Critical Creative Reflection

Hello everyone!!

    Today is a sad day; the daily or weekly updated blogs about my film opener and project for AICE Media Studies have officially come to an end. I am super sad that the journey of sharing my progress on my movie opener project has ended. You guys have gone through with me both the easy times and the tough times of this process, from pre-production (planning hair, costumes, settings, and props) to filming, to editing, and final touches. Unfortunately, all good things eventually come to an end. Therefore, the only right way to end this journey with you guys is, of course, by reflecting and evaluating my process. This final blog will be me presenting my critical creative reflection, or CCR. This critical creative reflection is essentially me going into depth and reflecting back fully on the whole process. Some of the things in my CCR were brought up in my blogs; however, my CCR goes even more into detail, so I hope you can stay by and watch it through fully! My critical creative reflection is in the form of a PowerPoint or Canva presentation. This PowerPoint includes pictures and videos throughout and contains a voiceover of me presenting it. Once again, I am extremely grateful that you guys followed along this journey with me, as you guys are one of my biggest supporters! Attached down below will be my critical creative reflection video, as well as a transcript, so that you can easily follow along with what I say and not get lost. 

Transcript:

Slide 1: Hello! My name is Raina Shiu, candidate 8073, and this is my critical creative reflection for my film opener called Along the Way.

Slide 2: Along the Way is a film that captures how grief reroutes the journey of friendship. After the devastating loss of their best friend, Jahzara, three teenagers—Raina, Emi, and Ngoc—find their once unbreakable bond beginning to fracture. As each girl copes in her own isolating way, through performance, withdrawal, or peacekeeping, they discover that the hardest part of losing someone can be losing each other along the way. The film is a quiet, but visual exploration of memories and lonely paths walked after a shared tragedy.

Slide 3: Question 1, how does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

Slide 4: Our film, along the way, operates within the genre of drama and subgenre of coming of age by utilizing many of its core conventions to set up a story that it ultimately subverts. First, we embrace key conventions to establish the scene. The narrative of my movie opener is built around a life changing event or tragedy—the death of a friend—which is a classic conflict in this genre. The film also utilizes the central convention of self-discovery and identity formation. I focused mainly on the emotional and psychological growth of the protagonists. Each character is on a raw, vulnerable journey to figure out who they are in the devastating absence of their best friend. Raina’s identity fractures into a performative façade, Emijola’s fades into a shadow of her former self, and Ngoc’s becomes defined by a burdensome role she never chose. Visually, I used conventions like montage sequences to show the passage of time in the bedroom and symbolic settings such as the melancholic beach or the sterile school setting to help portray the characters’ internal states.  

Slide 5: However, our film also challenges some of the coming-of-age drama genre core narrative conventions. Traditionally, films within this genre use tragedy as a way to unite and create a stronger bond between the protagonists. They typically bring them closer together by sending them on a shared journey of healing or revenge that ultimately strengthens their bond. However, my movie opener subverts this convention by suggesting that self-discovery can sometimes mean discovering an isolating and fractured version of yourself. Instead of the tragedy enforcing a stronger group identity, it shatters all three protagonist’s sense of self. We portrayed this by using the five stages of grief across the friends. Raina is trapped in denial, Emijola in depression, and Ngoc in bargaining. Their individual identity in the face of grief is what traps them from healthy communication and understanding. The conventional journey ends not in a stronger bond, but in separation, which is shown as they walk away from each other on the beach.

Slide 6: Our film represents a variety of social groups and issues to create a narrative that is both specific in its identity and universal in its emotional core. Race and ethnicity are shown through the diverse friend group. The characters are Chinese American, Vietnamese-American, Jamaican-American, and Haitian/Nigerian American. This was a deliberate choice to reflect on modern friendships. Moreover, gender is centered on teenage girls. The story focuses on female friendship and the pressures they often face from society. For example, Raina endures the pressure to be the happy social butterfly but clearly, she undergoes a suffocating façade. Likewise, Ngoc embodies the expectation for women to be the nurturing peacekeeper whose role as the groups’ emotional stabilizer leaves her burdened. Emijola however, subverts the expectation that female grief should be openly expressive. Her depression is heavy, but silent, as she withdraws mentally and physically, which challenges the idea of how a “sad girl” should look.

Our film directly represents and brings awareness to the issue of mental illness by moving past the typical stereotypes. Emijola’s struggle is not represented as a mere sadness or cry for help that can be easily solved with simple pep talks, but rather as an isolating force and extremely consuming health condition that alters her behavior and self-identity. In other words, this challenges the societal expectation that people should quickly get over grief. Another core issue addressed is the idea of love and death. Our film explores how death is not an end to love, but a transformation of it. The unconditional love that the three friends have for Jahzara does not disappear, but it becomes a heavy burden on them.

Slide 7: Question 2, How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

Slide 8: Our film opener grabs the audience’s attention first through its striking contrast. The opening beach scene at sunset is immediately beautiful and solemn, using soft, warm light to create a sense of peace and deep sadness. This draws the audience in with a feeling of intimacy and emotions. What makes the audience stay to watch is the relatable actions of each character. People watching connect with the three girls and recognize the different, flawed ways they cope with grief—through denial, depression, or trying to simply hold everything together. The tension is created from wondering whether their friendship will survive and overcome the grief or not. In order to WOW the audience, our film relies on aesthetic cinematography and emotional authenticity. The beach scene was carefully composed. It was specifically captured at sunset with the golden hour lighting, the slow arc shot around the characters, and the poetic moment of ash scattering. These visual choices impact our film’s emotional theme. The audience is able to connect with the raw and heartbreaking emotions each character is enduring in a relatable way.

