Creative Critical Reflection

Here is my Creative Critical Reflection:

Fim, Website, & Postcard

Film:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Wjn_0lF11T3ED1t8zs2ASPEsALRSFoxt/view?usp=sharing

Website:
https://pupamovie.wixsite.com/mysite

Postcard:

Final Reflections!

         I can't believe that I am almost done with this project! At this point, all that there is left to do is edit my CCR. This journey has been amazing and a lot more enjoyable than it was last year, most likely because I had experience with doing an AICE Media Studies final project. This is the best short film that I've ever had a part in creating and for that I am extremely grateful. Although it was difficult to come up with and stick to a concrete storyline, my group was able to do it. There were many difficulties throughout the duration of this project but we were able to persevere and get over that hump.

      The end result of our project is incredible and we are all proud of how it turned out. However, it certainly was not perfect. There are a few errors in our short film, one of which being, the end clip of the film because we forgot to film a clip of Amber looking at stabbing Sarah after she stabbed her. We had to use a clip from another scene to put at the end, the clip actually fits pretty well and I also doubt that many people would notice that. We also could have also been a bit more creative and added more added more interactive elements to the website. I am happy that I did the vlog though, that is an interesting aspect on our website and Kylie did a great job editing some of the downloadable wallpapers. Overall, I am pleased with the end result of our project!

Music Credits:
Via Youtube Audio Library
Ambient hum pitched
Beep short

Via Youtube:
Bioshock Infinite Music - After You've Gone (1918)
Knife Stab Sound Effect (original)
Mobile phone sound effect house phones voicemail beep tone sounds
You have one new message
Washing Machine - SOUND EFFECT - Laundry Washer Waschmaschine SOUND
Netflix New Logo Animation 2019
Royalty Free Music - Apprehension - Horror - Kevin MacLeod
Royalty Free Music - Anxiety - Horror - Kevin MacLeod
   

Netflix Distribution Research

         Our short film Pupa is set to be "released" on Netflix. I've decided to do some research about Netflix and its distribution methods. Netflix is a great place for us to "distribute" our short film because it is one of the most successful streaming sites in the world. The highly popularized streaming service says it now accounts for 10 percent of TV viewing time.

         Netflix has more than 130 million customers watching its TV shows and movies. In fact, more people now subscribe to Netflix than cable TV in the U.S. Surely if we were to distribute our film through Netflix, it would have the ability reach millions all over the world and generate plenty of success.  A website called BusinessInsider.com states, "In the first quarter of this year, the number of US Netflix subscribers overtook the number of American cable TV subscribers for the first time, according to a recent study by Leichtman Research Group charted for us by Statista. While Netflix has rapidly gained new subscribers, cable has been slowly losing them." Putting our film on Netflix as opposed to putting it on cable is clearly the better idea.
       
Yes, we could've also chosen to go the movie theater route, however, now that streaming services are very popular, people don't care to go to the movies as much as they used to. Nowadays, some consumers would rather wait for the film to come out on a streaming service, and plus many people would enjoy to watch a movie in the comfort of their own home, or even on the road on their mobile device.

        I also think that our film would be highly successful on a streaming service, specifically Netflix.  because Netflix creates an algorithm for each of its subscribers. People who already watch Thrillers or Horror Movies would have our movie Pupa pop up on their recommended list, which would be a great way to garner more viewers and fans of Horror/ Thriller movies. Buzzfeednews states, "Log on to Netflix today, and you’ll see a lot of stuff you’ve never heard of. Here's how the streaming service is convincing you to click on it anyway. According to its own research, the company has a 90-second window to help subscribers find a TV show or movie before they give up and go somewhere else. That’s why Netflix is obsessed with tweaking and personalizing its product. It knows that’s how to draw you in and get you hooked." YouTube's algorithm could really benefit our film in a positive way, so that is why it is the best way to distribute Pupa.


Sources:
Kafka, P. (2019, January 17). Netflix is finally sharing (some of) its audience numbers for its TV shows and movies. Some of them are huge. Retrieved from https://www.recode.net/2019/1/17/18187234/netflix-views-numbers-first-time-bird-box-bodyguard-you-sex-education

Nguyen, N. (2018, December 16). Netflix Has A Plan To Change The Way You Chill. Retrieved from https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nicolenguyen/netflix-recommendation-algorithm-explained-binge-watching

Dunn, J. (2017, June 15). More people now subscribe to Netflix than cable TV in the US. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/netflix-more-popular-than-cable-us-chart-2017-6

