Film Opening and CCRs

Attached below in order is the film opening, CCR 1, and CCR 2.

FILM OPENING

CCR 1

CCR 2

Final Reflection

 It's done. Well not really, technically I still have one more blog post after this. But the time has come to reflect on my project. I'm not just here to reflect on my project. I'm here to reflect on my life. I have come a really long way since I looked like this.

In all seriousness, this project changed me for the better. Not once in my entire life did I see myself making a "film opening" that I was sincerely proud of and happy with. The skills I learned and knowledge I obtained in just the past 2 months will stay with me forever. I now have another way to exercise my creativity and challenge myself when life feels dull.

I would be lying if I said the entire project was always unicorns and rainbows. I encountered many difficulties that I have documented right here on this blog that were the cause for stress and long nights. From communication errors with actors, to difficulties in editing, to incredibly awful time management sometimes, this project did not leave me untested.

However, I would also be lying if I said I didn't wind up appreciating and enjoying every second of this project in the end. It just goes to show that hard work pays off. No matter what score I get, I proved to myself that I have the discipline to do a lot more than I had imagined if I put my mind to it.

I also taught myself not to be afraid of taking risks. It could be very possible that my partner and I offend the wrong people with the representation of Christianity in our film, having both positive and negative effects on the lives of the main characters. However, we are proud of what we have accomplished, and it is by no means intended to offend or attack anyone or anything. As I stated on previous postings, the film is simply just an extrapolation of the observations and ideas shared by me and JD.

In short, thank you. To myself, my partner, and whoever is reading this for this opportunity.

Here are my favorite 2 minutes from any film ever to end it off.

CCR Editing

 Editing the CCRs took a WHILE to say the least. But guess what. I'm done! I definitely underestimated how long editing would take, but it would be a lie to say that it wasn't enjoyable. I virtually got to relive the funny experiences and manipulate them into an 11 minute time frame. Today, I'll share some of the most important findings throughout the editing process.

For both CCR's, I utilized Adobe Premiere Pro to edit and made good use of a variety of tools, from lighting to zooming.

When editing CCR questions 1 and 2, I found that one of the kind hecklers had a voice that was especially difficult to understand due to his thick accent, so I decided to put subtitles on all of his lines, as well as CCR Question 2, which was asked by a different person.

The lighting issue that I addressed in my previous post was easily resolved through Adobe's "Lighting Effects" option. It found a good balance between making the footage easier to see and not making it look overly tampered with or washed out.

I decided that using jump cuts stylistically, aside from covering potential errors in my answers. would add to a sense of awkwardness and utter inelegance that was pioneered by my compelling performance (totally).

For CCR questions 3 and 4, I had a lot of work to do. I had to cut down over 30 minutes of footage to around 6 minutes, and still manage to make it a little bit funny. Luckily, approximately 90% of the footage was us goofing off, making each other laugh, and restarting our lines after messing up. After getting rid of the nonsensical filler, I was left with about 10 minutes of footage to chop down, and it was pretty straight forward from that point.

Pixabay.com had many free, non-copyright sound effects to offer and enhance the comedic, silly tone I was going for.

A common convention of podcasts that I needed to follow was the incorporation of a logo and themed music. Canva had me covered for the logo, as I simply took an alternative take to the KL Productions logo, turning it into KL PODuctions.

As for the music, what better alternative to waiting for permission or scouring the internet for non-copyright free music than music created by yours truly?

Definitely not my best art, but it still fits into the vibe of the podcast effectively.

Canva was also very helpful in creating the end credits for the CCR to appreciate and credit all those who assisted me along the way.

Overall, despite being a rather tedious, time-consuming process, I enjoyed every second of editing the CCRs. I almost don't want to say it, but I'm basically done?! With everything? What?

CCR Production Post

 Sooooo the CCR production process was lengthy and I truly underestimated how time consuming the process would be. In total, both CCRs took around 9 hours to film. Fortunately, filming them was some of the most fun I had in a while and the process never felt tedious or boring in the slightest.

The podcast CCR production took place at JD's house, as he had a backyard that worked surprisingly well for a podcast set up.

 Being musicians, we both brought our microphones (Shure SM-57)to use during production and make the sense that it was actually a real podcast all the more believable. These were plugged straight into JD's audio interface which ran directly into Garageband.  

We decided to help each other film ours individually, as different episodes of the same podcast, entitled KL Poductions, derived from KL PRODuctions (Brilliant, I know). In all honesty, I hadn't given much thought into how the CCR questions would actually be brought up until about 5 minutes before I arrived at his house, but I had reached an idea nonetheless! The CCR questions would be asked by fans in the comment section of the previous podcast episode, and we would choose them at random and answer them.

With the help of taping a loose script to the table in front of us, some comedic improv, and the help of our friend Max, the production process was over quite shortly (not really). It was a ton of fun, and some key highlights were the creation of "Guy the Sound Guy", the victim of me and JD's tormenting, as well as the creation of the inside joke "SmoothieGo Jr.". Don't ask.

A Comedic Change of Plans

Remember that "celebrity sidewalk interview" idea that I had. Yeah? Well it was trash. 0/10. Embarassing. Shameful.

Instead, I opted for the scene of a stand up comic bombing awfully in front of a crowd. After quickly running out of jokes, he would then turn to the audience and ask if they had any questions. What would these questions be? CCR questions 3 & 4 of course!

