Welcome to My Creative Critical Reflection!

I am pleased to present the Creative Critical Reflection for The Test. Thank you all so much for following the entire film making process with me from start to finish. I am going to miss blogging, but I am so glad I got to experience it for the first time, especially with you guys. This film making process has taught me discipline and the importance of working hard, and I am forever grateful for it . I wish you all the best, it's a wrap. 

Creative Critical Reflection: Question One Response

Creative Critical Reflection: Question Two Response

Creative Critical Reflection: Question Three Response

Creative Critical Reflection: Question Four Response

Film

 Introduction

    I am excited yet sad to announce that The Test is officially completed. It is honestly a bittersweet moment as I made a lot of memories due to The Test and I really enjoyed being able to work on that journey with my team mates. I also loved making blogs for you all and sharing that filming journey, but today wrapped the final day of post production. Below, I have attached the YouTube link for the The Test. 

The Test: Final Film

Reflection

    I really appreciated getting the opportunity to create a media product that I wouldn't have been able to create otherwise. I also want to share my appreciation for those of you who have read my blogs up till now and followed my movie-making adventure. I am also grateful that I had access to helpful technology such as school laptops and a personal computer which made my film-journey easier. 

First Draft for the Test: Peer Feedback

Introduction

    Recently, my team and I received feedback  from our fellow peers regarding our movie, The Test. They enjoyed our movie, but they recommended we make small changes to it to improve the experience of the viewers. They suggested that we make the volume louder, specifically the scene where Jess and her friends are talking the hallway because the dialogue was too low to hear. They also suggested we make our production company name and logo scene longer, so the audience can read it easier and see it for longer. The last thing they recommended we do was change the voiceover to be more creepy and crazy, so that it could have a stronger impact on the audience. Their feedback definitely helped my team and I edit our movie to become even better. 

Reflection

     Overall, I really appreciated the feedback and constructive criticism my classmates gave to my group and I. We followed their suggestions and changed our  movie according to them. I believe that their suggestions helped our move improve and made it fit more into our genre which is horror. I used Clipchamp to improve the audio by raising the volume and I used Adobe express to make the production company's name longer and to add the new voiceovers. 

First Draft:The Test

Introduction

When producing our film earlier we made some changes to the scenes and dialogue from the original shot list/script. Rather than having a masked killer, we all agreed that having a killer call the main character’s (Jess) phone would be more interesting and build more tension. It would also give us more time to include dialogue between the characters so the audience can better understand how the characters are feeling about a killer on the loose. We organized our scenes in order so that the audience can be presented with a view of the school on the outside and inside a classroom. The main synopsis is that three girls (Jess, Lucy, and Vanessa) sneak into school to steal the answers, but Vanessa disappears so the Lucy and Jess hide. However, Jess gets a phone call from an anonymous person demanding the test answers otherwise Vanessa will die. The audience starts to see the shit in Jess’s careless and rebellious attitude as she realizes her friend could die because of her actions. We start to see Jess becoming scared alongside Lucy who didn’t even want to steal the answers in the first place.

First Draft for the Test

Reflection

My team and I used the app, Adobe Express to edit our movie. I also used Procreate on my iPad to draw our production company logo. We included copyright free sounds from websites and used haunting music from Adobe Express and Kevin Mcleod's audio labeled anxiety for our movie's sound.  We utilized school laptops and devices such as personal computers to create the first draft of our film. I enjoyed being able to edit our film and watch all the scenes come together. Post-production of a movie, however, is definitely very time consuming and requires effort and skill. 

Sound Editing

 Introduction

    I've already discussed visual editing in films in my previous blog post, but I didn't talk about sound editing in film making. Sound editing can be considered the process of adding audio or background noise to a film as well as distortion of audio. For example, some films may add creepy background music while a character is exploring a dark empty room in a horror film or they might add pop music during a scene in a high school drama. The sound used in a film depends on the film's genre so a horror movie wouldn't have loud electro music with a positive connotation during a scene where a character is getting injured or killed. My team and I included audio effects such as a typewriter clicking noise while introducing the credit for our production company and the end credit with the title of our movie. We also added low creepy background music during the nighttime scene in the classroom, as well as a phone ringing noise to insinuate our protagonist getting a phone call. 

Reflection

    My group and I did encounter some problems during editing which was the audio shifting around constantly. If I added a new scene to our movie instead of staying in place, the audio would move forward or backward. Of course that wasn't ideal so I tried to not add any more audio clips into the film until I knew I was satisfied with the visual editing of our scenes and wasn't going to add or cut any more scenes. Once I was done with visual editing, then I added the necessary audio for our film which solved the problem and made editing loads easier. I spent about two hours editing the audio of our film in a way that I was satisfied with. I also added voiceovers in the film where the antagonist was talking to the main character over a phone call which also took time and required that I add some dialogue to our antagonist. 

