Research Question #2 of CCR

How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

For this CCR, it will either be in the form of a Podcast (which is the structure I will be writing in for now) or an iconic Wired Autocomplete Interview.

Question: What was your strategy to aim towards your specific demographic?

Answer: Our main demographic for our film was teenagers. We really wanted to connect to female and male teenagers from around the ages 14-23 to spread an impactful message to our audiences. When researching thrillers for teens, we analyzed websites like PlaceBasedMedia to grasp a full understanding of how to achieve that targeted audience. We discovered ways to specifically specialize certain parts of the film to specific genders and ages, to make them feel recognized.

Question: How do you plan on making this film available to audiences?

Answer: That's a great question! Actually we plan on releasing this film out to available platforms like YouTube, which teens are on %73 daily. YouTube is a good tactic to get out film out there because it is easy to promote, and once it is booming, there is buzz around it for months. We also plan on submitting this to film festivals to get a little more of a professional eye and opinion to further improve our future projects.

Question: Were there certain production choices you utilized to work with your specific target audience?

Answer: Yes actually! A lot of the mise-en-scene elements had a lot to do with that. Teenagers seem to get hooked in when there are characters they can relate to, so by creating teenage characters who are going through multiple struggles that are very common now, was definitely intended to sit with audiences. The way we marketed to movie was very bright though, because when teens see something visually appealing they are automatically drawn to it. Because of this we spent a lot of our time marketing to aesthetically please.

Question: How did you discover your target audience?

Answer: Well, we knew we wanted a storyline based around teens and teenage struggles, so once we discovered that we knew that teens would be our main audience. We found this because we knew a teen thriller would appeal to ages 14-23, so we created a lot of social media trends for this film that we noticed gained a lot of traction around our project.

Research Question #1 of CCR

How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

To begin research for my CCR, I utilized my resources that my teacher provided us with, like sample CCR posts we could watch and learn from. Ever since my teacher showed us a couple different CCRs in class and how they should be done, I haven't been able to stop thinking about them once because of how inspired I am. I can't wait to get creative, and integrate modern trends into my CCR. For one of my ideas, I wanted to create a CCR inspired by WIRED's infamous autocomplete interviews on YouTube. I thought this would be a cute and fun way to combine my task with fun viral trends.

Another idea that Andres from my group meeting earlier this week presented me with, was a CCR inspired by Vanity Fair's lie detector tests. We both agreed this was a super smart idea that still keeps a similar theme to my film opening.

For the actual research portion of this blog, I went back to my notes I had taken during our class discussion. The topic of genre conventions can get a bit tricky in our film opening. One one hand we decide not to challenge typical genre conventions for a female in high school. At the beginning of our film opening, Camila is presented as the typical poplar high school cheerleader who has a boyfriend on the basketball team and is a star player. But by the end of the opening, that genre convention is sort of challenged when we realize, not everything is as it seems. Camila is seen with drugs and seems to be as if she is getting caught up with some real heavy stuff. While not directly presented in the film opening, the theory of Gender Performativity by Judith Butler will be represented later on in the film. The beginning of the film is "stylized acts" performed by Camila, but as the film goes on it reveals her true actions and how they are out of line to what aligns with her suggested gender appearance.

Editing Process #2

 A huge part of this editing process, that I totally didn't almost completely forget about, is the sound elements! For the sound aspect of my project, I used this website called Epidemic Sound that my peer Macie had recommend I use in our previous group meeting. So, I created my account and began searching for the perfect audio!

The issue I have with the audio I need for the chaos/packing scene, is that I wanted it to be suspenseful in a real way, NOT in a cheesy way. Same thing for the music that it opens with during the practices, I want it to be more upbeat to highlight a shift, but not in a cringey way.

I typed in the search bar "suspense" to see what would show up and to see what I could play around with. To my surprise, all of the sound options were really good and not cringey or cheesy at ALL. Lucky me, the first option was a perfect fit! No I didn't just listen to the first one and called it a day, I actually looked around at a couple more of the results but nothing was working as well as the first one in my opinion. It's called "Conclusion" by Max Anson . It gives a perfect build for what Camila could be hiding, and totally matches the criminal vibe. It's suspenseful, and really leaves audiences on their toes. While I need to put it over the clips to see what fits, I definitely think this is the one. Now onto the next!

