CCR

Here is my CCR and I used some inspiration from "MTV Cribs" to do it.

https://youtu.be/DfM5_IJdVEU

Filming my CCR

So for my CCR, ever since Mrs.Stoklosa said to make it entertaining and not just a talking head I have been wanting to do an MTV Cribs type of video. I have to come up with a script that I have to follow for the video so I'll read this. I'll film this in my car, bathroom, my garage, and fridge.

How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

My opening intended to not challenge the conventions of the romance genre but did include social groups. The social groups that are definitely going to be apparent in the film would be teenagers. The means of communication in the opening in most prevalent those among teenagers. I felt that there was no need to challenge the conventions of the romance genre to there not being enough to challenge. And I don’t mean to use this as an excuse but my first ideas of the project were going to most definitely challenge some of the conventions of the genre. According to Romance Writers of America, the most typical movies and novels tend to be driven towards females. With my movie, I am aiming towards a male audience. Something I feel is underrepresented in male depression and suicide. According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention males are 3.7 times likely to commit suicide. A statistic like this is something that I feel should be talked about more and making a movie about it can open people’s eyes to the problem.  

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

My opening intends to engage with males. A production choice that I feel reaches out to my target audience of teenage males is that of using iMessage. I feel that a lot of adults tend to use Facebook messenger to communicate so using iMessage I felt reached a broader audience that reaches everyone including a younger audience and using a laptop helped show what the male character was looking at. Distribution is a major part of any movie. Considering the mine is a small production I would look at smaller streaming services to upload my movie to such as Vimeo Dailymotion or Youtube. This will be cost-efficient and allow people to watch the film along with that I could place ads in the film which will allow me to make some money.

How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

I feel that at the beginning of the projects I was ready to use things like a tripod. But halfway through our blogs and our projects we got hit by Coronavirus, the virus changed everything that I had planned. Instead of having my opening being filmed, I felt that using pans and tracking shots helped a lot. I’ve taken a film class before but I personally feel that taking Media Studies helped me the most when creating the project. The way the we were taught how to be resourceful and to adapt to problems is something that no other class has taught me. 

How did you integrate technologies- Software, hardware and online- in this project?

This project integrated a lot of different technologies. From the filming to the editing and to the blogs. All of these things were a part of the project as a whole and they played a vital role in the completion of the project. For the entirety of the project I used my iPhone XR to film and I made sure to use the lighting of a small lamp for the parts shot in my room. For the shots in the kitchen and at the door I did not need to add lighting since they were shot in the day. I used iMovie to edit my video. I felt that iMovie was inefficient because when I would playback my video I would be very laggy. So to overcome this I put all my clips together on the iMovie app and I sent the project to my laptop so I could add music and the credits. Once on the laptop, I added music and because I never heard back from Warner Bros. so I made the decision of using copyright free music and I used a song that I felt fit the tone of the opening. I added the song and on the parts in which there was dialogue I made sure to split the clip and lower the volume of the music.

Reflection

This was one of the weirdest projects I have done in a while and it's not even about the project itself but all the stuff that surrounded the completion of the project. We started off perfectly with the guidance of Mrs.Stoklosa but then all of a sudden Coronavirus hit and we were all left with days of not working on the project because there were rumors that were going around saying the Cambridge was not going to need the project because of the virus. But days went by and news from Mrs.Stoklosa came in which she kindly gave us all extra time and then we all continued working on the project but most of us were forced to change the ideas of our projects because of our public officials enforcing "social distancing". For example, I had a whole idea in my head about a breakup at a diner and then the two people going on Tinder but then eventually seeing each other on Tinder. I had to modify my project about 2 or 3 more times before I got to the finished product. I will never forget this experience since it taught me how to improvise on the fly and use other resources like my family for help on the project. They were very interested in the project and the ideas I had and they did what they could in helping me out in the creation of my opening in things like filming.

Running For Laila

Link for Running For Laila on Youtube: https://youtu.be/SFBS3uI9nhI

Influence

So as Cornavirus has kept us all in quarantine I have been watching the show Shameless. As I have watched it I began to notice that the show uses a lot of jump cuts in regular scenes and it really caught my attention and even though some may feel that they are awkward and funky, I feel that they make the viewer feel like their in the production and it also gets their attention. So I made sure to put that into my opening. I also got a lot of shots of myself in the bed in different positions in order to show the audience that time has gone by and along with that one of the lines used by my sister is "You've been in bed for 2 weeks" so the different shots of me on the bed implies that time is passing. I never heard back from Warner Bros. about being able to use Mac Miller's song "2009." And although that sucks it okay because I had a back up to use. I looked up "Mellow royalty-free music" and I found a song that I felt was pretty good for my opening so I am going to use that. I am really confident that my opening is going to be good and I feel that so far I have gotten most of my ideas on camera.

Last Second Change

While weighing my options of what to film I realized that it would be way more efficient to do a texting breaking up. So I have decided to instead of doing it on Facetime or a Tinder idea I think that a text message would be more effective. I also want to show that the main character is sad and eventually gets depressed to the point in which he stays in bed all day for 2 weeks without moving. Eventually, he gets told by his sister that he must get up and move on with his life. He's reluctant and does not have much energy. She convinces him to do something productive and then she suggests going out for a run in which he gets up and goes out the door. The opening ends there with the title showing up on the door. Now the title I have just come up with. I decided to go with "Running for Laila" because my whole overview of the story is that they used to run together and he uses running as a coping mechanism. As I get ready to film tomorrow I am really hoping that I am able to get all of my thoughts on the camera.

Filming This Week

This coming week is the last week of the project and I am excited because I will be able to put all of my ideas together but also nervous due to the problems I feel that I may encounter. I know that I can only film my slide of the Facetime call and I will need to develop my ideas through my point of view. Other than that I feel like it will be alright. Another thing that I have thought of was screen recording my screen while the conversation was going on. Or I could just film myself on the Facetime call which I doable but also tricky since I don't have a tripod, I could definitely get my sibling to film that part for me instead of the tripod which could make the filming process much easier and less on a hassle for myself.