CCR!

 Here is the one and only 

CREATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION 

CCR!

This may be my last post on this blog, it's been a crazy adventure. 

THE FILM OPENING!

 My friends, comrades, and soldiers from around the globe. Here I present, the greatest film opening you will experience. 

    

                                                                                   JIM

Enjoy.

Planning CCR

 CCR

Now, now, now, here we are at the CCR phase. 

For the CCR, I'm planning to have my own take on the project. I want to add some funny jokes and references to make it fun to do and more interactive. I'm definitely not planning to just sit and look at the camera and just talk for 6 minutes straight, its AICE media, not AICE Global. Right now, I'm planning to have a breaking bad reference at the start simply because I think it'll be fun. I'll literally open the CCR saying 'Yo, yo, yo, its the A to the B to the Q, wassup bi-", obviously I'll cut out the curse word but you get the idea. I'm planning to use this character a few times throughout the CCR, as I think it would be kind of funny. 

I also just finished writing my script for the CCR 

CCR Script

For the off-camera portions, I'm planning to implement some of the research from my blogs onto my CCR. Then, I'll also use clips from movies like Whiplash and Black Swan to show examples I mention in my script.

I can't believe I'm at the end of this project and writing a CCR post, time has flown since I first got the idea of doing a story about an aspiring theatre artist, and now I'm here reflecting on the production of that story.

The next post may be the fabled, glorious film opening so, be on the lookout!.

Nearly Done Editing

                                             YOOOO, THE EDITING IS NEARLY FINISHED!!!

For the past few days, I've spent a lot of time editing the film opening. It's crazy to think that the end is nigh but here we are. I've implemented many things in this project that I'm usually not familiar with so let's get into it.

Firstly, when I put all the clips together in iMovie, the opening duration was too long. It was about 2:30 seconds so I knew I had to cut down on a lot of things. I trimmed multiple clips that were a bit dragged out and then I set some cuts to see what the time would really boggle down to. I got it down to about 2:16, so I was happy with that. One thing that I struggled with quite a bit was inserting credits in the film. iMovie didn't let me put multiple pieces of text in one clip, so I had to split one scene into fourths so I could accomplish that. I didn't really know about splits so I was literally just clicking random features to see which one would work. 

Here's an example of my opening title and how I used the split to have this text in the same scene. 

Another thing I had to do was to get some sound effects from the internet to utilize in my opening. I went on this website called Free sound and they provided me with many sound effects that I can use. 

This was one of the sound effects I used from the website, it worked great on my opening, and it was the exact sound that I wanted

These are some of the sound effects in action.

Overall, the project is actually going very smoothly right now, the next post would be the opening itself so be on the lookout for that!!! 

Target Audience

 Well, delayed this blog post for quite a bit but it's never late than never! In this post, I will discuss the target audience for my film and how my opening approaches that specific audience. 

AGE RANGE: 14-26

RATING: PG-13

Regarding the age range, my film opening pertains to individuals of these ages. Essentially, my character (Jim) is in pursuit of artistic perfection. He's shown to be relentless, hard-working, and hard-headed. At the ages of 14-26, many attempts to be great at something, and those people try to work hard to achieve their goals, no matter the circumstances nor the work one should put in. In this age range, people in high school have to strive to be perfect in a specific area of study like perfecting a business presentation, drawing a portrait with no marks of error, and achieving mastery in instrumental performances. I feel as if artists can relate to this film opening since it showcases a character's struggle to master artistry in the theater.   

Regarding the rating, my film contains all the elements necessary for it to be deemed as a PG-13 film and no other category. According to the Motion Pictures rating system, PG-13 is defined as "Parents strongly cautioned – Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13." This opening expresses themes such as anger, frustration, sadness, and determination. It also contains language like "goddammit" or aggressive shouting that might not make children feel comfortable. For my age range, PG-13 is well suited since it's directed towards teenagers and younger adults. 

Motion Picture Ratings

Some films that are similar to mine are PG-13 as well.

RECOMMENDATION:

Recently, I watched Birdman and it was a SPECTACLE. The camera work, acting, screenplay, and themes expressed in the film are executed to perfection. For now, that's what I'll leave for you.

  

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FINALLY HAVE A FILM NAME!

3/27 - FILM NAME

After weeks and weeks of thinking, I think I have finally come up with a film name. First, I want to take you through the process in which I decided on this name. 

Honestly, I did not think that the title and title design would be the thing that I was stuck on the most. For so long I never had a clear idea of what title I should give my film. I was thinking of the most cringiest and random titles like "the road to success", "will-power", "again". I couldn't really think of a fitting name; I then decided to do some research and attempt to acquire the same mindset as a title designer. 

Title Design

This video introduced me to Dan Perri, he created the titles of movies like "Star Wars", "The Exorcist", and "Raging Bull". In this video, he took me through different projects he's done and how he approached them. He said something along the lines of "The film title should be what the movie is going to be about, and what the audience should expect from the film", the second part of that statement opened my third eye. My film title should be the main focus of the story, I want the audience to see the title and wonder what the movie would be about. The main focus of my film is Jim, so why shouldn't I name my film "Jim"? 

This idea came to mind and immediately I thought it was uncreative, but at the end of the day, simple character titles aren't usually a bad route. It has also worked for many other successful films, here are some examples.

Seems Pretty Justified to have the title as my main character. After all, this movie is solely centered on Jim, the film will focus on his struggles and triumphs as an actor and as a person. The design of the title isn't going to be any complex or a font that's too "out there". In another post, I will reveal my title design as well as how the credits would roll on film. 

Recommendation: 

I had just finished watching the movie "Baby Driver", and it was one of the most thrilling rides I've ever experienced. It follows a story of a boy orphan named "Baby' as he works as a getaway driver for robbers and top-class criminals. The movie has one of the best opening scenes I've ever laid eyes on and the sound mixing, and editing is pure perfection; all of it leads to a brilliant film that's master-crafted and enjoyable. 

Fixed the problem and started editing (kinda)

3/25/22 - EDITING

In the last post, I talked about how I had this problem in which I couldn't upload my scenes properly onto adobe premiere pro, I started using iMovie, and surprise surprise, the quality still went down. At that point, I had admitted defeat and started editing on iMovie on my phone, which in all truth, sucked. I got distracted too easily and my head was spinning from trying to edit on a tiny screen. 

One thing I did notice later on was that when I sent the scenes through email it said that there was too much data on the file. I thought "what if I just send one video file that takes up little space", I tried that, and it worked. The main issue was that I was inserting too many video files in one email, so it compressed to make up for that overabundance of space. Pretty much, I put one or two video files per email and send them to myself so I can edit them on another device. Finally, it indeed worked, all my scenes came out crisp and clear on my iPad, so then I got those files and started editing. 

    

I haven't done too much editing since just recently I finally got the scenes to look crisp and clear. In addition, I'm not entirely sure I'll stick to iMovie for editing, it's easy to use but it doesn't offer enough. Premiere Pro offers so much but it's not pleasant for me to use, I'll see how it goes with iMovie. For now, I'm going to be working on editing the parts that I filmed; I still need to think of an appropriate film title, it's a really hard thing to come up with man. 

One more thing before I go, I just watched "The Tree of Life'' and my mind was absolutely blown. It's a film about the nature of humanity and existentialism, and whether one would want to live the way of nature or the way of grace. It's a beautiful film that portrays human themes on film so well that it's almost impossible to fully decode. Make sure to watch it on Hulu.