Back Like I Never Left

 

Hello.

     I have not interacted with my blog for a few months now, even though I assumed I would based on how much I enjoyed creating posts during my film opening production earlier this year. I haven't stopped creating my own projects since then, I actually have a few projects I could have documented my process on, and I'd like to detail how the most recent of the few came to be. 

    Last month, I planned out a documentary about how people tend to attach such unexplainable yet profound meanings to small trinkets that come into their possession. It was the first time I had ever tried my hand at creating a documentary, and I had the help of two friends in my media class. We planned out four interviews with people who had different stories about their collecting of trinkets and baubles, whether it was someone who collected a ton or could connect a specific feeling/memory to one object.

    The documentary did not end up being on the topic we initially planned out, though. During the second interview in our series of scheduled interviews, we interviewed a friend and aspiring filmmaker named Alex who wanted to talk about a corrupted SD card that he claimed was the reason he pursued film. While we were shooting B-roll, we had the idea of shooting a clip of him scrolling through all of the corrupted footage, and while we did it, we were both dumbfounded when we saw the lost footage magically reappear before our eyes. The meaning Alex found in his useless broken SD card that he had so thoroughly explained in the interview was no longer real to him, and finding the moment and the shift in meaning as a result of a new context so riveting, we decided to change our documentary topic to just this moment. 

    With the pre-recovery interview as well as another extensive interview post-SD recovery(together with an interview of Alex's Mom,) the total footage we had filmed came around to a whole hour. The cutting process for this hour's work was tough and unlike any editing job I had ever done. This being my first documentary ever, I was surprised to realize that most of the time I would spend working on it would be editing and structuring the interviews. The process was very grindy and resulted in a 3-day long headache, but I eventually managed to create something I was moderately proud of. The final doc ended up being 7 minutes and 42 seconds long, and it had a discernible narrative structure with a beginning, middle, and end. I named teh documentary Recovery and you can watch it right here. 

Critical Reflection

    

In our documentary Recovery, we aimed to deliver a story about a shift in one’s perception of an object that held so much meaning to one person as the object lost the meaning it had before. While spotty in some regards in terms of editing and cinematography, the narrative structure of the piece created was able to deliver what it needed to in a cohesive manner, one that proved effective in demonstrating a clear takeaway for the subject of the doc after events played out the way they did.

Going into the documentary, we had a broader focus on our topic. Instead of focusing on one person’s experience with their object, we initially hoped to interview a variety of individuals and their different outlooks on the meaning of their trinkets. The sudden change in focus was the result of an interesting turn of events during the second interview in our schedule; the corrupted SD card that our interviewee had grieved over after years of it not working magically fixed itself during the filming of the interview. This revelation seemed like a much more interesting avenue to take the documentary, and as such, we decided to ditch the trinket idea and wholly focus on how the broken SD card shaped Alex’s life. In retrospect, I believe we could have done a better job in delivering the gravity of the moment, specifically by using the footage from the first interview we filmed and subverting the narrative within the documentary. Similar to the odd and everchanging narrative structure of Exit Through the Gift Shop, we could and should have made the audience think the documentary was just going to be about trinkets and then hit them with Alex’s reaction to the SD card fixing itself on-screen and shifting to his story. 

The target audience of the work is 16-30-year-old media creators, ones who understand the basics of how cameras work and who are old enough to relate to the theme of having a deep-rooted connection with an object that has no real purpose. Certain stylistic choices, like the lingo used in taking viewers through Alex’s story as well as the language allowed/used in the doc, define the appropriate demographic of the work. The music and editing of the piece(or the lack thereof in certain moments) work well in allowing the project to breathe a bit after major interviewee dumps on the viewer. Also, moments where the music takes a backseat to the visual storytelling on screen, most specifically the moment Alex realizes his once corrupted files are no longer corrupted, artfully allow the onscreen emotion to navigate the way the viewer engaged with the documentary.

The documentary filming and editing process was uncharted territory for me coming into this production, and as such, I did not know what to expect. The result of this inexperience was a lot of stress during post-production while I tried to find exactly what bits of the interview footage were deserving of a place in the piece. In addition, the structuring/ ordering of the clips from each of the interviews was even harder to do, considering I needed to bind interviews from two individuals together. The product came out as very amateurish and not too exciting visually since my goal first and foremost was to create something cohesive in nature, but I am not exactly disappointed in what I was able to accomplish with this project. The production process for a documentary is fairly different and arguably much more difficult than anything I had ever experienced in my past productions, but I am glad I was able to have experienced it. Now with the knowledge that the editing portion of documentary-based filmmaking is the most crucial part, I can place greater importance on allowing myself more time to play around with clips I’ve collected in post if I were to create another documentary.

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. 

Smile, Inc. Editing

 

Today, I edited The opening for the imaginary film I created called Smile, Inc. Here's how it went.

    After compiling around 2 minutes of footage and importing each video into my premiere file, I had realized that each of the videos were overexposed and were low quality for some odd reason. This had always been a problem with making certain projects and it always perplexed me, but today, since the project is a much bigger deal than those past projects, I decided to get to the bottom of it. 

    After a bit of research, I had come to the realization that each of my videos had automatically been filmed in a filter of sorts called HDR on iPhone. Basically, HDR gives videos a much more saturated look and makes videos look prettier overall, but when put into certain editing softwares, the color/lighting settings ar too much for the program to handle, and when the program doesn't know what to do, the video come out very overexposed and yellow looking. Apparently, I found that there was no real way to get rid of the HDR feature on my phone, but I found a video that taught me how to convert HDR video to regular lighting. The video I used to fix the HDR issue can be found right here.

