Creative Critical Reflection

https://youtu.be/RmEy0NPb1iE

Here is the Creative Critical Reflection for the film Taking Off.

Final Project

https://youtu.be/a9FPN8KixOs



    Here is the final project video, hope you enjoy it!

As I prepare for the Creative Critical Reflection I have started to write down my notes about the distributional aspects of the movie. The movie will be rated PG-13 considering that it will contain some violence ( bloodless violence) The ideal target audience for my film ranges from the age of 13 up to 26 given that the story centers around a young adult who is trying to pursue his dreams. It targets both men and women. Women are attracted to the movie because of the dramatic aspect, whereas men will be able to feel a connection to the main character. This will help in the distribution process because according to statistics this age range is more prominent to use social media which is the tool I would use as a promotional method of the movie. Also, the central theme of the movie is something that many teenangers and adults can resonate to a situation in their lives. For example, like Cesar everybody has had a moment in their lives where they have a dream but sometimes that dream seems impossible to achieve because of any circumstances. For the younger audiences it will inspire and motivate them, it will give them a reason to not give up and show that everything is possible with hard work and dedication.

This morning while I was waiting to leave for school I decided that I would be a good idea to create a logo for my company, I thought about doing it in Adobe Illustrator but I couldn’t wait to get to my digital art class to make it so I downloaded a free logo maker in the App Store and these are the results.

Since the beginning I liked the second one, and after receiving feedback it is confirmed tatatatannnn... the second one is the winner! 

    I knew since the beginning that the music chosen would be copyrighted free music because it is almost impossible to receive an answer from the owner of the song and I did not want to stress out about that, so far I have utilized only one song for non-diagetic sound and it is from Bensound.com  it's called Tomorrow, it suits perfectly because as the description says it is sentimental and perfect for an emotional and sad film. Although I do need to find a second song to tie to the last part because I don't want to have only one song going for the whole two minutes because it seems boring and repetitive. The other sounds I have included are the diagetic sounds like the plane turbines, the sound of the plane taking off and also the cabin dialogue between the pilot and the control tower. These will serve as a gap to connect the first song with the second one so it does not feel forced. 

Clear to land

The clock’s ticking and time is almost up. I can not believe how fast time went by during the creation of this project. I am happy to say that I have learned and grown a lot. At first I was frustrated, nervous and indecisive because having such a big and important task in front of me caused me a lot of stress. I had never been exposed to a long term project and that is the reason on why I did not feel prepared regarding time management, but with practice comes perfection right? Well maybe not perfection because no one is perfect but you know what I mean… As I’m in the final process of editing I realized that I should have done more during the first two weeks when I was stuck and stressed out, there is no doubt that the outcome would have been much better with more preparation, but still I’m very satisfied and proud of my first real creation!! YAYYY!!

 Yesterday was the last shooting day. I filmed the first opening shots that shows the eyes opening in a Point of View shot from Julio’s perspective. I must say this was fun and harder that I thought. I created this with my fingers, I placed both my index and middle finger from each hand and created a linked peace sign( will explain in a picture) and opened and closed them to simulate the eye movement.

The room where we filmed on is usually dark so there was no big issue with the lightning, the only thing that I had to do was close the blinds and then put a blanket on top to cover the areas where light was coming in, this was very helpful because I was able to manage the amount of light that I wanted and where I wanted it. I particularly liked how the planes looked, it kind of looks like if it were a shadow. To hang them from the ceiling I used some strings that I found on my night table and regular tape to tape it to the ceiling, I was afraid it wouldn’t stick because the planes were heavy but with a huge load amount of tape it worked!

Yesterday was a successful filming day, even though my actor wasn’t there I took the opportunity to film the scenes that he does not appear in. With the help of my dad and his co-pilot I was able to go inside of the plane and film the shots that I needed, they also took me to a spot where people sit and take pictures of the planes taking off and landing.  Today I will be filming the final shots of Julio having the flashbacks in his room, I think these will be the most difficult to film but these are the ones that will give meaning to the story. 
The tripod was very helpful I'm glad I bought it because now I don't have to worry about my shaky hand.  
   I have started to edit what I have but the Ipad is not the most comfortable tool to use. I went today to repair my computer and there is a 50/50 chance that it will survive... I'm so mad about this and the fact that it broke down when I needed it the most! 

