My CCR

https://youtu.be/98NHhIdpyR0

Film Opening

Finally . . . I present to you, THE TEMPLATE.

Hindsight

In hindsight, this was one of the longest, most frustrating, and enjoyable projects I've ever worked on.  And it's helped me a lot with how I view life too surprisingly. So let's start at the very beginning of our adventure. 

I remember that day when I asked Vivek to come to join me in doing some location scouting; both of us were quite bored and it was a really enjoyable experience. We got to find out about a lot of quieter or even completely empty roads to film this project in. And the last scene where the actors close the trunk was actually Vivek's idea which he dropped in for me just as I dropped him at his house. From there I started developing an idea of what I wanted, but I still couldn't figure out exactly what my story was going to be for the final product. We had our group discussions in class one day and when I started receiving constructive criticism on how the scene where the actor is being interrogated, that's what really sparked my attention towards reworking the story. So once I planned out my entire story I realized that I had a much better grasp and clarity on exactly how to plan the opening. 

Eventually, I had to redo the storyboard and I created a script so that the actors could follow easily. I added my actors to a group chat about a week prior so that they would have enough time to read everything and understand their roles especially since some of them had other responsibilities as well like drone operation. Unfortunately, I sent the script a bit late so that caused a little bit of delay during our shoot. And speaking of the shoot . . . CORONAVIRUS. If I had delayed by just a few extra days this entire project would have come out extremely different because I would lose access to all my actors, the location, and Saurav's drone. However, I did lose out on the opportunity on a reshoot which is why you might notice some continuity errors in the final product.

Editing was hell. I was using a free version of Filmora so I had to go through various methods to circumvent the watermark that it automatically adds, which was not a fun process. I did have other free options available to me like Davinci Resolve and kdenlive. But I couldn't trust those apps since they've crashed plenty of times in the past due to my underpowered computer. I simply could not risk losing all my work from my computer crashing.

Filmora loves to make you try to pay for the pro version so they make life difficult for its free users. From everything to impossible to find basic text editors to limited audio and video tracks, I ran into many unnecessary delays. The app is also missing a link feature so synchronizing the audio with the video after all those J and L cuts took at least a few hours when accounting for all the lag in the software. Yes, I am aware that wevideo exists. But wevideo sucks. Anyways, before I proceeded with all the intensive editing I mentioned above, I had to color grade the clips -- which was actually quite a fun process. It was almost magical how with some adjustments the clips transformed into something that could pass for Hollywood content, at least in my eyes. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to learn about vectorscopes and waveform monitors so I stuck with 3 basic nodes for color grading. One where I adjusted the highlights, mid tones, and shadows. One where I adjusted the saturation and contrast. And finally, one where I adjusted the colors of the highlights and mid-tones, going for a red-orange for the highlights and a teal tint for the shadows. Oh and by the way, all of this was done on Davinci Resolve which is free! It doesn't crash for color grading so that was my exception for editing on Resolve. Unfortunately, I had to render the video a few times because I used the wrong codec for rendering (DNxHR instead of h.264).

After the main editing, I took a little bit of a break as I focused on other school work. I did however come across this video which showed how to optimize Resolve for lower-end machines. After following the directions I found that I got very smooth playback even with HD footage. So I decided that I would use Resolve for adding the titles and credits. I also had to spend an hour learning GIMP so that I could create the production logo you see in the beginning of the film. And I also used a feature called blanking to add the black bars onto the video, to simulate a more cinematic aspect ratio

Although, there were some emotional struggles throughout this film which I thought might limit my potential, I realized that all these setbacks only improved the final quality of my product. And to be honest, I'm very proud of what I've produced :) And now all I have to worry about is finding a way to return that tripod and mic to that person's dad . . . #ifykyk

Media in Quarantine

Media has been helping us out in many ways recently, especially when it comes to products which help us connect with each other. In fact this very site we're using right now, Canvas, has allowed for not only the distribution of files, videos, images and print media in the form of downloadable files, but also acts as a form of electronic media as well which communicates the daily assignments and announcements for students and teachers. Outside of the academic world, media has allowed for governments to promote protective measures against COVID-19. The UK government has already begun to place advertisements in video games, e.g. a racing game which displays a banner saying "stay home!" along one of the banners. 

Actually lets talk a little bit more about video games because I feel that it has had the largest growth in attention since the spread of this global pandemic. Games like Minecraft which support online multiplayer have almost begun to replace our actual world, facilitating many social interactions within their servers internationally. In fact, one school in New York saw their students create a replica of their graduation ceremonies in Minecraft and another school has already created a virtual world in Roblox in which students will also have their graduation ceremonies. 

Social distancing may be physically separating us, but from the growing popularity in media such as software, electronic books, articles, music, etc. in nearly all aspects of society shows that we're slowly starting to shift our social interactions from the physical world into the internet. Kind of sounds like the script to Ready Player One? Very slightly? drop a like if you agree.

Ex Machina

So I decided we'd take a little break from the usual production related posts and go a little bit more on analysis this time. What really inspired me is this recent film I've watched . . .

Ex Machina (2014)

Now this isn't your typical blockbuster film. There are really only three main characters in the film and although mise en scene really adds to the whole aura of the film, what really impressed me the most was its score and the story.

