Creative Critical Reflection

 Here are my CCR’s!

CCR #1

CCR #2

Thank you! Hope you enjoy! ✌

Film Opening

 This is my film opening… Hope you enjoy! :))))

“Birdie” by Divya Mohan

Reflection on Whole Proccess

     I feel like I have learned so many skills that are applicable everywhere. First, I learned the importance of collaboration when working with my sister. It’s hard working with someone else and losing that “my way or the highway” mindset. It was important for me to realize I can’t control everything!!

    I am so glad I got the opportunity to learn how to use so many platforms: blogger, Adobe, Canva, etc. Knowledge on these technologies will definitely help in the future!

    I learned about how detrimental child abuse and neglect is. If my opening was a real media text, I would be so happy to educate people on it. I had no idea about some of these statistics- 1 in 7 children are abused or neglected every year (and this is ONLY THE REPORTED CASES). It’s crazy how little this issue is talked about!

    Overall, I learned a lot of values, ideas, and skills during this project, and I am so grateful for it, despite how annoying it seemed in the beginning…

    Thank you and I hope you enjoy my portfolio!

Music for Opening

    I learned last minute that my friend wasn’t able to do the song :((((…

    But, it’s ok, when one door closes, another door opens! I found this great copyright-free song on Youtube that was perfect!

    It even aligned with some parts in my opening!! It was made for me.

Creation of both CCR’s!

     Filming CCR #1:

We put the script in the pocket of a binder and my sister held it as close to the lens as possible!

    Struggles + Solutions:

-Reading the script without it being noticeable that I am looking off to the side. To solve this, I tried to edit in clips and images to the CCR during the parts where I look away.

-Not having a microphone caused the audio to be funky because of the wind. To solve this, on Premiere Rush, there is an option to remove the background noise, which worked really well.

    I used Premiere Rush instead of Premiere Pro because Premiere Pro was getting glitchy on my laptop. I used my iPad for Premiere Rush which worked great!

CCR #2

    I made my presentation on Canva. I chose a theme with red in it so it is more engaging to the audience:

    I made speaker notes that I could read while recording the audios. I recorded the audios on voice memos on my phone, then imported them to iMovie. I then took screenshots of the slides and lines up the slides to the audio’s timing. But then I realized HOW LONG IT IS. Before re-recording some of the audios it was like 8 minutes long. I had to talk pretty fast for some of the slides in order to cut down the time of it.

    All of the photos I used are either my own, from Canva, or copyright free found on Google. Canva was so good when it came to this presentation!

Script for my first CCR!

     Before creating the script, I made a table on how I wanted to answer the questions:

    I put many statistics and the links where I found them because I feel that including them in my CCR will show my research. After making this chart, I was able to create my script! I used the information I put in my notes in my script, but presented them in a more entertaining and creative way. My CCR is going to be in an interview format:

-I am going to climb out of my window( connecting to film), and going to be walking around for engagement.

-My sister is going to be the interviewer.

-A lot of visual aspects from website and my film are going to be incorporated into my CCR as well. 

Here is my script:

 

   

    In parenthesis I put the actions I am going to do or the frames I am going to show on screen.

    I will update my blog with what the filming process looked like!

Wrapping my opening up… what I learned!

 Lesson Learned #1:

    NEVER procrastinate. To be honest, I definitely procrastinated a bit in starting the editing process. I now know that it is crucial to be a little bit ahead, especially when doing a project.  

Lesson Learned #2:

    Youtube videos are sooo helpful when it comes to the editing process. Using Adobe, there are a lot of features that can be confusing to navigate through on your own. Watching videos made by professionals really helped my beginner self produce a great opening! 

Here are some examples of parts I struggled with for my opening, and the videos that helped:

-Using the fonts. I had NO idea how to download a font and then use it in my opening. Thankfully, this video helped:

- Changing the text color. I used this video to help me turn my text color into a sunshiney yellow!:

-Moving my tracks backwards without changing the syncing of my videos and audios:

Lesson Learned #3:

    Outside help is necessary!! I used many items that were from friends, and got help filming from family:

-The electric guitar belonged to my neighbor, Ariday.

-My sister, Leela, helped me film the opening.

-The skateboard is my sister’s too.

