CCR Blog

 Our product represents social groups and issues by engaging with a specific type of social group. The social group I would say we connect most with is lovers of the thriller genre, or people who love mystery movies. Our film shows a middle-age powerful woman, who works in the law field, something I know that appeals to certain people. Any Social groups that support female empowerment would be engaged to see our film. In our film you’ll see this powerful woman be killed, simply because of jealousy. This film can be used to address the issue of jealousy, many people feel a certain way when they see someone who’s on top. Our film simply addresses an instance for something like this happening. A story where, someone who is close to you takes everything away from you because that’s all they ever wanted for themselves. Our product is big on representing envy and jealousy. This could appeal to jealousy support groups, Or anyone that’s been in a similar situation.

Our website helps create a sense of our branding because it shows basically a preview of our movie. Our website includes what you can expect to see in our film, when our film will be out, when you can see it, and much more. Our website includes pictures that can be tied directly into our movie, we specifically used a knife on all of our platforms so when you saw it you think of our movie. This was a big step in our process of branding our film. We use mainly the colors black and red, to represent the dark theme that’s going through our movie and the blood in our movie. On all of our social media platforms, we named our page the name of our movie, making all of our profile pictures a piece of police tape. When my part and I thought to do this, we had the word mystery popped up in our head. We thought since this was a thriller/mystery movie the piece of police tape would create a sense of suspense. I would say we use the knife as our mascot so to say. I think in the process of doing all of this it lead us to separate our product apart from other products that would be considered the “same”. I think our website, our social media‘s, and our post card Do a good job showing how we want to film to perceive, and organizes the thoughts that we do include in our film.

I can honestly say our film  engages with our audience through social media. As you know today in the 21st-century, social media is a big platform. For many this is how they discover new things, or hear about new things. There’s been plenty of times where I’ve never seen or heard of a movie, then all the sudden I see it on Instagram or Snapchat or Twitter. And suddenly I’m tempted to go and watch this movie, or purchase this movie to see it. For us we used our Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to engage with our audience. We made a few post previews, on what to be expected in this film. In addition we did a few polls on our Instagram story, these polls included questions that would help us see what kind of audience we would be working with. Again, we have to put out what we know people will want to see so this was a good way to see the preferences of our potential viewers. We also made sure we posted a good amount of times to promote our movie, we included the date, where the movie could be seen and the times it could be seen. This I think, was an important thing to do. If we did not engage with our audience, there will be no knowledge of what to expect from our film. No knowledge on when our film will be released, which result in a bad outcome.

The research helped me with my film. I found it helpful to look at successful thriller films. When I say successful I refer to how much it sold, and how audiences reacted to it. It was so easy to look up reviews on the films I looked over. This was what really helped me with my branding techniques. I used the feedback that the other films had. In addition I researched elements found in common thriller films. It was important that my partner and I tried to shift from these elements. The conventions of thriller movies include low key, we shifted away from this. In our film we used bright lighting, for the simple reason that we thought it looked better. And it did, the low key lighting would not have been beat for our scenes. A convention we did follow was the quick cuts, this helped us create suspense in our film so of course we had to incorporate it. Another convention we followed was the tension music and change in angle shots. These were two major ploys in our film, again it was all about creating tension and suspense. These two elements did exactly that, the music helped us build suspense up to a certain moment, and the angle helped us show what was going on from different perspectives. 

Who Did it ? (Short Film)

My Short Film Package 

Who Did It ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyiCjzQKIqI

https://jassydownloads.wixsite.com/website

And We’re Still Editing

Hey guys we’re back again and we’re still editing. As you know editing can take a good amount of time. Considering especially if you want your final product to be good. Last blog we were working on putting our scenes together. This does not take a long time, but it didn’t take the shortest amount of time either. Aaliyah and I we’re really focused on our interrogation scene right now. Aaliyah had her mom and sister help her re-record these scenes. Our main focus going into the interrogation scene was to create suspense. We had to find a way to add music while we were editing. On the app or using, we had to screen record the music. I know you’re probably thinking screen record what is that? Well we had to go on YouTube firstly. And on the iPhones now there’s a button you press where you can record something from another app. It gives visuals and even audio but we only needed the audio. On the video Leap app, there’s a button you press to insert audio where you want it. So now we were on the interrogation scene, fixing the clips and scenes and we had to decide where we wanted the music. Aaliyah suggested when the questioning begin and I suggested win aaliyah‘s character started answering the questions. We found a place to incorporate the music, and then we started to discuss titles. I thought to go back and look at how I did titles on my phone from last year, so that’s exactly what I did. I had notes to reflect on from the previous year to help me with titles. So aaliyah and I began putting titles on our film

and Editing begins

Hey everyone, I’m back again. It’s our first week back from winter break. As you recall we’ve been filming over winter break. we’ve got lots of great clips, for our film. Aaliyah and I decided we should start our editing process completely. In between filming, we looked over a few clips and put stuff together. But today we decided, to start fully editing our film. Since it was my job to edit, Aaliyah suggested that I look over the clips. So that’s exactly what I did. She sent me the videos since we recorded off of an phone. Before I started everything I had to make sure all the clips were okay. Since currently we’re still not in school I had to use my phone to edit. I can honestly say, using a phone and computer do not compare. I can assert that using a phone was more convenient. But I think using the editing software on the computers are better. I used the video Leap app tomorrow’s the scenes we filmed together. At the wavy video I inserted I had to make sure there were no gaps when the video played. After how do you there to each clip I made sure to ask aaliyah for her opinion. This was one of the parts where I knew we had to work together. And that’s exactly what we did, we’re now fully committed to editing and adjusting our film.

