Our Finished Film Opening

My partner and I have finally finished our film opening that we have worked so hard on for the past few months! The link to it is located down below! Hope you enjoy it! 😁

https://youtu.be/cSvB7nUeQxc

My CCR

Linked down below is my completed CCR! Hope you enjoy!

https://youtu.be/mXzIbrmoj68

Editing My CCR and Reflecting Back on my Work

I have finally finished the script to my CCR (Creative Critical reflection)! Located down below is the beginning part of my script.

When I was creating the script for my CCR, I had to do a lot of thinking and retracing of the steps I took in order to create the final product for my film opening project. The first thing I did when I had my script ready was record my voice because I knew that I was going to create a video displaying images/video clips of the things I was talking about. Moreover, I did work on editing this project on the editing tool known as iMovie, and I took videos and images from my work as well as other very well-known work (and of course I gave credit from where the video clips/images were from). So in the end, my final CCR project came out to be at 7 minutes and 46 seconds, which is more that the recommended 5 minutes; however, I really put in my maximum effort to making sure I covered everything so if I were to shorten it I would have deleted essential information. Anyways, I will be posting my CCR tomorrow!

Looking back at these past fews months of creating our film opening, I have realized just how much I was able to learn. Before starting this project, I did not know much on the creative process behind film making or the huge amount of editing that goes into the making of the film. Now, I have really learned to appreciate the film industry and acknowledge all the hard work that goes into making films.

Located below is my final script for my CCR!

Recording/Editing our Film Opening

Starting at the very beginning of our editing journey for our film opening, my partner and I decided on using a different angle than the one we agreed on previously in the storyboard. In the blogpost in which we included the storyboard, we had agreed on using an establishing shot to portray Lucy's living room, in which she would be viewing the news broadcast. However, we thought that for the very first shot of our film opening we should start with a more visually appealing shot. Therefore, we ended up using another shot as our first shot, and this shot was an extreme close-up of the remote control, with the main focus on the remote control and not on the rest of the background. The use of this shot did not only make a more visually appealing first shot, but it helped the viewers get a sense of what was to occur in the next scene. Located below is the first shot we decided on using.

Another noticeable change with our storyboard and the actual clips that we got when we filmed on Wednesday is that we did not use many of the tracking shots we had initially planned on using. Instead, my partner and I ended up using a combination of shots that consisted of Lucy walking to certain points in the area we were filming. The reason we did not use the tracking shots is because we were getting our footage handheld; therefore, it would have been nearly impossible to get professional-looking tracking shots. However, there was a time in which we did use a tracking shot, and this was the bathroom scene where Lucy goes to turn on the shower and her cell phone rings so the camera followed Lucy into the bathroom to turn on the shower and it also moved with Lucy to pick up her cell phone. Located below is the tracking shot that I previously described. 

As for the editing of our film opening, in which we utilized iMovie for because of how familiar it is to us, there were there were three major elements to this very long process: 

1.  Making sure all of the clips flowed and were continuous 
2.  Getting the text messages to appear on screen 
3.  Getting the right sound effects and background music 

So to start off, our first task in editing was getting all of the video clips we had recorded on Wednesday in the order in which we wanted them and making sure that the flow was continuous with the action happening on-screen. For example, when Lucy was walking and sitting down in between shots, we had to make sure that the two sequential shots were continuous. Located below is an example from our film opening. Furthermore, once we had reached the bathroom scene we did not have to worry that much on the continuity in between shots due to the fact that we used a tracking shot. However, we did have include a cut when Lucy opened her eyes because of the fact that we had to use a snapchat red colored contacts filter to record our last scene showing Lucy's possession, and during this cut we had to make sure it was hardly noticeable that there were two separate clips making up the one action of Lucy looking upwards.

Now moving on to one of the most tedious parts in our editing journey: getting the text messages to appear on-screen. So when we filmed this video clip, we made sure to utilize the rule of thirds to leave a large space on the far right side of the screen where the text messages would be placed. Moreover, this use of the rule of thirds to position our main character was very useful when we had to position the text messages on-screen. Moving on to the actual editing part, my partner and I had initially decided on using a template for a text message script on the editing application After Effects to display the text messages on-screen; however, once my parter signed up for the free trial and we opened up the editing application to try and get started working on our text messages, we realized that this process using After Effects was way to complicated for us to actually produce a visually appealing text message, on-screen chat. Of course, my partner and I looked up various YouTube video to guide us along the way in this complicated journey using After Effects; however, we finally decided that there had to be another way to get the text messages to appear on-screen. Thus, my partner and I brainstormed different ideas and among these was the one we ended up using. It consisted of us using an app to create a fake group chat conversation. Then, we saved that conversation as a screen recording in our camera roll and layered it on top of the footage of Lucy texting, and we would put it in the space in the far right corner. Moreover, when we actually created the fake conversation in the fake group chat, the application we utilized also let us add pictures for the contacts and name the group chat (which we named "Girliess" with emojis in the end). Located below is the scene fake group chat conversation we created along with the pictures with put for each contact. 

