Creative Critical Reflection

Link to CCR:

Part 1: https://youtu.be/YwZTBZi-cYY

Part 2: https://youtu.be/q1IBfg2-JVo

A Level Project

Here is the link to my A Level Project website. This website functions as my short film marketing website as well as links to my film postcard and short film itself. If the video embedded in the website does not play, it can be found here.

Website: http://www.imxprs.com/free/lauver/deeper

Finishing

I finished up my editing and had to run around filming tons of friends for my ending sequence that I decided at the last second to add in (while not packing for a trip to NYC in 4 hours). My postcard turned out more or less how I wanted it to, the color scheme is definetly along the lines of what I was aiming for. I think all of my products, including the website and video adopt a more netural color scheme giving a cohesive feel. I wish I had modeled my stickers a little better in photoshop but I couldn't find a plausible way to do it. It's so interesting to think how little we pay attention to the representation of 3D objects in a 2D space (ex: a sticker on a page). My website is everything I hoped it would be. I initally had a hard time finding a good site that was easy to use and had decent domain names. For example, Wix was good, but the creator was way too laggy and there wasn't enough flexibility with the templates so I couldn't tailor the design to what I had envisioned. A creator called XPRS ended up beign the perfect balance of chic design elements and easy-to-use software. Additionally, the domain name is very reserved (as in not random phrases and words) and fitting. I think I included a pretty good range of information in the website that was consistent in my earlier posts. I really think integrating my postcard and video into the site will make it more accessible and cohesive to all audiences. Throughout this process I used a program called lightshot to capture screenshots to use in my website design. It is so helpful as it allows you to copy a screenshot as a picture, save the screenshot, write on the screenshot etc. This came in handy when I wanted to use screen grabs in my website design. I was talking with a Columbia student earlier today who mentioned she was in a bunch of film clubs and editied regularly, so I pulled her aside and asked what programs she used and she uses Premiere as well (and edits for National Geographic). She explained while it is mostly manual, you can create the most professional looking product with it. On the other hand, I have heard good things about final cut pro. Either way, I enjoyed experimenting with XPRS, Photoshop, Premiere, and lightshot to create these products.

Until the CCR,

Laurel

Film Marketing (and it's evolution)

Some Recent History on Movie Marketing:

The way movies are marketed is changing. Four years ago movies spent about 70% of the film budget amount of advertising. Recently this percentage and spending in marketing in general. Today, production costs are a fraction of the marketing budgets. The recent trend of low-budget horror and thriller films are a great example: The Purge, Insidious 1 & 2, Dark Skies, Sinister, Skyline, You’re Next, etc.  All of them had production budgets under $5 million dollars, and marketing budgets over $20 million. Subsequently you have probably seen these terrible movies way "over-hyped." While the budget doesn't apply to my production it does show the importance of marketing in film in general.

The Current Flaw in Movie Marketing:

The major flaw in current marketing is producers inability to target their target audience. In the past many movies were produced for mass and general audiences.  However, the future of the movie business lies in niche markets - not in generalized mass appeal. Audiences are growing numb to homogenized movie marketing and trailers. Budgets for niche films (as in anything besides franchises such as Batman, Avengers, etc.) are rapidly dropping as the economy fails. In this case it is becoming harder and harder to justify funding ineffective marketing such as T.V. commercials.

The next large shift in the film industry will come about when marketing companies are able to effectively and efficiently match content with the perfect consumer - like companies such as Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon prime are spearheading. To get ahead in the film marketing world it would be helpful to have a background in mathematics and/or computer science to target marketing towards niche consumers. The future is data, and he (or she) who writes the algorithm holds the keys.

The Bottom Line:

Soon everyone in the U.S. will have access to any media at anytime, anywhere, at the click of a button. New content will have to now compete with other new content and old content.  In this future, being new, fresh, original, and having a strong, unique voice will be more important than ever. Having a hackneyed "marketing hook" that can "open a weekend" (a la The Purge or The Devil Inside) will eventually become irrelevant.  The era of regurgitated clichés, or as they're more commonly known, "event movies," is almost over.  The new digital distribution revolution will become the problem of a whole new generation of filmmakers, who can continue to make quality niche content and organically grow their audience over time.


I really enjoyed reading this and it helped me think about my target audience a lot. For example, who is may audience? Probably young adults, late teens and adults. What about distribution? Black Mirror for example is aired on BBC but many watch it through Netflix so I would probably do a short special agreement with Netflix as they do future a few short films. For the website I'll appeal to my age group by maintaing clean lines and picture etc.

That's all for today friends!

