Hey yall! so I'm alive still and I'm gonna be blogging again in small doses, so I figured I'd start fresh.
Here's the link to the new blog!
Hey yall! so I'm alive still and I'm gonna be blogging again in small doses, so I figured I'd start fresh.
Here's the link to the new blog!
My idea for What You Watch came to me from the idea that “You are what you watch”. This film explores that idea and how such a mentality affects more than just an individual.
While I had the idea for the film for several months prior to officially beginning this project, I never thought about the specifics when it came it’s genre or how I would promote a story like this. In watching other short films like The Black Hole and Da Capo al Fine, I felt the psychological thriller genre would best fit the story, and with some experimental elements toward the end. I’d stick with some conventions such as harsh lighting and having a story unfold through the eyes of a single character. For the story’s ending, I wanted to include specific elements and techniques that would allow a viewer to interpret the ending rather than simply telling the viewer what the film means; it's a commentary on those that consume media after all.
I landed on using Instagram for its active viewer base of 16-24 year olds, the target demographic for the film. The age range came from the fact that Eric and Trent Marley were younger characters in the story. Trent specifically was made the “youngest talk show host in America” first out of practical limitations, but then because it’d allow Eric to relate more to him more easily; the same idea can be attributed to those in the age demographic that watch the film. If given more time to flesh out a grander story, I would’ve liked to have more representation for women in the story, besides just the character at the train station, to appeal to w wider audience. Though in its current state, it’s not far from what is seen in the male dominated Talk Show host scene.View this profile on InstagramJoker Movie (@jokermovie) • Instagram photos and videos
To keep up with Instagram’s stimulus driven user base, I’d make use of the vibrant blue hues associated with the brand and plan out my posts in advance to maintain a symmetrical and aesthetically pleasing grid layout. I would’ve liked to post more earlier on in the process to potentially reach a wider audience, but I found it hard to post during pre-production because I felt I didn’t have material that would work with the brand I had in mind.
For the film I wanted to not only make what was being watched as engaging as I could, but also make the process of Eric watching the TV as intriguing as I could. Many of the scenes in Eric’s house took place at night, but rather than use a lack of light I made use of blue colored lighting to allow details to stand out in the frame. Another trick I used to make the shots of the TV and Eric more engaging included, using a projector to dramatize the light “emitting” from the TV and adding in zooms in post to have a sense of movement beyond what is played on the TV. I do wish I was more prepared when it came to filming the 2 exterior scenes, since those do feel less stylized and flat visually, and I simply feel that those scenes aren’t as engaging as the ones in Eric’s house.
Hello everyone, below are the 3 main components of my AICE Media A Portfolio. Enjoy!!!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eUuAnPqI1e0hx85Oyvq0hz2GdAWoimze/view?usp=sharing
https://www.instagram.com/whatyouwatchfilm/
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mLJBX8o0dl3_aMUYifRDCwu-fF_0vXCb/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Uy5boyUU6TpzT5JdyfWXZK7flIgsCwoa/view?usp=sharing
If there are any complications or issues with the links above the link below is to a folder with all the components included:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17MzcdU_5mk4F89467HxHLXbKqhf-ir1m?usp=share_link
We've reached the final week, not just of this project, but likely of this blog at least for a while. I have two more posts besides this planned for the week, the Portfolio Components and my Critical Reflection, so this is my last usual post. I always knew I had to make a final posting, but what I wasn't expecting was to hear from other people, some of which I don't even know personally, that they loved reading my blog. I'm usually the kind of person who likes to keep my projects on the low, out of fear that if I hype up a project that it won't meet expectations, but this blog has really thrown that out the window for the most part. I'd go to tell friends of mine that I either secured an actor or a location, and then they'd just tell me that they already knew because they read my blog. It was slightly annoying, but also really cool to know that these ramblings of mine were engaging for certain people.
My social media also did a surprisingly good job to inform people and hype up the short film. Every couple days these past couple weeks, I'd usually get someone asking when the movie was coming out or where they could see it. And there were some posts I was really proud of that I'd usually go back to just to rewatch what I did.
I've also screen tested the film with a few people who've overall had positive things to say, along with some helpful criticisms. If you sent any they were greatly appreciated.
