Creative Critical Reflection

Final Project

Final Entry

it's over! I had a lot of fun (and stress) making this but I got it done and learned a lot. Much love to everyone who helped me with this from my teacher to my friends. I wish I would have kept my blog more updated with my process but I hope my final project reflects the hard work I put in. Thank you for stopping by. Have a wonderful life.

- Jose Puche

Entry Nine

     Today I filmed with yet another friend and helped out on another project. Although I like what he is doing, he has waited too long to film and it is piling up on him. I still need to finish editing. I was planning on finishing today but I took so many shots I really don't know what angles to cut to and use.
     I will work for another couple hours and hopefully finish my opening entirely and focus on my creative critical reflection over the weekend.
   

Entry Eight

     After finding out I was using the wrong terms to research my audio issue, I found out about ADR, automated dialogue replacement, which is used in the post production process for many problems including mine, poor recording on set. Although it would be the best option if I cared about having the best possible quality, I am pressed on time and there are more important tasks at hand. ADR is also known as being an annoying and expensive process to directors and actors, so I most likely will just take the advised route of simply amplifying the sound. 
     I would just contact a friend who owns a camera microphone and re-shoot the scenes with it, but one of the main actors recently left to Finland and I want to use the same exact people because most of the non dialogue shots came out really good. 
     Something I haven't mentioned before is the process of learning first hand how someone exactly like me handled this project. Last Thursday, my good friend (who is also creating his film opening) had me help him out by acting as the main character and aiding in some decisions for the shots. He plans on redoing one of the scenes today due to bad video quality. His process helped me learn from some mistakes he made to make my process go smoother. I'm also helping with another project tomorrow as an actor once again. I feel like helping out in other projects gives me a lot of helpful insight to see what I'm doing right and wrong.
     

Entry Seven

     With the due date approaching and still a good amount of work to do, I'm eager to see what my final piece will look like and pushing harder than ever to get it done. After exporting everything I filmed Saturday, I realized that my camera's built in microphone is of very bad quality. I was anticipating this to some extent and was prepared to recreate sounds but even the dialogue sounds way too quiet. Although I could just amplify the whole audio track and then equalize and compress out the undesired frequencies that also became louder, I was maybe considering completely stripping the audio and rerecording everything through foley and matching up the created audio track. After I tried researching if anyone has ever tried this process and finding nothing, I'll have to go with my original option and see how it turns out.
      I decided to not include any music in the traditional sense and instead, I'm making some intensely frantic instrumental tracks that resemble the band Tool's "Lost Keys (Blame Hofmann)" or Death Grip's "You might think he loves you for your money but I know what he really loves you for it's your brand new leopard skin pillbox hat" with wailing high pitched notes and no real sense of rhythm. These songs provoke a sense of confusion and insanity and fit the sound I want for the final fight/flash forward scene. I also have some fake production company titles (one of which I included below) that I may want accompanied by either a short ambient sting or complete silence, I still have not decided. 
     Looking to finish basic editing tomorrow and scripting my director commentary, there is still a lot to do.

Keenan, Maynard. Lost Keys (Blame Hofmann), 10,000 Days. Tool. 2006. CD. 

Burnett, Stefan. You Might Think He Loves You for Your Money but I Know What He Really Loves You for It's Your Brand New Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat. Death Grips. Andy Morin, 2013. MP3.  

Entry Six

Aesthetic 

    

      These are some stills from various TV shows and movies that resemble the "look" and filter types I find would fit for my project. I included a black and white still from American History X because there is a flash forward in my opening scene and I feel a change in that color direction may be a good way of exaggerating it. Again, I am leaving out a lot of detail but tomorrow there will be a barrage of posts going in depth about everything I talk about and filling in the holes I left in my absence. But for now, I am half asleep and worn out from filming for twelve hours today so I need to rest. 

     Most of these stills are from dramas or thrillers in which no formalist elements are implemented, like mine. I need a realistic feel, and the first two, although very different in their own ways, are my favorites and the ones that I will most likely have to decide between. This, along with the font choice and letter positioning of the titles, will be my biggest challenges in editing.

Fincher, D., Milchan, A., Uhls, J., Linson, A., Chaffin, C., Bell, R. G., Pitt, B., ... Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Inc.,. (2002). Fight club. Beverly Hills, CA: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.  

Gatiss, M. (Writer). (2010, August 8). The Great Game (Season 1) [Television series episode]. In Sherlock. London: BBC. 

Scott, R., Shaw, R. R., Perenchio, J., Yorkin, B., Fancher, H., Peoples, D. W., Deeley, M., ... Warner Home Video (Firm). (2007). Blade runner. Burbank, CA: Distributed by Warner Home Video. 

Kaye, T., Morrissey, J., McKenna, D., Hess, J., Norton, E., Furlong, E., Keach, S., ... New Line Home Video (Firm). (1999). American history X. S.l.: New Line Home Video.

Entry Five

     Although my blog postings haven't been as consistent as I would like them to be (so much has been going on in the recent weeks), I managed to finish filming today for the story I finalized Wednesday last week. I decided to cast close friends as the actors I previously created for my leading roles. The genre ended up being a coming of age drama with suspense undertones. I will edit a behind the scenes video tomorrow and post it to show the consistent errors we had due to none of the actors having any sort of experience. There were only two setting and thankfully they both had good lighting. I chose my friend's apartment and a truck loading station behind a building to film and both of them fit the aesthetic I was visualizing the best I could with no budget. I was lucky enough to get a DSLR and a tripod so I was able to mess with focus pulls and get steady shots. I only wanted hand held in the final scene of my film opening (a fight scene) so making sure the shots in the first scene (apartment scene) are as steady as possible to make the handheld stand out was crucial. Because of the acquisition of a tripod (thank you Luis), I got the desired effect. I'm aware I haven't spoken much about the plot and I would go in depth right now about it but today was exhausting but I felt it necessary to include a little update as to where my process is right now.