Short Film Website Design (2)

For this website case study I chose another Oscar nominated short "Sing." It actually won the academy award for best short film this year so big expectations on this one!

This website also has a personalized logo but has 8 tabs: Festivals, About, News, Trailer, Team, Music, Press, and Meteor Films.  Again, I really enjoy the breadth of information they include in their website. I especially enjoyed their music tab as it gave an embedded sound cloud player. This was a great marketing strategy as the short film is based around music. They also included a outside link to their production companies website. In their website they included important stills from the movie which seems to be a trend. I think I definitely will include the festival location tab along with a music, about, festivals, and team tab. In general, films are made to entertain audiences, and film websites are much the same. In order to get visitors’ attention and encourage them to see the film, a website needs to give them what they are looking for and provide some entertainment at the same time.  In order to do this I have to make my site visually engaging through photos and video clips.

I researched some typical movie website conventions in addition to the above case study:

1. FLASH
Most movie websites rely heavily on Flash for a dynamic and interactive experience. The audience of these websites typically expects to be entertained, so bells and whistles take priority, and heavy use of these elements is more acceptable than it would be on other types of websites.I'm sure my wesbite will be somewhat interactive even if it is not insanely so, we have to keep it simple.

2. LARGE BACKGROUND IMAGES

In addition to Flash, larger photos and images play a huge role in creating attractive and interesting movie websites. Most movie websites make use of large images, in many cases as the background of the page. Like I said earlier, these can be stills from the film.

3. VIDEO/TRAILERS
Almost all movie websites include a full trailer, and in some cases a few different trailers. Many websites put the trailer on the home page or a splash page, and the trailers often start without being prompted by the user. While audio and video that automatically starts is usually considered a negative feature, because of their subject matter, movie websites are a bit different than the average website. Because video is a priority for most visitors, it seems to be an accepted fact that movie websites will play a trailer automatically when the page loads. Those movie websites that don’t put the trailer on a splash page or the home page typically have a link in the navigation menu that clearly points to the trailer. I don't think is necessarily important for my short as it is well, short, already.

4. SHOW TIMES AND TICKET INFO
Because the goal of movie websites is to sell tickets, each one includes a link or form for visitors who want to find show times and ticket information for their area. Many websites link to Fandango and/or Moviefone. Making it easy for people to get tickets is a priority.I think this is really important even if I make up the festival times and locations.

5. SPLASH PAGES
About half of the movie websites we’ll look at later in this article show a splash page before the visitor enters the main website. Some of these splash pages are more useful than others. Many include a video of the trailer, and some have options to access country-specific sections of the website if the movie is playing worldwide. Probably not necessary for my site.

6. DISPLAY OF NOMINATIONS AND AWARDS
Movie websites often attempt to demonstrate the quality of a movie by listing or displaying nominations and awards it has received. You’ll see this a lot on splash pages and home pages of award-winning pictures. Again, my film doesn't have any awards or recognition, so I'm going to avoid this.

7. SHORT PAGE LENGTH
It’s very common for movie websites to take up only the height of the screen, or just a bit more. It’s rare to find pages that are long and require a lot of vertical scrolling. With most websites being Flash-based or set against a large background image, the short page length keeps everything in view at all times. Probably something I'll stick to.

8. SOCIAL NETWORKING /MEDIA INTERACTION
Many movies have pages set up on Facebook and MySpace to take advantage of social networking opportunities. With the popularity of these social networking websites, especially among younger users, it’s no surprise that movie companies are seeing the value of getting involved. A bit more surprising is the number of movie websites that include links to encourage votes on social media websites such as Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon and Reddit. I'll Include links to fake social media accounts.

9. DOWNLOADS
Most movie websites include a downloads section where visitors can get free wallpaper, posters and buddy icons. This is kinda cheesy but I kind of think it could be a cute advertising idea especially if the wall papers were aesthetically pleasing.

That's all for tonight friends!

Sources: 
http://www.singshortfilm.com/#music
http://meteorfilmstudio.hu/en/
https://onextrapixel.com/30-awesome-interactive-movie-and-film-official-websites/
http://www.webdesign-inspiration.com/web-designs/industry/movie

Short Film Website Design

So I'm not well-versed in Short Film website design so I found a site of an Oscar-Nominated short.
This short, timecode, has a very encompassing and thorough website that I think is a good starting point for the structure of mine.

