Film Opening

Drum-roll please, here we have the film opening to Don’t Linger by Antonio Maya, myself Nicolas Pol, and Mark Murcanio please enjoy: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1KXGDyhVCRGmdR4l-P8eisbsgM5ySOvhs

Creative Critical Reflection

Link to my Creative critical reflection:YouTube, https://youtu.be/eOxBW3bAvAo
and Google Drive, https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/search?q=ccr

Reflection

Now that is time to reflect and looking back I can truly say I learned a lot. The most crucial lesson however I learned was that films are made in the little details. Being in charge with costume design, making a teenager the actors I believe this would attract that same age range. I am credited for costume design so what looks to be a minor aspect of the film was something I throughly thought out and that was the costume design of the teenage victim. I asked myself what costume design truly captures the male teenager and what else could it be other than a hoodie. I decided that the hoodie should be over the victim’s head to truly emphasize the costume design choice. I’ve learned that a little impact here and there are what make a quality product. My editing skills and directing skills really improved as directing others to film because although I wasn’t not the director I was in charge of the look of the picture. I am credited for costume design so what looks to be a minor aspect of the film was something I throughly thought out and that was the costume design of the teenage victim. I asked myself what costume design truly captures the male teenager and what else could it be other than a hoodie. I decided that the hoodie should be over the victim’s head to truly emphasize the costume design choice. I’ve learned that a little impact here and there are what make a quality product.

Cool it

After finishing filming now comes the editing. We are considering adjusting the color contrast in the shots. So I applied the same level of deep color contrast to all of the shots. This was in order to establish that dark tone that I wanted my world to be completely immersed in. A normal convention that a regular film would follow would be to let the colors be and to apply little to no effect to them I drastically changed each and every last one of my shots when I went into editing and got comfortable with the color contrasting effects in order to get them just right. Out of all the editing I did I consider this effect to be one of if not the most crucial because in order for my product to make the impact I wanted it to make I needed to show my audience how dark the future would be if we did not appreciate our similarities, forget our differences, and save the world that quite frankly is in a dire situation. Some may argue that a color contrast effect is not challenging convention rather it follows convention and perhaps that is true, but to the drastic level I did it. The level of color contrast my product is currently under is definitely rare to see. Along with adjusting the color contrast in our shots  we are considering lower the temperatures in the shots as well as that shares the same purpose to the product and that is to truly immerse the viewer in the dark world of a serial killer. I believe this effect however, has a better shot at making it to the final product because it is an effect the group seemed to like.

Finished shooting

Today was the conclusion of the filming process. I believe that we as group came together as a unit and produced a great product. Looking back my filming process I truly belie that I matured both as a filmmaker and as a man. Before I filmed I had a hard time working together with others, but when we came together to film I believe it went smoothly and here is the documentation of the groups filming process. These documentations directly correlate to the part I was mainly in charge of mise en scene the major props being displayed here are the mask, the map, and the pictures of the people that the serial killer plans to kill, and everything you see below in both pictures and videos is placed there for a reason.

Confronting the oppressor

Don’t Linger confronts a very real social issue in today’s society. A social issue that has summoned perhaps the biggest and most impactful movement in the last decade, the me too movement. The me too movement is about oppression and how strong individuals are now breaking through that oppression. In our film Don’t Linger we have put an emphasis on this issue of an oppressor. Since I was in charge of the mise en scene I decided to challenge convention in a way that engages with the audience while confronting a very serious social issue. Oppression is often, oppression is quite, oppression is loud, and oppression can come from anyone. Anybody can be an oppressor. Since I am in charge of a very important aspect of the film opening I can decide how things look therefore I have decided to put a mask on the serial killer in effect emphasize that very crucial lesson. That anybody can be an oppressor, anybody can be behind the mask.

Netflix and research

Instead of Netflix and chill today I did Netflix and research. I watched programs of different genres that Netflix provide. From the BBC hit Luther, a high quality thriller mystery staring Idris Alba as a tormented detective hunting down London’s killers. It puts a charismatic character, John Luther, against villains that put the audience on the edge of their seats this is perhaps the most terrifying scene. Another program I watched on Netflix was Bodyguard. Bodyguard was actually recommended in my AICE media class and it did not disappoint. Through the application of various this suspenseful drama displays a classic conflict, that is man versus himself. Bodyguard is a high quality portrayal of the inter struggle between defining the line between one wants and what is right. Finally, I had the pleasure of watching the classic No Country for Old Men. I believe this is the work that I can derive the most from. The way it established a unique atmosphere is just a piece of art, that everyone needs to see, this scene in particular might just be the most intense scene in cinema history. With the weekend and research behind me I am ready to start bringing my ideas to life

Let’s watch another!

