Film Opening: A Pariah's Belief (2024)

 They say that there is an end to everything, and although the most important part of getting to a destination is enjoying and learning from the trip, there's always gold at the end of the rainbow. So, yes, this project came to an end, but the ending is beautiful, especially because when you take a longer time to do something and then see that it was worth it, one grows. So it is extremely important to be proud of one's creation, like I am. Here's my opening film. Go check it out!

A Pariah's Belief (2024)

https://youtu.be/4SKcV7iBzQw

Creative Critical Reflection!!

 Finally!!! The time has come for you to see my creation! Here are the links to my CCRs and tomorrow I will post my opening film. If you are one of those people who like watching new creative creations and reflecting on Dystopian films, then you are going to love these. Enjoy it!

Creative Critical Reflection Number 1: https://youtu.be/5JFY5dEXm7U?si=e9hLFN_Eep4bItbf

Creative Critical Reflection Number 2: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTLkr3EJm/

Credits to Maria Emilia Mera as the Interviewer 

Last Reflection

 I couldn't resist giving my thoughts to my loved public. I need to thank this project for evolving my skills, thoughts, and ways of looking at the world. 

I cannot believe that this came to an end and all that I have left to say is "thank you." I am grateful to you, who are reading my blog and have walked with me every step of this marvelous experience. I am grateful for all those actors who put their time and their best effort into making this film true. I know how hard it can be sometimes for someone to offer help with something so I thank this project for showing me those people that really matter. I am also thankful for all those YouTube tutorials that helped me understand each program. I noticed at the end that I could have not done so much research and just used a single app or program, but I am glad I followed this path as I still learned several programs and this will open more doors for me. 

My production skills also evolved and I know for a fact that I will need this for my entire life as the career I want to focus on is Architecture I know I will need to know a lot of computer skills and how to make these videos to market my products. In addition, my creativity evolved with this project as I always had to find solutions by researching and sometimes just out of my mind. This will absolutely benefit my future career as I will need these skills to create something innovative and inspiring to show the world a different perspective and most especially, to convey a feeling or idea. Just as I did with my opening film and CCRs. Lastly, I would just like to add a picture of myself to demonstrate who was the creator of this incredible job, as I feel like it is important to congratulate myself and feel proud of all the time I put into this work, including those days when I was not in a good mood, and those where I was so excited to continue with the project.

 Leonardo da Vinci says “Beauty perishes in life but is immortal in art” and I think that is what this project was. It is Art.

Final Post Production!

I love editing! Although I don't like researching a lot as it is time-consuming, I love watching how the shots I filmed come together and link creating something meaningful. It's like before editing there's no meaning as they are simply just shots, but after, they form into a complete creation. Just as my opening film, or my CCRs. 

Technologies used

I had to use several editing platforms including Premiere Rush, Adobe Premiere Pro, Veed.io, After Effects, or the Apple editing access from Photos. I struggled in most of them but I also learned from all. YouTube was an incredible help to know how to use all of these platforms as I researched tutorials that taught me step by step. First, I used Dropbox and Files to send all the videos from my camera to the laptop and then to my iPhone. It was so helpful as the quality was kept and the only thing that caused me some problems but not at all was that I had to keep erasing the videos from Dropbox that I already added to Premiere Rush because the iCloud space was not that big. It would not let me send all the videos to the app. 

Footage

Once I had every other video uploaded I started by first looking at the complete view of the view to see what were the most important things that I was missing because I already knew that I needed to complete the two minutes. I was barely around a minute and a half. Yet, the videos uploaded added my time to around 3-4 minutes, which was ok because I had to cut several videos and I was sure I was not going to add them all. I filmed several extra shots just in case some wouldn't look good with my film or maybe the quality was not the best. So I did the same thing when uploading to check if maybe when editing one that could have not been useful would instead look better than any and fit perfectly now. 

That did happen as in the running scenes I was able to crop or "transform" some shots so that it would match the next scene, or I even lowered the exposure of some while changing some of the other numbers of the colors of each shot. I first did this before deciding which videos to erase or cut so that a bigger picture of the overall video could be seen. I recommend this because in that way there are no mistakes in erasing something that could have been useful. I was also able to include some videos in between running scenes where it looked so short and they would not have looked good without these shots. For example, I included some close-ups of my brother's eyes before changing into the fight scenes so that it is conveyed that it is not actually happening but it's just coming to HIS mind. 

