Critical Reflection Powerpoint

I ran into a number of issues when attempting to get my voice-over to play with the Mp4 file, this resulted in me doing my voice-over a number of times and attempting to try multiple techniques. I am still however unsure if you will be able to hear the audio with this video, therefore as  insurance incase the audio does not work, I recored my presentation with my phone it will upload it at the end of this blog post. I understand if points are lost for this format but this is what was necessary for me to ensure that you had my presentations audio. Thank you for your understanding and time.

Revised Script

I wrote this script, I had to cut it down from the original in-order to match the time restraints. Some lines were changed but nothing was added.

This was my post about the revised script from the third quarter submission, however some changes need to be added. Unfortunately, I do not have access to the same resources I had at school, therefore I am posting this revision in a different format. 

What should be added to the end of the script: 

FADE IN

GIOVANE IS LAYING ON HIS BED ASLEEP, HE IS ALONE

G: *wakes up and sits up* I can't do this

GIOVANE IS NOW LOOKING AT HIS COMPUTER FOR ADVICE

G: *On the phone* Hey man, you still want that candy?

ALTO IS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LINE

A: *Sighs and hangs up putting phone down*

G: *Looks at phone with disbelief, sets phone down and looks discouraged*

FADE TO BLACK

Final Submission

This is our final Submission, we didn't change anything from our last submission, except for adding an extra scene to the end of the video. This was done to reach our target time and also provide more closure as to what happens next. The scene at the end provides a different view of Shawn and Mine's characters by showing them in a different setting and, however they still act the same as before, showing their characters don't change how they act depending on where they are.

CCR Question #4 Draft

Technology
It is evident to us that our movie would not have been possible without the use of technology. It was prevalent throughout our film and vital to the creation of it.

• Technology can be seen throughout the film as props;
• The opening conversation between Shawn and Connor's characters happens through calls over the I-phones
• Shawn's character drives a car to the deal
• In the final scenes Shawn's character uses google on a computer and he once again has a phone conversation with Connor's character with I-phones

But technology was also used in the creation of the film. We filmed the scenes using the camera on my I-Phone 7, while not the top of the line camera's used in professional productions, my I-phone worked well and was easy to use. To edit our movie we used adobe premier, this editing software was installed on our school computers, it was not easy to use. I had to learn how to use the software first but also deal with errors that kept occurring. However I managed to create a finished product that I was proud of, and would not have been possible without technology.

CCR Question #3 Draft

Production Skills
Throughout the process of working on this film, my production skills improved in every possible category. In the beginning I had no real prior experience working on a project such as this one. So of course by the end of the process I had improved.

Camera Skills
The first time we filmed our film, we were worried about the lighting when filming our movie, this prompted us to try certain camera tricks to add more light to the film, such as holding a light behind the camera. This gave our scenes a sloppy look that we were not happy with. Therefore when we re-filmed our movie, we didn't use any cheap techniques and simply used natural lighting. This drastically improved the camera quality and look. We also incorporated better camera movement and shots that gave the film a better pacing and flow from scene to scene. Things such as filming Shawn exit his car from another car, was an amazing technique that gave the illusion of him being watched. This one example shows the improvement of my camera skills.

Directing Actors
In our original filming of the film, we did not organize our actors well. The process took a very long time and was not well executed. I believe the issue stemmed from no prior planning and a lack of focus. The second time we filmed, we were prepared. We planned the scenes well beforehand, and we focused on filming. This time we filmed very efficiently and made good time. One example of the planning beforehand was the better outfit choices of our actors, and the better execution that can be seen in scenes, such as the one when Tyanna's character yells at Shawn's character. An emphasis and planning and focus, drastically improved my directing skills.

CCR Question #2 Draft

Marketing research and plan

In my audience engagement research I learned about many ways to market a film to an audience. Often times a successful film will use multiple techniques to market their product, this often works best. I also learned that within these types of marketing, there are many ways to each one, for example different films have many different types of posters, there's not only one way to make a poster. In the film, Joker, one that I did research on, the posters all had the main character as the focus of them, whereas, Get-Out had posters that showed multiple scenes from the movie. 

