My CCR

Finally... the CCR for my final project is finished! I will have it linked below, thank you so much for coming along with me on my film journey!

"Little Town" CCR by Andrea Larez

Project Reflection

So... this is it. The final film opening is finally done. During this whole process, my group and I learned a lot, overcame obstacles, and had to think outside of the box in order to finish this project. I thought I would do a blog post explaining all of the things we had to adjust and overcome in order to produce our final film opening.

Thinking of a plotline was especially difficult for us, as we all had very different ideas. We changed genres and storylines several times in order to find one that we all liked. I also learned to compromise a lot during this whole project. Usually, on any creative project, I work alone and get to develop my vision just as I see it. However, as I was working with a group, I had to learn to help others' visions come to life as well, not just mine. Thankfully, my group and I got along very well throughout this process and everyone's ideas were considered.

We had to learn to adapt as well. This was the biggest issue in my opinion. As you know from my previous blog posts, this film opening was supposed to be a musical. We had it all planned out and I even spent several hours composing the music for it. We already had our team of cast members for the flash mob, and everything was scheduled and ready to go. Then COVID-19 got in the way. Due to the stay at home order, none of us could go outside or even get together to film... which was a huge problem as none of the footage was done. We had to improvise and change our storyline AGAIN, and then again, and then again. Thankfully, we found a way to make it work after several days discussing what we could do.

I learned to use many new technologies and technological resources as well. In order to complete my blog posts and research, we had to spend many hours looking on the internet for statistics, diagrams, and things like that. We used apps like ShopLook for the costume design and Celtx for the screenplay. We also relied a bunch on technological communication due to the stay at home order, using apps such as Snapchat and Facetime. However, the biggest resource we used was Google Drive. This allowed us to upload the footage on there so Raisa and I could both edit on it and send it to each other.

As for how I feel about the actual project, being 100% honest, it, unfortunately, did not meet my vision and expectations. I guess I'm still hung up on the idea of making it a musical, but this was not able to happen. I definitely think we could have done a lot better if we had been under different circumstances. However, we did do our best under the conditions we were in, and I'm still immensely proud of my group and the film opening we created.

Little Town - The Final Film Opening

HERE IT IS... THE FINAL PRODUCT!

After so much hard work and time, I am happy to present to you: our film opening!

Little Town

The Final Voiceover + Editing

So.... we finished the voiceover!

We really wanted to make it so it would introduce the character and give the audience a good idea of who our main character, Mia, is. Janey had to take several tries since we wanted to get the perfect tone of voice.

Janey sent it to Raisa who added it to the video, but after watching it, we decided it would be better to refilm it since it sounded really unnatural. However, after fixing it up, we all really felt like it made the film opening complete.

Raisa and I split up the editing, but Raisa really did an amazing job at finishing it up. She even fixed some of the editing mistakes I had made in the beginning! She then added the music, credits, title (I helped her find a font), and the voiceover. The editing process was pretty smooth and it was so easy to work with Raisa, we make a great team! She took all of my suggestions and I took all of her suggestions, and the film opening ended up being really the best we could do under the extreme circumstances... stay tuned for the final product!

Finding the Music

Hey guys!

Since our film opening is pretty minimal, finding and choosing the correct music for it is super important. Our film was supposed to be a musical original, but due to the COVID-19 changes, we had to adapt and make it more of a coming of age movie, taking movies such as Lady Bird (2017) for example.

I did not have enough time to create background music for the film, so we decided to look for uncopyrighted music. I texted on our Snapchat group chat and proposed the idea that each of us (Janey, Raisa, and I) propose a piece of music and then we would choose which one would best fit the opening. I looked through sites like Youtube, PremiumBeat, and BenSound. We were looking for some chill, piano music with some adventurous feel to it. After searching through several songs, I finally sent one to the group that everyone loved!

The title of the song is "Going Higher" which fits perfectly with our character and our storyline! Playing this while the voice over is going on will add dynamics and make the film opening more entertaining to watch.

