CCR #3

Hi Everyone,

I’m sharing with you the script for the my third CCR (CCR #3: How did your production skills develop throughout this project?). I hope you enjoy!
EXTRA PRODUCTIONS ON BLACK SCREEN…
Davis sits in front of camera ready to address another online q and a session.
Hi, I’m happy to be joining you again. It’s been so great getting so many questions from all of you and I wanted to answer another one that so many of you have been asking.
SCREEN: How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
Davis Voiceover:
The question was, “How did your production skills develop throughout this project?” great question!
Davis Talking Head:
I (we) had to become a jack of all trades. When there are only two people in a group, guess what? Every single part of the project falls on your shoulders. It was both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because we had complete creative control. It’s a curse because there was no one else to blame when things went wrong. I think every aspiring filmmaker should do an entire project themselves at some point. Now that I’ve gone through it, I have a way better understanding of all the roles involved, and if I ever work with a bigger team in the future, I’ll actually be able to talk to the actors and crew without sounding like I have no idea what I’m doing.
There are a few major production skills that developed at warp speed during this project:First, scriptwriting:

• Screenshot: text flashes: “SCRIPTWRITING”
• Davis talking head: I have never rewritten something so many times in my life. We went from dialogue-heavy to barely any dialogue to absolutely zero dialogue
• Davis voiceover: Instead, we had to script every single movement, glance, hesitation…everything. Even objects had to be planned to help tell the story. Every bouncing knee, every slight shake of the head, every little moment had to be intentional.
• Davis talking head: It was exhausting, but it made me realize just how much thought goes into the smallest things in film.

Second, directing:

• Screenshot: text flashes: “DIRECTING”
• Davis talking head: Alessandra and I had to direct each other, which is both great and terrible because we know exactly how to push each other’s buttons. We also had to communicate clearly with our Director of Photography to make sure he understood exactly what we needed.
• Davis Voiceover: After every shot, we checked the footage, and if it wasn’t right, we went right back and did it again.

Davis talking head: Then we have organization:

• Screenshot: ORGANIZATION
• Davis talking head: If we didn’t stay organized, this project would’ve gone up in flames fast.
• Davis voiceover: We crossed off every shot from our script as we filmed it. We grouped our shots by location and kept all of our raw footage organized so editing wouldn’t be a complete disaster later.

Davis talking head: I can confidently say that Future Us was very thankful to Past Us for not making everything a mess.
Next, we have editing:
Screenshot: "EDITING"

• Davis talking head: Having a clear shot list and script made this part much, much easier. We knew exactly where everything went, so we didn’t spend hours searching for the right clips. We also got better at cutting to enhance the story. Editing is really where the film comes to life.

So, there you have it: a breakdown of how my production skills developed. I hope this was helpful!

CCR #2

This blog post is on how I will be answering the second CCR, or Creative Critical Response (there are 4 in total: so now you know what my next two blog posts will be about).

For this second CCR we are being asked to answer the following: How does your product engage with audiences, and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

This will be in the format of a Q and A VLOG session. This is the script:

Screen: "Answering Your Questions about Admitted”

OPENING SHOT: Davis sitting in front of a laptop with some UM props from the film in the background.

Davis (looking into the screen):
Hey everyone! So, since we’ve been working on our film, a bunch of you have been asking some really great questions. Well, I’m here to answer them, so fire away.

Ok - here’s a great one:

Screen: How do you think your movie will engage with the audience?

Davis: looking into the screen.

Alright, so I guess this would be a great place to reveal this but… we made a made a decision to remove dialogue from the opening of the film.

The #2 flashes on screen:

Davis voiceover: This is only for the first two minutes….2 minutes isn’t a lot of time to develop our characters through dialogue. Trust me, we tried. But don’t worry, the film itself will have dialogue.



Screen: still shots of movie:



Davis Voiceover: During this time, we realized we could say way more with the right shots and editing than with words. So, we focused on expressions and body language instead. We hope that this will allow the audience to connect with our characters on a deeper level.