As the dates for filming are fast approaching I have done diligent research. A different kind of research I’ve ever done. Tens of hours of research just in the past couple of days and by research I mean watching as many movies as possible. I’ve tried to see as many classics I haven’t seen yet to gather inspiration. Five films that have truly stood out are of different veneers, but all share one thing, high quality. I am currently watching a science fiction thriller that has stood the test of time, Total Recall. As our movie is more of horror mystery we can’t take much from the film that made a superstar out of the Austrian giant, but I was inspired by their eye catching opening credits. However, my inspiration did not stop there as I also watched a comedic classic, Legally Blonde. Legally Blonde’s film opening also inspired me. Legally Blonde’s film opening applied various camera angles and techniques to establish a truly immersive atmosphere that I believe we can use in our very own film opening. I also watched a not so classic film called Hostile where Christian Bale plays a retiring policeman forced to proctect an Indian in the old Wild West. This scene really sprung inspiration into how to portray raw emotion on screen, I know that has a lot to do with great acting, but there is some techniques that are present to aid in the portrayal of that raw emotion  that we could also apply in our film opening. Another film I watched was Disaster Artist. Throughout this film it portrays our to demonstrate the growth and the eventual decay of a relationship through the application of various shots techniques mostly medium shots. Last, but certainly not least was the underrated film Enemy staring Jake Gyllenhaal. In this film about femininity and the struggle to find one’s true self there is an abundance of symbolic metaphors that are apparent throughout the film and that is especially at the conclusion of the film. Now, I know we don’t have the budget or the know how to quite take the symbolism this far we might still be able to take the techniques applied here to convey some symbolism. As I count the days until we finally get out there and film our real shots I plan to keep on watching films to see what inspiration hits next.

You just made my list

Realistic mise en scene is very important in any aspect of film making, however I believe it might be more crucial to really perfect as much as possible our mise en scene because we are just shooting a film opening therefore every little detail will be judged and scrutinized that much more. In our in depth planning stage we have thoroughly thought out just how much props we need to have and where to get these props. A cardboard board is necessary as that is where the hit list will be. We obviously need realistic knives. Now this is the tricky prop, the actual hit list. I believe we could look at public domain pictures of random people. These pictures would hang on the cardboard board with strings that would connect the pictures to one another. Now of course, not all of the pictures will be of random pictures because one key shot is completely dependent on the mise en scene. After the murder has taken place we will make sure that the murderer crosses off the picture of the individual he has just killed. Now this little action separates us from having the appearance of a trailer. This crossing off of just one picture foreshadows that there is in fact going to be several more killings.

First practice shots

We have reached the point in the project where we need to pick a camera and start filming. Realizing that, Mark decided to send the group our first practice shot. As seen below the shot is of the low angle variety. This low angle in particular is meant to demonstrate the power of the individual that will enter the frame. The color of this shot is symbolic in that the blackness represents the darkness inside this individual. The sharp black in the shot is not only symbolic, but it foreshadows. Foreshadows the darkness that is about to happen the murder. Black usually means death or lack of life therefore, by including such an abundance of black the viewer has an inkling of what is to come. Another technique that is applied in this opening shot is the sound. Both a score of Mozart and sound effects of dogs barking both are there to serve different purposes. The score of Mozart is there to add to the procedural order of the killing. This killer is not messy he treats murder with a sense of order and cleanness that we believe Mozart adds. While the sound effects of the dogs barking add to the normalcy of the murder he is just a normal man, representing the idea that even your next door neighbor could be a murderer. This is obviously reinforced with the film location, the ordinary house adds to the feeling that this serial killer is a normal Joe like you and me, he just kills people. Similarly to the sharp blackness in the shot, the sound effects of the dogs barking foreshadow the murder. As a dog relies heavily on instinct and most of the time in movies dogs know if a character is shady, therefore these techniques that seem little are actually major in seting up the murder with the same cleanness of the murder itself.

Fully recovered

I am fully recovered after being bedridden for the weekend and now back with my group considering exciting new options. We are pinning down our music selections. I know we are taking our time with our music. I know it is for a good reason, however as a good score adds so much quality to any film opening. Mark has brought up the idea of having two songs. I believe in the one song option. With Mark’s idea he believed it would be best suited if we had a pop song in the first, let’s say, 30 seconds. To introduce the murderer as a normal joe. Cooking or cleaning his knives with fun pop music in the background does do that. He said it would be best if we would then switch to classical music, this providing a creepier vibe unveiling the true monstrosity of the killing. However, I introduced the idea of not making the murderer a normal guy. Since the main character of our project is the killer we don’t want to make our main character a normal guy because I believe it would not be engaging enough. Thus if we just had one song, a classical song, we would make this individual more intriguing. Who is listening to classic music nowadays, murderers that’s who. Plus our professor has told me on several occasions to keep material on the screen simple as it makes it easier to comprehend to the audience and thus I believe having one song instead of two would simplify our product. After this discussion I saw what Mari Correa, another aice media studies student, had since published on her Snapchat profile. She was working on her project, she was filming actors. I thought to myself this might be something my group should consider. I never thought of looking for actors, but it might work for us as it would allow all group members to solely focus on directing. One song or two, actors or no actors I am truly exciting about getting healthy so I can further progress my project with my group.