Honestly, I really struggled with finding an audio for this scene. It's difficult to find a "highschool" type of song that doesn't sound cheesy. Though I do think I found the closest thing for the vibe we were going for. It's titled "Vacation Barry" by Jobii. It's described as Indie Rock, Happy, and Dreamy. I think the indie rock gives it that calmer but still youthful subtly to it that the music in this scene needs. It can't be too upbeat, but also can't be suspenseful or mysterious because that isn't where the story is. The only issue might be when the two main characters exchange the look because that needs to be suspenseful and questionable.

Editing Process #1

 March 17th is inching its way closer and closer and honestly I'm stressed. I'm not even stressed because I feel behind, but more because I want this project to be perfect. I also need to begin my CCR and begin editing which are two crucial parts to my project, especially the CCR. My final thought is, I need to lock in.

At this moment I am questioning what will look best for my title and credit sequences. What color should the font be? How big or small should the text be? What should the FONT EVEN BE?? Needless to say I am questioning my entire editing experience and wondering how good of an editor I really am. I need to remind myself that I am a good editor and it is something I enjoy.

I had previously discussed my process of picking out a couple fonts to choose from for my credits and title. But now it's getting real, I have to pick. I want it to look mature but also youthful to represent the contrast of her double life. I opened my most trusted thing I know, Canva, and got to work on finalizing my fonts. For the title, I went to my list of fonts I had previously posted in my blog, and one just stuck out to me, it was exactly like the one I pictured in my head. For some reason, a lighter but more muted yellow came to mind when I pictured the credits and title on the screen.

Here is an example of what I put together in Canva! I put it on a green background so I am able to green screen it over my clips when I am ready to fully put it together. I will be able to move it around as a please, and the way I want this title to pop up on screen is from an overhead shot of Camila closing the computer, that once she closes it the title will appear. I added a bit of a "lift" effect to the text so it wouldn't look so flat and unprofessional on the screen.

For the credits, to implement that contrast I had mentioned earlier, I kept the same playful looking font for the "STARRING," but then used a more mature looking font for the actors named. In this example I made, it works really well because it is the actress playing Camila, so the top shows the youth while her name represents her maturity. I lightened the actor's name for aesthetic reasons just because I believed it looks better. I also kept that same "lift" effect for the depth to the text, and put it on the same green screen background that I know will be flexible when editing.

Obstacles/Issues

 Ok so basically everything we had planned is just ruined. For the past two weeks we have been trying to get some filming done but nobody is cooperating.

Our main guy, Trevor, who has known about this plan to film for weeks is on the baseball team and has a game everyday. It is a bit frustrating because I wish he informed us of his game schedule so we could have planned ahead better. This issue pushed our filming schedule behind a lot. Not only did we have this issue with our main guy, but also with our main girl and our extras. Our main girl, Camila, was unable to film on most days after school, and on the days she could, Trevor couldn't. This caused me and my partner a lot of stress, time was ticking and both of our main characters couldn't find ways to compromise on a filming day. We thought we would figure it out, but boy were we wrong. We then later found out the boys basketball team we were planning on filming with to be our extras in the warmup scene, all wanted to be difficult and not want to stay after school to film. We tried convincing them with food, but they would not budge. And to add on top of that, the girls cheerleading team we asked to be in it all had different days of availability, so no schedules were aligning. And now for the cherry on top, the gym, which was our primary filming location, was being re-painted.

With all these issues, me and my partner thought we were screwed, but we didn't give up. Fortunately, I came up with a way to fix the scene so we wouldn't have so many people in one scene. Instead of have the cheer team and the basketball team all warming up in one area at the same time, we decided to make them have separate practices. The way it would work is by opening with some of the girls chatting it up, looking like they just finished practice, and then have Camila realize she left something at the basketball practice. Then, Camila and her friend Avery will walk in to their practice, and thats where the relationship shot will take place.

As for the issue of recasting, we replaced the girl playing Camila with one of our best friends Miah. We couldn't have done this without her stepping up to the plate and committing to such a big task. She actually said she is really excited, and can't wait to act! As for the actor playing Trevor, we talked things over with him and finalized a filming day that worked for the both of us so we could finally film. Now finally for the main issue, the extras. For the basketball team, for practicality reasons we decided to make it look like a smaller practices. Our friends Will, Matias, Brayden, and Hunter all agreed to help us out a be in the scene. Luckily, they are also good friends with the actor playing Trevor, so there will be very good chemistry. As for the cheer girls, we asked a couple of our friends to help us out and they happily agreed.

Group Meeting #2

 We are inching into Week 5 of my film opening/portfolio project! Today in class we had our second group meeting. Going into this I was a little bit nervous since I haven't been able to begin filming yet due to scheduling conflicts. Though, when I talked to my group members (Andres, Ethan, Selena, Santi, Camila, and Macie) I felt much better knowing that we were all on similar pages. I'm glad we did this at this point in the project because I got a lot of feedback that is good to know while going into filming my project to make it the best it can be.