The tabs include "About, Trailer, Festivals/Screenings, Awards, Press, Multimedia, and Around the World" each pages is backed by slowly changing stills from the film (very cool idea). The layout is minimal and clean, something that I think is appropriate for my website, however, I would go with a very white and in general "less dark" color scheme to match my mise-en-scene. I would most likely skip out on the "Awards" and "Trailers" tab as my short film has neither. I think it would be cool to take the time to make up some fake screening dates that converge with my postcard. By providing a QR code on the card, their phone will take them to the website where they can see up-to-date and accurate screening locations and times. I really enjoyed that they had an interactive map for these This context would suggest an "R" rating form my film. In general I think the most technically difficult task will be creating a logo (or font) for the film that Timecode used in their site.

locations under "Around the World," this makes the website more engaging and convienient for those searching for show times.  This site included their poster under "Multimedia" but I would probably include a digital version of my festival postcard for individuals who are viewing the silk details solely online. Their homepage includes contact details, a synopsis, cast, crew, technical specifications and acknowledgements all of which I will include in my website. One interesting aspect I hdn't thought about was their inclusion of a rating on their homepage. I may include this on mine as well as on my post card in order to inform viewers of the "violence" and alcohol consumption in the film.

One last thing I would like to include is an option to join a mailing list. While, admittedly, it may be ignored by many in fear of spam, I don't think it would hurt to include if it were done aesthetically. By creating a fan base or at least a pool of interested people through this email feature, word abut the film can spread more easily.

Sources:

http://www.timecodeshortfilm.com/news/
http://www.filmmakingstuff.com/how-to-create-a-filmmaker-website/
http://m.filmratings.com/

Montage Editing

First off, Adobe sucks. My trial ran out on my Premiere Pro 2017, where I saved my file. So I had to downgrade to 2015. Guess what file won't open in 2015-yep! I'm going to try to open it on another computer and save the sequence alternatively, but I may have to start from scratch. 8 hours of work? Hardly.

Anyway, I hadn't gotten to editing my "time passing" or montage sequence yet so I wanted to research montage editing. Here is what I found and some idea on applications:

Adding, Not Taking Away
Continuity editing (used at the beginning and end of my piece) is about taking shots away, while montage is about adding shots in. In fact, sometimes montage editing is called additive editing, while continuity editing might be called reductive editing. Montages are made with the the goal of adding shots in rather than taking them out. These shots may be shorter and faster, but that helps to disorientate the viewer. In this regard, I filmed more footage yesterday for the montage of my main character doing "random things" and "being bored." The more footage to work with the better.

Disorientate
The aim of montage editing is the opposite of continuity. The editing needs to throw the viewer off balance, to disorientate and to unsettle. The viewer should be confused and disturbed. To this aim, montage editing is perfect for my main sequence, as it should be disturbing, unsettling even because that is how the viewer would feel in a similar situation.The confusion does not cause audience disconnect from the movie; instead they get more involved, like a puzzle they can’t figure out, like Alice following the rabbit down the hole. The audience watching and following the movie because you need to make it add up somehow. The more opposite the images that clash against each other, the more disorientated we’ll be. Here's where my film deviates from that norm, I need the shots to be similar, monotone, drawn out. I need the audience to feel that conformity to the point where they are disturbed by it-- day after day is the same. How do I avoid loosing the audience? Music, of course.

Dreams
In dreams we tend to see a mix of our authentic, real lives with small but crucial bits of weirdness. It gives this weirdness a context and makes it stand out. If your dreams were movies, they’d seem to have no rhythm, and they change suddenly without warning. People change places, change shape, outfits, expressions. The weather alters like you flicked a switch; time speeds up and slows down. In fact, just about everything that we do in continuity editing is turned on its head. Obviously for my film the montage should feel like a dream, because it is. The actor is in a virtual reality time is slow for him but as the viewer we see this through broken jump-cut images.

Lose Control
Editing in continuity style means being totally in control all the time. Nothing should creep in that could derail the straight path of the freight train that is the plot. Not so in montage. Montage asks that you lose control and trust your instincts; you don’t need to know why you like a certain shot and you don’t need to explain it. You like it and it feels right, so move on. Of course, this is impossible for me so I'll classify my stringing of shots as controlled montage chaos.

Mix Close-ups and Deep Shots
Montage works by keeping you guessing, by throwing you off-balance because you just don’t know what is coming next.This doesn't really mean placing two totally random clips side by side. Terry Gilliam creates a similar effect in the viewer’s mind by putting shots that constantly alter depth on screen. In montage, you can achieve disorientation by mixing dramatic close-up and then a long, wide shot, then both together as a part of the image enters the frame close by. For this reason I filmed a lot of close ups on actions of my actor and wide shots of his actions (playing cards, reading a book, etc.)

