Tuesday, January 12, 2021

Critical Reflection Blog

How do your products represent social groups or issues?

The idea of my movie is based on the abused and an abuser. Rickson and Damian ran away from home after being tired of the abuse from their father. Jesson on the other hand use to abuse his son. Most people in people are aware of the abuse and know that it is a bad habit. The type of abuse I am referring to is domestic abuse. Domestic abuse occurs quite often as well so I thought that I could create irony in the movie. So, what I aimed to create was the second chance or in this situation, their last chance. Rickson is trying to steal items from a person’s house (Jesson) because he knows that Damian does not have much time left. This is Rickson’s last chance to save the only family he holds dear. While Jesson has already lost the trust of his son, when he’s about to attack Rickson he remembers how much he use to abuse his son. Sparing Rickson was his last chance to redeem himself. My film represents the fact that abuse does happen, and it will continue to happen. Although I showed that it is possible for people to change. It may not happen often especially since a lot of the time an abuser will resort to abusing people after not being able to control their anger. But there are situations where the abuser may be able to change their ways for the better. The theme of abuse is not the may narrative pushed in my film, but the idea was included.

How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?

The entire process of creating the film and the social media accounts is all look at under one general name. That name being Last Chance which is solely run by me. By creating the different social media accounts and tying them together through the website I was starting the brand of the film. Once I started promoting the short film on each platform, I had already created the brand. Although it may not be an exact brand because it is not under an actual company. But because I was promoting the short film and had all the social media accounts linked by a central hub you get the feel or sense of branding. Even on the postcard, the short film is being advertised heavily. After someone sees all the different promotions, they may feel more willing to watch the movie. And if that is the case then the entire purpose of promoting the short film so much would have paid off. Even from a creator's perspective, when creating all the different social media, the website, and even the short film I knew in my head that I was representing something. I had to create something entertaining, creative, and clean to showcase. And everything that I was created was under the same name, the same brand. So, knowing this helped make sure that every aspect had to be the same level of professionalism. While creating it I knew that everything would be reflected on what I presented under the film name.

How do your products engage with the audience?

Throughout this entire process, there were multiple different platforms that had to be created. Other than the short film itself, I needed to create a website and social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. The website was the home of everything that involved my short film. Meaning anyone that finds the website would have access to everything about the film and the process that went into creating it. On the website, the audience would be able to look at the cast, the different social media accounts, and even the written storyline of the short film. With all the different actions that the audience has access to they may feel more involved with the short film. Also depending on how they got to the website would make them feel more engaged. If they saw the link to the website through Instagram, then they’ll already have seen the post during the process of the short film being made. The audience mainly engages with the film itself. Like I previously spoke about, having the theme of abuse included in the short film, I wanted the audience to think about what the flashbacks meant after and/or while watching the short film. I hoped for them to put themselves in one of the character’s shoes about abuse. Since Rickson and Jesson were on two different ends of abuse, after watching the film I hoped for them to possibly look at abuse differently in the sense that it can affect people differently for better and for worse.

How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

After having the pitch, I chose the three genres drama, spy, and horror. Looking back the only genre that my movie could fit under is drama. The other two choices didn’t quite make sense. When choosing out of the three I always leaned towards drama and now that I have completed the film, it is the only real choice. After researching the drama genre, I felt that my short film idea fit the genre really well. Typically, in dramas, the characters are in a realistic setting and deal with real problems. My film fits that extremely well since the characters were literally dealing with real-life problems. Other drama conventions usually include having the characters go under character development and moving the audience emotionally. Since the film was only five minutes there is not much character development that could be made. Although there is one scene near the end of the short film where Jesson acts differently than he usually would because he realized that he was being violent and abusive again. He stops himself from harming another person. This scene was his character developing based on previous events that were not good. I feel as if this same scene had the most emotion that can be taken away from the audience. Jesson spars Rickson who only ever wanted to save his little brother’s life. The rest of the film did carry emotion with it especially because of the music which fits perfectly with the drama genre. 



Short Film Package Blog

 My Short Film Package

Last Chance

Link to short film: https://youtu.be/xQfP7DXgFk4


Link to website: https://marckinsazard4.wixsite.com/lastchancethemovie
















The Postcard





Thursday, January 7, 2021

Creating The Postcard

Going into making the postcard, I thought it was going to be easy. And it was, but there were little ups and downs. Using Canva it was pretty simple. Similar to other websites, the interface was user-friendly. Meaning that everything was put in your face for usage. There wasn't really anything I had difficulties with. While starting it I wasn't 100% sure on what I was going to do but I didn't stress much. I had a general idea of two pictures I would use for the front and the back. Although other than that I didn't brainstorm beforehand much more. I just kind of went with the flow. 

