Production Process

So today was our 2nd production day and well lets just say it did not go so well. We ran into two problems and basically we had to reschedule the day. So originally we had planned the production to be at 10:00 AM but I had a doctors appointment in the morning so we had to reschedule for later in the day around 3:30 PM and 4:00 PM. So we got to the shooting location around 4 and we got dressed and everything was ready. We started shooting but as soon as we started it started raining. We could not do the shots that we needed now because last time when we shot all the scenes were sunny and it was nice weather. If we did the shots today then it would have looked different and would have made the scene weird. The only shot we were able to get was the one inside the house and that took about 5-10 minutes. Overall, the production day went kind of wrong but the good thing is that we started editing the clips that we have so we dont get cramped with time. 

Starting editing

 We finally sat down to edit our film, but we spent way more time than we expected on the beginning.

The opening was our main problem. At first, we started with the driving scene because that’s where the story technically begins, but we didn’t like how it turned out. The audience doesn’t know the characters yet, so having them argue for thirty seconds felt confusing and random. Even though our original plan was to start with the TV news report scene, we tried the car scene first just to see how it looked. In the end, we decided to put the TV news report scene at the beginning instead.

After that, we spent about 20 minutes lining up the clips, cutting them, and making sure the transitions weren’t too sudden. It wasn’t hard, but it was kind of boring and took time. Still, everything came together nicely in the end. 

The editing was brief because my group and we were careful during recording and thought about how the clips would turn out. This made the editing process much easier. However, we still need to figure out the music and audio tracks, and that has been a big challenge for us.

Picture of Timeline:

Research for CCR question #1

Question 1 of the CCR is:

How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues? In this we essentially have to talk about the genre conventions and how we challenged them or why you did not, and we have to talk about representation. 

Here is what my answer will be for this question

We used the usual genre conventions for our action comedy genre, fast pacing, a storyline which involves crime and comedy. The case with the fraud creates tension in the movie and the comedy and humor comes the characters mistakes. The film challenges the conventions by making the characters stupid and unskilled, usually the characters are very confident and strategic. The characters in our movie solve their cases by accident which makes it different and makes the movie funny. The characters are shown as like regular everyday people, they dont look like agents so it relates to our younger target audience. The villain is a greedy and corrupt guy who is doing fraud and we have seen this in the real world before as well but in the movie it is shown in a funny way. Overall, we challenged and used the the genre conventions while mixing the action and comedy together in the best way we could. 

 

For question 1 of the CCR I was planning on doing a snack wars type of thing but it will just look like I am answering the questions while doing something else. After brainstorming, I want to do an interview type of thing where the interviewer is going around knocking in a community and then he knocks on my door and ask the question above. I think this will be a good way to do my CCR and it will be interactive. 

Group Meeting

Today we had a group meeting with people from my class. We had a group meeting before this as well but this time we had it with different people so we got a bunch of different inputs this time. We talked about the production and how it went. I told everyone how it was and how my project is coming along. I got some tips on what to do with the CCR's and Production. 

Tips:

• use final cut camera app for best quality video
• film each CCR scene with each angle first
• develop CCR idea!!!!!
• different costumes for each "character"
• purposeful imperfection
• imovie on desktop works well
• uppbeat.com for non copyrighted audio
• play on phone speaker rather than importing, sounds more authentic (?)

These helped a lot and will help when we do our second production day this weekend. I am sure the others in the group also found this very helpful. We all talked and discussed the ways that we can improve our projects and it turned out to be a great and big help.

Production Process #2

 After the news shot, pretty much everything else went pretty smooth and we got all the shots that we could. After the news shot we had to another shot with the agents speaking in like a meeting room, so we had already decided before that we would do it in the library meeting room. Fortunately, not many people were there at the library and we got the meeting room quickly and were able to do our shots and take our time. In the meeting room we reorganized the chairs and table a little to fit them to our needs and set up the props and everything that was required for the shot. By the time we got all the things ready, our actors also arrived which was perfect timing. We gave them the costume they had to wear and guided them through the script and what we need from them. One of the dialogues needed a little emotion and some anger and our actor executed it perfectly which was great and we really liked the scene. This shot also took some time, from setting up to getting what we needed it took about 25-30 mins. It also took multiple tries to get the actors to get the emotion shots correctly and overall the perfect scene we needed.

This is a photo of us at the set which was the meeting room. 

