Project: Submission/Links to film opening and CCRs

Film Opening Link

(Important note: All names in this opening, EXCEPT for "Ethan Jin" and "Scott Buckley", are fake. They are only used to mimic the credits of actual movies.)

Film Opening

CCR Links

Creative Critical Reflection #1

Creative Critical Reflection #2

Project: Final Reflection

 This is my final reflection on the making of my film. 

Honestly not much has changed about me or my film experience, except for the heavy preparation that comes with making a film. The production, making the sets, brainstorming ideas, its all the same for me. 

I've been in film 1-3, and although in those classes I never done as in depth research and preparation as AICE Media, I still watched a plethora of different films, which gave me a good grasp on a variety of genres. 

And as for the production, I've said before that I already had experience with stop motion in my previous film classes. Not just the animation but also the set designs and the lighting. Sure I had to make a few space ships for my film, something I never made before, but it was still very easy: just cardboard, tape, glue, and paint. 

I guess it would have been much different if I was tasked with making a film outside of my usual film genres, like comedy or romance. But even still, making a comedy or romance film would, I think, be easy for me since although I mainly delve into the sci-fi, horror, action, and animation genres; I still have a decent grasp on multiple different genres. 

I think that it would have been much bigger game changer if I was researching a genre I have never seen before. Then I would have had a much different, and maybe more difficult, experience with my project. 

 I had a lot of fun with this project, especially when I was testing and using glitter and water to make the special effects of mimicking stars. One of my favorite things about this project is that the main character, the Astronaut Stikbot, just sits in his cockpit for all of the project. Meaning I never had to make him walk or move other than moving his head and arms. 

Although I think I should have given him a better costume, since his Astronaut helmet looks a bit goofy. 

Project: CCR Post-Production/editing

This is the editing process for my CCRs

I know I said previously that I didn't like using Adobe Express and switched over to using Adobe Premiere. But I can only access Premiere using my dad's laptop, and my dad is always out for work. And I am unable to log into the account using my own laptop since my dad forgot the password ಠ_ಠ. So I'm going to have to go back to using the less advanced editing platforms. 

This time I'll use Clipchamp since Adobe Express at least Clipchamp does not lag often. 

My CCR is going to be stop motion, so already it is more interesting to look at a charming Stikbot rather than a talking head. And of course I don't want this to be just a picture of a Stikbot standing there. Although looking at a Stikbot, at least for me, is more interesting than looking at talking head, I know that it just standing there is not going to make the audience magically interested. So I made some animations of the character moving and mimicking talking, and I also added scenes happening in the background to keep the viewers engaged. 

Editing is always the most difficult part for me since it is kind of boring and a bit complicated. Thankfully for a CCR I can just plug in most empty scenes I don't have animations for in between with movie scenes and pictures. I didn't use any stock videos or photos though (only a few green screens for special effects) since I don't really find them engaging or interesting. Although my CCR is supposed to be mimicking a company introduction video for new employees, I still know that this is a CCR and not an actual greeting video. 

I forgot to make this "Please stand by" screen picture during production, which honestly wasn't that hard. I just pulled a tv error picture from stock photos before using a picture of my dog, the mascot of Juni-Co. Then I just put it all together using Adobe Express. Finding a silly picture of my dog is sure is easier than finding a serious picture of her. 

One of the scenes I wanted to do is this scene of a background worker getting exploded by one of the space ship's thrusters. I used a green screen of a Minecraft explosion since I thought it was funny, but then I remember that the copyright demons might get me, so I'm going to replace it with a different explosion. Which is a shame since I find the Minecraft explosion green screen much funnier than other green screen explosions. But oh well. At least the sound effects for the explosion and pipe falling is copyright free (Pulled from Pixabay).

List of footage I used from movies and interviews

Interstellar

Blade Runner (Tears in Rain)

Blade Runner 2049

Ad Astra

2001: A Space Odyssey

The Matrix

Interview with Kubrick

Project: CCR Production

This is the production process of both my CCRs. 

My main two ideas are a CEO showing the viewer around his research facility while talking about his film, and the other idea is a simple interview style talk show using sock puppets.

Concepts

For the 1st CCR, the CEO idea, I needed three sets since the CEO will be walking and traveling around: A couch room where the three new interns are being briefed by the bored instructor, a hallway where the CEO/me will be talking about his work while crazy things happen in the background, and another empty hall with a gate. There is also a small little box that the CEO will be riding in as a cart (This helps with making animating easier since making Stikbots walk is time consuming).

I will be using the same materials as always: Cardboard, paint, plastic, duct tape, super glue, and paper tape. 

For the 2nd CCR, the sock puppet show, it is simply just one set. It will just be a box painted, super glued, and cut out (for lights). 

The puppets themselves will just be ordinary socks with either googly eyes or styrofoam balls glued for eyes. And the interviewer puppet will have fuzzy sticks as arms to hold a piece of paper he has filled with the questions he wants to ask me. 

Making the sets

Creating the sets are pretty straightforward. I am just using cardboard and paper tape to put it all together. Especially for the insides for the windows so that the inside of the cut out cardboard isn't seen. 

The only main problem I came across was that the cardboard kept falling backwards, so I had to create this little cardboard extension, using a weight like a metal water bottle to keep it standing. Not for the second set since it was small enough to stand on its own, but the bigger one needed some sort of stand to keep it upright.