Davis looking into screen: This ties into a media theory I really believe in - Active Audience Theory. This is where the audience isn’t just watching passively, they are actually an active participant by processing what they are watching through their own experiences.

Screen: still shots of movie:



Davis Voiceover: We take this up a notch by letting them in on something the characters don’t: that Alessandra got in and Davis didn’t. They get to pick up on her anxiety and when she lies and tells Davis she didn’t get in either…well, the audience knows the truth. This tension pulls them in, making them invested in the characters and in how everything will play out.

Ok: one more question

Screen: How will this film be distributed?

Davis Voiceover: How will this film be distributed?

Davis speaking into screen: As far as distribution is concerned, this is something we are always thinking about. We are a small indie film and we don’t have nationwide distribution channels in place...yet. But there are still many ways we can get our movie out there.

Screen: Start sharing screenshots of film festival names, online platforms like YouTube, and TikTok, Instagram for a way to promote the film…



Davis Voiceover: First, we have been invited to show our film at several film festivals. This has always been a great way to get feedback from other directors there and to generate some buzz if people like it. We also have YouTube, and we will strategically use social media like TikTok and Instagram to share clips to get a conversation going about the theme of friendships getting pulled in different directions.

Davis into the screen: So watch it, comment, and send to friends. We are looking forward to sharing it with everyone.

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

This is the script for my first Creative Critical Reflection. Can't wait to share what we have with you next week. It's going to be a question and answer type of format.

(Bold, underline and italicized means what you will see on the screen while I speak.)
Question: Hi Davis, thanks for taking the time to speak to us. We wanted to find out a little bit about your upcoming movie:

Talking Head (me): What our movie, Admitted, is about Hi, I’m Davis Rop and I’m a co-writer, co-producer and co-director of the film, Admitted. At its core, our upcoming film is a coming-of-age story that details the moment when

(photos of Davis and Alessandra as kids and as adults) life starts to pull two lifelong friends, Davis and Alessandra, in different directions.

(application submitted, accepted and rejected pages) We meet them on their college application journey and are there when they get the results. We quickly learn that Alessandra gets in, but Davis doesn’t. She lies and tells him she didn’t get in either.

Talking Head (me): The rest of the film follows along to see what happens when things don’t go as planned and how people handle the fear of moving forward without the ones that have always been there for them. At the end of the day, change is inevitable even in the closest friendships.

Question: Can you tell us a bit more about the genre and if you are following or challenging its conventions?
Movie posters of other coming of age films: Coming-of-age films are often about how protagonists navigate pivotal life events in their teenage to early adulthood years. What they all have in common is that this leads to some sort of personal growth or discovery.

Alessandra and Davis at Town Center: By focusing on the emotional journey of two friends confronting the reality of their impending separation, our film intentionally aligns with these standard conventions.
(insert footage of Alessandra and Davis walking in Town Center)

Talking Head (me): We wanted to make sure to highlight the common but incredibly important theme of change during early adulthood.

Question: Finally, what social group are you interested in representing here and do you make a conscious decision as to why or how you are using them?

Talking Head (me): Great question. We were interested in representing a specific social group – best friends. More specifically, We thought that depicting a platonic friendship between a male and female offered a fresh perspective within the coming-of-age genre.

Show coming of age movies and showcase same sex friendships primarily. While male-male and female-female friendships are the norm, opposite sex friendships remain less explored. This challenges traditional narratives that we typically see and adds in some the diversity we see in real life. This allows us to dive into some interesting perceptions and complications that are found in male-female friendships throughout the film as well.

Talking Head (me): I hope you enjoy the movie.

What to use - iMovie or CapCut?

