Creative Critical Reflection

CCR - 'The Betrayal'

Week 2 - Final Cut

Final Cut - Film Opening

The necessary changes that were made to our film opening were based off of minor imbalances that we discovered through the peer reviews. The first thing that we adjusted was the noise imbalances throughout the film opening, where the volume would be extremely loud in one scene and extremely quiet in the next, as scene with the piercing noise in the scene of us opening the gate, and the very hard to hear following scene was then adjusted as well. Besides these volume edits, we also shortened the time of the 'One Year Later' scene and changed the text to 'One Week Later', so that the film opening would be more logical and easier to follow. Lastly, we made the credit scene shorter where the cast and contributors names were projected, as well as cropping the music with the scene so that they would both be more concise.

Week 1 - First Film Cut

First Cut - Film Opening

Week 7 - Editing

- Our group has not yet come up with a title of the film, but the fonts that we are using are basic and not too eccentric, being that the focus of our film is the actual shots. 

- We are not sure if we want to use video effects in our film opening yet, as most of the effects we need are sound, and we will most likely not need any artificial video effects otherwise. 

- Our video transitions are for now, just relaying into a black screen at the beginning of the movie, but as the film progresses we may decide to use more complex transitions in accordance to whatever fits between two shots. 

- Sound effects are going to play an important role in our film, as they will be able to convey sounds that we would otherwise not be able to have in our film, such as the noise that frightens the victim of murder (me) to start running, and then the sound of me falling onto the ground with a loud crack of my head.

- Our biggest problem in editing was trying to decide the timing of placing our different shots in relation to one another, because in some places the timing of transitions was awkward and we had to figure out a way around that. 

- Although there is no concrete solution to that problem since it is a matter of opinion, we took a group vote as to what we thought looked the best. 

- This week, we only needed to spend Friday editing because our goal this week was only to have two of the storyboard shots done in our filming, which we were able to accomplish in one day. 

- Lenka is our main editor since she has the most editing skills and knowledge, but we also helped make decisions and we were learning from what she was doing as she was explaining the process. 

Week 6 - Filming Process

In this picture, Chris is playing the role of the friend that discovers the key that their deceased friend had left in the building last year. He is using the camera to create a viewpoint of the key and put emphasis on it, and we plan to use ketchup or red food coloring to mimic blood from when the friend died.

Here, we are trying to create a different lighting in the building that the cast is walking through again in order to make a more mysterious mood that makes the watchers notice that it is not an upbeat experience or film opening.

In this picture, Lenka is concerned while looking at the key and is using her phone in order to first take a picture of it to post on social media, so that other people can know that there are other mementos of the friend's death, and possibly learn more about the murderer.

We did not have many complications this week while attempting a run through at our film opening by taking pictures during the process. The only thing that we found troubling within our group was how we would convey the storyboard and what changes that we should make to the storyboard. We did not know if we should just strictly follow our storyboard that we had originally made, or if we should make some changes to make our film opening more feasible.

Week 5 - Filming Process

Here, Chris is shown trying to find the best camera angle for a certain angle that we were trying to convey.

Here, we are shown running and Chris had tripped and fallen. We were running after Miranda had gotten killed and we were panicking and running for our lives. 

In this photo, Trent is shown trying to get a high angle shot of Chris, who is laying on the ground. We are using this shot so that we have a variety of camera angles. 

Here, we used an eye level shot to convey the fear in our eyes when we are running after Miranda had gotten killed. Chris had gotten back up from falling and is running along with us in fear. 

In this photo, we were all discussing how we would take the shot of us staring at the bloody key on the ground that Miranda had dropped one year ago after she had tripped and died from a harsh fall. 

In this photo, Chris is shown touching the key to assure that it is Miranda’s and so that we would be able to bring it back to her parents who hadn’t had much of her remaining after her death. 

Here, we are all in shock from finding one of Miranda’s last belongings and Chris is in such shock that we found her key that he is attempting to get a closer look at it. 

Shown here is the process in which we were attempting to show Miranda’s harsh fall after someone had mysteriously rolled a water bottle onto the floor, causing her harsh fall and eventual death. 

Here, the process is shown where we are attempting to roll the water bottle in front of Miranda’s feet so that she can trip. This was not easy in getting down the right timing and roll. 

In all, we did experience some difficulties which mainly surrounded our storyboard. We weren’t sure if our storyboard was sound in the filming process and therefore felt as if we needed to change a few little things that would make our film opening a bit more believable and plausible. But, we learned that it is good to have an exact storyboard that we are able to follow in the filming process so that we can all be on the same page and not distracted with alternative ideas that don’t follow. Lastly, a problem that we encountered was that we all had different interpretations of the storyboard and we all thought that certain scenes meant something different from what they actually were. His meant that we had to converse and make sure that we did enough talking and figuring out the storyboard so that we could come up with a concrete plan to make the best storyboard possible. 

Preparing to Film

Actors- Chris, Trent, Lenka, and I are going to play the main and only characters which is the group of friends that is going through the school.

Costumes- We will not be needing any special costumes for our film opening since we are playing the characters of a group of friends that are in a school and are teenagers, which is how we will already be dressed.

Props- The only props that will be necessary in filming is a bloody ring that belonged to the friend who died in the school and the phone that one actor will be using.

Locations- We are going to film in the hallways of school since the story line and setting of the film opening take place in a school.

Dates and Times- Our group will be filming during this class period throughout the next 2-3 weeks.

Scripts- We are still working on writing the script.

Film Equipment- We are going to use the school equipment available in the classroom, such as the portable camera and the microphone for our recording process, and the school computers here for editing our film opening.