still filming and editing

 Hey guys today we continued filming some more. Another stressful day with filming. Today we had help from both of Aaliyah parents. She had my dad dress in all black and a hat. Which was hilarious. He was supposed to be portrayed as a robber. For this part we had to use a long shot, to capture everything. Since this scene was mainly focused on him I was able to record these takes. It only took us a couple of takes. When her dad was walking around the house looking for her  (Stephanie) I used a high angle. I know  you're probably wondering how. Well I stood on the top of her stairs and stretched my arms as far as possible. This made it look like a high angle which was the goal I was aiming for. Aaliyahs dad forgot some of his lines so we had to film many takes until he got it right. I have to say there were lots of bloopers. After we did that Aaliyah switched back into her clothes and started filming the next scene. In this scene she was in the room listening to music while packing my luggage. This was right before the action happened. For this scene there was no dialogue which made it easier to film. I used a long shot and a mid shot for this scene because I wanted the luggage to be shown but not at all times. Aaliyah mom assisted during this scene as well. She had her call our house phone. She did this so that it would ring and Aaliyah would pick it up. This is where the suspense started to build up. After picking up the phone several times she heard nothing, this happened a few times before the climax was set into motion. When she grab a knife I make sure to get a close up of this to add emphasis. Eventually the action scene takes place. I used a zoom shot and a tracking shot for this. When she saw her killers face that's when the zoom shot was used. After this the camera was extremely shaky. Due to the tracking shot. I had to run downstairs and her sister was filming so she did also. When running I also used a hand held shot. I did this to show my face while running. After this another action scene will occur between my dad and I. In the end he will kill her and flee the scene.

re-filming the beginning

 Hey guys I’m back again with another update. We’re slowly making progress with the film. Today we filmed the 2 scenes. The scenes that we filmed were the scenes where Aaliyah was entering the house and was walking upstairs. Last time she’d filmed she stopped filming right at her front door. We used a close up shot for this to show my hand movements as Aaliyah opened the door. More on we acquired  new filming equipment. Today was Christmas and Aaliyah got a new ring light. This would be useful to us for lighting.  I also got a small tripod. We used the tripod for many close up scenes or scenes with Aaliyah walking. To continue, Christmas was a good day. Today we had to film many scenes to stay on track. We used a tracking shot. This was because Aaliyah kept walking in many scenes today. For example, the scene when she was walking in my hallway and the stairs I had to use a tracking shot to track her movements. When we finally began to film her entering my room that's where it started to get difficult. The angles were kind of hard to get but we made it work. Aaliyah had her younger sister stand in a far corner in my room to record her entering, as i directed her around the room.It looked as if we filmed this part using a wide shot. When she opened her closet I used an over the shoulder angle which switched to a trunk shot. We wanted the audience to see two different perspectives and I have a good feeling we achieved this. We’ve decided to film certain scenes on her younger sisters ipad pro. We  decided this because it carries more storage than a phone and it also had a great camera. For scenes that require hand held shots then of course I'll use my phone. I can't believe I spent Christmas afternoon filming, however it was a very productive day.

Filming our first Scene

Hey guys we're finally on winter break!! Christmas is right around the corner. But it also means that my partner and I are back to filming. We decided to split the filming and editing process. I will be editing the entire movie from my home and Aaliyah will be filming everything. Of course, I will be assisting with the filming process. And giving my input, we still have to work as a team. So today Aaliyah talked to me as she pulled out our storyboard. After reviewing and discussing it, we decided that she should start filming the first scene. In this scene she would be getting into a car and driving while having a conversation. Aaliyah doesn’t have her licenses yet, however she has her permit. We had to make sure while she was driving today that someone over 21 was with her. We discussed what she should wear. Since her character was a lawyer we decided she should dress business casual outfit. She also had her younger sister record everything. She explained to me that she used a tracking shot when she was walking into the car. She recalled recording several takes for this part because she  had to make sure not to get her house in the background. The goal was to make it seem like she was just getting off of work. In the car she told me she used a wide shot so that the entire background could be seen. she continued to drive around her neighborhood rather than the main roads. This was because she’s not a really experienced driver. During this time she was talking to her self. She did this on the phone to make it seem like she was having a conversation with Briana, Stephanie's (aaliyah) bestfriend. After recording several takes and driving around her  neighborhood for a good 5 times aaliyah had finally pulled into my driveway. For this scene she used an establishing shot from the front and back. She explained that she  did this because she didn't want the licenses plate in the movie. This was basically everything that she filmed today and reviewed with me today