CREATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION

FINAL PROJECT

I'm so excited to finally say we have completed our project! Hacked is about a girl named Isabella that got "stabbed in the back" when her boyfriend cheats on her with her best friend. Now it's time to stab him in the back, literally. Oh and her best friend will be the one doing so since Isabella hacks her brain. It brings a whole new twist to the betrayal of best friends and I can't wait to share it with you guys! I hope you enjoy the first 2 minutes!
                                                                 -Carolina

 

WRAPPING UP

Ok so as this project is coming to an end, my group and I are wrapping everything up. We have filmed the screen cast and the voice over. We are going to insert it at the beginning of the film to help the viewers truly understand the purpose of our film. Tomorrow we will get together during class and finish the last few things and if we need more time we will meet up after school to finish. So far it looks as if we will have enough to finish during class. For the CCR, since it is individual I have begun to take notes of what I will speak of and I will film it on Saturday. Until next time!
                                                 - Carolina

DEAD LINE APPROACHING

So the dead line is approaching and we're a little stressed out. Today we downloaded the program to make a screen cast and we are going to film it today (hopefully, maybe, I'll let you guys know). We are trying to establish that Isa is the hacker without actually showing it (like the video my teacher showed us said: give the audience 2+2 but never 4).  We are thinking of making the background of the computer a picture of Isa and Caroline so they can connect the dots and realize that Isa is indeed the hacker. This will draw the attention of viewers (especially teens aka our targeted audience) since they will realize that this is a best friend betraying another best friend. We also establish that the whole thing revolves around Isa controlling Caroline's brain as a plot for revenge since she will speak saying "she will see. She will get just what she deserves." while showing the screen cast of her coding. Once again looking somewhat like the image below.

I'll either post later today or tomorrow to let you know how the screen cast filming went. Talk to you soon!
                                                                     - Carolina Moreno

EDITING, PLAYING WITH SOUND, SCREEN CASTS

Ok so I know I came up with the intro but.... I'm not a fan of how it's turning out so far. We still need to edit but I think that the film is kind of.. simple not very thriller like or sci-fi like. I got some suggestions from friends and I do think we can work with what we have but tweak it a little bit and make it truly amazing. Isa's currently playing around with the clips to see if there's a way to include some extra film I took on the side of Caroline freaking out when she put the contact in her eye. It was a real reaction aka the best acting that would be included (since it's not really acting).  Also it was uncomfortably quiet and that's not the sound we are going for so we are also playing with sound effects on garage band. All in all, I personally like the filming stage more since it's very funny when we mess up 6234 times! The editing is a little stressful since this is when we catch certain mistakes that throw us a little off and make us freak out a little but were working on the editing and sound so hopefully we can pull it together and make this opening amazing. Another thing that's been kind of hard is there's four of us and one computer to edit on. It's a little rough but we are all trying to contribute our opinions to make this project amazing. Oh and another thing is we still need to do the screen cast of the computer coding. This all needs to be done before Friday so we can reflect upon our project. So you can just imagine the pressure and stress were all under *screams internally*. Talk to you guys later!
                                                           - Carolina

PSA: COLOR CONTACTS HURT

Hey guys! So like I told you earlier we filmed today and what I learned today was..... COLORED CONTACTS HURTTT! So Caroline had to use the colored contacts to show her brain was hacked and it was so hard to use! She cried because of how much they hurt. We won't be using those contacts ever again! Poor Caroline had such a struggle putting them on and then keeping them in! Plus we couldn't get the shot right so we re-filmed a few times and she just wanted to get them out already! I took some videos of the struggle. Enjoy!!!

Here's some video I edited so you guys can watch our struggle without having to watch all the slow parts. Also I'm going to edit some bloopers and I'll be posting them soon !

                                                                  - Carolina

GOOD NEWSSS

Hey guys! I'm so happy to inform you that my group decided to go with my idea and do the night time scene instead. We discussed it and realized it would be a lot easier since filming in school brought on a lot of obstacles such as people walking in and out of the scenes, lots of noise, and limited time. Today we are filming and everyone will come over my house to film. I cleaned up my room and left books in visible places so we can show that she is a good girl who likes to read and is very studious. I also cleaned my bathroom since one scene will be of her washing her face. So here's step by step what we kind of want to do:
The typical good girl (name undecided) will get a FaceTime call from her "Best friend" right before going to bed. She will answer and continue getting ready for bed (we're gonna show this by her brushing her hair, bringing down the blinds, closing the closet, and things like that ). While talking to her "friend" she will feel a shock through her headphone but she will take it off to examine it but see that nothing is wrong with the headphone. She will then begin to feel very dizzy and not herself so she will say goodbye to her "friend" and rush to the bathroom to splash water in her face. When she looks up into the mirror she will have bright blue creepy eyes. Then we will zoom into her face and show her close her eyes and maybe edit it to fade to black but as a blink kind of motion. Then on the black screen code will appear and using that code we will establish who's starring in the film and the name of the film.