We looked at our film and the limitations we would have when it came to marketing it. We concluded on creating a bill board to market our film, then we would have an image of the bill board posted on an Instagram account for our film. We thought this would be effective in advertising to our target audience because a large majority of our audience uses Instagram, and they also drive, therefore they would see our advertising and it would engage them. 

Distribution research and Plan

During my distribution research I learned the importance of video on demand and streaming services today, they have began to pose a threat to movie theaters because many people now just wait till films are available on those services. I also learned that major film releases make the most money in theaters during the first few weeks of a theatrical release. The film, The Irishman, could have made much more money but there was a discrepancy between theaters and Netflix, therefore the movie was only released in select theaters before it was released onto Netflix, to avoid issues like this i devised this distribution plan: we will have a major theatrical release on October 7, but before our major theatrical release we will play our movie a select few film festivals. We will have a short period of time before our film is released to VOD and Netflix, probably around 20-30 days.  

I believe this distribution plan will be effective in reaching our target audience because a large majority of our target audience will have access to Netflix. This will allow younger members of our target audience to watch our film. If older members of our target audience wants to watch our film in a theater, we will also have a major theatrical release. I believe by constructing our distribution research the way I have, the film will be available to as large of an audience as possible. 

CCR Question #1 Draft

Conventions and Social Groups

We challenged the convention of having artificial lighting, instead of having artificial lighting in of scenes, that would have made the action in the movie more visible. However, we decided to challenge this convention by using only natural light. This choice meant that some scenes were difficult to see, but this was done on purpose, because it gave the movie a more realistic feel that we wanted. We also felt that it gave a more gritty and intense feel to the scenes that we thought would fit the movie well. 

A convention we used, that I saw in the film Pulp Fiction, was beginning the movie in the midst of a conversation. Specifically, the movie starts with our actor, Shawn Biza, stating, "Alright and there's no cops, you sure this place is safe?". This causes the viewer to be in the action as soon as the movie starts, and engages them as soon as possible. It also helps set up the plot without wasting any time.

A simple convention used in all films, but a vital one that we essential to our film was dialogue. This is how our film progresses and moves, without dialogue our film would not have worked. This is true for many films, dialogue is a vital part of most films and nearly all films in our genre. Therefore it was very conventional for us to use this in our film, but it was needed in order for us to have a successful film. 

There are two main social groups in our project, the candy seller and the buyer. The actor and actress Shawn Biza, and Tyanna Denord, represent the sellers, in our film they both illegally sell candy, I played the role of a buyer, someone who buys the candy from the sellers. However in our film the social group of the sellers can be separated into two types, one with experience and one without. Shawn Biza plays the seller with no experience, he is represented as being nervous and vulnerable. Whereas the seller with experience was portrayed by Tyanna Denord, who did a great job representing the experienced seller as being intimidating and in-control. The buyer was portrayed by me, I represented the character as being care-free and only caring about himself. These were the social groups of our film and them and their occupations drive the film. 

Third Quarter Submission

Revised Casting

This is the final Casting list. All characters are the same except we had to cut our a character, who was not integral to the plot, in order to condense our film down to the required time.

Revised Script

I wrote this script, I had to cut it down from the original in-order to match the time restraints. Some lines were changed but nothing was added.

Distribution Plan

Standard Distribution Plan:
We will have a major theatrical release on October 7, we are releasing our movie in October because not many movies are released at this time, and those that are, usually do well at the Oscars, we are hoping our movie could perform well, and get a lot of notoriety.

Before our major theatrical release we will play our movie a select few film festivals. We are hoping this will create a buzz around our movie, that will promote others to watch our movie during it's major theatrical release.

