Research & Script on the second question for the CCR

 Hello everyone! Today I will provide research for the second CCR question and elaborate more on how it connects with our portfolio project!

The 2nd CCR Question: How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text? 

My script:

Our product engages with audiences through psychological tension built from small actions than obvious ones. One of the main ways we do this is with character development. We introduce Asher as highly organized, academically serious, and disciplined. By presenting him as structured and controlled at the beginning, we create curiosity. Curiosity for finding out the deeper meaning, if that makes sense. This sense of uncertainty helps keeps viewers mentally engaged because they are actively watching his behavior while watching our opening. 

(this is part of the research not the script) Camera work also plays an important role in engagement. We used steady shots when Asher is outside with Austin to show the naturalness of the atmosphere. However, once Asher is alone at his house , the framing becomes more isolating, and is also filmed with handheld shots specifically. This visual builds psychological tension without directly stating it. This technique is similar to how isolation  can look in the movie "Se7en" , where characters are often framed in ways that emphasize psychological space. 

Continuation of my script:

Facial expressions and body language help further engage with the audience. Asher’s serious personality and limited emotional expression create a sense of mystery. Because he does not reveal what his intentions are, viewers are forced to interpret his behavior ,which keeps them mentally involved in the story.

Additionally, our title card design reinforces genre expectations. The clean but serious font and minimal design create a thriller-like tone from the very start. This shows the audience that they are entering a psychological thriller story rather than a casual drama.

In terms of distribution, our project would most realistically be distributed through digital platforms such as YouTube, where short thriller openings like ours are viewed . Because our target audience is primarily teenagers and young adults, social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram would be effective for releasing teaser clips, trailers, and behind-the-scenes content. Distributing it in teaser clips could also help build the anticipation beforehand. Not only this, but we could also submit it to movie festivals that help first time creators! Film festivals like Sundance is a big example. This can help show our credibility and help us gain more recognition as a production company.   :D

These are my citations: 

https://www.sundance.org/

https://stillslab.com/gallery/se7en

Research on the first question of the CCR!

 Hello everyone!! Not too long ago our class had just learned about the 4 questions for the CCR video. Today I will be providing you all with research and elaborate how our portfolio project corresponds with the first one! :D

Throughout the production of our portfolio project, we’ve made several choices while also putting a lot of research in our genre. By analyzing the suspense/thriller category, we were able to understand the  conventions that are used and how they’re relatable in films overall. When we analyzed different suspense and thriller films, we noticed that the common conventions they all use are things like lighting, music, camera angles, and even how characters are shown. 

The first question for the CCR is: How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

Now, our project uses conventions from these thriller movies that I've mentioned before in my previous blog posts,  like "The Silence of the Lambs" and "American Psycho". In The Silence of the Lambs, the use of close-up shots during the dialogue makes the audience feel uncomfortable because it feels up close and  personal. We used a similar technique in our opening by incorporating close-ups of our main character to emphasize emotion and tension. It makes the audience really focus on that moment specifically, which help builds the psychological suspense.

In American Psycho, the lighting plays a huge role in creating uneasiness. The film doesn’t always rely on dim lighting or dark lighting, instead, the lighting is normal, but the mood feels off because of the character’s behavior. We were inspired by this idea when deciding how to present our character Asher. Instead of immediately showing something dramatic, we focused on subtle movements to make the audience question what’s really going on. :0

Both films also build suspense through pacing. They don’t rush into chaos like the usual thriller movies. Instead, they slowly develop tension. We tried to follow that same strategy in our project by keeping the beginning more calm and allowing the suspense to gradually increase. This challenges the stereotype that thrillers always need loud music or jump scares. Instead, like the films we researched in these movie examples above, we focused on the psychological tension .

By using these conventions intentionally, our project fits within the suspense/thriller genre. However, we also represent social issues like isolation and pressure in a way that feels relatable to modern audiences when it comes to academic studies or being taken advantage of. 