While I've made several films at this point, I this was going to be my first try at a more "thinky" piece for lack of a better word. Not to say that my other films don't have deeper meaning, but none of them really compared to what I wanted to do with What You Watch. I wanted to make a statement, so I spent a long time thinking about of all the moving parts. And thankfully in the end, aside from a handful of short comings and goofs on my end, I can safely say that a large majority of the film was strategically made. I'm also happy that the film doesn't explicitly tell the viewer what the meaning is. I've always wanted to make stories that engage with viewers, either with an emotional response or by having them think about the decisions made in the film. Like one of the nicest things I've heard someone say about me in the last year was that they were "terrified" to talk with me after they watch Me + Michael because "that idea had to come from someone". As silly as it sounds the idea that I made them feel something is all I can ever ask for.
The now friend who was initially terrified of me |
For any future A Level students, go crazy because this is the place you can do it. Just be sure to backup your files and get some sleep. Thank you to all that have read, expect some cool things tomorrow and the day after.
So earlier in the week I spoke with my advisor about my social media, and she basically told me I have to post more stuff and do so consistently. At the time I had plans for the first 9 posts, but I needed more. A huge priority for me when it comes to promoting a brand on social media, especially Instagram is a user's first impression of the account. Now on Instagram there's an emphasis on making an appealing grid layout, since that's what users see when they view your account.
After that I decided I start to share some Behind The Scenes pictures and some "Meet the Crew" type posts. Posts 10 and 12 would be BTS while 11 would be a "Meet the Director" post. I made the design on Canva because they offer many templates to choose from. I wanted to keep it simple since people that go on social media tend to scroll while on auto-pilot. I wrote briefly about my background and listed some of my favorite directors. I also went ahead and messaged Connor to have him write his own mini-bio for a Meet the Actor post I'll begin working on soon.
That's right you got mail! And in this case its a post card, or should I saw the postcard (probably). While I'm in the middle of editing the film I thought I'd take a break to draft up some designs for the post card.
As promised in my last posting, this isn't a filming post. Instead I'm focusing on the most recent post I made to the Instagram account for the film. Last week I made this post introducing the world to Trent Marley with a portion of the show during the 3rd scene. When I made that post I already had it in mind that I wanted to make another post introducing the world to Eric.
Likely for me during the 2nd night of filming on my own at night I got a few good shots that didn't quite fit with the flow of the edit, (at least in terms of imagining the edit by looking at my story boards). I filmed those shots wider than I would've liked so that I can zoom in, in post to create movement in the frame to a subject that isn't moving. I also had it in mind that I'd have the music from the show playing and right before the drop I'd cut to the logo, but there was a slight issue... The logo I had for the film was a still image.
I first thought of just adding a static video beneath the already made logo and changing blend modes to make parts of the image transparent as to show the video underneath, but that half worked and still looked weird. I also noticed how the text itself felt lifeless. It was around this point that I got reminded of the VHS Flicker effect that I used for the Trent Marley Show logo, so I added the effect to the text and then have it sit atop of a cool static background in Premiere Pro. I had also added another flicker effect that gave a bit more color to the final video.
With the idea in mind of including the music from the film, I knew I wanted to make the video have a seamless loop of some kind (below I linked to a post the loops seamlessly and as a result maintains viewer retention).The sound opens loud and proud, followed by a brief calmer bit, and then it kick starts the verse with a drum fill, so I decided to use the drum fill as something to transition back to the very beginning and it worked.
This newest post of mine really helped to solving the problem of my logo being (for lack of a better word) static, so this style for the logo may likely be the kind I end up using on the postcard for the film and in the process I made a cool post. This post if currently the best received post of the account with 22 likes and 9 comments; it was also cool enough to make people repost the Reel on their stories to reach a wider audience. I even got a private message of someone asked how the heck I got the shot which I thought was really nice. The post is below if you want to see, and if you haven't already follow @WhatYouWatchFilm
Hey so this blog isn't actually as bad as it sounds in my opinion, since by this point most of these situations have been resolved, I just felt I should give an update regarding some of the hurdles during production.
