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.
Now with my screenplay handled, I decided to begin filming what I could for the second scene of my film opening. To be quite honest, the scheduling conflicts really threw me for a loop and I faced way more issues than I had anticipated. To begin, my main actress caught a sickness that has been going around school so her parents wouldn't let her out. This highly stressed me out as she is the character that leads both scenes and I've already had to come to terms with the fact I'll have to wait until next week to film the first scene in the auditorium as the amazing AMT production of 'Beetlejuice' would be doing rehearsals each day this week. But if there's one thing I've learned in my high school academic career, especially when working on projects where you're dependent on others, is that you have to improvise, persevere, and handle big business.
I couldn't afford to recast my friend as I know that she's the best for the job and it would be a major continuity error if I have one friend play her this week, and then my other friend play her the following week when her and the auditorium are finally available.
As much as it genuinely broke my heart because it would have been lightyears easier for me and my schedule to film now, I can't blame my friend for catching a sickness and not being allowed out because lord knows how hypocritical that would be coming from me, someone who legitimately gets sick 2 times a month.
To try to circumvent this issue, I decided to film some reaction shots of one of my characters, Sara Fischer during scene #2. I'll use this as b-roll and stitch it into my final product to try and break up the shots more so it doesn't feel so static and lifeless.
Here are some captures from what I was able to film today!
Hey guys! I have made my screenplay for my film opening. It's not exactly perfect but that's ok as I am mostly using it as an outline once I begin filming. I don't know why, but I found much more enjoyment than I thought I would when making this screenplay. I initially began writing it in class because I knew I needed at least an outline eventually and wanted something more solid and consistent compared to the vague idea I was rolling with in my head. Once I actually began the process, I couldn't stop rewriting scenes and envisioning different scenarios for how the main event would play out, and different shots I could use to convey what I wanted to the audience in the best way possible. Here is my current outline, some of my friends found it fun and entertaining to read so hopefully that means I'm doing something right!
(FYI, the yellow is shot/composition ideas and the blue are notes for me to look back on and review)
The idea I've got so far for the story-line has elements that depend on audio to be able to truly flow naturally and not drag attention away from the plot. I want to include music and have already been perusing forums on reddit to find genuinely good royalty-free music that won't be distractingly bad and sound out of place.
The main catalyst for the events of the first scene requires there to be context that a rehearsal is taking place for the theatre program's spring musical. I want there to be music playing as I want to include it as a vital element of the scene and mentioned in the character's dialogue. I've been heavily considering just making my own background music if I can't find any that match the scene as I want to create a fake musical that the theatre program is producing, meaning I have a lot more freedom to play around with sound. I've still got some experience left over from my garage-band producer days in elementary/middle-school that I'm most certainly ready to put to use.
Another major piece of audio that is vital would be the foley sounds I need throughout the entire project. A lot I could do myself, like footsteps, doors slamming, soundboard keys, etc., but if I need a unique sound that may be difficult to replicate myself, I'll also use websites that provide public and free sound effects.
I'll also utilize ADR to replace audio if something goes wrong after filming scenes to hopefully minimize any re-shoots to zero. I also need to do more research on audio in film in general as I can feel it's a weak spot for me and I also despise bad audio in film because of how quickly it can take the audience out of the scene and prevent them from feeling the emotional beats of the story. I need to specifically research how to manipulate and add effects to audio in a way that feels natural as I have a scene where I need muffled dialogue between characters that are having a conversation in a booth.
Perhaps I'll turn this into a research blog post...who knows.....muheheheheheh....
Naturally since I'm doing a coming-of-age project I'm taking a lot of inspiration from my own life experience. Since I'm a senior in high-school and I'm close to my characters age, it helps to add realism to what being in your late-teens in modern times is like, rather than some Gen X writer creating some offensive caricature of what they think teens are like. Since there's not much to do around here, me and my friends, for lack of a better term, like to bum around and loiter in parking lots and entertain ourselves but talking about incredibly unimportant things we'll probably forget by the next day. Especially during tech week, we like to debrief our separate interactions with the people in our class because there's genuinely nothing better to do. So, I want to shoot these scenes in locations that feel very familiar to me and my friends.
