AICE Media Studies

Below is my reflection on my most recent project, the final product/opening sequence for my movie Cat Fish. It has been a pleasure working on such a task in this class and I've definitely grown and learned a whole lot in this class. This and the tasks before it allowed me to broaden my creative field and become a more creative person as a whole. There have been ups and downs but overall I can not complain about the way my final task turned out. I hope everyone that comes across it enjoys it, and with that being said, here it is.

Here it is, the long awaited final task! This is my opening sequence to the movie, Cat Fish. Its almost unbelievable how far I've come in this class and working on this project was such a great experience. So, without further a due, my opening. 

 Today I worked on editing my project. I added the titles I needed today. This wasn't very hard because iMovie does provide title templates in the app so that made it easier when it comes to placement and design of my titles. Since I already started a bit of editing a couple weeks ago I already had an idea of where I wanted each clip to go and how much time I had left. But this still left a lot of work for me to do today. Started with editing the clips down from my iPhone, like I normally do and transferred the clips to my MacBook via airdrop. Then, I just put all of the clips I shot in iMovie. But upon the realization that not every single clip i shot couldn't fit in there. I under estimated how short two minutes actually was and I ended up scrapping a little more than half of my storyboard to get the opening to be two minutes. this caused the ending to look a little choppy, which I honestly wasn't expecting because Cleary the clips dont line up. I had to pull from various...

 SO today I finished filming the rest of my opening. All thats left is strikingly editing. The editing portion will take course over the next 5 days. I filmed scenes 8-12 wand it went pretty smoothly. The way that I organized the scene were really strange though, looking back at it. Some were only only 10 or 11 seconds long. And I did a lot of costume changes today. I also did a reshoot of some scenes from the previous day. Upon rewatching some of the scenes I did the previous day I just didn't really like them so thats why I did a re-shot. The most tedious thing about this is re-doing my makeup. Replicating makeup looks for every time you filmi s such a hassle that it makes filming in itself distasteful. But I pulled it together and shot all my scenes regardless. I did make some minor changes to the execution of some scenes and tried to switch up the shots I used for each scene just to se what would look better when I edit everything together. Anyhow I started today with the easie...

Today is my second day of filming and I got a whole lot done. In summary I filmed scenes 4-8 which was a large chunk of my project. I like to get them in 4 scene intervals to make things easier. anyway, let neme get started on today's procedure. First I did my hair and changed it from short to long. Then I got into costume (the costume shown in my costume blog). Then I started with the shower scene. This scene was early in the morning and our main character juts gt out of bed to take a shower. This scene incredibly hard to film so I just set my tripod up on the floor for the first shot and climbed out of bed. Then, I propped my camera up in the edge of my brother's bed to get the wide shot a I wanted as well as the side view of me walking to the bathroom. I'm not entirely sure though if I want to include that side view shot butat least I got it for future reference. After the shower scene is the getting dressed/spam notification scene where the main character's phone ge...

 okay so today I made used photoshop to create fake screenshots and profiles for the extra characters I'll be using in my opening. so first I started by taking screenshots of my actual instagram page on my MacBook to get a desktop view. Then, I airdropped these screenshots to mymy phone where I input them into this editing software called pics art. in PicsArt I removed the pieces of information I didn't want like the username and flower sound and edited themto customize his fake profile. I blocked out the username (which is my instagram user handle) and changed it to Megan.K (which is the main character's catfish name). Then, I blocked out the bio that I had in place to replace it with something new. In the place of the nameplate I changed it to say Megan Baby and on the third line I put NAHS as a random high school name. Then, for the 3 follower phases I had planned, i made each phase change from 2 to 3 to 4 digits. This is mean to show the drastic increase in followers th...

Today I did some editing for my blog, which I dot normally do this early into a project. Well, I wouldn't necessarily say early but I usually start the editing process when ive gathered all my clips This time I rememnederd what happened with my last project, sometimes I recorded some clips to be longer/shorter than they had to be and it threw off the timing a little but. To prevent that mistake here, I just started editing the clips on the scenes I already have. I think this is also beneficial because it takes a little away from the workload that comes with editing all in one. This gives me an accurate representation of how much time ive used up and how much I have left to shoot the scenes I need to shoot. And it allows me to get out some of the font ideas I planned out and how well they fit on the screen. Anyways, I starts ed with scenes 1-4 becasue those are the ones that already had finished. I used the same editing software ive been using all year, iMovie. First I imported the ...

