Creative Critical Reflection

    HEY GUYS! We are now at the end of our project together and it is bittersweet! While I am so glad that I have now officially completed this project and everything that came with it, I also have to appreciate how far I have come and how much I have learned and grown as a student. During my CCR's I really wanted to emphasize how much I have learned and how much thought and intent went into our project, as well as having all of my CCR's be as creative as possible! 

CCR #1 -  How did my product use or challenge conventions, and how does it represent social groups or issues?

CCR #2 - How does my product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as if it was a real media text?

CCR #3 - How did my production skills develop throughout this project?

CCR #4 - How did you integrate technologies - software, hardware and online - in this project?

Thank you for watching! ;)

Final Brief Submission - Paranoia

    Finally!!!!!! We are now officially done with our final short film and I am so proud of how this has come out. It was definitely a learning process and getting used to all of the different editing software and features on Premiere Pro was diffidently not easy, but in the end worth it all.

Paranoia: By Santiago Acosta, Samuel Ruiz, and Laila Harran

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHeurx_UwZc

Production - Scene 6

     After 2 long days of filming we FINALLY finished the last scene. This was the ending scene that pulled everything all together. In all honesty, there was a lot of controversy in my group about how this short film should end. Each of us has our separate ideas. Originally I wanted this scene to end with a shot of Lily screaming in the car, but we later realized that ending the film like that might seem abrupt. 

The script we derived introduced another character Alejo. This character was going to be played by Santiago and come in at the very end, but just soon enough to frighten Lily, leading her to kill him. We filmed those scenes, but during the editing process when we were going over clips it did not make sense. It was really late to introduce the new character and the scenes felt rushed. In the end it was better to not include the Alejo scenes and we just ended the film on the cliff hanger of Lily flipping open the pocketknife. I ultimately think this was a better way to end our short film because it really plays into the suspense and wonder that we want to leave our target audience with. 

Because we decided to just end on the cliffhanger of Lily flipping open the knife, Sam had the great idea to film a pan scene where the camera moves from Lily to the knife sitting in the cupholder of the car. This really tied in the importance of the possibly overlooked item. It elevates this inanimate object from a common item that one might have, to holding the fate of this film. What might Lily do with this pocketknife? That is the question I hope everyone will be wondering!!

These are some of the scenes that we did not end up using. This scene was supposed to symbolize how Lily viewed Alejo as the shadowy figure, and once she opened the knife Alejo/shadow figure got frightened. 

On the other hand, here are some of the scenes that highlights the importance of the pocketknife:

Production - Scene 5

     Hey Blog!! Long time no see! This week was spring break for us, but our final film project was is due tomorrow, so we still had to work to complete this on time. First we filmed the therapist scene which took place in the library. 

This was supposed to represent the idea that the shadow figures Lily saw were really all in her head. We did this by having Lily confess to the therapist about her visions, but her therapist, played by Sam, seemed rather uninterested in her "delusions". 

First, we decided to line up the slam of the car door from the first day of filming, to the slam of the binder by Dr. Fernandez, the therapist, in his office. This took a few tries to get the exact sound effect of the slam that we wanted so that editing would be simpler for us to have the shots we wanted to line up clear. My group really wanted this transition to work because it was a harsh transition. In my mind, the abrupt slam took Lily from her fractured mental state after thinking she saw a shadow figure, to the harsh reality of someone not believing her and forcing her to become extremely upset. 

This is the final shot we decided on to match up with the car slam for a seamless transition:

Here was an example of the therapist not believing in Lily: 

Our group really wanted to emphasize the fact that the therapist did not care about Lily and made no real attempt to understand her story or problems. This is common of psychological thrillers and drives the protagonist crazy because it makes them feel isolated and alone because no one will listen to them or try and understand. Small details like the therapist clicking his pen annoyingly or staring at the clock infuriated Lily even further and lead to her completely panicking and leaving his office. This is an example of the therapist obviously looking at the clock indicating his lack of care for Lily's visions:

Production - Final Day 1 Scene

Here is our final put together clip of productions from filming day 1: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9JXrnfzwcM

Production - Editing Day 1 Scenes

     Today was such a long day. It was filled with lots of filming and so many small edits that we had to make both to camera angles, and to the finished different clips. While filming, we made sure to start the clip, wait 2 seconds before acting, and then wait 2 seconds after the character is done talking before stopping recording. This was Santiago's idea and it was absolutely brilliant! It seems like such a simple concept but it made the whole editing process so much easier. We had space to adjust or crop both the beginning and the ending of every clip. Mostly this came in handy if there was a loud background noise at the begging of the clip or if somehow the camera shifted weird at the end of it. This allotted space too edit made the process so quick. 

Everything was filmed on my phone, so you can imagine how many videos and picture I had to go though to find the perfect final separate clips. To make this easier, I sent all of media to my group mates and we all went through and individually edited each clip before putting it together. 

Then we went over to Premiere Pro and imported all of our final clips to then join them all together. Santiago is our main editor and so he handled most of the editing while Sam and I oversaw and helped him as needed. 

Here is all of our clips in Premiere Pro while editing:

Production - Scene 3 & 4

 The last thing we had to do in our filming day was to film the kitchen scene and the outside/car scene. After the tracking shot into the kitchen, the next part of the script was Lily opening the fridge and pulling out a water and being terrified by the shadow figure appearing right next to the fridge. 

This scene was not incredibly hard to film, but it required a few different shots. First Santi had to film from behind me as an over-the-shoulder shot and then he filmed a body shot which was from my waist up. Both of these shots were important because it helps the viewer connect with the story more. Once I saw the shadow figure, I dropped the water bottle and ran away. This was slightly more complicated as I had to fully grasp the fear that Lily would have felt in this moment. Overall this running scene took about 3 tries to get it perfect and fully embody someone who is running for their lives. 

These are both the clips of the over-the-shoulder fridge shot and the tracking scene where Lily runs away:

In all honesty, when I got to the door I was not entirely sure how to open it....I messed up a few times on this part while filming but when we went back to review the footage it turned out that me messing up the door slightly is more realistic for our film. It gives a sense of urgency and panic to the film because Lily is not causally walking out the door perfectly but instead running and just trying to escape quickly. 

Here is the video of Lily running outside to her car: 

Once I opened the door I ran outside to where Sam's car was parked. The next shot was of my feet entering the vehicle and the door slamming shut. During the production of this we decided to have me get into the car with only socks on. This was actually originally my idea because if I personally was running away frantically I would not stop to put my shoes on but instead get into the car barefoot or in socks.