Maria Prieto as Tiffany

Rebekah Rotman as Sydney

Malena Diez as Taylor

As for the sound portion of our editing process, we first focused on getting all the right sound effects that are shown on screen. For example, the sound effects for the on-screen sounds of iPhone texting, iPhone SMS messages receiving/sending, iPhone receiving call [Marimba ringtone], and the shower turning on. Moreover, in order to get the 5 sound effects instead of going online to search for royalty free sound effects, my partner and I decided to record the audio of ourselves doing those actions that produce the sound effect we needed. For example, I turned on the shower while my partner recorded the sound of the shower turning on. Another example is when I texting on my iPhone and my partner recorded the sounds that the texting produced. Thus, we put these sound effects where they belongs in our film opening. So, the iPhone texting and iPhone SMS messages receiving/sending all belonged in the fake text message conversation scene. The sound of the shower turning on belonged in the last scene along with the sound of an iPhone receiving call [Marimba ringtone].

My partner and I also thought about detaching the audio from the news broadcast and placing it in our film opening just to make the sound more clear; however, we decided on keeping the sound the way it is because the sense of space regarding the sound produced by the television would be lost if we were to detach the audio and just place it in. Thus, we didn't change the anything with regards to sound for the clips where we recorded Lucy watching the news broadcast. 

Later on when my partner and I were rewatching our film opening after thinking we had finished, we knew it was missing something. Thus, this is where we took it upon ourselves to add suspenseful background music. Moreover, we tried looking on websites that showed suspenseful background music; however, none of them really convinced me and my partner. Therefore, we then decided to look on iMovie to see if they had any good suspenseful background music, and to our surprise they did! We ended up adding the music named "Drone Dark Suspense 1" as our background music. 

In the process of spicing up our film opening with background music, we decided that we needed to find a sound effect that made the clip where Lucy becomes possessed look very intense and give the viewers goosebumps when they watch it. Thus, we went on the website https://www.soundsnap.com and found the perfect sound effect named "Creepy Transitions (152)" to give our film opening ending more dimension as well as a suspenseful aspect. 

Finally, when my partner and I added our movie title, "The Call", we had the sound effect from the last scene where Lucy becomes possessed come into it for the slightest second, but one aspect that I would like to point out is that we continued the sound effect of the shower on purpose. We did this to keep the viewers wondering what happened to Lucy and how she never got to take her shower. 

Finalizing Our Main Character's Appearance

Today was the day that we filmed all of the parts for our film opening that mainly consisted of the scenes with our main character, Lucy Thomas, in them. This is the final outfit that we decided on for our actress, Valentina Suarez, to wear while she portrayed Lucy. Moreover, looking back at previous blog posts we remembered that we wanted to portray Lucy as having a similar dressing style as one of the main characters from the film Mean Girls (2004). Therefore, my partner and I decided on Valentina's outfit as the following: black Tori Burch flats, a black, flared tennis skirt, a light pink blouse, and a bright pink, small sweater.

As for the makeup and hair portion of her appearance in these scenes of our film opening, we went for the natural, subtle look that we mentioned in previous blog posts. Furthermore, the components of our actress's makeup for the first scenes of our opening we utilized mascara, a touch of bronzer and blush, and a subtle lipgloss. As for her hair, we kept it in it's natural state, which is her straight hair.

In the image above is the palette that my partner and I utilized to achieve our possessed makeup look

for Lucy when she answers her cell phone and ends up suffering the deadly consequences. Moreover, the palette is the James Charles makeup palette, and we only used the black and burgundy shade from the makeup palette. 

In the above image is the final result of what my partner and I were able to achieve for the under eye makeup that we did in order to portray the possession that was occurring in the last few scenes of our film opening. Also, we did look back in our previous blogposts to find the inspiration photo we had in mind, which was from one of the actresses of a TV series names The Vampire Diaries.

So, we first started by placing the burgundy shade from the James Charles makeup Palette (which is also shown in the images above) in the under eye region just to create a red undertone to go under the black that we were soon going to be placing there. This, burgundy under her eye also gave the effect of looking as if she was bruised, ultimately adding to the possessed look.

Then, this is where my partner and I decided to go in with the black shade on top of the red, burgundy shade that we had previously applied. Moreover, we didn't think the black was very noticeable so we ended up adding more black under the eyes to make the possession look more realistic, and this addition of more black can be seen in the image below.

So here is where we stopped adding the black because we thought it was noticeable enough to look realistic; however, we didn't like the splotchy look of the eyeshadow against our actress's skin. Therefore we decided to go in with a tissue to make the blackness look more distributed under our actress's eyes, which can be seen in the below image.

Here you can take notice of the tissue and how my partner and I were able to get rid of the splotchiness the black shadow had initially created when we applied it under the eyes of our actress.

In the video above, you can take notice of the process that my partner and I did with creating the veins underneath our actress's eyes to really execute the possessed look we were going for. We used a black, liquid eyeliner to recreate the look of veins under the eyes.

Moving on, in order to take this possessed makeup look to the next level my partner and I had planned on using intense, red colored contacts that my partner was going to get in Miami, but she ended up just ordering them online through Amazon; however, Amazon had unfortunately damaged our order, which meant that we weren't getting the red colored contacts we had ordered.