A Little Update

 Here is a screen recording of me going over my progress:

Creating the foley

        It was difficult to line up the actions in my video with the foley I was producing. However, I was able to cut out the individual sounds and align them with what was being shown on the screen to keep my film as synced as possible. My sister and I worked together to produce the foley needed for my film.

We used the Voice Memos app on the iPhone 14 to record the sounds

Recording the sound of when my character opens the bedroom door in the film. This is how the sound turned out:

We recorded my sneakers on the wooden floor as foley.

    I used this website to acquire the sound of walking on tile. Specifically, I used this sound:

    For the house alarm sound, I used this youtube video:

    After having practiced recording foley during our sound project, this task was generally easy. Here is a clip of my partner and I creating foley for our sound project that we did a while ago:

    Overall, I learned the importance of being patient when recording foley. It is difficult to get the timing just right, but there are always ways to fix it (cutting out the sound clips on Adobe and individually placing them where each sound occurs).

Representation in my film- preparation for the CCR

     My film represents the large amount of teenagers who face abuse or neglect. Although not particularly stated, many elements in my opening insinuate that Birdie has abusive/neglecting parents. I tried to communicate this idea without words-there will be no stated words in my opening, it relies heavily on mise-en-scene and actions. This could symbolize the way many of these teenagers feel restricted to speak.

    When researching, I found that at least one in five youth in the US, UK, and other developed countries experience neglect, or exposure to abuse. This can seriously affect their development, and put them at risk for mental health issues. Specifically, it can more than double the risk of depression in later childhood and adulthood (the upcoming ages of Birdie). Emotional neglect is severely understudied in todays society-the lack of social support, like what Birdie faces later in the film, will impact her health. 

    Birdie faces physical abuse as well, implied by the bruise on her face. Each year approximately three million cases of child abuse are reported. For every incident of reported child abuse, approximately two incidents go unreported. This further supports my decision to make my entire opening without dialogue.

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    Doing research on the signs of physical/emotional abuse of teenagers greatly helped me for this project. Having divorced parents also helped me capture some of the emotions Birdie feels. 

    I had a best friend when I was younger who often told me that she wanted to run away. Her parents would fight and try to belittle her. I would often try to support her emotionally, which coincidentally is shown to be the best method to help those who are emotionally abused.

    This research will be included in my CCR questions dealing with representation. Here are my sources!:

https://www.childhelp.org/child-abuse-statistics/

http://www.sardelichcounseling.com/abuse-of-children-and-teens-emotional-physical-and-sexual.html

https://hr.mit.edu/static/worklife/raising-teens/abuse-of-teens.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/education-38132401

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.681176/full

https://www.childprotect.org/facts-about-child-abuse.html

    

Font Finding

     I used a website called DaFont to look for some fonts to use. Here is what I have found so far:

    For the credits I am deciding between these two fonts. I like the first font because it is clear and “indie-ish,” but I like the second one because it gives a more natural, handwritten feel to my film.

    
                                                      

    For the title, I found this font. I like that it is thicker than the other ones. It is still cursive, but to me it is clearer and more defined, which I like. I’ll keep looking for other ones but I really like this one.

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    I still need to film the credits too. I was thinking that I should include her name somewhere in the credits so the audience isn’t confused about what the title means. I want to include the electric guitar in the credits as well, because the background music is going to sound pretty natural and homemade (the guitar is going to insinuate that she is playing the background music). 

This is the guitar

    I could somehow put the name on the guitar or the guitar strap. I would have put it on my bedroom door but I already filmed multiple scenes there, so I am not going to do that.

    I could make like a collage with pictures with her “friends”(my friends) and on one of them write “Birdie’s 16th Birthday.” The audience would know her age, the people she hangs out with, and just get to know her better. I would put this clip in the credits by the way. This idea reminded me of that scene from Stranger Things where Eleven is looking through Nancy’s room and finds a collage of Nancy and her friends.

 

I finally came up with my title!!

     I was brainstorming title names and one idea stood out to me: name your film the name of the character. Since my opening revolves around the characters life, I thought this idea was perfect. There lied one problem- coming up with the character’s name. After going through many names like…

1. Camryn (meaning crooked)

2. Angie

3. Liana (meaning vine, symbolizing how she feels trapped)

    I finally found the name “Birdie” from this website.  For one, the main character wishes to escape from her house, like how a bird wants to escape from its cage. It also brings an indie feel to my film. I also thought of other film names(some were inspired by songs), but they didn’t stick out to me like “Birdie” did.

