Short film package

Short Film Package 

Perception the Short Film 

Link to film: https://youtu.be/foJOfSvOAX0

Link to website: https://perceptiontheshort.wixsite.com/mysite

Critical Reflection

How do your products represent social groups or issues?

This short film is about three young teenagers who deal with major hardships in their at-home lives. It represents the teenager aspect of life and how they interact both socially and when they are alone. Our film brings a major emphasis on the fact that people and especially young adults feel the need to make their lives seem perfect. Everyone wants to be the person people look at and think “they’ve really got it together,” when in reality nobody is perfect. This is a universal feeling of being insecure and wanting to come off as the best you possible, which most often means hiding the not so good things everyone deals with. 

This ties into the touchy issues the character's in the film deal with. The three main characters are best friends who are always upbeat and happy around each other. When they come home, their true hardships are revealed. One of the three main issues touched on is eating disorders. Many teenagers have an unhealthy relationship with food due to society's beauty standards. Another character is dealing with teen pregnancy, which is another major situation happening with teens all over the world today. The last character deals with fighting parents who get abusive with each other. All of these issues touch on the fact that you never know what someone is going through behind closed doors and that your perception of someone isn’t always the reality. This is also why we chose to name the film “perception.”

How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?

Branding includes advertising through social media, promotional interactive services, and using different resources to get your product known. All of the different elements being used in this production definitely incorporate a sense of branding. This is done through things like the website. Websites are a great way for people to learn more about your film and what it is truly about. The theme of Perception’s website is very simple and uses contrasting colors to create an atmosphere. This is done through colors like white and pastel pink being used at the top of the page, versus the dark metal type colors the further down the website you scroll. This will help the audience get a feel for the movie and learn more about it before they have even watched it.

Social media is another factor that has gone into the branding of this film. Social media apps like instagram, twitter, youtube, and facebook are used by people of all ages from all around the world. This is a great platform to promote films because it is so easy to get the audience engaged and interested in the film. It is also a great way to bring more attention to the characters of the film. If people get a look into the personal lives of the actors and become interested in their characters, they will be more likely to watch the film or tell someone about it. The postcard is another example of easy marketing and branding. The postcard has the same theme, simple but intriguing and includes details about the film and where you can watch it.  

How do your products engage with the audience?

My short film engages with the audience in many ways. The thing that stands out most would be the social media platforms. Our film utilizes the platforms instagram, twitter, youtube, and facebook. These apps are used to get people interested in the characters and get a jist of what the movie is about. By using these social media accounts, the audience is able to interact with actors or other people who are interested directly. Actors or directors can like comments, reply to comments, go live, or give daily updates to keep the audience excited. Another thing made available by these platforms is the ability to post behind the scenes and bloopers. This is a fun and simple way to get the audience more interested. Another great thing about all of the social media platforms we are using is that people from all of the world use them. This is extremely beneficial and allows for our audience to expand because it has the potential to reach people everywhere. 

Our website is another example of this film interacting with the audience. The website allows for people to click on different things on our homepage to find out specific things about the film. Things like contact info also give another way for the audience to connect directly. Posting things like the postcard or having printouts of it is also an easy way to interact with people and get them informed on the film. 

How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

This production follows many of the usual conventions used in drama films. For example, intense music is used throughout the film to create an amplifying and tense atmosphere. Drama films often include a lot of emotion. Since our film is more action and story driven than dialogue driven, our messages are conveyed through elements like emotions. The camera movements, angles, and lighting also follow the usual conventions of a drama film. For example, in the scene where one of the characters is taking a pregnancy test, a low angle of the light seeping through the bathroom door is shown. The small amount of light shown in a dark hallway creates an atmosphere that is dramatic and intense. In that same sequence of scenes, that same character rushes out the door. The camera keeps rolling as she walks out of frame and the camera zooms in on the pregnancy test. This keeps with the suspenseful and dramatic mood of the film. 

Perception the short film also challenges some of these conventions. For example, the short film starts off very light hearted in an open, bright setting. This challenges the common conventions of a drama because most drama films focus mostly on dark colors and shades. This film is also not as heavily focused on dialogue as most other dramas are. Although there are some ways this short film follows and challenges the conventions of a drama film, I think the message and storyline was conveyed in a way that included some major twists and kept the atmosphere intense yet dramatic.

Short Film: Copyright and more

       When I first started researching for music, I made sure everything was non copyright and free to use. I did this by going onto websites, using google, and youtube. While I thought I had found the perfect song, once the movie was edited all the way through, I realized we could do better. I began searching again. I used the same tactics. This time around, it was a little bit more tricky. I had found one that was really great! It said "free to use" so we figured everything was okay. After putting that music into our movie, I thought I should double check before making anything final. When I checked again the creator of the song said "Free to use, but it does have copyright." We all thought this was a little confusing so I reached out and asked if it was ok for me to use it in my short film for school. The person responded and said yes it is fine but it still may come up as a copyright. After thinking over it and discussing the matter with my group mates, we decided on scratching that song. Luckily, we found the perfect song right away! This one is completely copyright free and free to use wherever! After placing this song in our movie we felt it really pulled it all together.