Slide 9: If Along the Way were a full film, my ideal path would be for it to reach a wide audience of young children, teens, or families who connect with emotional, character development driven stories. To do that, my goal would be for the film to reach a major streaming platform such as Netflix and Disney+. Likewise, to produce it, it would be produced under Netflix Studios or Walt Disney Studios. Under these studios, there will be professional producers, directors, and specialists in film guiding the project. They would be able to help expand the story/narrative and ensure overall higher production quality. Once production is completed, before fully releasing it, the next critical step would be marketing.

Slide 10: For marketing, I would form a promotional partnership with a music artist such as Billie Eilish as she is an active influential figure that advocates mental health awareness. This perfectly aligns with the film’s themes. She could contribute an original song for the soundtrack. Her involvement would help promote the movie to her large fan base. Another way the movie will be marketed is through interviews with talk shows. For example, the cast would be booked for the Jimmy Fallon Show or the Kelly Clarkson Show as these talk shows are perfect for the audience to get to know the actors better personally, and to be able to see the behind the scenes which adds authenticity.  Last but not least, once marketing is completed, the movie will be released as a Netflix Original or under Disney+ to maximize the audience it reaches as these are already big streaming platforms.

 

Slide 11: Question 3, how did your production skills develop throughout this project?

Slide 12: Throughout this process, my production skills have improved significantly in terms of learning different techniques. Such skills include learning how to download and extract audios, importing fonts, adding transitions to fonts, and changing saturations/contrasts.

Slide 13: Starting with learning how to download and extract audios. When I first started helping with my group to edit, I was completely clueless on how to import an audio from a recording without the recording showing on the actual movie. I learned through my friend Emijola, that there was a feature on an app called CapCut where it allows you to upload any video and it will automatically extract the audio for you.

Slide 14: Another skill I learned was how to import fonts. I already knew that most editing platforms had preset fonts that you could use, but I never knew how other people could get cool and amazing fonts that were not on the app itself. I decided to research on my own and found out about a website called “dafont.com.” This website has a variety of unique fonts that are created by a variety of different people. I now know that you can download the file of the font on the website to your device and then import the file onto the editing software.

Slide 15: Another skill I acquired was in learning to add transitions to fonts specifically. I already knew how to do the basics such as adding transitions between clips. However, I had always wondered how people were able to get texts to transition smoothly from one shot to another. I did not learn until another friend of mines, told me that there was a hidden feature also on Capcut called “animations.” This animations feature allows you to put both intro and outro transitions, such as fade ins and fade outs, and it is shown in the video here.

Slide 16: Another skill I gained from this process was effectively changing saturations of clips. I knew of the concept that you could change saturations and contrasts of clips. However, I never understood the concept behind it. Whenever I changed those settings, the clip would look weird and either too saturated, or too contrasted. However, I have a friend who took art that was able to teach me the difference between saturation and contrast. By teaching me the difference between the two, I was able to learn how to effectively incorporate both settings into our film opener. The scenes were transformed into a dull aesthetic to a more vibrant and color-popping aesthetic. The difference is subtle, but still visible and creates a difference.

Slide 17: Here is a visual comparison of the two shots before and after editing the saturations and contrasts. As you can see the before has a grey tone to it that makes it look dull, whereas the after shows the intense coloring of the sunset and adds a warmer tone to the shot.

Since starting the process of researching, filming, and editing, I have grown significantly as a filmmaker when it comes to editing. I have always liked the process of recording itself, but I was not originally a fan of editing as I was not good at it. However, after finishing the movie, I have developed an interest towards editing as I have gotten better at it due to my amazing friends and of researching on my own. I would not consider myself to pursue an editing career in film, but I believe that it is a talented industry with extremely creative individuals.

Slide 18: Question 4, how did you integrate technology software, hardware and online—in this project?

Slide 19: In this project, I have learned how to maximize the use of technology to my own advantage. In this age, it is no shocker that the use of technology is everywhere. Throughout the whole process, technology was a crucial essential. I was able to learn how to use the cinematic mode on the iPhone 14 pro max to record. This mode allowed my group to create a variety of depth of fields in our movie to draw the audience into key emotional moments without the need for a professional camera such as a Canon.

Slide 20: For editing, we used the editing software called Capcut which had so many features that it allowed us to have a smooth editing process. It was extremely easy to upload clips onto the app. We simply had to go on the app and click import, then we could upload whatever clip that was already recorded in our photos or files. The app also had a variety of transitions, both clip transitions and text transitions, that were easy to add. The app featured a range of sound effects, preset fonts, and ability to adjust colors and apply filters. The best feature had to be of course that it was free! The app required no purchase fee to use it. The app offered a pro version that did cost money, however, that was not needed because the free version already contained a variety of features. Overall, CapCut was an amazing editing software that made me more confident in my abilities to edit since it was beginner friendly or easy to learn how to use.

Slide 21: Another software I have used throughout this process is a website called Blogger.com. Since starting AICE Media Studies, Blogger was an important website where I wrote daily blogs to document my entire journey of the movie opener project, from initial research to final reflections. Each blog contains information or updates about every step I took to make this project possible with my group. These blogs helped me organize my thoughts like a personal journal or diary.

