Creative Critical Reflection
Hi everyone, this is Adreana
McEachrane one of the creators of “tricks are for kids”, and welcome to my creative
critical reflection. Today I will be explaining my film in detail with questions
I have been asked. The first question is how my project
relates to genre conventions. The genre of my film is horror to be
specific teen horror.
My title sequence challenges the
genre convention because it is aligned and on beat with the music we have
picked for the film. The design of the words looks scary like and by hearing and
visualizing the opening you should be able to tell it’s a horror film. We were
choosing between a whole bunch of fonts that had to do with horror and the one
we picked we thought would look best with our film. Mise-en-scene also
challenges our genre convention because the props we used such as the bear was
part of the horror film because what bear isn’t scary if its covered in
bandages. The clothing was to be dressed like a teen and teens wear kind of
casual clothes to the park such as shorts and a t-shirt. By using cinematography,
we were able to tell our genre sequentially and it was able to make sense. We
were able to match the shots to the sound in the film, so it didn’t look like
we just slapped a bunch of videos and added a song. The design of our film goes
right with the theme. It has the red for blood and white for the innocent minds
of these unsophisticated teens.
Some horror films use the
representation of teens. The representation is to show how teens lack common
sense and are unsophisticated. Our film challenges that because its about how
kids think their funny when they play tricks on their parents and then come to
find out their parents are missing due to a trick an adult pulled. It shows how
the teens weren’t aware that there are people out in the world who do kidnap
adults and it’s very scary. They weren’t aware that one of their tricks could
lead to their parents missing.
The next question is: How do your products engage with the
audience and how would they be distributed as real media products? Me and
my group members had to choose production company that had to do with our
genre. We researched productions that had to do with horror films. We looked
into all of them to find out which one was more reasonable to hire. We wanted
one that was truly respected and did films that are similar to our own film.
The production company we picked is Blumhouse Productions. The production
company has a good rate and a good background. We had to make sure that we
weren’t being played or robbed for our film. The production company had to have
our trust in them when creating our film.
My film will be exhibited anywhere
and everywhere. It would first go into the movies just like any other film. We
know that it’s COVID, so we are willing to allow people who have television networks
like on demand to purchase our film the day it comes out. Then as it later gets
more and more views and becomes popular, we will allow it to be on T.V. After a
while we’ll make it free for everyone. When it comes out, we want everyone to
be able to watch it on the bus, in the car, on a train, at home, etc. We don’t
want to hog our film, we would like it if our audience would give us an
understandable and respectful rate.
Our target audience is for everyone
who isn’t afraid of the dark, loves scary things, uneducated about the world,
and most importantly a teen. Our film isn’t really rated r. It’s kind of more
like a teens film, something that an adult would show to their child so that
they are better educated about this world. We wanted to mainly target our teens
since we are teens and we are being educated about this world as we go on in
life. I hope they watch our film because it’s not only educational but has a
very interesting plot. Also, teens love to play around a lot, so this would
seem like something they are interested in.
The next question is: How did your production skills develop
throughout this project? I’m
a way better filmmaker than I was before. Before I knew the life a filmmaker I
though it was going to be easy. Knowing that filmmakers go through so many
disruptions and setbacks, I now understand the struggles. We had to kick
someone out our group, we have to change our whole plot of the film now, and we
have struggles meeting in person due to COVID and our parents. Filmmakers are
so imaginative that so many ideas pop up in their heads that they don’t know
which ones to use. They might even want to combine them all but then it may
make the film look messy unless they do a good job at making every idea come
together into one. Being a filmmaker is really awesome and cool. I’m learning
how to do all the fake things that look real in film. For example, blood dripping
down on the credits, adding a green screen, learning to edit, and so much more.
I created my first opening for the first time, and it was great. Being told
that made me feel more confident that I could make this opening a lot better
and having my ideas really play out and come together.
