A Level Creative Critical Reflection

A link to my prezi:
http://prezi.com/umu65bqz34mq/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Final A Level Project

Here it is! My short film, 'Follow Me.'

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Website

Link to the website for my short film:
http://shannamiglesias.wix.com/followme

Music

I got permission today to use the song 'Bricks' by Newton Faulkner in my short film today!

Creating a Website

While picking a format and creating a template, I wanted to find websites for short films that are similar to mine. One short film, that I got a lot of inspiration from was 'Blessing in Disguise.' While researching to see if this short film had a website I couldn't find one but the short film is displayed on the director, Eric Kissak's website. I've noticed while researching that many short films don't necessarily have websites, but the directors do. I really like the simplicity of this website. The white background with the classic font give the website a very professional feel. I want to model my website after this one, but also add a little color in there because my main character, May, is very free-spirited and quirky so I want to give that aura with my website.

A

http://erickissack.com/blessing-in-disguise/

Another short film that I really admired, while I was watching short films as research was Me & You. This short film is a love story, so it is similar to my short film. 

http://www.meandyoufilm.com/

This website is very different. It takes a still from the short film as the background, and has an easy format to follow. The rest of the features of the website show up when you scroll down. I really like the creativity of this website, and I definitely want to incorporate that into my website. I want to combine these two styles because both these short films are similar to mine in different ways. A good website should stand out, so that people will remember the content on the website. I'll be using sites.google.com to create my website, and they have a lot of very interesting templates that I can manipulate to my liking. 

Follow Me (the song)

I never uploaded the full version of the song I used in my film opening. I'm also going to use it in my short film.
Here it is:
https://ia902602.us.archive.org/22/items/FollowMeFinal1/Follow%20Me%20Final%20(1).m4a

Romantic Comedy (continued)

I've been working on my script for this short film for quite some time now, and I've been struggling to find a genre. A couple weeks ago, though, I decided to go the romantic comedy route. Although because this is a short film there are restraints when making this film. Obviously I don't have as much time to make a long, very developed story. But I like to think that 5 minutes is enough to tell a cute teenage love story. I was researching tips on writing romantic comedies, when I came across a really good article that made a lot of good points. Romantic Comedy Writing: this article discusses what really separates just a typical rom-com from a memorable story. One tip that I'm trying to incorporate in my short film is to "write the chemistry." In a romantic comedy, the audience knows that the girl and the guy will get together so I have to set something apart. I need to write these characters, so that the audience NEEDS the two to get together. There has to be compelling aspects to both of these characters, and I need these characters to evoke empathetic reactions from my audience. Another tip that I hadn't really been thinking about until now is to "make it about something." A good story should have some bigger thematic implications. This is something I'm really going to think about while updating my script. I'm really worried that my short film won't necessarily be funny, and that it will end up lifeless. But I'm working very hard on making unique characters that have witty lines. My short film isn't going to be a stupid funny movie, or a hysterical film that's definitely not what I'm trying to do. That's especially hard to do in 5 minutes, so instead I'm just going to try and make it entertaining.

Short Film

Now that I'm done with the AS level project it's time to begin my short film. Since originally I was going to put my film opening and short film together, I've been working on my concept and script for my short film for a while now. I've written almost 5 drafts of my script now, and my idea has come along way. I've learned a lot from working on my film opening, and now I know what to do and what not to do for my short film. I really want to focus on making my sound better for my short film, because in my film opening I was very disappointed with the sound during the dialogue. I'm filming part of my short film outside, and I don't want to change that. Recording Amazing Audio for Your Low Budget Short Film gave me a lot of great tips on how to fix audio. Some of the ways they suggested involved purchasing microphones or sound equipment, which I won't be able to do. This article also gave me a great idea to record my actors saying their lines and put them over the video. When I shoot the footage for my short film, I'm going to be very careful that I have enough takes of a certain scene. I'm also going to pay attention to detail because that can make or break my short film I don't want to have any tacky editing mistakes either. The way I need to do this is by planning way in advance.

