CCR

IT'S DONE

Here's our final project! My CCR will be up shortly!

We Need to talk About Genre

Back in my second post, I talked about how we were gonna write our story from the character, to the plot, and then discuss genre. Well, as you may have noticed, I completely forgot to write about genre once I got caught up in the production process. 

Technically, our story falls within the category of a Teen Drama- simply because it is essentially about a teenage girl, and her identity. However, looking at the tropes characteristic of that genre our film definitely stands out. 

We are also aware that, at its core, this isn't a story that hasn't been told before. While we are addressing issues with representation and long-standing prejudices regarding our character's identity, the fact that she's a bisexual latina isn't really what drives the story forward- that's not to say that issues regarding homophobia and racism don't have a huge presence in the lives of many. We just simply wanted go for a more lighthearted route as a kind of relief. Yes, our story features a Bisexual Latina who is having real issues relevant to High School, but we've chosen to present these in a lighthearted way to not only make it "easier to digest" but to serve as a kind of reassurance for LGBT+ youth of their normalcy. 

Stories with LGBT characters that present homophobia as the main conflict are realistic representations, but these can sometimes be narrow in scope. While it's important to tell these less fortunate stories (because they are raw and stimulate empathy), individuals affected by these issues are well aware of the circumstances and often tragic outcomes. Meaning that these productions are often targeted at "outsiders"( for lack of a better term). What I'm trying to say is that presenting a story that paints an underrepresented group in a lighthearted, positive way can do much more for the people within said group than those films that don't. Seeing oneself reflected on a screen, in a positive context, can significantly improve an individual's outlook on their situation- something that the kids that find themselves in the more tragic narratives that Hollywood exploits could really use more of. 

Back to what I was saying about Teen Dramas, there's no way to escape the fact that we're telling a story about a girl in High School figuring out who she is, but we're challenging a lot of tropes in the genre. 

First of all, I think it's pretty clear we don't plan to stick to stereotypes in any way, shape, or form. The use of "Cliques," and overly specific categorization of characters within these cliques, is a characteristic of the majority of Teenage Dramas such as Mean Girls (2004). Needless to say, these aren't realistic representations of High School, as I'm sure you would know if you've been in the presence of a teenager in the last 20 years.


Aside from this obvious distinction, the area where we're really challenging conventions is in our film's formalism. The underlying theme isn't anything new, but the way we're presenting it is- at least we're trying to make it different. We're aiming to portray a fairly common, simplistic arc in a way that's interesting artistically. A similar approach is characteristic of films like Amelie- in which the simple story of a young woman ultimately finding love is told in non-conventional ways that, at least for me, made the film infinitely more enjoyable/interesting. The fact that the film's utter ingenuity drew my attention to a story I most likely wouldn't have been interested in is something I admire, and wanted to replicate. 

Amelie (2001)

In summary, in terms on content, Jasmin's story isn't technically one that hasn't been told before; However, through our stylistic choices and lighthearted tone we hope to make our piece stand out from the genre and interest the viewer.

Jeunet, J. (Director). (2001). Amélie [Motion picture]. France: UGC-Fox Distribution.

Waters, M. (Director). (2004). Mean Girls [Motion picture]. USA: Paramount Pictures .

Final Edits

Since last week, everything that could have possibly gone wrong has gone wrong. Theoretically, we could have been done by Thursday, but it appears technology is becoming self-aware, and humanity's downfall is on the horizon. As you know, we started the week with over half of our files already edited, and it all seemed to be flowing pretty well- until the cold and heartless machines attacked. 

You already know all about our problem with the compatibility of .mov files on Windows, and we thought we had resolved that, but once we sat down to edit, Nicole's computer decided that it wasn't really feeling our project. So it kindly decided to discard all the progress we had done on the dark scene. After panicking for about an hour, we concluded that we had to start over. So that day Nicole went home and worked on that section.

Thursday, when Nicole was getting ready to show me all the progress she had done, technology attacked again. All the files were cut and put in place, but SOMEHOW, they were completely unusable. Now editing isn't my thing so I don't know all the technicalities, but all I know is we had to, once again, leave class to work on it at home-ANYWAY, that's enough pessimism for one blog post! 

It worked out in the end! Although we weren't able to edit this part while in the same room, Nicole was more than capable of doing the bulk of it by herself. In the end, we shared screens through video call and made last minute changes- such as adding titles. 

I know I haven't discussed any techniques as far as editing goes (or any other areas for that matter), but I believe it'll make more sense for me to discuss that in my creative critical reflection. As of now, the project is practically done- now I just have to figure out how to make an interesting CCR. 

Editing Hype Man

Today, Nicole and I met once again to start editing the clips. We spent the majority of time in class reviewing, and naming the individual clips so that editing would be much easier at her house. And it was! Though we didn't edit as much as we initially planned, we finished editing the second half of the intro- the orange scene.


At first, putting the clips together went pretty smoothly, given all we had to do was piece them together. Editing is Nicole's forte so for this part of the process I was mostly there for "moral support", occasionally chanting "ACTION MATCH" repeatedly in attempts to hype her up. While I don't think this helped much, I managed to successfully ease tension, and that's worthy of recognition. They should really make a job out of hyping the editor up, having to put everything together with the expectation to amend any errors during filming is a lot to handle.
"Ever get lonely while editing? Hire me, and have a guaranteed decrease in efficiency, paired with a priceless boost in morale!"


All jokes aside, I obviously helped whenever there were issues/decisions to be made, and I actually think I learned how to use Adobe Premier Pro! Granted I might forget by the next time I attempt to edit on my own, but hey that's still something. I also found out I'm pretty good at "key-framing," which I had just previously called "playing with the audio till it sounded okay," so I took care of that aspect. Also, due to my background in art, I found I'm relatively good at color correcting- since I understand how the color spectrum and color wheel work- so that was pretty cool!