Andres went first with her technological thriller idea. She shared her idea "User Error," inspired by the movie Nerve where a girl experiences the harmful effects of social media and technology. Andres also told us that she began filming, but couldn't get too much done since she was sick over the weekend.

She filmed a screen recording of the main character doing stuff on the computer. She also shared with us a couple of ideas she had brainstormed for her CCR. She wants to do a spinoff the infamous YouTube show "Hot Ones." Instead of interviewing guests during a dreadful tasting of super hot and spicy wings, she would change it up a bit and do something called "Cold Ones." This would be the same concept but using cold items with the contestants.

Next was Ethan with a very different approach to many other of my peers. He will be doing a Sci-Fi stop motion film opening. The concept of his film is about an astronaut in space doing the typical things that occur in a sci-fi film like the main character going through a wormhole. He has a few ideas for his CCR like a possible sock puppet show or a company introduction interview type style set in the 1990s.

Then went Selena with her horror/paranormal film opening. Selena is planning on filming her film opening on Wednesday at the Tree Tops park. The plot of her film is about a naive girl who is in the parking lot of an almost forest/park location, who randomly starts getting spammed by her friends and family with alarming texts like "Are you okay?!" when she suddenly sees a dark, tall, lanky figure standing under a lamp post making him look almost shadowed. The figure is apparently haunting people and she is the next victim. Selena seems pretty on top of everything, she even knows how she wants the last shot to end. She wants the figure to have someone inched closer to the main character, so when it shows from the over the shoulder shot, you can see him lurking behind her. As for her CCR, she said she still isn't set on anything yet but wants to make it comedic.

Santi went next to share his idea. He explained the plot that it is about a doctor who had recently released a medicine and he goes on a live podcast that is being played everywhere around the world, and states how something went wrong with medicine and everyone who had taken it has 48 hours to live. The doctor ends up killing himself, so with no lead, a random guy named Maverick who had also taken the medicine, plans to save everyone from dying. Santi and his group are making good progress as they have already began filming in Santi's dad's studio where they even conducted their own science experiment to create the "medicine."

Next was Camilla who's story was about two sisters, but unfortunately one is dead. So it is about the older sister reminiscing and seeing the other sister almost as if she is still there. It's a beautiful story about the balance between grief and normality. The girl ends up loosing her friends over the situation, but overall she just misses her sister. One of the big parts of the opening was a flashback of the sisters at the beach which Camilla and her group have already finished filming. Camilla shared that the sister is going to be seen almost as a ghost/shadow, so editing will be a huge part of her process for the creation of this opening.

Lastly was Macie who had her plan very thoroughly thought out as well as being way ahead of everyone because she has already finished filming. Macie's idea was unique and there was so much detail that made it so interesting, and such a good idea for a film opening. It's about a janitor who is cleaning a shop as he finds a magazine from 2001 about a guy who was preserved, to reveal it was himself. It then just continues to show his journey of discovering what could've happened. What an incredibly unique idea right? Macie also helped me with something I was struggling with which was the sound over the chaos sequence for my main character. She recommended the website, "Epidemic Sounds," where she found most of her sounds and she says she highly recommended it because they aren't cheesy and provide very good options for the specific key words you can input in it.

Overall, I again had a really good time getting to talk with my peers and getting to know them better. These group meetings are honestly such good ideas as they help us get real constructive criticism from other kids who are doing the same exact thing as you. It feels relatable and is really helpful, especially at this point in my portfolio process.

Costume Creation

 Now it's time for actually putting together our costumes! Going further into our idea for this film opening, we knew the mise-en-scene elements (especially costumes) would be a huge part in the storytelling and background information for our plot. By switching costumes throughout the opening, it creates that contrast that I keep discussing in my blog posts, that shift from normality to chaos. When choosing our cast, we thought it would be practical to ask one of the cheerleaders on our actual school team so they would already have the costumes needed for our film. We ended up asking one of my best friends who was also in Aice Media last year, so she was completely willing to help us out!

We showed her our ideas of what we wanted her to wear, so she picked out one of her cheer uniforms to wear. We also showed her the ideas we have for her sweat set and she said she has a black Alo set which works perfectly.

As for our main character Trevor, we asked him if he could wear a gray sweat set for when he picks up Camila. For his basketball uniform, we are going to ask a couple of our friends on the basketball team if they are able to lend the guy playing Trevor a uniform.