CCR

https://youtu.be/DP5ER4pFNl8

Reflection

Portfolio Project: Reflection

To me I would say that overall my portfolio project went smoothly. I would say more smoothly than any of my previous projects despite the pandemic. Starting with the early stages of the project, that was a bit more rocky. I think it was because at the time I wanted to make sure that I had a solid and feasible idea and that stressed me out. But with lots of research and planning it really did help me find out what I wanted to do for my portfolio project. Everything after the initial idea was nothing crazy. I planned out how I'd film it and I thought out of the logistics of filming it. Fleshing out my story was not an issue either that to me came naturally and with little roadblocks.

Coming to the end of the portfolio project. It came about way more smoothly than I thought it would. Since the quarantine hit I was very uncertain about where my project was going and just what I would be doing for this class in general. Still even through all of that I filmed and edited my portfolio project without issue. I filmed all that I could and it ended out being slightly different from my original outlines but that is fine because most projects change a lot in the edit
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My final thoughts are that the creation of the portfolio project is that it went by smoother than I thought but that is very much due to me scaling down my own ambition and having my main focus be how can I create this project as efficiently as possible. I would say that I succeed in doing that.

Portfolio Project: At Large

At Large

https://youtu.be/UTRhc1OtzUg

CCR SCRIPT

I took my time to write out a pretty rough script of my CCR. I plan on filming it all sometime this week after I go through another pass or two on the script. It will be filmed in my garage and once recorded i'll see what I could do to spice it up and make it more interesting that the generic talking head stuff that you always see.

CCR Script:

Question #1: 

What are genre conventions in horror and did you challenge them or embrace them, and in what ways did you do so?

R: Now some typical horror conventions is that horror is all about the darkness. Here is where I challenged that convention by having a lot of my opening play out during mid-day. I wanted to say that horror can work in broad daylight and I wanted to prove that the horror during the day could even be more scary. 

A convention that I choose that is typical of horror is obviously the killer/serial killer trope, but at the same time I did try to twist it into something more interesting than a generic slasher. I tried to give the antagonist some character which most horror movies don’t do. I did this by showing how organized the killer is and showing how the killer is essentially gloating about his kills by recording them and posting them online.

I would also say that I did embrace the found footage side of the horror genre but I used it as a narrative tool that would enhance the story that I was telling.

That’s interesting but what about representation, does your opening choose to represent any social issues or groups?

R: Yes, in my mind this opening and subsequently the whole film is about cold cases. I did a lot of research on cases like the one that I made for this opening. To me it is important to show how even with technology it can still be difficult to track down criminals. I really wanted to show how crimes can be committed on camera yet can be as cold as a case without a single witness.

Question #2: 

Who is your target audience?

R: My target audience is going for those fans of true crime and those who are really interested in documentaries about serial killers. As well as fans of horror as it is a horror film. Now I plan on attracting these people through the content of the film, the horror fans will come for the disturbing nature of the film and the true crime fans will come for the portrayal of an eerily realistic case trying to be solved. 

Now as for how I am going to get my film out there that should hopefully be simple. Netflix would not be a hard bargain to get into as there are many small budget independent films on Netflix, this also goes for Hulu and Amazon Prime. Submitting the film to film festivals would help greatly as having some buzz around to help convince a streaming platform to pick up the film. Even if that doesn’t work there is always YouTube where the film can be uploaded allowing anyone to see the film, yes it wouldn’t make much money but it's better than nothing.

Question #3: 

What was your process with developing the film and how did it evolve over time?

R: First It started with choosing a genre. I chose horror as I knew the genre well and felt that I could get some good ideas with the genre. Then came the research on the genre so I could get a solid footing with what I was working with. This was done within my first blog posting where I discussed typical horror budgets, ratings, and conventions. 

On my second Blogspot I also went over three different film openings, from stranger things, Halloween, and American psycho. I did this to analyze how and why these openings are so good and how I could apply what they used into my film.

For me, I would say that my main approach to doing research was by consuming the type of content that I was trying to create and learning from what I watched. I saw movies like the Blair witch project so I could see why the film worked so well as a found footage film. I watched many other horror films and true crime YouTube videos so I could find inspiration. 

How did you change or adapt as you worked on the project.

R: Well I would say that I had to get a lot more used to planning out things way ahead of time. It’s not something that i’m good at doing or something that I do often so it was a bit of a struggle to get used to. I had to make sure that I was on track and I was at the beginning but things did slow down once the quarantine hit.

