Blog with Riyyah

Catalyst Final Film   It took us 3 days to complete filming for this project. The main themes of our film are "bullying" and "betrayal." Our film is about a girl who is experiencing bullying from her childhood best friend. The protagonist Ramona suffers silently because everyone thinks of her bully as "successful" and "popular." In our film, the audience can notice how the bullying takes a toll on this high school student. Since Ramona can't convince people that the antagonist Aaliyah isn't what she seems to be; she takes matters into her own hands.    To portray her extreme emotions,  we used various camera angles, shot sizes, and camera movements. For example, the zoom in technique was used to show that Ramona scribbled over an old drawing made by both Aaliyah and Ramona when they were younger! Ramona felt so overwhelmed from the bullying, she decided that she was going to frame Aaliyah! The film ends with a teacher approaching Aaliyah ...

  In our media studies class, we reviewed our film pitch with our classmates. I enjoyed this process because it is interesting to hear about suggestions from our peers that we could use to improve our film. A suggestion that stood out to me is to make a relatable character with everyday problems to allow the audience to understand our plot more. I took this feedback and implemented it into our film! In the beginning of the opening scene, the protagonist Ramona narrates her thoughts. The line "why have friends when you'll just be mistreated and replaced?" will stand out to antisocial introverts who watch our film. This line can even be relatable to people who have once surrounded themselves with bad friends!

  Catalyst First Draft  When planning for our opening scene, my group and I thought that our ideas for our storyline would be finalized. However, we ended up making several changes and additions. We realized that our opening scene did not contain a strong enough hook to engage our audience. After feedback from Ms. Vinent, we realized we could change many aspects to our film for improvements.  For example, in our final film we added credits and our company logo to the beginning of our film which our first draft did not include! Our first draft also did not contain background music to set the mood of each scene. However, in our final draft we utilized background music by putting sad music during bullying flashback scenes to change the tone of the scene to match the protagonist's emotion.  We also replaced numerous scenes containing dialogue and opted for clips with voiceover to narrate the protagonist's thoughts throughout the film. Lastly, we changed the end...

The audio was the last element added to the film. Background music was added first to set the mood of the film. For example, the film immediately starts with a dark screen and mischievous music playing in the background. This matches the horror/mystery genre of our film. As the film progresses into the bullying flashback scenes, sad music plays in the background to change the tone of the story and match the protagonist's emotion. Once the film reaches its hook, once again mischievous music is played to alert the audience that a sketchy act will be committed.  Lastly, the protagonist's voiceover was added to the film. Various clips include voiceover to provide the audience with subtext information and narrate Ramona's thoughts. I believe the voiceover was a great addition to our film! It highlights the protagonist's point of view and explains why she is that way. The voiceover also gives the audience background information about her previous relationshi...

  Post-production is the final phase of filmmaking. During this phase you add music, sound effects, and editing. After my group and I finished recording all our scenes I created the first and last components you will see during the film. First is the logo and title poster. During the opening image of any film, the company who created the film includes their production logo and sometimes the names of the main characters before the action actually begins. After I created our production logo and poster, I added them to the beginning of our film. My teammate Ashley than added transitions in between them to separate the opening image title scenes from the action scenes. I created a credit page to include at the end of our opening scene. The credit page contains the names of our entire film crew and their roles that the played in the production of our film! At the end of our film the screen goes black. Immediately following the darkness, the credit page will be displayed!

Blooper Example During production week my group and I had so many bloopers! There were times where we forgot our roles, lines, or just couldn't stop laughing to even start recording! It became frustrating at times; however, it was important that we had patience with one another. Once we clearly communicated our thoughts and ideas filming became easier! It was also crucial that we took breaks in between filming. We realized that working under stress did not lead to good results. It in fact just made the filming process longer due to many unusable takes.                                       I believe this experience has improved my peer collaboration skills! I learned to take constructive criticism and use it to improve many aspects in our film. Although our tasks have been challenging, I managed to get through it with the help of my teammates!