For inspiration, I'd just look up postcards for films. Or I'd look at the examples given to me. What I noticed was that there was usually a theme. Not having seen the movies, I'd assume it's based on the actual theme of the movie. So some of the postcards would have a bright theme, and some of the theme or have a dark theme. Obviously, there were different kinds of themes in between but I got the general gist. So using all that I absorbed I went into it. I tried to keep it simple and let the movie speak for itself. I edited the website homepage to fit the postcard. I liked the final result of the entire postcard. 

via GIPHY

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

Fixing Script & Storyboard

During the filming process, things didn't go to plan. Meaning that I didn't follow the script or storyboard like I thought I would. But I don't think that it's bad because the film is better with the changes. The script had a general wording to it. So I'd have lines for the characters and however they were to say would work. But the new scenes that we recorded changed the script. So I have to go back and change the lines. Although after the edit touch ups that should be simple. This'll also be just as simple with the storyboard. The storyboard is going to be slightly different though. 

The storyboard is going to take more effort. The process would generally be the same as the script but not entirely. Drawing the storyboard took a lot of time. I'd put a lot more time than I thought into drawing them. I thought I did a pretty decent job. Now I'd have to erase the scene and create the new ones. Although in the end it shouldn't be too difficult. And I don't draw in my pass time, but I did enjoy drawing the scenes out. The final product of the storyboard should be close replica of what's going on in the film. Hopefully it doesn't take as long as it did before. 

via GIPHY

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Social Media

 Throughout this whole process I haven't been on the social media accounts much. There's so much to do but I just need to find time to actually do it. Although I'm not sure exactly what to post. While filming I didn't think much about behind the scene videos and pictures. And when we recorded we deleted most of the clips that weren't recorded right. So I don't have content to post on the social medias currently but hopefully that'll change. Or maybe I might have a different idea on what to post. On twitter I also haven't been active. After putting on the final touches to my film I going to begin to post things. Although I'm not sure what exactly I should post. 

The website hasn't been updated since I created it too. There's going to be a lot of stuff to add. I actually don't remember what needs to be done. Although it's been a long time so I'm sure there's things I could add. I am nervous about how people will receive my film. Or even what I'll say about it on social media. I'm aware it's my journey and my production but that's exactly what makes it nerve-racking. I shouldn't feel bad with what I'm putting out though. I'm putting a lot of time and effort into the entire film process so I know it's going to be good. I simply need to start uploading and showing the process of everything on my social medias. 

via GIPHY

Monday, December 28, 2020

Editing Blog | Re-Edit

 The entire process is basically done. Filming and editing. Although I am unclear and the postcard, other than that I've finished. I went back through the film to add the missing scenes or replaced scenes that had a problem. Now everything is lined up with the storyboard. It's also over just a little bit over 5 minutes. There was a lot to edit since I didn't edit in the titles the first two times. Learning how to add the texts onto the screen wasn't that difficult. I didn't expect it to be too difficult in the first place but it was quite easy. Also making sure that they'd disappear when needed was somehow fun to properly make.

Editing the entire film was kind of stress. Although on the other hand it was fun. For the music selection just used the three that I got online. I tried to create a sneaky instrumental track but I don't think it worked out well. I did however create a instrumental beat total aside from it. In the end I just got a sneaky beat I found online. It was a lot more difficult to choose this time too since I was looking for something so specific. Not a super energetic sneaky kind of instrumental but very low-key. But all that's left are the small touch ups. After that the film will be complete.

via GIPHY

Sunday, December 27, 2020

Film Blog | Re-shoot

 With some of the scenes I ran into issues. Other scenes I just didn't record or they need to be re-shot. We were able to re-shoot in a timely manner. Some of the beginning scenes were somehow lost so we started with those. With these 4 or 5 scenes we gained an extra 20 seconds. Which is good because I was behind a lot before editing anything out. There was one scene in particular that sponslor got messed up. Whenever you'd play the audio there would be a low static kind of sound. Because of this I couldn't use that scene which further messed up the storyboard. But we re-shot so we were back on track.

We were also able to finally record some missing scenes. There's are a couple scenes during the evening that was never shot because of bad scheduling. The scene only included Jesson which is played by my brother but most of the time he's at work. But I planned that we would film it on a day that he's actually off. After filming all of these scenes hopefully we're over the 5 minute mark. After re-filming and I start the re-edit process then I should have all the clips I need. Everything on the storyboard should be filmed properly. I also hope that each scene that we recorded is actually the right amount of time. When we re-recorded the amount of time for each clip seemed right. Although the first and second days recording I also thought that the clips were long enough. 

via GIPHY