Editing

 kjnj

Final Reflection

 During this project, I've learned how to edit, research, and film on another level. I had to get creative when things didn't go our way, like when we first created the character Owen, we wanted him to be a boy, but when we lost our original actor, we had to make Owen a girl. It worked out better for us because we could talk about the gender inequality in STEM jobs, but it was still a challenge. 

We had to change editing platforms after we had already downloaded everything on DaVinci Resolve because it wouldn't work, then did our title animation on that platform while editing everything else on Clipchamp. Clipchamp wasn't much better and glitched every time we made a change, but it worked out in the long run. I had to learn to adapt to the changing situation. Our original plan was for our mad scientist to time-travel, but we quickly realized that wasn't realistic given the resources we had. We pivoted to a scientist who sees 5 days into the future with her glasses as her invention, becoming much more manageable for Juan and me. Overall, this project was long and exhausting, and I put in a lot of effort, so I hope it pays off.

CCR production

 For my first CCR, I did an interview setting with my sister. This is how we set the camera up. We used a glass vase and a napkin holder. For other shots, we put my phone on the CD shelf and on the smaller vases. 

I printed out 2 copies of my script for my sister and me. My sister asked me the questions, and I answered. I had to print it out at my friend's house and bring it because our printer doesn't work. 

I first greeted her and started the interview. I'm guessing it's going to be around 5 or 6 minutes after I finish editing. My sisters and my chairs are facing each other, and we get an over-the-shoulder shot of me answering the first paragraph of questions (refer to script).

The full script:

Question 1# Interviewer: How does your product use or challenge conventions, and how does it represent social groups or issues?

Answer: Common sci-fi genre conventions are

High-tech gear, Space travel, and Aliens 

We choose to challenge the genre conventions of having aliens, space travel, or extensive world-building. The reason being we want to portray a dystopian world in the future that has not changed that drastically from right now, because they live in poverty. It explores that because Owen is not as well off as the settings she lives in are dated. 

For this opening, we wanted to portray poverty and what that might look like in the future. Owen is currently in 2037, yet her world doesn't look like it's changed drastically because it's in the future. The reason being we intentionally wanted it not to look different from currently to show that people who live in poverty tend to live in more dated houses and communities. We wanted Owen to have a gender neutral name leaning towards masculine to show that she is in a male-dominated industry. Currently, 43.1% of all scientists are women and 56.9% are men. In 2037, the ratio is still more males than females, and not just in her field, but stem jobs in general.

Question 2# Interviewer: How does your product engage with audiences, and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

Answer: The sci-fi genre is most commonly enjoyed by males aged 15-26, but because our main character is a girl, I'm hoping our film will garner a larger female fanbase than typical sci-fi films. That's how I arrived at our target audience, females aged 13-24. Because our main character is younger than most (18), I concluded I wanted our target audience to be young teens to adults.

I added a blue film over a scene to portray it as 5 days into the future. It adds to the sci-fi atmosphere and engages the audience. The close-up of the post-it notes at the beginning works to provide context to the character's situation and mindset. They reveal that the scientist is planning to present her invention to Ford Lebestine, the motivation behind her making the invention being that she needs money, and the name of her invention is "quantum viewing". 

We plan to promote our film at film festivals, specifically the AmAuteur Film Festival. We also plan to post it on YouTube on the official Headspace Studios channel.

CCR production ideas

 For my first CCR, I want to do the beginning of someone putting on the glasses from the film. It can be an be the main character or someone else. Then they see a vision of me answering the questions or talking to someone answering the questions. I'll put a blue film over me, and after I answer the first 2 questions, that person takes off the glasses.

For the 2nd CCR, I wanted to do either a director's commentary or presentation with a voice-over. I don't know how to make the director's commentary seem natural if I just talk directly to the camera. 

Research for #4 question of CCR post

 Question 4# How did you integrate technologies, software, hardware, and online in this project?

- Begin by discussing any technologies that you used while producing the project

- Discussing hardware- cameras, lighting, microphones, tripods, dollies, sliders, etc.

- Discuss software- planning tools, editing tools, animation tools 

- Any obstacles

We used our iPhones to record. Our lighting was a box white light that was so bright we had to tape 2 pieces of paper to make it dimmer. We also used a circle sunset lamp in a purple shade and pointed it at the side of our main character. We were originally using DaVinci Resolve because there was a specific animating sequence we wanted for our film title, but after trying to use it, we realized that it takes too long to make changes, so we switched to Clipchamp. We then animated the title card on Davinci Resolve and exported it to Clipchamp to continue editing.