Other than that, another thing I did was to cut each shot so that it looks like a continuous running scene. What I focused the most on in this part was to see how my brother's legs and his body were positioned in the frame so that the next scene matched the movement. This would have been super important as in the moment of adding the sound, it would need to match the continuous and equal speed of the movement. Meaning if one leg moved to the front in 0.2 secs then the other ones would need to do the same. This leads me to also talk about how I modified the speed of each shot as sometimes they looked too fast or too slow, and as I said I need it to look continuous and synchronized. This was super easy to do in Premiere Rush as it had the speed range to move around. So I kept rewatching the shots by themselves and with the shots next to them several times to perfection and to be sure that I was showing the image that I wanted my audience to see. 

Sound

The speed of the sounds I used was also modified. I recorded several sounds by myself by using big leaves or shoes on the grass but I also used sound effects from Pixabay.com such as Footsteps_Grass_1, to simply modify the speed and instead of being just footsteps, make them running steps. I also used the heartbeat sounds from this platform as it was easy to download them and add them to Premiere Rush from files. Other than that, I used the original audio from the scenes where my characters are talking or well screaming. Yet, I decided at the end to add a voice-over. Although it was not the one where the whole explanation of who Adriel was because I decided to not add it as I think my film and the techniques used in it are enough to convey the idea of the movie, I did add the voice-over with Veed.io where my brother is reading the bible verses so that I can add a translation of them because if not I couldn't find any other way of showing the English version as there was no space left in the frame that would be enough to look good with the film. 

Comments

I knew I needed to add subtitles as my film was in Spanish and I noticed that this was the best choice as all of my actors are Hispanic so it was so much easier to have a Colombian accent and act in their natural way so that it looks more real. This is where my idea of the bible verses' voice-over came from as I noticed there was a record button that I could use to easily add the sound. Yet, I did have to pay at the end to take the watermark away, so that is why I recommend always researching and knowing everything that each app you would be using has so that there is no confusion and you don't have to do things last minute. Yet, it perfectly helped me to add the subtitles as it automatically added them. Although I tried this before and it perfectly worked, I knew that the words had to be clear and loud, which in my video most were not (excluding the voice-over) because most of them were like sound effects to show an environment or context as in the fight scene I added the echo effect to highlight the idea of a dream. So I would notice that the words would not translate with the exact words, but the website had the option to modify them and add them to the part of the video where I would want them to be. I had to do most of this manually though, which was kind of annoying as it was time-consuming but it had a beautiful ending. It looked so professional. 

Other Apps
I learned After Effects super quickly on my laptop because I had forgotten to add the "Edited by..." in my shot, and then once I tried using Premiere Rush and sending the video from Veed.io to my phone, it was lagging as it was too much space used. My students' plan included this app so I decided to try it out and I didn't even have to watch any tutorial as it was super similar to editing the text in Premiere Rush, just a little more broad and complicated, but nothing from the other world. I did look at the text settings that I had on my phone to put the same numbers of the size or the style of text as the ones on my laptop. It worked! It looked exactly the same as I would have made them on the same platform. Besides, I gained experience from both applications. 

I lastly learned Adobe Premiere Pro to edit my CCR #1 because my free trial from downloading videos from Premiere Rush ended so there was a student plan of Premiere Pro that I could do the same thing but instead of a 3-day-free trial, it was a 14-days free trial. So I could just cancel it. I watched this fast tutorial of Premiere Pro Tutorial for Beginners 2023 - Everything You NEED to KNOW! (UPDATED) to guide myself although there were similar uses to the one on the phone. Yet, watching this saved me time so that is why I recommend researching before doing anything. With this little by little, I kept going and I came to the finish line. I am so proud of all the work I've put into the project and of everything that I've learned. I must say that all the sacrifice was worth it and the chance to do it again would be just to perfect it as I still think I did a pretty good job. So, make sure to check my blog in the next couple of days where I will be posting my film intro and the CCRs. Make sure you don't miss them! See you around!!

CCR Creation #2

Hello!!! I am here to tell you now that my second idea was to make a TikTok. As I had very little time to reflect I noticed that making a TikTok or a reel on Instagram would be perfect. They are well known for their entertainment in people in just a short time and they can be about anything really. I used the same strategy for this CCR as in the last one. A script! Here, check it out. 