Use Color and Tone
The only problem with montage is that it can get a little out of hand, sometimes too crazy. To ameliorate this in my piece with a use of color (or black and white) which stays the same throughout the whole sequence (in this case, the mise-en-scene is all white and the actor is consistently wearing all black). Also, lighting remains mostly constant throughout the montage clips.

Use Music
we've talked about this again and again but use music to enhance the montage. If two images can collide with each other to create other ideas, then music can add to the battle even further. For my piece, I'm using music as an emotional cue throughout the montage as seen in Bella's depression scene in Twilight that I mentioned in an earlier posting.

Finally, I want to progress to an accelerated montage where I use subtly faster and faster cuts to create a turbulent stream of images that the viewer just can’t process fast enough to keep up. The result is a big disorientating overload, but if the images relate somehow it should add up to an overwhelming theme or feeling (in this case the actor and viewer share this "overwhelming feeling" and the actor eventually commits suicide). This will eventually culminate to the suicide scene.

I really enjoyed researching this so I would have jumping off point for my montage and the rest of my now-extended editing. Until next time!

Sources
http://www.elementsofcinema.com/editing/montage.html
https://www.videomaker.com/article/10709-tips-for-editing-montages
http://nofilmschool.com/2014/09/larry-jordan-teaches-us-how-create-video-montage-set-music
http://www.openculture.com/2014/11/a-visual-introduction-to-soviet-montage-theory-a-revolution-in-filmmaking.html

Music Choices

Music adds to the emotional quality of the film. Loud music arouses, slow and soft music calms. Motion and emotion are often entwined. Obviously my short is not an action-packed film with chase scenes and the like, so "loud" is off the table. Alternatively I've found a few song options that fall under the "slow and soft" category to act as emotional cues and "silence fillers."

1. Teddy- Anxious 
2. Kevin MacLeod- B- Somber Ballads
3. Chris Zabriskie- I Am a Man Who Will Fight for Your Honor 

Option 1 has lyrics and originally drew me because of its slow melody, somber notes, and unique voice, however, the most effective soundtracks are those which operate just below the consciousness of the moviegoer and overall I think it may be too distracting for my onscreen image. Option 2 is solely instrumental but it is less introspective and "sadder" than anything else. After all many in the film industry, including the composers, feel that music offers a kind of sub-text; it serves as thought bubbles on screen-- I not looking for that level of emotion. Option 3 offers a perfect balance between "filler," "introspection," and depression, listening to it actually gave me a few ideas for the film (key: introspection)-- I may have to recruit my actor one last time if he doesn't decide to kill me first. Anyway, the track is 11 minutes long which gives a lot of raw audio to work with-- even better? It's royalty free.

In general this music is going to be a guiding factor. While my mise-en-scene is carefully chosen and directed my piece is based in emotion. This is especially complicated due to actor availability. I can't call up Jake Gyllenhaal to act in my short film. Don't get me wrong... my main actor was surprisingly a good option but amateur teenage acting can only go so far in evoking an emotional response for the audience.  Interestingly, I was watching a video that showed music as reminiscent of the Kuleshov effect where the editor placed different soundtracks over a scene (Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean) and close up of a actors face and with each new soundtrack the emotions we associate with the actor changed despite the footage being exactly the same. Music will need to underscore emotion (depression, anxiety) for my film which I think music Option 3 does well.

Furthermore, without a film crew and teams of editors it is more difficult for the visual product to shine. In our culture, the eye is thought to be more superior than the ear but music, used skillfully, can cover up otherwise weak directing and/or cinematography. We typically underestimate the power of music because we over-trust our eyes, by adding the subconscious (or at least underestimated) music cue into my short, hopefully I can add an extra layer of emotion and dynamics to my piece.


Sources:
http://nofilmschool.com/2015/10/5-ways-you-can-use-film-scores-make-your-films-more-dynamic

https://youtu.be/bCpYbSz1KqE
http://www.e-filmmusic.de/article1.htm

Production and Beginning Post Production

Link to Video Blog

Sources:
Alfred Hitchcock: Six Fundamentals of Good Suspense
The Kuleshov Effect

Filming Part 2

After filming for 6 hours on Saturday, I am not looking forward to filming these final scenes, however, looking back has helped the to understand that I need a few more "time passing shots." I'm going to go through a few more shot choices and talk about what's left to do.

So this is kind of our transition scene-- we had to switch locations
because the original house sint have a bathtub but we fond a nice
option close by. This is was somewhere between a medium shot and a close-up
but the main idea was to see the tears and emotion within the actor.