Final Project

Follow Me:

A film opening for a movie about a free-spirited teenage girl, who drops out of high school to try and pursue a career in music.

Creative Critical Reflection

Here it is! My podcast for the creative critical reflection portion of the AS level project.

Editing

I started the editing process, and it was very frustrating. I downloaded the free trial of Adobe Premiere and tried to start editing on that, but then it took me an hour to get 5 seconds of my film opening done so I decided against figuring out Premiere. I started using iMovie HD, and it was working fine. I still had to figure out some of the features and settings, while I was editing but it was much easier and my video still turned out fairly well. However, halfway through editing iMovie froze, and I attempted for an hour to try and get the program working again. I gave up and had to start all over again on a different computer, which was very frustrating. I ended up missing some key things, and I was disappointed with how the sound during the dialogue turned out. Working with the sound was hard because I didn't have a microphone, so my audio came straight from the camera. I tried to reduce background noise, but it just made the audio sound worse. I ended up leaving it, and only using shots where you could clearly hear the dialogue. The music was my favorite part to edit. After recording my actress singing I was able to overlap the song over her singing, and I had to match up the words with her lips which I actually enjoyed doing. Overall I learned a lot from my editing experience, and now I know what to do for my full short film.

Genre: Romantic Dramedy

Since I had to alter the concept for my film opening I also had to switch genres. My film would now be considered a romantic comedy, but I also wanted to incorporate drama into the film (if I was making this a full feature film). I decided to do some research just so while I'm editing I can make sure to capture those rom/com moments that audiences love.

Romantic Comedy Definition:
Romantic comedy tries to combine love and humor in an attempt to capture the audience's interest.
http://www.slideshare.net/RianneWright96/genre-exploration-task-2

Being exposed to romantic comedies all my life it isn't hard to use the ideas and concepts that most films within this genre use. However, I feel like many critics often overlook romantic comedies, and deem them a "guilty pleasure." Although at this point I have a lot of my footage, I want to make sure the way I edit and film the rest of my footage has a unique tone to it that will capture the audiences interest. I definitely tried to capture my audiences interests by creating an intriguing main character.

Filming

So I filmed this Saturday, and although I still need one more day of filming the first day went pretty well. I guess I won't know for sure how much more footage I need until I start editing. I shot in Town Center in Weston, and I created the sign that I'm going to use as part of the title sequence using a cardboard box and paint. The camera was my own, Canon, and I borrowed the tripod from a friend. However, I didn't have the appropriate attachment to use the tripod so I had to use ponytail holders to keep the camera on the tripod. I was having issues with my supporting actress, Elise Garcia. She is a very talented singer and she portrays character very well when she sings, but she doesn't have any experience acting for film. So this really tested my directing skills. The best technique I found that helped her get across the character was for myself to act it out first to show her. 

Problems Arising

My actor's parents surprised him with a vacation to the Bahamas the first weekend of spring break, and I was away at a drama competition (along with my actors) for the rest of spring break. I had to think on my feet quickly to figure things out. So what I decided would be the easiest thing to do was to separate my film opening from my short film. To make things easier on myself I'm going to keep the same main character and just change the story line for the opening. The theoretical feature film would be about a girl named May who dropped out of high school to start saving money to move to New York so she can start working on her music career. Throughout the film she would have a lot of issues with her mother, but she would meet a boy named Artie who wants to help her achieve her dream. This film would be a romantic dramedy, so to speak. 

May Simon(Gillian Rabin) : May is a 16 year old girl in high school. She lives in a crappy apartment with her mother. Her dad left when she was 6 years old. She does well in school without even trying, but thinks people are better off learning from life and experience. She is very in touch with herself and has amazing confidence in herself. She loves making music and spends her time performing anywhere and everywhere. She does not care what anyone thinks of her, and enjoys talking to anybody. She may seem naive but she is an intelligent girl.