This problem really hit us hard because we now had to find another way to make our main character, Lucy, really look as if she had become possessed. Therefore, my partner came up with the genius idea of using a snapchat filter to mimic the look of red colored contacts, which would successfully ended up taking our makeup look to the next level by making it look like Lucy really had become possessed. Located below is the video clip that my partner and I ended up using in our film opening for the very last scene.

Coming Up with our Movie Title

We have been thinking about our film title and we have been researching names of scary movies and we have found a constant pattern that most horror movies share. This pattern is having one or two words as the movie title; therefore, making them short and to the point. Some examples are "It", "Us", "Get Out", "The Nun", "Sinister", "Insidious", etc. Thus, since our film opening is based on mass-suicides caused by individuals picking up their phones to receive a call, we came up with the film title "The Call".

My partner and I found a very useful website that helped us come down to two fonts for our film title. The link to the website is the following: https://www.font-generator.com/.

The image above is the first option that we have for our film title for our film opening. Moreover, the difference between this font option and the option below is the unique characteristic with the letter "T", and the fact that all the letters are the same size and capitol (except for the letter "h"). Furthermore, my parter and I really like this one mainly because of the distinctness it has due to the unique letter "T". Thus, this would essentially be helpful in helping viewers distinguish our film with others. 

The image above is the second option we have in mind for our film title. Moreover, with this film title there are certain elements that catch our attention as well. For example, we like the inspiration it draws from extremely successful films such as The Conjuring and The Nun because it proves to us that these fonts do indeed work with the general target audience of those individuals in the horror genre group. Thus, by giving them a font that they are able to associate with an already popular film, they are able to create high expectations for our film when they watch it. Furthermore, we also liked the combination of several sizes utilized when creating the font as well as the use of all capitol letters because it adds to the creepy/disturbing vibes, which are transmitted through the film opening that basically set up the tone of the whole film. 

In the end, my partner and I decided on using the second option mainly because of the close resemblance it had with the movie font of already successful horror movies such as The Conjuring and because of the unusual and eerie vibes it gives off. Thus, we went a step further to customize the font that we selected. This can be seen in the below image. 

In the image above you are able to notice two main things: the black background change and the red text color change. So, we ended up changing the white background to black so that it would blend in with the black screen of the ending scene of our film opening immediately following the close up of Lucy's now red-colored eyes. Furthermore, we also changed the white font color to a red font color because it matches the previous scene showing Lucy's eyes change colors dramatically from a calm, blue color to an intense, red one. Also, the reasoning behind using a red font for our film title is because of the fact that the color red can be associated with death and blood; thus, the use of the color red in our title that appears right after the close-up of Lucy's red eyes helps lead viewers to the idea that Lucy suffered the deadly consequence of answering her phone, which was death of course. Also, the red that we used is not a bright red, but instead it is a deep, blood-like, intense red. Thus, this helps capture the terrifying and disturbing horror genre vibes that our film opening is all about. 

Editing and Filming our News Broadcast

Located above is some of the raw footage my partner and I took when we filmed our News Broadcast. We decided to film in my partner's house due to the fact that her house is mostly made up of colorless, white walls. Thus, we were able to get a solid, white color wall as our background for our broadcast. However, we do regret not being able to get the projector in time to project an image of a beautiful city in the background or our logo, like how most professional news broadcasts have.

Moving on, we used the edge of my partner's glass, dining table as our desk for the news broadcast, which gave us a more modern look to go with the idea that the problem is occurring present-day. Also, we forgot to ask our teacher for a tripod so we ended up making a tripod of our own with the help of many textbooks. On the table, my partner and I decided to include two identical mugs, two pieces of paper with identical information on it, and two of the same type of blue pens. All these elements were, of course, placed side-by-side of the table to mimic the layout of real news broadcasts.

As for the appearance that my partner and I took on, we decided on letting on hair down for the news broadcast due to the fact that it was not very common for female news anchors to have their hair tied up. Moreover, we both decided to wear blazers with a formal top underneath to capture the professional vibes of female news anchors. As for the makeup of our look, we decided to use a dark pink lipstick instead of a red lipstick.

In the raw footage above, as you can tell it was a little difficult getting the lines right for the both of us. However, the use of a teleprompter helped us tremendously in getting our lines right. We also ran  into a few situations where my partner and I had some trouble staying serious to get our lines right, but in the end we ultimately were able to succeed in maintaining a serious tone when we talked about the problem of phones causing mass suicides. Furthermore, when me and my partner messed up our lines, by accident of course, we kept going because we knew that we could edit it later to make it seem as if it was one continuous shot.

We ended up using the editing application iMovie to edit the News broadcast because it is the ones we are most familiar with, and we made use of the different news broadcast layouts they have to take our news broadcast to the next level with making it look legit. Moreover, we accomplished making the cuts look as continuous as possible. Ultimately we were able to finish our news broadcast with the addition of both the clip of me running through the mall and the image/clip of the empty grocery store shelves.