Planning the CCR

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after finishing the entire film opening i thought that would be the hardest part i was wrong coming up with a CCR is hard. i definitely decided to do a podcast because it something i find enjoyable to hear but I don't want it to be just me talking so I've been looking at sound effects to make it more interesting as well as maybe add the music incorporate the music I used for the film opening to make it more entertaining  to sit through. 

For the second CCR i wanted to do some sort of game or something a little more entertaining then just me sitting there answering questions at least have something appealing to watch. While looking at some example i saw how some people incorporated clips of their project into their CCR so the audience had something to see then just the person and its definitely something i would like to do, cause it more fun to watch. 

what even is a CCR?

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so after asking multiple people what A CCR I finally got a answer. (i missed the lecture) so planning for it sort of begins for this I have plan 2 media project that interesting answer 4 questions 

1: how does your project use or challenge genre conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

2:  How does your project engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as real media text?

3: How did your production skill develop throughout this project?

4: How did I integrate technologies -software, hardware, and online- in this project?

To present this in an interesting matter got me thinking on what i like to watch to get the info from behind the scenes and I realized  liked to listen to podcast that  I can put on to get the info while doing something else or watch something like a game that keeps it more interesting like when celebrities are put on the spot to answer questions always keep me more entertain then just watching someone answer question. firstly i would like to answer the question in detail then find my exact plan to what I want to do. 

Editing part 2

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So while editing I didn't use any effects cause I have no use for it so after I figured out how to put the clips in the right order to make the story I had to figure out how to but the credits in the scene as well as the tittle and where it would fit, while watching the finish video i realized the perfect pace to put the credits is right in the beginning in the clip before the tittle. I liked the shadow behind the production making it stand out the production tittle and tittle of the film had the same color while the other credits i used white that still stands out with bluish background as well it seems to fill the bit of empty space on the side. 

The tittle i decided to blurry the clip and put the tittle on top of it while zooming in as well make the tittle to flicker To emphasize the mystery aspect of the film. While still having movement in the background. because without the separate two scenes I don't feel like it would make much sense have an entire black tittle slide then rather have the story keep going even in the background. 

Editing

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So i started editing on the plane ride I had today and with the change of story from the outline i had to change what I wanted in the scene instead of the two separate story's only connected by just the drawing i mixed scenes so it starts flashing back and forth to connect the story more.

The music and choosing which part i want was hard and it all started to sound the same so at one point i had to learn how to sped up the sound but not make it sound choppy so when the Mara scenes start the music starts to be a little faster to get audience more interested. but hearing the sound so many times is starting to annoy me but ohh well I have to preserver. 

I still to add the subheading but I'm leaving that up to another day.

Film Day 2

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Okay today filming didn't turn out how i wanted to cause  my little sister who agreed to do this started getting annoyed, we only had an hour to film and the shots came out a little grainy, but since i leave for Chicago tomorrow I have to make do with what i got. It wasn't terrible but  it could've been better. 

Today filming was the second half of the intro, and frankly everything i had with the out line needed to change so i made this into two half one were the character seems to be in a more forest place and then gets faced by cars that she has never seen before. 

I decided for this scene to cover Mara (the character) in (fake) blood to give the suggestion that she isn't just a normal simple character that came to life but has something a little more sinister to her. the bow being white that signifies innocent that is tainted by blood shows that the character was created as innocent but isn't and became something evil. Though the blood did get us a lot of weird looks.

I wanted this scene to show a clash between the fantasy and real world and i think it was accomplished by the costuming that was definitely something not worn today with the cars that are used everyday in the modern world. 

Film day 1

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First day of filming, my friend Anenaa agreed to help me today to be my actor for this scene even with the scheduling conflict (so I started filming later then expected). As well had to change the order of what I wanted to film so I end up filming in chronological order that means I had to tweak what I wanted to film and be on set. 

I originally wanted  to be have multiple drawings of the character Mara around the set room but since I hadn’t film her scene first, so we changed it to something more simple as just one drawing of Mara in a journal. And in all honestly focusing on one drawing made it seem more ominous. 

