Links to CCRs and film opening

film opening-https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p7hNaRbd2jlPW2HtDEvyTBMv3IQq3FfV/view?usp=drivesdk

CCR 1- 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-yB4_5gukRnQM3f3PK4G3aTl2MXor-oi/view?usp=drivesdk

CCR 2-

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vQcL3yaWLTURubulc2tss2NLLMphC_Y_/view?usp=drivesdk

Final reflection

    This project taught me so many new things that I did not expect. It taught me patience, team work, new skills, and participation. I loved this project and I found it so fun and I feel that it put a lot of my skills to work and let me show off what I knew. Working with my team was so good we had a lot of fun while putting together an amazing film opening, even with our complications and challenges we were still able to succeed and do a good job. We put all of our hard work together and collaborated beautifully, we all did the same amount of work and organized and paced ourselves really well. I am very proud of myself and my team by the end of this project.

    All the skills I put to work and even skills I learned are very useful and very cool. Me and my team all chose a genre we love and got to create something out of it, I even got my family to act in it and they had a great time. We went through a lot of experiences together with my group like climbing trees to shoot high up angles, and jumpstarting a car to film a scene because the car broke down. All of these experiences while not having to do with the project taught me so much and really helped me have a great experience while learning and getting the task done.

    I feel like putting to practice my filming techniques really will help me in visualizing it while watching films and analyzing how they film certain shots and angles better, which can help me on my essays. As well as with my CCRs I learned how to edit better and organize myself with the blog posts and schedule to correctly pace myself since it is a big project and I tend to procrastinate. This really helped me with my time management. I liked the blogs to keep track of everything I was doing so I could reference it later and to also keep track of my group mates work.

    

    Overall I really enjoyed this project and I feel like I got a lot of experience and fun out of it and I am glad I worked with the group I worked with I honestly have zero regrets. I hope you like it!!!!

Post production of CCRs

 My post-production consisted of editing all of my clips together, doing voiceovers, and adding in clips from my fil opening as well as other images. 

Today my best friend came to help me with my podcast CCR and it went well we recorded everything good, we ended up using the top of my water bottle as a tripod since mine broke as soon as we were about to film, but it turned out great in my opinion! We had fun and were able to complete the job. 

I used iMovie to edit because my mom had it on her iMac and I found it really effective and easy to use. I first put the clips all together, made an opening and made my reference page at the end, and I integrated visuals as well as clips from my opening, some with voice over and some with the original sound. Filming took us about 2 hours and then editing took me about 5 hours. I felt extremely productive and confident in my project. 

For the interview "vogue" CCR we had a complication where the mic my best friend was using behind the camera broke and we did not realize for the entire time so I had to voiceover her parts and basically make it an interview with myself which turned out great in the end. 

Here is me editing on iMovie it took me a second to get comfortable with it because I don't normally edit a lot but I got the hang of it after a while and it became simpler.

I am very proud of myself because normally I never edit it's usually the other members of my group who edit but I feel like I learned a lot of new skills.

Production of CCRs

 I decided I am going to do a video inspired by the "73 questions with.... Vogue" for my first CCR, so for the first 2 questions and I edited my script to fit this type of video.

 The general idea of this video is that there is a person behind the camera asking me the questions which I will split up into multiple parts, while filming me walking around the house and giving a "house tour" while answering the questions and being interactive while the background changes constantly to remain engaging. The costuming will be a nice outfit, similar to the nice outfits artists tend to wear on these videos. This video would include clips of the film opening to show the techniques I am talking about and different images or videos while I am explaining. All my sources will be at the end. 

Here is my new script for this CCR video-

https://browardcountyschools-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/r/personal/0615124373_my_browardschools_com/_layouts/15/Doc.aspx?sourcedoc=%7B5FD06B7E-2936-4F74-AF1E-D877F3223838%7D&file=Document%2010.docx&action=editnew&mobileredirect=true&wdNewAndOpenCt=1742500973280&ct=1742500974286&wdOrigin=OFFICECOM-WEB.MAIN.NEW&wdPreviousSessionSrc=HarmonyWeb&wdPreviousSession=391bdb80-e223-456a-9a73-c183dc4c5408&cid=6592372e-ef96-4f43-9ceb-2f88543a3315

I am going to have one of my family members ask me the questions behind the screen while filming me and I am going to try to memorize my lines to say them smoothly. I will later edit in the clips of the additional things I want to show in the video.

