Reflection
I can't believe everything is over.
Seriously though, this was a months-long process that took lots of effort and dedication from all of us. Looking back, I feel very proud of how far we've come, and I feel that this is a good time to reflect on this entire journey.
I almost didn't join this class. The only reason why I chose it was because I had no other ideas for an 8th period! No other class I was interested was compatible with this time, so I just chose Media Studies and hoped for the best. Well, I'm not sure who's in charge of schedules, but I would like to thank whoever made choosing this class so easy, because I grew so much because of this course.
Honestly, when I first heard of the film opening project, I was completely out of ideas. I didn't really spend time brainstorming since I knew I would have group mates that might reject any ideas I brought up. Luckily, this worked out in my favor when I paired with my partners since Hannah and Daniel already had an idea they were so passionate about. I heard of the love triangle idea, and I definitely was okay with it, and Tori was too. So that part was pretty easy.
Then, we had to figure out how we would communicate from each of our bedrooms. The answer was FaceTime. Whenever one of us wanted a group meeting after school, we would have one. The generally lasted around an hour. During these after-school meetings, we brought up new ideas (like my prop ideas), scrapped some ideas (the character Inez), and decided how we would distribute our time (the split between Betty's scene and the James/August part). Not gonna lie, I had a few doubts about how all our ideas would fit into just two minutes. I suggested cutting August from the film opening and having the focus be all about Betty, since August could be introduced in other scenes besides just the opening scene. Luckily though, Inez was all we needed to cut to save us time. Cutting things down, as sad as it may be, turned out to work for the best.
After agreeing on a general idea of what our film opening was going to look like, we moved on to making moodboards. Looking at my group mates' moodboards, I was happy to see that we all had the same vision of how our opening scene should feel like. For example, look how similar Tori's moodboard looks like compared to mine!
After the moodboards, we moved on to making the storyboard. This part was pretty simple since it was just a timeline that we could always alter during the actual filming process. While the order of the shots stayed consistent to the storyboard, some of the actual shot types that were drawn ended up changing depending on the demands of filming day. Nevertheless, things turned out fine. The storyboard proved to be a good step-by-step guide for filming since this plan prevented any improvisation on filming day.
Then, filming day happened. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to go at all because of my parents and the pandemic. Also, Amberina wasn't able to be Betty anymore because of similar reasons. Fortunately, Tori was allowed to play Betty to cover up for Amberina, and she filmed in her own bedroom. This changed our anticipated filming location for Betty's bedroom scene, but I could not be more proud of how that scene turned out. Sadly, I missed out on all the fun my groupmates said they had, but that's life, I guess.
Where I REALLY step in is editing. My groupmates helped with song choices and font choices, but I was the one who had to put it all together. Organizing all the shots in a logical order was moderately easy. None of the transitions were too hard to do since I had experience editing already. I'm glad this wasn't a superhero fight scene, because editing that would have been a nightmare! I had to relearn how to add Tori's audio file, but that was extremely quick and easy (at least for me). As a final touch, I increased the saturation to bring a warmer and more vibrant feeling to the opening scene. The skills I drilled in my brain from this editing process will certainly stick around, so I'm happy about that.
This project definitely was a journey of growth. I learned lots about communication, compromise, film techniques, editing skills, and much more. Seeing a simple "let's do a love triangle" turn into a fully fledged two-minute opening scene seems like magic when I think about it. Of course, this wasn't actually magic. This process took hard work, but like many say, hard work pays off.
Mediamel out!
Filter/Saturation Update
While editing, I basically had to look at the same shots over and over. This got very repetitive to say the least. Eventually, I started realizing how bland some of the shots seemed. Maybe this was just because of how many times I looked at the same things, but I still wanted to do somethings about it.
So, I looked towards filters.
I was thinking about downloading a preset from the internet, but I also wanted to keep the original charm from the camera. I experimented with changing contrast and saturation, and I really liked how increasing just the saturation looked like. It wasn't too drastic; it was just a subtle change. Here's a difference for reference:
I think this change is rather beneficial for our film opening since it brings more life to the shots. The yellows seem more yellow, the reds seem more red, the greens seem more green, and so on. This subtle saturation increase probably wouldn't be noticed unless it was compared with the original shots, so I like that this change is not what draws the audience's attention. Rather, it just makes the viewing experience more enjoyable.
I know many films and TV shows use filters or change their saturation, so why not include such a change in this project?
Anyway, just wanted to update you guys!
Genre in Our Film Opening
This post is dedicated to how our project fits within the conventions of the genre we chose.
First, I should remind you of our genre(s). Mainly, our film is fits between romance and drama, romantic drama if you will. However, it could also be considered somewhat of a coming-of-age film. We made our film fit into these genres in many many ways.