Today, I'm diving into the editing software options for our project. I’m very comfortable with iMovie and it covers most of our needs. However, there might be an opportunity to use CapCut for additional features, especially with split screens. iMovie offers basic split-screen options only. You can create side-by-side or top-and-bottom split screen layouts. CapCut provides more advanced options, like splitting multiple screens. Both of these programs are free, so I can do as much as I can on iMovie and then save as an mp.4 file. I can then import it into CapCut and finalize any edits there. Jumping in between these two seems smart.​

iMovie Split Screens:

https://support.apple.com/guide/imovie/create-a-split-screen-effect-movb8c659f55/mac

CapCut Split Screens:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV6NDOVZeyU
https://archive.org/details/split-screen-capcut-template-link-tiktok-8

However, there is a third option. My cousin, a film major at LMU in Los Angeles, told me about Final Cut Pro earlier this year. I haven’t had to use anything this advanced and it's not free, so I’ve never really looked into it. They do have a 90-day free trial available. What is intriguing is that Final Cut Pro offers some advanced features not found in either CapCut or iMovie. Final Cut Pro stands out in many areas, but, for me, it’s the special effects, transitions, and layouts that make it interesting. I'm considering using it towards the end (taking advantage of the free trial period) if it can significantly enhance our final product. Even though I'm majoring in business, learning Final Cut Pro might be beneficial for future projects. Trying it during the free trial will give me a good idea of its capabilities for potential future use.

Post-Production Editing: Visual Storytelling

We are officially in the post-production phase of our project, and I have come to truly appreciate the impact that editing has on a story. Editing is just as critical to a film as writing, directing, and acting. We initially had a script heavy with dialogue. This is not a negative thing since many films, like The Social Network, start this way…but we only have two minutes to make an impact. This realization made the saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" resonate really deeply. It was one of many “aha” moments I have had during this project.

Instead of just talking about how much we wanted to get into UM or about how close our friendship is, we decided it would be better to show it visually. We will incorporate shots of UM merchandise in our rooms and focus on pictures of us from childhood and more recently to quickly, as in a few seconds, tell the audience about our deep friendship and our goal of getting into UM together.

 
(Disclaimer: Alessandra and I met this year in our AICE Media Class and became AICE Media buddies, teaming up for all our projects. So, this is all fictional, and no, we are not going to UM.)

Some visual elements we'll include in the film are:A photo of when we were young together (really a picture of my sister and cousin when they were 2 or 3). We will make it black and white to show that it was some time ago.

A current photo of us together...coming soon.
Some UM merch on our walls and desks:

Shot to us typing away in our rooms and then hitting a button and having creens that show Common App for UM being submitted:

Calendar that shows UM Decision Day marked:

A countdown board that we will fast forward through within the story, and that will be a good place to show some credits too.

This way, when our dialogue begins, we won’t have to put in so much effort to explain to the audience what we are looking forward to. Instead, they will be right there with us.

If it were easy, everybody would be a filmmaker

So, we thought we had our filming nailed down. We especially thought that the big admissions reveal scene, the one where Davis and Alessandra find out their college admissions results, was perfect. We then watched the footage and, unfortunately, it didn't scream "lifelong friendship" or "devastating moment of truth." It looked more like two people awkwardly checking their emails or Canvas assignments. So, as a result, we have some quick reshooting to do. There are three main areas we need to make sure we get right: 

Capturing the friend’s deep bond: First off, we need the audience to instantly get that Davis and Alessandra are super tight, like best friends forever vibes. To do this we need more shots of them laughing, sharing inside jokes, and maybe even a slow-motion smile as a means to express this. Dialogue plays a huge role here because they need to establish their past quickly, maybe by remembering different things from their past together. This will help viewers understand the depth of Davis and Alessandra’s friendship.

Make sure that their platonic friendship is highlighted: Next, we want to showcase that a male and a female can be best friends without any romantic entanglements. Our film is s a classic coming-of-age drama, but with a small twist: a real platonic male-female friendship. This isn't something you see every day in films. What we are used to seeing in these situations is some type of romantic tension between the two opposite sex characters. The audience almost comes to expect this. We want to focus on this unique take so that we can challenge traditional conventions and offer a fresh perspective on male/female relationships. Another angle would be focusing more on a social group of anxious high schoolers trying to get into college, but the platonic friendship angle feels more interesting. So, here dialogue is key to establish this quickly. Maybe asking about each other’s boyfriend or girlfriend and showing that they will always be part of each other’s lives.