SETTING #1: AUDITORIUM
Ok so boom, I'm genuinely THEE Pinterest demon and I practically use it to envision absolutely anything and everything to see if the overall aesthetic works the way I'm hoping. I loveeeee to create collages for different aesthetics. I want every character to have their own self-contained vibe, but at the same time still have it be realistic that they're friends. There's a shocking amount of diversity in theatre programs that I feel isn't really shown that much in media, and if it is, it's a major plot-point (eg. Troy Bolton in High School Musical) like it's genuinely not that interesting or shocking that a jock is in theatre, especially in college which is the point in time I want my characters to be at for my story.
I'm not really sure what I should say besides please excuse my drawing, I promise I can draw a lot better than this. Also you should probably read my previous post about my main idea to actually have a chance of understanding what is going on here (again sorry for the horrific drawings). Hopefully you enjoy my very rough storyboard for my project!
Hello my scholarly sweeties! I wanted to share with you a little peak of what I'm currently thinking of doing for my project opening.
Just as all other amazing films, my idea is inspired by my personal experiences. Naturally when I was pondering on what to create for a coming-of-age comedy, I looked inward to see what I could maybe write about. I initially only thought of very basic, relatable teen struggles which weren't necessarily bad but also weren't unique enough to completely base my story off of.
Kind of going in the complete opposite direction, I also didn't want to write something in high-school just because I feel like a lot of coming-of-age stories are written during the end of senior year but never freshman year of college which is still a very weird, transitional part of life.
I have been part of the American Musical Theatre program at school since freshman year, and it's definitely the best decision I've made all of high-school. I've met really great people and I've also witnessed really funny situations due to being a theatre kid and being part of a program with such an interesting group of people. This is what inspired my idea to focus my film opening around musical theatre, and the theatre program in general.
All the comedies I enjoy have really dramatic characters which is perfect for my setting. I want to draw audiences in by beginning my project with a very stereotypical theatre kid tantrum. Absolutely and completely over the top screaming. I've already got some ideas for jokes, but it's very difficult to put into words in a way that would make sense so you'll just have to see the finished product. I just want the opening to be very chaotic and have this all be happening backstage while other cast members and crew watch. I've seen things like this happen, granted on a much smaller and calmer scale, and it always had me invested in a way I'd like my audience to be invested.
Eventually, I'd like the scene to cut to the same girl that was throwing a tantrum who's still complaining but in a much calmer way to her friends who are half listening. As some friends try an give her advice, the real protagonist of the film begins to receive text messages from one of the techies that was working backstage at the show. I'm undecided but I want to have this hint at the conflict for the film. I was thinking he could flirt with her and have him be a love interest. I was also thinking completely scrapping the techie and have a company (that has nothing to do with theatre) reach out to her for a job offer/internship and have the conflict be more so one with herself as she figures out what she wants for her future.
Being such a young person has made me grow very strong opinions towards social media. It's a relatively new thing, which is frightening as we don't completely know the lasting effects it can have on people, and we won't until it's too late. Being a teenager has ensured that it is practically cemented into my day-to-day life.
Coming-of-age comedies have also noticed this fact and have been writing it into plot lines with their characters to add to the relatability. They usually only use it as means to incite conflict, either with two characters or with some plot line about self-hatred, but I have yet to see one write about an epidemic I've noticed among my peers in the last couple of years.
The social learning media theory is one that aims to explain that people learn and alter their behavior, opinions, and reactions to align with the media that they consume. I've personally seen people change their opinion one day to another to assimilate with whatever people find to be socially acceptable on the internet. It's also genuinely baffling how many people I've see expect ridiculous things out of life and the people around them just because they've seen a skit or a highly edited video online and then become weirdly jealous.
It's genuinely such a strange phenomenon that I don't see get talked about online as much. I've also never seen it written in a realistic way in a coming-of-age comedy so hey, maybe I'll be the first. I feel like there is so much material to work with and so many ways to satirize the subject and let me poke fun at an otherwise, serious issue within my own generation. Sounds like the beginning of a really good comedy to me.