We will have a short period of time before our film is released to VOD and Netflix, probably around 20-30 days. We are hoping that by having a major theatrical release, our movie can perform well in theaters, then with the short period of time before release onto streaming, we can instantly have our film distributed to Netflix viewers. Hopefully, the combined buzz of our pre-screenings at film festivals and major theatrical release can not only promote our film to contend for an Oscar, but also attract a large amount of Netflix viewers to watch the movie.

Digital Distribution- The Irishman

The Irishman, the most recent film by the legendary Martin Scorsese, was an object of debate between Netflix and big chain theaters. Netflix financed and produced the film, naturally they wanted the film to be released onto the streaming as soon as possible. However, big movie theater chains wanted around the typical length between theatrical and streaming release of 72 days, in hot debates and stalemates, they eventually agreed to lower the time to around 60 days. Months later we now know the film released only in select theaters on November 1st then was released on Netflix, November 27. This was disappointing for both parties, had discussions gone better they could have made more profits. Preferably they could have had a major theatrical release and a short period until Netflix release.

At first I had wanted to purely stream our movie on Netflix, however after seeing how the distribution of this film wasn't maximized, I see how I now want to release my film. While i'm aware our film does not have the same names and production linked to it that The Irishman does, I am still aware that a major theatrical release and short period before Netflix release will maximize our profit. Therefore we can distribute our film this way to maximize our profits.

Revised Shot List

I thought these shots were particularly important to the film. The shots that I contributed were; Giovane talking on the phone, Alto ditching Giovane, and Danillea yelling at Giovane. I wanted to immediately start the film with an important conversation, so the audience would be immediately involved in the film. Alto ditching Giovane is an important lesson for Giovane learning he can trust no one, this is vital to his character development. Finally, Danillea yelling at Giovane is important because it shows how she's superior and of higher ability and experience than Giovane.

Digital Distribution- El Camino

Distribution

El Camino was released digitally on Netflix and premiered theatrically in limited theaters on Oct 11, 2019. The movie was at first released straight to Netflix due to it being a sequel to the Breaking Bad Tv series, which has been on Netflix for years now and was very successful on Netflix as well. The distributors of the show knew that a majority of their target audience were Netflix users, therefore the release of El Camino onto Netflix was an intelligent move. The movie had a television premiere on AMC on February 16, 2020. This was done so that fans of the show, that do not have Netflix, can enjoy the film.

Our Distribution 

We plan on similarly releasing our movie straight onto Netflix, though we do not have an already popular show that has been on Netflix for years. However we feel that our film would reach our target audience through Netflix, and having a Netflix cosign, would increase attention on our film. I have not considered a limited theatrical release and also a television premier, though now that I have seen the success of El Camino, I feel that this would be a good decision. We could use a theatrical release to reach those in our target audience without Netflix. 

Digital Distribution- The Hateful Eight

Initial Distribution
Distributed by The Weinstein Company in the United States, The Hateful Eight was released on December 25, 2015, in a limited roadshow release on 70 mm film, before expanding wide theatrically on December 30, 2015. The film grossed 155.8 Million USD in the box-office.

A Limited Roadshow release means that the film was released in select theaters, in major cities. This is advantages because it makes the audience aware of your product and may stir up hype on your film.

 Since the theatrical and roadshow releases the film has been made available for purchase in stores and it is available on streaming services such as Netflix. In-fact even the roadshow version of the film has been released on Netflix, so viewers can decide which release of the film they want to stream.

Incorporation for our product
We may want to use the limited roadshow release to familiarize the public with our brand and film. This is our first film, therefore hype and public awareness are going to be minimal to nonexistent. Hence why a roadshow release before wide theatrical release would be very beneficial.

We already plan on releasing our film to streaming services, in-fact we plan on having an exclusive Netflix release of the film. This would eliminate the roadshow release, however if we planned on having a theatrical release, we would utilize the roadshow release.

