The End.

 Film Opening Link: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4IHGJOrJHg

CCR Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu05mnzLBTY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxSck6uGt3c

Resources:

Alvira Martasoebrata. “21 BEST PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER-HORROR-DRAMA MOVIES THAT WILL HAVE YOU on the EDGE of YOUR SEAT!” Medium, 11 Dec. 2023, medium.com/@alvira_martasoebrata/15-best-psychological-thriller-horror-drama-movies-that-will-have-you-on-the-edge-of-your-seat-13b3a05729b0. Accessed 24 Mar. 2025.

CData Software. “CData JDBC Driver for Instagram.” CData Software, 2024, www.cdata.com/drivers/instagram/jdbc/. Accessed 22 Mar. 2025.

Co., Amazon. “WKBYTUXR Sunset Lamp, Projector Rainbow Light 360 Degree Rotation Sunset Projector Lamps, Projection Night Light for Selfie/Photography/Home/Bedroom Decor/Living Room, USB Night Light (6 Colors) 1 - Amazon.com.” Amazon.com, 2025, www.amazon.com/Projector-Rainbow-Rotation-Projection-Photography/dp/B09BD4VYQ9. Accessed 24 Mar. 2025.

Co., Apple. “‎Voice Memos.” App Store, 2024, apps.apple.com/us/app/voice-memos/id1069512134.

Giardina, Carolyn. ““Whiplash”: Editing Miles Teller’s Drumming, “French Connection” Inspiration.” The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Nov. 2014, www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/whiplash-editing-miles-tellers-drumming-751403/.

Logowik. “Logowik.” Logowik.com, 26 June 2021, logowik.com/adobe-premiere-2020-vector-logo-7470.html. Accessed 24 Mar. 2025.

Nickolai, Nate. ““Joker” Reviews: What the Critics Are Saying.” Variety, 31 Aug. 2019, variety.com/2019/film/news/joker-reviews-1203320295/. Accessed 24 Mar. 2025.

Warner Bros. “A Minecraft Movie | Final Trailer.” YouTube, 27 Feb. 2025, www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B1EtVPBSMw.

Winfrey, Graham. “How IPic Wants to Change the Future of Moviegoing.” IndieWire, 24 Oct. 2016, www.indiewire.com/features/general/ipic-future-of-moviegoing-nitehawk-alamo-drafthouse-1201738885/. Accessed 22 Mar. 2025.

That's A Wrap!

     And with that, it's over! I can't believe I actually did it! Overall, I think this project was a huge success for me. Not only did I largely improve over the past seven weeks, but I am happy with my final results and I am proud to say that I completed this project.

    For this final reflection, I'll go step by step to specifically talk about each thing I had done for this project. 

    First thing the class did to prepare was a TON of research. I put a lot of extra time and ca

re into my research to make my project the best it could possibly be. Although I came into the class with little to no experience with anything to do with film, I knew that me being in theatre would give me some sort of advantage when it came to research and script writing. I did research on genre, film openings, credits, and conventions; techniques, lighting, sound, mise-en-scene; and topics that I knew would be important for my film. The number one thing I knew I had to research was genre conventions, though. The genre I picked is generally uncommon, so I had to have a few commonly used conventions for Psychological Dramas to make it clear that's what it was within the opening. While doing this research, I also noticed there were plenty of conventions I wanted to avoid so I could get my point across within the two minute time limit.

    Next, It was production time. This is when I realized just how fast time started to move. I was set back during this time since my entire cast wasn't able to film on the original film date so we had to move the date back multiple times until we found a good day. This had also pushed back my editing, which I was worried about but that wouldn't even be the worst post-production issue I ran into. Anyways, during production I realized how much effort needs to be put into lighting elements for my film. Luckily, I had a hunch this would happen so beforehand I purchased two lights on tri-pods and a sunset lamp to help me get the exact lighting looks I wanted. This filming process went super smoothly since my actors are used to performing and needed little direction on how to play their parts, so any mistakes made were easy fixes and were usually just people forgetting lines.

