CCR question #1

Hey blog!

Now that I have finished filming and editing my film's opening, I need to do a CCR about it. CCR stands for Creative Critical Reflection, and essentially, it is me analyzing and reflecting on my project in detail. There are four questions I have to answer for the CCR in either two videos or more, but the maximum is four since there are four questions. I want to divide the four questions into two separate CCRs, and the way I'm splitting it is questions one and two in the first one and questions three and four in the second one. Although I am doing questions one and two in one video, for this post, I'm going to focus solely on question one.

Script

*I start off sitting in my kitchen doing something on my laptop when I get a phone call from "no caller ID." I look at it confused, and then I answer the phone.*

Hello?

Who is this?

Ohh I remember you, you're the one that called me. Hey, thanks for that by the way.

Oh you have questions about my film? What are they?

Okay so your first question is how does my product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

Wow, okay, that's a good question

So basically drama films usually focus on realistic teenage life, like emotions, relationships, and personal struggles. And I feel like my film definitely does that. Like, the whole story is based on a teenage girl dealing with betrayal in a relationship, which is something a lot of people can relate to

I also used a lot of typical drama techniques, like close-up shots to show emotion. Especially when Maisely gets an anonymous call and finds out her boyfriend is cheating on her The camera focuses more on her reaction so the audience can actually feel what she’s feeling.

But I also kind of challenged conventions a little bit. Like, instead of building up slowly to the problem, I made something big happen really early. The whole cheating situation happens right in the opening, which is kinda intense for the beginning of a film. And I think that actually makes it more interesting because it immediately pulls the audience in and makes them want to know what’s gonna happen next.

As for social groups, I focused on teenagers, especially teenage girls. I wanted to show how friendships, relationships, and even insecurities can affect people at this age. Like, Maisely seems really put together on the outside, but when something like this happens, you see a completely different side of her. And Stacy is also a good example of that, because even though she acts confident, her actions come from jealousy and insecurity. So it’s not just about drama, it’s also showing how people aren’t always what they seem


Wow, sorry, did you catch all of that? 

OKay good. Is there anything else you want to ask me?




The nex question that the anonymous caller asks is CCR question #2, and I will post the script for that in my blog post next week!

group meeting #2

Hey blog!

Today we had our second group meeting. I got to see a bunch of different projects from my peers and how everyone else is working on theirs and developing their ideas. I had a lot of fun discussing all of our ideas and sharing our opinions with each other. I got tips from my fellow group members and gave my opinions and helpful advice. 

There was one in particular that really stood out to me, which was "Ecstasy."  I liked the idea of the Ecstasy project. Luisa is working alone and has been doing a great job. Her project is about a girl who is overcoming a drug addiction when she looks around in her house and finds some sort of unknown substance. She tries it and from there on has to overcome an addiction after spiraling during the rest of her "film." The portion that will be filmed for her project is the part where she finds the drugs. She has great, realistic-looking props she'll be using for her project, which adds a nice touch. 

Not only did I see some very creative projects, but I also got great advice and ideas from my fellow group members! I got an idea from Gavin for a different way for the protagonist to find out her boyfriend is cheating on her. My initial idea was to have her see his texts and confront him about it, which would lead to an argument and them breaking up. He expressed his concerns that it would be hard to fit an argument into a video that is less than 2 minutes long. He gave me the idea to instead have her see him in person and immediately break things off there and make it short and simple. Luisa added on to that idea by saying the protagonist should see him giving flowers to another girl and have her go up to him and hit him with the flowers while screaming at him that they're breaking up.

I really like this idea and am very thankful for the advice! I think the touch of hitting him with the flowers adds a little bit of comedy, and I'm very excited to film it and go through with it. I got to see everyone's perspective of the project and their ideas for their projects and ccrs and share my own thoughts and opinions. 

Me, Santiago, Andrea, Mario, Luisa, Gavin, and Henry

Company logo process

 Hey blog!

For this week, we have to make our company logos for our project. I had a couple of ideas in mind for names and designs, so I tried a couple. I used Canva to make my designs. For the name of my company, I was originally going to do Starfire Studios. I was going to do a simple design, but when I finished, I wasn't satisfied with the result.

First design

Change #1

I didn't like how plain it looked, and honestly I didn't really like the name of it, but I liked the initial design, so I changed it up a little. I changed the name to "Starlace Studios," and I added a few accent stars to add a pop of color.