Below is the audio we picked:
https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/track/going-higher

How We're Managing to Make It Work

Hello everyone!

As I’ve mentioned before, probably a hundred times, everyone is social distancing right now in order to keep everyone safe from COVID-19. Therefore, my group has had to adapt in order to finish this project. Today, Sunday, we all had a Snapchat call in which we discussed everything about our project. 

As Janey has finished all of the filming, it is time to edit. I started the beginning section, and I will make sure to finish by Tuesday at the latest for Raisa to be able to finish it off by the time the project is due.

We discussed the new voiceover idea I mentioned in the previous post, making sure everyone was on the same page as to where it would be placed. We also discussed some other minor details such as where the credits would be placed in the film opening. We decided to leave this decision until after the editing was all done.

Another subject we discussed was the CCR. Since the due date is coming up, we really need to get everything in order and make sure we have everything done. We discussed our blog posts for this following week, and we agreed to have another call this week in order to further discuss the CCR. 

Here is a pic of us on the call! 

New Ideas

As we’ve continued working on our film opening, we came up with a new idea that would further introduce the character. At first, we were doing a musical, so the lyrics would explain more about the character, but since we had to scratch the idea, we had to improvise. After doing research, we decided that the best option was to do a voiceover.

We took inspiration from the movie Mean Girls (2004) and Riverdale (2017) which both use voiceovers in order to introduce the main story and main character. We chose these two because they both are targeted to teens and young adults. This is the same audience we are targeting with our film, so we decided to take ideas from successful films and shows like these two. 

This is a scene from mean girls in which a voiceover is used to explain what the viewer is seeing (starts at 0:23): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7SYnc0x4YQ

Mean Girls received huge success and is seen as one of the most iconic teen movies. It made a cumulative gross profit of $130,125,829.

The following clip is from the pilot of Riverdale, a teen show that began in 2017 and has been highly successful since then: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDsv8Vemabw

“Mean Girls.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 30 Apr. 2004, www.imdb.com/title/tt0377092/.

“Riverdale.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 26 Jan. 2017, www.imdb.com/title/tt5420376/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1.

Based on Archie's comics, the drama teen show has a rating of 7.1/10 on IMDb, but it's been shown to be very popular amongst teens.

Janey, Raisa, and I decided to make our voiceover introducing Mia as a senior in high school who is aspiring to be a dancer, and we also wanted to introduce the concept of her living in a very small-minded town, as well as her part in the LGBTQ community and her relationship with her parents. We made several drafts but decided to finalize it once all the editing was finished. Below is one of the drafts we made for the voiceover that Janey will narrate during the film opening:

“Mean Girls.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 30 Apr. 2004, www.imdb.com/title/tt0377092/.

“Riverdale.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 26 Jan. 2017, www.imdb.com/title/tt5420376/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1.

“Mean Girls.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 30 Apr. 2004, www.imdb.com/title/tt0377092/.

“Riverdale.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 26 Jan. 2017, www.imdb.com/title/tt5420376/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1.

“Mean Girls.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 30 Apr. 2004, www.imdb.com/title/tt0377092/.

“Riverdale.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 26 Jan. 2017, www.imdb.com/title/tt5420376/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1.

“Mean Girls.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 30 Apr. 2004, www.imdb.com/title/tt0377092/.

“Riverdale.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 26 Jan. 2017, www.imdb.com/title/tt5420376/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1.

“Mean Girls.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 30 Apr. 2004, www.imdb.com/title/tt0377092/.

“Riverdale.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 26 Jan. 2017, www.imdb.com/title/tt5420376/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1.“Mean Girls.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 30 Apr. 2004, www.imdb.com/title/tt0377092/.

“Riverdale.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 26 Jan. 2017, www.imdb.com/title/tt5420376/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1.

Lights, Camera, Action!

Hey guys!

