Planning for my CCR #3

 For my second video, I decided to inspire myself from Carpool Karaoke. Carpool Karaoke is a little segment from The Late Late Show, with James Corden driving with a famous musical guest to sing along to their songs with him in Los Angeles. James drives around while the guest is on the passenger’s seat, and he interviews them. I like this set up because it’s entertaining and funny. Although it ended, the Carpool Karaoke is iconic. 

My dad offered to interview me as I’m in the passenger’s seat. Although I won’t be singing, I want to incorporate some background music to silence surrounding noises from other cars and the road.  

Although in the car it’s hard to get different angles, the Carpool Karaoke has two cameras at different angles, one in the middle of the car to capture both, the guests and James Corden’s, faces, and one high angle in front of the guest. The pacing between the two cameras is fast, because the audience can get bored quickly since the setting doesn’t change. 

I wanted to also incorporate clips from our film opening to help the viewers visualize what is being asked and what I’m trying to convey, better. 

 

CCR 2

How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

Our target audience is young adults and teenagers (around the ages 14 through 25) mostly because they can easily relate to our movie the most. This mostly because of our plot, and how it revolves around teenage struggles and how Maddie copes with it. Some of the topics “Dear Diary;” contains are suicide, depression, isolation, and stress caused by school. 

In the production process, we used various mise-en-scene elements that our target audience can resonate to. Firstly, Maddie’s room is very dull and cold. Me and my group implemented a color palette mostly consisting of cool toned colors to make Maddie’s room loke as lifeless as possible. This was a way to show how the state of her mental health is. Many teenagers can relate to how Maddie is feeling and how their rooms might reflect how they’re feeling. 

We also include the effect social media has in creating feelings like rejection and isolation. Teenagers might relate to the role diiferent types of social media, like Snapchat, can have a toll on their mental health. 

Me and my group incorporated the active audience theory by Stuart Hall, this theory essentially means that the intended message of the creator may not be completely understood because the audience make sense of the messages through what they know and may interpret messages to support their own beliefs.   

Since we’re amateur filmmakers, we’re going to distribute our film through platforms like YouTube and submitting the film to film festivals. These are our two best options because uploading a video on YouTube is easy and free, and if done right, can reach a lot of viewers. It is also easy to get feedback from viewers and can also be shared by the viewer themselves to their friends. On the other hand, film festivals are more competitive. However, if our film succeeds, it can help us create a wide network with other filmmakers and professionals. It could also get screened and receive feedback. 

Editing

 Me and my group had a lot of troubles going on during filming, so this set our schedule into kind of a mess. In class I had decided to for the production logo since I'm not that good at editing and would rather edit our very important final who’s more experienced, while I’m better talented in things like designs and animations that are basic. So, when Fatima offered to do it, I was relieved. 

RIght now though, our main priority is checking if we have two minutes, if the plot is clear, if the shots are visible, and if the sound sounds good. Filters, transitions, credits, and title aren't our first worry, since that needs to be deliberately chosen between the group and we can't do that before first, actually editing the shots together.

She would send us pictures of the progress, but she didn’t get very far since we had finished filming on Thursday. Since we don’t have a finished product yet, here are some sneak peeks:

 

Our Props and Set Design

 Since we filmed only in Maddie’s room, we wanted to show Maddie's depression but also show her old life. So, we included a lot of pictures. The majority of them were in a cork board. There were pictures of Maddie’s best friend and cousins, and there were also some pins and stickers pinned to the board.  

On Maddie’s nightstand, the diary and the picture of Maddie and her best friend are on the top. The picture is in an old frame I had from third grade that says “my best friend” that I personally thought would be a nice touch. The picture itself is around the age her best friend left and when Maddie last saw her. 

And at last, we had a framed picture of Maddie with her dad in the window from when Maddie was small. This picture was taken when Maddie was closer to her dad before he started to be more and more absent. When Maddie closes her blinds, it’s symbolic for shutting out her problems and leaving them out.  

Production Logo

 Today in class I decided to mess around with Canva and try to make a production logo. I had an inspiration from a film opening a previous student had done where the background was black, and the words were in yellow. It was also animated, something that I least wanted to try out.  

So, at first, I thought about “Door Productions” and I could animate a door opening and the productions inside the door, then shut it and fade it into black. I tried it on Canva in a slide show, but it was very hard. I couldn’t get the transition right and since I don’t have premium, my options were kind of limited. 

Suddenly, I thought about how when I was little and starting to learn english, my teacher would dot the two O’s in the word “look.” This inspired me for another name of a production company called, “Look for Productions.” My vision was having the two O’s as a pair of eyes and having them look around and blink. However, instead of editing it in a slideshow, I edited it in the video software inside of Canva. I messed around with the software and was able to have smooth transitions, and overall it was relatively easy.  

Here's the finished product: 

 

Change

 Today, we filmed several scenes for our project, including re-shoots. We planned to film more, but since the camera charger was missing, we had to use our phones and ran out of time before sunset. After filming, we put together a rough draft of the opening. 

Disclaimer: We changed our plot.  

When we filmed the first day, we realized we had too much in the opening and it was very fast paced. To aid our plot and tone of the story, the scenes had to be slow paced, and we decided to cut all our scenes except the ones in Maddie’s room.  

The scene in the school, Maddie in the car, walking into the house, and making a snack were all cut out. We decided to solely focus on Maddie’s main environment, her bedroom. The last day of school is implied in a calendar and her not having friends is shown in the texting scene. So, even though we don’t explicitly show it, if the audience pays close attention, they will notice. 

So, we made a new story board to help us organize better; 

 

We also decided to use my mom’s camera to film, and my sister’s tripod because last time I struggled to keep the camera stable and not shaky. 

Planning my CCR #1

 For my first CCR post, I would like to do some type of interview. I was inspired by 73 questions by Vogue.  This interview consists of 73 rapid fire questions but only done in one take, no editing, no cuts. In contrast to my CCR, I don’t have 73 quick questions, I have two long ones, so if I don’t have some movement or if I stutter, the interview would be more extensive and will most likely be boring. I might just have a change of location for the second question so it’s interesting. 

I want to do some type of intro with my car, because in the film, I play the girl who drives Maddie home. So, I was thinking of wearing the same clothes and doing a little ‘bit’ with the car.  

I was inspired specifically by Olivia Rodrigo’s Interview because she started in her car and slowly went to her house and had a lively personality while being clear and never boring.