To fit into the romantic portion of the film, we emphasized the relationships between the characters. There is romance between Betty and James, even if it's more of a ghost of a romance after the breakup. Props are used to demonstrate this. Love letters and rose petals are shown in the bedroom scene, symbolizing love, but since they are wilted and ripped, it symbolizes the ending of love. This reinforces the idea of love being a central concern, thus relating the film back to the genre of romance. When Betty opens the door James holds roses for Betty. This is another symbol of love since it relates to James wanting to rekindle Betty's faded feelings for him. On top of props, dialogue is also used to fit our film into the conventions of romance. Betty references love in her voiceover, and James tells August directly that he still loves Betty. This helps fit our film into the romance genre even more.
Lady Bird (2017)
Let's move on to drama. Our film has drama written all over it. It's seen in the disappointed facial expressions of Betty and the pleading expressions of James, the mellow and mysterious lighting and hues, the dramatic piano background music, the mannerisms of the characters, and the dialogue that's full of conflict. After all, this is a love triangle. It would be weird to see happy characters considering Betty got cheated on. Betty, James, and August are all dealing with their individual struggles. The combination of all these elements create a tense-filled and dramatic atmosphere, and this is just what we wanted.
Favorite Part
When reflecting on our film making journey, I definitely note the good and the not-so-good. Luckily, this post is dedicated to my favorite part of it all! Unfortunately, I was not able to be there for filming. Because of this, I don't have the experience of knowing if filming would have been my favorite part. I do love social connection, so I think this probably would have been it. But, what's done is done, so I'd say my favorite part of the process was the aesthetic of it all.
To put it bluntly, I love pretty things. Whenever I view things as beautiful and exciting, it gets me super motivated and creative. That's exactly what happened here. When I was assigned to make my first moodboard, I ended up loving the process of scrolling through Pinterest to find the loveliest pictures and putting it all together made it even more enjoyable. I felt the same way with the second moodboard I made (the one that actually related to The Hope Of it All). I never thought I would enjoy making something like this, but I did. This process sort of taught me something new that I loved doing. For fun, I ended up editing pictures that had nothing to do with media studies in a collage manner. They turned into playlist covers, so I'm pretty satisfied with how that turned out.
Other aesthetically-pleasing moments came from when Tori sent me the video files. I saw how nice her camera quality was and was in awe. I thought the way everything was recorded was simply lovely. The colors, the angles, everything. It seemed like a genuine film.
During the editing process, I tried my best to find ways to make the film even more aesthetically-pleasing. This included using a filter (raising the saturation), finding good music with the help of my group, and finding good fonts and transitions. I really love how it turned out!
Although it was hard to pick a favorite thing out of everything, I definitely enjoyed the aesthetics of the process throughout. That being said, I'd say that the aesthetics are my favorite part.
Color in our Opening Scene
Color is something my group and I definitely considered when making this film opening. Color has the ability to convey emotions, states of minds, and personality without even using words. That being said, color is a powerful tool in film. It wasn't the factor my group and I focused most on, but it definitely had an impact on certain choices we had to make.
For example, the blue tones in Betty's room conveys mellow and sad emotions despite nothing very sad actually happening. After all, Betty is simply waking up and getting ready for the day. On top of this, the blinds aren't open, preventing any yellow sunshine to counter these blue/indigo tones. This further enhances the mellow moods created. The purpose of these blue and indigo colors is to convey sadness, more specifically, the sadness of Betty due to her recent breakup. What makes this breakup especially hard is the fact that James cheated on her. Betty is feeling all sorts of negative emotions like betrayal, shock, and misery. Blue is probably the best color to symbolize this, so using this color in the lighting definitely helps enhance these feelings.
Color also affected the wardrobe choices of each of the characters. To show Betty's delicacy, innocence, and femininity, she wears a pink shirt. I think the color of Betty's shirt reinforces her personality in an accurate way, so I think this wardrobe choice works well.
With James, he wears a red sweater to emphasize common emotions associated with the color red. Although red can mean anger, I think the emotions we hoped to convey with James sweatshirt are those of love, passion, and a bit of warning (like a stop sign or emergency signal). Love, for the feelings he still has for Betty. Passion, for the affair with August. And Warning, for showing that it is probably a dangerous decision for Betty to get back with James since this could potentially break her heart again.
Color and conveying personality could also be seen with August's wardrobe choice. Not as much as with Betty and James, though. August wears a white tank top with a green dragon. White typically is associated with purity and flawlessness, but it can also be associated with emptiness. August can definitely be perceived as flawless as she is a popular girl who lives a "perfect" life from the outside. However, because she willingly wants James to cheat on Betty with her, she is likely empty on the inside and starving for attention. The green can represent the envy she feels for Betty since James still loves her.
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