Slide 22: Overall, our project, Along the Way, was a thought-out process that took time and dedication. I am extremely grateful for the experience and skills I was able to gain from this process. I have learned to appreciate the art of filmmaking and understand that it is not just a process of writing a script and hitting record, but a meticulous thought-out process that requires creativity, collaboration, and effort. I now understand how every choice, from the color of the wall to the characters themselves, plays an important role in building the story’s emotional world. This journey has not only taught me the filmmaking process but also shown me how to tell stories on a deeper level.

Slide 23: Thank you everyone for listening, this is my critical creative reflection on my film opener, Along the Way.

Final Project

 Hello everyone! It has actually come to an end... the project is completed.

    The process of creating this movie opener seemed so long yet so short at the same time. I remember that when I was first introduced to the project, I thought, "This will take a while to complete." However, now that I have finished, it actually did not seem like a very long process. It was a great experience working with a group of my friends to make this movie opener possible. Many unforgettable memories and skills were made during the process. Before I started, I was not good at editing whatsoever. Afterwards, I was able to learn many different tips and tricks on editing from Emijola and Jahzara. Working on this project has also taught me how to communicate better. For example, like most group projects, disagreements are bound to happen. These disagreements obviously made me frustrated at times; however, I learned the importance of understanding that everyone has their own schedule and busy lives. By communicating openly and with patience, I was able to turn those frustrations into solutions. I learned to compromise and be open-minded towards my friends' opinions, whether it was about filming, shot angles, outfits, music, or editing. Overall, this was a good experience for me, and I would actually love to do this again, but even better if I could. Filmmaking is truly an artistic collaborative industry that requires dedication and time from everyone. Lastly, thank you all for following along this journey with me and my group. Here is the completed product!

Last minute changes

 Well, hey there again!
              In today’s blog, I will be discussing the last-minute changes my group made to our movie opener.

 To clarify, my group did not make any changes after showing our movie opener to our friend Eric (initial screening). However, we did make multiple changes during the editing process. In other words, there were several times where my group was like, “We are done! Here is the final product. Check through it to see if it is good.” However, every time we looked through the so-called final product, we noticed some small details that needed fixing. As a result, whatever detail that we wanted to fix, we saved the video and made the changes ourselves. This process happened a few times until everyone in the group was fully satisfied.

To start off with, one of the biggest last-minute changes we made was our song choice. Originally, we were going to play the song “Constellations” by Jade Lemac in the background throughout the film. However, the song did not suit some of the scenes at times, and we needed a song that would fit throughout the whole film, and not just one or two scenes. As a result, I was responsible for finding other potential song options. I looked on YouTube and sent many suggestions to our group chat, such as “Blessed” by Daniel Caesar, “All I Want” by Kodaline, and “Ocean Eyes” by Billie Eilish. I sent these three options, and our group ended up voting on “Ocean Eyes” by Billie Eilish. However, in order to try to avoid being copyrighted, Emijola suggested finding a cover of the song rather than simply using the song itself. As a result, we used a cover of the song by Alice Kristiansen. Luckily, this played in our favor because the cover seemed to suit the film opener even more in that it was an acoustic version, and the audience could hear the raw vocals and emotions in the singer’s voice, which further helps intensify the grief we are trying to portray.

Another last-minute change we made was in the last scene, the classroom scene. Originally, the way we were going to leave our movie opener was through a close-up of Ngoc, then a zoom into the pupil of her eye to black. However, during that day of filming, we completely forgot to film that part. We only realized that we forgot to film that part when we all went home. Since our school follows a block schedule, our next available day to film in that same class would have to be two days later. This was an issue because my group was already a little bit behind when it came to filming, and we needed to finish recording as soon as possible. As a result, we simply decided not to record that part and leave it out of our film. In the end, however, it still worked out because that scene would have made our opener too long, and we felt that if we were to end it like that, it would seem more like a movie trailer rather than an opener. So, the way we left off our opener was just by letting it cut to black once it reached the two-minute mark.

Overall, we did not make any changes after Eric’s initial screening of our opener because we felt that it would be way too much of a hassle. Emijola and Jahzara had originally edited the video on their phones. Afterwards, I saved that video and edited the credits into the video. Thus, if we were to make any physical changes, Emijola would have to reedit the video that does not have the credits and then send it to me so that I could put the credits on the opener again. We thought that a majority of Eric’s critiques were small details, and so it would not be worth it to go through that whole process to simply change two or three minor details.

Inital screening

Howdy mate!
    Welcome back to another blog of mine! We are truly coming to a close soon. I will miss you guys for reading my blogs. Today, I will discuss the feedback and constructive criticism my group has received on our film opener after presenting it to a few people.

The person we presented our film opener to was our friend Eric Jin, who is also in our AICE Media Class, but is working with another group.

I asked Eric three overall questions about our movie opener: How did it make you feel? What aspects of the film worked well and which did not? To what extent did the film meet or subvert your expectations?

How did the film make you feel?

Eric told me that our film made him feel really sad for the person who died. He said that he could sense the tragedy and grief the characters were facing, causing him to also feel a bit sad. He understood the characters (in terms of their different characteristics/traits), plot, and conflict really well.

What aspects of the film worked well and which did not?

As for the actual production of the film, Eric said the camera work and skills were good. The film was cinematic and aesthetically pleasing to watch. He further added that he could tell the plot was planned and thought out meticulously because he was able to understand the storyline completely without any confusion. However, he thought the film was not dramatic enough, considering that our film is under the drama genre. As a result, he felt that at certain times our opener was a little bit boring and too slow-paced. He continued to say that our soundtrack and overall sound choices were spectacular. He really liked the song that we incorporated throughout the whole opener (Ocean Eyes - Billie Eilish (cover) by Alice Kristiansen). He said that the lyrics of the song matched the mood we were trying to set, which was sadness and depression. An aspect that he thought did not work well in our film was the dialogue. He said that since our movie opener was intense and emotionally filled, there should not have been dialogue. In a way, the dialogue seem to "break" the tension and suspense we were trying to create.