2nd video TikTok video 

A fast-speed video of the full movie. 

Romeo using a microphone: Appears: Ha you thought we would spoil you! You’re wrong but we are here with the producer and Director of the Film A Pariah’s Belief, here to tell us more about it.  

Hello Arianna  

Good Morning Romeo 

Would you mind explaining to us how your production skills developed throughout this project? 

Well, first I must say that at first just putting my effort into the film was enough as while I started doing something little, ideas just started coming to my mind more each time. That process is where my production started evolving. I planned out everything in the notes, I even recorded a video of myself explaining my plot so that no thought is left out. From that, I started organizing myself each time to get more ideas out of my mind and come up with more creative decisions. Blogging was also my path of following to understand my thoughts as I wrote almost every thought that I had while analyzing clue points. This made everything easier. Yet I did get stuck sometimes, and started things that were not that helpful compared to the time I put on it such as analyzing a film from a Genre I was not going to do. I had similar struggles in post-production as when editing I had to change platforms for the subtitles or change the multimedia devices like from my phone to the laptop at the end. I don’t regret any decision as I did learn from each mistake that cost me time, yet if I had the chance to do everything again one thing I would perfectionate is planning and creating a schedule where I have everything listed so that there’s nothing done at last minute. I still think I did well in this project as I started at a level where I didn’t even know how to edit as in almost all the group projects in class that part was made by other members. I must say that I learned all the techniques and I have a wider knowledge of what they are and how to create them as well as understanding that each technique has a purpose to convey a feeling or idea.  

Romeo; Was that the same for the technologies you integrated? 

Me: Yes, I have never used Premiere or Blogger or Veed.io or After Effects before which were the main ones used, and with the Camera, Tripod, and lighting, I had very little knowledge, and I would never have imagined having used them for this type of project. I mostly used devices that I had and used them in my daily life but not for this purpose and I had to learn more about them for the film as moving the exposure of the camera which helped me in almost the end. Premiere Rush too was a saver as it included almost every editing technique and option that I needed to add. I learned a lot from it by researching on YouTube or simply clicking a bunch of buttons.  

Romeo: Wow Any final words for the public.  

Well yeah, I want to add that I learned several things from this project that will help me in my future not just with technical uses but also by teaching me determination and developing my creative, thinking, and planning skills that will always be useful as well as helping me understand how to prioritize tasks while also perfecting several shots. Yet, what is most important is that I saw how I was able to create something beautiful if I put the work into it.

  

I decided to make this an interview but more in a formal way like if I would be shown through the news. So, it would be something like a TikTok channel News, and I am the director and producer of the film that is wanted to be interviewed. That is why I decided to make my friend or my Dad (the part where it says Romeo in the script) the interviewer so that it looks more professional compared to my last CCR where I used Romeo, my dog. As, well for the location I am going to the beach tomorrow so I am thinking about doing it there as if I were going out of the car and paparazzi come to interview me. I would use a similar idea for filming at home if the lighting is not good or simply it is harder to show how I am not reading. So I am going to try it at both locations. 

Talking about that, I said in the last post that I was going to talk about how I am measuring and balancing the time of both of my CCRs because now together are around 11 minutes I asked my classmate and she said that 7 is a great number but 10 is the max so I have to of course either summarize it or mention just the most important things. Meanwhile, the one here is the full script and I do not want to spoil you the complete thing as there is just a short time for the days when I am going to show you my film. Just wait a little be more to see perfection. 

Here are the people who might act as interviewers and help me out!

Resources!!!

https://smartasset.com/investing/the-economics-of-film-festivals#:~:text=In%20addition%20to%20getting%20a,chance%20of%20winning%20prize%20money.

https://www.linkedin.com/advice/0/what-most-effective-ways-promote-distribute-your-iwilc

https://www.gudsho.com/blog/top-vod-platforms-for-indie-films/#:~:text=To%20self%2Ddistribute%20your%20short,Muvi%2C%20Dacast%2C%20and%20YouTube.

https://www.gruvi.tv/post/short-film-distribution/

https://support.tiktok.com/en/using-tiktok/creating-videos/camera-tools#

CCR Creation #1

Good afternoon!!! I already mentioned in a post (CCR Questions Class!!) the ideas that I had for creating my CCR. As I said, I made a list of notes and based on that, I started writing in Word a script of the first video for my Creative Critical Reflection. As the title itself highlights, it must be CREATIVE. So, I decided to go with the voice-over of me and my dog, Romeo, who acted too in the film. I also had in mind that I must REFLECT on my opening film by talking about the choices that I made, how I evolved, why I added or didn't add different techniques, etc. There are 4 questions in total, but I decided to split them into two and this first YouTube Interview video is going to talk about the first 2.