Change #2

After adding a few more details, I liked it more, but I was still not satisfied with the result. I still thought it looked too plain. I was thinking of maybe changing the whole design, but then I realized the background was just too plain. I looked online for an image of a shining star, but I didn't like any I saw. Then I used the AI generate tool in Canva to generate an image, and I finally found one that I liked. I added it to the background, and it completely changed the whole logo.

finishing touches and final product

I moved around a few of the stars and added an animation to the logo to complete it. I was finally satisfied with my result, and I am very happy with the way that it turned out. 

location/props planning

Hey blog!

Filming locations

The filming part of the project is almost done! There are many places that have been good places to film. The main ones I used for filming are my mom's house, my dad's house, and a car. The rest of my shots were taken around these places, and I will complete the rest once the filming progresses. I have most of my shots already taken, but sometimes ideas will come into my mind, and possibly I'll film them and add them to the project.

Main filming location

I used props and made props for my film. I also had help from my friend with filming and being in the project. He was also providing his car for me to use for the project. 

Costume design

Hey blog!

It's time to design costumes for my characters! My main focus is Maisely because she is the main character and will be played by me. I'm using my own wardrobe for designing her outfit, so I need to plan her outfit with the clothes I have available to me. First, I'm going to look up outfit inspiration that fits her aesthetic and her personality. Once I have the inspiration, I'm going to plan an outfit along the lines of it with the clothes from my closet.

Inspo picture for her outfit

I used Pinterest to look for inspiration and saw some outfits that I thought fit my character perfectly. I saw a few that I liked, but in the end, this is the one I picked as inspiration. I have a similar cardigan, and what girl doesn't own a pair of jeans? The shirt wouldn't be the same because I don't have a shirt that looks like that, so I'm going to use a plain-colored tank top.

Other pictures I liked but couldn't recreate

These two outfits caught my eye because I feel like they fit Maisely's personality very well, and if she were a real person, this is how I imagine her dressing. If I had similar clothing to the blonde girl, I would have chosen her outfit to recreate because I think that is the outfit that suits her the best, but sadly, that is not the case.

I also really liked this outfit, even though it is simple, because of the way it used the "sandwich method." Basically, it's when you match your shows to the color of your shirt. It's a very simple touch that makes an outfit look so much more put together, but I didn't choose this option because I don't have any shoes that match the color of a shirt similar to this one.

The outfit I put together

Using the first picture as inspiration, I used a pair of jeans and a light blue tank top, and I added my white cardigan on top. I paired it with my Adidas Campus and voila! Maisely's outfit is finished.

production process: props

Hey blog!

For my film, I made and bought some props. I made one that I ended up not using, but it was still fun to make! I made a love letter prop that I didn't use with extra materials I had in my room. It was very simple and can be recreated!

The making of prop #1

Materials:

- 1 sheet of white construction paper

- 1 sheet of heart-pattern construction paper

- 1 pack of sticky hearts (red, pink, and silver)

- glue stick

- scissors

- black and red pen

Instructions:

First, I used a plain white sheet of construction paper, and I folded it in half, "hamburger style." Once I did that, I used scissors to cut out hearts from the heart-pattern paper. I did this by folding the paper in half and cutting out half the heart so it's equally proportional. I cut out a total of three hearts, 2 small and 1 big one. After cutting out the hearts, I then repeated the same step on the hearts (folding in half and cutting out a heart), but changed it a little. For this step, I stop cutting in the middle so it can have a pop-out effect. I then glued all three hearts to the center of the card and achieved the pop-out effect that I was aiming for. After that, I stuck a bunch of the sticky hearts all over the cover of the card until I liked how it looked, and decorated the inside with a few sticky hearts and writing. 

Finished result

Here's a video of my finished result. I ended up not using it in my project, but I wrote a letter inside and gave it to my mom for Valentine's Day, so it didn't go to waste!

Meet Maisely

Hey blog!

Today, I am creating a background for my characters to get a deeper understanding of the type of people they are. I'm solely focusing on Maisely because she is the main character in my film, but I am also creating a background on the rest.