To what extent did the film meet or subvert your expectations?

Before watching our film, Eric was expecting a super dramatic film because we told him that our genre was drama. He also thought that the plot was originally going to be about moving on from something, based on the title. As a result, he expected mainly sad music with melodramatic scenes. Likewise, since we incorporated many elements from the drama genre, a majority of his overall expectations on what the film was going to be were met. 

Feedback?

It is always important to ask for ways to improve when trying something new, such as creating a film opener. As a result, I decided to ask Eric what were some aspects we could do better on and fix. The first thing that he said we could improve on was our acting. He said that Raina had unnatural dialogue. In other words, my tone when saying "Oh my gosh!" did not match the depressive mood we were conveying and that it was too "high-pitched" for the scene. Another part that he said needed work was Ngoc's facial expression. He said that her facial expressions were too static, making her acting seem robot-like in a way. Lastly, one final thing he suggested was that we should have filmed at a different time for the beach scene. For instance, rather than filming at sunset, he thought that we should have filmed during sunrise since the lighting would have been dimmer and more suited to the fact that we were trying to portray grief and the aftermath of Jahzara's death.

Overall, I am extremely grateful for the input and feedback Eric gave after watching our film opener, especially since he is also in media studies and knows the expectations/requirements of the project.

Casting

Hello to everybody who has been following up so far with all my blogs!

    Today, I will be discussing the cast of my movie opener. The main cast in my movie opener features Raina, Ngoc, Emijola, and Jahzara. As for our supporting cast, which was mainly just background actors for our school scene, this featured my friends Marcus, Ella, Grace, Sneha, Dayna, and Ms. Beruty. 

Main Cast

Raina:

As discussed before, Raina plays the role of the "nonchalant" and unfazed friend after Jahzara's death. She pretends nothing happened and tries to act happy, but in reality, she is crushed mentally by the death. She puts up a facade throughout the movie opener, but the audience can see the small signs of her facade breaking. I was chosen to portray this character because my friends say I have a similar persona in real life. I tend to not really show emotions, and my resting face always looks like I am mad. As a result, it would be easy for me to portray a character that "shows" no emotions. Moreover, when I was younger, I used to have the belief that I needed to be perfect, but as I grew older, I realized that perfection is not ideal and unrealistic. This is similar to the way Raina is in the movie opener whcih is why I believe I was a good fit for the role.

Emijola:

Once again, Emijola is the character in the movie opener who is visibly affected and depressed by the death of her bestfriend Jahzara. Her character had completely transformed from a bubbly character to an emotionally devastated character. Emijola, in real life, was a good fit for this character because she has a genuinely happy persona in person. Her naturally joyful persona would be a good fit to represent the character in the beginning. Moreover, Emijola was in debate and had always placed in interp. This means she is extremely good at acting and would be perfect for being emotional during the flashback scene. I feel that she was a good fit because her acting was always on point and seemed real.

Ngoc:

Ngoc, in the movie opener, is the mediator or neutral character. She aimed to hold the friend group together. She is also in extreme grief about her best friend's death, but for the sake of the friend group, she tries to hold her sadness off. In other words, she places and cares for others before herself. We thought that Ngoc in real life would fit this role because, in person, she is just like that. Ngoc never takes sides in an argument, but rather tries to see problems from both perspectives and understand people that way. Thus, it was perfect for her to play the role of the mediator in the film, as it was simply natural to her. Her acting and dialogue were flawless, and the tone and emotions were exactly what we wanted.

Jahzara:

Jahzara in the movie opener was the bestfriend who died due to cancer. We chose Jahzara to play this character because she did not consider herself a good actor and wanted to help record instead. Since the character Jahzara does not actually have much screentime in the actual movie opener, and Jahzara in real life wanted to film, this role was perfect for her. Even though Jahzara did not have much screentime, her acting and role were still good. She effectively played the role of the dead friend by applying makeup and wearing specific clothes that made it seem as if she were dead.

Supporting cast/background characters:

As mentioned, our supporting cast was mainly just the background characters in our school classroom scene. In this scene, we needed characters that would act as Raina's "new friends," and we needed characters that would simply act as the other students in the class. Therefore, we called in a few of my friends to come after school to play that role. They all did their role very well as they simply had to act natural, as if they were talking to me just like they would on any other day in real life. To make our scene a little bit more authentic, we had also asked if Ms. Beruty could be the teacher in the scene so that it seemed like a real class that was about to begin. 

wishlist

Oh, hey there again! Welcome back to another blog about my movie opener, where today I will discuss things I would have done differently if I were in a world where I had a major movie production budget. 

The first thing I would change would be the actors. If we had the budget, we could have hired professional actors who have been in the industry for a while. For example, in the imaginative world, we would have hired McKenna Grace or Millie Bobby Brown to be the main characters. Millie Bobby Brown could be cast as Jahzara, and McKenna Grace could be cast as another main character, such as Emijola. Moreover, in general, if we had the budget, we could have hired more prop actors to be in the background of our school/classroom scene. 