1. How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
2. How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?



Although I already had all the information for the things I've posted on Blogger.com, I did re-research the information that I had and some that I was missing. It was not such a struggle because even if I did not have ALL the information, the information I had was useful to guide me to what I was looking for. I mainly just perfected my facts. I had in mind all the time while writing, that I must incorporate research, so I kept all my research pages open, and I listed some links in the notes folder for media studies. I kept looking back and forth from the notes I took in class, my blog posts, and the websites that I had opened while writing my script. I included not just the words but also the actions in parenthesis as when I said "Romeo going up my bed" so that once I am filming it, I know exactly everything I must do. I did the same to be ready for post-production by adding some of the pictures I already had in mind to add while talking as I didn't want to look like a talking head.


Once I finished I timed myself and I was a little worried because I was pretty sure that Ms. Stoklosa said that they cannot be more than 10 minutes altogether with the other media product, and I had around 8 minutes just with this one. So just as I am going to talk about my second CCR product tomorrow I am also going to mention the ways I fixed that time and balanced the amount of information depending on how much I have in both. Meanwhile, you can check out the full script of my CCR #1. Hope you like the idea, and be sure to come tomorrow to my blog!

Creative Critical Reflection Media Studies #1 

(Romeo runs up my bed and surprises me) -Ari Ari Ari Are you almost done with the film; you told me to wait last time I asked you, but I want to know what it is about so bad. Oh, also would you mind explaining it to my YouTube Channel? Like if you were in an interview? 

(Ari smiles and says) alright, I can explain it to you now. Just let me finish reading this bible verse. Here, listen.  

In Genesis, chapter 6 verse 5, the warning of the flood happens as it says: when the lord saw how great the wickedness of human beings was...(Add voice-over of 2 thousand years later) But Noah found favor with the lord.  

Romeo interrupts: WOW and did that really happen? 

Ari: Well, I think it did the rest just depends on what you choose to believe.  

Romeo: close: mmm 

Romeo full body: Yet, what does this have to do with the film? 

Ari: Well, I just read you the very first part of my opening film, to do the same thing I did in it. Give you context.  

Romeo: Well now I’m lost. 

Well here look my film is about a young adult that bases his life and the things he does in what is called the word of God (Ari raises the book up and shows it to the camera) and doing it with these Dystopian conventions work perfectly to give clearer thoughts about the representation of my character. Just as they do in the several dystopian films, where they start by showing the context first of a historical fact or something written that explains an apocalypse or reformed society. 

Romeo: Wait what do you mean by Dystopian conventions 

First, genre conventions are the typical elements, styles, themes, and storytelling techniques that are associated with the film Genre. In this case the genre is Dystopian which is mainly the imagination of a future place in cataclysmic decline. I chose this genre because it helps my audience speculate a vision of the future if one doesn’t act and there are no changes. I did this because I wanted to motivate people to act and make even the smallest difference that will help not just all the world but themselves too. A dystopian film is not just about a society in a destroyed world where they are separated into different groups depending on their skills, but it also highlights one protagonist that is different and unique from everyone. The main character doesn’t feel like they belong anywhere. Just as they do in the film Divergent or Wall-E. I choose my brother as the main character as he looks in his 20s and represents those young adults that are not old enough to be that mature and not do crazy things (like destroy humans which is conveyed in my film where he closes his hand hard with a plant inside) and he has the energy of a young human to be strong and kill. Yet, they are old enough to be independent and responsible for their actions.  