I am happy to say that we began and finished all of the filming for our opening this week! This was a very tough job as we are all currently social distancing, due to the Coronavirus. However, Janey managed to get amazing clips and film it all at her house! She had help from her brother to get all of the shots correct.

She shared it with us through a Google Drive folder, so we could have access to all the footage in order to start editing. Raisa and I decided that I would begin editing and do the first minute and that she would finish it off and add the final touches.

The filming process had some challenges as Raisa and I weren't there to help Janey out, but thankfully she had her brother and managed to make it work. She filmed it chronologically in order to make sure we had all of the parts and also for lighting purposes. The shots are beautiful as the sun was setting and the light shining on Janey really engages the eye.

Although Janey says she's not a great actress, I think she did an amazing job with all things considered! We ended up going for simple costume design, as she is just a high school student, but the mom jeans and the shoelace belt give away some of Mia's personality, as well as the pins. Janey also chose a very cute half up half down hairstyle to spice it up a bit more.

The shots outside are perfect because they show that she is indeed in a very safe, suburban neighborhood. This helps us establish the whole concept of the film, as it is titled "Little Town". The variety of shots she took will also help us in the editing process.

Here is what Janey shared with us:

Don't worry... you'll see the finished project soon!

Media In Quarantine

As you all know, we are currently in quarantine due to COVID-19. This has been a very hard process for everyone, and a lot of people are feeling a lot of different emotions right now. We are all trying our best to say positive and stay hopeful, but there is a lot of stress and everyone is very worried due to the increasing number of cases in the US. We surpassed China’s numbers, so this is really getting very serious.

Media has been really useful to us since it really does keep us updated on everything that’s going on. My parents turn on the news every morning and we listen to them for some time to stay up-to-date with the number of cases, the precautions being taken, and everything else. Not only this, but social media has been a very big factor during this whole pandemic. People are sharing their stories through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Doctors and nurses working really hard to fight this right now are sharing their stories in order to encourage people to stay home and social distance so this can all be over as soon as possible. Not only this, but hospitals are running out of medical masks and other supplies. The media has been a great way to collect funds and make people aware of this consumerism problem. Due to people freaking out over the virus, everyone has gone out and bought medical masks thinking they’re protecting themselves. Instead, they are taking the supply way from people who desperately needed such as doctors and nurses and hospitals. One of my friends, Raisa Ali, actually started her own project (The One World Project) in order to create masks and provide supplies for people in need of it at this time. She has created her project and spread her message solely by using her blog and social media. 

Everyone is trying to deal with this transition and I really do feel like media is connecting the whole world as one with everything that’s going on. Famous music artists, for example, are going live on Instagram and doing mini-concerts for everyone stuck at home. For example, singers Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes did an Instagram live together for the Global Citizen and the World Health Organization. This is helping people deal with the stress they are going through and tried to make their lives a little more normal. Another example of this is that many athletes and fitness instructors are sharing home workouts for everyone to follow. For example, David Krichavsky has created an interactive series for kid athletes to stay fit at home. 

For me, personally, media has been great to just entertain myself, I’ve been watching a lot of movies and TV shows, and I’ve also started reading a lot more again and this is all helping me stay sane through this whole situation. I have been really enjoying being creative, such as making crafts, making music, and other things like that. Some sites that have been useful to me are Pinterest and Instagram as many people are uploading ideas of what to do in order to make the best of one’s time during the quarantine. Some movies that I’ve watched our Lady Bird and the king and I enjoyed both of them. I am currently reading Call Me By Your Name as I watched the movie and fell in love with it. I have also watched some comedy specials on Netflix by John Mulaney which I really enjoyed. 

In order to stay connected to my friends and my family, I have been on a lot of FaceTime calls, text messaging, snap chatting and even direct messaging on Instagram. I have contacted my teachers through zoom, Microsoft teams, and our primary platform, Canvas. These all have been useful in order to continue school even with this whole situation going on.