Critical Creative Reflection

 CCR

Here is the link to my digital manual presentation for the first part of my CCR and this is the second link to my podcast which is the second part of my CCR.

Hope you enjoy :)))))

Film Opening  

SO. SO. SO. GOOD 

Here is the link to my film opening "Passing Bye"

Reflection on my film opening

Soo... What went right and what went wrong?

It is the end of this journey with my film opening and I just want to keep this as short and simple as possible but there's so much to say about this project. Over this journey, I learned so much about how to produce a film and how to deal with the struggles of an experience in media. It was definitely a bit of an emotional roller coaster.

 
At the start of my project, I already had an idea of what I wanted to do. I wanted to make this project something very specific I don't really know why but I just really wanted to have this storyline. The girl who loses her mother at a young age and just being that support system for people going through it. I really wanted to take a risk in also doing a drama scene which can typically be hard to do and I'll be really honest with you, I honestly thought my film opening was going to be terrible. At the end of the day, it was my film, my creation, and it needed to be something that I liked, and I enjoyed making but also felt proud of.

After my planning, filming, and editing, I would like to say I'm proud of what I made and think everything went pretty smoothly. I'm getting ready to post my film opening and CCR which showcase a little bit more of what went right and wrong.

You'll see the CCR and opening so soon :))

- Emma

Editing/FINISHED????

 EDITING IS DONE...

    So, it's Saturday my film is due on Tuesday and I literally worked all day editing. I realize now I probably should've filmed a little sooner it was just hard due to my cast only being here this week. But besides that today was a day of editing as well as critiques from other individuals. I'm going to include some text messages that were sent to me that were giving me notes to fix in my work and honestly, I think the film is pretty much done. Editing today consisted of using Premiere Pro for editing the line and using Photoshop for all graphics/titles. The main critiques I got were easy fixes so it was great that I had that line of correction when submitting this it was my best potential. 

    I was struggling at first to figure out a title color/font but once I figured it out it kind of fit perfectly in place. I really loved the use of coloring in my filming process and got a lot of compliments on it in post-production when I was doing a little bit of color correction. I think the coloring really added to the underlying purpose of portraying the emotional change/development in Gabby once her mom passes. 

    Another issue I slightly had was the music. I wanted to include the song "Coats" by Independence and I did but I had to lower the audio when Gabby spoke on the phone with her dad so you could hear her clearly. 

    But on the happier side of things... THE EDITING IS DONE??? Sooooo next post get ready for the big reveal. I'm truly so proud of how far I've come in this opening and I can't wait to show you what I created 

Big reveal in t-2 days :))

- Emma

Filming is done

 AND THAT'S A WRAP!!!! 

OH, MY, GOD. We're done. Today was genuinely one of the most enjoyable and memorable experiences of my life. 

Oh, and I got this funny photo out of filming... 

Ok, but all jokes aside I think that was one of the most incredible filming experiences ever. My aunt, cousin, and uncle worked so hard to learn their lines and even had a script reading seen here. 

Everyone helping in this truly made it so much more memorable and allowed everything to get filmed

within two hours in the doctor's office. It was a pretty crazy time crunch to attempt but due to the major efficiency, we got it all done. All in all, I got around 60 shots in the doctor's office for around 30-45 second scene so I think that I definetly have an array of footage to go through when editing tomorrow. My cousin Colin who wasn't in the film was also a huge help in lighting and genuinely I dont think I could've done this without his extreme help with framing shots and lighting them correctly. It was really a whole family effort to get this done but I'm really happy it is done. Also, the office was super accommodating to us and even gave my aunt her own like "injection"? or so it appeared on camera. It was kinda funny because the normal patients had no clue what was happening so there were definetly some interesting reactions to us filming but I think all in all most people working in the office are just excited to see how it turns out. So I know the next couple of days are going to be veryyy busy in editing the entire film opening as well as filming my CCR's but I know it's all going to turn out great in the end. I will update you as soon as I begin editing and start the process of creating title graphics. 

Until next time 

- Emma 

Filming tomorrow..

 Tomorrow is the day...

    So we're filming tomorrow and I'm trying to get myself organized in what I need to do/what I've done already for this opening. Today I've been working on redesigning my room a little bit, creating props like the whiteboard for the hospital and, lastly annotating my script as a director's copy to understand the shots and sequences I need to get. My cast just got here from Denver so they're a little bit tired buttt I know that won't stop tomorrow from being a great day. 

    We set up a time with the doctor's office to go film at 2-4 tomorrow so I'm really excited about that but that also means everything needs to be ready to go. For lighting in the hospital, I'm really focusing on blues, whites, and things close to heaven to be symbolic of her passing. I already am aware I'm going to have to work with my main actress Campbell a lot to make sure she really digs deep into her emotions to play Gabby but I know that she's going to do a great job with it. Below I'm going to attach some pictures of the costumes as well as the props that will be used for production tomorrow. I'm also going to show a little sneak peek of Gabby's room. Overall I'm just really excited and just a bit sad for this process to be coming to an end. It's really been an emotional rollercoaster but I know it's all going to be great. 

Annotated Script//Prop created: 

As you can see here this is my annotated version of the script. This includes things I want to get out of the actors as well as some cinematography notes like how tight a shot should be and different angles for each line. I think this is going to help in organization when I'm filming.

 

The three images here are props/set designs I used in Gabby's bedroom/in the hospital. The whiteboard is for establishing Nicole's situation and the two other images are indicative of things I will need in my first scene. 

So yeah! Tomorrow is the day and I can't wait to update you on how everything comes out 

Talk to you soon 

- Emma 

Location & Props

UGH, why so close to the filming day...     

Sooo there's been a tad bit of a problem when it comes to one of my filming locations... The original plan for the second filming location was to use my grandpa's (who is a doctor) hospital wing to record in an outpatient room. The problem is I didn't realize that my dates of filming overlapped with his trip to Ireland. So clearly we can't exactly film in his hospital if he's like 4000 miles away... It was time to problem-solve...

My parents and I sat down and talked through different possibilities for what we could do to make this scene work without a hospital and here's what we came up with. Obviously, we can't go into the hospital without him but his medical office is a different story. We called him to speak about using an examination room as our filming scene. We then arranged a meeting with him and the office manager and all came to the consensus they would save a room for us to use on Thursday to film in. 

Because we aren't filming in a hospital bed but an examination bed we didn't really have a lot of the props I was expecting to have access to so I had to get a little bit creative. I got onto Amazon and looked into finding a hospital blanket similar to the ones seen in movies - you know the blue slightly scratchy ones. So I found this "Linteum Textile Hospital Thermal Blanket" and think that it not only matches my color palate but looks realistic to what I would find in a hospital room. I also wanted to create a patient whiteboard to hang next to bed so I jumped onto Pinterest and the internet to create something similar. I found that most patient whiteboards look something like what you can see here. So as you can see these whiteboards contain 

information such as name, care team, activity goals, and others where we could discuss pain level, discharge information, etc. I think this is a good way to add a personal touch to Nicole and I really like the idea of having something more unique to her character. Other than these two props I know I need to have some costuming choices so Kathy the woman playing Nicole is going to wear a robe she owns but I also may look into getting a hospital gown and some tape for her arms to indicate her having received injections or given blood... I've been looking for some advice from friends and family who may find some other important details missing from this scene but for now, I'm going to work on the details I think are important. I'll update you soon and I'm so excited to be less than 5 days away from filming. 

- Emma