This angle was off-kilter to mirror the main characters skewed mental
state in this moment

This was so increadibly hard to film because the main actor could not,
for the life of him (haha, get it?) hold his breath underwater. It's
going to need some editing magic.

AD

Sorry this is vertical, but this shot is going to provice a graphic
match with the previous 

This is going to be "waking up" per se, and it also provides a parallel with the
first shot on this post. 

So I'm going to figure out a day this week I can get my therapist, a therapist assistant (for which I will most likely enlist my close friend), a lab coat, and my main actor all in one place with a solid script. Furthermore, I have to find out a sneaky way to use editing software, whether it be at my school or downloading Adobe Premier at home (totally legally of course!). Time to finish production and start post!

Music Considerations

Music can take a film and make it more than the sum of its parts. This is important. there are twoTmain considerations here: "suspense" music for climactic moments and "time passing" music to help engage viewers while the main character is essentially walking around being bored and drunk. A psychological thriller short film I had the pleasure to watch a few months back called Drink had an original score so I went back and gave it a listen and I really like the soundtracks (the short film can be found here). I'm making a concerted effort not to include any mainstream music or anything with lyrics. Including music here is all about conveying emotion so the emotional beats of mainstream music are not going to match the emotional beats of my main character I could always retime my images to match the music but that would be a music video.

During the "tech disappearing scene" I need to find a suspenseful song or loop that can mirror "oops something is wrong here" the best example I found of this was in Jaws in the opening scene. When "Chrissie" and her male companion are running toward the beach, there isn't a soundtrack playing. All is well-or so we think. It isn't until we see a fish eye view of Chrissie swimming and we begin to hear some eerie music, which causes us to feel a little uneasy. Now we know something is wrong. We don't see anything that looks dangerous, but the music tells you that, yep, this girl is in trouble. I'm looking for this type fo cue for the tech scene and I think music is going to be overly important here. Despite the scene being well-acted, the emotional music cue is key.

For time passing I want to go with a more classic or "silence filler" vibe. No matter how bad the Twilight movies may be, I really like this "time passing" example from Twilight: New Moon. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4gEFZ0TJ8o
I really enjoy it because it not only helps to convey
Bella's emotions but to avoid making the audience bored or uncomfortable with the scene being presented.

I'll update with more specific music and editing choices soon :)


http://www.filmunderground.com/358/Article/NWFS/Music-and-the-Short-Film.htm

Filming

Hi! Today was day 1 of filming. I have a bulk of the footage, I just need the "therapist" scene at this point as well as some extra "time passing" shots. I'll attach some screen grabs and describe some of lighting, angle, and composition decisions.

Alright, this wasn't part of filming at all, but I like to think he was praying
for me to leave him alone.

This is a very common shot as the tech is disappearing. In the full shot the
vectors are very symmetrical, the lighting is dark which helps add to the
ominous feel which I achieved by working with a shift over the back window.

This shot is also common, however, it is a good option as it
shows each piece of technology well and includes the message on the screen
which reads, in english "another innocent dead" which does not
phase the main character in the slightest. 

Here I used an extreme close up to underscore the "engrossment" and
infatuation of the main character with technology

The framing here was also mostly for vectors, also I love having the actor
simply "walk into" the shot. 

This framing is the beginning of a tracking shot and again we have the same
clinical white, black shirt, and unphased demeanor. 

Here we have the same framing as earlier and some carefully placed
bottles to imply that they are empty and to imply that he is so bored
that to feel anything he has to drink.

Here we have a slight change of scene which is used to signal the passing of
time and you know, drunks sleep anywhere.

I'll post more in a bit but this cover the majority of the introduction of the plot :)

Rough Sketch of Movie Postcard

Okay, so I still have a few bumps to figure out but this is the basic design for my short film postcard. For now, I think the tagline is a pretty applicable quote, I'm going to check if we are allowed to do this. The title works well, I think as the main character is not only deeply immersed in technology, but in the bathtub, and in the VR simulated world. I like this design bu I think the back can do with a few improvements as well.

Front 

Back

Storyboard

Backstory

Main actor and I a few years ago!

The main character's name is Pedro. Well, his name in real life is Pedro, and for the sake of this blog post we'll call the fictional main character Pedro even though the viewer will never actually his name. Pedro is in his final year of high school, he has a close-knit group of friends. He grew up with the Pokemon games as well as Minecraft and all of the other "joys" of the internet. Pedro, like much of the world has slowly become more and more involved with technology and the sole form of communication has become the internet and technology. People have become clinically addicted. Now Pedro needs to undergo therapy for his addiction.

