Starting Final Project

When first entering this class I knew very little about what it took to create a film. The most I knew was a little of how to distribute and about 1/3 of how to edit it. Then, once I began the class I went from brainstorming ideas, filming, and editing a commercial, music video, and soon a movie. Throughout these projects there has been a lot of ups and downs. For instance, when we were filming the commercial we ran out of time on the first day to film all of the scenes, we didn't have a few of the main props, and the laptops that we received kept dying. Another example would be when we were filming our music video. We went completely off our storyboard. Moving on to a more positive note, we really enjoyed filming our music video, and it came out better than we imagined. As for the commercial, even though it wasn’t the best, we got to relive our childhood. We’ve already began planning for our final project, the movie, and are very optimistic.

In this class I have learned majority, if not all, of the many aspects that go into creating and distributing a film. I have learned about all of the basics and all of the camera angles, movements, shots, mis en scene, editing, sound, and the 5 phases of film making. The basics include a take, scene, shot, shooting, subject, computer general imaging (CGI), script, storyboarding, treatment, and funding. The camera angles that I’ve learned are eye-level, high angle, low angle, and oblique/dutch/canted. The camera movements I’ve learned are pan, flash pan, tilt, tracking shot, zoom, and handheld. The camera shots I’ve learned are establishing, wide, long, medium- long, medium, medium close- up, close up, extreme close-up, two-shot, three shot, aerial/God’s eye/ bird’s eye, point of view, over the shoulder, trunk, stock, and crane. Mid en scene is everything that you see that makes up the scene. This consists of C.L.A.M.P.S ( costume, lighting, actors, makeup, props, and setting). The edits that I’ve learned are cross- cutting, split screen, cutaway, insert, dissolve, fade in, fade out, shot reverse shot, eye-line match, graphic match, jump cut, burn in, burn out, iris in, iris out, reaction shot, and wipe. The different sounds I’ve learned are diegetic, non- diegetic, folcy, sound bridge, sound motif, dialogue, voiceover, soundtrack, score, incidental music, and ambient sound. The 5 phases of film making are development, pre-production, production, post-production, and distribution. Two talents that I learned are how to put together scenes and edit them.

When creating a movie you must first start of with a pitch. A pitch is a Hollywood term to describe an idea where a film is encapsulated in 25 words or less. Usually with one sentence. My group members, Anishkaneel, Aaliyah, and Lauren, and I have come up with 3 pitches for a movie. The first pitch is a horror film, and it was created by Lauren. The plot is about all of the most infamous antagonists in horror movies team up to spread wickedness and cause both physical and mental destruction in the world. Examples of the most infamous antagonists are Dracula, Frankenstein, and Pennywise. The second pitch is a suspense/thriller, and it was created by Aaliyah. The plot is about a bridesmaid that is obsessed with the bride who happens to be her twin sister. The bridesmaid has a twisted, sinister desire to take her sister’s life, and will let nothing get in her way. The third and final pitch is a murder-mystery/ thriller created by me. The plot is about a demented person going on a killing spree. He or she kills all of those that commit the 7 deadly sins.