Creative Critical Reflection

Link to my CCR

Major and minor tasks; Obscura

Website: https://kpomeroy218.wixsite.com/obscurafilm

Short film:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwcwCz1Oce6YTFFBYktxMHlIQWs/view?usp=sharing

Postcard: 

Calm before the storm

  It's almost over. I still have a lot to wrap up with editing, and with the postcard, and with the website, and CCR... there's a lot that needs to be done. But I am extremely excited to share my final product with you! As of right now I have all the major and minor tasks at least started and thought out, it's just my creative reflection I have to worry about. I've started outlining my responses to the questions and I am prepared to start recording it on Saturday or Sunday, once all the other elements are completed. 

  It's officially 3 days before the deadline and I'm a little anxious, but mostly calm. That'll probably change by tomorrow.

Stay tuned!

Wrapping up filming & Editing

  Alright so today was my last filming day and can I just say...what a relief! I haven't looked back at the footage yet, but I feel good about the work we did today. Yasemin was able to reach out to Gianni and he agreed to play the role of the mysterious, male love interest which was really nice.  I loved being able to work with people who want to pursue an acting career because they were fully engaged in the process and were very interested in their characters and the film in general...it was beautiful aha. 

  The two of them came over at around three and we spent a majority of the day filming the scenes that take place at my house where she takes him back to her apartment, essentially the ending. I decided to film out of order because the scene where they finally met, the middle, is filmed outdoors at night and I didn't want to waste time waiting for the sun to go down. Because the entire film is supposed to take place over one night, I placed blankets over the windows to cancel out the sunshine. This wasn't too difficult to do, it was a little annoying at times because the blanket kept falling, but the main problem that arose with this was the lack of light made lighting the scene a bit harder for me. It took me awhile to find the right balance between it being too dark and too light. Another problem we ran into while filming was being rushed while filming the scene where they bump into each other because the Barnes and Nobles we were filming in was about to close and my camera was constantly running out of battery. Ugh. 

  In the end, I'm a little unsatisfied with the lighting during the scene in which they eat together as well as the scene where they finally meet, but I did the best with what I had and I think if anything I should be able to make it look better in post. 

  Speaking of "in post," I'm most likely going to start editing everything together tonight. I'm currently importing all the clips of the footage we took. I'll be using Adobe Premiere Pro again this year, except this time I have a much newer laptop so I'm not expecting to run into the same problem of the program constantly freezing (fingers crossed.) 

That's it for now! Stay tuned!

Creating a brand; postcard and web design

 Okay, here we go. The other huge part of this project. Let's jump right into it.
 Essentially, the main point of the postcard and the website for the film is to advertise the heck out of it. I've stated previously that art house films are almost always targeted towards specific niche groups and they typically release their films through festivals or small theaters. Seeing that a good percent of the target audience I am trying to reach are young adults, I also plan on making the film accessible to them online. I'm still not sure if I plan on setting it up as a free release or if I'll have it available to rent or buy on iTunes or Amazon for a cheap price. Another route that I've seen common with indie short films is that creators will have a GoFundMe or Patreon page in which supporters of the film can donate a certain amount of money for the cause. Depending on how much you donate you can receive a digital copy of the film via email and other little prizes too such as posters or T-shirts. I've seen this done specifically with a filmmaker Wendy McColm and her feature length film Birds Without Feathers. If fans wanted to they could donate $5 for a digital download, $10 for the download and a poster and so on. I think this would be a great way to engage with fans as well as promote the film. 
  I'm also looking towards the site she created for her film as inspiration for my web design. It's incredibly simple and has a modernistic design that I think pleases audiences aesthetically as well as allows them to focus in on the content.
 This is also something I want to transfer over to the design of the postcard; something simple that isn't too busy and doesn't take the attention away from the content. For inspiration, I am looking towards simple yet engaging posters like the ones featured below. 

Lighting on a budget

  As I've stated in previous blog posts, lighting is especially important in black and white films and I'm pumped to be experimenting with it to create some juicy, dramatic looks. Being heavily inspired by the lighting schemes of film noir and films from the 40s and 50s in general, I did a bit of research to find out how exactly they set up their lighting. I stumbled upon this video that went in depth about which lights to use, where to position them and how, depending on which combination of the lights you use, they can transform the look and feel of the image. Although the video was super helpful and inspiring with where to position the light and basic stuff like that, I really don't have the resources to light a set with four to five lights like the ones shown. This whole pickle about not having enough lights has been bugging me since way back when I stumbled on the lighting design for Ida. A simple scene of her sitting in a room filled with "natural light" was still accompanied by multiple lighting fixtures and silk frames and fabrics for the light to bounce off of and...oh dear, I definitely can't do all that mumbo jumbo. 

Light (courtesy of my friend, Cassie) + tinfoil

 No fear! In the mess of 
YouTube videos I watched, I found one (linked here) that had a bunch of no-budget lighting tips, specifically for noir. One specific tip that I'm gonna transfer over to my project is to use tinfoil and wrap it around a light, kind of in a cone shape, to mimic professional barn doors that are used to better control and concentrate light. I'll be using this technique to create a spotlight effect on the two main characters in the final scene when they are slow dancing.

  Another tip that was discussed was using duck tape strips as a filter to create the look of light shining through blinds. At the time I was making this I couldn't find duck tape so I just wrapped the light in tinfoil strips, but for the actual production, I substituted it with the real thing. I used this technique for the opening shot where Yasemin's character wakes up in the middle of the night. 

Actual barn doors

My barn doors

                                                                                             

Creating shutters

Filming

  Good news! I just finished my first day of filming! The bad news is I'm starting the filming process way later than I ever expected to. Yasemin and I were never able to film after school on Monday or any day early this week actually and when we were finally able to agree on a day, I found out that she was extremely sick and had missed school. Oh dear. But, no worries what so ever because with that bit of time I was able to plan out the opening of the film in depth so I had a much better understanding of how exactly I wanted the film to go down. I told Yasemin to come around my house at about 6ish since I wanted it to be dark out when we filmed the opening shot of her waking up in her room at night. Since she wasn't going to come over until way later, I spent the first half of the day prepping the set and making sure everything was spick and span; I cleaned up the bedroom and bathroom which are the two primary locations for the first scene. I was also able to set up the lighting scheme, which I will discuss more in depth in a future post, so that I could perfectly get a sliver of light across her face to mimic moonlight coming from her window. Below I've included some of my favorite stills from today's shoot.
  

  All in all, I'm extremely pumped about the footage we were able to get today and can't wait to film the rest of it either tomorrow, depending if I can get out of work, or Tuesday! 

 Oh and I bear more good news! Yasemin said that would definitely be able to play the part as her love interest so kachow, there goes another weight on my chest. 

Stay tuned.