As well as the lighting I knew I wanted to use LED lights in this scene but I wanted it to change colors to show something supernatural is happing but while filming it just didn’t look so great so I ended up just using the LED light in the blue color and I think it still brought in the supernatural aspect without being too obvious. 

Honestly I’m actually happy about how today went sooo let’s hope that it turns out well tomorrow

Plans

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Okay so for the cast on this project i was planning on using my friends that expressed interest on doing it but our schedules don't align for example today we were supossed to get together to film but the plan ended up falling through because they got so i realized it be easier to ask (bribe) my little sister into being Mara for the project. And for Athena probably asking my older sister to help because we have similar schedules and is easier to be on the same page. Also it was brought to my attention that for spring break in like a week I'm leaving town so I have less time to work on this project then I initially thought so using my siblings would make the filming schedule a lot easier to have since they live in the same house.

Props

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so tomorrow I'm filming so I'm getting all the props ready for it.  So first off I finished the bow for mara I wasn't sure what to do for the signature but after many terrible tries I went for a simple signature so that the actor playing Athena can  easily copy it while filming it as well as big enough to be seen when put in the actor for maras hair but not too big as well as right side, so it still looks like it was an artist signing their work when they are done.

As well as I bought a journal and necklace that have similar gems to them. The journal is Athenas sketch book while Mara wears the necklace to bring another connection to both character as well as hint to something more magical happing. Athena journal was bought with the intention of making more fantasy like so that the supernatural aspect can be tied to the scene that is supposed to be more realistic that i also believe that will bring more attention to journal then the previous plan of a normal sketch book. Even though Maras is darker implying that she is the villain of the story. I didn't plan this in the outline so while filming tomorrow I'm planning on emphasizing on the gems so the audience gets that this will be important later on. 

Music

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so I'm looking for suspenseful music for my project. Most Movies have there iconic scores such as Jaws has its main theme that leaves an impact on watchers mostly tying to iconic scene to get the right music is crucial on being able to leave an impact on watchers and be able to evoke the right feelings. 

But honestly all i knew starting this research i wanted a calm intro and building suspense as it went, and also that it was royalty free music. so ofc i went on youtube and the first sound I found was Mystery & Suspense Background Music For Films & Documentaries (Free Download) | John Doe. even though i liked it the ending gave more of a chase scene rather then just as the music making  the audience feel like everything is a bit off. As well as is really short and don't have much to work with. 

 But then I found was a video named broken souls. Which starts more calm then speeds up the tempo, while listening to it i could see the start of showing the messy desk Athena drawing and then  later show Mara. as well as its decently long i looked at more but i kept coming back to this sound piece and knew it was the one for this project. 

Costuming

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One of the major mise-en-scene elements in a movie is costuming it represent the character and makes them stand out from the rest of the cast. Athena, who is the main character, is an artist who is constantly in her own head so how I imagine her is with baggy clothes and wearing a messy bun. This is to represent that Athena is living in her own head and doesn't really care about clothes but still have one element such as a jacket that still represent her creativity. This character in the film would also carry around headphones to emphasize her being a little out of touch with reality since music is one of the main way people disassociate. 

this is the plan I had for her:

And looking for my closet i found the perfect jacket that gives an artist vibe when you look at it because even though the base is green there is a lot of colors with it.

Mara is harder to find clothing for since I want her to stand out a bit more in modern times that's why i want to put her in outfit that gives more fantasy old timey vibe. To make it clear to the audience that Mara isn't supposed to be part of this reality. But also include a bow or a head piece that is very recognizable that hints to the audience that this is the character the Main character is obsessing over. 

 i found this in my closet that i think would work well with Mara since its definitely not something you see girls wearing out in public today: 

The bows I'm buying a white bow and going to put the initial or sign of Athena to represent it being Athena's character being alive, since all artist sign their work. I think its a cool way to represent Mara being Athena's creation. 