Creating Maisely

When coming up with Maisely, I wanted her to be a unique and deep character, so I didn't want to make her basic. I first came up with a name. I looked online for unique names, and I saw a few that caught my attention. Some of the names I almost picked were Delilah, Mirabelle, and Aurelia. I thought all these names were very beautiful, but in the end, Maisely was the one I liked the most. Not only did I want the name to sound beautiful, but I wanted it to have a beautiful meaning. The name Maisely means "pearl meadow." I personally love this meaning and used it as a sort of inspiration to create Maisely's personality.

Who is Maisely?

Maisely is a very outgoing and joyful person. She's popular and a social butterfly. You'll rarely ever catch her without a smile on her face. She has a very bubbly personality and is a very goal-oriented person. She's an honor roll student, has a great social life, is good at her sport (volleyball), has many extracurricular activities, and has a great boyfriend. When she sets her mind to something, she goes for it. She's known what college she wants to go to since she was in 5th grade.

But there’s more to her than what people see at school. Maisely puts a lot of pressure on herself to keep everything together. She likes being put together, but it also gets exhausting. She hates letting people down, so even when she’s overwhelmed, she’ll just keep smiling.

She’s also the kind of person everyone goes to for advice. Her friends trust her because she listens and actually cares, but the problem is that she doesn’t really open up the same way. She keeps her own problems to herself because she doesn’t want to seem weak or mess up the image people have of her.

The “pearl meadow” meaning subtly connects to her. On the outside, she’s bright and put-together like a pearl. Pearls are made under pressure, and that’s kind of like her life. The “meadow” part represents how she's outgoing and feels safe to be around. She's the type of person that won't make you feel judged or insecure, she's someone you can open up to.

She and her boyfriend, Oliver, met when she had to tutor him for biology in his sophomore year. She had taken it in 8th grade and passed with straight A's. They always giggled and got along very well during his tutoring, and he ended up getting a B+ in biology thanks to her help. After that, he asked her out. They have been dating for the last year and a half, and their relationship has been very good in her eyes.

The rest of the charcaters

Oliver: 

Oliver is somewhat of a stereotypical jock. He's popular, on the school team (in their school, soccer is more important than football), and doesn't get the best grades. He's a very kind guy, a loverboy, and a gentleman. Oliver and Maisely met when she had to tutor him for biology in his sophomore year. She had taken it in 8th grade and passed with straight A's. He ended up doing great in biology, and he was interested in her, and then he asked her out. 

Even though he seems like a really good guy, Oliver likes attention more than he admits. He’s not great at setting boundaries, especially with people like Stacy, and he avoids conflict instead of being honest. He lives in the moment and doesn’t always think things through, which can lead to him making impulsive decisions. He cares about Maisely, but at times, he can be selfish without realizing it, especially when his feelings or ego are involved.

Stacy: 

Stacy is Maisely's ex-best friend and current "arch nemesis." She's a stereotypical "mean girl." She's pretty, popular, gets a lot of male attention, is mean, and thinks peaking in high school matters. She's confident, blonde, short, pretty, and looks nice... but looks can be deceiving. She's fake to most of her friends, makes fun of people behind their backs, and has gotten with half the guys in school. She does this to hide from everyone how insecure she really is, but Maisely knows the truth. They used to be best friends, but Stacy's insecurities got the best of her and ruined their friendship. 

Stacy also has a competitive side, especially when it comes to Maisely. She hates feeling like she “lost” anything to her, even if she’d never admit it out loud. She craves attention and validation, and sometimes goes after things she knows she shouldn’t just to prove she can. Even though she acts confident, a lot of her choices come from jealousy and wanting to feel like she’s in control.

Emily:

Emily is Maisely's best friend. She's outgoing, loud, and energetic. She loves to gossip, is a party animal, and is loyal. She brings out the more outgoing side of Maisely. She's blonde and lives up to the "dumb blonde" stereotype. She's not completely clueless, though. She's street smart, just not academically smart, but she gets by with the help of Maisely. They met in 8th grade, and they weren't really close when the whole situation happened. It made them bond so much because something similar happened to Emily in 7th grade. Since then, they have become inseparable and have been through so much together.

group meeting #1

 Hey blog!!

In class, we were supposed to have a group meeting. I was absent on the day of the meeting, so I didn't participate in the meeting activity. I'm sad I didn't because my friends in my class told me it was very fun and helped them get more ideas for their project. I am going to make sure i'm there for the nect one!