CCR

My Creative Critical Reflection

Here is the link to my CCR: Stephanie's CCR
Back Up Link: CCR Backup 

Goodbye for now blog! :)

Film Opening

I Present... the Long Awaited Dead End

Who would have thought we would have made it to this point. Our film is finally here. After long hours editing, stressful searches for music, being jailed to our homes, and restless nights planning, I present Dead End. Enjoy :)

Link to Our Film Opening: Dead End (2020)

Backup Link: Dead End Backup

Project Reflection

A Bittersweet Finale

This project has been such a learning experience
about myself and films. It's so satisfying how this simple idea of a homeless man living in his car has developed over time. So many small details go into creating even just a short 2-minute opener.

Deciding to work with my partner Leandro was risky but helpful. Although we didn't know each other very well when picking partners, we decided to take a chance and work together. Working in a group can be scary, however, it went a lot simpler than I had imagined. It was very easy to bounce ideas off of one another, we never seemed to get stuck. If one of us had a bad idea the other one would let us know. He had strengths in editing while I had a notch for coming up with ideas, the team dynamic worked well. I even found that I was more likely to get the work done fast because someone else was relying on me. In addition to that, I saw that if I put my mind to things I could reach some goals I wouldn't have deemed possible. Even if it required hours of searching for just a 30-second background song to the title slide, it can be done.

This film opener was probably the most naturally flowing out of all of the projects I have completed in this class. Throughout my work in the year, I found that I constantly had issues with the theme; my projects always lost their focus. This time around we decided to create a film based on a simpler idea. We had a slight urge to go towards a complex idea but instead, we stuck with making are simple idea intricate and detailed. I also learned how planning plays such a key role in projects. All the planning and research that went into this project prepared me for the execution.

Throughout this project, I learned that I enjoy films. I have always loved art, however, I have gained a newfound respect for film and any type of media. I learned that a lot goes into a piece of work. We often consume media without even thinking but if you take a step back and think about what you're watching it's truly amazing how much thought and detail go into films. I did not expect to like this subject as much as I did and it is maybe something I would want to continue even after this year.

This is a bittersweet feeling. I am happy with the outcome of the project and that the stress if over, however, being creative is a lot of fun and it's sad it has to end. I am also going to miss my blog, which was surprisingly very fun for me to do.

CCR Planning

I Swear I can see the Finish Line

So now that I basically have the editing done, it is time to move on to competing the CCR. Honestly, the CCR has been something that has kinda stressed me out this whole project. It just feels surreal that this moment has finally come and we're at the finish line of the project. I am slightly nervous because i'm not sure how i'm going to go about filming the CCR but right now i'm planning on doing a voice over while showing visuals.

Questions

There are the four main questions that need to be answered in the CCR. My plan of attack is to make an outline for the points I want to make then develop a full script. I also cannot forget to include some data but luckily I can just refer back to my blog posts for that.

Outline (click to make larger)

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Editing Part 3

Reaching Home Stretch

We're getting so much closer to finishing the editing. We may be falling slightly behind the editing but I think we're still on track to finish. We have most of the beginning done, however, we have to fix up the end of the opener. I am hoping to be done with editing by Wednesday/ Thursday so I have enough time to edit/ film my CCR. Here are some newer updates/ obstacles we overcame.   :)

Title

I am so happy to announce that I overcame my issue! I realized I could just make the title on Power Point. To make the title look real, I took an individual photo of each letter from a mix of different Florida license plates (I took a pic of an "E" on one license plate and edited it on this fake one.) I also edited the colors a bit to look dull. I am super excited with the outcome and can't wait to see how it looks at the end of the film opening. We are going to match cut this title license plate with the car license plate. (Hopefully it goes smoothly.)

Sound

When we were filming we did capture some sounds of the road/ ambiance in the background, however, in order to bring these sounds out more we're just going to edit in our own. For the ambiance sound I searched up "highway sounds" into a copyright free sound browser and found one I thought best fit. We also want to place our own sounds for some actions to be emphasized or sound more realistic. The sound of the trunk closing we thought could be louder to add drama. Instead of looking this up we decided to incorporate a technique we learned in class. We used volley sound making by dropping a textbook on a marble ground. We think this will fit well for the sound.

