Film Opening

This is my completed film opening, Aberration.

Backup Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RsMZbLA6UE&t

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19V9MUaBMgu-B7Tc4CschOUsQb5dfgC6e/view?usp=sharing

CCR

This is the completed CCR for my film opening, Aberration.

Backup Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqDS-OKYAY8

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cAOdsn7O52UgQmpu5IquMHhZj6pwRhUl/view?usp=sharing

Citations:

Hello image- https://betanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/hello-600x600.jpg

Suspense iamge- http://pluspng.com/img-png/suspense-png-magic-humor-mystery-suspense-500.png

Mental illness image - https://paradigmmalibu.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/iStock_93408419_MEDIUM.jpg

BoJack Horseman poster - https://www.indianfolk.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/original.jpg

BoJack Horseman clip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGalix-sVXs

Bojack title -https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cc/BoJack_Horseman_Logo.svg/1200px-BoJack_Horseman_Logo.svg.png

Depression image- https://cdn.psychologytoday.com/sites/default/files/styles/image-article_inline_full/public/field_blog_entry_teaser_image/2018-10/depression-1250897_1280.jpg?itok=Mpw-Tw1l

Mr.Robot poster- http://www.gstatic.com/tv/thumb/tvbanners/14461667/p14461667_b_v8_aa.jpg

Fight Club poster- https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjJmYTNkNmItYjYyZC00MGUxLWJhNWMtZDY4Nzc1MDAwMzU5XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzkwMjQ5NzM@._V1_.jpg

Audeince image- https://cdn6.dissolve.com/p/D985_14_894/D985_14_894_1200.jpg

Puzzle piece image - http://www.executiveplacementsofva.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Working-together.jpg

No money image- https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2BiYZF9kLL._SX425_.jpg

DVD image- https://ksassets.timeincuk.net/wp/uploads/sites/54/2018/10/DVD-logo-920x519.jpg

Netflix image- https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Netflix_Logo_Digital_Video-800x450.jpg

Film festival image - https://images.mapsofworld.com/around-the-world/film-festivals1.jpg

YouTube image - https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/MzWbH76aFzoDSMI9AkedmKN67_4=/0x0:1320x880/1200x800/filters:focal(555x335:765x545)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/57933095/newyoutubelogo.1512998647.jpg

Vimeo image - https://inplayer.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/vimeo-logo.png

Reel Minds poster - https://namimiami.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/02/center-e1524249968851.png

TIFF image - https://i.cbc.ca/1.3180180.1438790609!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_780/tiff.jpg

Tribeca image - https://cbsnews1.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/2018/04/18/dc392f4b-ce93-43b0-89ab-5f1abb5c9eab/tribeca-film-festival-2017-the-hub-at-spring-studios.jpg

Sundance image - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Sundance_Film_Festival.jpg

Finalization of Our Project

Since the deadline for the project is this coming Sunday Jonathan and I wanted to ensure that we didn't wait until the last minute to finish up our opening. On this past Tuesday, he came over immediately after school so we could finish up our editing and the soundscape that we created for the opening.

When we began we were shooting different ideas off each other to see what we had to say about certain cuts and takes that we thought would better in certain case scenarios. Along with this, we had a major discussion about where to place our credits and how they would end up integrating into the opening. For this, we decided to place them into the shots when there was an action or event that had just started. This can be seen in the scene down below right when the car turns on. 

After about 3-4 hours into this process, we were about to finish and Adobe Premiere decided to freeze and obliterate the progress that we had made over that past final hour. We were both annoyed and extremely irritated that we would have to go back and place precise credits again and re-implement some of the sounds that we wanted to use.

In re-doing some of the work we also had to take some of the foley sounds that we made earlier, such as the sound of Jonathan punching the trunk of the car towards the middle of the opening. In trying to get this sound we kept struggling by looking for a metal clanking sound and we even tried hitting pots and pans to make a desirable sound. Ultimately nothing worked and we were going to have to settle for lesser but Jonathan ended up smacking his hand on my bed it sounded interesting so we then tried it a multitude of times and liked how it worked with the scene.

This is the video of us creating that sound effect.

Overall we ended up finishing the edit for our project after a plethora of hours through repeating some of our dreadful cuts. I am quite happy with how the overall piece turned out and I am excited to share it. 

Prep and a Crazy Night of Filming

Coming back from my vacation, Jonathan and I used the remainder of our spring break to finish shooting for our film opening. On Friday night, I went over to his house and we set up everything that we would need to shoot and on Saturday night we shot all of the footage.

On that Friday night we no longer had the rolling cart that we used for the bar scene because I had to return it but we did have the step ladder and a couple other items laying around in Jonathan's garage that allowed us to get the right height level for both Jonathan and I. We ended up placing an old toaster oven, an empty crate, and a box of wipes on top of the step ladder which we also used for the bar scene to place the tripod on top of. This can be seen in the picture below.

We also wanted to use fake blood for the scene at the lamp post where Homer beats up Peter so Jonathan went out an purchased the ingredients we needed ahead of time and found a YouTube video that allowed us to make the blog. Below is the video along with a picture of the blood that we ended up creating.

We also spread blood on a white shirt that Jonathan had at his house so that we could have it ready ahead of time for the beat up scene at the lamp post.

On Saturday we then shot our project. The primary location was outside of Jon's house for the outside of the bar scene that we were created. To do this we placed the phone on the stepping ladder shown above and we used my car and darkness to create the scenery.

