Peer Feedback

 First drafts are never going to be perfect. As much as I enjoyed the first draft of our movie, there are many aspects that can be improved or worked on. Because I want our film to be the best it can be, I asked friends for constructive criticism so my group and I can take note and apply it to our film.

Right off the bat, the first pieces of criticism we received were technical aspects. Our movie is 30 seconds short of 2 minutes, so our friends suggested recording another scene. Another technical aspect we were missing were credits, company logo, and a title. This is critical information for the audience to know who made or participated in the film. 

We also received criticism in sound. The original route our team was going for was building tension through silence and facial expressions. Our group felt that Carla being silent for the beginning of the film would give a more eerie vibe to her character. However, the execution was different. Our friends said they would've like to know more about Carla in the beginning of the film and what she was thinking before grabbing the knife. To comply with this criticism, we added a voiceover or internal monologue from Carla's perspective. This gives the audience more hints as to who Carla is as a character. 

Our friends seemed to really like the sound effects we used. This includes the heartbeat and echoing of voices in Carla's head. One thing they suggested is adding music. The reason me and my team didn't add music in the first place is because we couldn't figure out how to make it fit. We didn't like the idea of the film having background music the entire time but figured having music at the end to build suspense would make the audience not only want more but also added synchronous sound.

Taking all of this into account, we were able to make the proper changes to our film without altering the plot or original theme of the movie. My team and I are very grateful we were able to get the criticism necessary to improve our film.

First Draft Opening Film Submittal

Me and my group completed the first draft of our film. Our film takes place in present time and revolves around a hispanic teenager, Carla, who has high expectations to meet due to her mom’s strict behavior. Carla is walking out of class one day when suddenly, she receives a notification from her teacher, Mr. Johnson, regarding her final. Looking at her F, she panics and starts to think of her mom yelling at her for not meeting her high standards. Carla snaps out of it and goes inside the theater to talk to Mr. Johnson. Inside, Carla tries to negotiate with Mr. Johnson but is met with failure. As she walks away in defeat, Carla starts to feel overwhelmed by negative emotions, until she spots a knife. Carla slowly walks up to the knife and stabs Mr.Johnson behind his back. His now dead body lying next to her, she takes his laptop, changes her grade and quickly leaves, taking the evidence with her.

There were tedious aspects like figuring out what camera movement, angle, or framing we wanted for each scene. The most difficult task wasn’t filming though, it was the editing. While all of us contributed to the editing, we still had a hard time figuring out how to deal with certain aspects. For example, when portraying the flashbacks, we didn’t want it to come off as too tacky and we wanted to make sure the audience knew why Carla was having those flashbacks. Another example was the editing right before the killing. We didn’t know whether to add echo voices or just leave a heartbeat. We wanted the audience to feel as overwhelmed as Carla felt.

Of course, nothing come easy but nonetheless me and my team had so much fun working on our film and creating a storyline from scratch. We all got along and communicated very well and creating this movie just brought us closer as friends. The best part of this whole process was the end result. Seeing your work done after all those hours of work and being satisfied with it is what makes everything worth it.

Production Week: Day 1

Today Brandon and I met up during 4th period to film the movie. We had over an hour to film, so we had to make the most of our time. Here's how the first day of filming went.

Brandon and I couldn't film the first scene in Ms. Vincent's room because she had a class, so we decided to film the rest of the movie first. We started by filming me walking home until I check my phone for a notification. Then we got to the scenes where Carla gets stressed and walks towards the inside of the theater. Once Brandon and I got inside we filmed the flashback scenes in the back of the costume room, which resembled a kitchen of a house. After filming the flashback with our friend Emily, or Carla's mom, we went to the front of the stage to film the scene where Carla talks to her teacher about her grade. Our teacher wanted to do it in one take, so we had to make sure the angles and other camera work was perfect before proceeding to film. After successfully filming the killing scene, we realized we ran out of time to film the first scene in the media studies class, so we decided to cut the scene entirely.

Through the entire process, Brandon and I had to go through some experimentation to find the best angles to film from, what type of camera work to use for specific scenes, or where to stand for the best framing. It was a process of trial and error for sure, but we made it work.