This main character will be the same in my short film.
Artie Daniels: Artie is a 16 year old high schooler. He has a couple friends and likes to spend his time hanging out with his friends. He has a fairly normal life both his parents work at average jobs. He is really intelligent, and because of that can be seen as sort of a geeky. However, he has really good social skills and can be very charming.

Ally Collins(Elise Garcia): Ally is May's 16 year old best friend. She is very uptight and goal-oriented. She wants what is best for May, but is stuck in her ways and does not approve of May's life plan. Her and Artie don't get along.

Frustration

So by now I'm on my third draft of my script, and my plan is to try and have a final draft by tomorrow because I plan on filming this weekend. My sister has been very helpful in reading over my scripts and helping me edit them. Last night I was on the phone with her discussing my concept. She pointed out to me how I don't really have a defined genre, instead my film has sort of a romantic comedy vibe mixed with a creepy stalker theme. I agreed with her that I really need to solidify an idea and either go with the romantic comedy genre, or the stalker genre. I'm not going to completely change my film concept, but instead I'm just going to play up the dialogue to give it more of a romantic feel and instead I'm going to change my ending. This way I will still get the creepy moments I want, but the overall story will be a weird love story.

Music Update

So I've been working on some lyrics for either an intro song for my film, or a song for my character to sing. I haven't officially decided which purpose the song is going to be used for, however I began to work on it anyway. I met with my friend who is an extremely talentedguitar player, and we worked on putting some chords to the words. This is the beginning of the song, and obviously it is not nearly done but it should be within the next couple of days.

This is the intro to the song:
https://ia601502.us.archive.org/7/items/20150317144627/20150317%20144627.m4a

This is one of the verses of the song:
https://ia601501.us.archive.org/21/items/followmesong/20150318%20105846.m4a

Music

Since one of my main characters is musically gifted, and music is a part of her identity I want to show her singing. Because we are not allowed to use copyrighted music without permission I thought it would be easier if I wrote an original song to use in my film. I've been writing song lyrics ever since I was little, so I know how the process works. I grew up playing the piano, and have dabbled with the guitar in more recent years. But since my character is street performing I thought the guitar would be an easier outlet to use. I have many musically talented friends that play the guitar, so that way if I need help putting chords together I have people that can guide me. I worked on a previous blog for this class that centered around music in film and film scores: http://themusictomyeyes.blogspot.com/. Because of this I have a lot of research already on how music affects the audience, and what makes a good song for film. Using this I want to write a song that has to do with what my film is about. I'm not aiming for a Grammy award winning song, but I'm going to settle for something that's catchy and pertains to my film. While working on this film I'm trying to make sure that in my planning stage I am incorporating every aspect of film into my work, which is why I'm not forgetting about music and sound. My film is a simple piece so I don't need crazy sound effects, however music will be a big part of my film. I want to make sure the song I write incorporates the feelings of both my characters, so that it helps my audience to become invested in story.

Casting

I'm very involved with the Drama department at my school, so I know a lot of very talented people. Through the course of the years, I've been involved in numerous Cypress Bay productions this includes, musicals, plays, one acts, and various other performances. I've seen these actors grow throughout the year and I feel like I know what their abilities as performers are. When I began thinking of a concept for my short film I knew that there wouldn't be many casting options in terms of professional actors. I knew I would be working with friends that I knew, so with that in mind I created a film concept with characters I knew some of my friends in drama could execute. Even while writing the script I was beginning to get ideas of people I knew that would play the roles really well. I asked a few people who I thought would be perfect for the roles to see what their schedules and availability was like. I settled on two actors who I know will do a great job: Gillian Rabin and Michael Valladares.