Once we finished the filming at the library we went to one of our partners house to start on the shots we needed from there. We now needed a shot of the two main characters in the car and a funny start to the movie. Once we got to the house, we had to dress up in our costumes which was a white shirt, pants and a tie. We also had to get our prop guns and put them in the car so it could be visible. We had one of our friends call in the car so it could look like the two characters boss is calling them and giving them an assignment. We gave the caller a really funny name and put a funny photo along with it too. This scene took us about another 30 mins but it was really good and we got what we need. We did not finish the whole production but we got about 1- 1:15 min of it captured. We have another production day sometime in the next week or next Saturday which is the 28th. Overall, it was really fun being with my friends and making this project and look forward to the next production day. 

Production Process

 We started filming the movie opening today and it was not as easy as we thought. The process took much more time than we expected it to and we had to redo multiple shots to make them perfect. At first we thought that the group would use an actual proper camera but at the last moment some problems happened with the camera and it would not work anymore. So, we decided to just use our iPhones because they also have pretty great camera quality.

The first shot we had to do was the news report shot, and we had to find a good background for that shot. We used the fountain at the library and the pillars around it. This made the shot look professional and like an actual news report which is what we were aiming for. The dialogue for the scene came in very clear and the very soft sounds of the waterfall in the background with the scenery make it look very professional and realistic. The scene took multiple tries because the actor was one of our friends and he messed it up a couple times but in the end we still got the perfect shot. The process of recording just this one small scene took like 15-20 mins. We realized that its not easy at all to do this stuff, it requires patience and a lot of hard work. We also ran into a problem the day of production in the morning where our friend who was going to act that day fell sick and then we were scrambling to find another person who was available to do that shot for us today. We then later proceeded to film some of the other shots. 

This is a picture of me and my friend who was doing the news report scene and I am the one who is recording him with my phone. He had a prop microphone in his hand to make it realistic and now we will use the shot in the opening and add some news editing to it.

Planning for production day

Today my group and I discussed the production day and what we need to do on that day. We discussed the locations, where we are going to meet up, how we will record and etc. The main thing we needed to do was finalize the costuming and props. We only had about the last 20-25 minutes of class to do it since we had a lesson that day as well. We created a group chat with our friends who were acting for us and also a private group chat just between the partners so we could discuss the scenes and plan thoroughly for production day. We made a list of all the props we needed and the costume that needed to be ordered, and nowadays with delivery and shipping being fast we would get it by tomorrow which is Friday. 

This is the list that we made with all the costume pieces and props that were required for our production day to go good and be productive. We encountered an issue with timings and what days we can film, because I could only do Saturday and I had to leave at 2:15 PM and my partners were not able to do it on Sunday. We all had to agree and find out some time where we could meet up and get some of the production done. Another thing that we did because of this is that we set up another date to record just in case we could not finish in the amount of time that we had. So we set a date to record on 2/21 from 12 to 2:15 and 2/28 around the same time. 

Production company logo

 

This is our production company logo. At first my group and I believed that making the production logo did not need much time and was not a big worry. We were totally wrong, this actually took much more time than we expected. The group and I came up with the name "White Hawk Productions" to go with our choice to make something with a bird because we felt it would look great. We then searched for free licenses of an eagle outline until we found one that matched what we wanted. I discussed with my group if to put WhiteHawk in one word or White Hawk in two, but once We typed it out, the two-word version looked cleaner. To try to create the kind of contrast we noticed in many simple example logos, We placed WHITE in a black box and then HAWK floating next to it in the same font. To make it obvious that the logo was for a production company, the word PRODUCTIONS was placed underneath.

The name we picked is White Hawk productions which is the meaning behind the name gavin, which is one of our partners name. We also thought that white hawk is something that could relate to our target audience which is young men primarily. The name we chose is White Hawk Productions, which is the meaning of one of our partners' names, Gavin. also we believed that White Hawk would connect with our target demographic, which is mainly younger guys.

Audio

 In the action comedy genre, the audio and the background music will be very important. This be a really important part to develop the tense and funny scenes. The sound will help to develop the characters, the genre of the movie. I have not thought so much about the sound part yet but I have some idea of what I want to incorporate. 

First in the opening I will start off with serious and fast action music. This will get the audience ready for the danger and all the usual aspects of an action opening. During the comedy moments in the opening the music will sometimes go silent, the volume will be reduced, or cut out all of a sudden. The dumb character will be loud, will speak with confidence but say dumb things. The smart character will be quieter and more professional and will use a lot of sarcasm.

We will also sound effects like boots stepping loudly in a quiet mission or like dropping something and it making a really loud noise which interrupts the mission. These will make the scenes much funnier and over all keep the action genre alive too. Silence will also be added to increase the comedy, such as when a mistake happens the silence will come or silence before a loud noise. These all are the some of the ideas that I have thought of and these I think will add a great touch to the opening to make it seem professional and overall be an interesting piece of media. 