Now, the next thing we would have done differently would be the costumes. For Raina, in order to represent her athletic-like aesthetic, we would have dressed her in expensive athletic-wear brands such as Alo, Lululemon, or Vuori. As for Emijola, we would have bought silk clothing for her character to wear in the past to create a sharper contrast between the baggy and dark outfit she wears after the death of Jahzara. Similarly, for Ngoc, we would have bought a higher quality quarter-zip made out of cashmere for the past to also create a sharper distinction in the symbolism of her outfits from past to present of Jahzara's death. Overall, if we had the budget, we would have hired a stylist team or a costume designer to be part of the project, as this would have made the production process a lot smoother.

Next, as for setting and location, I would have rented out a private island to film the beach scene. This would allow us to film in private without having to worry about people walking in the background of a shot. Moreover, instead of Jahzara's bedroom, I would have also rented out a luxury modern home that has a waterfront view to further emphasize Jahzara's wealth, which would help convey one of our themes that money cannot buy happiness. For the school scene, I would have built a stereotypical, old-fashioned-style school that has a vintage look to it. 

Last but not least, as for lighting, sound, and editing, I would have changed the lighting of the school scene. In other words, if we had the budget, we would have built our own classroom set. With this built set, I would have wanted very specific lighting, such as LED around the class, with rectangular-shaped windows that allow for sunlight to peak through. As for sound, I would have a professional sound mixer that allows us to easily mix the sound of the waves, winds, and birds flying overhead in the beach scene. This would have allowed our movie opener to be way more high-quality. Moreover, I would have hired a professional singer or artist to write a song specifically for the movie, known as a score. Examples of singers that I would hire would be Adele, Sia, or Billie Eilish. 

Thus, with a major budget, the core storyline would not change, but every aspect that it takes to portray the storyline would. In other words, the set designs and editing of the movie would be changed completely if we had a major budget like big film production companies in real life, but the overall plot in the movie would stay the same.

Camera Shots & Angles

 Peek-a-boo!

    Oh, hey there! Another day, another blog about my movie opener. Get your popcorn and drinks ready, as today I will be discussing the different varieties and types of camera shots and angles in the movie opener.

    One of the main camera shots that we used is a wide shot. We mainly used wide shots when transitioning from one scene to another. For example, we first started off our movie opener with an establishing shot, which was also a wide shot. We chose to do a wide shot because it allows the audience to take in the scene and absorb all the relevant information in it at once. The audience can get a general view and feel of the mood and setting of the first scene. Then, we used a wide shot on the scene where the 3 girls have their backs against the camera and are walking away from the ocean (this shot is a transition from Emijola scattering ashes into the ocean). We chose to use a wide shot for this shot of the scene because we wanted the shot to be wide enough so that the audience can visually see the different directions that the three girls are walking away to. The whole point of this scene was to show that each girl is going to follow their own path when it comes to grieving. Thus, by using a wide shot, it seems as if the audience can almost feel for themselves the physical distance that is growing between the girls and what is left of their friendship. The next wide shot that was used is a transition from this shot to scene 4, which is the staircase establishing shot that establishes the overall setting of the school scene. It shows students walking up the stairs and heading to their classes. We used a wide shot for this scene so that the audience fully understands it's a transition to another setting and part of the film. This allows the audience to have context for what is about to happen. The wide shot shows where the characters are now (school) and who surrounds them (teacher, friends, classmates).

    Another common shot size we used was medium full shot and medium shot. We mainly used these two shots because this shot shows the characters' torso and head (from waist to head). As a result, this allows the audience to pick up on our character's movements and gestures, which helps them understand the mood of our movie opener. In other words, by using medium and medium full shots, this allows the audience to see each character's facial expressions in context with their body language. For example, in the flashback scene, it is a medium shot. This medium shot helps those watching to see the body language of Emijola along with her facial expressions. Her facial expressions are clearly concerned, and her body language is shaking and trembling. As a result, the audience can understand that the scene is serious and that something concerning (Jahzara's death) is happening. Overall, throughout the whole flashback scene, it is a medium shot. We intentionally did this because we wanted to make sure that the viewers could fully understand the different emotions of the three girls who surround the room. Raina is awkward and surprised, Emijola is scared and filled with emotions, and Ngoc is shocked and frozen. 

    The last type of shot that we used, which is different from the others, is a point-of-view shot. We intentionally used a point-of-view shot in the last scene, the classroom scene, so that we could show and provide the audience with a sense of the numbness that Ngoc is feeling after Jahzara's death. A POV shot is a shot that shows a view from the subject's perspective/what they are looking at. As a result, by having this scene be portrayed in the eyes of Ngoc, the audience can feel the tension between the two other friends, Raina and Emijola, after Jahzara's death.  

Updated Storyboard

 Hiya guys!

    As you know, when we first started the project a few months ago, my group and I made a storyboard so that we could somewhat envision what our movie opener would look like. Well... I have made the updated storyboard for my group now that our movie opener is fully complete. 

    Today, I will be discussing the changes we have made in our film that have caused me to change our storyboard. 

The first thing that was tweaked just a bit, but mainly kept the same, was the scene 1, shot 1A. This scene is still an establishing shot of the beach and 3 girls (Emijola, Ngoc, Raina) holding hands. However, in this current storyboard, I added the song that will be playing in the background, Ocean Eyes by Billie Eilish, and the flowers that Raina is holding. I also added in the storyboard that Emijola and Raina will lean their heads onto Ngoc's shoulder. As for the next shot of scene 1 (shot 1B), it is still presented as an arc shot from 1A to 1B. The 1B shot is also still a front view of the three girls with palm trees and buildings behind them. 