    I found the editing for this project fairly easy; besides having to learn how to make a green screen more aggressive to make the shadows and wrinkles on the screen itself disappear, I had come into the editing process already knowing how to use premiere and color correct.  It didn't take too long to edit, as it was only 2 minutes long, but something that I found myself editing in much more than I had previously expected to do so was incorporate royalty free sfx into it.  Audio elements like clicks, phone buzzing, dramatic build up, and a camera zoom sound truly enhanced the opening once I put them in. 

    Now that I am done with the opening, I can move into editing my CCR. I don't know the exact time my CCR will come out to being at the end, but let's just hope that it's just as fun and easy to edit as this was. 

    

Going Forward

Between work, school, and this project, I have a lot on my plate in the coming days. For the first time ever, I think I am going to abide by a strict schedule for editing my opening as well as my CCR. 

    For starters, I think I am going to have to start my editing for the opening on Thursday, the 31st. I have a test this Thursday and I badly need to study for it-I can't spend any time editing Wednesday. Thursday, I'll surely have some homework to do but I still believe Id be able to fit some time into the editing process. There is a possibility that I don't finish the editing all in one night, but I would expect to complete at least 75% of it Thursday. 

    Next, I sadly cannot work on the CCR editing until Sunday. I am completely booked Friday and Saturday with plans I had already made with family and friends, as well as long work hours. Thankfully, I am completely free on Sunday. I don't know how long the CCR will take considering I haven't really put any thought into what it will look like or what I will talk about, all i know is that it will take way longer than it takes to film a 2 minute film. That is why, in those two packed days (Fri and Sat) I need to somehow fit in a bit of scriptwriting or brainstorming general ideas of talking points for each of the 4 questions so I can dedicate all my time to filming and editing on Sunday. 

    While Thursday's editing is manageable, fitting the scriptwriting and CCR into my life over Friday and Saturday will prove to be a bit difficult, but it has to be done. With these guidelines in mind going forward, I think I just saved myself from a lot of stress that would have built up had I not done anything till this Sunday. I rarely ever worry about these kinds of things and rely on my ability to bounce back from any hardship magically, but considering that this project is really important, I can't just risk the possibility of not getting it done. 

ALL I KNOW IS GRIND.

Filming

     

Today, my friends and I filmed all parts of the opening of my film. 

    We started our day by meeting at the park and filming the latter half of the opening first, and it took us roughly 1.5 hours to film the whole thing. We planned to get there at 12:45, but an actual car accident halted our schedule. Nobody was hurt in the accident(thank god,) and the damage was not too bad. While filming, it was extremely hot out and there was a lot going on at the park itself, so it was slightly frustrating for all of us, but we were able to complete everything and have fun while we were doing it. 

    Afterward, we all drove to my house and filmed the green screen scene(tongue twister.) It was pretty hard not to laugh while being on camera/ recording someone with a dead stare for 30 seconds straight, but we got it done pretty quickly. Once we finished recording, we played basketball in my driveway, snacked on food around the house, and even played a bit of VR. 

    Today was not only an extremely productive day, but it was a really fun experience in general. Now that all of my shots are accounted for, it is time to move on to the post-production process. I anticipate a fairly simple editing job ahead, but I shouldn't speak too soon.   

Storyboarding

My storyboarding for the project is complete. I printed out three sheets of paper with a storyboard template on them and thoroughly detailed what I wanted in each scene. I must warn you, they are very sloppy and rough, but with a bit of patience(something I clearly didn't have while drawing in each panel,) they are readable. Here are my three pages in order: 

    This first page starts off with the green screen scene and starts the scene showing how Julie is waiting for something(the viewers don't know yet.) In the margins, I included the length of the opening credits as well as teh duration of the green screen montage. 

    The second page is where things get really messy. The 2 panels at the top depict Julie looking over to a couple in the distance who are laughing about, and the panel afterward is a close up on her face, her emotions being a visual indicator of her depression/loneliness. The last four panels depict the phone call interaction between Julie and Diane, and the waterfall of writing that goes down the page is scrapped dialogue I tried writing onto the paper. I accidentally wrote so much that it wrote on top of the drawing I made, but it doesn't quite matter because the shot composition is fairly simple and I still have the physical script document at the ready if I need it. 

    The third page demonstrates her reaction to the call as well as the final shots with the mysterious man lurking from afar. This page is the least messt of the three, but the final picture is a bit hard to decrypt-it is my idea for the focus shift through the built in feature on my phone and how it should look on film. 

With absolutely everything at the ready, I am fully prepared to film. After some quick planning with my friends, I scheduled our filming for this Saturday. 

Update, but Good This Time

     A few things happened recently that demonstrate significant progress toward the end of the production. 

    For one, my green screen came. The sacred tarp I had been waiting to arrive for a few days had finally come in the mail, and it works pretty well. The green screen is 10x7 feet long, which I realized after buying was massive, but it doesn't really change anything, it just means it's more of a hassle to fold and store. I decided to start playing around with it as soon as I got it, and while having fun editing funny videos with it(that frankly I can't post here) I realized how big of a deal keeping wrinkles out of the screen was to the final product looking real. Here are some stills from the videos I took with it, each one getting progressively better looking. 

    The other good thing that came in the last few days was the news that Breana, my old casting for Julie before she told me she would be going on a ski trip, is going to be in town for the latter half of spring break. Given that I was adding a new character to the production in Diana, I realized I could still use her when she comes back. I talked to her about it, and she gladly came back to the project. So, once again I'd like to introduce...

BREANA BASS AS...

"Diana"

    Things really are looking up recently, and it seems that filming will commence very very soon.