Filming Day Two

          We finished filming today, thankfully! I am very excited because now we can move on to editing and not have to worry about when we can film, or where, etc. The Starbucks scene was easy to film and it was very fast to film as well. Even through we filmed that last, it is going to be the first scene of our short film to establish that Amber is lonely unlike the people who are eating with friends, family, etc. around her.  We had to ensure that Taylor was wearing  the same clothes as she did yesterday so that there would be no error or inconsistencies. Here is a picture taken by me behind the scenes:

     Today in class I edited all of the video clips together and created a behind-the-scenes vlog! I was able to edit on my iPhone fairly easily. I basically just spliced clips together and cute some parts out, such as when I was setting up my iPhone to film us. It is very simple but it does give the audience a chance to see how Pupa was created. Vlogging is something I do for my personal YouTube channel, so I knew that it would be a great way to connect to our audience.



Here is the link to the vlog: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1L7GJeGVs3etWWmHtQkEbWYDTUu-QakNC/view


Source:

Jaredic, M. (n.d.). Why You Need These 4 Types of Behind the Scenes Content . Retrieved from https://blog.flightmedia.co/behind-the-scenes-content

 kkd

Filming Day One

          We started filming today at Kylie's house and it went really well, and after all of that filming I am exhausted. We started at 9 a.m. and stopped filming at about 3:30 p.m. It was difficult to get the ball rolling but when we got the hang of moving around the camera, tripod, props, we became highly efficient and productive. However, I believe that it was hard to film in the beginning because we did not number the pages on our storyboard nor did we write which scene would be filmed in exactly what location, which was a poor move on our part. After realizing how confusing it was to shoot the first few shots, I realized that we could not continue to work that inefficiently and unprepared so I went ahead and went through the storyboard, labeling locations and numbering everything from page numbers to the order that we would be filming each shot in, in each location. Labeling and organizing that made the whole experience go by way smoother than it did initially.

        I was directing all shots with Kylie and vlogging our filming experience all at the same time so that we could put a behind-the-scenes video on our website and all of our blogs. I figured that, that is a great marketing strategy because our audience can see what it took to film Pupa. I also took pictures of our shoot. Unfortunately, whilst filming, Kylie's camera battery died, twice. Instead of doing nothing while waiting for it to charge up, we used the time to create our bloody t-shirt for the final scene and I also recorded the voiceover for the voicemail message Amber's mom leaves her at the beginning of the short film. o we filmed/took pictures of status updates and setting up scenes. 



Here are some pictures from the first day of filming:



          We've decided to film tomorrow after school at Starbucks instead of Panera because it has a better outside seating area that is a bit more intimate than Panera's, Starbucks has smaller tables and it is also a place that always has people sitting outside we we know that we will be able to find friends, families, or couples to put in our short film. Starbucks is also closer to all of our houses. I am relived that most of our filming is done, because we need to start editing as soon as possible so that we can focus on other aspects of our project. The Starbucks is the very first one in our short film, and it also happens to be pretty short.
          In class tomorrow, Taylor and I are supposed to work on the rest of the website, I will edit the behind the scenes vlog, and start the flyer/postcard advertisement.

Here's Where We're At.

       Next week my group and I plan to film on Tuesday April 2. We picked Tuesday because we all have that day off from school and we are all also available. We have our materials prepped: completed storyboard, doll, plain t-shirt, fake blood, and filming locations. I am really excited to get to work and see how our film is going to come out, I just know that it'll be great. The doll is really the star of the show and after seeing some of the pictures Taylor took of it, and just how creepy it looks in pictures, I can't even imagine how spooky this vintage doll will look on video. Although we are a bit behind in our filming schedule, I still believe that our short film has the potential to be incredible, because we have planned throughly, and preproduction is the longest, most crucial stage of creating anything, especially a film of sorts.

     Unfortunately, the music company that I emailed for the rights to the song we want to use has yet to respond, so if we don't obtain the rights for the song within a few days, unfortunately we will have to find another royalty free song that fits our film very well. Although, I did really wanted to use the song Tonight You Belong To Me, I am confident that we can find a similar royalty free song on a website called Fesliyanstudios.com/royalty-free-music. Kylie's sister, Taylor, gave us the name of the site for royalty free music, because that is where she was able to obtain the music for her short film. The website has a great range of different songs,  so I an happy that we now have this free resource to our disposal. 

        After filming on Tuesday, that week we will focus on editing the film, the site, and flyer. That weekend, I will focus on my CCR. That just means, answering all the questions beforehand on my blog, filming and recording it. My plan is to screen record it, because CCR's that were screen recorded typically are the best, and most informative. I will layer a voiceover on top of my video recording.