The next change that was made to the storyboard was scene 2, shot 2A. The change that was made was that instead of it being a fade to white to this scene, it is a dissolve. Specifically, it's a dissolve from the present (beach) to the past (flashback in Jahzara's bedroom). In this shot, it is still Jahzara dying; however, I added details such that it is specifically Raina, Ngoc, and Emijola walking into Jahzara's bedroom to see her lying there, about to die. Raina says out loud, "Oh my gosh!" I wrote on the updated storyboard that there is a dark filter with low exposure and saturation. The song continues to play in the background. Moving on, originally scene 2, shot 2B was when the timelapse happens, however, on the updated version, shot 2b of scene 2 is when the camera pans left, and the 3 girls surround Jahzara's bed, Emijola says "Jahzara...!" Ngoc and Emijola are shown on the left side of the bed, but Raina is on the right side. I also wrote on the updated version that now a heartbeat sound is heard beeping in the background. Scene 2, shot 2c and shot 2d were also completely changed. In the updated version, shot 2c is introduced with a blur wipe transition to a montage of jumpcuts. There is a bed with Jahzara lying on it, Raina is pacing back and forth in the room praying, Ngoc holds Jahzara's hands, and Emijola is heard visibly sobbing. The heart rate/pulse is slowly increasing. In shot 2d, the heart rate is beating even faster. Raina and Ngoc are both praying now, whereas Emijola is still crying. Scene 2, shot 2E is still part of the flashback, and it's another jumpcut, but of Ngoc resting a plush on Jahzara's bed, right beside her. Whereas Raina and Emijola are resting and praying with their eyes closed on the side of the bed. Shot 2F is when the heart beat stops, and the monitor flatlines. It is a jumpcut of Ngoc praying, Emijola sobbing, but Raina exits the room. Shot 2G is the next jump cut, but of Ngoc leaving the room, and shot 2H is a jump cut of Emijola leaving. 

After the flashback, there is a dissolve transition to the beach again. This transition back to the beach is scene 3, shot 3A. This shot is back to the present, where Emijola scatters Jahzara's ashes into the ocean/sand. I wrote that the sound of waves and wind can be heard, and the song is still playing in the background. On the updated version, I wrote camera pans left to the horizon and dissolves to scene 3, shot 3B. The camera then slowly tilts up, revealing an empty urn with flowers behind it. This shot was not in our original storyboard, as we did not originally plan to record this part. This shot, however, is of the 3 girls with their backs to the ocean walking away in three different directions. 

Likewise, it then goes to a smash cut into scene 4, shot 4A. This shot essentially has the same concept as our original storyboard, but just with more details. It is still an establishing shot of students walking up the stairs to class. The only changes I made to the updated storyboard were that I wrote specifically that there is a j-cut sound of the bell ringing from the last scene of the beach to this staircase scene. 

Lastly, there is an invisible cut from the staircase scene to classrooom scene, which is scene 5, shot 5A. The visual of the scene is the same from original storyboard; however, the camera movements and transitions are different. In the updated version, the camera pans left, then right, in the point-of-view shot of Ngoc. Ngoc essentially enters the class, and when the camera pans left, she sees Raina with her new friends, and when the camera pans right, she sees Emijola sitting alone in the corner. Shot 5B is a continuation of the point-of-view shot, but now, Ngoc is walking towards where Emijola is sitting and sits at the desk in front of her. Ngoc asks Emijola, "Emijola, are you okay...?" but Emijola gives no response. This is different from our original storyboard in that in the original, Ngoc sat in the middle of the class and looked to Raina in the front of the class and to Emijola in the back of the class. Moving on, shot 5C in the updated storyboard is also a continuation of the POV shot. The camera pans right and left subtly, like in a swinging motion. Eventually, the camera completely pans away from Emijola and shows the rest of the class again, with Raina on the side talking to her friends, with Ms. Beruty at her desk in the corner, and a few classmates spread throughout. In the updated version, I also added the detail that there is a circular blur of the camera frame in this shot. In other words, the left and right sides of the frame are blurred, and only the center of the framing is clear. The class audio fades, and only the music keeps playing in the background. This is our last shot, so the scene simply ends with a black cut. This is very different from the original storyboard, because in the original, we drew/wrote that it was supposed to be an exit out of Ngoc's point of view shot and into a close-up of her eyes. Then, the camera would slowly zoom into her eyes into pitch-black darkness. We changed this on the updated storyboard, though, because we thought that ending seemed too much like a movie trailer ending rather than an ending of a movie opener.

Set Design

 Hey everyone, thank you all for keeping up with my blogs so far! Today, I will be breaking down the set design for each scene of our movie opener. 

    Our first scene, the beach memorial scene, takes place on the beach during golden hour/sunset. Our set for this scene was essentially the natural environment itself. It included the sand, the ocean, and the horizon. Key props for the set design in this scene were the glass vase with Jahzara's ashes and the small bouquet of white flowers. We specifically chose Hollywood Beach because we knew it was a beach that mainly locals know. In other words, rather than choosing a popular tourist beach, we chose a beach where we knew there would not be a lot of people. As for the location in general, we chose the beach because the sunset helped us create a natural palette of warm, fading light. Moreover, the beach itself also helped symbolize vastness and change, which is similar to the way we are trying to convey the message of letting go. Limitations that we had in this set design were that it was essentially still a public space. This means we did not have full control over the people in the background and the weather. Although the beach was less crowded compared to most beaches, some people still kept walking back and forth between our shots. Moreover, it was extremely windy that day we went to film at the beach. We had to do several retakes of shots due to hair difficulties from the wind. Our hairstyles kept getting tangled or undone by the wind. For this set design, if we had a greater budget, we would have bought a customized or personalized urn to represent Jahzara's character. 

