Creative Critical Reflection

This screencast took three tries because the other takes came out either way too long or super bad, but here it finally is. This CCR marks the end of my A Level AICE Media Studies Portfolio Project.

It's been a pleasure, until next time.

-Chris

Project Status: COMPLETE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's been quite a journey but the moment we've all been waiting for is finally here: Black Candle the short film, along with the website and postcard advertisement, have been successfully completed.

Editing the video was an insane ride, and this film has been the most difficult short I ever had to shoot and edit. From the audio, the quick cuts, the horrendous lighting, to the addition of music I mostly had to make for myself, the program constantly shutting down on me. I was very worried about how the short film would end up, but I am quite proud of the final product and the phenomenal actors that took part in this journey. 

The link to the film is here: https://youtu.be/tHvOQaDbWn0

As for the website, this was quite a hassle as well. First, I had to find the right template to at least start off on and get a handle of things. On wix, this template for a fake documentary was perfect. Using the example's skeleton menu design, I organized the "About" pages to summarize the film itself and the director (hi thats me). There was another page with the cast that I'm quite proud of, featuring awesome pictures of my actors and a little biography, with a video of this badass fire shot I took playing in the background in loop. I added this one segment called "Screenings" where it would discuss how Black Candle would only be featured at a theater if it were along with other short films or at a film festival, which is what happens with short films. So I added a button that said "search screenings" and it goes to a google search of local film festivals. I also added a picture of a poster and a segment that says "download your own poster!" cuz audiences love that interactive business. On the bottom I put a list of upcoming film festivals and links to those websites, in addition to this one segment I like to call "Host your own screening." I wanted to do this thing where people could REPRESENT Black Candle at their local film festival, so I placed a fake email address blackcandle@cbfproductions.com and a link to another page titled "Advertising" with a downloadable PDF of the postcard advertisement template and the fake email once again. Throughout all the pages, I used videos as backgrounds and it looks really cool! I also made sure to make the site mobile friendly, since no one would walk around with a laptop at a film festival and it allows patrons to look up the film fast! 

I'm VERY proud with how it turned out (not to mention I made it all in a day, whoops!). 
Here is the link to the website: https://chrisbeytia.wixsite.com/blackcandle

And finally, the darn postcard advertisement in all her glory. It was a hard choice deciding which front side to use, the one below or this one with Sam on the left side of the ad and Emmerson on the right with the flame in the middle. Ultimately, this one is just way more aesthetic and boss.

Front:

 Back:

So yet, it has been a lovely, crazy, emotional, *insert more sporadic adjectives* ride. All that's left is my CCR, which will be in the next post my loves. Stay witchy and hope you enjoy....

BLACK CANDLE!

Editing: STILL a Pain

On the image above, you will see I have three versions of the same film. Actually, I have four, I just exported the latest one... 

I despise the program I'm using. The first edit had so many sound problems, the music choice and timing was awful, and I just was not feeling it. The second one was a bit better, but I still had major issues with the music and the audio. By the third and fourth version, music and shots are much better... but its that cursed INTERROGATION SCENE that has awful audio. I try getting rid of background noise, which sounds great on the program but then it sounds awful after I export it. I'm just very aggravated to the point of when will this end. I haven't even started my website, my CCR, or decided on what sides of the post card to do. 

I'm in critical mode, this has got to end soon. I need to make sure everything is PERFECT. I am dyinggg help me.

POST CARD (H)AD(ENOUGH)VERTISING

This is the backside of my postcard advertisement, at least one version of it. As you can see, I included a "company logo" appropriately called CBF Productions, or Christopher Beytia Frentzel Productions. In the center, a minimalist Black Candle icon that I designed myself from the shapes on Canva. I'm deciding mostly on this version whether or not I should have the logos, remove the logos and just have the candle in the middle, or remove the candle and have one of the logos in the middle. 

As for that line design under the title, I thought it just looked very cool, and I'm proud with how my Starring panel came out. 

I was very confused with the postcard ad at first. The first version had a series of dates, cities, and movie theaters at these locations. However, this is advertisement is supposed to be something one passes AT the film festival to get patrons to see the film. So I changed it to the singular Sundance Film Festival, which is quite generic but the name resonates well with the aesthetic I'm going for. "Theater 06" is just a nice touch and the times are below.

My biggest concern, however, is that this side of the postcard advertisement has very little aesthetic parallels to the film itself. Should have I gone for the more horror/witchcraft themes rather than the attractive, aesthetic, indie short film design? I'm not sure, but if not, maybe I can save the former design themes for the website! 

Editing: A Pain

This has, by far, been the most difficult piece to film AND edit. Like I stated previously, I should have filmed more shots and taken more care with continuity and made sure the frame lighting was good. The lighting in the shots have been very difficult to work with and its very hard to cut some shots tightly together, especially because Filmora, the thing I'm using, is very iffy with quick cuts. In addition, I thought the audio sound was fine, but... its way too low. Maybe its my computer, but I'm going to have to make dialogue audio a little louder.

The hardest part to edit was the hallway scene. I think I should record new audio that I can use for the lights flickering on and off. There's going to be music over it all anyway, but still, I want it to be perfect.

I think tomorrow I'm going to start of the website and final postcard, I want to finish at least editing the main cut so then all I have to do from then on is worry about music, which I will post about at a later time.

Filming Day 3, the Bloody Home Stretch!

Two days ago on Sunday, we finally filmed the hallucination scene. This scene was hands down the most difficult I've ever had to film. 

I don't think I was on my A game, because I feel like I didn't shoot enough footage or pay close enough attention to continuity. The techniques and movements I was going for with the content was maybe too ambitious. For example, I may have to scrap this segment where the rapist character, played by Alek, runs into the hallway and turns around the corner and its the same hallway. Its very difficult to edit, and I didn't spend too much time with it.

I didn't like how the choking segment turned out either. We couldn't fit Emerson, who played Jane, behind the bed the way I wanted to, so she could've only choked Alek with one hand and it looks kind of cheesy. I should have at least put some makeup on her arms. 

Lastly, the scene where Jane cuts her throat and spills blood all over Keith. This. Was. A. NIGHTMARE. We were working with a real sword that was relatively dull but could definitely cut. We took extreme care when Emerson was handling the weapon, but we couldn't get the movement we wanted. I tried working in different angles with her but she made the movements way too slow. I had to film the sword by myself yesterday to get it right, and even that took a while. As for the blood splatter, we had to do it TWICE. 

We set up the camera on the tripod and I held the batch of fake blood with a large ladle. I found an excellent recipe for this fake blood online, and it happened to be edible. I used red beet juice (because I don't like food coloring... and I couldn't find it at the store...), 14 ounces of powdered sugar, a tablespoon and a half of cocoa powder, and BLEND! It looks great. Anyways, The first time we shot, the blood completely missed Alek and hit the floor, the wall above him, and a tiny bit of his shirt. So we had to get a new white shirt and film again. The second time it also mostly hit the wall, but at least it looked cooler and was more visible. I refused to film again because I was running out of shirts and the mess was already insane, I didn't want to clean the wall just to get it messy again. It took 45 minutes to clean, the blood got EVERYWHERE. The floor was soaked, the wall was a mess, and there were tiny droplets that reached far, even a drop on the ceiling!

I think it will all be okay. The footage is decent enough to put something together. But we'll see. I was really stupid that I made things dark again... why do I do this to myself...?