Visual Editing

 Introduction 

    Editing in film is the purposeful arrangement of scenes or shots by trimming them down or switching the placement of certain scenes. Editing is an important part of the film making process because it helps bring the scenes together and establishes the pace and mood of the film which is essential. My group and I utilized Adobe express to edit our film since it had helpful features like insertion of audio tracks and  used titles and credits to add to the storytelling of our film, as well as lower saturation and darker color, especially in the scenes where it was supposed to be nighttime. For credits we used bolder fonts and the title of our fim, we used bolder fonts so it would make it easier for our audience to see and so it could contribute to the story our film tells. My team and I also used the dissolve transition in our film so that the scenes can blend in together and look less choppy. I was assigned the role of being the video editor of our film and made the main choices for how our film should be edited. 

Reflection

    Of course while editing our film was a successful journey it was also hard. I spent about five to six hours editing our film with the assistance of my teammates. We encountered challenges such as our film being too long which was not good, so we decided to cut some scenes out and trim down other scenes just to make it fit the time frame of two minutes. I think our editing and production decisions added to the horror aspect of our film since that's its genre. all in all, while the editing was complicated I found it rewarding and think it was worth the amount of energy and work that was put in. 

Bloopers

 Introduction

    While filming our shots, my team and I broke character in some scenes or messed up our lines. This is referred to as bloopers, or scenes that were deleted due to mistakes (usually made by actors/actresses) that are typically funny or humorous. Bloopers can vary from an actor saying the wrong line to an actor breaking character and laughing. Some movies may actually release bloopers online for viewers to see which can actually be considered a form of advertisement since they are attempting to engage viewers in their movie. Bloopers can be considered important since what occurs in the videos aren't scripted and show the actors/actresses real emotions and feelings. 

Reflection

    Overall, bloopers are definitely common in the movie industry. They may even bring a production team together as it can be seen as a funny experience they all shared and can improve camaraderie amongst the team. They also make the actors or/and actresses in a film seem more authentic and relatable to the audience as they are revealed to be people who make funny mistakes as well. Bloopers also allow the audience to see what occurs behind the scenes amongst the cast and film crew which can make them more entertained. 

Day 2 of Filming

 Introduction 

    My teammates and I finished all the production for our film today during class. We filmed our end scenes which were crucial to the movie as they were the catalyst of the film. Even though we did have some problems like time, we were able to finish the filming and it was an amazing feeling. After putting in all that effort for our film, to see it come to life was surreal. Our film crew did such a good job filming this movie and we put in so much effort which will hopefully be seen by the audience watching our movie. I definitely gained a greater appreciation for producers and film crews as creating a movie requires a lot of dedication and work. Filming for our film, the Test, has been so enjoyable for me and I'm proud of how much my team and I accomplished. 

Reflection

    Finishing the filming for The Test has honestly been bittersweet because I am happy that we finally completed filming for our movie that we technically have been working on for the past few months, but am also a little sad to be done with the filming as it was a bonding experience for my team and I. While the production wasn't easy, it was fun and I truly think it was a learning experience for everyone involved in the Test. The production process was very rewarding since we were able to bring our ideas to life. That being said, I can't wait to begin editing the film and see The Test the way I envisioned it. 

Day 1 of Filming

 Introduction

    Today, my group and I started the first day of filming which was incredibly fun. We did filming today during class and after school and for Day 2 we will be filming the last scenes during class. After all of our hard work planning for the test and getting a general idea of how we what our movie to look, seeing it come to life is honestly a wonderful feeling. However, we did change some of the scenes, mainly the end scenes of our movie as well as the teacher's dialogue. We realized that we didn't have enough time, as our movie has to be 2 minutes long maximum, to include all the scenes we wanted to. Instead of including those scenes of a masked killer, we decided to have the antagonist's identity remain a mystery and introduce them as a crazy person who has an unknown motive and only one goal: to get the answers to the midterm test. The antagonist was introduced in the movie when they called the main character, Jess, and revealed that they kidnapped her friend Vanessa, however it can be assumed that the unknown figure is willing to go to extreme lengths such as murder to get the answers. We also changed the dialogue of the teacher to make it easier for our actual teacher to act, so she improvised her lines instead which gave us a good result. 

 Reflection

    All in all, I can say that the production of the test was an enjoyable experience. However, as much as it was fun, I can admit it was a bit tiring as well since we were required to act and figure out how our scenes should be executed. We also used an iPhone to film the actual movie so we had to be a bit flexible with how we could actually carry out the shots. Even though we had to make changes to our film, I believe that proved how adaptable we are as team.  Adaptability is very important when it comes to film making as things may not always turn out the way the film crew envisioned or problems could've occurred such as an actor getting sick, but being able to overcome these obstacles is very important and contributes to the production of a film greatly.