Smile, Inc.

 Here lies the final installment in the mannyspace Smile Inc. series: the opening itself. 

I can't believe we have come this far, it's unreal for it all to finally be over. That grind I was talking about came and went, and now I can finally rest. Farewell for now, but I hope to do something like this again in the future. 

Manny

Out. 

CCR

 This is the CCR of my film opening, it's a long one but I think it came out great. I hope you enjoy it as much as I "enjoyed" making it. 

WATCH WATCH WATCH WATCH WATCH WATCH WATCH

CCR Editing

 

        Today was the day I started and finished the editing of my Creative Critical Reflection for the film opening, and heres how it went. 

    Using the script I had made the day prior, I was easily able to film my footage. I kept a smile on pretty much the entire time but not a forced one so that the info I was spouting was engaging and not boring at any rate, and I even tried to incorporate a few jokes to give the CCR a youtube video essay type feel. One thing I had fun with while shooting footage was my intro. Even though its literally the least important part of the CCR, I was sold on finishing my open with a no-look backwards shot at my plastic basketball hoop behind me.  While I was filming the actual meat of the presentation I had a general idea for what I was going to do in the intro, but at one point between takes I was just staring at myself in the webcam and I decided to try shooting it backward and...I made it. Had I not done that, I would not have included that element in my CCR.

    As you will see, however, I end up not making the shot at all in the final cut, but it wasn't out of laziness or anything, i literally could not make the shot again. In the image above you can see all the takes I have of the project, of the roughly 40 videos I took I would say at least 15 of them were takes of the basketball shot. It was a total bummer that I could not make that shot again, because it would have made the intro cooler, but missing is also another way to play for laughs, so either way it went it added to the overall vibe of the project. 

    When it came time to actually edit the entire thing, it took numerous hours, given that it was nearly nine minutes long. My editing process involved a lot of spur of the moment ideas as to what I should play over my voice-over every now and again, like visuals and screen recordings of my computer screen. Where I thought the opening was kind of fun to edit, I have to be honest-this one was way too long to edit in one day and it came at the expense of my sanity. I did not enjoy editing the CCR by any means. It has to be said, though, that it is wholly my fault for restricting myself to one day of editing, so my pain is my own doing. Next time I will surely plan more accordingly. 

Title

 While editing (a bit late but better now than never,) I had been brainstorming ideas for what i could possibly title this production. I decided on one, which is clear to take away from the title logo I made directly above this, but here is a peek into my mind during this process:

    I was really hooked on the idea of a one-word title for a work like this; it doesn't really change anything if the title surpasses one word for films in this genre but most thriller dramas are only one word. Also, in a stylistic sort of sense, it seems cooler to be able to call it by a single word(i don't have any logical way to back this up it's just cooler.) I was stuck on a single title idea for so long because I couldn't think of anything better, and that title was sadly already taken-Euphoria. Euphoria is such a fun word and with the right theming and font it would have made for a very fitting title for this work. Zendaya ruined my life. 

    But, fret not, I soon thereafter thought of the next best thing, a title that would give insight into what would happen in the rest of the film, Smile Inc. This title was beneficial in two ways: one it is probably even more fitting considering a name like that gives audiences a general feel of what kind of film they are getting into before watching it(ala Squid Games or Fight Club,) and 2 I was able to easily make a logo with a smiley face incorporated onto it. 

    Though I don't think I'll ever lose my disappointment in not being able to use euphoria as the title for this opening, Smile, Inc. is more fitting and is not half bad.