An example of a movie that uses this really well is Four Lions, it mixes everything together in a perfect way. 

Mise-en-scene 2

 Costume is really important in an action comedy, it will mix the humor and action in a good way. The costume for the dumb character will be a oversized tactical vest, fake spy like sunglasses and instead of wearing boots they will be wearing sneakers. This will make the character look unprofessional and like he has no clue of what he is doing at all. This will also be funny because the audience will think that in such a serious situation theres an idiot like this who had no clue what he is doing.

The costume for the second character will be like a casual hoodie and will actually be wearing a good fitting tactical vest. He will have a backpack which will be full of random stuff and will wear boots. This characters main target is to look realistic and give more of a serious vibe but in a humorous way. The costume for the villain we have not figured it out yet but will be something with the color black to make it look evil and simple.

Props will also be key, we will use fake weapons such as BB Guns, Fake knifes and stuff like that. Cheap walkie talkies for communication, a flashlight that does not work and for the villain we will need a laptop, phone, fake cash, fake documents and etc. 

Mise-en-scene

 For this project and the overall genre action comedy, mise-en-scene will be very important and key to making the opening funny and realistic. I think mise-en-scene will be a really important thing to develop and it will decide if our film opening was good or not. 

To make the enemy's room we will use a dark room with a big monitor and tv. On the tv, there will be news playing about a big fraud going on and on the monitors it will be stocks and bank accounts to represent that there is a fraud going on with money. Along with this the whole house will also be dark and very lowly lit. 

We are also gonna have to make a news scene which will kick off the film opening. For this we will probably have a character on a desk with a glass of water and paper and pen. They will be reporting and most likely we would have to add a greenscreen of a news channel in the background to make it look realistic. 

Another set that we would need to work on is when the government officials are speaking and we have to make it seem like an actual meeting room where two officials are having a private conversation. For this we would probably use a dining table but we havent really figured out what to do for the background and on how to make it look like a meeting room. 

 

Character Development

 For the character development, we will have two main characters and one will be a smart one and the other will be stupid. We want to make one of them funny and the other serious. This helps the film opening to be an action comedy movie. Keeping the seriousness and humor is the first priority in our film opening.

The 1st character will be a funny guy who has no seriousness and is dumb. This will be like your typical clumsy character who drops things, makes loud noises and etc. This character will focus on making the opening funny and entertaining. This character will continously make mistakes while trying to capture the bad guy. He will also be overconfident and believe that he is super skilled but everything goes wrong for him.

The 2nd character will be the smart and actually skilled one. This will be the guy who is actually skilled and knows what he is doing. He is smart about what he does but also nervous a little bit. This character will be the guy who is super tired of his partners dumb actions and sometimes just wants to beat them up. To be funny this character will be sarcastic with his dumb partner.

A great example of this is from the 4 Lions, Omar and Waj. Waj is really stupid and doesnt know what he is talking about or doing. Omar is serious and knows what he is doing to an extent but he also is just tired of his dumb partners. 

Script

 We started to work on the script but have not finished yet, we discussed a lot of the shooting spots and how the story will be developed. We have started the scriptwriting and are only about 3-4 scenes in. Here is what we have so far:

SCRIPT FOR PORTFOLIO PROJECT 

Cast: 

News reporter: Antonia B. Muller 

Dumb: Joao 

Dumbest: Ranveer 

Criminal: Gavin 

 

Scene 1:  

(Extreme Close Up on News Reporter talking on a screen about the Major Fraud happening in the state of FL with a slow zoom out capturing the room with the person doing the Fraud and we can see his setup but face hidden) 

 

News reporter: “We are interrupting the regular program for urgent news that just came in, Investigators just revealed they have discovered a huge embezzlement fraud occurring right here in the state of Florida.” (Extreme Close Up)                                    

News Reporter: Agents and officials are moving fast to identify the person behind this major fraud 

(Zoom out to see “criminals” figure watching the news report) 

(News reporter keeps babbling and the sound fades out during the zoom out) 
 

Scene 2:  

(Low Medium Shot of Criminal in his dark messy room with multiple monitors and the tv screen playing the news and we can see him on the phone. Bank Accounts and Stocks on the monitors.) 
 

Criminal: “Transfer the money to my account in the next 3 hours”. (Very Low Faint Voice) 

Sound: Low intense music when camera fully zooms out, News channel still playing, Criminal Dialogue. 
 

Scene 3: 

(Medium shot of government officials in a room with low lighting talking about who to send to arrest and cuts to a close-up of the case files which shows the main 2 characters.) 

Government officials: We found the guy behind this, who are we going to send now; we must send the best. 