Distribution

DIS  TRIB  U  TION

As we get closer to the due date, I am realizing I need to prepare my CCR video. I have viewed the questions in the past and made blog posts researching some of the topics. I have already covered target audience, representation, and even mentioned some technologies that aided in the creation of the project. The one thing that I haven't touched on is........ DISTRIBUTION.

I may have slightly avoided this blog post because I honestly don't know too much about film distribution. Additionally without school, Leandro and I haven't really discussed where/ how we would distribute the film. My teacher did briefly talk about distribution when discussing the CCR questions and I have researched distribution with other medias but it differs with smaller films. All I remember is that Leandro and I were leaning towards distribution the "film" into a festival because that is what most interested us during the lesson. To avoid the confusion, I need to research:

Distribution Research

So when it come to indie films, distribution may not come as simple. Large companies like Disney can easily distribute their media to the movie theaters and even advertise through their various platforms.

Festivals

This is a form of distribution that Leandro and I are very interested in. Film festivals either have theme or just be open to all and is where one can submit their film in hopes that it wins a prize orgains attention. With digital distribution increasing, festivals are not as popular but still serve as a good tool. There are large, renown festivals such as the Sundance Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival. Smaller, local festivals such as the Miami International Film Festival also exist. A negative would be that not many people attend festivals. The majority tend to be people already interested in film or the industry.

Streaming Platforms

Recently streaming platforms such as Netflix and Hulu have gained a large popularity. People like the ability to steam movies whenever and wherever they choose. However, gaining a deal with a brand like Netlifx is not always easy. Luckily, there are also smaller streaming services where one can attempt to make a deal with. Having one's film on a streaming service can allow for a large group of people to see it. Additionally, many streaming services cater the movie selections per viewer which would allow for the film to be easily distributed to its target audience. The negatives are that it can be difficult/ detrimental to sign a film away to a larger company.

Streaming Web Sites

Although some may consider something like "Youtube" to be a streaming platform, I put it in its own category because it functions differently. Often times for sites such as YouTube, Vevo, or even smaller streaming sites like Film Hub, no account or subscription is necessary. It is usually very easy to distribute your own content on these sites and it can be viewed by a large amount of people. The negatives are that there are often a lot of competition of sites like these and it may be difficult for one's film to gain popularity. However, some sites such as Film Hub specialize in distributing Indie films.

These 3 forms of distribution seem to be most popular in the indie film industry. However, after doing some research and analysis we believe it would be best to distribute our film in smaller local festivals and both large/ specialized streaming sites. We think it would be strategically best to disregard streaming platforms.

Final Music

Music At Last

So after many days (maybe even weeks) of looking for the right music, we found a song! Like I mentioned in a previous posting, we already found one of the songs we needed (the rock song). We now had to find a sad, slower song for the end of the film opening. It was difficult because we were relying on getting Brent Faiyaz's permission to use his song "Natural Release." Unfortunately, he never got back to us.

Finding this song took much longer than expecting. It was difficult to find a song as good as "Natural Release." Some sad songs we heard were too fast paced and upbeat, while some were too depressing. It seemed as if nothing could fit into the opener. Luckily, I got the idea to look up what instruments Brent Faiyaz used in his song in hopes that I could find a somewhat similar song. After doing a quick google search, I found out that he used a bass guitar and that his song was sort of mimicking the blues genre. So with this new information, I continued my search.

Finally, I discovered a website called freemusicarchive.org, which had a pretty good variety of songs. I found this royalty free song that was labeled "Psychedelic Blues." Although it may not be as good as "Natural Release" it still gave off a sad and perplexed vibe. This is the song we are deciding to stick with for the end of the opener. The official song is called "Psychedelic Blues"- Lobo Loco.

Listen Below :)