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This opening focuses on an older man who throughout the opening the viewer finds out he’s not mentally well who dealing with the death of his recent wife who the viewer finds out is actually murmured by him. It’s a physiological thriller film where we used techniques that wouldn’t usually be shown on the big screen. Not only was this project extremely fun to do, it taught me more about myself and how far I could really push myself to create this opening which I am very proud of. 

 

Film Opening: Enigma 

CCR link

 My partner and I filmed yesterday which went smoothly. We had our notes listed next to us while we would talk to have different subjects to talk about while answering questions. I enjoyed filming the CCR, it wasn't as stressful as I thought it would be. It helped me branch out and revisit old ideas that I then talked about in the video. Both me and my partner had lots of fun making it and it felt nice to talk about the experience and finally finish something long awaited. 

CCR: https://youtu.be/RgdqwO49ZtY

CCR question #1

 How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues? Well, our opening isn’t actually convention at all. Our goal was to make it as something never seen before. Something very different and not following the usual rules of a thriller or romantic.

We have a male lead, yes that is one thing you see most often. But he’s a POC and older then the expected late 20s character with an obvious disorder of some sorts. Something we did differently is not incorporating violence of any kind instead making it almost creepier how there’s none. My partner and I noticed the bare amount of Latino culture represented, unless they’re wearing a goofy dress and singing songs there isn’t a lot of representation so we decided to have a Latino family be the representation of the Latin culture.

Target audience

Now after discussing with my partner we found out that our opening doesn’t really have a target audience. For example, we don’t believe it can only be duplicated into one age group. At least I believe that if you are a person who would enjoy a physiological thriller then this is the movie for you. Another thing is that we also don’t believe I can only be directed towards one gender.

I like to think of our opening as an opening that most thrill seeking people can enjoy. But alas,I do think I have to choose. So my partner and I decided that our opening can be directed towards Woman and Men who we’d say are  20+. I also believe this opening can also be enjoyed by teens like myself who enjoy horror.

Editing pt. 2

Throughout all of spring break I worked on editing our opening. It was kinda difficult considering the fact that I wasn’t there for shooting and it was hard to understand what shots were being filmed and in what order we wanted things to be. This was because we had made a storyboard which I believed my partner would’ve gone by but she instead took various shots of different things. This made it harder to know what type of opening this was now going to be. 

Soon after I told her which made us work things out and I placed things by the storyboard. So, the storyboard isn’t an exact replica of the opening now but they are both familiar. As mentioned I would send in the work I had and receive criticism from my partner who would have me try something different. This allowed us to use iMovie to our advantage and play around with filters, voiceovers, and adjustments of the videos.

Editing pt. 1

 So, editing… Well it’s not as bad as I thought it was gonna be. I mean at times it’s fun, I get to play with the sound and different clips and overall get to know what vibe I’m trying to for. Since my partner is currently traveling, I’ve been doing most of the editing by myself. Making mostly executive decisions and calls and trying my best to making this opening very mysterious and leave the viewer with wanting more. 

Now it’s not that I am doing this part of the project all by myself. I do make sure my partner and I are putting as much effort as the other. For example, when making a decision on one part of the opening and finishing up with that I send it to my partner and receive as much critical points as she can give me and once that’s done I send her the version in which both our ideas are incorporated making it fair gain. So, although it’s challenging at times, I can always have my partner to give me the points that I need making the opening much better!

Filming: second attempt

 Ok so we filmed… again. As I mentioned the first time filming was fine but not what we wanted. Now although the actors were great and everything went fine, we were still missing something. But we were both later informed that our original actors could shoot later in the week.

There was a problem though, I had already taken all the props which were going to be very important to filming. But since I had the props we didn’t feel the need to set it up all over again. So, we improvised! Instead of using the original old phone which was gonna represent the old fashioned couple were used a regular modern phone because I thought it still captures the message that is lack of  communication l. The speakers which was originally going to be a record player but then we decided since the speakers don’t look exactly new they could still substitute for the record player. And lastly the roses which Ana had handy which was perfect and we made sure when filming, that they have an important message that the audience understands.