 So today I went ahead and went shopping for all the makeup products I needed for the second half of the opening. Granted, ia already had most of the things I needed because i'm an avid makeup user, but I aimed to go for something a little different this time so I needed more products. SO, basically the inspiration for the makeup in the second half goes something along the lines of this picture right here. *insert pic*  Since I wanted the main character to look more mature in the second half I think this is fitting. I'm going to need a darker concealer and cream contour here. I wanted to use these products to give the main character a more lifted/sculpted face to show maturity. This is also meant to show change in character as we see that she gets older. These are the products that I got to help me achieve this look. *insert pic* For reference, the are only the products that I didn't already use last time. Now, what I plan to do is start of with a primer base to give the il...

Today my costumes came in the mail today. So I created the outfit combination I plan to use for the second half of the opening. The items that I will be using is a navy blue plaid pleated skirt and a white chiffon top with a tweed blazer. I decided to get this outfit for my costume because in the second part of the opening the main character is supposed to be older. This is in direct contrast to the main chapters first outfit which was a lot lighter in color to symbolize youth. The first outfit was paid with short hair and half-up half-down styled hair with a blue scrunchie. In this second half there will be no scrunchie. She will have long hair this time to show growth. But since my costumes came in a little late today I decided to not do a try on and instead just show it in the picture below. I kept the schoolgirl theme the same throughout because the main character is obviously still supposed to be a student. The only difference is that she's 2 years younger than her present day...

Today, I worked on music. I already pre-selected the song I was going to have playing from when I did my script but its such along song and has multiple variations. The song I chose is Clair de Lune by Debussy. It isn't copyrighted so I don't have to request permission to use the song, which I think would take far too long to wait for approval for anyway. The full song is about 5 minutes long, which is much longer than I actually need. It was actually really easy to find the music that I wanted because I used to listen t this song frequently and it happened to be playing while I was drafting my storyboard. I thought it fit really well so I chose it. I was contemplating which part of he song I wanted to use and which parts would fit best at certain times during during the opening sequence. But I think, after listing to it a couple times today I think I want to use the first 1 minute 40 seconds and the last 20 seconds. I came to this conclusion because the song is very peaceful a...

So, today I conducted my first filming blog. First I started with setting up the areas I was going to use to film, which was way easier and less time consuming since I did it on Friday. Then, I got into costume, which I had already planned out since Friday as well. Then, it came to makeup,, which wad the most time consuming overall. Even though I did practice what kind of look I was going for on Friday, I changed my mind a little because I didn't want the main character to look too old for her age. So, I kept the makeup simple and nothing dramatic because she's supposed to be a freshman in scenes 1-4. But, no matter how simple a look is, it still takes a long time to get done. A picture is included below. I ended up changing the hairstyle I planned as well. I was gonna have her with long hair from beginning to end but I figured that wouldn't make much sense because I plan on doing a time-skip so I used a short wig instead. I styled it in a half up- half down style with a bl...

 Today would be the day I started filming but due to technical difficulties I can't use the camera on my phone to record like I usually do so I got a new camera that will be coming in tomorrow. I also got a new camera because a lot of the scenes that I plan to shoot have to include my phone I them and I can't use my phone as a prop AND my filming device. Ive made my preparations for when my new camera comes though, I'll upload another filming blog on Saturday when I actually get to shoot some scenes. Today, I've cleared out the spaces that I plan to use while filming. So I cleared up the entrance to my living room and the hallway as well as my room, which ill be shooting majority of the scenes in. The camera situation is a just a minor setback but im using this as an opportunity to minimize the amount of prep I have to do on Saturday when I film. I've got images attached below of the cleaning I did. I also set out my first set of costumes. This set includes a cleate...

Schedule  03/04 - 03/06: Start filming my first couple of scenes (1-4) 03/29 - 04/01: Finish filming all scenes 04/03 - 04/12: Editing will take place DATE: Location I'll be filming at my house. No other location just in my house. Participants Actors- Shantaneil Francis Nehemie Jean-Baptiste  Filming- Shantaneil Francis Editing- Shantaneil Francis Directing- Shantaneil Francis Makeup and Costume- Shantaneil Francis Safety Team- Shantaneil Francis Health and Safety To make sure that the environment tis safe, both me and the other actor will be showing our scenes from home. This is the main reason I only chose 1 location for my final product, just to minimize the risk of getting or spreading COVID. 

Titles Fonts- The credits in my opening will be in a thick-bolded style font and will fade into whichever take I decide to insert the in. I don't plan on embedding any of my titles into the setting though, I think it may get distracting to have that mix.  The title that my opening will have is "Catfish".  It will be bolded in all caps with 2 spaces between each letter with an orange and pink color like this: C  A  T   F  I  S  H Titles will fade into the screen as the  opening  progresses. They will all have  morels  the same style as the title of  the film. They will only be visible on the screen for 3 seconds each. Depending on the scene, I'll place the titles in a different position with either color (orange or pink). The colors will not be mixed like the title. The first and last name of individual that corresponds with the title will be bolded in all capital letters with no space in between. For example...