In terms of camera movement, we mainly used pan. It's a simple movement but successfully moves a story forward. Tracking was also used to follow Carla's hand before she killed Mr. Johnson.

All kinds of shot sizes were used while filming. Wide and master shots were used in the beginning before Carla entered the theater, a medium close up was used to showcase Carla's sad expressions, and full shots were used to follow Carla's walking.

For camera angles, the main ones used were eye level and hip level since they were the simplest ones to master and fit well with the storyline. However, dutch angle was used before Carla picked up the knife and ground level was briefly used to show Carla walking up the stairs.

Camera framing stayed fairly simple. Carla was the main character, so the movie was mainly a four shot and occasionally two shot when she interacted with her mom and teacher. There was a POV shot as Carla picked the knife up.

After a successful day of filming, I put all the videos together on my phone and emailed it to Jada for them to edit it. What surprised me is that we were able to film everything in one day.

Production Week: Day 1 Behind the Scenes

During the first day of filming, there was a lot of work that went on behind the scenes in order to get a perfect run. Here's a rundown of every technical aspect that went into filming.

For starters, the costume. That day I wore brighter clothes than I usually do to accurately portray Carla's character and brought an extra shirt for the flashback scene. 

-Carla's shirt in the flashback scene. I didn't want Carla to be wearing anything too fancy for this scene since she is technically supposed to be at home.

-Carla's main outfit. Her outfit is very bright because Carla isn't a bad person at all. She's a smart girl who broke under all the pressure.

I also wore fake glasses since Carla is supposed to look smart. The first thing Brandon and I did when we met up during 4th period was check out the settings on the script Jada and I typed up:

-Outside of theater. This setting is where the first few scenes were filmed. This includes the part where Carla checks the grade on her phone. The weather was working in our favor that day since I thought it would be nice for the first few scenes to be bright, before things get dark.

-Inside the theater. This specific location was used for one scene. We wanted to show Carla's fast-pace walking to let the audience know how nervous she was. The lighting of this scene is also the transition from bright to dark.

-This location, otherwise known as Mr. Johnson's desk, was where Carla talked to her teacher and killed him.

 Next thing we did was set up the props, this included:

-Carla's phone. Carla's phone is actually Brandon's phone since we were using my phone to film. The grade used in this film is not mine or Brandon's but my friend's old reading grade. She gave me permission prior to filming to use it in our movie.

-Graded 'F' worksheet. I found this old ACT practice packet in my binder and thought it would be perfect for the film. All I did was use a red marker to draw a big 'F' on the front. I also added some drawings so Emily could say "y dibujitos? no no no" or "and drawings? no no no."

-The Knife. This knife was a prop knife used in the drama club's last play 'CLUE'. I asked Mr. Kean if I could use it to kill him and he said yes, even told me to keep it.

And of course, personal props

-Carla's glasses. The glasses are actually blue light glasses that I already owned. I thought they would be a perfect prop for Carla since she is a smart girl.

-Carla's headphone and bookbag. Carla's headphone added a nice accessory to her costume and the bookbag of course is necessary since that's where all her school items go.

If none of this was set up before filming, the process would've gone a lot slower. Having the costume, location and props set up is what allowed for the filming to be done in under an hour. This is why pre-production planning is just as important as the actual filming. Minor details give the audience hints about the character and allow for personal analyzation of the main character or film.

Pre-production: Script

Pre-production is an essential stage of any film project. It includes all the brainstorming and planning that happens before cameras start rolling. From developing a concept, exploring the look of your film, storyboarding scenes and much more.

One of the most important things you need in order to start on a film, is an outline. Without an outline, you won't have direction. Me and my team used word document but later switched to studio-binder to create our script and to be honest, we had little to no prior knowledge on script writing. We had to refresh our mind on terms we were taught and search up scripts online for reference. For example, before writing the script, I had no idea what EXT. and INT. represented. I also didn’t know how scripts were supposed to be laid out, like where dialogue went or where new locations went. 

For the most part, the script followed the same outline as we originally planned except the Spain flashbacks were cut out.

In general, this task was a learning experience. Finalizing our script meant we were now a hundred percent ready to start filming!