Filming day

Sooo I went to film this weekend and I’m happy about the outcome although there are many things that I have to fix, like for example my reeeeally shaky hand. Almost all the plane videos seem like an earthquake was passing by. I have to go today to buy a tripod or find any flat surface near the area to place my camera. I also had a lot of trouble downloading the videos to my Ipad because they were too heavy to send through email so I created a dropbox account and I must say I’m in love( I wish I would have known about this earlier.) Oh! And I almost forget, my computer broke down yesterday… I don’t know what happened to it, it says something like there’s a disc error and it keeps telling me to restart it and it doesn’t work so I have to check that out as soon as possible. 

The only thing that changed was the location, I did not film in Banyan, instead I went to W Aviation which is basically the same thing.The people there were extremely nice, they even let Julio fuel the plane that was about to take off which was awesome.  

mise en scène

Clothing: The clothing of the main character(Julio)  will be very simple and light colors, this simplicity will represent his personality. I’m thinking on using the color blue for his shirt because this color represents the color of the sky and is linked to his passion for flying, trust and tranquility which are characteristics that describe his personality. Here is a sketch of what my character will be wearing.

Set Design: The set design/lightning for the first eight shots will be with low key lightning and the rest of the shots that will take place in the airport will be high key lighting, with the purpose of differentiating and contrasting how he feels at ‘’home’’ and how he feels at work. Now, the reason on why I want to portray his life at home sad, gloomy and tragic, is because due to the fact that his parents were abusive and treated him badly(reason on why he ran away), being at ‘’home’’ brings too many unpleasant memories from the past, not to forget that he lives in a small and messy room that some friends let him stay at, that barely has space for a bed. Which is the contrary with the airport scene, which will be very bright and full of light because he dreams of becoming a pilot and just by stepping onto the airport he feels euphoric and hopeful that someday he will be able to fulfill his dream.

The decoration of the room will be messy. Since the family that is letting him stay are basically doing Julio a favor, I want the room to be sort of like the storage of the house, full of boxes and old furniture and in the corner there’s an old bed where he sleeps. For the scenes I have planned I don’t show exactly in much detail every aspect of the room but I’m sure I still have to plan it just in case when I’m filming I want to make some changes and show parts of the room to emphasize how severe his living conditions are. On a table next to the bed, there will be a transparent jar filled with money, this is the money he has been collecting to pay for his pilot classes and career. It has two purposes, first it lets the audience know that he’s working towards a goal. Second of all it shows that he is a perseverant person, who doesn’t give up even though he knows that he’s living in a difficult situation and it’s definitely not easy to achieve the goal he has in mind but that will not stop him. This is what I imagine as of his room, but I'm not sure how I will be able to recreate it without making a huge mess and spending an extremely amount of hours setting it up.

Some things that I will have in the hangar for Julio to use will be cleaning supplies, since his job is to clean the hangars,  planes and move around the aircraft. Another important object that I’ll be using are the aircraft manuals. The manuals will show what is it that he wants to do, what his dream is and in my opinion it also serves as a symbol of hope and hard work.

Flashbacks

The flashback scene I believe is one of the most important scene in my film opening because it has the power to show what happened during the protagonist’s childhood that made him stand where he is now. The flashback with the combination of the images and fast motion will also serve to help establish the genre of the film and give it a more dramatic feel.

There are different techniques for flashbacks:

- Blurring the outer edges of the current scene leading to the first scene in the flashback.

-Change in the color format

For the flashback I am thinking of using the blurred outer edges and also changing just a little bit the color to make it brighter.