   

    Then, I had to edit. Here is where all my trouble came in. I was doing perfectly fine for about a week, then all of my editing got completely deleted. I don't know how his happened or anything but there was nothing I could do about it, I had to start over. This time, I was more careful and saved my project every time I was done editing for any amount of time. This was definitely the most stressful time of the project but I was happy with the results, and even more happy that this part was over.

    CCR's were next! This honestly had to be my least favorite part of the project. I'd say I'm a creative person, but I had literally NO ideas for this portion of the project. After a while of brainstorming with my friends, they helped me come up with the ideas of two things I am super interested in, DC and Theatre. The first CCR I did was a mock-audition where I pretended I was auditioning for a role in a play or musical and the director was asking me questions about myself (or rather the film). I really liked editing this CCR over the other one since this was more like editing a film which I was used to. The second CCR was a street interview style video, but I incorporated some DC elements into it to make it different and more person to me. This one, though, was such a pain to edit since there was a LOT more work to be done.

    Looking back, I'm pretty upset that it's over. Yet I'm definitely also very relieved. I guess it's bittersweet for me, since this is one of the most challenging yet helpful projects I've ever taken on, and it has genuinely pushed me to look into some careers in film.

Post-Production : CCRS

     ALMOST DONE! Now that I've finished recording my CCRs it's time to edit!

    For the first video, I edited it in a very basic manner to keep it true to an audition style video, while still being able to incorporate photos or videos from the film that relate to the question. Starting the editing here, I had tried to just do it on iMovie so I could easily access the editing software during my busy week. After weeks and weeks of getting used to Premiere, this application had become difficult for me to use. I had send everything to my laptop and opened premiere and got to editing. This film only incorporated some basic cuts and adding in some "graphics" as an overlay to the videos to not only keep it interesting, but also give better visuals to what I talk about in the CCRs. The way I recorded the videos made editing super easy, though. 

    Next I edited the second video. This one required a bit more technique. I really enjoyed editing this one, though, since it had a lot more fun components to it. I had edited in some graphics that are often used in superhero comics to transition from clip to clip, along with having a sound effect for these transitions. This video was also a bit longer so it required more incorporation of pictures and videos from outside the CCR, but luckily I verbally stated the questions in these so it didn't require any extra graphics.

CCR Production time!!

     Now it's finally time to start producing my CCRS! With a lot of bumps in the road, I literally cycled through a million ideas for how I would actually do it. 

    In the end, I decided to stay with my superhero theme of the blog for my first video. This makes it super easy to transition from topic to topic and incorporate multi-media into the video. Using my script that I already posted, I added in a few things to make it more related to the superhero themes. From what is seen in the film opening, you can see the big Batman poster in my room (and even all the bats surrounding it). I used this poster as inspiration for how I setup my look in the CCR. I kept a blank background and wore all dark colors. 

    For my second CCR, I wanted to recreate something a little more personal to me. While the first one is my interest, this one is something I actually do often. For this CCR I recreated an audition. I had my sister sit and ask me questions while I answered and slated as if I was auditioning for something. For this I even printed out my headshot and created a makeshift binder and put a bunch of sheet music in it as if it were for a real role.

    After filming I realized I stressed way too much about this. Filming was honestly a super fun experience since this genuinely got to be what I wanted without any restrictions. Now its time to edit!

CCR Q#4

     Finally, the last CCR question! You know the drill, since I already explained my filming ideas I'll just get right into the question.
    How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?
    I'll split this post up into three parts to make it easy to navigate (mostly for myself)
- Software
- Hardware
- Online

Software:

    In this project, The software I utilized the most was Adobe Premiere Pro. This was to edit my ENTIRE film opening! I feel as through it's pretty obvious as to how that one was integrated. Another form of software I used was Voice memos and Pixabay. Both of these were used for sound purposes, but one was for recording while the other was for looking for copyright free sound effects. Voice memos was used specifically while I was recording the opening music, and Pixabay was only really needed for the fluorescent buzzing sound. Pixabay specifically was used since it provides copyright free audios that are downloadable without any form of account creation needed.