    Our next scene, the flashback scene, takes place in Jahzara's suburban bedroom. Essentially, the set design included a bedroom with blue-grey and white walls, a bedside table, a book cart, and a tall walk-in closet. On the bedside table and cart, there is a bouquet of vibrant colored flowers. In addition, although it is not shown with the most clarity, you can see in the corner of the set that there are balloons. These balloons say "Get Well Soon" to help portray the sickness of Jahzara. We chose Jahzara's bedroom as our set for this scene because the blue-grey walls establish a somber mood, and the vibrant flowers help symbolize life trying to be brought into a fading situation (Jahzara's death). Limitations we had in this set were that her room was somewhat small and not the most spacious. That means that we had to limit our camera placements in the room. Changes I would make for this set, if we had a bigger budget, would be that I would have dressed the room more extravagantly and expensive-looking to reinforce Jahzara's character of being wealthy.

    For our last scene, the school scene, takes place at our high school, Everglades High School. Key elements of this set were the sickly yellow-white walls, grey-white tiled floors, and the standard classroom desks. Specific small details in the classroom included warm-toned fairy lights and colorful decorations such as plushies and blankets. We chose this specific classroom because it had a balance between the cold, stark environment and a warm, intimate environment. The sterility of the scene would help symbolize the present day, where each character is suffering their own grief, whereas the hints of warmth from the class symbolize the past. Limitations we had with the set were that we could only use it after hours or during very specific free periods. This means we had limited time to film in this set. Moreover, our background actors would have to be our friends and not a diverse cast. If we had a bigger budget for this set, we would have possibly rented out a building that looked like an old-fashioned school with lockers. This would have helped make our set more realistic and authentic to the audience. Moreover, if we had a bigger budget, we could have hired more background actors to be in this scene. 

Reflection on filming skills

 Hey guys, now that my group is wrapping it up on our movie opener, I want to reflect on my overall skills in different aspects of filming for it.

First, I would say my skills in using a film/video camera are “ready to move on.” In other words, I would say my camera skills are fairly well and this was shown when I was able to help Jahzara record better during the beach scene. Originally, Jahzara had difficulties framing us correctly within the camera in the beach scene. I was able to help correct her and show her how to frame us better.

 For reference, I helped film this shot in our beach scene:

Next, as for recording and mixing sound as appropriate to production, I would say my skills there are almost there, but I could use some improvement. Recording sounds was not difficult, as we mainly used the sounds of the natural environment, such as the sounds of the waves and winds. However, for mixing sound, I could definitely use some work, as I do not know how to correctly blend audio across clips so that it cuts across smoothly and not abruptly. Luckily, my group members, Jahzara and Emijola, were able to help during the editing process, and so they did the sound mixing.

Next, as for the use of lighting for effect, I would say it is almost there and fairly well, but could also make some improvements. I say this because once again, we mainly used the natural environment for our set. Like in the beach scene, we simply used the natural lighting of the sun. However, I believe this decision of mine to use the beach and its natural lighting was a good choice because it helped make our scene cinematic and high movie quality like. Similarly, in the flashback scene, that was when my skills in the use of lighting truly showed. In that scene, it included a montage with jump cuts. During this scene, I changed the lighting to become dimmer as the montage proceeds to visually show time passing. However, I fully believe I can improve this skill because I noticed after recording that during our school scene, the lighting was not that great. The quality of the lighting made the film clearly look low-budget. I did not place careful consideration of how that scene was going to look on camera. As a result, the school scene looks very low quality compared to the other two scenes.

Lastly, as for editing the film opener and cohesively ensuring that the meaning is clear to the audience, this is almost there, but could use some work. For the editing process, me and Ngoc originally did a test run by simply putting the clips together and seeing what it would look like. We wanted to get an idea of what the final product would look like. However, when we put it together, it looked choppy and not that great. As a result, the editing process was left for Emijola and Jahzara to do, whereas me and Ngoc helped give them ideas on how to edit the film so that it conveyed meaning. In other words, me and Ngoc brainstormed the ideas, but Emijola and Jahzara turned these ideas into actual visuals. In terms of physically editing, I was left with an easier responsibility, which was choosing the font for the text credits on screen. Overall, I believe that in terms of editing, I need major improvements and work on it. I often have the ideas and the concepts I want to portray in my head, but I can never fully execute them.

Cancellations

Howdy partners!

    Welcome to another blog of mine where I go on a caffeinated rambling... Today, I will be talking about the different cancellations we had as a group, from filming days to purchasing stuff for the movie opener.

The first cancellation we had was our filming day for scene 1, the beach scene. Originally, me and my group wanted to film the first scene during Thanksgiving break, so that we would not have to feel rushed. However, we never ended up filming on Thanksgiving break because we all had our separate plans already, and to be quite frank, we were feeling procrastination. We all had the mindset that January is in a while, so we could get it done another time. We ended up filming scene 1 at our next break, winter break to be exact. Similarly, our next cancellation was our filming day for scene 2, the flashback scene. We were originally going to film this scene three days after filming the beach scene. However, that day was also New Year's Eve, and Jahzara was having family over at her house, so we could not film. As a result, we did not film scene 2 until the weekend after winter break. 