For my second CCR I was thinking of doing a podcast with my bestfriend, she would be asking me the questions and I would be answering them. We will create a podcast atmosphere where we are on a couch or a table with microphones like a classic podcast would be in. Usually they are filmed in a comfortable spot with someone that people are comfortable with and I feel that what I will create will represent that effectively.

Similar to this-

My script for this CCR is this now that it is edited-

https://browardcountyschools-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/r/personal/0615124373_my_browardschools_com/_layouts/15/Doc.aspx?sourcedoc=%7B023D5084-D493-4B90-8CA0-DF701B062FE4%7D&file=Document%2010.docx&action=editnew&mobileredirect=true&wdNewAndOpenCt=1742502069802&ct=1742502070424&wdOrigin=OFFICECOM-WEB.MAIN.NEW&wdPreviousSessionSrc=HarmonyWeb&wdPreviousSession=391bdb80-e223-456a-9a73-c183dc4c5408&cid=708d5b67-9c16-4c76-a45f-05be32502de7

CCR ideas for filming

 I began to brainstorm a couple ideas for my CCR and I wanted to get really creative and not do an interview because I heard a lot of people in my class doing that. 

So I made a list of my main ones and I am going to describe how I would approach them.

-Social media video like a livestream or a get ready with me

I would do this by putting the questions in the comments of the live stream or the video and answering them in the video. The live can be done with a live template and comments and pop ups and pretending I am an actor answering questions about a production. 

-Podcast

I could sit with another person of my group and talk about our film as if we were 2 actors talking or I could get a person who was not in the production be in the podcast and ask me the questions. This can be done with a couch like most podcasts or a table with mics.

-News report

This can be done by filming outside and someone behind the camera asks the question and the mic pops out from behind the camera like in a broadcast. 

-Vlog

A walk around my house or outside with different shots while someone behind the camera is asking me questions. 

CCR question 4 script

 CCR question 4 is-

How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

In this project I got to experience using different technologies to create my final production. I used hardware such as the phone we used to film the scenes and the tripod we used to stabilize different shots. The phone captured the focus pulls and we used cinematic mode on iphone to get the footage to be high quality. I learned how to stabilize the shots and also move the shots accordingly with the phone. We filmed close ups, mid shots, establishing shots and over the shoulder shots, as well as some movement shots like tilts and hand held camera shots. Some angle shots as well like high angle shots. 

For software we used Adobe Premiere Pro to edit the entirety of our film and put in fonts for our credits and title. As well and include music and sound effects and paste our clips together smoothly using transitions and after effects. We also removed background noise and made sure the clips were seamless. We integrated this into our project to make it the best we could and we realized hoe important editing is in the filming world and how it can add so much to a film.

We used online resources such as blogger.com to blog our entire process of producing which helped us make our schedule and organize ourselves so our process ran smoothly. We posted clips of our opening and every step we did towards the final product which helped us make sure none of the steps were missing. We also used YouTube to find tutorials on how to edit and watch other film openings for inspiration. 

Overall this helped us in completing our project successfully and ending up with a high quality project.

https://mianbloggg.blogspot.com/

CCR question 3 script

CCR question 3 is-

How did your production skills develop throughout this project? 

My production skills have improved so much because of this project due to the fact that I filmed half of the project, I put to practice plenty of the different techniques we learned throughout the year. 

Before beginning this project I had some experience while filming since we had done other projects in which I had filmed. But with this one being a film opening the camera movements done were way more significant and gave meaning to the scenes. My skills improved in pre production , filming, as well as post production. 