The whole idea of this movie is that her so called "best friend" is the one behind the hacking of her brain. She will unintentionally kill her boyfriend (who happens to be her friend's ex) and when every thing spirals out of control and she finds out her brain was hacked which caused for her to do those horrible things she will cry out to her "best friend" asking why she would do something to her like that. That's when the friend would explain her plan for revenge since she stole her boyfriend. Since our target audience is teens to early twenties, we decided to go the best friend back stabbing route since teens enjoy the typical high school drama. So here we are presenting to you our teen film with a twist. I hope you like our film idea because I would actually love to see this movie! I'll probably blog later today and let you know how our filming day went and any obstacles or concerns we may have.
                                                                          - Carolina

OK SO SET BACKS

Hi guys! My group decided to go with the original school hallway scene(from the story board) but we had a little trouble with it. Since we had to retake many of the videos (because every time someone laughed or messed up a little bit we would all burst into laughter) you would see random people pass by but not be there the next second and things looked very awkward. So then I once again pitched my idea to my group but since it's so quiet in class and I didn't want to draw attention, I told Caroline because she sits the closest. She liked my idea and we're going to further talk about it tomorrow in class with Isa and Mari since it would be much easier to film something at home. Oh and about the whole contacts problem.. WE STILL HAVEN'T GOTTEN THEM AHH! We want to film on Saturday but we only have one contact since the other one broke. I told the group I thought it might be kind of cool to have one brown eye and one blue (since we want it to be creepy) but no one agreed with me *ughhh*. Oh well, whatever we do we need to do quick since editing will take a while. I'll keep you updated!
                                     - Carolina

OK IDEAAAAA

Hey guys so I just couldn't wait to tell you my new idea!! So I need to talk to my group about it but I was thinking maybe we could start off with the "innocent" girl just getting ready for bed like any normal day. We can establish she got hacked by her opening her eyes and we zoom into the eye making it look kind of like a connection to her brain. We can fade to black then start the coding translation on the screen. This is where we can further establish the hacking and use the hacking codes to display the credits and then show the "hacker" through a reflection on the screen or move the camera to display the hacker. I have to pitch this idea to the group and they will contribute their ideas and suggestions and we can further play off that. This could just help us establish more of a connection that she is a normal teenager girl instead of jumping straight into the hacking stuff. I'll let you know what my group thinks and if anyone has any ideas feel free to comment below.
                                                                                                   - Carolina

SPRING BREAKK

Ok so we're all having a pretty fun spring break I guess because we're all super busy! It's really bad but getting together seems almost impossible! Over all we all still keep in contact and discuss about the project. Also we are deciding whether or not we should I have two creepy blue eyes or just one (like I said earlier one of them broke). If we do decide to use two instead of one we have to order them like ASAP ( as soon as possible). It takes approximately 1 week to be delivered and we need to start filming soon! I hope we can figure out a filming schedule that works for everyone. I'll keep you guys updated with any new progress or complications.

                      -Carolina 

STORY BOARD

Hi guys! So as you might know this week is spring break and it's been super difficult to keep in touch with all the group members and meeting up so far has been impossible! We're all busy at different times! There's never one time that works for all of us *sighs*. But we're gonna figure it out! Were going to meet up and we are going to work hard! So far we've worked on the story board we still need to consult other members of the group to see their input on it but this is what we have so far...

We're going to work off this and change it up a little bit. We are going to take the input of the other members and fix it up a little bit but this is kind of the basis of it and will help us to film it step by step. Talk to you later! 

                                                                                -Carolina 

C-O-M-P-L-I-C-A-T-I-O-N-S

Hi guys so today I talked to Isa and turns out one of the blue contacts broke! That's just my luck right? We have the perfect film prop and it breaks. Tomorrow I will look into where we can buy some quality creepy blue contacts (if you know a place please comment below). On top of that, since spring break started Thursday afternoon my group and I are having some trouble getting a time/day to meet up. We're all busy on different days and it's very frustrating because we obviously want to all contribute equally. We are hopefully going to all meet up either tomorrow or Monday to draw out the story board and create our step by step story. Even though we are having some complications I'm sure we can surpass them and create a pretty good short film opening. I'll let you know as soon as my group has decided when we can get together and make the story board (I'll even post our draft of it) and I'll let you know where and when we buy the new fake contacts (I'll also let you know the quality and the price).
                                              Until next time, Carolina

HACKING HACKING HACKING

Hi guys ! Today I'm writing to you about how we hope to portray the whole hacking concept. We kind of want a matrix-like computer screen with code all over. We're going for a very complex computer coding system and  I'm so excited to see how it all turns out. Isa, a member of my group, is extremely talented when it comes to computer coding and she's going to teach us all about it! I think this will be a very unique thing to learn and may help us in the future. I love learning new things and expanding my knowledge so I'm excited to learn more about computer coding. Even though computers and I are not friends AT ALL, I hope I can become more familiar with them. It's amazing how this film project is helping me learn so many other things such as : the computer coding, horror movie techniques, etc.