I ALMOST FORGOT! WE HAVE MUSIC!
While Nicole was being her diligent self doing the importing of clips and stuff, I was looking through Epidemic Sound. At first I was pretty much clueless, but then I jokingly mentioned having Hair (a musical about the 60's counterculture) be our background music, and tested out a clip called "Psychedelic Background." Despite having completely based this suggestion off the fact that Nicole and I may have been singing Hair at the top of our lungs beforehand (you have no proof), we were both surprised at how well it worked.


We did run into some issues with the dark room footage, which is why we didn't get to edit it. The audio wouldn't play, and when it was imported into Adobe Premier Pro, it only imported the audio. So that was both confusing and frustrating.After a sequence of screaming, a little crying, and being rudely ignored by Microsoft tech support, we figured it had something to do with incompatibility of files across platforms(we had recorded this portion on  an Iphone, and were editing on a dell). A quick google search revealed that .mov files were apparently not compatible with Windows Media Player. Thinking we had solved this, we downloaded QuickTime on the laptop, but this proved to be futile. The audio and video played, but Adobe Premier Pro didn't seem to care. Ultimately, we just agreed to put our trust into an online video converter. I had to leave before the files were fully converted, but the ones we reviewed seemed to be fine. Nicole is going to finish reviewing those clips so that we can start editing the interrogation scene in class Tuesday.


That's all for now!

IT'S A WRAP (hopefully)

So I'm way behind schedule on these posts, but last Tuesday Nicole, Jessica, and I met to film the remaining footage. 

We had already filmed the entire "happy" scene from the first day of filming, so our focus was on the dark interrogation scene. 

First, we had to create the set. The scene takes place in a dark room where all you can really see is the actress, the puppet, and a table. This was especially tricky given that we were filming with such little lighting, which gave us a grainy image at first. Not only that, but even after covering the window and turning off all lights, the walls were still visible in the background. To resolve this, we hung  black trash bags from the ceiling in a kind of crooked semicircle around the table. This way, we could shoot with slightly more light while still keeping the background black. 

After all this work, however, we decided to switch from the DSLR camera to an iPhone 7. We had experience using FilmicPro in low lighting, and we found the ISO settings much easier to control. Not only that, but the app allowed us to give the footage a slight blue tint, which let us discard the cellophane, and get a brighter light while still having the blue tint.

We spent quite a bit of time setting up the room. Jessica even took a nap while we set up the trash bags(fame changes people). This inevitably made filming stressful because we were really pressed for time- having a little under 2 hours to film everything right. (Okay I realize that may not sound like little time but we get distracted, and I'll admit I can be picky with some shots).

As far as we're aware, we got all the shots we needed, but we'll only be able to tell once we start editing. Still, we had a printed out sheet with numbered storyboards, as well as the script, so we should be in pretty good shape. 

OH ALSO, I actually have some stills this time around so here's a sneak peak. 

(Okay I really like this shot)

P.S. I added two pictures to a previous post

Music

Last Monday, Nicole and I sat down to discuss music.From the beginning, we agreed that it was better to use copyright free music to avoid any further complications- not just from getting permission, but also any other limitations the music producers might set forth. By using free music sites, we're staying away from the uncertainty of contacting someone(and then waiting for their reply), and we're keeping our options open to any inevitable last minute changes. 

Initially, a friend had recommended using Free Music Archive but turns out Nicole has access to Epidemic Sound- which has a much more intuitive interface, and so many categories/genres to choose from.

As of now, we don't have a definite choice, but we've narrowed it down to the categories we have to sort through. 

For the scene when Jasmin is in her room, we wanted pick a song with an overall "happy" tone, but the feeling we want to convey isn't quite happiness- it's more of a content feeling. I guess what I mean is that we don't want it to strike as pure happiness, but we want the viewer to know that she's much happier compared to in the interrogation scene. Now that I think of it, having something that just contrasts the tension of the interrogation scene might just be enough to get the point across. Still, I feel like the scene should be able to stand alone. 

In regards to music genre for the happy scene, we don't really have a defined idea yet. All we know is that we want a kind of bohemian feel, and we don't want any genres that might interfere with that idea. 

For the interrogation/gun scene, we also wanted to maintain the bohemian feel, but a completely different mood. Again, it's hard to describe something that you haven't heard yet, but we're picturing more ambient sound, with a low tempo that slowly crescendos as the scene progresses. A particular song on Epidemic reminded me of the feel of the soundtrack of both Heathers (1988) and Stranger Things(2016).  The sort of mysterious, 80's vibe  simultaneously conveys mystery and alludes to conflict- which would be appropriate for the mood of this scene.In Stranger Things, the theme song, and the repeated sound motif convey a sense of mystery, while alluding to conflict. Heathers has a more slow paced soundtrack, with ambient sound that has a haunting rhythm to it. This kind of rhythm, paired with Jasmin's monologue could potentially enhance the feel of the scene.

That's all the progress we've done in terms of music. We have a selection of songs that we want to test as we edit the clips together, but we're gonna continue to sort through the infinite supply of songs available- that is if we don't get too distracted by the Jazz section.


Lehmann, M. (Director), Novi, D. D., & Hutman, J. (Producers), & Waters, D., Kenny, F., Newman, D., & Hollyn, N. (Writers). (1988). Heathers [Motion picture]. United States: New World Pictures

Duffer, M., & Duffer, R. (Producers). (2016, July 15). Stranger Things [Television series]. Netflix.