Distribution Research

Most viewers love going to the movies and having the traditional movie experience, however, prices have risen only due to the rise of prices for movie tickets. Truthfully, the amount of tickets being sold is on a negative trajectory due to the increase in use of streaming services and on demand viewing of movies. This has resulted in a change in the traditional method of film distribution, companies  have found many ways to work around this and profitably distribute their films.

VOD
One way to distribute your film and still make a good profit is to release it onto Video on Demand. VOD is one of the main reasons movie theaters are not as profitable, therefore many small films will be released in theaters and video on demand at the same time or similar times. This has been successful for films such as Snowpiercer, that made $4 million in theaters and $7 million through VOD.

Streaming Services
Streaming services such as Netflix will make films available for streaming on their service the same time they are released in theaters or even release certain films only on Netflix, they have even started to make the films they distribute on their service. Films such as The Irish Man, was released on only Netflix, this has proven to be a successful and profitable way to distribute films.

Shrinking Theatrical Windows
Another successful tactic is minimizing the period between theater release and home video/VOD release. Often times, a film will peak in viewership during the first 6 weeks but after that it begins to decline, weeks later the film will be purchasable for viewership at home. This distribution strategy would allow the film to peak in theatrical sales then be sold in homes, this would hopefully make the film makers more money.

Our Distribution Plan
Out of the techniques listed, we feel that we should do an exclusive Netflix release, this would mean our film is only released on Netflix. This would be profitable for us because a majority of our target audience uses Netflix, it would also allow anyone with Netflix to have access to our film, not having the restricted sale of tickets like at theaters. Also, the Netflix exclusive cosign would help advertise our film and could make people want to watch our film.

Marketing Plan

Based on our research on the marketing of other movies such as; Get out, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and Joker, we have decided the best course of action would be to create a Bill Board. Then once we have our image, we believe we should upload the ad onto a social media account to market our movie.

We are unable to use controversy to market our film because our movie does not have a high profile or well known popular actors. Therefore we are unable to use this to promote publicity.

We have chosen to make a Bill Board because with the resources available to us and time we have to work on it, this is our best option. This option also allows us to creatively illustrate our film. We have decided to take inspiration from the Joker posters and use dark images with a dark vibe to portray our movie as being gritty and dark.

We have decided against creating a website because we feel that marketing a website is much more difficult than creating a poster and publishing it on Social media. We also do not have the proper skills and time to create a website that excites people such as the website for Get Out did.

This is our Bill Board we created.

We decided to post our Bill Board, on an Instagram account. Our account is titled, Therisemovie, it will post the film poster and promotion on when the movie will be released.

This is it posted on our Instagram account.

The use of the social media platform Instagram will help us advertise our film to our target audience. A large amount of the young adult audience uses Instagram, therefore by posting our advertisements on the platform they will see it and be inclined to go watch our movie. Some older audience also uses Instagram, they will see the advertisement as well and be prompted to see the movie.

We will also run our trailer on youtube, this will distribute the advertisement of our movie to teenagers and young adults. These viewers  are the target audience for us and by them seeing the trailer, we will market our movie to people who will see it. The trailer will be short and concise and have a dark overall theme.

Re-shoot Complete

The past Tuesday we re-shot all of our movie. We cut out scenes in order to compress our movie opener to around two-minutes. We also changed certain shots to improve the feel and flow of our movie. Therefore we will need edit the script slightly and the shot list.

Over the upcoming week, we will edit our new movie together and work on the shot list and script.

Audience Engagement Research- Joker

Joker is a rated R thriller following Arthor Fleck, as life in Gotham continuously spits in his face and his mental state deteriorates, he becomes face to face with his alter ego, the joker. This film contains harsh language, and scenes of great violence. Therefore, this film is rated R and would hence have a similar audience to our film.

The posters all had a similar theme, the main character, the Joker. All of the posters had the main character in the focus of the posters. They didn't ever give away too much information but rather subliminally showed that the film would be dark and uncomfortable. 

They first released a teaser trailer that went viral on YouTube and racked up 62.1 million views. This trailer was a compilation of scenes throughout the movie, it was short and didn't release too much. Then they released the full length trailer and then the final trailer, they both were just edited scenes from the full length movie.