First off I want to give an update in regards to Getting Kicked Out!. What was initially scheduled as a filming day on Thursday, the 23rd of March, had to get pushed back to Sunday, the 26th, as Angelo was going to be unavailable Friday and Saturday. We also planned to film the scene in a different parking lot that I've used in the past with no issue. We began at 6 and were able to wrap all that we needed by 7:30 which was nice. And one shot in particular was pretty funny because he basically get knocked off my feet.
In general a good filming day.
Secondly, I had planned to film with Conner on Saturday, the 25 of March, but since he was feeling very bad, he asked that we reschedule, so we did for Thursday, the 30th. I had set everything up earlier in the afternoon, so when Connor got to my house at 8, we were able to begin. The backdrop I made with curtains of my house hung on a backdrop holder that I had borrowed from Sam's dad, a.k.a. the freelance photographer I had interviewed for my documentary Instilled. For audio, I mic'ed him up with a lavalier mic that clipped to his tie like most talk show hosts, and had the wire run behind him. The only annoying part of the setup was the male end of the XLR cable that was slightly dented and hard to connect to the audio recorder, but we made it work.
We began with the monologues, I believed they'd be easier to film than the multiple shots and angles from the finale, but I may have underestimated the needs for the opening monologue. The opening is about a minute long uncut take, that switches between different topics that each have different tones and expressions, and much of the dialogue had to be word for word since, Eric's character would be repeating the words of Trent Marley. Long story short it took a while to get the take right, but not gonna lie, when the take was good, it was Good.
We then moved on to the ending monologues before Trent would appear in Eric's TV room, but we didn't get too far in before Connor got a not so happy phone call from his parents. It was around 11:30 when they called and I had to drive him home; on the way there, we then discussed what day would work to wrapped his parts. He said Sunday, April 2nd, would probably be best after 6 P.M.
When I got home I looked at the footage and began to make a rough cut of the opening that included the music and announcer's V.O. (voiced by the energetic Tristan Dingcong, who's V.O. opened for the 1st place winner for STN's Convention Promo competition).
I'm going to look again through the different takes, but the video above is just a demo. I still need to clean up some of the audio and add the audience, but you get the idea.
Anyhow those are some of the hurdles I've had to deal with this past week, and I thought I'd just share them. Apologies for yet another post about filming, it's just been something that's been a focus on mine as of recently. I'll talk about something different in the next post.
Over the past weekend I knew I wanted to get the shots of Eric watching and talking with the TV. But there was a slight issue, I needed videos that would play on the TV and projector in order to get accurate lighting and make the scenes look cohesive.
The first thing I did was sync the video and audio from the shoot at BECON-TV. I did that fairly quickly and when I finished I realized I needed something to help signal to a viewer that the show would be cutting to commercial. Music was the first thing I thought about so I added that in and then I realized that I needed some kind of wipe and logo graphic for the show. With not much in my head I turned to an old tutorial I used for video assignment 2 years ago, that I would use to prompt motion in the graphic. I then began looking through fonts and other talk show logos and landed on a simple yet effective, idea that would use two different fonts that would help the Trent Marley name stand out. I'd also be outlining the same, sort of similar to how Solo: A Star Wars Story made their logo. I ended up finding Budmo for the "Trent Marley" and I used one of the default fonts that came with Adobe, Broadway, for the rest of it.
I was going to make the design in Photoshop first, but I opted to design it in After Effects that way I can immediately begin to make it flow like a motion graphic. For the colors I went on Coolors.co to find a color palette that would be similar to the one I already have for the film's brand, but also fitting for The Trent Marley Show. I ended up going with a mostly cool palette with a bright magenta accent. When I went looking for.
With the logo done, I needed a wipe to transition from the studio to the logo, and because it was getting late I decided to explore Premiere Pro's default transitions, and to my surprise at the very bottom I found "Sport Wipe 1" and it was almost perfect; the colors didn't match and it felt too quick at the beginning. I then saw there was a tab to edit the colors and then I reversed the speed of the wipe to get it to start slower and end fast. This was my final result:
The video above was later posted to the @whatyouwatchfilm Instagram account
And with the logo done, it was time to move on to the next stage in preparing to film for the night. I did initially want to film with Connor that day, but he had apparently felt really bad and we decided to reschedule the shoot. Connor not being able to film didn't change the fact that I wanted to film, at least the shots of just me in the TV Room that don't require other people. Similar to wanting to have a reference for The Trent Marley Show and the logo, I wanted to have a reference of the opening monologue. Without Connor I came up with the idea of filming a place holder with me to at least get similar lighting since I wouldn't be explicitly showing the TV, at least in these shots.