Names

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 So I realized I haven't given the characters in this movie a name or given a lot of thought on how I want them portrayed.  but that's going to change now. So, we obviously got to start with the main character whose own characters come to life I wanted to give her a name connected with this or represent her art side, while looking for names (a lot of baby name list) I realized a lot of names have Greek mythology tied to them. My first instinct was to go with Iris goddess of rainbow and color until I remember there is a goddess who was created simply by a thought, this of course was the goddess of wisdom and handicraft, Athena. this name seemed like a perfect fun little hint of what will lay ahead of the film. 

The second character to appear in this opening to the film would be Athena's character Mara. I wanted these characters to have a name connected to death, but still be a simple name one. Mara if taken from the variation Morona means death, which I find fitting for a character that was created as a psychopathic killer but is still basic enough for a teenage writer and artist to come up with it on her own.

The names were something I wanted to get right because names are important to represent who the characters are, even harry from harry potter has a meaning "home leader" that represent who he is and what he is going to become in the rest of the film. Even though names aren't usually given much thought names are important identity of the character. 

fonts

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Many movies and tv show like harry potter and stranger things have iconic fonts for their tittles that even though when someone is copying it you know immediately where its from. 

 

But even if in post production it is chosen not go completely with their own fonts certain genres have the same styles used for their tittle. Since in my project I'm planning to do the horror genre here some examples. 

Main thing I realized in most Horror movie tittles they usually have white, black, and red color scheme but some movies such the poltergeist which is dark blue have other dark colors.  So, for my intro I decided I wanted it to be Black and Red cause it would display on a computer screen better. Another thing I realized while looking at these fonts they all add to creepy atmosphere the movie is intended to create. So, first thing I did is research creepy fonts I could find on google. 

12 Best Scary Fonts On Google Docs in 2024 (Free) | SSP (spreadsheetpoint.com) i found this site that should 12 different fonts and found ones I thought would fit the movie. 

Creepster: Kill your darlings       kill your darlings 

Jolly lodger:      Kill your darlings       kill your darlings 

Nosifer: Kill your darling              kill your darling 

Sometype mono: Kill Your Darling               Kill your darling 

I liked these fonts and wanted to see how each one would look in both red and black. and the two that most caught my attention where nosier in red because it gives a very violent tone to it and the sometype mono in black because its gives typing in a computer. If I could find a way to start of with kill your darling in the tittle scene to start off in the mono font and have it switch nosifer as well demonstrating the supernatural of it all I believe would be a good way to tie back to the movie.

 

 

hi blog! 

so quick update my friend Alexa agreed to help draw the Character for the film. I think I'm going to get some other people I know that can draw to help out to have different styles and variation of the drawings. So I'm planning on filming the ending scene first to give her an idea of what she has to draw. So it look's more plan.

- Manuela 

out line

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I was planning out the basic out line for the first 2 minuets its not all the shots I want to include but its the basic storyboard for it. I'm mainly going to focus on the plot and using mise-en-scene to introduce the characters, as well as the plot.  

The main character starts in her mess of a desk shown the she is obsessing over the character she has created, I want to cover the whole desk or most of it with drawings as well as them to be foreshadowing other location the character will go to in the rest of the movie. as well as have a bunch of other random materials on the desk To show the main character being completely in their head. 

 As well show the Character the mc created before showing them on the screen. I'm also planning on doing something with light flashing before the scene switches to imply something supernatural happing probably when doing a close up to the drawings.  

Though there are some things I still want to think about before shooting this is my base line I'm using while I film. 

- manuela 

Group meeting

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so we had group meeting about our project, We talked about what are the right steps to take and make the opening interesting. it was comforting knowing that people are struggling with similar issue with the opening. we don't know where to began. coming up with the idea part is done now we all are trying to figure how to start the story in an interesting way, that can introduce it. For my project we talked about ways to start it and maybe introduce the main character to be obsessed with this fictional world she is creating to make the connection to this fictional character stronger. I was given the suggestion to cover the set with drawings of the character to get this point across to the audience. As well as i was told to watch goosebumps to come up with some technique ideas for my plot. 

- Manuela