I'm pretty sure there are better ways to approach this, but I am working with a very tight production and shooting schedule (This is the last week for working on the project). So if it looks stupid but works, then its not stupid. 

I decide to not do the third set because of time and its unnecessary. After all it is just a plain white room, which I can probably easily replace with a white cardboard background by reusing one of these sets. 

The puppets were easy to make. They are just socks with either styrofoam balls or googly eyes glued on. There are only a few problems I came across, the main one was that the third puppet at the back (Who I call Mr. Cheetos), googly eyes kept falling off. So if they fall off one more time then I'll replace the eyes with styrofoam balls. 

The other problems are just stuff I am missing. Like tape for the arms for the host puppet to hold his paper, and red colored paper for his bowtie. But generally most of these problems are very minor and easily solvable when I get back home. 

Shooting/Animating/Puppeteering 

Timelapses

Making the sets: (CCR 1 set/Company intro)   (CCR 2 set/socket puppet show)

Shooting: (CCR 1 shooting)   (CCR 2 shooting)

Project: CCR production ideas

 For the CCR, it is highly recommended to be creative and have fun. 

For mine, I have two main ideas I would like to do: A company video style, and a sock puppet show. 

For the company style video, I want it to mimic a video shown to new interns of a company. Like a company introduction or a instructional tutorial, or an old video tape that a substitute teacher would show to their class to pass the time.

 Like this video called Delta-P Instructional Video, which is a safety video instructing how divers can prevent death via delta pressure. 

Another good example is this are these commercials for gummy candy products by Vat19. These are mockumentaries, not actual videos by the candy companies who make the product. But these commercials do have the dark humor I am aiming for for my CCR, especially in the introduction of the made-up gummy corporation CEO, Chet Huskins. I like for my CCR to also have a CEO walking around his factory introducing the viewers into a sort of tour and intro of his company grounds. 

My second idea for my CCR is a sock puppet show. It will just be a simple talk show style, where the host sock puppet interviews the director sock puppet/me.

My main inspiration are these history videos called Puppet History. I am mainly inspired by the small sets the puppet use, using classic curtains to change the scenes and pictures on sticks for temporary characters. 

Project: Research and script for #4 question of CCR post

How did you integrate technologies-software, hardware, and online- in this project?

This is the fourth question of the CCR

Hardware: Webcam, lights, tripods for backdrop, boxes and books for camera holding

Software: Adobe Express, switched over to Adobe Premiere since Express is kinda bad. Canva, Blogger, Adobe Express, Picsart

Online: Youtube, Creative Commons, Pixabay

Script

The main hardware I used was a camera, tripods for the backdrop, and lights. 

The camera I used is a Logitech web camera (I think the version is C920). This camera is amazing for stop motion. Because of its small size, one is able to place the camera into places that a bigger camera is not able to. And, the C920 has 1080p quality. Small yet has great quality. I had this webcam for a very long time, around 2-3 years when I first began doing stop motion. 

The lights I used were mainly these little led lights that are able to change color and brightness via remote. These were originally meant for vehicles like motorcycles, which explains why they are able to last long without dimming or flickering. There is only a few problems with these lights, like how they have these weird little hooks at the sides of it which makes it difficult to get it to stand up right, or how its oval shape is not able to have a flashlight effect like the party finger LED lights I used before for my previous films. But overall these little flaws are made up for by the lights long luminant duration and its ability to change colors and brightness.

I also used a normal desk lamp for more brighter scenes, although I only used it for a few shots. 

The software I used to edit and put together my entire film was originally Adobe Express, which I accidently mixed up with Adobe Premiere. So I moved my project Premiere since Express is... pretty bad for video use. But it is better when making a poster, and even allowed me to download and store specific fonts. This came especially useful for the opening title and credits. 

Then I used Canva to turn the backgrounds of my credits transparent so I could put them in my film. 

As for online I used a lot of different resources I mainly used Youtube, Pixabay, and Creative Commons. Youtube I mainly used for researching different sci-fi movie openings and essay videos. Pixabay where I pulled a lot of sound effects from. And Creative Commons was the website I used to skim what music I should use. 

Project: Research and script for #3 question of CCR post

 How did your production skills develop throughout the project?

This is the third question of the CCR.

Script

My production skills mainly remained the same. Stop motion, making the sets, camera use, most of the production I already knew of prior since I have experience with stop motion before. The only main difference is the extensive planning.  

 

Before I used to just eyeball it, and just animated whatever came to my head. I had a general idea of what I wanted, but I never wrote down any scripts or storyboards. This portfolio project was the very first time I used a storyboard for my own personal film.  

 

And it is not just storyboarding I had to plan for. I also had to plan for making a list of sound effects, props, set designs, and research on other films and genres. All I have never done before for any of my stop motion films until now.  

 

Research was especially a different approach for me since for most of my films, they are just ideas that pop into my head. And honestly research did not really have a big impact for me since when the project was announced, I already had a few ideas of what films I would like to make, ranging in different genres and stories. I already know of a bunch of space films beforehand, including their production and direction. But I would think that research would have a big impact on me if I was tasked with researching a specific genre I am not familiar with, like romance or comedy.  

 

I originally wanted to do a horror film, since stop motion works amazingly with it. But I heard that Cambridge does not like seeing horror films since they are overused. So then I juggled between a war and sci-fi film. I ultimately chose sci-fi since I hear often that the bridge between war and horror is really close, so I went with sci-fi since it is the safer route, and is the genre I always wanted to work with ever since I got into AICE Media.