The Score.

Composed by Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury. Now what really impresses me about a lot of great film scores isn't the complexity of the pieces. What really catches my ear is the how the piece complements the the tone and mood of the film while maintaining a subtle role. And if you really pay attention many of the sounds you hear could easily be created by someone working on their own DAW at home. I'll say it again, its not the complexity, but the simplicity that makes many of these scores great. It just takes one theme to follow and you just keep developing it until you envelope the entire story that you're trying to tell. And what Barrow and Salisbury did was a brilliant manipulation of human emotion without our awareness similar to the kind of psychological manipulation occurring to the characters in the movie itself. And to finish, bringing out that crescendo in the climax, saving it until that very moment really shows the power that restraint can build until you're ready to release that intense moment through raw power in the music.

The Story.

Now this isn't a story that's written from beginning to end. It's nonlinear, and that's what makes this movie such a brilliant piece regardless of personal opinion. Think of movies like Inception and Arrival. Now I know what you're thinking. You think I'm applauding the fact that the movie had a twist in it which related back to some detail in the beginning. Now that's partially true. But the truth is there are plenty of movies that attempt to do this, attempt to create a revolutionary plot twist by picking out some detail they delivered in the beginning of the script and using it as the foundation for the turn in the story later on. What you'll notice about these movies is that the seem to carry the same vibe as that cliche story path that you've at least heard of before. Either everything turns out to be a dream, or everything is the opposite of what you expect. Just think of productions like Stranger Things season 3 or the Fate of the Furious. The former starts off with how the Russians are interfering with everything and THEN builds on that plotline, supplementing details to support it after the fact. Same thing in the Fate of the Furious. Dominic is not who people think him to be. Except that notion has no basis on what the francise has built on the past couple of years. Instead a history is supplemented to support this change in his guiding morals. 

What allowed me to enjoy Ex Machina was the fact that the story is interlaced within itself so that there aren't obvious plotholes and twists in the plot are purposeful and are based off of existing details which were clearly foreshadowing those turns in the story when reviewing them in hindsight. A genuinely good plot twist is not completely unexpected. A good plot twist confirms the very subtle doubts that you had since the beginning of the film but distorts them ever so slightly that it leaves you with more doubts than before, but still manages to answer your initial doubt. So I encourage you to watch this movie and comment below on your thoughts. Good night folks.

DAW

Coronavirus still going strong huh? Not to worry though, music is a great way of assuaging the tension within your veins in difficult times like these. And after I finished up editing the opening, I decided it's time to start thinking about my CCR (Creative Critical Reflection). Since now I've got all this time, I've been messing around with the music side of the film world a little bit. So let's go on a little story adventure.

Story.

Back when I was in 6th grade, I went to Imagine Charter at Weston. It was a sweet little charter school that was build around what used to be an old parking lot. This school was slightly underfunded and there were many wonderful issues about that which I could discuss, but . . . I'm going to talk about something more specific. What really did intrigue me about the school was their music elective. Now this wasn't just your typical Violin III class you select on your course card. It was electronic music learning. And it was one of the best choices I've made in my life. We learned how to use a DAW (digital audio workstation) to create various types of music. And here, the school was definitely NOT lacking in resources. Each one of us had access to a MIDI controller and a school laptop in which we learned how to compile tracks together and compose our own music. We learned everything from dubstep to . . . and that's the limit of the extents of my memory.

Cakewalk is a completely free DAW offered by Bandlab and highly rated by many users. I'm still learning how to use it but hopefully I'll be able to utilize it to make some awesome scores to play throughout my CCR since I have so much time on my hands.

Finished Editing!

Hello everybody!!! Around 6 projects, 7 exports, 2 weeks and countless hours later, I've finally finished editing the opening! Well almost... I still need to add the titles and credits and I still have to work on the CCR. But regardless, I'm proud of what I've achieved. I've never spent so much effort into a film like this and to be honest it has had a wild impact on my career ambitions. I shared a draft of the video with those who helped me on this project and I got surprisingly good feedback. Ricardo called the opening "brilliant" which really lifted me a lot since I know of his film work which if you'll excuse my language for a moment is damn good, especially considering his limited resources. He was a good inspiration and a great guy to have on set and really encouraged me to aim towards creating my own fantastic work. Even during these difficult pandemic times I've found peace in pursuing this media project.
I also want to share that Filmora is a terrible editor if you're looking to create the same quality of film that I'll present to you on this blog in about a week after I complete the CCR. The editing options are quite limited and to be honest childish in some ways. Now for basic editing, I'd definitely recommend the program. But you can forget about adding more than 3 audio tracks or recording more than once voiceover. You'll also find it funny that the software doesn't have a simple "add text" option to your videos. And I know the statement I'm about to say is going to be very polarizing but here it is . . . Filmora is like an iPhone. Presets. Automation. Simplicity (in a bad way). If you want to do more advanced editing I recommend software like Lightworks, Hitfilm express, Shotcut, Davnici Resolve, etc. The only reason I used Filmora for this project was because I've been using it for a while to challenge how far I could take its simple interface and poor customizability so I'm already comfortable with working around all its annoying quirks. But now that I have the time I encourage you to join me in learning a new program even if the learning curve is steep because Filmora is hell.

yeah right.