AS Level Creative Critical Reflection

AS Level Creative Critical Reflection

AS Level Final Project

Final Project

Final Edits

     I am finishing the final edits of the film today. I am extremely happy with the final results that are coming along. I still need to record my narration which I will be doing using the IPhone headphone trick from this website. I do not have to worry about placing text over the video because my opening credits have been physically written on the calendar that is being filmed. 
     I will be conducting my creative critical reflection tomorrow, either through a podcast, video of myself, or screencast. I think I am leaning more towards a video of myself because I feel it is almost more personal and my film is also very personalized. I am eager for the end of the journey to be near, yet also very sad that this production process will be over. It is very bittersweet. 

Movie Genre

     After looking more into the comedy genre, I labelled my film as a mixture of dramedy and romantic comedy. The dramedy aspect comes into play when you take into account the issues that each character of the family is dealing with. The romantic comedy aspect comes into play when it comes to the romance that the youngest daughter will fall into. 
     The characters of this family all fall into some basic media representations of stereotypes. There is the oldest daughter who is extremely smart and focused more on drama and art in high school. This daughter is also married to an extremely intelligent man and they are both teachers. The middle daughter is the always pretty and popular girl who focused more on her social life in high school. Then there is the youngest daughter. This is the character who is mainly focused on and is still trying to find herself through love and taking chances with her life choices. The parents are loving parents who also have heir quirks. The dramedy aspect of the film is highlighted when it comes to each character's issues. The oldest daughter is struggling with Type 1 Diabetes, the middle daughter suffers blindness in one eye due to an accident, and the youngest daughter suffers from an eating disorder. I am hoping that this aspect of the film would make it more relatable and intriguing. Also, the family focused on in the film is very realistic. They aren't portrayed as overly wealthy or "perfect," but they are an average-upper class family with real and relatable issues. 

Editing Changes

     After loading all of my footage up to my computer, I am not super happy with the quality of the video. I shot the footage with my IPhone 5S. So, I am going to solve this issue by going back and shooting the film with my camera, which produces a rather decent quality. Luckily, my footage is all shot within my home using the family calendar that I have available at all times. Also, originally I was going to write the opening credits over the footage through IMovie, but after looking at the footage on my computer, I decided that I am going to handwrite the credits within slots on the calendar so that it plays in with the plot centered around my family. 

     Today in class my teacher showed us an example of a film opener and creative critical reflection produced by one of her A level students. After seeing this, I have a much better understanding of what my creative critical reflection needs to contain and produce overall. I am leaning towards doing either a podcast or a screencast in order to convey all of the information that I need to include. Seeing the film opener also made me much more confident with my idea for my opener. 

     I want to make sure that I convey through the opener that this film is about an average family with all of its cooky and messed up aspects. I will also be conveying that there will be a romantic comedy aspect to the film through the beginning of the opener by focusing on the February page of the calendar featuring everyone and their significant other and then me kissing a skeleton man, who is even leaning away from my kiss. I am very excited to complete my project and put it out there for others to see. 

Riptide by Vance Joy

     In a last minute decision, I chose to use the instrumental version of the song "Riptide" by Vance Joy. I emailed the manager in order to receive the rights to use this song. 

Constantly In My Thoughts

     I find myself thinking about the aspects of my project at all times of the day. It hits me the most in my AP US History class and my AP Calculus class... not the best classes to be distracted in. However, constantly thinking about my film opener has allowed me to make changes before making mistakes. I have visualized exactly how am I hoping for my opener to look and planning the methods on how to achieve that look. I am constantly reminding myself of the student-produced films that I viewed last night to ease my stress.
     I decided that my company name will be "Ashley Films." This will appear as the first scene of the film. It will be a scene of a hand writing the name onto a whiteboard, and then a slight pause so that there is emphasis on the company that the film came from. I will then transition into my narration. I still need to record my narration, however this will be completed after I have finished the final editing of the actual video in order to accurately narrate.