-Here we go again

-Burden of youth (Like a Tattoo by Sade)

-Scars of aging, scar of age (Like a Tattoo by Sade)

-Unloved (This one is just a word I thought of when describing my film)

-Neglected (Another word I thought of, but having a title like this would be hard to attract an audience because of how basic and general it is)

-Erased (Already exists)

-Here forever

-Running through my head (Wish You Were Here by Avril Lavigne) 

-Broken Inside (Nobody’s Home by Avril Lavigne)

    My character would definitely listen to Avril Lavigne and that’s where I drew a lot of inspiration from. And that song by Sade was stuck in my head the entire time brainstorming and I just realized how fitting some of the lyrics are to my film.

                                                                                          

Avril Lavigne vs. My character

(I found the picture of Avril on Pinterest, I couldn’t find the source of it)

    I still feel like “Birdie” is the best choice out of all of them. But I just realized that it is kinda close to “Lady Bird’s” name. Hopefully it wont be a problem because I was not even thinking about Lady Bird during this part of the process. 

 

Next steps

     I am going to start working on the editing process now. I also have to make some time for my CCR. Since I am not really going anywhere for spring break, I thought that I would be able to work A LOT on my project then. I may also need to redo some shots if it didn’t come out the way I wanted it to. 

    While I am editing, I will take screenshots of the technologies and softwares I use to prepare me for the CCR. I’ll also post some before and after shots when I am editing the brightness/exposure of some of my clips. 

    And also, for the music part of my film, I asked my friend who plays the electric guitar to record a song for it. She told me she thinks the “F Song” by Strawberry Guy would be a good fit for my opening and I totally agree. I feel like it is more upbeat, but it will fit with the ending of my film when the alarm goes off. She already knows hoe to play it so that’s a big plus!!

Here’s a video of her playing a song

Filming- The process of it

     Having an outline of all my angles really helped me with this process. Of course, there were still some changes that I had to make to the angles once the filming process started. Some of the shots were too dark, since I had to shoot it in the night time:

Before

By turning the brightness and exposure up, I am able to make it a bit brighter… I’m still looking for ways to take away the shadow that is on my face.

After

    For one of my shots, I wasn’t able to ask my mom to be in the film, so instead I asked my sister. I think she looks like a mom though:

I used a ring to make her look more like an adult, and communicate that she is married

    A lot of over the shoulder shots…

    The filming process didn't take long but we worded LATE. Our last shot was taken at 12:07 a.m… But I’m glad that we were able to complete it!!

Filming- Makeup/costume/decorating

     So in the outline, my character was supposed to have a bruised face, indicating that she gets abused by her parents. I used this youtube video to do it.

I made a time lapse of me doing it too:

This is how it turned out:

    Honestly I think I did pretty good considering I just used an eyeshadow palette!!

    Next, I had to put on my costume; I ended up changing my costume idea because I liked the new one more. Here is the new costume:

    I did my hair in the low messy ponytail like how I had chosen on my mood board. 

    I also had to design my room, and using the Amazon posters I got I was able to create this:

    My film was just in this part of my room!! My sister helped me with this decorating part:

    Overall, doing the makeup and finding the costume was pretty simple. When decorating my room, we had some difficulties; the pictures were having a hard time sticking to the wall, but we just decided to use more tape.I didn’t get to film the credits yet, but those are pretty simple to do and don't require any getting ready besides establishing the mise-en-scene.

Thinking about my CCR

    After learning about the CCR in class, and taking MANY pages of notes… I have begun to think about what I want to do for it. 

Here are my notes by the way:

    So the main objective of what I have to do is answer 4 questions in a creative and interesting way. The questions have to be split up into 2 distinct media products. After watching some student samples, the ones I am most interested in are the…

1. Directors commentary (for the first 2 questions)

    -I like the personal aspect of this one and how I can incorporate clips from my own production, research, and other film examples in it.

    -I realize that with this media product, I need to be creative and have a distinctive “personality” that would be engaging to the audience- in other words, NO TALKING HEAD!

2. Presentation with a voiceover (for the last 2 questions)

    -I like this one because I am already familiar with the concept… I made a group film campaign where I presented a powerpoint that had engaging visuals. Here’s a small clip of me speaking from it:

Of course, in my next project I will be sure to be a bit more enthusiastic and fast-paced…

    -Since the last two questions are about the skills I have developed and how I integrated software/technologies into my project, I feel that it would be heavily reliant on visuals; I would be able to put images or clips of me working on the project, and describe in the voiceover the skills I learned by doing that specific activity. I can also do this for the software/technology portion of it- I can include screenshots of the different technologies I used and explain how and why it was done. 

