#30- Creative Critical Reflection Script

   Hello, my name is Lizette Nieves and this is my Creative Critical Reflection, also known as my CCR, for my AICE Media Studies Final Project. 

  The process of this project was quite something, I had a lot of ups and downs. I had to be re-assessed on AICE Media Studies because I took the class in my freshman year and decided to take A-Level Media Studies this year as a senior. At moments I definitely thought taking this class was a big mistake. I currently have a lot of work for all of my classes and was only given a small time frame to fully complete this project. Right after I'll be going into working on my A-Level project! But, I believe re-doing my AICE Media Studies project right before was a good refresher for when it comes to that project. 

(How do my products use or challenge conventions and how do they represent social groups or issues?)

  The genre I decided to chose was drama with comedy, usually phrased as a dramedy. The conventions of drama are pretty simple, I needed to discuss real life scenarios, setting and portray the journey that my character is being set on. Along with the drama conventions, a comedy convention is well-timed jokes to make the audience laugh. When writing my storyboard, which I did before my script, I wanted to add at least one comedy aspect. This is because my main genre was drama. 

  The theme I was going for was coming-of-age. When I shared my final cut with a peer without telling her anything about my narrative, genre or themes, she said she really love the coming-of-age feeling to it. This of course me so happy, because I accomplished my goal. Everyone I showed also laughed at the end which was my comedy aspect I added, which is the dramatic reverse zoom of my character Aurora. This shot isn't specific to my genre, it usually used in thriller films such as jaws. It allows the audience to realize the character is uneasy or on edge. For my narrative it shows the audience that she is disgusted at the though of Jake asking her to homecoming.

  Other than that shot I believe I did a good job at sticking to the basic conventions of the drama genre. I established the setting right away. The setting portrays is a rural neighborhood. The use of shots of horses and cows in fields allows the audience to understand that. The establishing shot of the house allows the audience to also recognize the next shots are taking place here. 

  The scenes follow as Aurora gets ready for her day, has little tense conversation with her mother and is talking to her friend o their way to school. This is an example of real life scenarios and helps drive the narrative which is very important in drama films. 

  The relationships that are introduced are very important to themes of coming-of-age and adolescences. These films have the minor theme of human relationships. Examples of this in films are the friendships in Perks of Being a Wallflower and the mother-daughter relationship in Lady Bird. I used Lady Bird as a big inspiration for my AICE Media Studies project. The complexity of mother-daughter relationship between a teen girl and her mother would represent a specific group of people and would bring that specific audience in. 

(How do my products engage with the audience and how would they be distributed as real media products?)

  To pick up on the audience conversation, my film would have a specific audience with the acceptance of everyone else. My whole narrative is about a teen girl. That will bring in an audience of women, ones that are experiencing being a teen girls and one that had already experienced it. They story of coming-of-age and dealing with human relationships as well as awkward adolescences scenarios will create a relatable story for them. 

   Girls and their moms who have a complex relationship could relate to the story and the broadens the audience. However, with good advertising and promotion, many people could be persuaded to watch the film other than the specific audience it's targeted for. 

  I discussed in a blog post how I would advertise my film. There are two ways I discussed, printed posters and social media. The hanging of posters in public places, such as public transportation areas, build boards and movie theatre hallways, can introduce the idea of the film to the viewer. This allows the viewer to make assumptions and being led to want to know what the movie is about and deciding if they want to watch or not. 

  Social media is a big way of mass distributing any film, and in my opinion the best way. Most actors/actresses, directors, companies ,etc. have some type of social media platform in today's age. On these platforms they are allowed to share post about the making of films and the final products to advertise it to their mass audiences. This includes an Instagram post of a movie trailer from an actress staring in it. An example would be Zendaya posting a trailer for her film "Challengers" releasing on April 26, 2024. Another example would a company, such as Netflix, posting a clip from the new season of Sex Education. People are able to interact with these post such as liking, commenting and sharing with their friends. It brings a whole other level to promoting films and other types of media. 

  On the aspect of distributing the film as real life media product I would want it to be shown in movie theatres and after a certain amount of time be published on a streaming platform. This is the distribution phase, and in this phase where I would sing a contract with a distribution company and will send it off to theatres around the world. After being in theatres, I will sign a deal with a streaming platform such as HBO Max or Netflix where the film can be showed until the contract is over. 

(How did my production skills develop throughout this project?)

  It had been a few years since I took AICE Media Studies and did this project. However, for the beginning of A-Level Media Studies we reviewed all the old content and the research for my project helped me with understanding all the aspects I needed to add to my final project during the production phase. Such as the making of my narrative, casting, costumes, and cinematography.