Government official 2:  The 2 best in Florida is already on a mission and KIA, the second option we have are these two 

Sound: dialogue with theme song as case file opens 

 

We will continue to complete this next week and plan to have it done by the end of next week.

Project Idea and Inspiration

 Our project idea is to do an action comedy, this will require a good story and good comedy scenes. At first we were thinking about doing a hardcore action movie and make it look realistic but then later realized that we would need a lot of resources for it which we do not have access to. Therefore, after a lot of thinking and brainstorming we came up with the idea to do an action comedy. 

The main story of our project is that there is a huge fraud going on in Florida and the investigators have figured out who it is and where they live. They have to send in their best agents to capture him but the two best are already on a separate case so there are only two left which are two dumb characters. They have to go and capture the guy without making any mistakes. One of the characters is serious and the other is kind of stupid and dumb which helps to make it more funny. The criminals face is not gonna be revealed until the end of the opening film clip which will make it mysterious. Overall, we will try to make this as funny as possible and interesting at the same time. 

We took inspiration about the action comedy genre from the movie 21 Jump Street and about the characters in which one robber is serious and the other is dumb from Home Alone. 21 jump street is really funny and has good humor. The movie combines action with dumb characters, funny jokes and etc. Home Alone is also similar but one character is serious and the other one is dumb. These 2 movies are perfect examples for action comedies and they really stood out to my group and I. 

Media Theory Incorporation

 Media Theories are incorporated into movies a lot and they play an important role. Some people think why are media theories so important? Media theories help us to understand why the movie was made, how the audience reacted to the movie, and also what is the theme of the movie or what message it is trying to convey. It helps directors and movie makers to make the films better because they have an understanding of the audience. It helps them to make audiences more interested and think more about the movie rather than just watching the movie. It helps them to see the morals, themes or a message that they are trying to point out. 

I also want to incorporate a theory in my film opening and I will use the Uses and Gratifications Theory. This theory basically says why people watch certain types of media. It says that audiences are active viewers and they pick the films or media because it will be something that will entertain them. The audience doesnt just watch whatever but something that will entertain them in a certain way. Some will watch to relax, some for entertainment and others for thrills. I think this will fit my action genre because a lot of people watch this to escape their lives and entertain themselves. I will use funny moments, some serious scenes and etc. to keep the audience engaged using the theory. Overall, Uses and Gratifications will be a perfect fit for my movie and I will use this theory to keep my audience on the edge of their seats and enjoying the opening scene. 

A movie that incorporates the media theory Uses and Gratifications well is The Truman Show because in this we can see that people in the film are actually choosing to watch the truman show for entertainment and to just escape and relax. 

 

Group meeting discussion

On 2/2, we had a group meeting discussion. In this meeting there was a group of 5-6 people and we all discussed our ideas about what our plan was for the portfolio project. The main purpose of this meeting was to get some advice and helpful tips for our projects. The other people were from other groups and they had their own different ideas. I presented my idea about an action movie and got some very helpful tips from other people. Our idea was about an action movie and I pitched some ideas that I had for the film opening. My ideas got a lot of feedback and they told me that I should have a good costume for the movie and I need good props. They also said that the story sounded good and it could be a good film opening if it was developed or produced well. I also shared tips and advice to other people, they also found it very helpful and appreciated the tips.

Overall, this group meeting discussion was a really great thing and it helped a lot. It helped to get extra tips and feedback from other people. The thing was that most of the people were very honest and it was not like anyone was trying to be mean but they were trying to help. It was constructive criticism which helped to develop the film opening and make it more interesting. I think the other people in the group would have also really benefited from this meeting. They would also be thinking on how to improve their project and this meeting could have provided what extra things they were looking for to improve their opening. 

This is a photo of my group and I during the discussion

House Raid scenes

 House raid scenes are very cool and are commonly used in action movies. My group and I want to do a house raid film opening scene. These scenes are really popular and they usually involve the military, special forces, or police. These scenes show a team entering a building to eliminate a target or an enemy. These scenes are popular because they show characters in small and tight places where there is a lot of danger and it can come from anywhere. This shows the characters as anxious and alert and it makes the audience also feel like that. There a lot of close up shots used, low lighting or sometimes night vision and they used handheld cameras to make it look realistic.

A movie that did this house raid scene really good was the movie Zero Dark Thirty. This scene shows how the U.S. special forces infiltrated Osama Bin Ladens home. The scene focuses on making it realistic, tension and small details instead of making it dramatic. The sound makes it seem more realistic with the sounds of the boots, guns, breathing and also them whispering into the radio. The scene is shot in darkness and some clips in night vision as well. They start the scene off slow to build tension and then it starts to get faster but not like chaos. This is how they keep it realistic and less dramatic.