The website for the movie was very typical and didn't offer much other than the typical movie website content. They also released banner ads on websites and social media website platforms. The most interesting publicity occurred online and through news publications. The movie was scene as controversial as it depicted scenes of violence and the effects of a dangerous mental health eventually leading to a societal breakdown. This caused many to criticize the movie and it's potential to possible inspire similar events in real life. Therefore many people online and in the news spoke about the movie and their opinion. 

Using posters to advertise our movie would be the best option for marketing our film. We could easily create Poster that depict the main character as the center of the film without revealing too much information about the film. We would be unable to create trailers compiling scenes from the movie because we haven't filmed the whole movie only the first two minutes. We also would be unable to utilize the media and news to talk about our movie, because our movie is not of high profile and not very controversial. Therefore posters would be the best way to market our movie that, Joker also utilized.

Audience Engagement Research- Once upon a Time in Hollywood

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was a movie by Quintin Tarentino, is a story focused on Hollywood in 1969, during a time of change. It follows Tv star Rick Dalton, and his long time stunt double cliff booth as they make their way through an industry that has progressed passed them.
Similar to our movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is rated R, it has mature themes that mirror ours. Both of our audiences would enjoy these themes and subject matter and hopefully be mature enough to comprehend them fully.




Their website was a more basic website, it was focused on selling tickets and more basic types of marketing such as stills and trailers.

They utilized the media and press to advertise their movie. They did this by releasing stills and hints as to who was acting in the movie. The movie contained many high profile actors, therefore by releasing their inclusion in the film, it stirred up a lot of attention and hype. They also had events such as the cast going onto late night shows such as Jimmy Kimmel. This technique of advertising would not work well for us because we do not have high profile actors.

Of the techniques used by the film, the one that we could use best would be the creation of a website. This works best for our film because the other method would not be possible for us to use, due to our actors not having a high profile.

Poster Photoshop Practice

I was practicing using Photoshop today in anticipation of making my poster in the future. This was my end result of the practice today, it does not relate to any scene of the movie, but rather is just practicing using random images. While it is rough around the edges, it is a start.

The art of the Title Class Activity

Today in class we analyzed some title sequences from ARTOFTHETITLE.COM. One that I thought was well done was Reservoir Dogs. The website comments on how the film opening managed it's pace, "originally filmed in 24fps and stepped down to an almost-jumpy 12fps, achieves a sort of snappy grace". The website also tells of how the actors titles are shown to us, "As the be-suited band of men strolls down an alley, each actor is introduced in a mustard serif typeface and the George Baker Selection’s 1970 hit “Little Green Bag” pulses upbeat". The website does a good job of telling how the film makers used certain techniques and also describes certain information such as the song played during the sequence. 


Techniques that i plan to use in my film are the showing of the actors name when their character first appears on screen, like so...

I like this technique, it keeps the film organized and does so in a slick way. I plan on using this in my film, when characters are shown the actors name will be displayed as well. I plan on doing the same thing with the title when it is displayed, this was also done in Reservoir Dogs.

Audience Engagement Research- Get Out

Get Out is a mystery, thriller, film that was rated R, released in 2017.

Get out and our movie, the rise would have similar audiences due to them having the same rating, R, and also, using similar elements of the thriller genre. Therefore we are analyzing the techniques and  ways the film was marketed.

How did they market their product?
The film was marketed in many different ways,
they used an ominous poster that showed scenes of the movie without giving away too much information, on this same poster, they had a quote with a connection to the movie. They also put from the mind of Jordan Peele, an iconic figure in the realm of comedy, and mention the producer and other popular films produced by them.

Get Out also had trailers that were advertised on YouTube. These trailers did not reveal too much information yet caused lots of excitement for the movie and what it could possibly be about. The use of advertisements on YouTube was intelligent due to lots of fans of Jordan Peele and the intended audience ages most likely using YouTube. Ads were also ran during sport events on Tv, this simply opened up the possibility of a larger audience seeing it.

