Here's my film opening "break a leg." and CCR's! I worked very hard on them I hope you enjoy watching them just as much as I enjoyed creating them!
Film Opening: "break a leg."
Although it was a very stressful 7 weeks with lots of setbacks and struggles along the way, I am ultimately very proud of the final product.
If I had to do the entire project all over again, the main thing I would focus on improving is my time management. That was the biggest struggle that I faced and any other problems I had could've been solved if I had given myself more time and more of a grace period to correct the issue at hand.
All in all, I am very grateful for this entire experience. I learned many lessons while figuring out how to handle this project over the last couple of weeks. These lessons will surely last me a lifetime moving forward in my academic career!
I absolutely loved working on "break a leg." Thank you so much for staying with me and following along this process as I developed my skills further!
Phew! This is the final stretch!
After revising and fleshing out the scripts, I began by creating my main prop for the video where i answer questions #3 and #4. The board for my questions!
I had a lot of fun creating the board, although I did initially struggle to find tape and had to use staples as an alternative.
How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups for issues?
For this question I'll go back into my blog to reference the genre conventions and tropes that I researched within the first few weeks of this project. My film opening both challenges and uses conventions so I want to give a very nuanced answer as I list the tropes and how I did or didn't include them.
Tropes I did use include:
Tropes I didn't include:
During class, I thought of taking inspiration from popular interviews on the internet but I didn't want to do that for both my CCR videos.
For my first CCR video for questions #1 and #2, I want to create a kind of abstract interview. I want to begin with a cute, colorful, and playful opening title made in stop-motion with clay because I want to get more in touch with my childish whimsy which I think the world desperately needs more of. I also want to wear a stupidly colorful outfit with a colorful tie and mis-matched socks. After this opening I want it to begin like a standard talk-show interview, but then after I'm asked the first question, I'll say something slightly corny like, "I'm glad you asked," and then turn and address the camera directly. As I answer I want to walk outside throughout my community to have an interesting background, with graphics of my sources showing up or completely cutting to clips. I want it to be very goofy and purposefully silly with cartoony sound effects that keep the viewer entertained.
For my second CCR video, I want to contrast the first one, go simpler with another interview style, but this time inspired by online interviews where I would be holding a piece of card-board that I peel off to reveal questions #3 and #4 written on it. I would stay in the same place rather than having a dynamic background and be wearing a much more neutral, classy outfit. I would still use graphics and cut to clips to avoid having a boring talking head. I may also elect to add an off-screen voice like how producers often add their two-cents during interviews, depending on if it feels something is missing while I am filming it.
Here are inspo pictures for both!
CCR Video #1 (Questions #1 & #2)
CCR Video #2 (Questions #3 & #4)
How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?
I used hardware for production and a lot of software and online technologies for both post- and pre- production.
While I used my Iphone (hardware) to film because I didn't have a high enough quality digital camera, prior to filming, I used online sources to research different films, shots, genres, and anything else I needed to create what I wanted for the final product. I also used it to find free audio online for both diegetic and non-diegetic sounds within the film opening.
For post-production I used ClipChamp, an editing software to cut the clips, add audio, and add any graphics I wanted to make the entire project come together.
How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
I faced many struggles throughout the duration of this project. After each mistake, I try my hardest to learn and grow from it to improve. My editing was already good prior to the project because of my experience editing You-Tube-style videos for fun from middle to early high-school, but I felt it improve greatly while editing different takes of my opening. You-Tube vlog style editing and film editing are distinctly different. Although I am doing a comedy for my opening, the humor is delivered in a different manner than when I would just rant to my camera and send it to my friends. It's much less like a personal diary entry and more like a visual re-enactment of those events without the personal narration.
I also improved my shots. I initially struggled to diversify my shots as I couldn't help but provide the same boring mid-shot/counter-shots as my piece heavily relies on dialogue and the interaction between characters. When creating my script I would sit there with my finished dialogue and my notes from class in the beginning of the year and just run the scene in my head over and over with different shot ideas and wrote down what I found to be the most interesting and fitting for what then scene called for. Strangely I also feel that my background in theatre and blocking has helped me as I understand how and where people should be placed in a scene to best enhance the performance and provide a specific feeling to the audience.
How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
For this question I would again go into my blog and reference the movies I researched when planning for this project. I would dive deeper into the audiences that they engaged with and how they did so to best explain the audience that I was keeping in mind throughout the duration of creating my project. I would also use my in-class notes taken throughout the year about media distribution to help explain how it would be distributed as a real media text. This combined with additional research about media distribution for my specific genre would help me answer this question in depth.
Gaining an understanding on the current state of the coming-of-age comedy genre is also vital to how I would approach distributing it. Coming-of-age comedies have been struggling lately as companies would rather fund a film that is part of a massive franchise rather than a stand-alone film about a teenager going through a difficult transitional period in her life.
Giving context in the CCR by referencing blogs, class notes, and additional research would allows me to answer the question as thoroughly as possible.
Tasteray. (2025, April 9). Exploring the charm of coming‑of‑age comedy in modern cinema. https://www.tasteray.com/articles/movie-coming-of-age-comedy-cinema
I've began my editing process...we're currently 0:42 seconds strong!
I love editing, but I faced challenges with this scene. The audio of my off-screen character sounded strange so I had to re-record with my own voice (please do not bully my voice acting I actually don't think it's THAT bad). I also lost some footage as I had to cut it for my new recording to match up while also not leaving any awkward, empty pauses between cuts.
I still need to add in my foley for the texting. Currently, the scene is missing pizzazz, but all will be fixed once the audio and graphic elements (text messages) are added to bring the scene together!
Group Meeting #1:
Today in class we got assigned to random groups to discuss our blog posts and get feedback. It was very eye-opening and refreshing to see other people's perspective on my film opening's storyline and their reactions to my screenplay. It gave me a lot of confidence to keep pushing forward with my concept and finalize it. Also if I'm gonna be totally honest, I love voicing my opinion; I'm pretty annoying like that so it was especially fun for me to give out my feedback and help people to brainstorm some more ideas as well.
It was so interesting to hear everyone's concepts for their film opening. Explaining and also seeing how people explained their own thought process was very enlightening.
