CCR #3

Hardware, Software and Online Technologies used in Admitted:

Hi again. Well, we are getting close to the end. Wrote a script – check. Filmed it – check. Edited – check. Written 3 CCRs – check. This is the last CCR. I now have to spend this weekend filming and editing my 4 CCRs.
I wanted to share with you the concept and script for my 4th CCR ( integrating technologies—software, hardware, and online). It will be a director’s cut which is where we can give some behind the scenes decisions that were made.
CCR #4
Screen: DIRECTOR’S CUT
Davis talking to screen: Hey, I’m Davis Rop, co-director of Admitted. Welcome to this behind-the-scenes look at our film. Today, I’m breaking down the technologies we used in the making of this project.
So, let’s first talk about Hardware!
Screen: HARDWARE
Davis speaking into screen: Okay before getting into hardware, I need to share that the final filming of our project was done by Miles Marti. He is a college student studying film and happened to be down visiting one weekend. He helped Alessandra and I out by coming to film us. Since we were both in the film, we needed an extra set of hands. We filmed all our past projects with an iPhone so this was a step up. Miles used:
Screen: alternate between images of camera and accessories

Voiceover: Miles used a Canon EOS R – which sounds and looks fancy. He explained that it would produce sharp footage but that it was really all about the lens.


Voiceover: First, he used a 50 mm prime (1.8f). This is good for close-ups and emotional shots. Great for the Davis gets crushed shot and the Alessandra is worried and anxious close-ups.


Next up is the 35mm prime (3.5f).

Voiceover continues: this gives a more natural feel when we needed a wider shot like when Alessandra and I were sitting with our laptops together.

Finally, Miles used a 24-105mm zoom (f4-7.1) lens when we needed flexibility like when we were on the move walking through town center.



He also used a Feiyutech AK4500 stabilizer for smooth tracking shots and a tripod to keep things steady.

With all the raw footage, we started to edit right away. Alessandra on her Macbook Pro and me on my Macbook Air.

Davis talking into screen: Next comes the editing software we used. We worked with iMovie for most of the main editing. It’s simple and reliable and we already have used it many times in the past.

Voiceover: We did decide to use CapCut for our split screen – because we wanted to try it out.
Voiceover continues: Finally, we used an online resource for our copyright-free music on Pixabay (Acoustic Labs) that worked perfectly, and it was the final touch we needed.


Davis looking into screen: And there you have it. How we merged hardware, software and online technologies to create the film you are about to see.

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.