Film Opening

 Ladies and gentlemen... the moment you've all (mostly me) been waiting for...

PRESENTING

1100° FAHRENHEIT

Creative Critical Reflection

 

Script

I found that the easiest way to do my CCR is to make a script beforehand. 

I am here because I can finally say I have finished my AICE media studies project and trust me, what a long journey it was. My film is about a young firefighter Dalton who gets dispatched to a house fire in the Town of Davie. My film puts the main actor in a dangerous, high-pressure, adrenaline-filled situation. The opening is a foreshadowing of these events. 

A typical drama plot consists of high stakes and a lot of conflicts. They're plot-driven and demand that every character and scene move the story forward. Dramas follow a clearly defined narrative plot structure, portraying real-life scenarios or extreme situations with emotionally-driven characters.

Drama is all about conflict and how people deal with the world constantly in their way. 

Typical conventions used in drama films include

• Extreme situations

• Heavy emotions

• portrays real-life scenarios

• Focuses on one main character 

• Soft lighting

• Tension music

• Diegetic sound

Most of which I have incorporated in my opening because I wanted to go the traditional route and not challenge genre conventions. 

Since my film is about a firefighter, it is safe to say that the group that I chose to focus on is firefighters. Firefighters are known to be courageous and fearless. I chose my protagonist to be in his early 30s because I feel that this is when firefighters are most excited about their jobs. I also decided to have a male protagonist because firefighters are also primarily males and as mentioned earlier, I took the more traditional route. My main goal was to portray the reality of firefighters. How they go from 0 to 100 in a matter of seconds. 

Drama films are known to attract primarily a female-dominated audience because most males aren’t big on the romancy stuff. Okay, understandable, but my film’s target audience is young adults 17 to early 30s, and both genders but primarily male, hence my male lead. 

According to my research, 95 percent of teens have access to a smartphone with the internet. The internet has become an essential part of daily life. According to a survey done in the United States, Youtube, Snapchat, and Instagram were voted the most popular online platforms. To engage with my target audience I will use these platforms for my production. 

With the use of Snapchat, I was able to create filters that are available to all users to help market my product. By using Snapchat filters, I made a fun, engaging way to get consumers interested. A bonus of using Snapchat is that a user can take a picture using the filter and then send it to their friend and then their friend can use it, creating a chain that spreads exponentially. 

Instagram is another platform I used to market my production. I made an Instagram account for the film and posted sneak peek clips and get to know me with the main character. Instagram is a great platform because content can be easily shared and reposted on it by using hashtags, therefore reaching a larger audience. 

Having my product on a streaming service such as Netflix would be cool but, impossible so I went with youtube. Youtube is used by many high school students as a platform to post and share their pieces. Youtube allows me to post my product for free and gives anyone around the world access. 

So let's get real here… this project uh taught me a lot about myself and it was a process, to say the least. 

The coolest part for me though was seeing my project go from a thousand little ideas to a solid idea, to production, to a finished product. I was told to write what I know and since my dad is a firefighter this topic fit the best. Everything just kinda came together after that. 

I began my process by doing preliminary research about my genre and this was something I didn’t mind doing. I researched plots, characters, and setting and then used what I learned to write an outline for my opening. I used a software to create a digital storyboard (much better than my drawing trust me)

Next came production which was my favorite part. I went to my dad’s fire station and filmed. I scheduled to go on the days he was working so I could have access to the firetruck and the lights and sirens. Production went by smoothly but editing was a completely different story. 

Figuring how to use adobe premiere was a pain (cut) It took a lot of youtube videos and trial and error to figure it out. 

Then, my opening just didn't want to upload to my google drive. I watched it for 2 hours to just tell me that it canceled itself like what. It took a lot of self-composure to keep my cool but I switched to trusty old youtube which finally uploaded my opening.  

I honestly really learned a lot about the production process and even though I did have obstacles, I would do it again. 

Anyways speaking of youtube, it was one of the manyyyyy websites that helped me with my product. When I didn’t know how to do something, I searched it up and found tons of videos to help me. 

Adobe was primarily where all of my graphics and entire product were made. I used illustrator to make a logo and premiere pro was what I used to edit my opening. Honestly, Premiere pro has too many buttons but moving on. 

I used blogger.com to help me keep all of my research and ideas together. This is where I posted many times a week updates on my process and this was where I had to get my stuff together because it was clear that we had a strict posting schedule.  

Oh, I almost forgot. This right here is the stabilizer tripod I used and lemme tell you it was a lifesaver. 

Throughout this whole journey, I learned about what it takes to do something completely by myself, from start to end. During the editing process, I realized that I like to create and edit videos which made me start thinking about starting a youtube channel and posting vlogs but that's a whole other story. If I were to do this project again the only thing I would probably do differently is more organized which would improve the project completely overall. 

Lastly, I just wanted to thank the Davie fire department for being so kind and helpful to let me use their station to film. Thank you to firefighters all over the world for risking your lives to save ours!

The Best Birthday Gift

It's my birthday! Whoooo! 

I know what you're thinking, "Sasha why are you blogging on your birthday?"

Well, I wanted to put the finishing touches on my project today and finalize it. 

First, I used Adobe's caption library to add titles and captions. 

Here's a list of credits I added in the beginning:

Director: Sasha Osnovsky 

Producer: Sasha Osnovsky 

Cinematography: Sasha Osnovsky 

Starring: Dave Vezina

And... Ta daaaa, I finished my project!

    Honestly, I feel like this is an amazing birthday gift to myself because I am truly proud of this piece. It's crazy that I started this back at the beginning of February and here I am now, finally done. It took a lot of hard work and I am very proud of myself. Don't worry, you'll see it very soon. Just stay tuned for my post to see the final product!

 

Logo Making

    To be more inspired, I watched some projects from the past years. After watching a few, I realized that I wanted to make a specific logo for my production company. I used Adobe Illustrator to make a logo. It was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. However, I really enjoyed making it (once I learned how to use it) and I'm very happy with my finished product. 

    After I finished my logo, I transferred it to Canva to make a complete page, which I put as the first clip of my opening. 

 

    

    I'm honestly so proud of myself for finishing the logo and not bailing on it. I have a pattern of just giving up but I didn't even though it really was not easy to make from scratch, without any templates. 

Changes in Sound

    Post-production was where I realized I needed to add extra background sound. Background sound will allow me to add a more dramatic effect. I searched for tons of different websites on Google. I browsed through tons and tons of sounds to find the perfect one. Websites that were helpful included pixabay.com and freesound.org. 

    The sound files I needed were birds chirping and a heart beating for my opening. For my CCR, I wanted to add sound effects such as crickets and a loud tone. I put the birds chirping sound over the establishing long shot which is the first shot in my opening. I used the heart beating when the action started. I decided to use this to show anxiety and tension. TO make my CCR entertaining, I used crickets to show stressful moments in my production process. I used a loud tone every time I made a mistake. 

Group Meeting #1

    Today, we had our first group meeting. I actually really enjoyed it. It was cool to hear about other people's projects and how different and creative each one is. In our meeting, we listened to each member's idea and then gave some advice or help if they asked. Some advice I gave was about music and transition choices. 

       The advice I asked for was if I should do the burning effect for my title page and if I should use background music. Avice I was given was to not do the burning effect for the letters. Members added that it will look cheesy and may take away from the seriousness that I'm trying to create. They also told me that instead of adding background music, I can add stings to it. They said that using by stings instead of music, it will keep the serious feeling that I am trying to establish. I appreciate all the advice they gave me. It really helped!