Getting the admission reveal scene right: This is the big one: the admissions reveal. This scene is the emotional center of our film open. We have got to get it right. Our initial attempt at this did not have any of the emotional tension and pull that we were going for. Our acting and camera work will be everything. Specifically, we have to focus on:Better acting in the form of micro-expressions (just learned this is a thing, but it is what we need). We need Davis and Alessandra to take us on a rollercoaster of emotions. We need to feel their anticipation, dread, joy, heartbreak without saying much. We have to script out a flicker of hope in the eyes, a sigh while looking down, eyebrows coming together in worry, a bounding knee or fidgeting hands showing anxiety. A choreographed dance between who is looking at who. I now know that close-up shots will be our friend here.

Better camera work: The camera has to capture the tension in the room. We have to employ slow zooms and close ups. We need to make sure every glance or gesture is captured.

Thoughtful editing: The pacing of this scene will make this scene. We need to use quick cuts between Davis and Alessandra's reactions to tell the story and build tension. We also need to insert cutaway shots like a clock or a nervous hands to reinforce the story.

Here is an example of a cutaway shot from a James Bond movie (Goldfinger). The film keeps including cutaways to a ticking bomb inching down to 0 seconds. That is definitely a great way to keep tension high.

I have to be honest and say we underestimated how complex this scene was, so we are heading back to film again.

Fonts

Today, I'm working ahead to get final details squared away for our film's opening credits - specifically, font selection. I have to admit, I thought that choosing a font might seem like a minor detail compared to scripting, shooting, or editing. However, font selection is harder than I had anticipated. I realize that our choice will significantly impact our film's overall look and feel.

That is why horror films often use jagged, fonts that look creepy, unpredictable or down-right gruesome in some way.

Romance movies, on the other hand, typically use more elegant fonts that trigger feelings of warmth or love.

I've never really paid much attention to fonts, but now it feels like a whole new world has opened up to me. After researching college-type fonts, I immediately recognized them as classic college-type fonts like these:

1. Octin College Regular (free)

2. Collegiate Heavy Outline (free)

3. UNIVERSAL-COLLEGE (free)

This realization made me understand that, even if we're not consciously aware of fonts, we still recognize them, and form impressions based on what they look like.

Now back to how this all relates to our film. Our project is a coming-of-age story about two soon-to-be college students. To emphasize our theme, I wanted to explore fonts that had a collegiate aesthetic (this is my younger sister’s favorite word). A great example of this is Yale University. They use a font named "Yale," designed by Matthew Carter.

I researched the University of Miami and found out that it uses the "Frutiger" font for everything related to its branding. This font was created by Adrian Frutiger and it is known for it’s readability. Given our plot, using Frutiger or a similar font seems like a logical choice.​

Now, I have to figure out how to actually use this font. I understand that I just have to download and install it and that it will then become accessible across different software. I am hoping it is that straightforward.

If you would like access to the fonts I used above feel free to check out the following sites:
Horror:
https://elements.envato.com/fonts/horror+movie?adposition=&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAoJC-BhCSARIsAPhdfSjwvtqCeOb2Kjro1F4AXC71zr373-m1w66WsxPSWtwAvaKzVa1ikg8aArsqEALw_wcB

Romance:
https://elements.envato.com/cremona-bold-minimal-font-P37PDS2

College (General Examples):
https://prepresstoolkit.com/25-free-college-fonts/?srsltid=AfmBOooc2qm1Cn1JEbGKpFhRR6FDeio0NXmpCupFoJp2psobm6T7o480

Yale Font:
https://yaleidentity.yale.edu/core-identity-elements/yale-typefaces

Frutiger:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frutiger_(typeface)#:~:text=Frutiger%20is%20a%20sans%2Dserif,Swiss%20type%20designer%20Adrian%20Frutiger.