A few of the shots that I particularly liked were the ones where had Jonathan pressing his body weight down in the trunk of my car to show it bumping down while I was in front of him to indicate the action of me putting a body in my trunk. Along with this shot, I liked the shot I filmed of Jonathan limping past a light into darkness.

While we were filming by the lamp post and the bridge we had a few issues when cars kept passing by obstructing the shot so we had to take some of them multiple times.

Another event that happened was at some point past midnight when we were filming the shot of Jonathan running past the bridge a man drove past us in his truck with a modification on his horn that made it the sound and intensity of a train horn. I was about a foot away from the car and I jumped up and screamed at the top of my lungs.

After this event for the remainder of our shoot, Jonathan and I were both startled by the cars passing by, specifically trucks, and concerned with passing cars seeing a person on the ground near a lamp post in a bloody shirt.

We surprisingly lucked out and sprinted back to my car the second we finished shooting and never looked back.

While there were serious doubts that our lamp post location was not eerie and creepy coming from our classmates and instructor, I can emphatically guarantee you that after I literally got the life scared out of me, that there should be no doubts in anybody's mind.

Challenging Conventions and Representation

The typical conventions used when dealing with people who have a type of mental illness is done in various ways. From my viewpoint, they can be split into two sections being a normal and impaired representation.

The normal representation is when you have the character who is dealing with an illness and the viewer is basically unaware that there is anything wrong until a later point in the story. This can be seen in Mr. Robot and Fight Club. Both of these pieces have a main character who is telling a story but it doesn't become clear until later that what the audience was watching was entirely warped towards that character's illness and it completely changes the meaning of the entire piece. This only works for longer and more drawn out pieces which is why Jonathan and I did not go for this approach.

On the other hand, there is the impaired representation and this is when you have the character and it is clear what they are doing is wrong or different from a typical action. Along with this the characters around them are affected and it is obvious to the audience that something is wrong with the impaired character. This can be seen in pieces such as BoJack Horseman and Jessica Jones where each respective character deals with depression and PTSD. This is the approach that we took in our opening.

The social group that our opening revolves around are people who suffer from mental illness and it is similar to the conventions that I just spoke about. The way that we chose to represent our mentally ill character is by having them do actions that they wouldn't regularly do but then realize immediately after that he has done something wrong. In order to move our opening and the story of our supposed film along we started it off by clearly illustrating this character who is a little disoriented and then exposing the big event that has lead them to be acting in such a way.

The event where he harms and possibly kills a person he has never seen before due to events that he couldn't even entirely control is the story we are going for. We are going for this impaired representation where the character is more than aware that what happened is wrong but he has already gone through with it. The story that follows after this opening is him calling the police because he regrets his actions but he then leaves immediately after due to his fear in himself for what he could do again.

The Font is Set!

Due to the fact that spring break is approaching, Jonathan and I need to have everything ready before we shoot towards the end of that week. One of the last decisions we had to make was the font that we are going to use for the credits and the title of for the tilt that we are using. In my previous post on 3/11/19, I discussed the intention behind why we were considering each font and what each of them represented to me.

To refresh your memory the fonts that we were choosing from were Chiller, Gloucester MT, Eras Demi ITC, Maiandra GD, Mistral, Niagara Engraved, and Viner Hand ITC. All of the fonts are displayed below in the respective order.

We decided to go font by font and discuss the possible issues with each font and how well they worked with our representation of the characters and the message of the opening. The first font, Chiller, for starters felt as if it could be too illegible and our goal is also to represent a slightly crooked and deranged mental state for our character and this was too crooked and off-putting to us.

For the second through fourth fonts, Gloucester MT, Eras Demi ITC and Maiandra GD, as I just mentioned we are going for this slightly crooked aspect in our character and title but these fonts all use straight letters and don't provide any sort of cracked elements in them. The spacing feels too perfect and in our eyes just couldn't work.

The fifth font, Mistral, stood out the most as it was clear to see and what we liked the most was the letters not being perfect strokes in the sense that the tip of the 'A' was mvoing a little further and this followed with the other letters.

For the sixth and seventh font, Niagara Engraved and Viner Hand ITC, we ran into the same issues again where Niagara was too straight and perfect with its spacing and Viner was too illegible along with the aspect that the letters were too crooked.

After all of our deliberation we have decided on Mistral as it made the most sense considering all of our problems with the other fonts.

We Ran into More Problems (Bar Scene)

To our luck, on Wednesday night as I arrived at Jonathan's house it started raining AGAIN. We contemplated shooting in the rain but the fear of damaging my phone as it is recording and obstructing the shot as the water dripped in front of the camera made us realize it wasn't a possibility.

To once again make sure our time wasn't put to waste we constructed a makeshift bar that we could use for one of the three major scenes within our opening. To create this we used a dark blue bed sheet that we hung up in Jon's garage and then had a rolling cart that we placed a white wooden board on top of to make it seem like a bar top. To create the idea that my character, Homer, is actually drinking, we placed a shot glass next to me in the shot along with a vodka bottle to my side. In the glass itself, we used water which made vodka the easiest choice of alcohol for us to fabricate.

The way that we allowed ourselves to get the shots was by using a stepping ladder and placing it in front of our makeshift bar. The angling and framing was also a difficulty that we ran into because we weren't provided with a lot of space so we had to deal a lot with closer shots and Jon and I both had to be on our knees so it would seem that our bodies were the right size with the bar top. 

Since we have spring break coming up we plan to shoot the rest of the project later during that week as I will be out of town for a few days.