Citations

Microsoft. (n.d.). Clipchamp: Free online video editor. https://clipchamp.com/en/

Research for #3 question of CCR post

 Question 3# How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

- Reflect on how your process evolved throughout the production

- Discuss how you begin with research and planning

- Offer specific details about both of these processes 

- Discuss your approach to production. What did you have to change or adapt as you worked on the project?

- End with a reflection on where you started and where you ended. You may also discuss

Before this, I never relied on the storyboard as heavily as I did with this project. I had to keep referencing it because there were scenes that needed to be added or trimmed as I edited. I started my research by looking up sci-fi movies. I watched Coherence to draw inspiration. We started planning by making a schedule in the first week and mapping out what we were going to do. We had to change the editing platform we were using. Originally, we were using Davinci Resolve, but it took too long to refresh once someone made changes, so we had to move to Clipchamp. 

I started not knowing how to use lighting to portray different emotions and ended up using lighting to portray the world 5 days into the future.

Citations 

Blackmagic Design. (n.d.). DaVinci Resolve. https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve

IMDb. (n.d.). Coherence (2013). IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2866360/

Research for #2 question of CCR post

 Question 2# How does your product engage with audiences, and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

- Discuss how you arrived at your target audience cite research

- Discuss your production choices, content, etc., and work to engage with your target audience 

- Next, discuss how you plan to make your film available to audiences

- Response should address realistic options for an amateur filmmaker

Target audience age range, gender, and common interests

The sci-fi genre is most commonly enjoyed by males aged 15-26, but because our main character is a girl, I'm hoping our film will garner a larger female fanbase than typical sci-fi films. That's how I arrived at our target audience, females aged 13-24. Because our main character is younger than most (18), I concluded I wanted our target audience to be young teens to adults.

I added a blue film over a scene to portray it as 5 days into the future. It adds to the sci-fi atmosphere and engages the audience. The close-up of the post-it notes at the beginning works to provide context to the character's situation and mindset. They reveal that the scientist is planning to present her invention to Ford Lebestine, the motivation behind her making the invention being that she needs money, and the name of her invention is "quantum viewing". 

We plan to promote our film at film festivals, specifically the AmAuteur Film Festival. We also plan to post it on YouTube on the official Headspace Studios channel.

Citations

AmAuteur Film Festival. (n.d.). AmAuteur Film Festival. FilmFreeway. https://filmfreeway.com/AmAuteurFilmFestival

AmAuteur Film Festival. (n.d.). Home. https://sites.google.com/view/amauteur-film-festival/home

Research for #1 question of CCR post

 Question 1# How does your product use or challenge conventions, and how does it represent social groups or issues?

- Start by discussing genre conventions, cite where you found this information

- Next, discuss which genre conventions you chose to challenge or discuss why you chose not to challenge genre conventions

- End with a discussion of representation, remember representation refers to the choices you made and how you made them

 Common sci-fi genre conventions are

-  High-tech gear 

- Space travel

- Utopias or dystopias of the future 

- Robot characters 

- Aliens

- Interstellar travel

- Extensive world-building 

We choose to challenge the genre conventions of having aliens, space travel, or extensive world-building. The reason being we want to portray a dystopian world in the future that has not changed that drastically from right now, because they live in poverty. It explores that because Owen is not as well off as the settings she lives in are dated. 

For this opening, we wanted to portray poverty and what that might look like in the future. Owen is currently in 2037, yet her world doesn't look like it's changed drastically because it's in the future. The reason being we intentionally wanted it not to look different from currently to show that people who live in poverty tend to live in more dated houses and communities. We wanted Owen to have a gender neutral name leaning towards masculine to show that she is in a male-dominated industry. Currently, 43.1% of all scientists are women and 56.9% are men. In 2037, the ratio is still more males than females, and not just in her field, but stem jobs in general.

Citations 

Hellerman, J. (2023, December 6). Deconstructing the science fiction genre in movies and TV. No Film School. https://nofilmschool.com/science-fiction-genre

Zippia. (n.d.). Scientist jobs demographics and statistics in the US. Zippia. https://www.zippia.com/scientist-jobs/demographics/