Well although he is very religious, the anger from his past and the risky events that he faces during the entire film force him to think in a wrong way and misunderstand what the bible is really saying. When I used to go to the meetings for teenagers from the church, I saw that many faced not the same but similar problems. Sometimes we talked about not knowing what the right things to do or belief are. Not just there but also after reading the book Night by Ellie Wiesel because, Ellie was a Jew living on the Nazi Era and he got to a point where there he was in front of hard choices that was either keeping his beliefs or dying. After, I noticed how sometimes there are so many things that one is exposed to in this new world that it is hard to choose what to believe. This character represents those male teenagers mostly that are exposed to a bunch of information now everywhere, including social media and they are at an age where their mind can be tricky and even start to feel lonely, as the main character is alone in the film, they can represent those males that are strong enough to act and cause great damage lead by their emotions. I increased that representation of heartbroken but revengeful human being by adding black clothes to my character with some sign of strength (shows pic of toro in the black shirt) just as they do in the film Divergent with the brave Dauntless. I choose not to violate those Dystopian conventions to increase this representation which include huge apocalyptic challenges to represent an exaggeration of those bad events that the young people face in their daily lives. Although we are not now facing any apocalyptic events, there are several problems that one faces in one’s daily life and don’t realize how they change ones’ beliefs, thoughts, and actions. I even added edited the running scenes of my film to relate more with the color scale of apocalyptic events such as using orange and brown colors in the background as in this picture (Wall-E into) or this (. As well, you can see that the sun is also highly illustrated in these pictures in what can be described as a sunset or sunrise, that is exactly why I also decided to film around those times of the day to have that symbolism of the sun going down just as the world ending. Imply that there is an end to everything.  

Romeo: Wow I see, I’m very proud of your work sis. I wish more people could see what incredible things you are doing here but I barely have 3 followers, dad and mom and you. 

Ari- Hahaha its ok, I planned some strategies to distribute my product in a way where more people will watch my film, but first you need to know that before showing your product to the world you need to have to know and understand how it engages with your audience.  

Romeo: But in your case who would be the audience? 

It is highlighted with representation.  

Romeo: huh? 

Well, my audience just as my main character are around the same age of young males of 17 to 25 years old for the same reasons, they are old enough to be more independent but still young to be rebellious and have their hormones not mature enough to be more reasonable as adults. In most dystopian films they use male main characters for the obvious reason of genetically having more physical characteristics that favor their strength, unless they want to represent strong women as in the Hunger games or Divergent. This strength relates with my audience as they are usually males that like being active and would normally like action films or well dystopian. Yet, their emotional strength is not always the audience can relate to the character feeling lonely and lost in a world where one doesn’t understand why bad actions happen and they are hurt by it.  

Romeo: OHHH I like it because it would also bring some social reform by making your audience understand that acting in the revengeful way, they would normally by saying they should first breath and think clearly before acting in a crazy way that later they could repent. 

Yeah exactly.  

Romeo: What else did you do to engage with your audience? 

Uff well I focused on how my brother and those males around his age love going to the gym and use their anger to get more strength or simply to forget about it. This helped me use the action of running to engage with that type of active audience as the main character mainly runs or workout to become stronger and deal with his past. Yet my audience relates to him as at one point this doesn’t really work as instead of forgetting about the past, the memories keep coming and disturbing his life. Based on what I’ve heard from my brother and his friends in the gym they face similar problems as no matter how much work they put memories keep coming back or sometimes the gym even makes them come back more, yet they both, my audience and my main character use the training to deal in some way with their problems.  

Romeo: (gets into paws excited) 

Romeo: Well now we can continue, and can you tell me how you are going to show it to the world? 

Ari: hahaha of course, well I plan to distribute my film through different mediums because I am not famous, and neither is anyone on the film to be realistic but there still are great ways to make it seen in more places.  

Romeo: Such as... 

Well, submitting it to a film festival and competitions is a great idea as I could simply just click the submit button and promote the festival while they promote my film. Besides I get the chance to win prize money which could also make my film be seen by other famous or important productors or marketing companies that are always looking for something that will differentiate the film beyond just the film itself so that they can distribute the film to a wider number of people. I could also distribute download links through social media in comments or messages on posts where some short trailers on TikTok or Instagram with reels are shown to give the viewer a preview to be motivated to download it.  

As well I could also use online distribution platforms for films such as GUDSHO, VIMEO, MUVI, DACAST, or even YouTube. These online platforms would help me just like other filmmakers to distribute and monetize videos worldwide across all devices. 

ROMEO: Wooow, Ari you have everything planned out, I truly cannot wait to watch the film!  

Romeo: So, Mom and Dad, you heard that! Be sure to check it out when she posts her film! We are all so excited.