Hardware:

    Hardware was a big one for me! First of all, the hardware used to film was literally just my iPhone 13. I was a bit worried going into the filming knowing I would only have my iPhone for the recording, so i asked my friend if he could bring in his camera, but sadly it was having issues and couldn't be used. For my lighting I had bought two lights with color filter sheets, and a sunset lamp. The sunset lamp was most important to the film since it had settings with natural sunlight replicating light, and accurate lighting used in dorm rooms, so my setting was more accurate with it. On top of this, I also had to use my HP laptop to edit everything. Also my keyboard to play the opening music I made, which, by the way, wasn't specifically composed. I just sat down and played whatever felt right for the film after picking a chord.

Online:

    Now for online. First of all, I use blogger to post about my project! This not only helped me stay organized but also helped me document every time something important was going on with the film. I also used WhatsApp to communicate with my actors, and also send myself everything recorded on my phone to transport it to my laptop. I also used google drive to save my project in between edits. Most importantly, YouTube had helped me a LOT since it gave me a platform to upload my project, and also gave me a ton of tutorials for how to do some specific techniques on Adobe Premiere.

CCR Q#3

     Question 3 time! Since I've already explained my video ideas (that might need to get changed due to my Sunday rehearsal getting cut short), I will just get straight into the question!

    How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

    Now let me say, they developed a LOT. For starters, I went into the project clueless. Barely any filming experience other than past group projects from this class, and even with those I had group members to help me out. I was really nervous! I really locked in when it came to research, so the filming at a point came easy to me. I learned a lot about filming techniques and how important behind the scenes aspects of film are during this project, too. I had a LOT of lighting techniques I utilized for the film since I needed it to have very specific looks most of the time.

    On top of this, my skill that improved the MOST was definitely my editing skills. When I say I COULD NOT EDIT before this project I am not lying. And even during the process of this I would've said it too, but somehow I just started playing around with the buttons and figured it all out. I'd say my film opening came together really well with the editing I did. My friends who took AICE Media in the past gave me a ton of tips, like how to make text fade in and out, or how to make the audio seamlessly flow into the next clip. All of these tips came out to be super useful to the final product, and I'm super proud of how it turned out. If you were to check back at my editing timeline from before learning all of this and now, you would see a MAJOR difference in me just incorporating more techniques into the film.

CCR Q#2

     Now that I'm researching for the second question, I want to have my second CCR video idea too. I was thinking about splitting it up to be 1&3 then 2&4 since I know some of the questions will take longer for me to answer. 

    For the second video, I need to really work with the small amount of time I have. Since I have 9-6 rehearsal this Sunday, which would be my ideal time to film, I want to maybe work around that and include it. This would be easy for me to work around my schedule. I was thinking I could create a fake documentary of what goes on during rehearsal while we are on lunch break. It would sort of be edited to resemble The Office, where it is very jokey and allows the
personalities of the characters to shine through.

UPDATE!: As this idea was hard to do without a lot of people, I decided to do a mock audition for this CCR video.

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

    First of all, my film's target audience is definitely Gen Z. Knowing how they are evolving with technology, social media would definitely be a good way to engage with my audiences. Having an Instagram and a TikTok account just for the film would be a great way to promote, and then actively reply to fans. Another thing I would do to engage with audiences that I see often online would be having the cast members do Q&As on social media sites such as YouTube to have some sort of interaction with viewers. I would definitely also post a bunch of behind the scenes on these sites to make the filming process feel more relatable to audiences. In my research, if a viewer feels as though they could connect to a piece of media, they are more likely to continue to come back to those works. This will help me a strong fanbase through these methods.

    As for distribution, first thing I would do is release it in local movie theatres. Locally, this would be big for me, and in any given city if the right people showed up to the screenings it could be huge. Next I would post it for free on YouTube (with ads). After gaining profit and some recognition through this, I would contact a few streaming platforms to see if I could get it licensed to be streamed on those. Of course, I only think that part would be successful if my film got a lot of attention through my first few distribution strategies. I would also create a lot of overall hype around the film through releasing promotional trailers or clips of the movie, so that I will be more successful in the distribution part.