      I used this same method for finding sound affects. I had never actually used sound affects in any of my previous projects. I thought the best way to go about this was to look on youtube. I searched in "non copyright breaking glass sound affect." After looking through only three videos, I found the one. I added it in to make sure it fit the movie, and it did! The other sound affect needed was people arguing in the background. This is for Grace's character who deals with fighting parents who are abusive towards each other. This took looking through several videos. It kept giving me fighting sound affects rather than people arguing. After searching for a bit, I finally found the right one and added it in. 

Short film: Titles and Research

      Titles are a main part of film. We researched the opening title scenes for drama movies. Making sure we knew the way drama films go about this will be beneficial to us. This is very important because the type of font gives off a certain mood to the viewer. We also decided to only use first names for safety purposes. The titles will be “focused” on the screen. The powerpoint also describes the length of time we will be displaying the titles. All titles will be white for a simplistic viewing. The transitions between each title will also be fitting to our story. Within each title, the names will be more prominent than their title/job. This will give the titles a sense of design. This simplistic design will fit the mood of our film and will not take away from what’s actually happening on screen. 

      Researching is very beneficial in many aspects of film. We did research for costumes and lighting and every detail like that. We also researched editing for drama films so our editing would fit that. Titles are just one example of how much thinking goes into making even just a short film. This whole experience has also shown me how collaborating comes into play. My group mates and I have put our brains together throughout the entire making of the film. This made for a really good experience because I had people to work with and bounce ideas off of. This experience has shown how a movie process goes and the things that can affect a film. 

      

Short film: Putting everything together

   

  I am now at the last bit of editing! The only thing to do now is add the music and sounds. The music was chosen during the planning process. I learned a lot when I worked on the opening scene of a movie project last year. One of the things that project taught me was how to search for the best instrumental. I typed in intense instrumental with a crescendo and no copy right. I found several songs that I felt could work! I sent all of my findings to my group so we could decide which one we thought was the right fit. We eventually settled on one. Although finding the perfect song can take a while, we figured it out and are happy with our decision. This intense music will help amplify our scenes.

      After having put the music, I just had to level out the sounds. Leveling out the sounds makes it so both the music and dialogue can be heard clearly. Once that was done, I sent what was done so far to my group mates. We all felt the movie was complete! There are some more marketing things we have to do for this project but as for the filming and editing, everything was complete. This whole process definitely took time. It taught me how many details go into making a movie and what things would be like if this were a major film production. I also had fun during this project because I got to play as if it were a professional movie! My group mates and I worked well together and got everything done smoothly. 

Short Film: Editing day 3

       I started to get a gist of our movie so far through the editing process. Today I started by putting all of the footage into chronological order. When I say footage, I mean the shots that my group and I decided were the best out of all takes. Once the footage has been put in chronological order, it is time to cut each video. The cutting process can take a very long time. For this project, cutting the scenes wasn’t too bad.  However, I did encounter some challenges. One of the challenges I faced was trying to make sure all of the shots that were supposed to happen simultaneously flowed smoothly together. Sometimes getting different shots to align perfectly takes tedious work. Eventually, the shots came together and flowed smoothly. 

      The editing stage is also where you can see which scenes are needed and which scenes aren’t. While editing, I noticed our film was too long. Because it was too long, I had to go back and review every scene to see which ones were absolutely necessary and which ones could be removed. There were a few scenes near the beginning of the film that I had to cut out. Although, originally those scenes seemed like a good idea, they are not necessities. The scenes in the beginning were apart of the montage. I made the montage shorter but still kept it in. This will allow the audience to still see the girls being happy together but also allow more time for the in depth looks into their lives throughout the rest of the film. The one thing about editing is that it takes a very long time. Although it is very time consuming, I still really enjoy the editing process! 

Short Film: Day 2 of editing

       The next step of editing was to start going through the clips. When filming, we took three separate shots of the same scene. Since we did that my group and I had to go through all of the footage and choose which one of the shots we would use in our film. It’s good to film the same scene a few times just in case something happened in the first recording. While going through the footage, I figured out a method that could help me better put the movie together. I put all of Sophia‘s scenes in one photo album. I did this same thing for me and Lauren’s scenes. Once I did that, it was time to look at the storyboard for reference. Most things stayed according to the storyboard. This helps the editing process because the whole layout of how we want our film to look is already planned out. 

      I started with the very beginning. These were the outside scenes. We decided on doing a mini montage of the girls enjoying their day for the opening scene. This would introduce the characters and the idea that their lives are happy from the outside. Editing the montage was a little bit tricky only because we wanted everything to be perfect and precise. That means that the clips needed to flow end seem almost dreamy. The idea for these scenes was to emphasize on the fact that the girls seem like they have perfect lives. Their struggles are only revealed when they enter their homes. This part needed music to really create the mood of the scene. Adding music will help the audience feel the things we want them to be feeling throughout certain parts of our movie.