This is an example of how the color changes in the flashbacks 

The movie Citizen Kane (1941), The Usual Suspects( 1995) and the TV show Arrow(2012) are examples of films and in Arrow’s case TV show, that constantly use the flashback technique.  In the case of The Usual Suspects the flashback scene has something in particular that makes it more attractive, the jumpy and confused editing style that the director Bryan Singer utilizes. As well as with Arrow, almost every episode either starts with a flashback or ends with it. There is one specific part that resembles the idea that I have in mind, it is one of the first episodes when he gets back from the island and has flashbacks and nightmares about his experience in the island. I haven’t been able to find the video of this specific part and I don’t remember what episode it was, I saw it a long time ago, maybe this is the perfect excuse to watch the first seasons of Arrow all over again.

Here is an excerpt from the movie The Usual Suspect that shows the flashback scene.

The usual Suspect (1995)

Location

I plan on shooting in Ft Lauderdale executive Airport, given that my father is a pilot and knows the people that work at the hangars and they allowed me to film there. I will also be able to film inside of an actual plane. I am very excited about this and can’t wait to film there. Here are some pictures of the location, the Banyan hangar and the Banyan store.

Banyan Store

Banyan Hangar

 For the flashback shots I will use these small toy planes that will be hanging from the ceiling sort of like a baby’s mobile.

I made up my mind, and FINALLY decided what my story will be about. It is the story of a 18 year old that runs away from his house due to the abuses he suffered during his childhood and dreams to become a pilot, a dream that might look impossible for some people, but for him it is a new challenge he is willing to fight for.
Here are some sketches of the shots I have planned of, I am constantly making changes of the sequence as I come up with new ideas.

I’ve been working on the visuals and on how I imagine the shots of my film opening to  be. What I have so far is not much as I have been out of inspiration, something else that is keeping me from brainstorming is the fact that it is very hard to find the type of setting that I imagine for my film, which is the American and Mexican frontier, which makes me want to change the story and has me going crazy!

There is this once place that I thought of and it’s called Vista View park near Weston, it isn’t nearly as similar to the Mexican frontier but the mountains have a rocky surface that can work for one of the shots where I imagine Carlos, the main character, running away.

This is the ideal setting for my film and I'm trying to find something similar in South Florida where I could film. I know Okeechobee road has a similar look and it's near the Everglades which gives it a more deserted look which is what I'm looking for.

My story

I haven’t introduced myself very well and I believe this is the perfect moment to do so. I am from Venezuela, I moved to the United States when I was thirteen years old to  pursue a better life given that my home country is financially and morally unstable. Being a first hand witness to the suffering of the whole country, of friends, and of family, I desire to portray this emotional frustration with the audience through film. But, I want to show the struggles and hardship in a unique manner. I want the audience to fully understand what it’s like to leave behind everything familiar to you and arrive in a foreign country where everything is unknown.

I’m going to present the story through the perspective of a seven year old child that is forced to move to the United States alone. This represents the innocence of children that live in third-world countries that are not responsible for what is happening around them but, suffer the consequences. Carmen Chavez who has provided services for more than 800 unaccompanied children and is the executive director of the Casa Cornelia Law Center in San Diego, also commented about this issue, stating that, ‘’These children are especially vulnerable.They are not feeling because they can not find a good paying job.They are fleeing because of violence.’’

This is the case of many unaccompanied minors that cross the border of the United States everyday for more opportunities to succeed and have a better life. According to an article by Jerry Markon and Joshua Partlow posted in the Washington post, ‘’In October and November, more than 10,500 children crossed the U.S and Mexico border by themselves. The majority of them are from el Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.’’  These children move because of violence and insecurity issues.  Presently, El Salvador’s homicide rate has risen to its highest point since the country’s civil war ended in 1992 forcing families to move because of this. 

Markon, Jerry, and Joshua Partlow. "Unaccompanied Children Crossing Southern Border in Greater Numbers Again, Raising Fears of New Migrant Crisis." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 16 Dec. 2015. Web. 15 Mar. 2016. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/federal-eye/wp/2015/12/16/unaccompanied-children-crossing-southern-border-in-greater-numbers-again-raising-fears-of-new-migrant-crisis/>.