All about this super cool hacking intro:
We are going to incorporate the credits into the hacking codes and I think that will be a very unique yet simple way to incorporate them.  Here are some examples of how I imagine it will look :

Hope you enjoyed our hacking idea! -Carolina

UPDATE: EVERYTHING CHANGED

Hi guys! So little update: WE CHANGED EVERYTHING!
So here's what's new:
Our film won't be a typical horror movie anymore *sighs* (well kind of .. keep reading and you'll understand) but you're gonna love our new idea! My friend Isa is super into computers and coding so my group decided we should do a thriller revolving : HACKING.
Yes , hacking. Except it won't be your typical hacking because our hacker isn't hacking into a computer but into  a human brain ahhh!
Here's what we've come up with so far:
Our hacker character will hack the brain of the typical good girl. She will use her hacking skills to transmit a shock through the girl's headphone giving the ability to control this girl through a computer. This girl used to be her best friend but now they are sworn enemies since she stole the Hacker's boyfriend (this will appeal to teens since it's typical boy drama and this film is targeted towards teens) .  Once she has hacked her way into her ex-best friend/ current sworn enemy's brain she will take advantage and cause her to kill her boyfriend (aka the hacker's ex-boyfriend).

 Tomorrow we will further discuss it and come up with more ideas and all the details.
Hope you like our idea as much as I do. Thanks for reading!  
                                                   -Carolina

HORROR MOVIES ALL DAY EVERYDAY

Ok so today I had a scary movie marathon to kind of get an idea of how their openings differentiate from other genre openings. Today I watched the following movies:

Saw II 

Peace no more 
Insidious 
Cabin in the woods
The Purge 
Sinister

I enjoyed watching all of these movies so much but my favorite opening was Saw II. The opening started off black with a blurred light that become evident of being a lightbulb. It then shows various objects in a sketchy room and creates the sense of confusion. It quickly jumps right into the plot as you see a man in a death trap and looking into a mirror while freaking out. The mise en scene of the movie was amazing. The lighting was dim, the blood looked incredibly real and all in all it was a very captivating opening. 

I pitched the idea to my group of doing something somewhat similar with beginning our short film opening with a black screen as it creates a sense of mystery and to start with some hustling noises (heavy breathing, heart beat, running, etc). My group thought it sounded cool and we're going to work off that. We decided we want to revolve the film around either a serial killer or psychologically insane main character.  My group and I have to further discuss it and I'll let you guys know as soon as we come up with more and/or something new.  

                                                         -Carolina 

ALL ABOUT MY FAVORITE MOVIE GENRE: HORROR

Hey guys! Yesterday Isa and I ( a fellow group member) met up with two other people to help us come up with any ideas or helpful techniques. We also listened to their ideas and contributed suggestions. It was an extremely helpful activity and helped us conclude that we are going in the thriller/horror direction. We’re still trying to come up with a story/plot but we have come up with some ideas. We talked about coming together this weekend and finalizing the story. Throughout the span of the week my group and I researched different genres and I chose to research horror of course. 

Here’s what I learned about my favorite movie genre( horror) : 

Apparently there are “rules” to survive : 

1. You must stay innocent (no sex or drugs) 
2. Never say “who’s there”
3. Never say “I’ll be right back”

These are some characteristics: 

1. Characters- usually very stereotypical 

 -Main character/protagonist : usually female, in late teens to early 20s, usually survives movie or till the near end of the movie

 -Antagonist: supernatural monster/ ghost or serial killer, usually defeated, if it’s human he’s 9/10 times wearing a mask to hide his identity

 -Helper : aids protagonist, usually never makes it to the end

2. Mise en scene: 

 - Setting:  usually abandoned/isolated area, plays a crucial role in the story

 - costumes/ makeup : 9/10 times they use creepy masks to hide the identity of the antagonist 

 - weaponry : consist of knifes, axes and/or chainsaws

 -lighting: usually dim lighting ( little to none) since it usually takes place at night and somewhere abandoned. 

All these rules/characteristics help us get a better understanding of what is expected of us when creating a horror movie and allow us to use these to our benefit.  

I’m also taking into consideration my favorite scary movies to inspire us when creating our own: 

1. Scream
2. Halloween
3. The Haunting of Helena 
4. The Shining 
5. The Omen 
6. The Conjuring

                      -Carolina

WELCOME TO MY BLOG

Welcome to my blog! My name is Carolina and I created this blog to show you step by step the process of making my short film opening.  Yesterday my teacher, Mrs.Stoklosa, reviewed all the criteria needed for the portfolio project and I'm super excited to begin! I’m in a group of four people: Isabella Castro (Isa) , Marianna Guerra (Mari), Caroline Johnson, and me of course. I’m extremely pleased to be working with them since they’re all so talented and such good friends. We created a group chat today and began to brainstorm some ideas. Although we are still uncertain I believe we are leaning towards the genre thriller/suspense maybe even horror and those are my favorite kind of movies! We are going to research the genre a little more and brainstorm other ideas before being certain. Tomorrow is the day we officially begin the project and I’m so ready! Anyways, I’ll update you when I have more information on what route we decided and why we did. Im excited to share my journey with you.

                                                                                       Until next time, Carolina