The following images are my storyboard plans for my film. I think this is the most important art of my planning because it's the foundation of my opening sequence. It took a really long time coming up with how I want to execute it but I think I'm happy with the way it came out, for the most part. I was sure to include 60 panels as the main character goes through her day and included where I want to place my titles (in order). For any confusion I included brief descriptions under each panel as well.   

  Sound and Dialogue Script Scene 1- *Music Starts Playing: Clair de lune* Liz: ugh.  Scene 2- *music continues* Liz: *cry* *slapping sounds* Liz: oh.. Liz: oh wow, they really like me! Liz: he's cute... Scene 3- *music continues* Liz: *giggles* Scene 4- *music continues* Liz: haha. Scene 5- *music continues* *phone buzzing* Liz: *yawn* *door slam* Scene 6- *music continues* *door opens* *phone buzzes* Liz: *sigh* what the hell.. *closet door opens* *clicking of hangers* Scene 7- *music continues* *laptop pings* Liz: This is starting to get really creepy... *thud* Scene 8- *music continues* *aggressive knocking* *phone buzzing* *door clicks* Scene 9- *music continues* *curtains moving sounds* Liz: Oh my God... Scene 10- *music continues* *phone buzzes* Liz: Thats enough... *laptop shut* Scene 11- *music continues*  No Dialogue Scene 12- *music stops* Liz: Not again.. Shooting Script Scene 1- -Music starts playing: Claire de lune: Debussy  -fades in to the S...

This is a relatively new film by the name of Cuties, or some call it Mignonnes in French. This 2020 film is a French drama released in August of 2020. The title sequence lasted for about 2 minutes, as most do, and contained a variety of interesting scenes. First I'd like to touch on the titles being presented. When the sequence first starts we see that this is a Netflix original movie since this is the first title. The next title is the name of the movie, Mignonnes. Since this film is originally French, the title varies depending on which opening you're viewing(English or French). The images being prioritized in the opening are the images of the main character crying on stage and the ones showing her family dynamic. These images establish a few of the characters and a fraction of the setting as well. The images carry a slight negative connotation, in my opinion. The first image was of the girl crying on what looks to be a stage. Then, the next scene contained the same girl in h...

The next movie I observed the title sequence of is The Breakfast Club. The opening sequence for this movie capped out at around two minutes, ass most do. Majority of the opening was a black screen with text while music was playing. the titles that were displayed were mainly giving credit to the production crew and company along with the directors. For example, the sequence starts with the Universal opening, giving credit t the as a production studio. Next, The title of the movie is displayed. After that, each starring actor gets their own title of recognition and this continues for a couple more seconds. Lastly, the credit is given to the individual producers and directors. After all the titles are done being displayed, a shot of the school where the movie takes place is shown. this establishing shot shows the location that the plot will be taking place. This is the only shot from the movie that we see in the sequence. It's is accompanied by a voice over of one of the characters. T...

This movie is named Teen Spirit and it sone of the movies I studied for my title research.  It was released in June of 2018 in Russia. The opening sequence lasted for about 2 minutes. Enough of background info, onto the titles. The first title that was presented gives credit to the writer and director. Then, the producer and executive producer, co-producer, director of photography, costume designer, editor and music supervisors were credited respectively. Then, the actual title of the movie was displayed. Around the middle of the sequence the credits continued, going on to attribute to the choreographer, visual effects manager, hair and makeup designer and casting director. Almost immediately after, the names of the stars in the movie also appeared as titles. Over the course of the opening, the images being prioritized are the ones of magazine covers that show the name of the film, Teen Spirit. There are about 3 or 4 magazine covers shown in the sequence of the main character being...

The first title sequence I did research on was a for a movie by the name of "Emma". The titles displayed were the name of the film company and production company, Focus Features and Perfect World Pictures. There's also a brief description of the main character's personality and circumstance in less than 25 words along with the title of the movie when the main chapter walks down a hallway. Then, it cuts to the main character, Emma, sleeping peacefully in her bed before walking through a large courtyard with two servants next to her. She then starts picking flowers inside a luxurious greenhouse as the two servants follow behind her. These images portray Emma as a noble-woman with little to no struggles at all. The connotations that these scenes show are extremely positive; It shows Emma as a well off young woman that takes an interest in stirring up drama and romance. The film establishes the feeling of the genre, drama, by showing a snarky side of the main character wh...