Plot 

Therapist

Pedro is sitting on his couch in his living room. He is wearing neutral colored non-branded clothing in order to help the audience sympathize with the character. He is checking his phone and his email on his laptop while watching TV and with an apple watch. His mother walks in and you can hear her talking at him and trying to get his attention but he's obviously entranced. She finally gives up and leaves-- extreme close-up of unblinking eyes. Slowly the technology disappears one by one-- multiple angles for this one. Eventually, he gets up and acts concerned. He looks around and opens the fridge, paces his house, looking for something to do. Jump cuts signal the passing of time. We hear the ticking of the clock he runs his fingers through his hair again and again, he picks up books off the coffee table again and again. Clicks the on and off button of the tv again and again. It's an endless cycle. He ends up attempting to drown himself and wakes up gasping for breath in a physician's office with a VR headset and some headphones on. It has all been a simulation and when the young therapist asks how long he thinks he's "been under" he replies a feasible (to the viewer) two weeks. The therapist replies he's been under for 5 minutes. "Did I make any progress?" "No." The psychiatrist asks his assistant once Pedro leaves how many more appointments he has for the week, she replies 237.

Storyboard (rough sketch)

Postcard Advertisement

Welcome Back!
The most important part of having a film festival postcard in the first place is contact information. Contact as in the time and place of the showing, the filmmakers, everything from A-Z. So the first order of business is to have contact info-- the question is how. Add an email? A website link? Haven't we come farther than laboriously typing in a link? I think the best option is a QR code, even if it's ugly I think in this case we have to trade beauty for practicality and convergence. What about showtime? Usually at a film festival show times and venues are shuffled around a lot so it would be impractical to print an entire batch of cards with the same showtime on it just for it to change the day before the event. I think what it more efficient and practical is printing off a sticker. We can easily change/reprint the sticker. If we make the design simple enough we can have so premium blank space to place the sticker. Of course, we would also include the key art, title, tagline on the front and more art, synopsis, and festival laurels. We would hand out the postcards to crowds flooding into the festival but also have them stocked at lobby tables ensuring maximum "dispersion."

As far as the actual design goes I would love to stick to a grayscale color scheme, have some actor names, some favorable review quotes, and all of the other aforementioned aspects. As far as "key art" goes I would like to include something like an outline or silhouette of the main character sitting on a couch with a laptop from a side view. I think I'll take a couple of stills with my main actor so I can go back in and photoshop it for the front side of my film card.  I'll include the tagline and title on the front and the contact info and quotes, laurels, etc. on the back. I would also like to include an additional peel-off sticker for people to put on their MacBooks etc. We'll see about this but people love the tactile experience and it is a great way to converge and market the film just a little further, plus, there could be another QR code under the sticker with a link to exclusive outtakes/content.  I'll post a full mock-up after my storyboard, but the postcard is definitely a cool aspect.

http://douglashorn.com/wordpress/filmmaking/promoting-your-film%E2%80%94and-yourself%E2%80%94at-film-festivals-tips-you-only-learn-after-your-20th-film-festival/

Solid plot... and hurdles

As mentioned in my last post I think I have a solid plot line. Same direction as mentioned earlier however with a discernible twist. So we begin in a modern home with a teenager sitting on a sofa, watching TV, checking his email on a laptop, texting on a phone, with his wearable tech on his wrist. Eventually the technology slowly disappears leaving him to his own devices. Over time he becomes more and more frantic--jump cuts, empty food containers, etc. signal the passing of time and eventually he’s driven to a state of madness and wakes up sweaty and panting either in a bed or on a hospital table. He asks a man in a white coat how long he was under. The man asks who long he though it was and proceeds to tell him it was only five minutes. the main character lives in a future where everyone has become addicted to technology and need therapists to kick the addiction. The irony is that they try to kick it with VR headsets.


OK solid-- now for the hurdles. The person I envision for the actor has the perfect house to fit the mise-en-scene but how good are his acting skills? He’s a little afraid of social media so would this be a leap for him? Where do I find someone old enough to play the therapist? A VR headset? A doctors chair? Or maybe I don’t need one, maybe the therapist makes house visits... or some careful staging of a side room could work? How do I communicate to the audience that LOTS of people are addicted? Maybe some monologue between the doctor and his assistant about how many more appointments they have that week? Have flashes of more people sitting in the chair? What about signaling that it is the near future? The mise-en-scene will help with this but what about the sheeple? I have a few casting ideas but I need to talk to friends to see what they are willing to get themselves into. Next post should include updates on this and and hopefully a storyboard.