I learned how to write a script and effectively use a storyboard in the pre-production. As well as cast actors for roles and teach them their lines. I also was able to make a set for where the film would take place and organize our schedules for filming. Costuming was also something I used when setting up what each character would wear especially the main character and the villain in our film, since they were the most important characters and had to give off a specific vibe with simply their costuming and editing. This was because our film opening was mostly silent so everything had to be shown in either camera techniques, costuming and actions.

When it came to filming I learned how to effectively capture shots and move the camera is specific ways to portray different ideas. I also put into practice different camera angles we learned in class and got to experience how they are filmed when I see them in a movie. I used a tri-pod and a phone to film most of the shots, since a lot of the shots are moving. I was able to do focus pulls and change the lighting when I filmed to give the attention to certain characters to cause suspense and a unsettling mood which was perfect for our genre. 

From editing it was mostly not done by me but what I did learn was how to choose a font accordingly to your genre and to the lighting and vibe of the opening. I saw how certain fonts could not be seen due to the lighting, but I also learned that the credits are very important and can set a mood for the rest of the movie. As well as how the title is seen as the color and font and how important all the factors are. The editing of the clips and the sound of the film opening is key to making it suspenseful so we put together different sound elements that add to the tone of the production. 

CCR question 2 script

CCR question 2 is 

"How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?"

Our film opening was targeted to entertain teenagers and young adults. 

We portrayed this by making the main character a teenager to make our film more personal to our audience. Since our film is a horror film it is mainly targeted to teens and young audiences of 15-25 years of age which is exactly who we were trying to entertain. 

Our film opening is the right amount of thrill and horror through a range of camera techniques like hand held camera movement, an over the shoulder shot, and a tilt. We also used only slight dialogue to build up the suspense and tension of the opening. We used font and color for our credits and title as well to make it known that it is a horror movie to keep horror movie fans hooked. Especially because some horror movies start off very slow and take a long time to get to the scare and can sometimes bore the audience.  We made it our job to entertain the audience in the first 2 minutes and give them enough content in the opening to keep them engaged. 

Since NSMA studios is a newly started production company we are going to start small to then hopefully make it big. Our product would be distributed as a real media text through streaming platforms like Vimeo and YouTube because, so we can reach a wide audience and be able to expand later on to reach bigger platforms. We would ensure our audiences knew where to look for it through marketing techniques like posting trailers of our film on social media, like Instagram and YouTube. We would also distribute it at film festivals such as FLIFF, which is nearby and very accessible.We would also make posters and post them on the social media, the posters would encapsulate the horror genre to capture the correct audience. 

Theworm. (2020, March 9). Who is the haunted house demographic?. FearWorm. https://fearworm.com/who-is-the-haunted-house-demographic/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20usual%20age%20for%20the,rather%20than%20an%20older%20one.%E2%80%9D 

Haxhiu, Albi. “What Are the Most Effective Marketing Strategies for a Horror Film?” How to Market Your Horror Film Effectively, www.linkedin.com, 3 Nov. 2024, www.linkedin.com/advice/0/what-most-effective-marketing-strategies-horror-film-pcwie.

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.

Location scouting

 At first we were not sure where we would film but after a lot of communicating and compromising with whose house we could film at we decided my house was the perfect location. 2 of the members of my house had already come to my house for the previous media project and they agreed that he setting was perfect. Since the family is an upper middle class family in this movie my house will do the job. 

We said we would use my dining table that has darker lighting than my other table for the main first shot of the film opening. Then my house is still used for the shot of the porch and drive way. Since he runs out the house and we see the front of my house.

We plan on using Sebastian's car for the car scene since he is one of the only ones with a driver's license. His car would be used for the scene of him on call with the therapist. 

If we have time to show the therapist's office at the end the office would be in my dad's office in my house because he works from home and his office looks like an actual office in a building. 

Planning audio elements

 

For our audio elements we were thinking the first thing you hear is the family dinner table talking as well as plates and silverware noise. These noises will be diegetic sound coming directly from the actors plates and their voices.

Then there is ominous music building up until it goes silent and the family (everyone except the main character) disappears and when the killer appears with the knife behind the dad we will implement a sting of a knife. 