The "Stalker" Genre

My concept for my short film has to do with a very free-spirited teenage girl named May (think Phoebe from "Friends") and a loner photographer named Artie. The story goes that Artie sees May singing and is mesmerized by her, a one-sided love at first sight type of experience. Artie begins taking pictures of her, and to be technical stalking her. However, I'm going to take the typical "stalker" genre and put my own twist on it. While doing research on typical stalker films I came upon this article: The Price of Crazy: What Hollywood's 'Stalker' Genre Says About Mental Health Stigma. Although this article doesn't pertain to exactly what I'm doing it was very useful in giving me tips on what not to do. Artie doesn't have a mental illness per say, instead he just resembles a stalker. I want my film is going to do something different from normal stalker films. It will have an underlying creepy tone to the film, but it also has a sort of romantic comedy feel to it. While Artie does get a little creepy when taking pictures of her it is merely because he sees May as his muse. I want my audience to perceive Artie as creepy, so that way there is more of a plot twist at the end. However, in the end Artie will be harmless and instead of having a huge stalker thriller where someone ends up dead I want it to be more quirky and weird. I want to make my audience relate to Artie. He's a 16 year old guy with no friends, who just wants to work on his photography. He sees this beautiful girl and it's his first real crush, so he doesn't know how to handle himself. My goal is to almost merge genres. I want to have creepy, although harmless, elements to my film mixed with a sweet ending. 

The Writing Process

Since I have never had to create a project like this before I didn't really know how to start once I had my idea. My sister majored in film and television at Boston University, so I called her to ask her for advice and to get her opinion on my concept. She calmed me down and directed me to a good article to read to get started on writing a screenplay for a short film: 7 Simple Secrets for Making an Outstanding Short Film. This article was really helpful in guiding me in the right direction to begin 

writing. I now that I don't necessarily need my short film to be filmed with dialogue at all times. This was actually a really helpful tip because it helped me think of cool shots that I could replace with dialogue to not make the story so complicated. This article also gave me tips on how to keep the film simple, and create memorable characters. Another article I read that wasn't necessarily geared towards short films, but had good steps to follow to get started on writing was: How To Write a Screenplay: The 5 Step Process. Throughout this article, I learned how to go about writing a screenplay. Although, the author of this article was referring more to a feature film there were good pointers that I'm going to use when I start writing. By reading this I got the idea to start writing by writing a logline, which is the entire short film in one sentence. 

Logline: A strange teenage guy sees a quirky street performer and is immediately mesmerized by her, so he begins to stalk her until he finally gets the courage to ask her out. 

Brainstorming

When I first began thinking of an idea for a short film/film opening I knew I wanted something either quirky or creepy. I'm very interested in psychology, and am most likely going to minor in psychology in college so I thought it would be interesting to incorporate that in my film. Originally I thought about a concept for a psychological thriller where a teenage girl realizes her boyfriend (who is really a hallucination) is abusive and she ends up trying to kill him before her own sanity comes into question. However, while discussing this with my peers I realized that with my own resources and the time limit of this project it was way to complicated. Although I was disappointed, the original idea helped me think of a couple other ideas. I wanted to solidify my idea early on however, so to help with my inspiration I started watching some short films.

Still from the short film Skin 

One short film that I particularly like was called Skin (directed by Jordana Spiro), which is about a child taxidermist who has a crush on a girl.  This short really inspired me to do something with quirky weird characters, and its cinematography was beautiful and unique, which is what I would aspire to do. There wasn't much dialogue in this film, and although I would want more dialogue I think the simplicity of the film is what made it very beautiful.

Another short film that I watched was The Crush (directed by Michael Creagh), which was about a boy who had a crush on his teacher and went to drastic measures to ruin her relationship. This particular film had a very good plot, and a really unexpected plot twist at the end. I had the idea to take elements of the two films together that I liked so that I have a good cinematography, quirky characters, and a cool plot twist at the end of my short film. All of these elements led me to the idea I now have. The story of my short film would surround a quirky teenage girl and a strange teenage guy. The girl would be very artistic and musical, and she would often street perform at random locations in her town. The strange teenage boy would see her performing and instantly be mesmorized by her, he would then begin to stalk her until he finally gets the courage to talk to her. The plot twist I would have is that the girl actually likes him and when she finds out he's been stalking her she is not creeped out but instead intrigued. From this point now I want to create a clear outline of my story, develop the characters, and then begin writing a script.