Media Groupies

On Friday, our class walked (in mob formation) to our school's media center for group meetings where we promptly picked up laptops, plugged in HDMI cables to the laptops, and projected our blogs to a TV for everyone in our group to see. The most beneficial aspect of the meeting was notgetting to use the super-extra-expensive-equipment-that-people-barely-touch (although, that was cool) but rather the valuable conversation that was afforded among my peers. Our groups were carefully organized to include individuals with different project types such as film trailers, documentaries, music videos, and short films. It was interesting to be able to think about the implication of different media types and gain perspective on my own project.

While I had a general direction for my short films I was really missing a solid p
lot and “twist” at the end, so I enlisted my group members for help. After a few minutes of back and forth about Black Mirror and other sci-fi pieces I threw out an idea for the “twist” and plot line. After a few nanosecond of deliberation the group agreed it would be a solid idea. More on that in the next post.

Personally, this group was extremely rewarding in the way of “grounding.” Peers can help to discern how realistic a media goal is, if it’s too cliched, or if it’s even interesting. I loved hearing about and giving input on my groups ideas-- we had everything from a rom-com about pizza to a short film about the power of music and media. This freedom in constructivism is harder to achieve in other subject areas due to rigid curriculum structures. In essence, we are able to learn through building on our own knowledge and connect our new ideas and with pre-existing group experiences to enhance understanding and facilitate the creation of more meaningful and effective ideas. Media is specifically driven by consumers, therefore, peer (consumer) input is especially important in determining the effectiveness of your print or digital media.

Genre Conventions of a Sci-Fi thriller

Alright, so I'm looking into some conventions common within Sci-Fi genres, thriller genres, and psychological thrillers. While I think the psychological aspect will be key in conveying a type of fear or loss after the technology is removed from the world of the main character, it is also important to consider how science-fiction thrillers are successful. Take Christopher Nolans "Inception" for example. The movie incorporates all three genres seamlessly to create a jarring yet emotionally reflective piece. In short, living up to or even being able to stand in the shadow of a movie like "Inception" will be incredibly difficult but let's delve into some Sci-Fi thriller conventions and ideas for how my piece will work with them to create something, hopefully, original.

Sound As in all films, sound is essential to pacing. One of the best examples of capturing this "psychosis" or angle I'm looking for is in the Black Mirror episode "The Entire History of You" this excerpt (45:10 to 47:30) blends perfectly paced music with diegetic sound to allow the viewer extreme focus on the image. Each action is punctuated with clear diegetic sound but also a shift in the undertone of the music. Some non-diegetic sound is used to punctuate the use of technology (which will be easier to incorporate in my piece as the only technology used will have diegetic sound. but the melancholy tone of the music overall signified the internal turmoil of the main character as well as the passing of time. Music choice will be no easy task due to the extremely precise pacing of psychological thrillers (i.e. jump cuts and faster cuts).

Setting The setting of a sci-fi thriller has to appeal to both genre types and match the tone of the film. Sci-fi is mainly associated with other worlds, space, or different points in time. A great example of this setting is in the film "Blade Runner" which is set in a dark, gritty version of the future. This fits the film's tone perfectly and allows the storytelling to shine through and captivate the viewer. A more grounded sci-fi thriller will be set in a more average and believable location and time period in order to fit the story that the film is trying to tell. The latter is true for my piece which will make filming much more practical. The choice to go present-day seems more fitting to my theme in order to make the viewer relate as easily as possible.

Props Props are used to convince the audience of the time period and setting of the film. They usually reflect character backgrounds, hobbies or habits. For the direction of my short film props are essential specifically, technology. For example, the unassuming nature of Apple products would allow the audience to easily relate to the main character and work to transpose the emotions of the main character onto the audience.

Clothing Clothing is important in revealing the characters background in a piece to the audience. The characters social class and status is shown to us by the quality of the clothing. In "Shutter Island" the main character is dressed as a stereotypical detective with long trench coats, hats, and badges. Conversely in "District 9" the audience is shown characters dressed in bulletproof clothing and soldier uniforms making the occupation and condition of the characters obvious. For the purposes of my piece, the character would most likely be dress in middle-to-high-end clothing such as jeans and a sweater etc. The more unassuming the clothing, the more easily the audience can sympathize with the main character's emotions.

Main Character The main character varies drastically between genres however, when creating the main character one must consider time period, location, and character backstory. In Psychological-thrillers the main character drives tone as well as the plot of the film. In thrillers the main character usually starts out with the same knowledge of the main character to best create suspense and take the viewer on "a journey" with the main character. When I envision my main character I see him as one of my close friends so I think my vision of the character and the setting is shaped around him which makes his backstory easier-- typical teenage guy immersed in media etc. The real challenge here will be the strength of the acting as it is not easy to accurately portray psychosis.