These are my citations :D

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silence_of_the_Lambs_%28film%29

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102926/

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144084/

Obstacles while filming...

Hello everyone!!

I know that I mentioned obstacles in our filming process in one of my previous blogs, but I thought it would be important to really break down what happened. Looking back, I realize that the biggest issue wasn’t just the small mistakes, but it was the lack of preparation. :/

One of the main problems was that we showed up to the park not fully ready to film. We had the idea in our heads, but we didn’t plan out the details the way we should have. We didn’t walk through the shots beforehand, we didn’t double-check on any of the props, and we didn’t think about timing. Because of that, problems kept popping up one after another.  I remember feeling extremely stressed because I could see the time passing and we weren’t making real progress.

For example, I accidentally brought the prop for the scene , Asher and Austin’s project, typed out when it was supposed to be handwritten. I have to be honest, that part was completely on me. Now, Instead of wasting time, we had to quickly turn it into something that made sense, so we decided to make it look like Asher was adding annotations to the project.

Those little delays kept popping up. It wasn’t the strong, organized start we were hoping for, and that really set the tone for the filming process.

Another major obstacle was filming the tracking shot at Brennan’s house. We refilmed it so many times that I genuinely lost count. I’ll admit, part of that was because I kept stopping the takes when something didn’t feel right. I wanted it to be perfect. If something felt of where, pacing didn’t match what I envisioned, I would go over it again with Brennan and JP. 

Other times we had to stop because Brennan kept laughing mid-scene, the lighting was too dark, or JP accidentally bumped into the door. None of these things were big obstacles really, but together they made the process feel long. It was a simple tracking shot of Asher walking into the house. Yet somehow, it became one of the most time-consuming moments of filming.

And then, of course, there was the mirror. When we finally thought we had a good take, we realized the camera and JP were visible in the reflection. This made us rethink the angle and positioning of the shot.

Even though these obstacles were frustrating at the time, I think they taught us a lot. We learned the importance of preparation, communication, and patience. We also learned that setbacks like these are part of the process, and sometimes the only way to move on is to move forward :)

Overall, even though it wasn’t the smoothest start, it was definitely a learning experience. 

Editing Process pt2

Hello everyone!

Today I’ll be talking about what we worked on during the editing process in class. Last class, Brennan, JP, and I were mainly focused on adjusting the lighting for our opening scene. When we rewatched what we had so far, we realized it was way too bright and didn’t really match the mood we were going for. Since we’re editing in Adobe Premiere, we used the tint and color settings to start experimenting. We played around with the different percentages, but it honestly felt like it was either too light or way too gray. After testing a few combinations, we finally found a balance that actually fit the tone we wanted and made the scene feel more intentional.

We also made specific lighting adjustments in the room scene. That setting is really important for establishing the atmosphere, so we had to be careful with how dark or muted we made it. It wasn’t just about making it darker, but about making it feel right for Asher’s character. The lighting really changes how the audience views the scene, so we had to keep rewatching it until it felt natural.

Another big change we made was during the reminder notifications on Asher’s phone. At first, the screen was way too bright, and it distracted from the small details we actually wanted viewers to notice. Those little details help reveal what kind of character he is, so they’re important. We ended up dimming that specific shot so the audience can focus more on the content of the reminders instead of just a bright screen. 

Here you can see on the left corner the percentages in regards of the tinting:

Obstacles in the editing process...

 Hello everyone happy Thursday! 

This week’s blog post is about the obstacles we faced during the editing process!! We started editing the clips from our opening scene, and although it was exciting to see everything come together, we definitely ran into a few obstacles.

One issue we noticed was an unknown clicking sound playing in the background throughout the transitions of the opening.  At first, I assumed it was part of the music we selected, since it blended in pretty well. However, the more we listened to it, the more noticeable it was. Even though the sound was subtle, it would be noticeable to anyone. We tried to figure out where it was coming from and how to remove it, but it wasn’t as simple as we expected. Small audio problems like that can make really cause so much problems and it was pretty frustrating. 