Then the killer leaves and the family appears back so we hear chatter again an the main character guy scrams and run out the house so we hear the scream and the footsteps. He runs out the door so you hear the door open and slam. We are going to use foley sounds to make the footstep sound effects sound louder and make it more desperate. We would do the foley noise with a shoe hitting on the ground and filming it up close. 

After he runs out he gets in his car and slams the car door and then drives off so we hear the car motor turn on. He then rings his therapists phone so the phone rings and then you hear the conversation he has with his therapist. The ring will be diegetic sound coming from his phone.

Planning costuming mise-en-scene

We had planned to do costuming for our main character as follows- since he is a teenager we thought a normal outfit for a teenager would be a hoodie and sweatpants especially since he is simply having dinner in his house with his family, the parents would be wearing casual outfits like a shirt and pants and the little sibling would wear a shirt and shorts because that is what most little kids wear. Something like this picture would be the main characters outfit.

The most important piece of our costuming is the villain/demon and he will be wearing all black (a suit)  because black represents mystery in horror films an unknown. To fulfill this vibe of mystery and darkness he will be wearing a mask to cover his face like a ski mask so his identity remains unknown. The covering of the face makes him scarier and usually in horror movies the demons identity is not known. 

Something like this-

Or we were planning on using lighting from behind to not show the demons face kind of like in Psycho when the killers face is hidden with the dark lighting. 

If we have time to show the therapist she will be in formal attire like that of an office. Like a white button down and formal pants. 

This is an outfit I have seen most therapist wear since they tend to work in office. It makes them look clean and put together and we want to create a realistic environment.

Character development

 We chose the main characters name to be Leo after searching the internet for popular guy names and Leo stood out to my group because it is a simple name but its meaning is Lion and they are the symbol of strength, braveness and courage. Which our character is because he is battling against a demon haunting him and his subconscious. This name really stuck with us and we have been saying to use it since the first day we began talking about our finished product. 

This chart is the one we used to see that Leo was a popular name.

Leo in the film starts off as any normal teenage boy would and he seems a little empty inside and depressed and then as he is being haunted by this villain he is being tested and his braveness and courage starts to show through when he really needs to put it in action. He starts showing a side of him he never did and even his friends and family realize he is very outgoing and brave after everything happened. Leo also doesn't have a good relationship with his parents but as the film goes on he starts to gain more confidence in himself helping him with his relationships with people.

This is a mood board we made for him to show his personality and the issues he has mentally

For the villain who is the demon haunting him we chose the name Erebus after looking for Greek names for evil. This is our film title, it is named after the demon. We thought it was a good name that provokes a feeling of suspense and fear. The name also provokes uncertainty and mystery which is exactly what this demon is because it comes unexpected. 

The villain is creepy and his intention is to terrorize others because he is miserably stuck in a paranormal state. He always appears lurking and he likes to scare and terrorize before harming or killing to make the experience more amusing for him. He doesn't give up and is very powerful and makes people see things and can control people's thoughts and vision giving him even more power.

As for the therapist which is not a main character but plays an important role we decided to keep her unnamed and she is a person who Leo goes to to talk about what is happening to him and try to figure out how to get rid of it. The therapist tries to help him as much as possible but she realizes she cannot help with something paranormal instead she can help him get to a mental state where he can beat this by himself. She is really good at her job and her and Leo have a great connection which makes her attempt to help him successful in the end.

Planning set mise-en-scene

 

The set for our film openings begin with the main character and his family sitting at a family dinner talking. With the main character (the son) sitting at the end and the rest of his family members (mom, dad and sibling) in the rest of the table in no particular order.

The set then change when he gets up and runs outside to his front porch and we see the outside of the front porch and house. We can see he lives in a nice house as we see him run out the door and slam it.

Then he runs into his car so the setting is the car and he is having a conversation with his therapist on the phone as he is on the way to her office telling her about the demon that keeps haunting him. He would be calling her at the same time that he is headed to her office to show just how much desperation he has and the sense of urgency there is because he truly feels he is in danger and is in need of help.