The Crisis The Crisis of the film is dependent on the genre of the film. A horror film will tend to feature a murder, a romance film will feature a relationship and so on, The crisis of a sci-fi thriller will typically include some themes that are out of the ordinary that the main character needs to attempt to overcome. Sci-fi element would include time-travel, space, or other science fiction features. The thriller aspect should result in a tense story that may play with the audience by adding twists to the story. The crisis in my story is defenitely having a technology stimulant taken away but I think there needs to be a good twist -- a suicide? Is that morbid? Maybe. It would hold a powerful message on how deeply we depend on technology to "stay sane."

Welcome Back! Long time, no see.

Hi! This is my first A-Level post. I took AS two years ago when I was 14. Jumping back in feels so unsettling-- everything has changed so much. Here goes nothing.

Black Mirror "White Christmas" starring John Hamm

I will be the first to admit that I have put off this posting all week. Maybe that's due to the end-of-high-school anxiety that this final project signifies or the enormous amount of ill-advised binge watching of Netflix... either way here I am, thinking about media, as usual. I am currently listening to Ed Sheeran's new album (bless Great Britain for this man... and clotted cream) on my iPhone but playing on my Apple TV and controlling it through my Apple Watch, ahhhhh the sound of convergence is so sweet. Anyway, my rambling is mostly to underscore my extreme addiction to media and technology shared by my peers. This "overuse of media" is, quite ironically, creeping into media. One of my recent binges includes British television series "Black Mirror." The show is ostensibly a modern-day Twilight Zone (don't worry, I've binged that, too), tapping into the trends and panics of the smartphone age instead of the atomic age. In many ways, Black Mirror's similar "stand alone episode" design has seen the same success as the Twilight Zone of the 1960s. While the episodes don't have the appeal of cliffhangers they do cater to the ever inflating love of "bite-sized" media of Generation Z. The ability to choose, to skip around, is simply appealing to modern-day media users as an efficient, yet binge-worthy, series type. The core appeal of the show, however, is the satire involved in creating alternate realities of what our future with technology could hold. We've seen this trend a lot lately with some semi-under-the-radar films like "10 Cloverfield Lane" (2016) which adopts a seventies sci-fi vibe but brilliantly incorporates a thriller plot line. The twists involved in the supposed "chemically-attacked" world above the bunker is a satisfying yet terrifying example of our relationships with technology and weaponry. Many episodes of Black Mirror including "Hated in the Nation," "Men Against Fire," and "Shut up and Dance" expose the physical dangers of technology as weaponry. Again, "The Circle," a book by Dave Eggers, underline and terrify the readers with the possibility of complete convergence. The book is soon to release as a movie on April 28, 2017, in the states.

So after voraciously consuming media about the dangers of media, I want to, obviously, make media about the dangers of media using technology. I never said I could heed the warnings of technology or convergence--that is what is truly fearsome. As I thought about how to draw anyone in with a short film my mind jumped to the Black Mirror/Twilight Zone/The Circle direction and while the thought of robotic bees swarming and killing people by crawling up their noses is terrifying (sorry for spoilers) I began to think of my very worst fears. Failure? Maybe. Nothingness, deprivation? Most definitely. Growing up, I had nightmares of being stuck in some type of expansive purgatory. Completely white, never-ending, and featureless. It would drive anyone to madness if left long enough. So the obvious way to reconcile these fears is to present them as a short film (right?). Just as a brainstorm think: a teenager in his house checking his email on his laptop while watching a show on his tv, texting on his phone (sound familiar?). Wifi goes down, TV disappears, phone, watch, everything. Madness ensues. This is mostly a vague direction in need of tweaking. Despite our fears of the technology revolution presented by media, we are really afraid of losing it all together. If you're a binge-watcher like me, you may get so engrossed in a show that you need to take a media break to "re-connect" with reality (whether it be social media or other outlets) because you've dove so deep into the hyper-reality that shows and movies offer. But what happens if you can't reconnect or engage in hyper-realities at all? For technology natives, at least, it would be torture.

I hope this post provides some background on my direction, or at least my inspirations for what is to come. I would also highly recommend any of the shows/movies/books mentioned in this post (binge-worthy!).

Sources:
http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/17/11255744/10-cloverfield-lane-movie-ending-backlash
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/10/black-mirror-season-3-review
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/10/the-complex-humanity-of-black-mirror/505811/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Black_Mirror_episodes
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/12/07/emma-watson-tom-hanks-star-trailer-technology-dystopia-film/