Get Out also utilized the use of a website that had spoiler-free synopsis of the film, trailers, an art gallery, tickets that can be bought, and a share feature, allowing people to share the website on social media.

They also had a secret midnight screening of the film. This created a lot of buzz and hype surrounding the movie, due to those that saw the movie, talking about their experience on social media.

Marketing Our Product:
Of the techniques listed and used in Get Out, i would want to use almost all of them for our film, but due to lack of resources and time, i feel that a poster that could then be out on social media would best fit our film.

My Target Audience

Target Audience

• Age: 17 and older
• Gender: Male and Female
• Geography: The United States
• Income level: All income levels
• Education level: The audience should have somewhat of a high school education
• Maturity level: They must be mature

Our movie will most likely be rated R, this is because of the mature themes that will be included in the movie. While we are selling candy, which in the real world is not illegal, in the world of our movie, it is. The distribution of illegal substances is not the only mature theme in our movie, there is also violence in the movie, another mature theme that will restrict our movie to only 17 years of age and older, younger audiences can see it, but only with an adult.
Our movie is not made for any specific gender, therefore males and females can see the movie and find enjoyment in it.
Although certain aspects of our film are inspired by other cultures, for example the Italian name, our  movie is based in and culturally American. While other people from other countries can watch and enjoy our film, we feel that it will connect most with an American audience.
We do not control the sale price of our movie at theaters, therefore the price to see the movie will be what the theaters decide to price it. Any people that can afford to see the movie will be able to watch it, any income level can enjoy it.
Due to the rating of our movie, we feel that people with at least a high school level of education will be old enough to watch the movie, and also intelligent enough to comprehend the themes and dialogue of the film.
Similar to the education level, the audience must be mature enough to comprehend the themes of our film. They also must be a certain age to purchase a ticket to the movie, with this age would most likely come maturity.

Feedback and Revisions

We received primarily positive feedback on our film after presenting it to the class. However, there were some glaring issues that we must fix;
-The movie length
-The Mis-en-scene, costumes

To fix these issues we are going to re-shoot the movie, due to Tyanna wearing clothes that didn't make sense for her character, we were unable to simply edit the movie to lower the run-time. Hence why we will re-shoot the entire movie, except this time we will all be in better costumes and have more improved and better looking camera shots. We will cut out unnecessary scenes that pro-long the film, to cut the movie down to 2 minutes rather than 3. These changes will improve the film by making it a more concise and more visually appealing product.

Use of Conventions

>How does your product use or challenge conventions of your genre?

Our product uses conventions of our genre. Things such as the use of a handheld camera and non-artificial lighting portray the film as being realistic, other films in the genre also do this.  These are conventions that are used regularly in the genre. We also used the appearance of Rhianna’s character as comic relief, this is done in the genre to help breakup the seriousness of the films.

>How does it represent social groups or issues?

Social Groups: Our movie represents three main social groups; the dealer, the consumer, and the innocent. Shawn and Tyanna's characters both represent the dealers. They both sell candy and are primarily focused on gaining more money and power. While Connor's character represents the consumer, a person who is centered on buying candy and nothing else. Meanwhile, while short, Rhianna's character's appearance in the film symbolizes those unrelated to the interaction between dealer and consumer, and does not want to become involved. Her character is one that is innocent and is centered on preserving this.

Issues: The main character Giovane, portrayed by Shawn, faces many issues that make up the content of the film. As seen in the beginning, he is inexperienced at selling candy and therefore he faces many issues as he learns the ways of the trade, this is a issue faced throughout the film. Another issue shown in the intro is the issue of not knowing who you can and cannot trust. Shawn's character has to make important choices throughout the film on who he should trust and should not. Finally, an issue at the center of the action is that of competition and territorial defense, as seen by Tyanna's character defending her territory and literally beating the competition, which is Shawn's character.