I decided a local bar which I have played gigs at in the past by the name of "Boston Johnny's" would serve well as a fake "comedy club". After getting permission from my friend Jason, my wonderful mother drove me over and served as a heckler, and I got another bargoer to serve as the host of the comedy club introducing me on stage. While I'm sure that the other bargoers did not intend to spend 90 minutes of their evening listening to comic bomb and answer CCR questions, they were all very kind and more than happy to play along.

Me on stage @ Boston Johnny's!

Anonymous Friendly Volunteer Bargoer

One difficulty that I ran into was the poor lighting of the indoor bar, but this can be fixed in post editing.

I attempted to base my cringeworthy performance off of the likes of fellow awful comedians like Dax Flame. No one is really sure if he's joking or not. 

Notecards really helped me lock into the persona of an awkward, nervous comedian who had no chance of engaging an audience. They also helped guide me through answering the CCR questions as I wrote down a loose script and key points to help guide me.

Overall, the CCR production process was long, but so so fun, and I would do it all over again if I could.

Potential CCR Ideas

Two potential ideas I had for the CCR are creating a visual podcast, as well as a celebrity sidewalk interview.

The visual podcast would take inspiration from the Joe Rogan Experience and Bad Friends podcasts, incorporating music, advertisements, and additional media into the podcast. Me and JD would likely both end up using this approach but switch between asking and answering questions for our own CCRs.

The quick cuts and shot/countershot technique work to keep the audience engaged and even highlight humorous dialogue and facial expressions, so this is something I can be sure to implement into my project.

The introductions to these podcasts are often thought to be iconic, so I must be sure to find a song that fits and matches the overall aesthetic.

The celebrity sidewalk interview would take inspiration from popular TikTok content, in which people walk up to strangers on the sidewalk and ask what song they're listening to. It takes this premise, and combines it with regular celebrity interviews, in which important questions are asked and answered in a relatively brief, concise way.

This approach to answering 2 CCR questions is a lot more fantastical, in which I'll pretend to be a celebrity renowned filmmaker and play a character. I feel that this will produce fun, engaging content, and when paired with layering on screen visuals that tie into what I am describing, will be all the more engaging.

 

Overall, now that I have my 2 ideas for the CCR and concluded my research for all questions, the production process should be over quite shortly. I can't wait to see how it turns out!

CCR Question #4

 How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

Hardware

Some of the key examples of hardware technologies I used within this project are an iPhone 13 Pro for filming, and a tripod for stabilization purposes. The iPhone was convenient and sufficient in producing satisfactory quality for footage, and I was already familiar, instead of having to learn how to properly operate a camera. The tripod was necessary in ensuring the instability of certain shots did not grow overbearing.

Software

Some software products that I used were Adobe Premier Pro to edit the footage and create the soundscape, Blackmagic Cam to enable myself with more camera control options on an iPhone, and Ableton Live to elongate the song we used - "Sleepless" by Diffie Bosman. Already having experience with Premier after using it in past projects like the Music Marketing Project, I felt comfortable using it and ran into minimal difficulty. Blackmagic Cam is a free app that was downloaded onto the iPhone, allowing many advanced camera options like frame rate, image quality, and even tint. And the best part? It was free! Finally, after using Ableton Live in the past for recreational music creation purposes, I found it quite easy and convenient to use, as  I discussed on my March 7th post.

Online 

Last but not least, many online tools were used in this project, including Blogger, Google Docs to access the script, and YouTube to access the SFX for editing the soundscape. Numerous online tools were used for a variety of reasons along the way to help bring the film opening to life.

Clearly, a variety of tools in different forms were utilized along the way, and all were crucial in creating the finalized product.

CCR Question #3

How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

My productions skills developed greatly throughout the course of this project. At the start of this school year, I was a complete noob at anything related to film besides sitting down and watching them. I had no idea of the amount of critical thought and intentional choices behind every single frame of a film. After this project, I can confidently say that I have a far better understanding of just how much effort goes into a mere 2 minutes of film.

Working with someone as experienced and motivated as my partner without a doubt played a huge role in bettering my skills as both a director and editor. At the start of this project, I didn't even know where to begin with how to write a script, or direct people. Being able to collaborate and see how someone with so much experience went about doing these things were huge learning experiences for me. Throughout the project, I gained a lot more confidence as a writer and director and I can't wait to use all the knowledge that was shared with me in future projects.

Additionally, through many trials and tribulations, my production skills developed for the better as a result. I learned that planning is key, except when it isn't. Planning elements like scripting and storyboarding are great tools for bringing something to life in my head, but sometimes something can turn out to be impractical, like a certain shot, or a character's delivery. I learned that not all goes according to plan, but this can open new doors that weren't even considered in the first place.

For example, in this blog post, I discussed the process of deciding to incorporate a handheld tracking shot due to the instability of using a phone to record. This is a key example of a learning experience, in which I gained that film directing is not entirely planned out, but rather some of the best ideas come from the heat and excitement of the moment.

Last, I learned that my personal favorite aspect, and what I feel most comfortable doing, is sound design. I was put in charge of this element of post production, and I absolutely loved it. Finding just the right combination of sounds and levels to bring the film opening to life was quite an enjoyable experience. 

Overall, this project only allowed me to grow my production skills in positive directions, and I'm sure that the knowledge I gained will be used to my advantage in the future.

Grail, F. (2024). Cinema Audience Demographics Analysis: Insights & Data. Filmgrail. https://filmgrail.com/blog/cinema-audience-demographics-analysis-insights-and-data/

Thriller film market size, scope, growth, trends and forecast. Verified Market Research. (2024, October 10). https://www.verifiedmarketresearch.com/product/thriller-film-market/