my body as a portrayal of my emotions.