A little update:

    Honestly, I have been behind schedule for what I have to film. I was supposed to film my credits on Friday, but I just didn’t plan out my time right. I was scheduled to complete filming within the weekdays of  3/6-3/12, but I think I might have to do it over the weekend. If I do it over the weekend, I will allow myself a lot of space to do so. In the meantime I will continue the parts of the production process that don't have to do with filming: decorating my room, developing a font, creating my props, etc. I will update on when I start filming process in future blog posts. 

My schedule!!

    Here is my shooting schedule. I was originally going to use this website, but it was a little too complicated for me. Instead, I used the table found on this website as an example when creating my own.

    During the process, I will be adding to it, describing the obstacles I faced and any changes to the film dates, camera notes, etc. 

 

  

My mood board!!

     So, I created a mood board to get an idea of what my character’s aesthetic would be like. I made some changes to what I thought my character would look like using examples from other films.

    For example, I pictured her having red nails, symbolizing danger, but I remembered that red can symbolize seduction, and with it being nails, it could definitely come off that way. I changed the nail color to black, representing rebellion, and added some hand drawings to the picture. The hand drawings could convey the idea that she is an artistic person who lets her mind wander.

    I also wanted her hairstyle to be more messy; she is running away from home, so her hair would be tied up for comfort, but it wont look styled. 

Here is the mood board for my character:

And here’s a mood board for her room:

    

Planning out the props I’m using

     First, the credit scene. In my outline I put that my credits would be items around the house including an empty pill bottle, a family picture in a fame with broken glass, and a sink full of dishes. I may have to do more depending on the amount of credits I have to do, but I am also thinking about introducing the character a bit with the credits; maybe it would focus on items in her room that capture the “essence” of her.

Family photo(this is my actual family before my parents divorced)

Pill bottle (I had to scribble out the prescription don’t mind that)

Frame that I am going to break the glass of (I may have to get a different one on Amazon because I haven’t broke the news to my mom that I have to break it yet)

    The next scene is my character packing her bag. I am going to get some pins on Amazon to put on the bag to kind of capture her character)

The bag I am using

Pins I am thinking of

    Oh, by the way, I am borrowing my friends pocket knife because I don't have one.

Here is what my room looks like currently

These posters would be good to add to my wall to create the vibe of the character.

    In the next scene she walks down the hallway…

These are the shoes I will be wearing ( I might doodle on them, suggesting that the character is creative and imaginative)

My water bottle

    After the water bottle filling scene, the window scene occurs… I am thinking about focusing the camera on the “ADT” sticker that I conveniently have on my window, provoking a sense of fear for the main character before she opens it.

My window

    I also got a tripod from Amazon to make my filming more steady.

My tripod

    Here is where I want to film my last scene when my character closes the window after the alarms goes off:

This is where the last shot would be- Of course, I will have to remove all of those leaves but there was a spider there so I will have to ask my mom to help me because I was scared :)

    In the next post, I will post my moodboard and the next one would be my shooting schedule that I am currently making with this website.

 

Developing a title

     After brainstorming my shot list, I realized that I am missing a title for my film. So I decided to do a bit or research to come up with it. 

Here are some of the tips I found from this website:

1. What is the story’s essence?

-What is it about? A girl who is trapped in an abusive household.

-Core conflict? She wants to run away but she is trapped.

-Overall emotion you want to convey in the title? Something that conveys the idea of being “trapped”

2. Characters name?

-Liana (means vine, symbolized how she cant escape her home), will never be mentioned in the opening though

-Alex

3. Location?

-The location of my film is not really important to the story. Plus it’s kinda boring.

4. Situations or feelings?

- “Don’t Wake Up” (character doesn't want her parents to wake up in the beginning)

     -Is it too similar to Don't Worry Darling or Don’t Look Up? 

- “Get Me Out”

    So far I like “Don’t Wake Up” as my title but I worry that its too close to Don't Worry Darling or Don’t Look Up. Also does it describe the essence of the ENTIRE movie? Not really. But I am going to keep thinking of it- I feel like it just needs time.