In the beginning of filmmaking I
learned that this isn’t going to be that easy as I thought. I also learned to
use the camera angles my teacher Ms.landis has introduced to us. When I had Instagram,
we would make edits of ourselves with music, so I knew had to match the music
to the shots automatically already. I was kind of confused on how to use the
camera angles and shots she taught us, but when we actually did them, they
didn’t look as bad as I thought they would turn out. In the middle I was
deciding on the order we should do that shots. We had an idea, it was just we
didn’t know how to put it in play until we got a little tip from our dear
teacher. Our plot is now complete, and we have our finished products, it’s not
as good as I wanted it to be but for our first time, I say we didn’t do that
bad
Planning was hard. We were still
planning about how we want to order our shots and what is going to be in the
shots. I guess we could consider the first time we made our opening film it was
a draft. The draft wasn’t as complete as we thought it was, so we have to add a
few more shots and actually tell the story now. Directing on what we want
wasn’t hard. Once we have what we want to be in the shots we will for sure
start directing. Shooting was hard because we weren’t really able to meet which
sucks, but we get why we can’t. So, since we have most of the shots that we
need. we are able to record somethings from home without meeting. We were going
to make the live shots on a black background, but we decided to leave it in the
back ground it was. We just added a black background for the credits. We have
revised our film with our teacher, and she told us the idea is there, we just
needed to be complete or show case it better. So, we were working on picking an
idea out of the hundred we have forged out our brains to really show you guys
what we want our film to be. The editing part I thought would be hard, but it’s
actually not since I had experience with editing my own videos although they’re
not compared to this, I still was quick to figure out how to use the tool
imbedded in the app I used to create the opening. I’m not a good person to find
a sound I was struggling if it weren’t for my team members, I would have been
stuck trying to find the right sound to go with the opening.
I’m more experienced now on how to
use tools that filmmakers use that I’ll be able to do it quicker than I was in
the beginning of filmmaking. I might even become a filmmaker myself one day. I
guess trying new thing isn’t as bad as I thought. After I finish this opening I
might try and make more because making openings are cool. To know that you made
something you watch on t.v. has to be cool and exciting. Once you learn
something you don’t ever want to stop learning or doing that something you
started.
The last question is: How did you integrate technologies –
software, hardware and online – in this project? In completing my project, I used a phone. We use an
iPhone se. the camera on the iPhone has good quality. We wanted to use an
actual camera, but one of my partners forgot to bring it and we had to film
since we are behind a little. Another one of my partners brought a tri pod just
in case because at the time we didn’t have anyone to record us, but now it really
isn’t us being recorded, we hired actors for our film. I brought a selfie stick
also for just in case if we needed to record ourselves if needed. Before we
hired actor, we were going to be the main characters, but we really weren’t
able to meet.
When we were using the iPhone, I always
noticed that yellow box on our camera screen when u double tap the screen. It was
a tool to adjust your lighting and that was really helpful because we wanted
all of our shots to look like they were being taken at night. Also, once you
finish recording or taking a picture of whatever, you wanted when you go to
picture and click what you took at the top it has an edit button. I’ve always
saw that too and never really used it. I didn’t know how to work it either, but
now that I had to make this film it helped a lot. it helped turn down the
brightness and I also used an effect on the video or picture to make it how I
want. I also used an app called “Filmmaker pro” to help edit the film. At first
it looks really complicated and I was just going to go back and use iMovie, but
then I looked into it more and I figured out how to use it. You are able to
adjust music, how long you want each shot to be, text, and so much more. Its
exactly like what the app is called a filmmaker.
For our setting we wanted to go for
a scary forest and neighborhood since we are doing a horror film. Behind my house
is fern forest so recording over there at night would look so scary, but we had
to use a different location which was fine. We wanted to have a dark forest in
the film because it would really bring out the horror in the film. We also choose to use a park as another
location since its part of our plot. The park represents the kids and them
playing. Its also where they pull their most exotic tricks on whoever walks by
mostly their parents.
I will be doing a powerpoint
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