Reflection

My film involves an orphan, with super abilities including super hearing.She eventually discovers her background and secrets that leads her into chaos.The main character, Ella, is a female led that tackles the gender conventions within the super power world.Despite the raising rates of feminism in this day, women are still portrayed only as weak and vulnerable within films.There are exceptions such as strong female roles like wonder woman or captain marvel but these types of roles are still rare.I also casted myself as Ella because I thought it would break the stereotype of caucasian female leds.Asian American female leads are even more rare than strong women roles.Only recently had films such as Crazy Rich Asians and To all the Boys I’ve Loved before, released in American cinema. Similarly, the main character in my film is a asian female with super abilities who will be involved with brutal combats and war later on in the plot.Ella represents the traits of a real female, she has both her vulnerable times and her strong side,just like a real women.Furthermore, her age also tackles the stereotype that young people are dependent and lazy.Ella, on the other hand, lives alone and supports herself as she is an orphan.Within the film opening, Ella is awaken by the sensitivity of her hearing.Her heartbeat is heard throughout the opening along with the other disturbances she hears.As the noises around her home agitates her, her heart beat increases, creating the feeling of intensity.The beat of the heart helps the audience maintain their attention within the increasingly fast cuts as the rate of the cuts correspond to the rate of the heart beat.As the heartbeat increased in speed, the cuts became harder to edit since each cut eventually only lasted 0.06 seconds.This factor was actually later added onto the video as I realized that it would increase intention better than background music or any other choice.I used the app provided by my school, Wevideo, to edit this opening as I was already familiar with its tools.However, the process of this video has challenged my skills as I am usually the one who films rather than the one who edits.However, after much research and trail and errors, as my put my finishing touches on the video I realized how much my editing skills had improved.Another challenge was to find a good microphone in which can efficiently capture small sounds like the ticking of a clock.At first I had used the microphone of my iphone 6 which resulted teh audio to be unclear.In the end, I bought an audio-technica microphone to record the sound clearly and without background noise.With the help of the microphone, my job as both the editor and the cameraman was made much easier.In At the end, I finished the creation of this opening, the first time as the actor, cameraman, and the editor.The distributions of this film could be an issue since I had no big named producer or a distribution company who will be willing to distribute this film for me.However, I hope that this film can make it into the film festival and could catch the eye of a distribution company that could distribute this film for me.After the long process of creating this film opening, it has given me an experience I had never had.

CCR

https://www.wevideo.com/view/1350841208

At last!

After many days of editing the final video is finally finished.The first time as the actor, camera man, AND the editor!!

https://www.wevideo.com/view/1352730987

Production Process

I have added the sound of the character's heartbeat to the scene as it would enhance the slow to fast pace cutting of the opening. It would closely emphasize the relation to the fast cutting with the character as he is hearing all of these noises in his home that are distracting him from sleep. The purpose of the repeating shots of the same items is going to be shown in a faster and faster pace is it all together bothers the character, therefore the fastening heartbeat would reveal such as a connection between the rate of agitation of the character with the pace of the footage.
This also creates a beat and pace for the footage to follow as it would not have music in the film instead is it of mostly synchronous realistic sounds. Furthermore, this adds an aesthetic approach to the opening as it allows the audience to follow the fast pace more efficiently.
I had done some research on the effects of pace and rhythm create for the audience. Such as the slow pace is calming while the faster pace is more intense.

http://www.cuvideoedit.com/pacing-and-rhythm.php
http://www.avidblogs.com/film-editing-the-importance-of-rhythm-and-pace/

Production Process

There have been issues with creating my close up shots such as the wine glass shot and the water dripping shot. The purpose of the water dripping shot was used to reveal how precisely the main character could hear, even a small water drop was interrupting his sleep. 

However, I have come to the issue that my iPhone 6 camera could not capture this shot as I would want as it is out of focus or just blurry. In this case, I tried using an updated phone such as the iPhone X in which improved the look of the scene but still, did not create the look I wanted. 

I then borrowed a professional Nikon camera and tried again. It was unsuccessful until my father had advised me to adjust the shutter rate in order to capture such quick movement efficiently. After playing around with the shutter speed and the focus and lighting, I finally had the shot I wanted.

Production Process

As Spring Break rolled along, I had a few interruptions in my schedule as my parents had many surprise trips planned. This, however, did not delay my progress ad many shots I've anticipated could have been done without the actor.

I wanted to add extra footage with the showing of glass breaking due to a high frequency of sound and such however it was harder than I thought it would be after researching on how it could be done. The purpose of this scene would add an emphasis on the uncontrollable of the main character, as it would be shown that the wine glass was cracked or shattered when the character was agitated by the interruptions of the noises he hears as he awakens from his sleep. 

Unfortunately, the wine glass footage I wanted to create was usually created by using CGI in which would be difficult for me to produce as I do not own an editing program that can do such nor have the skills to edit it perfectly how I wanted to come out.

Instead, I found a solution to this issue when I stumbled upon this Youtube video during my researching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPALfz-6pnQ

It has shown that the glass can be broken with a high pitch frequency. This way, it creates a look where the glass is trembling in which then eventually breaks and shatters.
However, the downside to this was that I had later found out it was nearly impossible to do smoothly without either a generator, used in the Youtube video or something closely within the premises of the glass, therefore, would, either way, ruin the shot I wanted to create. So, in the end, I am still debating on whether I should try to achieve this as I do not have much time left currently as it is coming to the end of Spring Break.

Sound-Foley

Foley, named after audio cues craftsman Jack Foley, is the generation of regular audio cues that are added to the film, video, and other media in after creation to improve sound quality. These imitated sounds can be anything from the washing of dress and strides to squeaky entryways and breaking glass. The best Foley workmanship is so very much incorporated into a film that it goes unnoticed by the audience. It makes a feeling of reality inside a scene. Without these background commotions, films feel unnaturally calm and awkward.
Without a doubt, I would use foley for sounds for my film opening. As this would be a scene focused on the sharpened and specified sounds of objects, I would need to be very realistic and clear with the sound I would be using in which therefore would not be any sound effects found from royalty free websites.
I have found many websites to tricks on foley makings such as:
https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/art-of-making-sound-effects/
https://blog.soundsnap.com/2017/10/23/27-tips-tricks-creating-foley-sound-effects-for-film/
https://www.sound-ideas.com/Page/what-is-foley.aspx

On the other hand, there are many noises that are hard to foley such as a passing truck and without a studio, it would be rather difficult to make such grand sound effects without using the real recorded sounds or a clip from a royalty-free website. Despite this fact, I still plan on using foley sound effects for as much of the opening as possible. Since my opening would not involve much of dialogue, the sound is one of the most important ways to convey a message and pull the attention of the audience to the screen with both their sight and hearing involved.