Once I got the shot I moved on to the 3rd scene, where I'd be talking to Trent while he's interviewing a guest. I rehearsed the dialogue and timings in order to be in sync with Nicole as she spoke several times before actually rolling. Unlike the first shot, this one would need audio, so I setup a boom pole on the floor and a lavalier mic clipped to my shirt that way I had two channels of audio to choose from. The assortment of equipment and cables on the floor lowkey reminded me of Bo Burnham's Inside which I thought was cool.
For this shot I thought I'd try out using the projector as a visual aid to show what exactly is the TV is playing at a given point. Technically speaking its unrealistic, but the it worked to convey the effect and created a bit of cohesion between the different shots. It also just looks cool. I also then decided I'd film the TV playing The Trent Marley show for the final edit and to serve as something that I can post about on the social media.
By the time I wrapped for the day it was about 4 A.M., which unintentionally helped because my eyes were strained by the end of the filming session which can also look like I've been watching the TV a while. I was pretty happy with the footage I got that night, but I lowkey wanted to get a few more variations for some of the shots and make use of the fog machine I had. So the next night, I filmed some more! The only new stuff that looked better and/or different was footage I got for the social media account. And I think I'm going to have to do 1 more late night shoot after I film the finale with Connor so I can get a proper lighting reference, but by this point I know the setup like the back of my hand.
For Day 3 of production, we traveled to the 'far away' lands of Davie, Florida to get to BECON-TV. Over the previous week, I had been in talks with the Executive Producer over at BECON, Jim Guarasci about using the studio space they have. He first had to double check with some of the other people there to verify the space wasn't going to be used for Friday Afternoon.
Once that was confirmed I nailed on 1pm-4pm. Connor was returning from a trip that day so, we couldn't schedule for earlier. Because of the later start time, I also thought it'd be best to prioritize getting the sit down interview shots for scene 3 in the script, since that needed the studio's set and props, where as the monologues can really be filmed anywhere I can prop up a curtain and lights.
I drove over to BECON-TV with Nicole PiƱeros and Sam Perez, they both helped me with brings props from the closet as well as with setting up. For the scene I choose 2 bold red chairs, a blue background, a table in the center, and place plants behind them. As for lighting, the studio had already 5 3200K lights in it's rig already turned on, so I used them as backlights. In order to properly light the subjects I grabbed two 5800K COB lights and place two big soft boxes over them. Each light would be focused at one of the subjects while also filling in the sides of the other subject.
By the time I finished tuning in the lights, Connor finally arrived in his 2 piece suit and tie. It was also around this time Sam had to leave, but it was fine since it meant it was just me and the actors. I was able to talk to Connor about Trent Marley and we landed on having him over exaggerate his movements, but still keep a semblance of grounded-ness to it. During the practice takes, I remembered how Nicole also had a background in Cypress Bay High School's American Musical Theater program which made sense as to why the two quickly had good chemistry.
I opted to record the scene from 2 angles, the wide of the two and a medium of Trent Marley. I technically shoudl've gotten a medium of Nicole's character too, but in the final edit, I'd be cutting between Eric and Trent while on the TV, so I wouldn't to shown Nicole's angle. After getting a 3 good takes from each angle, I called it a wrap for the day. I had gotten the shots I needed, and even material for a social media post. I found it super fun to work with Nicole and Connor (for the first time) as they both were very professional and focused on their work. Afterward we even had a conversation about the risks involved with the fields of film and musical theater and goals for later in life. In general I found it to be super cool. I'm also super excited to film the monologues and closing scene soon.
Ungraded Final Shot |
Another thing that happened when we finished was Connor finding a piano to play:
Hey yall! so I'm alive still and I'm gonna be blogging again in small doses, so I figured I'd start fresh. Here's the link t...