A reflection on where I started and ended and how past projects helped me with this portfolio project.

R: I feel like I started off on a good note. I was posting all of my blog posts on time and through all of that I was able to develop my opening more. I think that I learned a lot from previous projects. I learned how helpful it is to have a teammate and I also learned how sometimes it’s easier to work alone. I think that’s what prompted me to be fine with working alone as it has made the whole process of creating the opening have a lot less bumps in the road. From other projects such as the film pitch and the one word short film I learned that sometimes simple is fine. I used to be a little too ambitious and It would prevent the end product from coming out as good as it could’ve. So with this one I would scale down on complexity and I would find out how to do this opening as smoothly as possible and that really worked out in the end. As now even under quarantine I was able to shoot my entire opening without many changes.

Question #4:

What technologies were used? 

R: That one is kind of simple and short. I did not rely heavily on technology. I used blogger for posting my research and collecting my ideas. I would say that I used a variety of devices to watch other films. And I used YouTube frequently for research on not only how to craft my opening but on how to refine my editing skills.

How technology is used during filming?

R: This is another simple one. I decided to scale down on complexity for this opening so the majority of the opening is shot on my phone with no filter on. I only used my DSLR for one scene which lasts a few seconds. I used Davinci Resolve to edit the footage from my phone and did very little audio editing. I think my lack of technology helped to avoid many problems since there wasn’t much in the way that could cause me problems.

R: One thing that did really help as I mentioned previously is YouTube. I even made a blog post about it. Where it was able to help me with crafting the credits for my opening which was something that would have been super challenging without the help of a YouTube video.

A major obstacle while shooting was definitely the quarantine hitting because of COVID-19. It basically derailed my entire filming schedule and planning for my CCR. It left the whole project in uncertainty and it really messes with how much I was able to get done with this project.  

Final Statement:

R: Throughout this portfolio project I learned a lot about planning and how helpful it can be when tackling a big project such as this one. I learned the value of research and especially the value of learning from others. 

In all honestly if provided the chance to do something different I would have adhered more strictly to my own schedule. I would have been more on top of getting work done and I wouldn’t push it off so far. 

Next time I tackle a project like this I could be more on top of myself with how much work I get done and when it all gets done. 

Filmed Today

Filming

I was able to film tonight and I think it look alright although I will intimately scrap it for now because its a bit too dark and I don't want the opening to be filled with so much darkness. So I'll re-shoot it during daylight tomorrow. But since I was out at night I got the last few shots I needed for the found footage segment of the opening. But tomorrow is when I will film the very final scene that is not shot on my phone. Tomorrow filming will be finished and editing will start, mostly just putting all the clips that I recorded together. The day after that I'll add all the necessary credits to the opening and then it should be all about done. 

Next thing after that is a full script but i'll just call it a rough script that I'll upload here on blogger. It'll serve as my guidelines for filming the CCR and hopefully it will be enough to cover the time limit.

Filming Interuptions

Rain Check

I tried to go outside today to get the few outside scenes during the sunset that I needed for the opening. But I experienced an interruption with some rain going on. Pictured here.

 

Although that does not matter much as I still am planning on getting those shots. Now it may have not originally been in my plan to shoot those outside scenes of the killer stalking the neighborhood all be at night but i'll record them later today anyways. I'll see how I feel about them being filmed at night once i'm done shooting the scenes later today. If I don't like them I'll just have to shoot the outdoor scene tomorrow which is still no big deal to me. 

A quick update on the CCR. I have been looking over the questions on the CCR and I have been writing some prototype scripts for my CCR. Again it will take place in my garage, the place where my opening starts. I'm still aiming for brevity in my CCR as I was originally.  

Filming Starts Today

I started my first few scenes of filming today I got the scenes of the killer getting ready to go outside and go on the "hunt". I just filmed those inside scenes today as I plan to film my scenes in chunks day by day so I can spend lots of time one once scene. From this I can make sure that re-shoots won't be necessary as I will film everything I need and more for the day. For example today during filming I made sure to get more establishing shots and other shots that while not completely relating to what I was filming could be used later for inserts during the editing process.

From today I also decided to roll back on my idea of doing the opening editing all through my phone's camera app. I will get most of my clips individually and I will edit it all in Davinci resolve. So any audio editing will also be done on that editing software. I'll continue my filming on Tuesday to get the outdoor scenes for that day.