CCR question 1 research

 The CCR #1 question is -

"How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?"

I did not really understand this question at first, so I chose to do some research on it and what it could be asking and how that could pertain to our film opening. 

This question has 2 parts so the first part is if our film uses or challenges conventions. Which from what I researched is asking if the film uses established expectations. I believe our film uses the normal structures of a film so I don't believe it breaks away from any normal expectation a film has. Since it doesn't include anything out of chronological order like flashbacks or time loops.

The other part is asking how it represents social groups or issues. In our case for our film Erebus it does not necessarily represent any social group but it does represent the social issue of mental health. It represents it because it shows how since the main character Leo's mental health is not at its best (shown by his facial expressions and clothing) he is vulnerable to getting tormented by a demon and up to the film opening we don't know if he is imagining that due to his mental health or if it is real. But the film opening touches on the topic of mental health especially when he phones his therapist in the car.

Some sources I used-

Intelliminds. (2024, October). 11 Films That Defy Genre Conventions - Greenlight Coverage. Greenlight Coverage. https://glcoverage.com/2024/10/01/films-that-defy-genre-conventions/

Why Challenge movie conventions. (2016). Prezi.com. https://prezi.com/1wxepxrnlsnz/why-challenge-movie-conventions/

Editing process 2

Nico began to put the videos together and since we had so many back ups and refilms, we were good on content. We had a quite a bit of refilms just incase and had a lot of footage so we would not have to refilm, so in the end it would look smoother. We cut some clips so they could be shorter because there was extra footage. Here is a sneak peak at our title clip where Sebas drove the car across the road and Nico filmed from up above in a tree at nighttime. The tile comes up from under the car which was our original idea and I am really glad it worked out perfectly especially with the complication with the drone we had.

Nico edited the entire video on premiere pro and he used after effects for the title card, so it fades in and the title flickers and the credits appear. As well as the sound effects we added to add to the suspense and the thrill of the film opening. Especially since horror movies use a lot of sound effects to cause scare or suspense. We changed the title card a couple times because we kept finding ways to make it better so we helped Nico pick which ideas we liked better. I am really glad with how it came out. We also used everyone's real names for the credits and we had to write our names for each job we did as well as our actor's names.

Editing process 1

Since our teammate Nico mainly did the editing for the Music Marketing project we had not that long ago he said he got a lot of experience from it and he wanted to do the editing. So he began by choosing the font of the title which we had decided would be red since it is a horror movie and it fits well with the genre. As well as the fact that the title is the name of the demon and it adds to the character. The font seemed suiting and very cool to us so we chose that font, the letters are spaced out and gave the exact mood we wanted for the title and name of the demon. 

We chose from the fonts "american-slasher-personal-use", "black-face", "eurocine", and "ncl-enigmatic waesbeniy-demon" we ended up using "american slasher" and "eurocine" for the title card. "American" slasher for the title since it is a horror movie title font and then "eurocine" for the credits. 

This is how it looks once we used these fonts for our title card. We think these fonts fit our genre and modd of the film perfectly and we are very glad we came across them. Also since we filmed on Wednesday because of the complication with the drone we have only a bit of editing done so far but we will have more by tomorrow since Nico is working on it today.

 

Shooting Process

 Me and my team met up yesterday Wednesday to film at my house and everything went well apart from some obstacles we had to overcome along the way. The filming came out good and we did multiple shots of everything so we don't need to refilm for now. Sebas and Nico are acting in our film  and me and Adam were in charge of all the filming process. We began setting up around 4:30 pm and began filming 5:30 pm we finished everything by 9 pm. 

First we set the table for the scene of the family dinner, and we tested out the second drone we had brought (since the first one's quality was not good), this one's quality was not good either so we tried attaching Nico's phone to it but it would not fly because of the weight. We decided to not use the drone anymore and to do something else. 

So we went outside and Nico climbed a tree to film the scene of Sebas driving away in the car from above. 

We shot a lot of scenes in daylight before it turned dark and since our shooting process was pretty long once it turned dark the scenes didn't go well together so we had to refilm all the daylight scenes so it would be dark outside in all of them. Which actually helped the vibe of the film opening since it is horror and it adds to the scare. We then made my mom my sister and my dad sit at the dinner table with Sebas (the main character) and they had to pretend they were having a conversation. They actually did very well we just had to refilm a couple times because my sister had this cough she couldn't get rid of and some of them were accidentally smiling or giggling. 

This is when we filmed Nicos part as the demon who doesn't show his face. So we got him all costumed up and filmed everything with the family dinner and the car scenes of him in the rearview mirror. We also filmed the calling the therapist scene and they changed my name on the phone to Dr. Martin and called me.

Then we had a complication with Nicos car because the battery of it died so we had to ask the neighbors for jumper cables. We tried to jump start it and pushed it down 2 blocks but it did not work so we left it parked off to the side and then he came back with his dad and they were able to jumpstart it with a portable one. 

Costume creation

 Since the main character is a teenage boy who will be played by our teammate Sebas, he said he found a hoodie and pants he could wear to embody our character Leo. Sometimes the hood of a hoodie when it is up it can represent a person is sad or wants to be left alone, this is perfect for our character because he is dealing with some mental issues causing him to be sad.

We can see in this inspo picture that the guy looks sad due to the fact that his face is covered with the hood.

The costuming for this character is important because he is the main character and he starts off our film opening.

For our demon which is also very important because his name is the name of the movie "Erebus" he will be dressed in all black because the color is mysterious and to add to the mystery his face will be covered with a black face mask. Nico will be playing this character and he has a black suit he will be wearing and a black ski mask which we will flip backwards to cover his face. As well as black shoes.

Something like this all black and his face covered since he is a demon who remains unknown.

Obstacle

 We had an issue in our filming process because we had planned to film this weekend March 1st-2nd because our teammate Nico had found someone who had a drone for our opening shot of the car. But Sebas and Nico met up that week and tried the drone and the camera quality was not what we were expecting. So now we have to either film another scene to compensate or find another drone. Which caused us to have to begin filming Wednesday of this upcoming week 3/5. 

We wanted to create a scene similar to this with the title appearing from the bottom the title being "Erebus" maybe in the ink of blood, to show the genre of the movie clearly which is horror. This scene would appear at the end of the opening scene after the main character Leo gets in the car to call his therapist as he runs away from the demon Erebus and a couple seconds later sees him staring back at him in the rearview mirror. The car would speed off and we would see the title under it as it drives away slowly appear.

We know have to find another drone or another type of show to help us create this because we really likes this idea.

Scene development

The first scene would consist of the guy who is the main character (Leo) eating dinner at the table with his mom, his dad, and his sister. The table is set with plates and silverware and food and drinks. Then it cuts to his family being gone off the table in an instant, a door opens and a man with his face covered in a black suit (Erebus) the demon is standing behind the door. 

The demon then gets closer and closer and we see Leo's hand shaking holding the fork. The demon is now standing where the dad was before. Then in like another version of the dining table the dad appears sitting where he was before but with the demon behind him holding a knife to his neck. The family appears again after the main character yells "STOP" and in the next scene the main character jumps out of his chair and runs to the front door. 

In the next seen he gets in the car and slams the door as he drives away he looks in the rearview mirror and sees the demon sitting in the backseat. His hands shaking as he grabs his phone to dial a number and he picks it up and he says "it's back." That scene is of him phoning his therapist because the demon is haunting him once again.

 This is where that scene would take place so you can see the demon in the backseat through the rearview mirror.