Another obstacle appeared in one of our clips. When watching it closely, we realized you could see the camera’s reflection in the glass screen of Asher’s phone. That moment immediately worried us because we thought we might have to reshoot the entire clip. The problem was that all of the filming equipment is being borrowed at the moment , so reshooting wasn’t really an option. Thankfully, Mrs. Stoklosa told us that the reflection could be edited out and it would be no problem.

Overall, this week reminded us that editing is not that simple as expected but it’s more about paying attention to every small detail. Even subtle sounds or tiny reflections can impact the final result like our portfolio project. Although the process was a bit stressful at times, solving these problems helped us understand how important patience are during post-production :D

Here are the photos where we plaued with the audio a bit:

Titles and Fonts! :0

 Hello everyone! Today we will be researching fonts and Title cards, and show you what I have drafted for our title card! :D But before that, I wanted to let you guys know that we just started editing our opening since we filmed this past weekend. So I wanted to start looking at title cards and I've seen some pretty cool examples that I wanted to share!

So one of my first inspirations is American Psycho.

The title card in American Psycho is super clean and minimal. It uses a thin font for the word "American", but a bold one for "Psycho". The background is clean and white but witha splash of red.  The design feels polished and bland, which matches the main character’s personality. I was thinking of going in this route with our main character Asher

Another big inspiration for me is The Silence of the Lambs.

This title card is much more traditional and what I thought my members would personally go for. The font is less dramatic and has a style of Times New Romans.  It doesn’t try too hard visually, and that actually works well for us. Since our character Asher, doesn't stand out that much as an individual, it feels serious and  like you’re about to watch something psychological rather than a traditional horror film. 

Now as for the title card that I'm working (which is a draft at the moment) I wanted to make it more like "American Psycho" when it comes to the font. I wanted it to be simple and have the title come abrubtly with a cut. This is what i was thinking:

Group Meeting #2

 Hello everyone!!!  Today during class we had our second group project meeting! This meetings really do help bring insight to what we could be doing wrong or better :) For this group project we were grouped with different people, except Isabella, she was in my first group project. Here I'll tel you what they each discussed during the meeting:

Abriel: Idea for his portfolio project is a coming-of-age opening. When it came to obstacles, there were issues with showing the beach in a car scene. The issue specifically was wanting to shoot with the sunset in the background, but it was too dark to capture that. In terms of the CCR, he's thinking of doing a transition between a radio of them speaking to the actual setting that takes place.

Brianna: Her idea was a coming-of-age story as well but revolves around growth from grief. She hasn't filmed yet but plans to this weekend. As for CCR that our group recommended was creating a video of questions that are popped up on the screen and the actors answer the same questions, just in different parts of the video. 

Mateo: His opening is more of a crime/thriller genre and also includes violence. Mateo already knew what he wanted to do in terms of his CCR, and is planning to do a podcast with the actors and director :)

Isabella: I've worked with Isabella before with my previous Group meeting project, so I had a good idea on what to expect. She plans to film soon as well and is thinking of having her CCR videos be in the moment while filming. Or actually I recommended her this idea. Having a crew member go up to the actors in the moment while filming or when they're taking a break, to have them answer questions right there and then.

Clara: Her idea is a thriller/psychological genre. Her main character will be suffering with reoccurring nightmares and can't get rid of it. Her opening circles around that, and Abriel gave a cool idea on what she should do for her CCR. He suggested on having the actor answer questions nightmares, specifically the person tied up in a chair, answer questions in the setting of the actual nightmare, if that makes sense. Like the actor will be interviewed WHILE they are tied up in the chair while being in a nightmare.

As for my CCR, they reccomended I answer the questions like an inttoragation. For example, have myself or one of my group members answer the CCR questions as if we commited a crime of some sort. I thought this was a brillant idea, and I'll see later if I can execute it.

To summairze, this group meeting was very beneficial for coming up with ideas on hwo to carry out our CCR videos. :D