Jie Zong, and Jeanne Batalova. "Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States." Migrationpolicy.org. Migration Policy Institute, 25 Feb. 2015. Web. 16 Mar. 2016. <http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/frequently-requested-statistics-immigrants-and-immigration-united-states>.

How feedback helped me change my mind

Last week in class we got together with different classmates to share our film ideas and discuss what should be removed or improved within the  project. They asked me  several questions that I still have no answers to. During this feedback process, I realized that what I like is something different so I decided to change the genre and go back to my original idea and create a drama (melodrama). The reasons why I want to create a drama instead of a Thriller are the following:

1. Dramas allow to create an emotional response and touch the audience’s feelings by making the character face an emotional conflict or dilemma.
2. It allows the audience to engage and identify themselves with the situation in a more realistic way
3. Exhibit real life situations with realistic characters.

The story I have in mind will touch the hearts of the audience and will be a story that a lot of people like me can relate to.

'' Drama Films.'' Drama Films. Filmsite, n.d Web 14 Mar. 2016.

htttp://www.filmsite.org/dramafilms.html

I have always been a romantic comedy and tear jerker movie type of person, I’m that girl that is always daydreaming about the perfect guy and creating a whole love story in my head,  but this time I want to go out of my comfort zone and create something different. I am not as familiar with the thriller genre and that is why I have been researching a lot about on how to create a successful story. I found some websites that basically break down the process:

1. Having a good story: Thrillers want to be thrilled, a common element in thrillers is that protagonist fall victims in someone else’s scheme.
2. Write about the underdog: Make it from the point of view  of the victim, and give this character emotional complexity.
3. Multiples POV: these can help to get an inside of the heads of many characters and build a more dramatic tension and irony
4. Open with an action scene: Introduce the crime and characters
5. Make characters miserable
6. Main characters have to change: emotional change, growth and victory
7. High pacing
8. Show and don’t tell
9. Teach a lesson

I have been out of inspiration lately, it was tonight when a concrete idea finally came to my mind as I was laying down waiting for my brother to finish soccer practice. I think the setting really helped me think of ideas for my film since it was a windy and dark night. I was waiting for him under a tree in the last field of Regional Park, far from everything with very few people around me, and I felt at peace although in my head I was frustrated that I had no ideas for my film so I started imagining every possible plot. I closed my eyes and started thinking of what would I do if someone came up to me from behind and abducted me, I became paranoid and scanned my surroundings scared that it would actually happen, scared that it could happen to anyone. This led to the possibility of  abduction being the theme of my film, which falls perfectly into the category of a thriller. This idea will be able to touch the aspects of a thriller, like suspense and anxiety and also fulfill the melodramatic component associated with a thriller.

For more inspiration I looked over some movies like Room (2015) , Gone Girl (2014) and Taken movies, and they all have in common that the person being abducted is a young woman, and I would like to follow their steps.

Let the blogging begin!

Hii! Welcome to my blog, I'm so excited to share this journey and this whole process with all of you. I have started thinking about what genre I want to represent with my film opening and I really liked the genre of drama with a sub genre of melodrama or a thriller. I was reading about melodrama and what really caught my attention was the use of music, according to this website, melodramas use a lot of music hence the word ‘’melo’’ that comes from melody, I also liked that ‘’melodramas are characterized by a plot to appeal to the heightened emotions of the audience’’ and my goal with this film opening is to reach to the audience deeply through pathos. Although I like these aspects of melodramas, I feel like I am more drawn to the Thriller characteristics. Thrillers, like melodramas heighten the feelings of the audiences in a different way, creating suspense, excitement, surprise and anxiety while melodramas are more of a ‘’tearjerker’’ for romance. My goal is  to keep the audience at the edge of their seats, always anxious and nervous for what is about to happen and that is why I believe Thrillers are a better genre to represent my ideas.