Creative Critical Reflection

Final Project

This is our project!!! 

Dreaming and Filming

Don't people say that when you think or care about something a lot, you begin to dream about it? If this logic follows through (it probably does), then I must reaaaaallly care about this project (I do) because I had an intense dream last night. I was driving in my father's little, white Honda Civic when all of a sudden (not really because it's my dream so I knew it was going to happen) a car veered out of control in front of me. I swerved the car and was able to pass that obstacle. I (for some reason) immediately forget about all of this, and just continued to drive, happily. Then, some cars began to race each other and cut me off. At this point, I was really scared (and quite pissed at the idiot drivers in my dream) so I honked. It was as though my honk created this instant crash between the two cars and perpetuated the (INTENSE) accident. The rest of my dream consisted of me avoiding cars and dealing with the physical and emotional consequences of "seeing" and "being" in a crash. 
I don't think I will be able to drive or be in a car anymore without thinking about my dream, so I think I am going to be riding my bicycle for a while. 

Anyways! We filmed the office shots today. Felipe's father works in an office, so we were able to film there instead of at the nurse's office at school. We had to move some chairs and rearrange the placement of the small stand with the plant in order to not have other people in the shot, and so that the whiteness and simplicity of the background juxtaposes the scenes from the forest and the accident (some of the other walls in the office were neon orange). We were able to get shots of the bright lights (this is why the camera is pointing towards the ceiling in the picture) in order to incorporate the POV blinking eye technique as our opening shot. Many of the shots in the office are simple, plain, and clear. Again, this juxtaposes the two locations and heightens the mystery and drama by showing the intensity of his state-of-mind. 

I am pleased with the shots that we have thus far and am confident, now more than ever, that we will produce a quality introduction! 

NEXT STEP: EDITING!!!

Filming (in the) Forest

After school, my group and I went to Markham Park to film. There is a part of the park that is a bit secluded and is the forest area. There are some trails here, but we explored in places where the trail, if there was one, wasn't visible. We did this because it adds to the mystery, and we felt as though our character isn't someone that would even be on a trail. Our filming process went well and I will provide more details below:

While we were filming, we decided that it would be really interesting (and cool) if Daniel acted as if he were seeing hallucinations of his parents. So, in many the shots, Felipe (pretending to be the father) and I (pretending to be the mother) were slowly walking away (zombie-like) from Daniel (our backs toward him). We were able to film many shots of Daniel running and jumping to imply the importance of what he is running towards.






Daniel's hallucinations are best shown through the shot of Daniel falling and then looking up while reaching out, toward his parents. We placed the camera on a slider behind him, so that it started on the far left and panned to the right, which shows Felipe and I walking away while Daniel reaches out. Once the camera passes his head, Felipe and I are gone and Daniel is reaching towards nothing.

In order to imply a car crash, we decided to have shattered glass. So, we purchased a glass bottle and crushed it on the ground (and cleaned it up when we were done). We used close up shots of the shattered glass with objects that a person wears, like eye glasses, to imply that the glasses have fallen off the person due to the crash. As such, we also have close up shots of the actual tires in fast motion, which further implies a crash.

We filmed lots today and although we changed some of our ideas, the shots still came out well and we stuck with most of our previous ideas for different movement techniques, shots, angles, etc. Excited for tomorrow!!! 

Questioning Reality...One Storyboard At A Time

My group and I have been working hard on creating the specific image of what we want. We have creative ideas for shots and have storyboarded some of them. 

The storyboard begins with a POV shot of Daniel waking up to blinding lights and his ears ringing. The following shots establish that he is in an office and dozing off. After this point, he begins to have flashbacks to the accident and the different things involved in the accident. For example, since we can't film a car crash, we are going to imply a car crash by having shattered glass on the road, close ups of personal items on top of the glass, and close ups of the tires and wheel of the car. Also, sounds are going to work well in these flashbacks because we can include the sound of police cars, as well as distinguishable sound of them speaking through a walkie-talkie. Something cool that we want to do is enhance the sound elements by not making them match completely to the relative scene. For example, instead of including a typical sound when the book drops, it is going to be a sound from the accident that will immediately take our character back into his flashbacks. This would work to dramatize the scene and heighten interest! We also have interesting ideas for the transitions between Daniel's reality to his flashbacks so that they are subtle, therefore emphasizing Daniel's lack of complete grasp over what is his reality. 

I'm excited to see what the final product will be now that we have a better vision of what exactly we are doing!!

Deadlines! Deadlines!

In the last couple of days, some of my classmates have left comments on my blog. Although they were positive, I noticed that each comment mentioned something about the research that I had done thus far, but didn't really mention the plot or the actual intro. This made me realize that I have not been strict with myself or my group about deadlines and things we should be getting done. So, here is my schedule: 

Monday, April 4th: my storyboards are going to be complete (there are some missing shots) so that we have a better idea for what we will be filming. Storyboarding is important because it helps my creative thought process and allows me to have a physical representation of what my group and I envision. 

Tuesday-Wednesday (April 5th-6th): we will be filming on these two days because it will most likely take some time to get the shots right. Also, there are different locations (the office and forrest), so we may not get to go to more than one location in a single afternoon. Having three afternoons to film also allows us to watch what we have and reflect on whether or not something needs to be shot again. 

Thursday-Friday (April 7th-8th): we will be editing the film introduction. This will probably take more than one day since we will have different techniques and shots that need to flow. Also, we are going to need to add some sounds, like the ringing in Daniel's ears when he wakes up, which requires time and patience. 

Although I am nervous about the final deadline, I am confident that we will meet it (with a great intro!). 

Scenes and Sound!

In class, we met in small groups and discussed our projects in order to provide ideas and to receive feedback. After explaining my ideas and plot to my peers, I realized that my group (for project) and I haven't really talked about or specified the sound that we are going to be using in our film. 

Since our plot mainly concerns internal problems within our main character, it seems unlikely that he is going to be talking with other characters. Therefore, we will be using a combination of diegetic sound and non-diegetic sound. Diegetic sound is when the sound is coming from a visible source or is implied. Some examples include dialogue, footsteps, or knocking on a door. On the other hand, non-diegetic sound includes sound that does not come from a source visible in the narrative world, which means that the characters on the screen are not hearing or making those noises. An example of non-diegetic sound includes music, which is usually incorporated to dramatize the scene. 

This video provides more information and examples about what is considered diegetic and non-diegetic. Specifically, it reminded me that my group and I could incorporate the characters' thoughts so that the introduction includes some form of dialogue, since we aren't using music. However, it may not sound really natural and the lack of a lot of sound could work to further establish the mystery genre. Although including an internal monologue could be interesting, we are probably going to include lots of diegetic sounds. 

 "Elements of Cinema." Elements of Cinema. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.

 Digital image. Diegetic NonDiegetic. Stephen DaVega, 19 Oct. 2009. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.