  The first thing I did was come up with my characters and story, which was part of pre-production phase. I wrote out exactly what I wanted my story to be and grabbed inspiration from other media products. The film Lady Bird written and directed by my favorite director, Greta Gerwig, was a big inspiration. I wanted to add the awkward adolescence vibe to my character and show that she has a complex relationship with her mother. I grabbed inspiration for a close friendship from the show Grand Army. This show does a great job at the drama genre with it's amount of real life scenarios and covering a lot of different types of teenagers. The friendship between Joey and Anna helped be build the friendship of Aurora and Josie. I was able to transport all of my ideas to a storyboard then a script. Something that I learned that I will bring to my A-Level project is to not procrastinate on my script, so my actors/actresses can look over what they are going to have to do and say for the filming. 

  For the casting process, I picked who I wanted to be in my film and they agreed. I chose two girls from my school that I believed would play the roles of Aurora and Josie well. And I was correct, Karah and Reese did an amazing job and were so much fun to work with. For their characters costumes, I had them bring clothes from their own closets. I had a group chat with them where I sent out a message of exactly where were filming, what days and time and what they should bring. For Karah's' character, Aurora, I had her bring an outfit that went with the colors pink and white and her pink backpacks and well as a pair of headphones. She also brought a second outfit, a pajama set, for the shots in the bedroom. For Reese's character, Josie, I had her bring an outfit that went with darker colors, she brought a black and grey sweater and her black and gray backpack. I also had my mother play Aurora's mother, I had told her to wear a pretty shirt. I wasn't very picky on exactly what they wore as long as it made sense for their characters. 

   Now we can get into the production phase, where I begun to film. I had two days of filming. The first day I went around my neighborhood and filmed the horses and cows grazing in their fields and well as filming a shot of my house. These shots were used for my establishing shots. Then on the second day of filming I had the girls come to my house, which I planned in a week in advance. This made the filming seem more professional and having the skill to communicate with others and plan was definitely something I believe I did well at. We were able to get all of the shots filmed within two hours. I found new ways to film and didn't fully stick with my storyboard and script. Which I realized was okay, because it helped my project become better. 

  For the cinematography I was able to use what I had to make it seem professional. Such as my golf cart for a dolly and a desk chair to have a steady pan. Using what you have is a great skill, because you are bale to find opportunity in most stuff. For lighting, I used natural lighting for my main source of lighting throughout the entire project. In the kitchen scene I used the lighting in my house but no extra artificial lighting. In future projects I would use artificial lighting depending on my genre or the scenario. My skills at camera movement improved throughout the filming process instead of just having a bunch of static shots. I believe it made my final cut more interesting. 

  

(How did I integrate technologies in this project?)

  Now lets discuss the equipment and technology I used to create this project.

  During the filming process I used my camera I use for photography, a Nikon D3500, as well as a basic tripod. My camera did what I needed it to do, even though I was very skilled or familiar with the filming setting on it. For filming I also used my golf cart as a dolly, I would sit on the back with my camera on the tripod and it executed the dolly well. I also used a desk chair for my pans to keep them steady. For all the other shots I just used the tripod to keeps a steady and static shot. 

  I was able to move all of the footage from my camera to my computer, where I was able to edit. For my editing process I used Movie Maker on windows to combine all my shots to make the sequence I wanted for my narrative. After that when it came to the sound editing part of the editing process I had to move the final edited project to my phone. Here is when I ran into a problem though... it was a minute longer than it was supposed to be. So, how I was able to fix this while keeping in all of my shot was speeding up the shots of my character getting ready. Then I was able to continue with the sound editing. I found music from Spotify and inserted it into my project. I used "Just a Girl" by No Doubt because I felt it made the most sense for my narrative. I didn't just add music, I had to add atmospheric sounds so the shots weren't silent. I added sounds of birds chirping, cows chewing and an alarm sound to the establishing shots. I found all of these sounds on the internet. I also added more sounds, that I recorded myself, such as the moving of sheets in the shot of my character in bed and water as well as dishes to the shot before the dialogue between my character and her mother. For the shots with dialogue I recorded audio on my phone using voice memos. In the editing process I was able to add the dialogue between my character and her mother over the shot to make it audible for the audience... However, in the shot of my characters Aurora and Josie talking I used the audio the camera picked up because it was way better than the audio I recorded on voice memos. The last sound that was added was a tense sound effect for the reverse zoom, I believe it helped with the audiences understanding that the shot was meant to be dramatic and can help with the comedic aspect I was trying to portray. This sound would be the only non-diegetic sound in my project, the rest are meant to be diegetic.