Another type of cancellation we had was in purchasing stuff. Well, it was not necessarily a cancellation, but it was that the time frame we chose to purchase stuff was last-minute, and so we had to make some small changes. For example, we needed a bald cap for Jahzara to help make her seem more sick in terms of physical appearance. Jahzara told us she had a bald cap, but she could not find it. As a result, we looked on Amazon, but it was not going to arrive on time. Hence, Jahzara had to go to a beauty supply store and look for one, but there were none in the store either. We simply ended up using a big scarf as a replacement instead.

Film Equipment

 Hey everyone! Now that we have finished our movie opener, we are in the editing phase of the project. Today, I will be discussing all the film equipment we used to film our movie opener. 

For our camera, we used the camera on Ngoc's iPhone 14 Pro Max. Specifically, we used the camera in Cinematic Mode. We chose to record on an iPhone due to its accessibility and quality. The iPhone camera is easy to use and generally high-quality. Since we used a phone camera rather than an actual professional camera, this also allows our editing process to be a lot easier, as we can directly import clips to the editing software rather than having to use a third-party cable to transfer files. Moreover, the Cinematic Mode allowed us to create variations in depth of fields such as rack focuses or shallow depth of field. Moreover, cinematic mode has great stabilization. For example, when we were filming the beach scene, the sand was uneven, which made it hard for Jahzara to film smoothly. However, when we looked back at the video, the feature allowed the video to automatically stabilize, even if in reality, the filming wasn't the most stable.

For lighting equipment, our main light source was the sun during golden hour. However, in the flashback scene, we used the existing ceiling fan light and an LED panel stick/pole to act as a base lighting for the room. However, we noticed this lighting was a bit too sterile. We wanted to create a cold, sterile atmosphere, but we also wanted it to have a sense of warmth. As a result, we added a bedside lamp to the set as this added a warm-yellow tone to the room.

Lastly, for sound equipment, we simply used the microphone on the iPhone camera throughout the entire film. We were originally thinking about using lavalier microphones, but then we realized there was not enough dialogue to warrant this. Although we just used the iPhone mic, the quality was still relatively high. 

However, because our location audio has background noise, we recreated some sound in post-production. One of these sounds included the bell sound at the school scene. We were originally going to use a sound effect, but we thought that sounded artificial and unnatural. Ngoc and Jahzara recorded the sound of a bell ringing at our school. In other words, they recorded the sound of an actual school bell ringing.

Representation

 Welcome back guys to another blog of mine! Today, I will be discussing the representation in my movie opener. Representation was important from the beginning of us starting our project because we wanted our story to be universal and authentic to the real world. We asked ourselves three key questions: Who is represented? Is it fair or stereotypical? How are we challenging norms? And what could we improve on?

Age/Life Stage

Our film opener reflects a specific and intentional demographic mix. All four main characters are teenage girls between the ages of 15 and 16. This means they are around the life stage of late adolescence, where individual identities are forming, and they are likely experiencing grief for the first time.

Race & Ethnicity:

In terms of race and ethnicity, the group is diverse or multicultural. My character, Raina, and Ngoc are Asian. Jahzara and Emijola are Black. Specifically, Raina is a Chinese-American, and Ngoc is a Vietnamese-American. Jahzara is a Jamaican-American, and Emijola is a mix of a Haitian and Nigerian-American. We aimed to have a diverse cast because we wanted to portray that our friendship was built on our shared cultures. 

Gender/Sexuality:

All the main characters are straight females and present as cisgender. Our opener does not specifically explore the other LGBTQ+ identities.

Socioeconomic Status:

In our movie opener, Raina, Ngoc, and Emijola are from middle-class, suburban backgrounds. Whereas Jahzara is from an upper-class, wealthy family. 

Religion:

Religion is not explicitly represented in our movie opener. In other words, we do not specifically state the religions of each character. This choice leaves it open to the audience for interpretation and keeps the focus on shared human emotions rather than individual beliefs. 

Now, we purposely worked against stereotypes to ensure healthy and positive portrayals. Emijola's grief is depression and silence, not the stereotypical "angry Black woman." Emijola is presented as an intelligent young teenage girl who simply lost someone she truly valued in life. Moreover, Ngoc's neutral or mediation mindset stems from her natural character trait of being empathetic, not because of the "model minority" stereotype. In addition, Raina's denial is genuinely a complex psychological facade, not because she is a "mean girl."

We are challenging representation in several key ways. First, we present a diverse friend group where the main conflict is universal human emotion, not their racial or cultural differences. In other words, their backgrounds tell the audience who they are, but are not the reason for the conflict in the plot. Rather, their individual flawed psychological responses to shared trauma do. Crucially, however, we challenge the simplistic narratives about class and wealth. By making Jahzara the character from a wealthy family, we directly confront the idea that money protects you or "money buys happiness." Although Jahzara's family is rich, its resources could not cure her cancer or buy her more time. This reinforces our theme that grief is one of the few things that happiness or safety cannot be purchased. Ultimately, our movie opener argues that there is not just a single way to grieve, which challenges representations of how people from certain backgrounds "should" behave in pain. 

While we built detailed foundations of diversity and representation. Things we could improve on are having a more diverse representation of the LGBTQ+ community. For example, instead of having all four girls as straight, we could have made one of the characters bisexual, and this identity could have added to the impact of the grief they felt over the death of Jahzara. Overall, however, I felt that our movie opener had a fair share of equal representation, as we purposely did this to enforce that grief is a universal experience that is based on human emotions, not backgrounds.